In Honor of Dancing

So for Courtney's birthday we went to see the So You Think You Can Dance show last night and it was AMAZING! So in honor, I'm posting my fave videos of the season. Enjoy!


















For good measures, here is a previous two faves:




Okay, there are so many more great ones from this last season.

The show was seriously amazing!! SOOOO happy we went!

Where's Daddy?

"Where's Daddy?" Lyric asks when she sees me finally coming out of my sleep fog. "He's in Belgium sweetie" I tell her. "Oh ya, he's went on an airplane to fix my bed."

I love the logic of little kids. I've found that in parenting you just need to give some basic information for them to understand. Which is what we always try to do with Lyric. We're not very big on the whole, "Why?" "Because I told you so." type things. I like to explain things to Lyric so that she knows what's going on, what to expect and therefore isn't surprised.
I think I do this because this is how I like things done for me :-)

Anyways, just Lyric in my bed this morning was a stark reminder that Jonathan has left the nest.

Two days ago we put him and all the rest of his belongings on a plane headed towards our new life.

It was actually THE most non-emotional airport goodbye I've ever been to. No one cried.
Mostly because he is going to see Courtney, the kids and I in 2 weeks. Then he's going with Nathan, Zach and Al. Then my parents are coming the first two weeks of December. The typical "criers" who get the emotions in over drive weren't really sad.

But that doesn't mean Jonathan hasn't been crying the last few days saying goodbye to our amazing friends.
One of the hardest for him was leaving Ry and Tiff as the last 6 weeks have just cemented our friendship even more so. Gosh we love these people!


It's crazy to think that Jonathan literally came into my life in Dallas with NO close friends besides me. And 5 years later he has covenant, life long friendships that have made him a better person.

I guess that just means that God is SO good to him. That he loves him a lot.

So he is going to miss a lot of these people and way more:







He has hit the ground running. They've already gone and looked at a house in Waterloo that they are interested in for the ministry (and for us to live in). Jon really wants to be in a French commune, so this would be a great fit. More to come late on that.

So all of that to say that the guys are doing great. The conference started tonight and so they are super busy. I may not hear much from them until Tuesday.

Until next time ;-)

Why Europe?

I just wanted to let you all know that 9th Hour (www.ninthhour.org) which is our ministry we are starting in Belgium is going to be leading worship on Tuesday night as well as being featured with a 5 minute question and answer time.

After that, Jeff Serio from European Initiative is going to be speaking which will COMPLETELY and TOTALLY explain why we are going to Europe.

So if you are in the area and available on Tuesday night, I would REALLY love it if you would come out and support us. This is our first time ever doing something like this and I would really like to have a good turn out on Tuesday night. (Normally the last night of any conference is sort of blah)

This Tuesday night at 7:00pm.

Shady Grove Church
2404 N. Carrier Pwky
Grand Prairie, Texas 75050

If you know of ANYONE who has a heart to see the Lord move in Europe, pass this info along as the entire night will have a Europe emphasis.

Thanks so much and I hope to see you all there!!

Ninth Hour

Well we launched the Ninth Hour website tonight.
I'm sure we'll continue doing some tweaking, but the core of the website is all up.
We've got the business plan stylized and basically done
We have Jon and I's personal support brochures done to hand out at the Missions Conference. They are at the printers right now and we'll pick them up on Saturday morning.

Tonight marked the last "family night" (as we've dubbed them) with the Fredericks. Tomorrow we are having dinner with Joy and Peter and then Friday night we have a birthday dinner for my sister, then Saturday is Jon's birthday party and then Sunday, Monday and Tuesday night we have Missions Conference and then Jon leaves Wednesday morning...

Wow.

So yes! A lot to do in the next 6 days.

Please go check out www.ninthhour.org to read more about what we feel the Lord is calling us to do in Belgium. We've also started a blog on there that we'll update weekly (not just me, the other members of the team will too)
If you are on Twitter, follow us at www.twitter.com/ninthhour
If you are on Facebook, become a member of our Group (search for Ninth Hour)

Jon and I also received our first donation tonight and it really blessed us. Made it really real to me. What an adjustment it will be to have to rely on other people more than I ever have before.

We have some crazy times ahead of us!

Gathering Speed

8 Days. That's it.
That's all Jonathan has left as a Texas resident.
I keep telling him that "next week you're moving back to Belgium" and he keeps telling me to shut up.

