Best Wedding Ever!

Too late to blog about this? IIIIIIII don't think so.

First wedding in the new church. Pretty good. Cute couple. See?


They got that right!!! Totally forgot to take the seeds home.

Excellent shish-ka-bobs made by some of the finest grill masters I know.

But planing a tornado at the end of the evening to keep people longer and in much closer proximity was priceless. You guys are good!

Most couples have to go from table to table to greet and catch up with each guest. But this time all they had to do was walk down a concrete lined hallway.

Despite the spotted twister, it was a great wedding that was really cool to be invited too. Congratulations! (a week late)

Congratulations Peter And Meredith

It's wedding time. Got intimidated by all the pictures I liked so I'm posting and explaining as I go. Keep checking.














Enjoy/edit this short clip of us dancing fools.

This link will allow you to edit annotations (speech bubbles and stuff) in the video for those who are feeling creative. You do need a YouTube (now google) account. Of course, I reserve the right to censor any and all annotations.

Another Late Weekend Update

Buckmaster

Russell Thornberry, editor of Buckmaster magazine, was invited once again to give a short seminar about bow hunting with a great question an answer time, followed by a solid personal testimony and gospel presentation. It was great to see upwards of 60 new faces at the event with a total of 130ish.

It was also good to see FOOD. Lots of coffee cake, Deer meat and cheeeeeeese.


For you crazies who don't like to eat anything that once had a face, let me make something clear. It still has a face, hangin' comfortably on the wall.

Lee Wedding

TimLee and his almost bride, Nicole, sing with their guests during another fantastic wedding at Bethany. I'm kinda getting sick of time flying by so fast. It really really really felt like just yesterday that we were counting down the days when Tim would be leaving for the UK after a few months spent working in the US, probably never to return. And then again the next year...and again the next year :-) There were a ton of Brits who flew in for the awesome occasion. The best man, Tim's friend Ian, gave a good message during the service and a hilaious (spelled like Tim says it) toast at the reception. I then hitched a ride with a carpool to the reception...

We've had alot of teaching and thoughts about singleness and contentment in my Sunday School group recently. I have some doubt about contentedness when best friends can easily consider each other as ticking biological clocks and waiting for a prince or princess. I'd like to offer clear and simple proof that I am currently having very little struggle with being content as a single.

I submit that no guy can post a picture like that on a blog, read largely by women (I did not say large women) or allow pictures like this on other blogs and still place a high priority on finding a woman. But wait, is that a girl hungin' all over you? No, I'm not so naive and lied to as to say I'm content in front of a bunch of people...as long as I got a woman sitting next to me or a baby on my lap. That's Becky playing "corners" as the driver, Amanda, swerves wildly around corners. Noah was on the other side getting squished on right turns.

Reception was great. It was the same place as Greg and Steph's wedding what...two years ago??? Sheesh.


I noticed this time around that any happy couple gets so used to people taking drive by pictures that they pose without missing a beat. I'm pretty sure they had no idea who was taking this picture or even remembered it happened two seconds later.




Yup, definitely dancing at this gig. I was not thoughtful enough to realize that I had carpooled with the dancing crew to the reception, and that it would be a full night before I would get to leave. Darn hippies! :-) Thank you Joey and Kari for giving me a ride home early!

The DJ at the reception has been used for Ben and Ashley's, The Moons and Andrew and Ashley's weddings. So he's developed a comfort with this crowd, and some knowledge about what they like to do. JoshM had to step up to the plate with a dance he did at his own wedding.

Eventually the rest of the wedding party followed suit.


I like to think that Nicole is saying, "What did I tell you about dancing like that at our wedding? And take off these silly British flag suspenders!!" Juuuuust kidding Nicole.


Sunday Lunch

Sunday, Tom and Bev, one of our married Sunday School leaders, hospitalitized us with lunch at their place. Very enjoyable and a great job prepping! Here we have the big table.

Here we have the comfort zone, Food.
And the kiddie table. :-)

Congratulations Pat and Rachel!

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to take a road trip with some friends to Patrick's wedding.




Charlie

Chris

Jerelyn










Co-P

Michael











Chris and Jerelyn fixed up an abundance of food for the entire crew. Oddly, they looked just like the cold cuts we had at their wedding ...?




For the hundredth time, I like new things. So we took a new (to me) route toward Chicago to make it to Sawyer, Michigan. Jerelyn's home town of Gridley has two gas stations, an AC church and some large farm buildings. But there are signs of booming growth in the local economy...a brand new car wash.

We left early enough to spend some time getting ready at a house that the Deutch clan was staying at for the weekend. The place was in an interesting neighborhood.







Trey party in the pew.


Steve and Elise gotta love the fact that there's never a shortage of people to take the kid off their hands.






As we broke out of Peoria, guess what Michael all of a sudden realized was missing...

Who is Pat anyway? What originally attracted me to the group of friends I hung out with at church was the friendly engaging and mature attitudes of guys like Patrick, Rodney, Jon and others. I stick to my friends like glue now, but back then, I wouldn't have been plugged in or have any of these friends if guys like Jon (best man below) hadn't stuck with me and continually sought out ways to encourage and get to know me. Well, times they change, and people get married. Pat is the last of the original guys I knew to be taken by marriage. He's been studying down at Dallas Theological Seminary for a couple of years now, so we've been missing him for a while already.


The Hood Men



Mike and I called dibs on Trey so that Kari couldn't use the "I'm holding a baby" excuse for not dancing, like usual. She was just left with "I don't wanna" like the rest of us. Trey learned all kinds of things being around uncle Mike and Kevin. How to pick a wine and pick on a girl.








The Lueken kids were a little surprised at the real deal being served on the table.






The Deutch man is a dancing fool. At Rodney's wedding, it made me so frustrated to see that he could make dorky dancing cool. It's still just dorky when I do it. After crazy time with the kids, Momma had to break in.





What's Madison mad at me for now? Not dancing. Back off! (don't hurt me)


With Gridley's rock bottom gas prices (at the time), Chris' skills got us back there with a little left to take advantage. Thanks for driving Chris!