Weekend Wrap-Up

Amazing weekends always come and go too quickly.

The weather last week was terrible. I think Monday and Tuesday was nice but the Wednesday through Friday it rained off and on and was very muggy out. I was so nervous that would continue through the weekend and ruin everything we had planned...

We gave my brother a "surprise" graduation party! It was kind of a surprise because he knew what was going on and we all knew he knew. So, we tried to keep as much of the details a surprise as possible. Here is my favorite:

I conspired with my amazingly talented sister in law (I wanna be just like her when I grow up!) to make his cake. Needless to say- it was amazing. The cake it on the right and my brother's camera is on the left. AWESOME. My brother is an aspiring photographer and refused to cut it. Of course I don't have more pictures because I used his camera for the rest of the day to take pictures. I'll probably will never see those again. But we had fun either way.

The next day was 'Graduate Sunday' at church. We have a fairly sizeable youth population and my church is big on education. It is encouraged that throughout the year parent's bring in report cards, certificates, trophies, awards, etc. to recognize their children's achievements (you should see how proud a 4-year-old is receiving a standing ovation for getting promoted to kindergarten. I'm not going to lie- church was part of my motivation in college to keep up the grades. There was no way I wasn't bringing in MY report card and letting the youngins show me up! I'm joking but we do honor the graduates in a big way. This year we had 1 master's and 1 bachelor's recipient, 2 high school grads, and an elementary school graduate. We also had a host of middle/grade school, kindergarten, and pre-school graduates. The older kids get embarrassed over such a big deal, but the little ones eat it up!


Every fourth Sunday the Deacon's at my church hold a small church service for the sick and shut in at an extended care facility nearby. The Elder for that month has to give the sermon. Guess who is my church's Elder for June... yep! I was nervous as heck! I have no idea why. I'm usually okay with public speaking- I mean I get nervous but I'm okay. This time for some reason was a whole different ball game. The audience isn't that large and the crowd LOVES whatever you say no matter what it is... I think maybe it was because it was my first time giving the message at this particular place. Either way, it went well and I'm glad it's over. In fact, I have 3 more days left until I pass the reigns as pastor's "right hand" to the next person. As an Elder, I sit on Session, serve communion on first Sundays, take communion to the sick and shut in on first Sundays, and a whole host of other things. This is my second year sitting and I have enjoyed it. My term is only two years so I'm come off in January but I don't think I'll be going back on for a bit. It is kind of stressful helping to run a church off well over 100 congregants ( I forgot how many we have). The normal term is 4 years. Mine was so short because I was taking over for someone who couldn't finish their term due to a move across country. I will continue my faithful journey and raise our children that way. I also have plans to join faithful bloggers so that one day I can share my faith with my readers :)

Lastly, I'll leave you with my advertisement for this weekend, although it didn't stop me from being asked the same question over and over (although I really don't mind). It ended up being the running joke. If someone asked me when I was due someone else would say "you clearly didn't read the shirt"!