ex(PR)essed

Happy Friday! I’m certainly feeling ready for this weekend. The only appointment on my weekend schedule is breakfast with a special friend tomorrow morning. Otherwise, it will be nice to just putter around the house. There are cloth diapers to be washed, thank you notes to be written, meals to be prepared and frozen, and a whole variety of other pre-partum things to be accomplished!

We had our last birthing class on Tuesday, which included a tour of the delivery and maternity floors at Harrisburg Hospital. I was only half-joking when I asked Jeff if we could deliver at home instead. There was nothing awful about the place, but there was also nothing warm, friendly, or cozy about the place either. It felt very sterile and cold. Formal and unfriendly. Full of bright lights and the promise of a total invasion of privacy. But, I know, I know…I won’t care about any of that when I’m in the thick of delivery, blah, blah, blah, and then I will be so smitten with the baby that I will continue to not care. (If you’re sensing any sarcasm, bravo! I’m growing a little weary of people imposing their experiences on me as though I will have an exact duplicate experience. Really. I’m not that naive. I’m pretty sure that both Baby Lorow and I are individuals and we will create our own experience.)

Anywho, basically all this means is that we’re getting closer and closer to meeting Baby Lorow in person. And, Jeff and I are both looking forward to that!

Last weekend, I enjoyed my last baby shower. It was a small affair…just me and a few of the ladies from the young married couples small group at church. It was lovely. A delicious soup and salad lunch served on Anita’s china; fun, loving conversation; adorable presents and thoughtful cards; and a time of scrapbooking as the ladies each contributed a few pages to a brag book for Baby Lorow. The day was truly a gift to me, and I am thankful to my dear friends Anita and Allyson for treating me to such a lovely afternoon.

(from left to right: Anita, cute Ruth, Alyssa, me, Jen, Allyson, and Laurie)

And, here’s a favorite site of mine — a table covered with scrapbooking and stamping supplies!

Over the weekend, Jeff and I traveled to Keuka Lake so that we could join with his brother Tim in a graduation party/baby shower/spaghetti dinner. The Lorows have much to celebrate this year, so they combined all these events into one big bash! And, because of it, I’m among the few (I suspect) who can say that more than 100 people attended one of her baby showers! It was quite the party.

Jeff’s mom prepared spaghetti, sauce, garlic bread, and salad for 100 people. That’s no joke! Check out some of these prep photos.

People from the community where the lake cottage is as well as family attended the festivities. It was nice to catch up with some folks we hadn’t seen in awhile, and, in many cases, I met people I had never met before. Once again, Baby Lorow felt very celebrated. It was also really nice to have Jeff present for this shower. After all, we’re in this together!

Oh yeah…another highlight? Jeff’s sister Katie’s mint truffles. She was very popular at the party because of these babies!

It was good to see Katie’s son, Daniel. He was a bit out of sorts because he was fighting a virus, but he was still awfully thrilled to see his Uncle Jeff.

In addition to the graduation party/baby shower/spaghetti dinner, I also enjoyed our annual trek to the Windmill, a large farmer’s market in that area. I bought two loaves of delicious Amish raisin bread with frosting, a bag of Kettle Korn, and two bars of homemade soap. Success!

I have one more shower to look forward to, and then all our energy will be focused on final preparations for Baby Lorow! Hard to believe that we are probably less than five weeks away from meeting him or her!

Jeff, Baby Lorow, and I are feeling very celebrated this week. After a lovely shower on Saturday, we were both treated to showers thrown by our co-workers. My fabulous PR girls chose a polka dot theme, which I love, and transformed our conference room into a beautiful party. The food was delicious, the presents were so generous, and the company was perfect, especially sweet little Clara who climbed right up into my lap in between presents! (She’s the daughter of my good friend Becky…you know, the colleague that everyone mistakes me for?! Perhaps Clara was even a bit confused? Nah…)

So, while I was living it up with my friends at Messiah, Jeff was being “surprised” by his co-workers at Delta Dental. He came home with chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and a very generous wad of cash. We continued to feel very celebrated last night as we attempted to fit all of the baby’s new clothes, toys, books, and “equipment” into our guest room closet!

You’ll probably get tired of hearing me say this, but I do feel so blessed to have so many wonderful friends in my life, especially at this time of great change! Baby Lorow is going to be one well-loved kid!

…a creative Jamie, cute mom, sweet Karen, and fun Aunt Wendy in their lives. Let me tell you, that awesome foursome knows how to throw a baby shower! Baby Lorow and I felt so loved and celebrated on Saturday as we enjoyed an afternoon with our very favorite ladies. There are not words to properly express how thoughtfully and beautifully the room was decorated. So many special, heartfelt touches reflected how well Jamie knows me and were a wonderful testament to our deep, abiding friendship. I love that girl.

The theme? Vintage nursery rhymes. Perfect.

The guests? Women from church, high school, college, current and previous jobs, and some who have known me my whole life. Mothers and daughters. Good friends. Sisters. What a gift to be surrounded by so many special women, some of whom have already stuck their toes in the waters of motherhood, others who are taking the plunge with me and Jeff, and still others who are crying out to the Lord for the blessing of a child in their lives. It was a gift to be celebrating with each of them.

