Hand Over The Baby

Doesn't Connie look happy? Can you see Donna just waiting ever so patiently for her turn?

The ladies of our church threw a baby shower for Laura yesterday afternoon. It was the funnest thing ever! They are so sweet, and Laura will henceforth be the most beautifully dressed girl with the best collection of homemade lovely things. And this is how it went:

We walked in to a room beautifully decorated in vintage lambs and bunnies and little sunbonnet girls. I handed over the baby, ate cake, opened piles of presents and didn't get Laura back for two hours! She slept like an angel through grandma after grandma's arms. Connie, Phyllis, Donna, Kathy, Marge, Kay, Helen, Martha... they were all so happy to have a cuddly little one to hold. In fact, my own mother couldn't even get a turn with Laura. It is making me grin ear to ear just thinking of how lovely and loving those ladies are. Truthfully I should have let them throw a shower sooner, but I thought they were only saying they wanted to, and I didn't want them to feel obligated to buy gifts. Let this be a lesson to me.

Our weekend was the typical whirlwind.

The weather was beautiful, and the the big girls were at Grampa and Gramma's Friday night and Saturday. I hear they had a bonfire, roasted marshmallows, shocked the pool for the season, watched some neighbors come out and hunt turkeys, and rode horses. I am tired out just describing the first half of their weekend!

While they were gone, the Eng-Gen-Eer and I rented a movie, "3:10 to Yuma," which was pretty good. My heart was beating fast with adrenaline, so does that count as a workout? Anyway I cooked stir fry and rice, we watched the movie and generally felt like the house was empty.

Saturday morning the Eng-Gen-Eer made his way to the office and I headed out for my basket making class, which was unfortunately canceled because attendance was too low. So, making the best of it, I called my girlfriend Carolyn and we met at Fleur de Lis, a new Cottage Grove bakery. Super yummy! Then we stopped at an estate sale, where Caro bought an antique sideboard for $10! I exercised extreme restraint, given my family history of furniture disease, and only purchased a vintage typewriter for my small but growing collection. Five bucks!

Then Caro took Laura and me out to her farm south of Cottage Grove, and divided up her celery and garlic starts for us. What an awesome friend. She and her husband Kyle are making a really unique country garden. He carves cedar into benches and scuptural art, and she plants in unusual containers, including a full-size restaurant sink. It all comes together and looks fantastic.

To wrap up my "day out," Laura and I went back to Lorane for another friend's Tupperware party. By the time I was through overspending there, everyone was back home and waiting for dinner.

Sunday brought the usual church freak-out about doing four heads of hair in 20 minutes. Then we went to the sweet baby shower while the Eng-Gen-Eer helped my brother move about three tons of granite and landscape rock (my weekend was so much nicer than my husband's). He even drove the girls to horse clinic for me and had to leave as soon as I arrived to move more junk, I mean building materials.

Finally, we wrapped up Sunday with a big crockpot full of taco soup and our good friends' company. I do believe I need another Homebody Monday.