Is that a good thing? :-)

He is really excited, but very nervous. This is the leap I guess. This is the moment where he steps out of the boat as Jesus says, "walk to me" and he's thinking, "I can't walk on water!" but there he goes.
On Wednesday morning.

I've been quite nostalgic with him lately. I don't want him to leave! I've been really enjoying the fact that he has only worked 9 hours in the last 2 weeks (well except for the lack of money). We've just hung out all day, taken the kids on walks, gone to the mall, run errands, ate sandwiches together. It's been a lot of fun. A LOT of fun!
I just think he's wonderful.
I can't imagine agreeing to do this with any one other than Jonathan. Like if I had never met him, and had married some other less than adequate guy, this guy would have NEVER gotten me to move out of the country. I would have laughed him out of the living room and right back into his place ;-)
But with Jonathan, I just trust him. I know that we'll be okay.
Yes, there are so many things up in the air. We aren't raising full support this year and so Jon has to find a job. We have to find a house, a ministry base... SO MANY DETAILS that are unknown...
But I know Jon will figure it out. He is a provider and he takes care of us. I love him.
So 8 more days and he's off.

Tonight we started packing to make sure we had enough suitcases.
He basically was able to get all of his stuff in one suitcase. He'll need the 2nd one for shoes, jackets and a few other things.
I packed a large duffle bag of things of mine and the kids that can go now to Belgium. Hoping that one of the other guys going on the trip with Jon will be able to take it as their 2nd checked bag.
I think we'll be good on all that. I actually feel a lot better because I was looking around thinking there was NO way we would be able to pack up everything in suitcases and kicking myself for keeping too many clothes here (which I SO did), but now I feel we'll be okay.
The kids will actually be able to share the bigger suitcase and I should be good with 2, then we'll have one for blankets, coats, bath stuff... oh I got Lyric her own rolling Disney Princess suitcase that she'll take on the plane and she is SUPER excited about it.
I also REALLY want a portable DVD player, but Jon is so out on my getting one. He doesn't think we'll use it, but i think we will.

So all of this rambling is to say that time is speeding up and November 16th will be here before I know it!

My Kids

My kids are awesome.
There is just no doubt about it.

Even when Lyric pee's in her pants and then spills a full glass of diet coke in my lap today after Church, she still cracks me up by saying a few minutes later, "Mom, dat's da last time dat will happen, I pomiss." :-)

Then when Shiloh is teething and not sleeping well and is fussy as I'll get out, he still melts my heart when he lays against me and wants to cuddle.

Kids, they are crazy ridiculous at times, but so worth it.
The great parts outweigh the crappy parts by far. Even right now when Shi is crying and he won't take a nap... grrr.... anyways.

Just wanted to post some updates on mes enfants.

Lyric is SO excited to move to Belgium! She asks all the time what words are in French and can't wait to get home to her own bed and all her toys. She talks about her best friends "Jo-ey and Shawet" (Jodie and Charlotte) and plans on taking ballet when she gets to Belgium, although this morning when she was talking about taking Ballet, she had some concerns.

Lyric: I don't know if I tan doe to baweigh stoo.
Me: Why not Lyric?
Lyric: betuz.
Me: Why?
Lyric: I don't have enuff pashsense (patience)

Hahah! the things that come out of her mouth! :-) Well she is doing great and has finally adjusted to living at the Fredericks and no longer asks to "doe home"

She is going to do really well in Belgium. I know it. Right now she just wants to go on the airplane. Almost every day she says, "are we doe-ing to Belgium today mom?" She hasn't been on an airplane since she was younger, so I am hoping she does okay. We just need to get her enough things to keep her busy. She says she wants to sit with her Aunt Coco and read books and watch movies. I am thinking she will do great. The good thing is we have the long flight first.

Shiloh has grown up so much in the last month. He is crawling every where now and pulls himself up to standing. He walks along the sides of furniture and has even stepped between furniture. He now waves "Bye-Bye" and I have him on a good regiment of baby food throughout the day. I can't wait to wean him as I'm tired of cleaning bottles!






He has 2 bottom teeth and he is getting a top tooth right now and has been SO fussy! He even ran a fever a few days ago. It's been a beating as he hasn't been napping or sleeping well. I can't wait till that tooth breaks through. It's really swollen, so hopefully in the next few days.
Here he is the other day. We were at the park and then he fell asleep in the swing

It was really cute.

