Weekend Update

We had a whirlwind weekend! Frist stop: Easter production on Good Friday. This production went on all weekend at the church where my mom works/attends and where our wedding officiate is from. In fact, our wedding officiate plays Jesus :) Now, this isn't just any Easter pageant. I use the term "production" because it truly is a production. This church's sanctuary seats 2,000 people, and they ran this production 7 times over the weekend to 7 sold-out crowds. Well, not "sold" out - you didn't have to buy tickets, but you did have to get tickets because they try to control the number of people coming to each performance so no one gets turned away or left out in the lobby to watch it on the screens - but all the tickets for the entire weekend were gone before the first performance. Anyway, we're talking professional lighting and sound, fog machines, an amazingly powerful choir (of which my mom is a member), INCREDIBLY realistic in every way... it's just amazing. When Jesus is being taken to be crucified, the Roman guards (about 30 of them) lead him through the audience, covered in blood (caked in his hair, dripping down his face, soaking his clothes... it's incredible) and bruises, they're screaming at him, they're screaming at YOU in the audience ("What are YOU looking at?!?!), they push him down and smack him and he falls under his huge wooden cross... so powerful. Especially since I recognize this man as my Pastor who I love so dearly! When they nail him on the cross, blood splatters from his hands and feet. When they raise him up on the cross, he isn't tied to it - he's ON there. I still haven't figured out how they do it. All you can see holding him on there are nails, and his legs are bent and his feet are nailed to it so he isn't standing on anything... it's a mystery. Pastor Joey just puts SO much of himself into it. And he looks SO much like the pictures you see of Jesus. He's been growing his hair and beard for months, and with a white robe on... wow. Anyway, it was just amazing. It was so powerful and moving and humbling - the perfect way to get your heart in the right place for observing Easter weekend. It's such a blessing to have the opportunity to really FEEL the pain and anguish of seeing someone you love and care for going through all that. It's so realistic that you feel it - it brings tears to your eyes. I just kept thinking, if I knew that Pastor Joey was going through all that for ME, to save ME, how grateful would I be? How much would I do for him and for his family? Wouldn't I be in the streets singing his praises, telling everyone what he had done for me? Wouldn't I feel eternally indebted? These are all the feelings I should have, every day, toward Jesus. Because even though I wasn't there 2000 years ago to see it, that's exactly what happened. We hear the story over and over and we think about what an amazing sacrifice it was, but to have a real live reminder of it and to really feel it is another thing entirely. I saw it last year too, and as long as I'm within driving distance I'll go back to see that production every year, and I'll be bringing everyone who will come. It's just amazing.

So, Saturday... Saturday we went and met Jamie, our photographer, at sopping-wet Turf Valley. It was raining, but we did get a chance to show him the ballroom, and to look through the ballroom window at the gazebo area. I was having flashes of what it would feel like to be staring at that rainy, dreary view of the gazebo on May 29th... *shudder* NOT HAPPENING. Anyway, he had offered to take some shots of us while we were there, just for fun, because he's such a great guy :) But I figured oh well, it's raining, guess we won't be able to seize that opportunity. But then as we were leaving, Jamie said "you know, I could come out sometime next weekend if you guys still want to do some shooting, maybe Friday evening..." SWEET! He's so nice - he's doing this for free, yet he's still willing to make another 20 minute trip and give up time with his wife and 6-week-old baby to snap some nice photos for us. We have met some of the GREATEST people in planning this wedding! Our DJ is fantastic, our photographer is the nicest guy ever, our Pastor is simply amazing... we've just been so blessed.

Next, we went out to the apartment... to PAINT. Of course. So we bought some more Behr paint from Home Depot - a color called "squirrel". Ben thought the name alone was reason enough to buy the paint :) It was a light brownish-gray color. I know that isn't everyone's cup of tea, but we had seen a similar color in one of Behr's little pamphlets and it looked really nice with white and brown accents (two of our three bathroom colors - dark brown, cream and slate blue), and we thought our blue would go with it too, after holding the paint chip up to our towels. Long story short, after starting to edge out the room with this color, we decided it wasn't our cup of tea either. Kinda looked like poop. And my dad was there helping us paint, and he thought that the Behr paint was awfully thick compared to paint he'd used before, and that it wasn't going on very well, was hardly covering at all (DEFINITELY needed a 2nd coat) and was pulling back off the wall too easily (all issues we've noticed with the Behr we've used so far, but for all we knew, ALL paint acts like that). Having heard that, I decided that we'd try a different kind of paint for the next color we chose. So we went back to good ol' Home Depot, and this time we bought some Ralph Lauren paint. Durango Blue, it's called. It's just a tad darker than our towels, but the same kind of blue. There's probably no point in trying to show you the color, since every computer monitor is different, but I guess it's worth a shot...

So anyway, the point of this story is simple: RALPH LAUREN PAINT ROCKS. It went on smooth as a baby's bottom, covered perfectly in one coat... it was magic. I will say that it didn't behave so well with a paint brush, but with the edger and the roller it went on like a dream, and we just used sponge applicators to get the corners instead of brushes. And this color is definitely darker than the Behr "squirrel" color that we were trying to paint with before, but it covered 10X better, and we didn't have ANY of the roller-pulling-the-paint-off-the-wall problems. It cost about $8 more per gallon than the Behr, but the hassle and cursing and bad moods it saved us are priceless. We will be sticking with RL from here on out as far as the painting project is concerned.

Moving on... Sunday was Easter. We got up and went to the Easter service at church, and then went to Ben's house to meet up with his sisters and start pulling together our very first Easter dinner WITHOUT any moms. Ben's mom had left the day before for Tennessee to visit his step dad's family, and my mom was still doing Easter performances at her church, so we were left to our own devices for Easter dinner. Amberly brought a honey-glazed, spiral-cut ham and some desserts, Em brought scalloped potatoes, green beans, rolls and more dessert, we brought corn, cole slaw and some cheese and crackers to munch on... it all turned out wonderfully! I was so proud of us! The kids even had an easter egg hunt (promptly followed by an easter egg throw-down drag-out melt-down of course... too much competition for the precious candy! Can you blame them?!?! I remember when candy was my biggest worry... aaaaah the good ol' days...). We hung out late, got everything cleaned up and put back together, enjoyed some coffee and various pies (Bob Evans Coconut Creme, Mrs. Smiths Cinnabon Apple pie... holy crap, and Strawberry Cheesecake), and had a lovely time chatting and laughing. It was a great Easter!

So I think that's it... it was a long but very enjoyable weekend :)

Before I go though... In other news, my dress finally came in on Thursday last week! My first fitting is this evening. SOOOooooo excited! I can't wait to see it again and put it on! Yay!!! And we're getting married in 45 days. Holy CRAP.