Part II - Reception
If you aren't hungry now...you will be!

hors d'ourves table

Amazing fruit bouquet

Delicious Cheeses!

Wedding cake.

I didn't get to taste it, but I heard it was very good!

I love flowers.

Busy night! After I got home from work at 5:20 pm I "made-up" dinner as I went along --with ingredients from garden & pantry. Here's how: brown rice mixed with cheddar cheese (which melted) and some mexican seasoning...topped with garden veggies (green pepper, garlic, zucchini, tomato) that were heated in olive oil. Salt & Pepper to taste. Not sure what the family thought of it, but I liked it! But I like rice and veggies.

Cleaned up kitchen some...then to Hom Furniture to pick up table and decorative items for the church (purchased yesterday) and took them to the new building where a small team of us put the furniture together and set it "around" the place. Pictures didn't get hung yet. There is still time....before Sunday!

Kirk worked on setting up the band stuff with Merv and building things....not sure exactly what he was doing....but they were busy.

Wedding - Part I
As many of you know, our vacation "out west" started with our nephew's plan to get married in Idaho (where his bride is from). We figured that as long as we were that far west, we may as well head to Yellowstone National Park. A trip with the family to the West just happened to be on Kirk's list of goals, so we loaded up the van and to the West we went!

Many events took place prior to the wedding. Parties, hikes, whitewater rafting, the groom's dinner, etc. Then, on July 26th the event all 100+ friends and family had converged on McCall, Idaho for arrived . . .

An outdoor wedding & reception: we head through the gate,

pass the beautifully set tables for the reception ---

with the pretty flowers ---

-- and take a sneak peak at the ring bearer pillow -- with the real rings on it!

and take our seats --(which you can't see cuz we got a real close-up seat - being family and all)!

That's a start on the pre-wedding ceremony pictures. Tomorrow: Part 2 -- maybe.

On a side note: Our church building is finally done and we have our occupancy permit! I had off work today to "recover" from vacation... but did little recovery....instead I shopped for decorative items for the church .... and things for the walls! Our first service there will be Wednesday night....and this Sunday will be our first Sunday in the new building!!

A "shout-out" to our long-time, dear friend Mark in CT --- thanks for thinking of Cara and asking about when her boards are so you can pray for her. It means a lot.

It's all coming together and it's pretty exciting!
Last week the concrete floors were stained and this is what they look like now!

Tomorrow (Wednesday) Crosswinds Church will have their first service in the new building!
We don't have an occupancy permit - this is just a "special" service before the carpet is installed in the auditorium. The plan is to have all in attendance write prayers, etc. on the concrete before the carpet is installed the end of the week. Hopefully we will actually move into the church sometime in June.
If you are planning to attend the service on Wednesday, you won't get to see the floors - they will be covered up to protect them until the polish coat is on them. Sorry.

Decision - Dog Tales - Flashback

Shout outs to Jen, Sandy, Jackie and Sara! I really appreciated your comments and gentle way of talking some sense into my head!

Decision:
I headed over to the church today with my decorating "show" (the crap I haul around with me - samples, etc). The Chocolate Brown microdot was on the way to the discard pile before I left....but I wanted to be sure -- so I took the formica samples, and the carpet sample, and the cabinet sample, and the paint samples....to view "on site". Chocolate Brown bit the dust as soon as it appeared on the scene! The fingerprints were even more glaring and obvious in the building!
Next problem....the Walnut Quarstone didn't look good either.
Solution: Go with the Black Labrador Granite in the honed finish
It's going in the kitchen, the lobby and the nursery. Done. (ordered too!)

Next decision: Concrete stain color.

Here's the cabinet door, carpet sample and formica choice:




Dog Tales:
With the formica ordered I decided to give myself the rest of the day off! Hey, don't be hate'n ... it was 78 degrees here - and I was vitamin D deficient so I got a little sun therapy (since the beach therapy was too much $$$)....oh, and did I mention that it could SNOW yet this week?

Shortly after settling in my lounge chair on the patio, I hear Gabby rustling around -- on the prowl in the plantings around the pool then she became very excited and intent on one bush...so I got up to see what the deal was. Nothing. Nothing there...just a Gabby pipedream.

Back in the chair. Very relaxed, eyes closed, nearing sleep. Gabby is behind me now all excited - the sign she has found "something". Only this time she really did. And she grabbed "it" and ran with it. Here she is proudly showing off her bloody face...
(warning: next photo will be graphic)

Here's Gabby's "catch". Ish. Makes my skin crawl looking at it. Guess who had to dispose of it so Gabby wouldn't play with it more. Did I mention I HATE snakes?
(the red thing on the left of the snake....yeah, it's guts)I just got a chill looking at the pic again. Sorry about that....but I knew you wouldn't appreciate the story quite as much if I didn't post the pic.

Wait! There's more! I'm back in my lounging position (snake in plastic bag in garbage) --and falling into that Zen-like state that happens when I sit in the sun --- and I hear Gabby bark ... about 6 yards or so from me....I don't look. She barks again. I look. She has ANOTHER snake in her mouth! I jump out of my chair and yell at her....she takes off running -- I never find that snake. Crazy dog wanted to show off her catch and didn't want me thowing this one away I guess. She'll probably be throwing up in the morning. Crazy dog. Folks, it's spring - and the varmints are coming out of hibernation which means there will probably be more Gabby stories comin'.

Flashback: Nate and I went to Salvation Army after dinner tonight. The store was incredibly organized and fairly clean. I found the one item I went for (to be mentioned in a future blog) ... and a few other fun things too. . .