I'm really excited to have my kids grow up with Jon's family. They are going to love them and also I have a lot more free baby sitters with all my nieces and nephews being so much older than my kids :-)

I'm going to have little babies running around speaking French and English. Probably a little bit of both in the same sentence :-) I can't wait!

He is Faithful

He is faithful. God is really faithful!
He's shown Himself faithful over and over again to my family and I still doubt Him at times. Why?

Well like I said in my previous blog, we got a call from Jon's brother saying there was a chance that we could get the paper we needed in order to not incur all the container charges I was stressing about.

Let me just explain a little more.

We ordered our container under the knowledge that we would not be there to receive it. They assured us this was very normal and that it was no big deal. We got the list of documents that we needed in order to get the container through customs and we saw that they wanted a D-4 (Jon to be registered at a commune). We told the guys that we wouldn't be able to have that document until Jon got there on the 28th.
They said, "No worries" that since Jon was a Belgian citizen it probably wouldn't even come up and IF it did, they had something in place where you could just pay a 500 euro deposit that you would get back in full once you registered.
So we proceeded under this knowledge.
Well after the container is shipped, we get notice that a mistake had been made by the shipping company. They had originally contracted one of the 2 companies in Belgium who get your container through customs and since they hadn't contracted the trucking part with them, that they wouldn't do the customs part.
So they had to switch everything to the other customs company. This customs company will not let you do the 500 deposit thing. You HAD to have every single document or they would not approve your container for customs.
Which has brought us to where we were a few days ago.
We had tried everything possible.
We talked to the Belgian consulate over here in DC and they gave us a document de-registering Jonathan from America. They said "This is all customs will need", but NOPE they refused this document.
They sent Jonathan's original ID card, copies of passport, showed that he was a Belgian citizen who has been living abroad and that he would register immediately upon arrival. Under normal circumstances, this would have been enough, but for us? NOPE!
We literally have been having major spiritual battles over this move to Belgium. I knew it was there, but this was really blatant.
Then Jon's family stepped up and really went above and beyond. Everyone went to their own individual communes asking if they would register Jonathan temporarily. Beersel originally said yes they would do it, all they wanted was the "police chief" to say okay. The police chief basically just laughed at my mother-in-law and told her in no circumstances would he help us out. He could have, but he chose not to.
Then Dilbeek said no and we were REALLY at the end of all our options.
Jonathan wasn't sleeping as he would randomly wake up in the middle of the night and start worrying about everything. I was stressed. We were trying to figure out how to come up with so much extra money to get our things through customs.
BUT then out of left field, David (my brother-in-law) calls his commune in Anderlecht and talks to a really nice guy who said that if they had Jon's original ID card (which they did) and if Jon would sign our equivelent to a Power of Attorney over to David, then he would temporarily register Jonathan!
So Jon at 3 am two mornings ago went and signed, scanned and emailed the document back to Jonathan. Whent he guy in Anderlecht tried to do it, he said that Jonathan still had an open case file in Beersel so Jon's mom went and close the case in Beersel, but then they had to wait for the system to re-set, but after ALL of that... we got a call in the middle of the night saying we had our D-4 paper of registration!!!
Praise the Lord!

This was really out of left field and I really feel that the Lord made a way where there was no way.
I'm once again reminded that he will never leave me or forsake me.
So we should be getting the good news VERY soon that our container has been delivered. We will probably still have some renting fees as the container has been there for 6 days now... but we are going to try and dispute the charges with the company since we are in this mess to begin with based on bad information given to us. We would have never sent the container ahead if they would have told us up front that the container wouldn't pass customs without the registration or if they would have told us that we couldn't pay the 500 deposit to get it temporarily cleared.
Anyways, thanks for the prayers.
I know this happened based on all you guys standing with us. Specifically I really believe it's because a few of you said they would give money. I think that was the step that broke this whole situation. Having people band together to support us. I'm glad we don't need it, but am so touched by your hearts.
Love you all!
You are all amazing and

How to Deal with the Stress of Moving

I have no answers. Sorry!

It's a roller coaster people. It really is. I mean, I'm sure you know it, anyone can understand the mechanics of the stress involved in moving our little family to a new country... but for reals people.

It's really a roller coaster.

Saying goodbye, wrapping up everything. All the final bills. Getting bills we'll continue to have switched over to a new mailing address. Making lists upon lists of what we'll need. What we have to buy now. What we can get when we get there. What I can wait to get when I come back in April.
Then it's surveying the stuff we have in the apartment and knowing that we will not be able to fit in 9 suitcases.
So then I'll have to pack things that can wait to either go in the Watkins container or I'll bring back in April...

