Tour of the Tables

A couple weeks ago, our church hosted a women's dinner called Tour of the Tables.  I had been, or even heard of, this event.  However, our friend Amy had been to one in the past and she decided to do one that was themed for our new church.  

You see, each table was themed, tying it in with a bible verse.  I wish we had taken pictures of some of the other tables.  Anyways, it was a women's 3 course dinner and show, essentially.  Our dinner was served to us by David.  All the servers were men.  David went above and beyond pulling out his blazer and tie.  

Here we are with Hannah, in front of our table, right before the dinner started.  

Here's a close up of our table.  If you zoom in, you can see the guy on the tailgate is fishing, as in fishers of men.  We have cornhole bags, to represent playing cornhole.  Our bible verse is out of Isaiah "behold, I am doing a new thing, now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?  I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."  

My grandma and aunt also attended.  They sat at the backpack table.  This was Hannah's favorite table.  Our church has a backpack ministry, where they pack backpacks every Thursday for in need children across the street at a local elementary school.  The backpack is filled with food and drinks that last the kids through the weekend.  So the backpack table had school lunch trays and plastic cups, and looked very much like a school lunch setting.  

There were a few beach themed tables.  There was a book theme table and an Africa theme table, a gardening table and a princess table that had little tiaras!  Our evening ended after a comedian.  We had a really good time, to include David.

Having done it once, I feel more prepared to do it again, and have thought talked about next years theme!     

Legofest

I thought I had posted these already, but I haven't.  So here are the photo's from Legofest.  

Create A Nation

When we decided to go to Legofest, I supported it but thought it was a little pricey at $20 a person.  After being there, I consider it money well spent and completely worth the money.  

Inside a shark

Both girls had such a good time, though the spent very little time together. 

And the tickets gave each person 3.5 hours of lego mania. 

At the Lego friends area  

There were different stations, somewhere between 10 and 15, I'd say.  

Lego Pile; a huge pile of legos.  Riley spend a lot of time here.  

Beside the tiger.  Riley insisted on having her photo taken with every lego statue there.  

Cinderella

Hannah's creation at the lego pile.  It is a bed. 

Joshua, just chilling. 

Stars Wars Legos

Hannah and David spent a long time in this section.  I can't remember what it was called.  

This is what they built.  

Lego City

Hannah's car.  She's so proud of it because it was quite the feat to get our hands on those wheels!  

Driving around Lego City with Becca.

Joshua was entertained for a long time, but eventually sleep won.  

This is the group we went with.  The guy in the yellow shirt is Chris, the site pastor for the church we're launching.  

A last minute shot with Hannah.  

My new thing

A little known fact: I love to sing.  I love to passionately belt out a song, and have, since I was a teenager.  There's something very therapeutic about singing at the top of your lungs.  

In high school I sang on my school's praise team, which consisted of about 12 people.  Around the same time, I joined the choir at my church, the same church we attend now.  I sang with the choir for a few years.    

Fast forward to us moving back to Fayetteville, the first time.  I talked about joining the choir again but just never did it.  You know how life sometimes gets in the way of your plans.  Yeah, it was something like that.  By this time, David had heard my sing and encouraged me to join.  

Fast forward some more to the proposed start up of our new satellite church location.  David knew his place from the beginning.  I told David that I would be part of our praise team.  However, right before the launch, one of the two people who was supposed to run the preschool program decided not to join the satellite location.  I knew I would be comfortable with babies, and seeing that I was having my own baby soon, the preschool room seemed like a good fit.  

Which is where I've been, up until last weekend.  Two weeks ago, David came out of service and told me that the praise team really needed another vocalist.  So I reluctantly said "Ok, I'll try it out."  You see, while I'm confident that I don't sound horrible, I'm not confident I sound good.  Or at least good enough to be one of 3 vocalists.  

Yesterday was my second Sunday up there and I must say I'm enjoying myself so much.  The first Sunday, I was nervous and very aware of my body.  I felt stiff and unsure of what to do with myself.  I also held back my singing from nerves.  I knew over the upcoming weeks that I would become more comfortable with my singing and stature.  Yesterday was amazingly better!  We sang one of my favorite songs by Casting Crowns and I belted it like I would have in my own home.  I felt more comfortable and just had a good time.  

I'm so happy I took this step and I'm looking forward to how I'll change over the next few weeks.  While yesterday was a great improvement to the week before, I'm still mildly self conscious.