Wedding #2!

You guys!!!

Thank you so much for all the birthday love yesterday! It was such a lovely day, and I can't wait to tell you about it!

But before I tell you about my birthday, I have to tell you about our Saturday! Ryan worked, and I spent the whole day cleaning and cooking and preparing for Mommapalooza 4.0. (Don't take that in a complaining tone; I loved doing it!)

But that afternoon, we got all gussied up (as they say) and went to our second wedding in as many weeks! I told you last month about my friend Brittany (whose family has taken me in as an additional family member) and her bridal shower, where I served as speaker and photographer. Well, the wedding was Saturday! And it was lovely.

The wedding was at a country club, so that meant we had to pull out better than our Sunday best!

We had a gorgeous day for a drive, which was good, since we had a little over an hour on the road!

I ran into one of my former students at the wedding (from my Financial Aid days) as soon as I arrived. We stared at each other for a minute, trying to figure out who we were. We finally got it! I don't often see people from those days, so that was fun!

Because I've forgotten how to look at a camera:

Brittany was a beautiful bride, and I sneaked a few pictures, while trying not to be "that" guest.

Really enjoyed the ceremony, and then the reception was fun, too!

Brittany shared that they chose to get married in May because her parents had gotten married in May, and so had her aunt and uncle, and so had her grandparents! They honored her grandparents by sharing a special dance with them. (Also, I first typed "daince," which may pay tribute to the fact that an Andy Griffith marathon played in our house all day today.)

And speaking of her grandparents, I stole these two pictures from them. Seems I got asked to dance (or daince) too!

Thanks, Sandee! :)

When we left the reception, we headed in search of some coffee and then went to pick up our Phoebe girl, who spent the night with us. When we made that stop, I GOT FLOWERS!! These were part of my birthday gift from Ryan!

Fun evening!! And we got home before the shoes started killing my feet! BONUS!!!!

The Shafferland Shuffle

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY (to you)!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY (to me)!! I fully anticipate today to be crazy busy here in Shafferland, but it'll be great to fill you in later!

Meanwhile, here's a peek at our last week.

* Last Sunday was Ryan's sister's bridal shower, and I took pictures at that while Ryan stayed home and enjoyed a MUCH deserved nap! Bre's shower was so nice, and she got tons of nice gifts. I think she was a little overwhelmed by it all, actually! But it was a good day.

* I actually had Monday off from my carpool duties, but I ended up helping another of our friends get his kiddo home from school, so it ended up balancing out. At least it was a pretty-ish day and I could enjoy my time in line! I spent the whole afternoon making props for one of my talks next week, and then I did my first "dress rehearsal" for it. Ryan felt it necessary to take my picture. I told him it looks like I'm directing a choir. LOL!

* Ryan had a carry-in at work on Tuesday, and I made these uh-mazing Samoa brownies to take to it. I was hoping everyone would hate them and I could bring them all home, but it didn't work out that way. That night, Mom and Dad took us out to eat for our birthdays, and we got free dessert! Made up for the Samoa brownies that didn't come home. HA!

* I spent Wednesday creating my 10 page color-coded itinerary to get us through the upcoming schedule madness, and that made me so tired by the end of the day, I just wanted to sit down and put my feet up! So I did! I did watch my friend's kiddos that evening for a little bit. This one cracks me up. Wants to play with the ball that's the same size she is!

* By Thursday, we were pooped, and Ryan took a nap at the end of lunch to get enough energy to get through the afternoon. I've been there!! We went out to buy all the rest of our flowers for this year so we could get those planted. It wasn't a super warm and sunny evening, but at least the rain held off!

* Friday, to celebrate the end of National Hospital Week, a food truck came to Ryan's work, and he was SO excited, because it was BBQ, and he loves BBQ! Friday was the nicest day of the whole week, and we were able to mow the yard and plant all our flowers. Looks like summer, now!

* Yesterday, Ryan had to work, and while he was gone, I got the garage set up to host Mommapalooza 4.0 and worked to prepare all the food I could ahead of time! When Ryan got home from work, we got all dressed up and went to wedding #2 for the month! Had a lovely time! Ryan makes one handsome date, doesn't he???

Wedding Fun!