The food? Delicious! And abundant! Because these ladies know me very well, they elected to have an ice cream bar so everyone could make their own sundaes! Perfect!

The decorations? So thoughtful. Books and blocks. Wildflowers. Vintage stuffed animals, including a few from my childhood. Vintage buttons. Nursery rhymes aplenty. Beautiful dishes and teacups. Hand-stamped napkin rings. So much care and time must have went into each and every detail.

The gifts? Generous beyond belief! The invitations asked people to bring a favorite book so that we might start a library for Baby Lorow. Books are important to me and Jeff — we have quite a collection ourselves and both love to read, so having a library for the littlest Lorow was important to me. And, we got such a variety of fun books that I can hardly wait to start reading to the baby. We also got oodles of other adorable, fun, practical baby gifts. People were so amazingly kind.

It’s been hard for me to be the center of attention during this pregnancy, so I was feeling a little apprehensive about all eyes being on me and my growing stomach. But, how can a girl not feel totally blessed to have so many lovely, godly, caring women in her life? It just makes me giddy to think about all the people Baby/Kid/Teenager/Adult Lorow will have in their life to love and prayerfully support them. What a blessing.

Me and Jamie

Me and Mom

We were all pretty tired by day’s end, including Mr. Silas who charmed the socks off everyone he encountered. This boy is seriously cute and was, once again, a wonderful house guest! What a treat to celebrate the impending arrival of Baby Lorow with a little one that we were just celebrating and anticipating a few months ago! (Um…I totally love the little glimpse of belly in this picture. He was one relaxed guy!)

Everyone is talking about Barack Obama today (and rightly so!), but there’s another man that has made this a most memorable day for me. Allow me to introduce Silas Aaron Myers, the sweet little boy born to my best friend Jamie early this morning!

When I answered the phone at 7 a.m., I didn’t expect to hear Jamie’s voice on the other end. And, I really didn’t expect to hear her exclaim, “I’m a mom!” Baby Silas came four weeks early, but all is well. According to his mom, “he’s perfect,” and I don’t doubt it.

Congratulations, Jamie and Brad! Welcome to the world, little Silas; can’t wait to meet you.

After months of wonderfully fun planning and creating, Jamie’s baby shower was a smashing success! Our nesting theme, rich with browns and greens, proved to be a welcome change from the usual baby shower colors, and Karen and I heard nothing but kind compliments about our hard work and evident love for the beautiful mother-to-be.

I didn’t take nearly as many photos as I had hoped, but I have a few good ones to give a sense of what the shower looked like. Sadlly, at this point, I’m missing photos of the guest of honor, so you’ll just have to trust me that she looked absolutely adorable in her brown party dress.

Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t give credit to Hostess with the Mostess for originally posting a the “modern nesting” baby shower theme. It certainly got our wheels turning!

This is what my car looked like when I left for Jamie’s on Friday afternoon.

For several months, I have been searching for a variety of used books for Jamie’s baby. As someone who loves to read, I find that I always want to buy books for kids in hopes that they, too, will love to read.

Much to Jamie’s surprise, her yellow lab Sydney got in on the baby shower action and purchased an adorable “I love my puppy” bib for the baby. I helped with the wrapping.

A nesting theme was perfect — Jamie is so creative in the kitchen and her craft room, and it has been fun to watch her nesting instincts fully in place with the promised arrival of her little one. I wanted to get Jamie something that was just for her and would help her remember the fun of her shower. I found these earrings on Etsy — perfect little copper nests with tiny little bead eggs. She loved them.

Because of the distance, my mom couldn’t make the shower, so she sent her gift through the mail. This adorable mobile was on Brad and Jamie’s registry, but it was even cuter in person. Here the proud parents display a new addition to their already cozy and cute nursery.

Once the nesting theme was determined, I began to paint and decorate birdhouses for the table centerpieces. I really enjoyed this project, and I couldn’t have been happier with how they looked on the tables. You’ll notice baby food jar votices around the birdhouses. Thanks to the on-campus Early Learning Center and several other friends, Karen and I had plenty of recycled votives to decorate the whole room with.

This is what the place settings looked like. A little box of Cadbury eggs served as the favors.

Because we were expecting a large crowd for this shower, we opted for a light luncheon that included this fabulous dessert table! Jamie’s mom made many of these sweet treats, and the ladies enjoyed sampling many of the delicious goodies!

Instead of a cake, we had cupcakes made that reflected the nesting theme. This particular cupcake was Jamie’s — a mama bird with her baby. Too cute!

The food table was covered with delicious finger sandwiches and salads. Each table had a plate of apples, cheese, and crackers, and I think all the guests just enjoyed snacking and sampling everything throughout the shower.

It’s hard to believe that the big event is over! I must admit that I feel a bit out of sorts today. But, it was such an honor to contribute to such a joyous ocassion in celebration of someone I care about very much.

The best compliment I received the whole weekend was from someone who noted that the shower was a “beautiful expression of my friendship with and love for Jamie.” Yes, that’s it exactly.