Ok Im slowly getting there! School Program (check)
Katie was the main star in her spring school program on Tuesday night. We didnt know this until Monday, when the Music teacher called asking about her costume. ;) Katie's best friend, Leah, is the little cow though! :) They were both soooo cute!
Anywho, we went and we bought the dvd to share with family, but I did get some pictures and tried to video some of it in segments, though they aren't very good quality at all...
We had signed Katie up for swim lessons last fall, but she wound up getting sick the first week of the classes, missing a week of school too. So we pulled her out and got a refund on the class. So this spring, both Katie and Meaghan are old enough and able to go for lessons. Which has worked out well, as Meaghan has been much more open to the idea of it now.
I wanted to get them in classes, because we get to the pool oh so often (note sarcasm here). Seriously, I think we get to a pool maybe 2 times a year and that is at family reunions. And each of the times we'd gone so far, Meaghan has wanted practically NOTHING to do with the water. Even the baby pools where the water was only a foot deep. She'd spend most of the time walking about the baby pool and maybe kicking her feet in the water. So I was really worried about making sure our kids know how to swim, as you never know when you'll need to know it!
So we got the signed up and Meaghan has thoroughly surprised me! She's done very well and has been really cooperative about getting in the water. Sue has been taking them, though I went along Tues. night as Dad stayed here with Alex, since we had Katie's school program immediately following the lessons. I got to see Meaghan kick and float on her back in the water and she even jumped in holding the instructors hands! Yay!!!! Katie was doing well too, going along doing breast strokes and back strokes. They even had them go to the deep end and jump in feet first and then do thier strokes to the ladder. Katie said last night they actually had them dive in head first. :)
Here's a few pics from Tuesday night (I don't have many of Katie because she was on the other side of the pool and hard to get shots of):
Ok, talked about mens weekend (check), taxes and going to Disney World (check), ENT appt (check), Mike and Amy's wedding (check), so I have my Great Banquet weekend and swim lessons left I think...
Great Banquet was an awesome, awesome weekend. :) We went and worked on set up of the kitchen on Wednesday night and then went on Thursday evening to set up the send off food. We then stayed and the weekend kicked off! I'd love to share everything that happened on the weekend, but I know that friends and family that may go through this at some point are reading, so I have to curtail what I put here...
Overall, the meals all went good, we were well organized and Sharon, my team leader did an awesome job of planning out the food quantities. We all worked together to choose really simple to fix, easy meals that still looked classy and were really yummy! We didnt hear many complaints about the food itself! :) We all worked pretty well together for the most part, though we were getting tired and cranky by the time the weekend was over.
We had a blast doing a fashion show for the group as well, which we all wore our costumes of alternate meaning. I was a model that wore a "straw hat, brightly colored tube top, tennis shorts" and accented my outfit with a "doggie bag". We put together a costume of a baseball cap COVERED in drinking straws, a top made of tubes of brightly colored construction paper tubes strung on string, and then I wore black shorts with a belt on that had tennis balls strung on string with rectangles of green indoor/outdoor carpet between them to keep them spaced out. I then work some lovely flip flops to go with things as well. :D I also had my lovely doggie bag of brightly colored gift sack over Honey, which the whole costume was met with a huge roar of laughter. :)
Honey did awesome through the whole weekend and we had comments throughout the weekend of how good she was and quiet she was. We had curtains set up at one end of the dining hall to block the view from the kitchen, so I had brought Honey's bean bag bed and laid it along the wall, outside the kitchen, where I could easily go out the kitchen door and check on her. She was out of the way but not by herself all the time too. She did awesome as I'd tell her to lay down and stay and unless she had to go potty (which we had a couple of emergency runs since she had the runs all weekend :( for some reason) she stayed put with amazing obedience! When there wasn't hardly anyone around and as we were setting the tables for the next meal, we'd shut the dining room doors and let her roam around, which she was very good as I told her to stay out of the kitchen and she did surprisingly. The only times she was in the kitchen the whole weekend was as we'd go through when I took her out to break.
She made a lot of friends this weekend, as various community members came and asked if they could pet her and such and I told them yes, since all she did was laid most of the day. She loved having the attention and so forth. A couple of them offerened to take her for a long walk around the church grounds, which I let them do, so she at least got to stretch her legs a bit. I did put her in harness and take her to the table with me as we sat down and ate at each meal with the group, while the community and volunteers served the foods we'd prepared for 80 people. I also used Honey going upstairs for the fashion show and for the few errands we ran, and sometimes back and forth to the bathroom if she hadn't been up in a bit.
