July 2010

I'd been waiting to move forward with my regular posts until I got some more pictures from Marty's suprise party. Unfortunately, some of the pictures I just printed off my sister-in-laws camera and don't have pictures on my computer. I promise I took more of the birthday boy...Here's a recap of July...

I volunteered to organize and implement our church's VBS all in a month. It was a bit stressful right at the beginning, but it turned out to be a lot of fun and we had a great turn out! I should learn to shut my mouth and know that God's going to take care of me.

The weekend after VBS, we drove out to a cabin on a friend's ranch and went for a horse back ride. We watched the sunset and rode home by the full moon. It was a bit of "outdoor experience". The cabin was really nice, but it's ran by generator. I convinced the boys to start the generator before we left for our ride that evening. In order to do this, though, we needed jumper cables which had been forgotten and left back at civilization so we had to go borrow some from a nearby oilfield hand that didn't speak English. When we got back to the cabin after our ride, all was well. They left me at the cabin while they left to tend to the horses. In the meantime, I discovered the largest centipede I have ever seen. (see picture below-YUCK!!!)

Shortly after, the generator went off. Thirty minutes later the boys show up. We had to drive out to the generator and restart it. It took until at least 2 a.m. before the house really cooled off.

We rode the next morning and it was absolutely beautiful! Then we came back to town and go around and headed to Amarillo for dinner dancing. I also ran around trying to tie up loose ends for Marty's suprise party.

Me and Kinsey before we left to go dancing.

The following week we left for East Texas after work on Wednesday and pulled in to my in-laws' about 2 a.m.

Here's Marty dad with Lily. They are quite the pair. Yes, we brought the dogs. And East Texas in July is too hot for anyone, but especially our furry little friends.

The next few days were an absolute whirlwind. My mother-in-law, mom and I ran to Longview on Friday to run a few errands. Then Mom and I went and stayed the night in Canton so we could put all the finishing touches together. The next day we all met up at First Monday to shop. Meanwhile the ENTIRE back of our car was full of Marty's birthday stuff. We drove back to G-town for the night and got up the next morning EARLY to go pick up all the cakes, pies and goodies for M's suprise party.

We got everything set up just in time. Everyone was amazed that I fit ALL the decorations in one huge suitcase. I purchased plastic table cloths in brown, blue in green. And bought rolls of burlap to use as table runners.

Here's the dessert table. Instead of doing a fancy, themed birthday cake, I had Gina of Creative Cakes in Winnsboro make several of Marty's favorites including Lemon Ice Box Pie, Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, Chocolate Pie, Southern Pecan Pound Cake and a Missippi Mud Cake. They were truly decadent.

Marty's mom, Aunt Scarlett and Aunt Luana.

Me with Marty's cousin, Morgan.

Robin, aka one of the cutest pregnant people ever, my mom, me and Jerrye, my MIL. Robin and Justin were such troopers. They stayed 'til the VERY end! Poor thing! I appreciated it, though!

Caden, Adam and Marty. Adam had to leave early because they were leaving for an Alaskan vacation the next day! But, we're so glad they came!

The birthday banner was made by Bekah Jennings. She has fabulous banners for every season. I want several for my mantel! And I had little name cards made for each of the pies and little stickers to go on the party favors. The ones on the gumballs said, "Hope You Had a Ball!" and the ones I had made for the bread from our local sourdough bread bakery, The Bucket, said, "Thanks for Coming!" and "Marty is 30!!!".

Thanks to Design Girl 16 for all your hard work on those. I wish I would have gotten more detailed pictures, but I just didn't have a chance. That's my #1 regret, along with not getting a group picture of everyone that was there.

Marty had NO CLUE. Even after he walked in and we were all standing there, I just knew he had figured it out, but he just thought his friends were all having a get together and I didn't tell him because I was afraid he wouldn't go. Silly boy! There were so many little kids! It was great! They loved this one corner that had several sofas. Then most of them went swimming. Those pictures are already printed, dangit!

Here's a picture of the the centerpieces. I used pictures of M from birth until now on brown, blue and green cardstock and also had smaller tags that had his monogram and "Marty is 30!!!" on them.

Here's a picture of the banner. There's also part of a centerpiece. Marty's cousins, Houston, Mark and Mark's girlfriend are also in the picture.

The goody table. The cinammon raisin bread and cattle bread is on the right and the gumballs in the center. I had everyone bring a picture of Marty or of them and Marty along with a note and we put them all in an album. It's there on the left.

We feel truly blessed and touched by everyone that came to Marty's suprise party. I had no idea how it would turn out planning something from a remote location, especially since I'd only been out to camp once before. We are so fortunate to have such amazing friends and family in our lives. Thanks again to you all!

If you made it to the end of the LONG post, you're quite a trooper!