Showing posts with label Morgan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Morgan. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

A girls' afternoon out!

Morgan has been staying at her in-laws' house since early June while her hubby is recuperating from his surgery. While she's been up here, we've tried to take opportunities to get together a bit more often. On Friday, we all decided to go visit The Pottery Shop in Ellicott City, MD, taking along Morgan's friend Becki. The store is a really cute little place, sort of a 1/2 pottery, 1/2 Starbucks-style place!

We'll go back later this week or early next week to pick up the finished projects, but in the meantime, here are the girls in action and their projects.


Mackenzie decided that turning a bowl into a watermelon would be a great project!



Morgan decided to paint small "thank you" gifts for her in-laws.



Focused attention on this project....



Becki hard at work as well.



Stripes of different colors added to make the watermelon more realistic.



A look inside the completed project!



And a look at the outside of the completed project!! She ended up using four colors of green to achieve the mottled stripes on the outside of the bowl. I can't wait to see how this will actually look once the bowl is fired and the true colors appear -- I think it's going to be gorgeous!



Morgan working on details of her secret project!



Morgan's project......


Becki's project.....



Kenzie admiring her handiwork and wondering why everyone else is taking so long!!



I just HAD to get pictures of this little guy! He was hanging over the cash register and is just too cute!!


I need to make one of these -- it looks like ME at the end of most weeks.....!! :)

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Monday, August 16, 2010

"Ch-ch-ch-changes......"

You know you're a musical person when something happens in your life and automatically some song (or song title) pops into your head!!  It seems to be happening a lot with me lately.....

So today's theme song, "Changes", just seemed appropriate.  Good changes, bad changes, middle-of-the-road changes -- that's been my day.  Good change -- the kennel where I REALLY wanted to board my dogs called with an opening -- YIPPEE!!  Bad change -- Morgan woke up with a migraine and has been absolutely useless today.  Middle of the road changes -- my dad REALLY doesn't want to do the MC'ing at the reception; however, he's willing to help make sure my brother CAN get to the wedding (car transportation was in doubt!!), and if he comes, HE can do the MC'ing!  Change of an unknown status -- the friend who's supposed to be providing the sound system for the reception (music and microphone) was supposed to be back in town from an extended vacation last week.  However, he's STILL gone and will "probably" be back on Wednesday??!!  Yikes.......  Please, please come back, Peter!! 

Another change -- the gal who's doing the dress alterations was supposed to do Bryanna's alterations today; however, she ended up in Rehoboth Beach for the weekend and won't return until tomorrow -- so fittings will be done tomorrow evening.  She assures me that's "plenty of time" for her to get the dress done.....  I hope so!!!

But I am NOT going to let all of this worry me.  I just found out yesterday about a family we know whose daughter got married in Colorado a few weeks back.  Talk about changes!!  Apparently, the CATERER got the dates mixed up, and no food arrived for the reception -- just the cake and the drinks!!  So I've been telling myself that if they can survive THAT kind of problem with grace and a good attitude, I can deal with all these little annoyances. 

Breathe, relax, breathe, relax......... just a few more days!!

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Sunday, August 15, 2010

Changes, chaos, craziness.....

This last week (two weeks before the wedding) has been nothing short of chaos.  We had all sorts of plans for things to get done, and then found out Monday that Nelson would be leaving Wednesday for a three day business trip to New Jersey.  Sigh..... not a great way to start the week!

Because Morgan and Solomon's insurance situation after the wedding is still a bit unknown, we decided it would be a good idea to just hurry up and get a good dental cleaning, get three months' worth of any prescriptions filled, maybe an eye exam -- just get all the bases covered.  On Monday, I took her to the dentist.  Now, Morgan is the kind of kid who's always been pretty meticulous about her teeth.  She brushes, she flosses, she drinks more water than probably the rest of the family put together, and she very much limits soda, coffee and tea intake, so her teeth are usually better than anybody else's.  She hasn't had a cavity in YEARS -- until this visit...... sigh....... there were THREE of them!!  How?  We don't know -- very strange to us -- but there they were.  So we made an appointment on Wednesday to come back and get all three fillings done at once.  By Wednesday night, she was hurting; by Thursday AM, she was in agony.  Yikes -- please don't tell me she's going to need a root canal!!  So we made ANOTHER appointment for Friday AM, and went in to the dentist with fear and trepidation.  Thankfully, THANKFULLY, it appears that the filling on the bottom tooth was just too high and when she would bite down, it would cause extra pressure.  The dentist was able to grind off a portion of the filling, and thus far, it seems like the pain is gone!  YAY!!

I forgot to mention, though, that on the way to the dentist on Friday, I was sitting at a stop light in front of a police car.  As I pulled forward, on came the police woman's lights to pull me over!!  Huh??  What did I do?  I certainly wasn't speeding -- I was stopped at the light!!  Quick mental check -- I know the license plate is current; maybe somebody stole them overnight?  What else could it be?  After doing the mandatory "License and registration, please, ma'am", she says "Do you know that your rear brake light is burned out?"  Uh, no -- how would I know that unless somebody TOLD me??  Thankfully, she only wrote a warning, then sent us on our merry way to the dentist.  We had to call them and tell them we'd be a few minutes late since I'd been pulled over -- I got a fair amount of good-natured teasing about that at the dentist's office!

Additionally, one of the prescriptions we tried to fill was rejected.  Turns out it's been almost a year since Morgan had visited the allergist, so they wouldn't refill it without an office visit.  That ended up being Thursday's errand.  That was an easy in-and-out visit, which was good, because I don't think either she or I could've stood one more complication this week!!

