Sweets & Swing

The weekend started out well. Nonie & Jordon came to visit Friday morning, and I went to get my cholesterol checked at the recommendation of my doctor that sometime after 25 it should be checked and mine never was. Afterward I went to the Dollar Store to get some Valentine's Day items, including these balloons for my handsome husband.

When I got back, Nonie treated the boys & me to lunch at Garfield's. We had a nice time. They gave Jordon & Joshua a balloon, but the Bean accidentally left go of it right before we got into the car. I think he was completely in awe of how high it went!

While the boys napped, I took the opportunity to exercise. In the middle of my workout, the phone rang and it happened to be down with me (which is rare!). It was Pastor Matt from the Lord's House of Prayer inviting us to the Valentine's Day Banquet for the youth group this Wednesday. He said that they think of me every year since the original banquet was my idea and they've done it ever since. :) He also invited us to "Sweets & Swing" last night at the church. They had a social mixer time from 7-7:30 with all sorts of desserts that we passed on (since I had baked these earlier in the day for Shawn & Caleb - well, Joshua, too, but he doesn't really like sweets all that much):

Shawn & I both had some chocolate chip cookies that were fresh out of the oven before leaving [on a side note, WJTL was playing some awesome love songs as I baked, which got me excited for the weekend!], so more sweets didn't sound tempting at all. We mingled for a little while and saw some old friends, including Pastor Matt & Joanne and their family (their two girls were the childcare helpers that night), Pastor Mark & Abby, the Raybold family, David Brennamen (a youth when we were leaders) and his wife, Michael McNulty and Leah Gochnauer (two other youths when we were helpers) and a few other folks. Then at 7:30, they started the instruction of learning how to swing dance. One of the 'instructor's was another youth from when we were leaders. She was impressive, as was the teacher! We were in awe as they gave the demonstration. Then they started step by step giving us the moves. We laughed as we did the steps together, but as they broke it down, it didn't seem that difficult. We were probably fifteen minutes into the 'real' part of the evening when Areanna came in to get me. Caleb had been crying since we left and wouldn't calm down.

So, we left the fellowship hall to go to the children's room to see what was going on. The kids in the room were a little routy, and my little Caleb Luke was shaking. The oldest Raybold child (they have five kiddos in their family, and my guess is the oldest is somewhere around twelve-ish) was holding him, and he was crying and screaming away. Rebekah told me that this young man had tried to entice Caleb to play with all sorts of toys and then Caleb finally gave in and let him hold him. How sweet that he tried so hard! Caleb kept crying "mommy!" When Daddy & I walked in, he wanted me (and normally both boys are Daddy's boys, I think). He seemed pretty scared. Joshua was doing amazingly well. But, seeing that Caleb was trying to climb up me with fright, we accessed the entire situation and decided it was best if we just left. No swing dancing for us! :( :( :(

Instead, we came home. The boys got baths last night, and eventually we put them to bed before turning in ourselves. On the up side, I thought it was really sweet of Shawn to try and take me out for a night of dancing (which isn't really his style). And, it's nice to feel loved. Also on a positive note, we've officially picked our dates for our anniversary trip without the kiddos. We are going to Florida Feb 26-March 2 and the boys are going to be staying with Grandma & Grandpa Ginder. Please pray that the boys do well without their parents. I'm not as concerned about the Bean as I am about Caleb staying nicely and sleeping for someone else - we've never been apart before. :) And he's not great at sleeping in someone else's house and not his crib. But, I'm excited for some much needed time away with my sweetheart. :)