The Chocolate Ball. . .Finally!

Yes, I know it has been a WHOLE week since I last posted! I told you it would be a crazy week getting ready for our Chocolate Ball . What I didn't count on was getting sick too! Tuesday morning, I spent 3 hours in the doctors office with 3 children (aagh!) to find out that all the 3 kids and myself have bronchitis! This just added to the craziness that was our week. Basically, if I wasn't running around like a chicken with its head cut off, I was sleeping on the couch. I went 2 nights with pretty much NO sleep (between coughing my head off and the 2 boys waking up 6 times!). However, it all worked out in the end!

We ended up with exactly 75 couples in attendance! Yeah!! Praise the Lord. I have given Him the name, 'the God who brings them" and He always does! The cool thing is that I think it totally fulfilled its purpose too. The purpose of our smaller connection events, like the dance, is to connect people in the Body who may not have growing relationships with one another. This is a non-threatening way to form relationships and memories. It was so cool to watch almost half of our "dancers" being fairly new to Westwood and not otherwise connected in our Body! That was very exciting. All in all, I think it was a success.

Personally speaking, it wasn't my best day. I haven't really been "on my game" so to speak. I didn't spend enough time on the program and wish I had spent more time there (planning to intermix some "fun" music). I also didn't involve my team as much and didn't plan enough for clean up. I had hired some youth to help and thought I'd have 5, so I didn't really recruit for clean up. I figured we'd have 5 youth and some of my team would naturally stay. Well, only 2 youth showed up to help and since I hadn't really asked, none of the team stayed. This left me a bit stressed thinking I would be cleaning by myself! Thankfully, my friend Hannah (who took these pics. . thanks Hannah!) stayed as well as 2 other couples (1 of which was just a visitor) and one other lady. We were there till 1 am, but got it thoroughly cleaned up and set up for Saturday night service. For our next event, I will plan better and make sure to involve my team more! Everything is better when done together! So, here are a few pics!


This is Amber, Carrie and I. I did NOT look so cute! I ran home and had 10 min to shower and change before running back up to the church (it was a 16 hour day!). . . .so, give me a break a bit! I tried on my sister's bridesmaid dress that morning to wear and it fit perfectly. So, after running home and showering, I threw it on. . .well, it didn't fit now! aagh! Of course, I burst into tears (I hadn't been sleeping well, was sick and pretty overwhelmed with the amnt of work left to do in the next hour!) I ended up wearing a cute dress my trendy sister had bought me. However, it's one of those very popular styles that happens to look maternityish at times. I had 4 people ask me if I was pregnant! Not fun!! oh well, at least everyone else looked cute and had fun! on a side note: I started working out this morning! yeah! Time to lose those adoption pounds!This is the foyer, that was transformed into a black hallway with red carpet leading up to it and velvet ropes. (Monica's idea! Way to go!)
This is what we settled on for centerpieces for 3 of the tables! They turned out ADORABLE!
We had 4 separate chocolate fountains! Gotta love it!
The most fun part of the night! Davis proposed to Krystal!!! Yeah! It made the whole evening memorable! It's my first event to have a proposal at! I loved it! I also love this sweet couple! He leaves for Iraq in a few months and they have such sweet hearts for the Lord.
The couples really participated in the dance instruction! The other reason I posted this pic is for you to see the cool columns. Jess was in charge of the lights, tulle and columns. Didn't she do great?
The woman with the short hair and short dress closest to the camera is my mother in law. The woman next to her is our dance instructor. My in-laws have been taking dance lessons a couple of times a week for the last 6 months. They are awesome! We had them do a demonstration dance for us and help with the instruction!
So. . .there ya go! Finally! I am feeling better, so expect me to get back to my old blogging self! Thanks for praying for this you guys! It is a lot harder to plan and execute these events with 3 little ones underfoot! I appreciate your prayers!