Then we came to the saturday night service, which involved a lot of the community and such. She didnt do so hot going through the people, as she saw all these people that had been loving on her and taking her out all weekend. I was unable to see anything, as it was dark and that caused me real issues in commanding her, as I'd never truly been in this situation yet with her, of not being able to see and amongst a TON of people. So needless to say, we bopped from person to person, though they all did what they were supposed to, as it'd been announced ahead of time to not pet her, as she'd be working. I got really frustrated and at one point kind of panicked as I was unalble to distinguish which direction I needed to be heading. I knew though that I was no longer behind the person I'd started out behind (turns out we passed two people! LOL!) and I put my right hand out and the community started to help me by gently taking my hand and guiding me forward. I then caught up to the next person that was in front of me and I was able to see a reflection off an item she was wearing, so I was able to follow that to the end of the line. So my petting policy kinda backfired with Honey kind of backfired there, but overall I was happy with how well behaved she was the whole weekend.
She did awesome at night too, as I put her bean bag bed next to my air bed and she slept in the bed all night too, though the kitchen team did say she snored once and must have been dreaming one night, as she was whimpering in her sleep and then they saw her feet moving like she was running. LOL! Then the last night, poor Sharon, she got up to go to the bathroom and almost fell over Honey! Honey for some reason decided to lay at the foot of my bed instead of in her bed, but she never moved, so it wasnt until Sharon opened the door completely and the light from the dining hall flooded in that she saw what it was she almost fell over! She had thought it was something one of us had left on the floor!
But all in all, the weekend was great, Honey did great, and was such a blessing and touched many of the guests that were present. :) I was told they wanted to give her a cross too, but not sure what was up with that. We'll see if that comes to fruition or not, if not thats fine.:) Honey did receive a note though in our letters bag too! Which was pretty cool! We came home Sunday night, exhausted, tired, feet throbbing, bach aching, but it was all worth it after hearing the testimonies of the ladies that had been guests for the weekend. :) I did sleep though most of the day on Monday! LOL! And I've taken a couple of naps with Alex this week in still recovering....
It's been super busy these past couple of weeks. As Mike and I were busy finishing bags for the Women's banquet, I had team meetings still for being on team for this past weekend, then there was the bachelor party and wedding for our good friend Mike M. He and Amy were wed the weekend between our banquet weekends and Mike was the best man. Then I had my Banquet weekend itself. We also had the follow up ENT appt for Alex and got our taxes done too. :) Then this week we've had swimming lessons for the girls and Katie's spring school program, which we found out monday that she WAS the Little Red Hen for this play- The Little Red Hen!
Where to start... Guess I'll start with the bags for banquet weekends. Here is Mike working on the bags- putting the last of the tags on them:
And then here's the close up of them:
And all 80 of them for the Women's weekend:
We had Mike M's wedding, which Mike hosted the bachelor party at the bowling alley with all the guys. :) The wedding itself was beautiful, Mike was Best Man, I did a reading, and we took the kids with too. Kind of a mistake with Alex. *sigh* He was just wild and without a nap all day. So it was me, three kids, and a dog. oops, not a good combo for me... But we survived, though I was worn out and beyond frustrated by the time we left the reception at 7:30. We did get some pics of us though:
Mike with the wedding coordinator:
Alex in his suit:
Mike and the kids:
Mike and I:
We then went and got our taxes done last Wednesday and got a NICE return! Whoo hoo! We've gone back and forth on it and after giving it some thought, we've decided we are going to take the girls to Disney world! I was wanting to take Alex, but after the day at the wedding with him, there is just no way he'll make it through the day and we'll all be struggling to have a good time- trying to fit his naps in, keep him under control, etc. So Aunt Nancy has offered to keep him for us while we go. This is a surprise for the girls, and we have only told Katie we are going on vacation, but not telling her where. ;)
Then on Thursday morning, we took Alex back to the ENT. His appt went VERY well. Actually, we realized that morning, that he had actually had a cold the week before and got well from it WITHOUT it turning into a sinus infection. A WONDERFUL first for him! Dr. Phillips said that his nose and sinuses looked MUCH better. All the extra mucous was gone and he was clear and not inflammed, unlike when we brought him in before. He said it seems we've hit the right course of action for him and we are to continue the nasonex spray and otc zyrtec, and then come back in 6 months for a follow up to see how we are doing. If things get worse though, such as he goes back into a sinus infection, then we are to call, but hopefully we wont need to! *fingers crossed*
Man, what an awesome weekend! It was soooo awesome to see God do his work and change the hearts of soooo many good guys. Dad included. :) I can't wait for Sue and her Mom to go through in 2 wks. :)
I forgot to mention too that we occupied ourselves on Saturday by making LOTS of fudge and 2 batches of chocolate chip cookies for the guys. :) We made 10lbs of fudge- 6lbs of chocolate and 4 lbs of peanut butter. Kept 2lbs of the chocolate here for us to enjoy. Boy that sack was SUPER heavy, but from what I'm told the guys were all digging into it AND it kept the kids entertained for the day helping out with it. :) Whoo hoo!