So much to do. So much to think about...

The emotions go from:
"What are we doing!?! This is crazy!"
to
"I'm so excited! I can't wait to start this new chapter of my life"
to
"I'm going to miss my family and friends so much"
to
"I can't wait to get to know my Vandeput family more and meet new friends"
to
"everything is going wrong, so that means we're doing something wrong"
to
"I know beyond a shadow of a doubt we are walking the path God has called us on"

It's crazy where your mind goes when you are dealing with stress.

I know it sounds trite, but I really have to keep going back to the word that the Lord gave us. I keep reminding myself of the confirmations we've received up until this point. How things have come together fairly smoothly. How we've had confirmation after confirmation after confirmation.

Even with all that, I still get down when times get tough. Even after everything the Lord has spoken to me, I still doubt. I'm human I guess, though that's not so much an excuse.

Anyways, we may have had a breakthrough with the container. We got a phone call from my brother-in-law at 3am our time and Jon went to Kinkos in the middle of the night to sign and scan a piece of paper to email back to David so that he could take it to the city office. One more hoop to jump through in the morning (Belgian time) and hopefully we'll have good news. But regardless, I'm at peace. It's just money and God has been faithful to provide for EVERY single one of our needs up until this point, so why would he leave us hanging now? :-)

Do you people realize my husband leaves on October 28th? Really???
We are having an early 30th Birthday/Going Away Party for him on October 24th. It's an open invitation, so every one is invited and if you haven't RSVP'd you can do so HERE also, we are putting money together for a big birthday present for him, so if you want to give you can do so by clicking HERE and if you want to know what we are giving towards, email/FB me :-)

Then I'm leaving in 33 days. 33 days people. I'm gone. I'm out of here. I will not be a US resident again for some time.

Will I feel like Belgium is "Home" or will I always feel like I'm just "somewhere else waiting to get to go home" ?

I guess we'll figure it out.

But right now I'm looking forward to setting up house and exploring my new life.
Only 33 more days...

The Container

Who would have thought that this seemingly inconspicious container would have so much trouble making its way into Belgium.

Well my container with all our wordly posessions is in Belgium. It's just sitting at the port where the Belgian customs is refusing to give it entry into Belgium because Jon is not registered with a local commune.

It's basically the equivalent of me getting here and going to get my license changed to show that I'm a Texas resident, not a California resident. But you see, over here no matter what, as long as I'm an American Citizen, I have rights and can move stuff whereever I want, regardless of my residency. I can just get that changed when I get there.

Well over there apparently, it's a lot more difficult. Even though Jonathan is a Belgian citizen, they will not let our container in until Jon registers with a commune. We've tried everything we could. Gave them all types of different paperwork, but nope!

So now it's sitting, racking up a 25 euro a day bill.

We don't know what we are going to do. We can do a few different things, one of which is use a friend's airline buddy pass so Jonathan can get on the first flight out of here, register first thing in the morning and then fly back that afternoon.
But that would cost us at least $400 not to mention the money he loses taking time off of work.

Then we have the 25 euro a day charge. We have an option to just let it sit there til Jonathan gets there on the 29th. I'm not sure when they start charging us, but let's say today, that's 450 euros or $665 dollars.

Then there is an option to do a 500 euro deposit and then clear our stuff temporarily, but then we have to pay to clear customs again which is more money, possibly another $1000.

This is a nightmare.

Mainly for the fact that we still have some things to buy here like a warm jacket for Jonathan, a new pair of shes for me, car seat travel bags, etc. Overall I've budged about $300 left to buy.
Then we are trying to save money so that I have something to live on for the 2 1/2 weeks Jon will be in Europe. Then of course we need some money in the bank for when Jonathan goes to Europe and before he gets his first paycheck (after he finds a job of course).

I have not been stressing too bad about money because I just knew it would work out. It may be a tight squeeze, but it was going to be okay.

Now with the potential of $500-$1000 of UNEXPECTED money coming up, that basically screws us and sends me into a panic.

We've exhausted every option of this ending without spending more money. So I don't know what to do. I really have no idea what to do.

It's too late for me to find some kind of job ad I've already spent the money I got from my party planning on plane tickets.
Jon's job is giving him NO extra hours because they know he is leaving, so they are literally just giving him the bare minimum his contract requires, which is WAY less money than we are used to living on, which is okay because we have no bills besides our cell phone and then food. But still, it doesn't give us any money to save. AND he only works for 2 more weeks...

breathe, just breathe....