It's taken me this whole week to tell you about our weekend! After Ryan and I got home from my speaking engagement Saturday morning, we had about an hour of rest time before we hopped back in the car and headed to Indianapolis to attend our friend's wedding! She's one of my friends from high school, and we really enjoyed the ceremony and reception! Here are a few pictures from it:

Pre-wedding selfie. :) 

 Our row! If you heard the podcast yesterday, you heard us talking about our 8th grade science teacher who still water skis at age 74. She's the one sitting two down from me. Looks exactly the same as when we had her in the early 90's.

 The happy couple!

 Awwww, they were nice to each other.

 Photo opp with the bride!

So that was Saturday.

Then there was Sunday. After church, Ryan came home and napped, and I went to his sister's bridal shower. My job was to take pictures, which I did at an alarming rate. But I was so nervous, because Ryan's mom is a photographer extraordinaire, and I am sort of a capture on the fly girl, and I freaked out that my pictures wouldn't be good enough! Alas, I cannot redo any of them now, so here's a peek at the shower.

Ryan's family does parties up right. Lots of hard work goes into every shower and party they throw! This was no exception!

The gift table. There were eventually a lot more gifts, but there were also a lot more people and I couldn't get a clear shot by that time. HA!

 Denim-inspired placemats and cups with daisies and baby's breath - and party favors of wooden spoons! (TOTALLY FORGOT TO GET ONE!)

 Our sister-in-law Megan makes phenomenal cakes, and there were two tasty examples at the shower. Guess who didn't get any of that either? WHAT?!?!!? I know!

 Ryan's cousin won the game. She declared she never wins ANYTHING, so this was a photo worthy moment!

 The happy bride-to-be!

 So I stood on this step stool for an hour and a half, taking pictures, and the ONE TIME I paused to text Ryan, I missed that she was waiting for a photo with this monogram. They had to shout my name to get my attention. WHOOPSIE! Photographer fail!

 Also. It is good that was an H and not an S, or I might have tucked that in my belongings on the way out the door!!

This is classic Bre right here!! :)

 Our nephew helped with the end of the gift opening. He was very eager for her to see this cookie sheet!

 Lots of group pictures at the end! Here is Bre with her dad, her sister, and her grandma.

 Bre with her mom (also Ryan's mom) and Aunt Debbie. Nita and Aunt Debbie were the hostesses of the party and did all the hard work to prepare it!

 This is what happens when the niece sneaks into the picture with the mother and mother-in-law! She jumped up right into my frame!

 But she's also a good little photographer and took this one of Bre and me!

 And this one.

So that was our Sunday! The year of weddings is officially underway!

The Shafferland Shuffle

WHEW! Hope you are not floating away in all this rain we've had! What a lotta water!! Here's a peek into the dry parts of our week.

* Last Sunday was the second and final day of Ryan's continuing education course, and it was also the second (and turned out to be final) day of my 3 Day Refresh detox. I felt like I had the flu, so I pretty much stayed on Mo the entire day, with big hair and no makeup. Ryan got home from class that evening, and I was so happy to see him and so sad to be unable to drink coffee that I just cried.

* Because I called it quits on the detox at 4:03 Monday morning (after a long/short night of hallucinations and no sleep), I enjoyed the most amazing cup of coffee when the alarm went off. I've never loved it more. And I mean that. Ryan had a chance to try out a genuine Mayberry sheriff's car that day. Doesn't he look so cute in it? And I was excited to see a preview of Erica Wiggenhorn's forthcoming study on the book of Acts! It's gonna be great!

* Tuesday was our monthiverary. 53 months! We both spent the day working hard on our respective jobs, but that evening, we enjoyed dinner, a Dashing Dish dessert, and a lovely evening at home together. Even got in a nice, hard workout!

* Wednesday was a big office day for me. Lots of writing and practicing for upcoming talks. When I finally flipped my sign to closed at the end of the day, I was pleased with how much I had accomplished! Know what I was not pleased about? The manicure I got at the double-date mani/pedi last Friday completely fell apart. Had to do my own less than a week later. I think it turned out well, though!

* Thursday the rain began to fall...and it was just one wet, nasty day. What a birthday gift for Braeya, huh? She mostly napped all day and I didn't blame her. Wanted to do the same, myself! :) We didn't have nearly the flooding that some areas had, but it still was a soppy wet mess.