I was a little late for the closings, as I goofed and thought it was later than it was, but all worked out good.
I got the 30 bags sewn up that we had embroidered, just have 10 more to sew handles on and sew up the sides on. Then we got 9 bags back from the mens weekend, so we have 21 bags left to do in 2 wks. :) So we are in pretty good shape. Just gotta keep working on them.
This weather is crazy here in IN, as Sunday it was 70 degrees, today it's barely making 30's and it rained all day yesterday and has been sleeting all afternoon. :( I'm sooooo done with winter and ready for Spring to show up!
Tonight I have a meeting for GB and next week will be our last meeting before the weekend! Whoo hoo!
So better run and get my stuff for Honey and I together for tonight.
Ok so I've caught Honey up on the couch twice this weekend. I don't know if the first time the kids called her up or what, but here's the pics of proof. LOL!
and then "Take a picture of MEEEEEEE!!!!!"
Then a few shots from this morning- which Honey seems to be the choice pillow these days.... ;)
Last night was awesome. a came over and watched the kids for me from 4:30 to when I got home about 10:30. Becky, who is on team with me for GB too, she picked me up and we went to the church to help out with banquet stuff. Helped with the special dinner, where I stayed at the window at the kitchen and put garnishings on all the plates and handed them to the servers.
Honey was sooooo good. I was glad to get to go because it gave me a chance to familiarize her with the kitchen and I was able to see how things would work for my weekend with her. They put a curtain up across the end of the dining hall in front of the kitchen and we were behind that curtain. they had a couple of table set up by the curtain, which all the drinks were set on, well, I put her at a down/stay, clippinig her leash to the table legs and she just laid down watching everything that was going on. she was too cute too, as soon as she heard the guys coming in and sitting down, she peaked her nose through the seams in the curtains, so I dont think anyone saw her, but she was watching everyone.
So after dinner was served, I stayed put and then scraped all the dishes as the servers brought them back to the kitchen, and then they took out the desserts. then at the very end, they turned up the lights and all the severs went up and said thier name/banquet/table name. There was quite a gasp as Honey and I made our way throught he curtains and up to the microphone. Then as soon as we came out of there, we all dashed through the brides room to the chapel to get in place for the community sing. Then after the commnunity sing, we all went back to the dining hall and those of us that hadn't eaten yet, chowed down on leftovers from dinner. I then got to talk with quite a few people there, which several are on team with me. I explained about my vision and that I did have good central vision and all, and most didnt realize that I could see fine, but within the field of vision that I do have. Others worked on setting up the room for the talks and meals today, since they have to vacate the upstairs rooms for the children's ministries for church this morning, all of the talks and all are done in the dining hall during the day today.
Then after all was done eating and such, they had a community service, where it was all of the community members, basically had a short service with communion. We were going up for communion and they use the big round Hawaiian bread for this. well just as we walked up to Ryan (who gave me a ride home the other night and ADORES Honey) there was a small piece of the bread fell between his feet. Honey immediately saw it and started to go for it. I gave a quick snap on the harness to tell her no, and Ryan and I were both kinda chuckling, trying to keep from laughing as it was funny knowing yeah she's still a dog! ! So I got my communion and headed back to my seat. Then after that people started coming in for the special evening service. It's pretty intense and Dad was crying when he got to me. Gave him a huge hug and told him I Loved him.
Then Mike just grabbed me and gave me the biggest hug. He said he left a note on my coat too. Then I had all these guys hugging me and saying that Mike was such an awesome man, they were so blessed to have him as thier table leader, they were soooo happy to get to meet me and so forth. So I'm not sure what all that was about, but I'll find out tonight. Then we start filing out as we are singing the song. I told Honey to follow the lady I'd been talking with in the dining hall, she goofed and went the wrong way. I was wondering as I saw the candles going the other way and I was like oops, I think we need to go, so we headed out too, and both of us were busting up laughing. I told her I'd told Honey to follow her, and we were both giggling about it. So Becky came and we were ready to head home and I got to my coat and found the note. It about made me cry!
So I came home and the kids were in bed, stayed up until almost 2:30 working on the bags and then crawled in bed. for some reason I was unable to very well last night and was awake at 3:30, 4:30 and then the kids got me up at 7:30. We finished up breakfast and watched some tv. Hope to work on bags a bit and then will do lunch and naps. Sue will take us all to the church in our van and then drive the aztec home. I'll put the kids in the available childcare and then go to the closings. At closings will tell me there how Dad's weekend went for sure, but so far I'm thinking good. Then we'll leave and probably go to grab something to eat as it'll be like 8pm and late. I'm really excited to go. :)
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