An Easy Transition?

I don't know why. Apparently God wanted me to get used to weather in Belgium because I can count on my hand the number of days in the last 3 weeks where it has NOT rained. I think I've forgotten what the sun looks like. What it feels like. Blue sky? What's that?

It's raining constantly!
To top to all off, it's started getting cold AND rainy.

That combination is an exact replica of Belgian weather.

So thanks God for making my transition from Texas to Belgian weather that much easier.

It Takes a Team

When Jonathan first started receiving prophetic words about going to Brussels to start 9th Hour, one thread was very clear. It was that we are going to be going with a team and it will be in this team, not in us alone, where we will find success.
Knowing these words, Jon and I have been waiting on the Lord to link us together with people and that when we got this team together, that's when we would know it would be the timing of the Lord to move.

But it seemed no one had ever really been interested in doing anything in Brussels, that was until February of 2008. On this trip, Jon had gotten together a worship team to play at a European youth pastor's conference. On the trip were Nathan Watkins (my brother-in-law), Zach Lowrie and Allyster Taubeneck and a few others.
However, on this trip in particular, the Lord began to birth a vision into these 4 guys concerning his Plan for Belgium and for Europe. Jon would sit there flabbergasted listening to them talk about how the Lord had burdened them for Brussels and that they were feeling like this was the next step, etc. At one point Jonathan just stopped them and said, "Guys, don't play with me because I've had a lot of prophetic words about a team and I don't want to get my hopes up." and they were like "YEAH!" Of course none of us wives were there on this trip, so they said they would get home and talk to us. But before Jonathan had even talked to me about it, I had emailed him telling him about what the Lord was speaking to me about the Heart of Europe and the need for a place to raise up young people who are passionate about the things of God. This was the same thing him and the guys had been talking about just the night before.
The guys get home and the wives are like "YEAH!" so we plan a trip with all 3 couples and Allyster to go back to Belgium that October to really seek the Lord and see where we was leading us.
Before then, we started meeting monthly to pray and strategize about what the Lord was telling us.
October comes and goes and although I wasn't able to go because I was on bedrest, the rest of the team went and it really solidified that we were a team going together.

So that leads me to the point of this entire blog.
Nathan and Courtney are going to be moving to Belgium in April/May of 2010. Yes! Yes! Yes!
I've obviously known this is where this has been going since February of 2008, but I have kept my mouth shut since there were MANY hurdles that Courtney and Nathan needed to run before they could be released.
Nathan is the youth pastor at Shady Grove Church and so there are many people to submit to in order to get their blessing.

This isn't just a rash decision for Courtney and Nathan. Actually they had submitted themselves over 3 years ago to be considered to be sent to Finland as they feel their primary calling is to Scandinavia. However, it just wasn't the right timing. They have been praying since then that the Lord would open up doors for them in Europe. So they technically had already started down the road to become sent out of SGC as Missionaries long before Jon and I or my parents. Courtney and Nathan have both known that they wanted to be on the field since they were literally children. When Courtney was a child she would say that when she grew up she wanted to be a missionary. That same desire in her heart as a 5 year old has never left her. She has always known that she would one day live in a place that was not her home and that she would sacrifice much to see the Kingdom of God expanded.

So they are doing it!
Nathan is going to be finishing out the year school year as the Youth Pastor and then they are moving to Belgium. Their fabulous family of 6!

Around the same time is when Allyster is moving and then by August Zach and Liz Lowrie are moving and are team will be together! Yippee!

It's kind of daunting going over there, but knowing that the rest of our team will be coming soon has made moving so much easier. knowing that my sister will be pioneering this work with me has made this move SOOO much easier. So just in case you were all wondering why I haven't been lamenting as much about leaving my sister is that I know it's just temporary. Now it's still going to be 6 months before I see her, but it's not like it's a once a year thing.

Then my parents are going to be moving to Brussels with us sometime in the next few years (who knows the exact time) but they will DEFINITELY be ending up in Brussels to be the mom and pop of the B-HOP (Brussels House of Prayer).

It feels so awesome to be able to blog about this. That it's all official and that things are moving right along!

Also, if any of you are looking to rent a 4 bedroom 2 1/2 bath house with a full finished out basement for a reasonable price in North Grand Prairie, email me! The Watkins are looking to rent the house possibly by February or around there.

