Dancing with a Princess

As I type, the snow is once again falling.  The forecast is called for four to seven inches of total accumulation before Wednesday morning.  Sigh.  I like the snow just fine; I think it makes winter in Illinois much more beautiful.  But I surely do hate what it does to the roads before the plows and salt trucks get through.  I think we’ll make it to Tae Kwon Do and my doctor appointment this afternoon, but I’m not sure about anything tomorrow, when the worst of it is supposed to blow through. 

It’s a good thing I’m resting.

Anyway…

Jeff and Charlotte attended a wonderful Daddy-Daughter Princess Ball this past Friday night.  Charlotte, who has never before attended a dance (unless you count my brother’s wedding reception five years ago) was completely enchanted and can’t wait to go back next year!  She has never been a girly girl, so I was wondering how she would take to the whole dressing-up, getting-a-corsage fanciness, but she was beautiful!

Charlotte and Jeff attended the ball with our friend Von Pugh and his daughter Ryann.  Since the Pughs live about five minutes from where the ball was held, we went over there to get the girls ready.  Here are a few pictures.

 

 

 

Jeff also took the camera with him to the ball and was able to get some photos of their special evening!

 

Everyone had a blast!

Then, for something completely different, Jeff, a couple of friends, and their six total kids went to the Monster Jam at the Peoria Civic Center Arena the next night, while I had a lovely, quiet evening home alone, scrapbooking.  Yes, this would be the event with giant-wheeled trucks, smashed up cars, lots of noise and diesel fumes, and more rednecks than you imagined might live in Peoria.  While Charlotte enjoyed this, too (one of her favorite trucks was called Anger Management), she admitted that she liked the ball a bit better.

Whew!

This weekend was dominated by the kids’ activities.  Charlotte had a basketball game on Saturday morning (she scored her third basket), and then we spent a good part of Saturday afternoon at a practice for a Tae Kwon Do event the next morning at a nearby church.  (One of the adult higher-level belts is also a pastor, who does fantastic youth events about overcoming adversity, using TKD as an object lesson.)

Before we left for the practice, the oven repairman showed up.  The computer component of our oven is completely fried, necessitating its replacement, along with the igniter switch and cover panel.  Since the cover panel is not in stock, we are still without a working oven and probably will be until the end of the week. 

All I can do is laugh.

On Sunday, we spent a couple hours at the Rock Church, just down the hill from us, worshiping and watching 59 Tae Kwon Do students demonstrate their abilities.  Very cool!  After the early service at Rock Church, we hustled over to our own church for the late service and then took Charlotte to a newly-formed, fourth- and fifth-grade girls’ Bible study that one of her teachers started, due to requests from the girls.

As I have been praying about trying to find Charlotte a circle of girl friends, this is truly an answered prayer.  They will be studying a book on the Proverbs 31 woman, especially geared for tween girls.  I am thrilled, and she loves it!  Thank you, God!

Then, of course, we had the Superbowl last night.  As we still don’t have a TV, we asked the Pughs if they minded if we came over and watched with them!  Saundi and I made snacks, and we all laughed at the commercials and cheered the Saints on to victory.  (I don’t want to start anything…we mostly rooted for the Saints because they were the underdogs and had never even been to the Superbowl, let alone won one.  The Colts and Peyton had their chance a few years back!)

And then Jeff had to go to work today to get some rest.

But it was a good weekend!  It felt productive, in spite of the business.  And while it may seem as if I ran around a lot, I actually spent most of my time sitting in the car, sitting in church, sitting on the couch.  Hopefully, my doctor will give me some insight on how to deal with the rest of this pregnancy.  As I hope to avoid straight bed rest, I’m trying to be still as much as possible!

Have a good one!