My posting has been scarce of late. Sorry! I finally uploaded pictures yesterday…All 242 of them! It had been a while and quite a few events since I emptied the camera, so I feel we’re in for a long post!

Way back on May 9th, we went to Café Ba Ba Reba to celebrate Sarah’s 25th Birthday. The restaurant is Tapas, which is a Spanish style of eating where you order small “appetizer” plates and share them family style…very good! I had muscles, es cargo (snails), calamari (squid), scallops, octopus and shrimp along with all the other good stuff!

Here’s Hope, Rony and the Birthday girl Sarah enjoying the Tapas!

Toward the other end of the table: Tripp, Bethany, Marcie and Justin.

There were lots of other people as well, but I won’t put up all their pictures! The room was packed! There was a sign on one wall that said “Occupancy by more than 25 persons is dangerous and illegal.” There were almost 20 people just at our table, and the room was still packed with other large groups!

Here’s Randy enjoying the culinary delights. Bethany made a birthday cake and brought it for all to enjoy (well, all except for me…it was chocolate! Yuck…). You can see Sherry in the background.

The next morning, Miss Sarah had her first Creative Memories workshop. Like me, Sarah is a direct sell consultant. While I work with Pampered Chef, Sarah works for Creative Memories which is a company that makes and sells scrap booking materials and other photo preserving items (digital, photo books, etc…). At her workshop it was basically just a time to come together and work with your photos. I took the time to organize and finish up the Wedding scrapbook Sarah had helped me to create.

Yeah, this is what my table looked like while I was trying to sort through my mass of boxed up photos…looks like I still have a lot of work ahead of me!

Here’s Sarah helping some other customers! :-D

In other news, my good friend Tripp finally finished his Masters Thesis with Seabury Seminary here in Chicago! He graduated with an MDiv a few years back and is the Pastor at Community Church of Wilmette, a Chicago suburb. Now however, he’s finished his Masters paper about Calvin, and he decided to “graduate” again! He had a fun graduation party in his backyard that night. What does one do at a graduation party for a baptist pastor finishing his thesis on John Calvin from an Episcopal Seminary you may ask? Well the obvious of course: sing Old Thyme Hymns!!!

Here is the AngloBaptist himself with his trusty banjo…

And a shot of me singing one of the hymns at the party…It was a good time with lots of good food!

Of course, every once in a while, one has to step back from the constant party going and enjoy some time at home with family. Malcolm took full advantage of that one night:

Poor Justin, pined by a 19 lb. Chihuahua/Terrier!

On to more parties! Justin’s friends Mike and Erin we joined in marriage this past Sunday in St. Louis. The ceremony took place in a BEAUTIFUL park in St. Louis. The weather was perfect (for me). It was around 80, humid, sunny and just the right amount of cool breeze.

Here is the happy couple. In the background is Ziggy. He was the “pastor” at the wedding. He was ordained online, as was Mike when he married Ziggy and his wife Elisa. Zig was returning the favor!

Of course, I needed something to wear to this event. For over a year I’ve had a design in my head for a red dress with white polka dots. I’ve been talking about it with my friend Kate (an amazing ‘modiste’ who made my wedding dress for me, a bridesmaids dress, and the flower girls dress) for sometime, and she even bought me the fabric for my last birthday. I finally decided it was time to get the thing made and she excelled with it! It’s gorgeous and a lot of fun to wear! One guy that I was seated with at the reception even said that when he’d seen me at the wedding, he had “voted” me Best Dressed! Yay for me! I don’t think I’ve ever gotten that! Here are some shots of the dress:

I’m super hot *wink*

The reception was a ton of fun. They had good food and a good band. Erin and Naked Dave even broke out “A Little Help From My Friends”, Joe Cocker style for us!

Well…I think that’s all for now! I’m sure I’ll have more to report on Monday, as before next Monday I will have pics from Malcolm’s 2nd birthday, my Indiana Jones Movie Marathon Party, and the latest installment of “Sunday Dinner”! Have a great week and a “fierce” weekend!