Blessed

Before I start, Ariel wanted to say that this blog entry is brought to you by the letter A. Hee. So it was a pretty crazy weekend for us, hence no updates. I was going to write last night but we ended up helping our friend Andrea get her school assignment on dvd for her presentation today. It was pretty entertaining too, the Bachelor Langley Edition. Heh.

Anyhoo, Saturday morning I had a worship committee meeting so Nana came to sit with Ariel. Meeting went well, different, but well. We have a new member of the team and with that comes a new personality and so it will take some time to be familiar with his style. Actually, he reminds me of folks I met back in the old fine arts college days. He is thinking really big at this point for the Christmas Eve service. Kinda overwhelming to think about pulling off, but maybe we can and it will be something very special. Time will tell.

After the meeting, had some hang out time with my little girl. We then walked to Nana's to help with dinner prep, not that there was much for us to do. I really am enjoying the snuggly, and its nice to have my hands free. Ariel seems to find it relaxing and will usually fall asleep.

Dinner was ribs and all the trimmings, for Mr Champions birthday. Nice to visit with Jo, Mike unfortunately double booked himself and wasn't there. He got a doggie bag, even though we thought just sending the bones home would have been funnier.

Then it was Sunday! We did church in the morning, Ariel slept through the whole thing in my arms. Came home, had a quick lunch and we were off to our long awaited baby shower! We were one of the first to arrive, but soon after the people started flooding in. These sorts of things always make me a little overwhelmed, but I felt pretty good and only cried once. Also, I was so happy my sis Jo could make it. YAY. I did ask her why Mikey didn't want to come too, hehe.

The party started with Corene welcoming everyone and Lesely playing her gutair and singing "I hope you dance." Which is not only a favorite of mine, but also a song that played on the radio during our ultrasound session. Then Irene and Stella both shared about me growing up and of course my mom. So lots of tears in the room. Irene even made the date slice, talk about awesome!

The funniest part came when I responded to the outporing of friendship and love from my church family, I was very emotional and basically was so overwhelmed I couldn't speak, that is until Natalie's cel phone went off and broke the tension and I managed to get out what I wanted to say. LOL. Thank the Lord for cel phones, they do help sometimes. These women were all mothers to me, and helped me so much since I lost my own. I did mention why Ariel was so late, that my mom wanted some extra time with her before she was sent to us. Sniff, ok, you all still with me. Excuse me while I take a tissue break myself.

We then moved on to gifts.... oh man did we did we ever. I basically unwrapped for what seemed like a few hours. Ariel all time time was being passed around like a hot potato. She never got fussy or cried. In fact, the only peep out of her was when Lesley was singing. Sounded like she was trying to sing too. My girl loves her music. So many lovely gifts, from clothes, toys, books, book ends, piggy bank, diapers, handmade doll and a quilt. I took a picture at home once I unloaded everything so Ken could see. I really don't think we are going to need Christmas gifts.

After it was all done, and I was relaxing on the couch with my family, all I could think of was how blessed we are. My church family is wonderful and supportive. Ariel is going to grow up being a part of that, and that is a blessing.

Here are some more pictures from the shower, some from Corene's camera, thanks!