* Friday began our crazy busy weekend! I headed up to Fort Wayne to be a volunteer at WBCL's Daddy Daughter Date Night - photography night for me! It was so good to see all my former work buddies! I also got the chance to meet one of my friends' new little baby! :) Ryan spent the evening helping out my parents and enjoying a dinner out with them. Definitely odd to be apart, but we both had great nights!

* I'd gotten home after 11 on Friday night and we were back on the road by 8:15 Saturday morning so I could speak at the Huntington Baptist Church brunch. Ryan went with me, and we had a great morning with the ladies there! We got home just in time to drive the opposite direction, down to Indianapolis, to attend the wedding of one of my high school/game night friends. A full and fun day!

What I Learned in April

WOW. So April ends on Sunday. WHAT? I realized about two days ago that a new month is looming RIGHT NOW and I need to hurry to make sure I have my goals made, my birthday cards ordered, and my schedule set, because May is fixin' to be one cuh-ra-zay busy month in Shafferland. So while I anticipate that what I'll learn next month is to hang onto my hat, here's a peek at what I learned in April!

1. I am so glad we did a tiny destination wedding.

Ryan's sister is getting married this year and is in the throes of heavy wedding planning. This month, I was invited to a few of the meetings with a bunch of the family girls, and while it was fun (because hello! Wedding!), I realized I'm so glad we had a tiny little wedding that was far, far away. I know we hurt and disappointed a lot of people who wanted to attend our wedding and couldn't, because it was too far, but for my anxious personality, that itty bitty wedding was so perfect, and I'm glad we did it that way. I don't think I realized just how much until I was reminded of the enormity of traditional wedding planning!

2. Cozy mysteries are an actual genre.

I probably shouldn't be admitting out loud that I did not know that, because it probably reveals a giant flaw in my literature-loving understanding. But when I interviewed Ann Gabhart earlier this month about her Hidden Springs Mystery series, we talked about how they had such a lightheartedness about them, compared to the dark, heavy suspense of other crime novels I've read. And that's where I learned about cozy mysteries. In these books, the violence is written in a much more toned-down manner to allow the reader a more comfortable experience, while still getting to participate in a mystery.

3. You can purchase riced cauliflower.

Am I the only one who didn't know about this? I found a recipe to try this month that made "breadsticks" out of cauliflower. The instructions said to grind up the cauliflower in a blender until it was the size of pieces of rice. Someone had commented and asked if she could just use frozen riced cauliflower. What? You can buy it already processed? For a girl who has the worst blender ever made, this was very exciting news! Save time and headache? OKAY!!!!!

4. I drink water better if it's cold.

I'm not a bad water-drinker. I'm thankful for that because I hated water when I was a kid and pretty much refused to drink it. But as an adult, I started enjoying it and it's all we have here at home, really. We don't keep pop in the house and I don't even make tea all that often. But I had noticed that even though I'm pretty good at drinking water, I wasn't getting in as much as I wanted. And that's when I discovered that I drink it much better if it's cold. How did I not know this about myself until just now? 

5.  Lawn rollers can be filled with water.

When I was a kid, I remember every spring, my dad would hire a guy from town to come out to their property with his big heavy roller. I'd be instructed to stay far away while the man drove his tractor slowly through the massive yard, leveling the ground so Dad could proceed with the first mowing of the season. This year, Ryan borrowed a roller from a friend of his, with the intent of rolling our yard and one of his co-worker's yards. When I asked how he planned to heft that thing into his truck and drive it to her house, he just stared at me funny and said, "Just empty it?" Empty it? That's when I found out that these modern, newfangled rollers are plastic and hollow, and you just fill them up with water to create the weight. When you're done, you empty it out and you could lift the whole thing one-handed. Who knew? 

6. My husband can rock a flamingo suit like you wouldn't believe.

 This absolutely falls under "sentences I never expected to type" and also is entirely self-explanatory.

7. Traction isn't as scary as I thought.

I tried it for the first time this month. I have a lot of tightness and discomfort (we'll stop short of calling it pain, because it's really not pain) in my neck, which I'm sure comes from a combination of carrying all my stress there and sitting in front of a computer for pretty much every waking hour of my life. I always thought traction was like some horrible immobilizing thing you were stuck in for life if you broke your back or something. But I found this very relaxing and helpful in stretching out my poor strained neck!

So that's what I learned. What about you? Any April revelations?