I was able to find a kennel to board the dogs for the days surrounding the wedding.  There will just be too many people and too much chaos to have the underfoot for those days -- not to mention that we really don't want to deal with dog hair and dog drool on wedding dresses!!

The one thing I HAVEN'T been able to come up with is a full-sized passenger van.  I was really hoping to rent one, since we'll have so many extra people to be moving around next week.  But it appears they are all rented out.  Hertz, Alamo, Enterprise, Avis, Thrifty, Budget -- you name it, I called it -- and there are just none available!!  Maybe we'll rent a mini-van instead??

The guy who's been working on our wood floors came out this week to finish the installation of the trim and the last three stair treads.  He needed to complete the trim around the floor edges as well.  He got the trim done; unfortunately, the stair treads we needed were not available for him to pick up -- so we've still got one set of stairs only halfway done!!  But the flight of stairs that goes from the foyer up to the first floor look great.  Nelson was able to stain those this week and put the first coat of polyurethane on them.  It makes me feel good to know that I don't have to be so worried now about those steps getting wet or stained; they're at least partially protected now.  After the wedding's over, we'll try to get a few more coats on there, but for now, it's good enough.

And the bachelorette party -- which is all the girls getting together for food, talk and "chick-flicks" somehow mysteriously ended up being held in MY HOUSE today -- and I didn't find out about this until YESTERDAY???  Uh, seriously, ladies??  You think I don't have enough to do already??  OK..... what's a bit more chaos when you're already completely upside-down???

Bryanna flies in from Texas tonight.  Originally, she told me she'd be in around 8:30 or so; yesterday she realized her flight actually arrives around 4:45 -- and the party starts here around 3:30.......  It's gonna be interesting -- how many places can I be at once??

This is going to be a long, long week!!!!

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Monday, August 2, 2010

"Showered" with gifts!

Several of Morgan's bridesmaids (Diane, Georgi, and Becki) threw her a beautiful bridal shower yesterday.  It was so very, very nice and a lot of fun; the girls put a lot of work into it.  And I'll just go straight to the photos, since I know that's the part everyone wants to see anyway!  (Especially you, Grammy!!)

Nanette Jefferies and Frannie Miller chatting at the punch and cake table

Morgan talking with friends

Nancy and Liz Clash talking with Sarah Llewellyn

Laura Stein (groom's mother) talking with ladies from our church

Angela Toner and Michelle Krout talking with Mary Fisher (Morgan's aunt)

In the "Seat of Honor"!!

Becki Prentice (co-maid of honor) giving instructions for the first party game

Morgan enjoying a laugh with Georgi Spilman (co-maid of honor)

Diana Jefferies (bridesmaid)

Then came the "Toilet Paper Bride", where each team had 10 minutes to "design" a wedding dress on their model -- in this case, on Mackenzie Llewellyn (bride's sister/jr. bridesmaid).  At the end, Morgan would select the winning design.....

And the second team, working on Katie Prentice's dress.....

..... while our team started a veil and decorative flowers on the back of the "dress"!

Continuing on the dress....

Michelle Krout being decorated for the third team! Look at her lovely "string of pearls"!!

And the winner was -- Katie Prentice and team!!

Then Morgan began opening gifts, while Diana recorded them in her laptop!!  Much more up-to-date than the old steno pads we used to use!! First gift, from Victoria's Secret......... (oooooooo-la-la!!)

A negligee!!!

And then another!!  (slight embarassment!!)

On to more "practical" items.....







..... and then another negligee!!!



Napkin rings being modeled by bridesmaids and Morgan!!



And finally, the bouquet of ribbons to be used at the rehearsal, complete with net "veil"!!

All the wedding party members who were present at the shower -- (L to R):
Becki Prentice, co-maid of honor
Mackenzie Llewellyn, Jr. bridesmaid
Georgi Spilman, co-maid of honor
Morgan Llewellyn, bride-to-be
Diana Jefferies, bridesmaid

Hope you enjoy the pictures!!  We certainly enjoyed our wonderful afternoon!!

~~~~~~

Friday, July 9, 2010

The renovations begin!

Well, the installation of the laminate floors and new foyer linoleum has begun. We didn't get quite as far along as we'd hoped to today, but we definitely got a really good start. We ended up having to do a lot of the cutting indoors because of the heat, so there was a LOT of sawdust generated, necessitating a lot of cleaning up. Here are some pictures from the day:

The first boards being placed

The piano was put in the corner just to keep it out of the way, but I kind of like it there -- it just might stay there!

We decided to let everybody sign the plywood before we covered it with the laminate.  Who knows?  Maybe in 20 or 30 years, the next owner will tear up the floor and "find" us!!

Nelson signed for himself and his wife, Sarah.....

Morgan signed for herself and soon-to-be-husband Solomon.....

We signed for Bryanna and Mike, since they weren't part of this project today......

Mackenzie not only signed, she traced her hand!!

And then Morgan decided we couldn't leave the dogs out, so she "drew" their signatures, too!

A look down the hallway as Josh works on the flooring.....

......and a view down the stairs before work on them began.

Nelson works to set the last planks in the dining room while Morgan supervises!

A view down the nearly-finished hallway.  We still need to do all the trim work and the closet doors still need to be re-hung, but it looks SO much better!

Josh is working on the stairs -- the only part of the project that will be hardwood.  Here's the hard part of all this -- he's putting in oak boards, which still need to be stained and polyurethaned.  This means they need to be kept dry and stain-free until then.  Uh...... with two dogs in the house???  And a rainstorm predicted for tomorrow?  Now THIS ought to be fun....... hah.......  I think we'll be putting plastic over the stairs for the next few days.

Hope you enjoyed looking at our renovations!!  And hopefully, more pictures to follow in the next few days!

~~~