Gosh it has been awhile since I've posted. I've become quite the sporadic blogger lately. It's not necessarily my own fault though. Well, sort of. Life has just been so busy lately that I haven't had very much free time. Here's what I have been up to the last month.
I went on a youth group retreat to Springhill with a group of junior high students from my church. While at times my patience were tested and I was definitely sleep deprived (I had about 7 hours of sleep total between Friday and Saturday night!), overall, it was a good experience. The speaker at the retreat was incredible. He was a chalk artist and would draw amazing pictures in about 10 minutes right in front of you.
You can check out his website here. He was really the perfect speaker for junior high students. Full of energy and very entertaining. I also got to go horseback riding and tubing for the first time! I had never gone tubing on a snow hill before and it was a lot of fun.
Shawn and I spent Easter weekend with his parents in the UP. For you non-Michigan folk, that's the
Upper Penninsula. I had a really nice time with Shawn's family. It was quite relaxing. On Saturday we went flying (yes, flying). Shawn's dad is a sight pilot and flew us across the UP to see Munising and the Pictured Rocks. It was wonderful! Except the slight queeziness from the flight. Here's a really neat picture of the pictured rocks. How beautiful! Shawn and I hope to do some backpacking there in the future. I'm told that it's even prettier in the summer.
Gobs of wedding planning. No picture here. I had grand intentions of taking cute pictures of all of our addressed invitations stacked up. However, that did not happen. Shawn and I finished them around 11pm the night before we wanted to mail them so they were shoved into a plastic bag and then left in my car. But the invitations are now out and we're left with a little breather before the next wave of deadlines approach. It seems somewhat strange that we've actually invited people to
our wedding. I feel somewhat disconnected from the fact. There are times that the day seems to be so close and so real and then other times where it seems distant and disconnected from reality. However, no matter how I'm feeling, it is quickly approaching and I couldn't be more happy. Well, I guess if we could pick a song to dance to I could be. :) Suggestions...?
DP day - Shawn and I volunteered this past Saturday with
The Detroit Partnership. We helped out at a site in the Brightmoor neighborhood on Detroit's northwest side that had 3 houses that were going to be torn down. I wish I had bought my camera so I could share with you the ridiculousness of these houses. I am pretty sure all three were owned by the same person as the two side houses were FULL of books. There were probably THOUSANDS of books- most of them needing to be thrown out due to fire damage and disgusting mold. It was absolutely crazy. I've never seen so many books outside of a library. It was clear no one had lived in either of these houses since every room was completely full of books (even the bathrooms had some stacks of books on the floor). This left me ponding, who buys two houses just to store old books?!
And finally, on Saturday after DP day I got around to doing some sewing. I spent most of the evening working on my quilt-a-long quilt. I finished my last block (finally) and started piecing together the rest of the top. My goal was to finish piecing the top but I didn't quite make it before I decided I just needed to go to bed. I'm hoping that top will be fully completed sometime this week. Hopefully.
A revival of the wedding countdown. You don't even know how ready I am for it to be over. And I also made a wedding countdown:
I went on a youth group retreat to Springhill with a group of junior high students from my church. While at times my patience were tested and I was definitely sleep deprived (I had about 7 hours of sleep total between Friday and Saturday night!), overall, it was a good experience. The speaker at the retreat was incredible. He was a chalk artist and would draw amazing pictures in about 10 minutes right in front of you. You can check out his website here. He was really the perfect speaker for junior high students. Full of energy and very entertaining. I also got to go horseback riding and tubing for the first time! I had never gone tubing on a snow hill before and it was a lot of fun.
Shawn and I spent Easter weekend with his parents in the UP. For you non-Michigan folk, that's the Upper Penninsula. I had a really nice time with Shawn's family. It was quite relaxing. On Saturday we went flying (yes, flying). Shawn's dad is a sight pilot and flew us across the UP to see Munising and the Pictured Rocks. It was wonderful! Except the slight queeziness from the flight. Here's a really neat picture of the pictured rocks. How beautiful! Shawn and I hope to do some backpacking there in the future. I'm told that it's even prettier in the summer.
And finally, on Saturday after DP day I got around to doing some sewing. I spent most of the evening working on my quilt-a-long quilt. I finished my last block (finally) and started piecing together the rest of the top. My goal was to finish piecing the top but I didn't quite make it before I decided I just needed to go to bed. I'm hoping that top will be fully completed sometime this week. Hopefully.
Oh, the lampshade effect is so wonderful.
Looks like split pea soup in dress form.
We actually didn't stay to watch the actual sunset because it was so hot. Then we went back to his condo for what I thought was some raspberry sorbet. Instead, I was surprised to find a whole group of our friends waiting there for a surprise birthday/engagement party!
What a wonderful birthday! :)