Remember these? I'd bought the color-dripping candles at Michael's quite awhile ago thinking that someday I'd get a bottle of Chianti (and pour it down the drain because I don't like Chianti) and make one of these retro candles.

Candles: $1.50 Bottle: 50 cents Retro Fun: priceless

Painting, again.
I want to be painting at home before I head to my new job....but looks like I'll be painting at the church for awhile yet! I painted all morning, again. -- accent colors. Then home to clean my brushes and myself before heading over to the Top Shop to finally make up my mind and order the formica for the countertops. After changing my mind more times than I want to admit on my choice for the tops, I decide to give myself just one more day.
Got home...made my decision. Finally. I've found a formica to love. Relief. When Kirk gets home I waste no time in showing him the choices. I lay the 5 0r 6 samples out.....and of course he likes one I've already put in the discard pile. I can't stand it another minute so I quickly point out my favorite.....then......I notice something. Something very wrong. Something that could potentially banish my formica-- my favorite, to the discard pile. Right there before my very eyes are ......fingerprints!!! Can I/We live with that? Will the fingerprints forever drive the people of the church crazy? Will anyone even notice? Will I ALWAYS notice? Blog friends, this formica has a high coolness factor.....the color is perfect and the style, I hate to send it to the discard pile because of this one ever-so-slight imperfection. What should I do??? Please help me decide!!! Seriously....weigh-in with your thoughts on this decision. I'll put pics I pulled off the Formica brand website, but know they don't do it justice.

Here it is....Formica 2200-MC --- Dark Chocolate MicroDot Finish
Runner up: Formica #6219-RW Walnut Quarstone Riverwash Finish.
(this one is really a brown and rust color...with a rough texture)

At dinner tonight an old friend showed up at our bird feeder....a Goldfinch! Some more signs that winter '08 is a fading (bad) memory in SE MN.

Thanks for bearing with me! Don't forget to comment with your thoughts on the horrible "fingerprint drama".

The fog has lifted ~ and my headache is gone!
I woke up to sunshine and a clear head, what can be better than that? ~~ Would you believe showing up at the church construction site and finding myself painting an hour later?

It had been a few days since I checked out the progress at the new building and I knew the painters would be about done in the lobby and classrooms, which meant I could possibly-- maybe-- do some "accent" painting. As I pull up, Lonzo (site Superv) approaches me in the mudpit, I mean parking area, to tell me the doors didn't get painted that there was some wrinkles to work out. dang...I was hoping they would be done {note to self: call door painter}. I enter the building next and try to figure out how in the world I am going to reach the top of that 16 foot "niche" wall to put an accent color on it. The only possible way I see, is to use the Scissor Lift. The only way I can use that is if Lonzo or Jack "drive it" for me. Jack says, "sure we can make it happen". Enter Lonzo: I tell him I'd like to paint the niche - he says I have to do it TODAY. Ok, not what I planned for the day, but ok. So he wants to know how I'm going to paint that tall wall...and I tell him Jack offered the lift. Nearly got Jack in trouble! Lonzo instructs the (professional) painters not paint the niche....while head off to buy paint, home to change into painting grubs and back to the building site.

As typical with me, once I get to painting, I find other things to paint . . . this time I added the entry wall - and was just in time to tell Chris, the professional painter, that he didn't need to second coat that wall since I'd be "taking it on." I didn't plan to paint this wall when I bought the paint, so I'll be buying more paint and heading back tomorrow morning. I'll buy a darker color too! Not unusual for me to change a color.

When it came to using the lift - Jack was a trouper and helped me paint the top edges of the walls in the niche.

Here's the entry....you can't really tell that the accent color is on...which is why I will add a shade darker color tomorrow.

Here's the "niche" - or whatever....with the back wall accented. I decided to put color on all 3 walls by the time I finished....which is very par for the course for me!

This is one side of the auditorium with some of the walls painted.
and the other side...without any paint. I'll be putting accent color on the short wall surrounding the tech booth.
This shows some color on the trim of the doors . . . no color on walls yet.
That's the 5 cent tour!

Tomorrow: Paint. Meet concrete stain guy to look at another color. Order laminate.

News Flash: This just in. I've been offered a job! Office Manager at Rochester Covenant Church. Probably start 2nd week of May.

Decisions, decisions ...
So many decisions to make in designing, building and decorating a church!
Today I ordered the formica and the tile for the men's & women's bathrooms in the new church. The tile will only go behind the toilets and sinks - and will be 5 feet high from the floor. All other walls will be painted. The floor is concrete.
Here's my "design board"... The formica choice is on the left (and right) side of the board. The women's bathroom color tile is on the top....men's colors are on bottom of board. There will be a double row of the color tiles. All tiles will be the same size (4x4). The color tiles will be a border at the top of the (matte) white tile.

I'm in the process of planning the "lobby" or foyer area now. I'm thinking pretty strongly of going with something like the picture below. A "rough" chair rail of sorts with some sort of sheet metal for the bottom part. There will be several doors opening to the lobby (classrooms, etc) -- my plan for those doors (right now anyway) is to paint them each a different color. A rich color. Not too bold.

What? This doesn't sound like a church to you? Me either! This building will reflect the nature of our church. We are different. And we like it. Think "urban" - "loft" - "warehouse" - cybercafe - comfortable --It all sounds kinda funky right now....but I can't wait to show you what it looks like when it is done!

Feel free to express ideas and opinions!