Rehearsal Dinner

Every wedding starts with a rehearsal, and that's where I was this past Friday night.  This was the wedding that I was pretending to be the Coordinator for (I say pretending because I really didn't know what I was doing, but shhh, don't tell!) so it made for a busy weekend for me. It started with a comedy of errors, including me sitting at the wrong church for thirty minutes and Doc's car dying not once, but twice, after work, resulting in him spending the evening at AutoZone buying a new battery and me being dateless. But, I made it to the church and we rehearsed and all was well!

I mean, how can it not be well when you're in a beautiful church with windows like this?

The bride and groom were excited! They welcomed everyone in as we waited to get started.

The brother and niece of the bride were there.

Oh, and Mary, the Matron of Honor, was there too!

This is the bride's little brother. He was the cutest junior groomsman I've ever seen.

The bride and a couple of her bridesmaids...

Soon, it was time to get started. Susan, the church wedding coordinator, lined everyone up.

The preacher walked everyone through the service.

While the groom was off pretending to marry the proxy bride,

...the real bride watched from the pews and glowed like an angel.

After running through everything twice, we all sat down for some last-minute directions for the following day.

And we got a sneak peek of the special music by Adam Wheatley.

And then, it was time to head to dinner!

The bride and groom sat at the head table,

in between her parents,

and his parents.

Don't they all look like such proud parents? I know this was a special weekend for them.

Kendra and I got photo-bombed by the groom.

The tables were decorated with fall leaves and candles.

For a while, I got to sit by Cate, the flower girl, and watch her color. She was precious!

Speeches and toasts were made by the bridesmaids and groomsmen.  The man who introduced the bride and groom also spoke, and the father of the bride gave some very touching remarks. We ended the meal with a great slideshow of the bride and groom and then headed home to prepare for the next day. Come back soon to see pictures from the wedding day!

The Making of a Stage

[Edit: turns out the voice bubbles in my pictures are a little blurry, so I'm adding the quotes beneath each photo.]

Lucy: I got an email from Mary today. Doc: Cool. What'd it say?

Lucy: She bought a hutch at Goodwill and asked me to turn it into a puppet stage. Doc: Rad.

Doc: I'll go ahead and nail in some extra supports so it's not so wobbly for her students.

Lucy: Awesome! I'll start sanding this brown paint off.

Lucy: Oh hey, Dad. Can you cut a 42" by 26" piece of thin wood for me? Dad: Of course. Anything for you, daughter.

Lucy: I'm going to paint that piece with chalkboard paint!

Lucy: Hmmm...and I think I'll paint the puppet stand green, just like my house!

Lucy: Heeeey, Mom.  Wanna sew a curtain? Mom: I'd love to!

Lucy: Thanks for all your help guys! Now all I have to do is put it all together!

Phew! Did you make it through all of that?

Ok, so my puppetry skills may be a little lacking, but the stage is cute, right?  As mentioned in the show, my friend Mary Elizabeth purchased the original hutch from a Goodwill. I'm not sure how much she paid for it, but I'm guessing it wasn't much.  Here's what it looked like when she brought it to me.

It looks brown, but that's not the stained wood you see. Instead, whoever used to own it decided to paint over the stain with brown paint. Who does that?

I didn't take any pictures as I went along, but here's another shot of the finished product.

Mary Elizabeth teaches music to all ages, and she's planning on using this in her classroom. I think her kids are going to love it!

As you can see from the back view, they have an extra shelf to store the puppets that are waiting "backstage."

Special thanks to my mom who played along with my crazy puppet show idea! It was super hot outside but she was still a good sport about holding up the puppets while I took pictures.

And, just for laughs, here's a shot of our puppy puppets.

Mary, I'm sorry it took me so long to get finished! But it's officially done and ready for you now.  Maybe you could show us all what a good puppet show is supposed to look like!

Typical Morning

Lately, Minnie has decided she does not want to be a good girl.  This does not make me, her momma, very happy. Her mischief occurs when I'm in the shower. She'll shred a roll of toilet paper, or dig through the garbage, or pull all the clothes of the laundry basket, or sometimes, she'll even have an accident on the carpet.

On this particular morning (the morning I finally decided to grab my camera), it was the bathroom garbage that she decided to peruse.

And then, no matter what it is she's done, she "hides" under the bed so I can't get on to her when I get out of the shower.

Bless her. I just don't have the heart to tell her I can still see her booty poking out.

And how am I supposed to get on to her when she keeps doing funny stuff like this? Seriously, it's every single time. Dig through the laundry; hide under the bed. Shred the toilet paper; hide under the bed. Have an accident; hide under the bed.  And every single time, she just can't get that long body of hers all the way hidden!

Poor thing. I just love her, even if she is ruining my carpet.

Polka Dot Trees

Everyone, meet Abby Kate.

Cute little thing, isn't she?

Abby is a two year old that just upgraded from a crib to a big-girl room.  Her mom, my supervisor at work, found her cute new bedding on sale at the Pottery Barn outlet and snatched it right up. The only problem? She needed something cute to hang above the bed.

That's where I came in.

The furniture that's in Abby's new big-girl room is a dark brown set that's been in the family.  Her mom was nervous that it wouldn't look like a little girl's room without white furniture.  I told her pink walls and a girly painting with her new bedding would make the dark brown furniture hardly even noticeable.  And I volunteered to do the girly painting.

I have to admit, I stole the idea for the painting from one  I saw in a friend's nursery. Her's was painted by her little sister and, since they didn't know the sex at the time, was not gender specific.

I love it and knew right away that I'd end up trying to copy it.  Who knew the opportunity would arise so soon?

So, back to Abby.  Her bedding was already purchased so I knew my color scheme. I took a pillow sham with me to JoAnn's and loaded up on craft paint. The canvases there were ridiculously expensive - $40 each! - so I decided to make my own out of wood. Much cheaper.

Here's how the canvases (I decided to do mine as a set of three) looked after the first night of painting. This is really my only "in progress" picture.

Just three bare trees in need of something to snazzy 'em up.

Skipping right along, here's the final product.

I think they turned out pretty cute!

So, off to Abby's room they went...

I like that they pop against the pink wall.  Abby's mom has ordered her a bright green toss pillow that's monogrammed with a pink "a" to go on her bed. I think it'll really help pull the green in on the bed.

And the good news is, I think Abby liked it!

She and her big sister, Kersten, enjoyed jumping on the bed and breaking in the new bedding.  This is the best I could do for a picture in between all the giggles.

Rumor has it that some green and white polka dot curtains have been purchased to finish off the room. I think it's perfect for a two year old!

Speech! Speech!

In a little over two weeks, I will be the matron of honor in a best friend's wedding. I'm honored that she asked me to be a part of her big day and am really looking forward to it. Except for one part: the speech. She told me this week that yes, I'd be asked to give a speech at the rehearsal and probably a toast at the actual wedding. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. I have no idea what I'm going to say. Right now, all I can do is hope that I'm better at public speaking than this guy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1BXL5PyDak]