The Shafferland Shuffle

Good morning to you from our busy week and my best day of the year!! :) Know what we haven't been this week? Bored. So hopefully you won't be bored for the next couple of moments either! And this is one final reminder that this is time change day, so don't show up too early for anything! :)

* Last Sunday we picked up Phoebe on the way home from church, and we kept her for the afternoon. I was exhausted from our previous week and at the point where I knew if I didn't catch some rest, I'd be sick. So Ryan was amazing and let Phoebe and I sleep all afternoon while he got us all ready to be at the hospital all day Monday. When I finally woke up feeling ready to help handle the load, he headed out to his mom's to see her one more time before surgery. (We never do anything apart, so that was really weird.) I missed out on getting to see our nephews dressed up for Halloween, but Ryan documented it!

* Monday was Nita's big surgery day, and we spent all day at the hospital with twenty-six other family members and friends. (Not kidding.) I had to do some work while we were there, but we also both had a chance to have good conversations with people we don't see often. And we were thankful that the surgery didn't last as long as they thought it might and that she came through it as well as she did! We didn't get home until almost 10 that night, but we had Chick-fil-A on the way, so Ryan was super excited!

* We hit the ground running on Tuesday, because we kept our nephews and niece all day long. Lots of activities and energy all day long! (Ryan helped me out so much on his lunch hour, and I appreciated that. He's way more fun an uncle than I am aunt, for sure!) And literally the very minute they left our house, we also pulled out of the driveway to head to the park for our annual pictures. (They were supposed to be the next night, but a dismal forecast caused us to move them up to Tuesday night.) We had a stunning, stunning evening. I can't wait to see what she got!

* Wednesday was Halloween, but I never did get a costume put together for Ryan (what, have we been busy or something??) so he just went to work as himself. We went back to Indianapolis to see his mom that night, and she looked amazing! It was so good to see some sparkle in her eyes again. She was awake the whole time we were there, and we had some good conversations with her. On the way home, we ate dinner at McAlister's, and we got to try out a new soup they're testing at some stores. (We think they should keep it!)

* I'm speaking at a retreat this weekend, so Thursday became final prep day. I had to do all the last minute details of packing and getting ready for that. It was also my first official day of my business year, and due to all the chaos of late, I had not done a SINGLE thing to get ready for that. So I pretty much ran like a chicken with my head cut off from morning until night. Ryan did the same at work! I decided that going to work out was much easier before I had to start donning all the extra layers to go out of the house! :) And Braeya slept right through Ryan's football game that night. Bored, bored, bored.

* Friday was our 71st monthiversary! Ryan took off work at noon and the two of us headed up to Fort Wayne to serve together at a women's retreat. The day (prior to the start of the retreat) sort of blew up on us, and we didn't get to do most of the things we had planned, but we still had a fun day. (I blame Starbucks...we lost valuable time trying to track down the reusable holiday cups and every single location had run out. We had a great start to the retreat, though!! We have been looking forward to this for months

* Yesterday was a full day of speaking, making new friends, spending time with old friends, and dreaming for our future. That's a lot to ask out of one day! I spoke three times at the retreat and have prayed that God will use the message He gave me to do beautiful things in the lives of the women. Ryan was a HUGE help and support to me, and we both enjoyed the chance we had to also spend time with some of our friends in the down-time. A great day! We are thankful.

So now you are all caught up and can hopefully kick back and have a happy time change day! Enjoy your extra hour!