God is good. He works everything out of the good of those who love Him.

Thirty-Seven Days

So I have officially purchased mine and the kids plane tickets. Officially. Yes, officially purchased.

I think this is where the panic is supposed to be setting in, but for some reason it's not.

I think it's the living in limbo. I am just really ready to start our new life.
I'm ready to tackle the challenges that lay ahead of me.
I'm ready to say, "Adieu États-Unis et Bonjour Belgique."

So I'm officially leaving on November 16th at 4:50pm.
The flight goes direct from here to London, I have a five hour layover and then we fly from London to Brussels.
It didn't work out for Abby to come with me, BUT guess who is coming now??? My sister!!
Yay!!
Lyric is really excited and is already talking about how she wants to sit with Coco and have her read her stories. Which reminds me, I better go buy some books at Half Price Books before we leave as all of her books are in a box in Belgium right now.

Of course there is the complete and utter sadness at leaving my friends and family. But I'm not even focusing on that right now. I'm focusing on getting to the next stage.
I'll be back at THE LATEST at the end of March, so I'm focusing on that not being that far away.
But then I think about how long it has seemed that mom and dad have been gone and they've been gone only 6 months. But that's besides the point :-)
Then I know for sure Ry and Tiff are visiting at the end of May, so that's fun! Also, I am trying to plan a trip to go to a friend's wedding in Finland in the middle of May.

So 37 days till I leave and only 19 more days until Jonathan leaves...

Party Planner Destiny

So I did it!
I had been hired by a friend to throw a fantastic 60th birthday party for her father.
At first I was like, no problem.
Then I was like WHOAH this is going to be a lot of work.
Then I was like, okay, got it under control.
Then the last 2 weeks I have literally worked on stuff since the moment I woke up, rolled over, grabbed my computer and opened it up. There were always dozens of emails to respond to and I would literally work on party stuff throughout the day until about 1am.
There were guests flying in from all over the world.
Coordinating hotel reservations.
Coordinating transportation.
Catering, flowers, cakes...
details. details. details. details.

Here was the schedule:

• Friday Morning Golf
• Friday night welcome dinner
• Saturday afternoon Round Table Discussion
• Saturday night party
• Sunday morning brunch

Now when you see the above list. Please remember that I am in charge of EVERY detail. The caterer, the photographer, the bartender, making sure the right food was there, the DJ, the florist, the cake, hiring transportation for out of town guests to get to their activities and then coordinating that WITH the guests so they would be there at the specific time. Every question/issue that ANY guest had at any point during the weekend was my job to deal with, the coordination of our venue and all the bazillion small details that go into that from room set-up to types of alcohol served, to when the hors d'ouevres need to be stopped serving the and the main dinner starting to when we are cutting the cake.
I could not even begin to describe how my mind never stopped.
I literally carried around a notebook with me ALL the time I wasn't at home in front of my laptop where I would write little notes down as I thought of them.

But the great thing is everything went wonderfully!

There were a few hiccups like the Friday night catering not delivering the right food. I caught one of the mistakes but didn't catch the other (as I don't really know the difference between beef and pork ribs so I didn't know that we didn't have a combo of them.)
Then I almost screwed up and opened an $8000 bottle of wine as I misunderstood this guy and I thought he wanted it opened and put in the decanter. THANKFULLY I had opened the wrong bottle, it was just a normal bottle of wine, but I came SOOOO close to a major screw up.

So besides almost passing out from stress when that happened, everything else went smooth.

What put a different twist on the weekend was we weren't really dealing with average joes here. The average net worth in the room was in the millions and we literally had billionaires there. So you know when you deal with wealthy people the bar is raised substantially.

I tried my best to go over and above and I think overall I did a great job.

I even had offers from other guests wanting me to coordinate events for them. I had to turn them all down because I'm moving, but it still made me feel good that other people thought I did well too.

As much fun as it was to see everything come together (the room was gorgeous and the flowers were my favorite part), I am SO glad that is all over!

I still haven't unwound from the weekend. Like I'm STILL jittery and feel like I'm dropping the ball on something and I have to keep reminding myself that the event is over. It feels weird to not be answering emails and buttoning up details all day.

Well my next event is next week (ahh) but it's a smaller thing. I'm only doing about 1/2 the work and it's just a reception/fundraiser for a man running for the Senate.

Well off to do the laundry that has been seriously neglected.