Long, Busy Weekend

It was a long busy weekend, hence the lack of blogging. Thursday of course we had thanksgiving dinner with the Dunnings, but you knew that because of the Happy Thanksgiving Picture:-) Dinner was delicious as always. Ryan did well, but he liked exploring all the different places in the house. It got very tiring chasing him around that big old place! Zach read the blessing for the meal and helped serve dessert. We should have thought about pictures earlier because that turkey really took a toll on everyone in our family. The boys did all right in spite of the tiredness. They were real troopers;-)
Friday Lindsay and I had a massages thanks to my very thoughtful husband:-) It was very nice to hang out with someone and not worry about the kids for a while. Then it was back home to get everyone ready for our family pictures. That actually went very well. We had a good photographer that was able to keep Zach and Ryan to look at the camera at the same time. We spent way too much money because we liked most of the pictures so much. I think we both think it was worth it to have some really good family pictures especially since we had never done it before. Plus I think we might be able to get a few good Christmas gifts out of the deal. Friday night Ben came over and hung out. He read Ryan stories and then he and Jay went out to rent a movie. This is something I may never let happen again. They rented Chronicles of Riddick(the sequel to Pitch Black). In all fairness they thought we would all like it because we all liked Pitch Black. However it was totally different from the first movie and quite cultish and strange. Oh well, at least we had an interesting discussion about it after.
Most of Saturday was spent running errands and cleaning in preparation for Sunday.
Sunday was Ryan's Dedication. It went fine. I felt very self conscious up on stage in front of the whole church. I think everything was amplified by the tremendous amount of stress I was feeling. We were supposed to be lined up backstage, but since we had not told everyone where to sit we had to wait for them. We never found one person we were supposed to find and I was just hoping she wasn't lost. This might sound really crazy, but I was worried that the house was going to catch fire while we were at church because we left the oven on warm to keep the chili hot. It just seemed like the next logical thing to happen since nothing seemed to be going right. There were many other factors contributing to my stress. Among them hosting people at my house after the service. I felt like I had no control since I wasn't there yet. There were so many things I wanted to have ready that I didn't get to before hand. I don't know why I stressed myself out so much about it. Everything really worked out fine. Ryan behaved beautifully the whole time. I just kept focusing on every little thing that was wrong instead of being in the moment and enjoying myself. This is probably why I don't like to be the center of attention. I can't think of anything except what might be wrong. I think I might be a little to focused on other people's perceptions. Perhaps so focused on it that I make a fool of myself and give the very opposite impression of what I want because I don't want anything to go wrong. Wow this has been like a mini-therapy session;-) All in all the dedication went pretty well I think. If I focus on the good things instead of the bad I might even say it was good;-) The get together after was nice. Grandma and the Dunnings all came over. It was a pleasant party. Everyone seemed to enjoy the white chili, sandwiches and dip I made for the occasion. It was really great to get to talk to everyone. Especially my grandma since I have not seen her in so long. Ryan was down for his nap for most of the time people were there, but when he woke up he really enjoyed all the attention. He was all smiles and giggles. The rest of Sunday was spent relaxing and recovering from the busy weekend. Jay seemed to sense how much I needed a break so he did all the dishes from the party and took care of the kids while I took a bath.
Today I ordered some Christmas presents and played with Ryan per the advice of our sermon on Sunday-'Slow down and enjoy things' was the basic message. It was a really great message. I definitely needed it after this weekend!