2009 Sweetheart Banquet!!

Well, here's the new one that was SUPPOSED to be posted last week. It's obviously old news for a bunch of you... so srry. =S But it's a post at least. SO here she be:

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Ok! I finally got the pictures and NOW I'm gonna FINALLY do a new post!! =D =D =D Aren't you happy!? I knew you would be. =P

Well, I will have to say that even though we had a lot of fun putting this together, I'm definitely glad we're done. =) Everybody did such an awesome job helping and serving. Laura and I couldn't have put it together without ALL the youth! The younger girls and a few guys did the AMAZING job of baby sitting for all the couples' kids. That's always a huge help. And the older teens stayed downstairs to help put together the plating and serving. The guys did an awesome job waitering, and they all looked great! And of course I would have totally lost it without my girls!
Rachel Haugaard was such a HUGE help! I think she brought half the decorations for the banquet!! They were leftovers and extra decos from her wedding, and she generously lended them to us to use. THANKS RACHEL! She ALSO did the amazing job of arranging all the the flowers. They looked beautiful. =) And she also got there on Friday extra early with Starbucks for Rachel, Amy, Laura, and I! You're so sweet Rachel!

Well, let's see...what happened that day.... Dubs and us Smith girls got up at about 5-ish that morning to leave at 6:30 for Sioux Falls. We met around 7 at Walmart and did last minute shopping for a few fresh foods and ice. We grabbed a few doughnuts and headed to Hyvee to get roses. When we got there we went in to ask how much roses were... It was insane!! It was 5.50 a rose, and around 25 dollars for a dozen! We were like.... no way are we going to spend 50 dollars on roses. And they weren't even that good looking! I had bought roses at Hyvee before, and i just couldn't remember spending THAT much on them. So we finally decided to just go ahead and TRY the other Hyvee on 41st. So we go in, expecting the same thing. I went up to the lady and asked if they had any white roses, and she came back with these GORGEOUS white roses. We thought for sure they'd be the same price, esp. since they looked so good. But when I asked she was like, "Well, since they're kinda on their way out... I'll give them to you for a dollar a rose." !!!!!! We were ecstatic. So we got a dozen white roses and a dozen red ones for a dollar each! We ran out of the store laughing and dancing all over the parking lot!! It was so hilarious! But we were too psyched to care. =P

So after that we headed over to the church at about 8:30. Laura and I started pulling out tables while Rachel and Amy set up the chairs. My dad had said we would probably have to wait to get the dividers out, but Laura and I decided to just try and see if we could lift them. We were pretty pessimistic at first... until we got all three dividers set up. =P We were feeling like we could lift anything after that. LOL. We kept running around trying to see who could lift the most chairs and other stupid stuff. LOL. Dorks. =P Anyway, after we got the main stuff put up we started decorating. Laura pressed all the table cloths while I sprayed glitter on rose petals. Amy and Rachel were dolls washing the dishes for us! THANK YOU GIRLS! Then Laura and I had the arduous task of matching silverware! AHHH! Now since not all of you know what our church's silverware drawer looks like I'll explain... There are about two or three drawers FILLED with mismatched silverware. Knives, forks, spoons, ladles, teeny tiny forks, serving spoons, serving forks, butter knives, steak knives, you name it! and we probably had it in there.... somewhere. SO we began trying to find decent matches. We thought, hey, only 38 sets... that's not too hard. AHHH!!!! Riiight.

NWAY, so that finally got done. By then we were all starving and wanting to go out to eat. So we all piled into the car and headed off to a gas station. Luckily it was Friday, so all the drinks were a penny an ounce. We checked out then huffed it back to church. By then we were all getting a little hyper so we decided to blow off some energy by singing and playing piano (and running around some!). =P We finally headed back downstairs to start getting ready. I've never seen so many cosmetics, hair supplies, and clothing all in one little bathroom! LOL! We had fun getting ready tho. Then about an hour later Rachel H. came in with STARBUCKS!! WE LOVE YOU RACHEL!!!!!! =D =D =D!!!! We started to speed up our progress as Emily Schuurmans, and a few Hanson kids came in early to help. By about 5 we were all in high gear! Laura and I were rushing around trying to get finishing touches done and answer about 10 questions a minute. LOL. Then within 15 minutes of the Banquet starting we realized we didn't wash any salad plates and we didn't have a lighter to light the candles!! So we had Daniel Hanson run to the store to pick up a lighter, and Michelle Erikson and I washed and dried dishes as fast as we could! There was a few frantic moments like when we had to have things come in and out of the ovens, or when we plated the main dishes. The main dish was probably the hardest part just because there were more components to it. But we eventually got it all plated and out to the guests.

The guys did a FABULOUS job this year once again. I got a little concerned when they didn't seem to be listening to any of the instructions I kept changing on them! LOL. But they pulled it all off. So I suppose they're more talented than I thought. =P They didn't dump any food on anybody at least... =P

Well, that's about it, besides all the mountain of dishes and clean up we had afterwards! Emily was indispensable the whole night, but man, she really took on a HUGE job... washing ALLLLLLLLL the plates and glasses and silverware and chargers and serving utensils! I think we counted around 250 dishes + 138 pieces silverware! Wow. I was definitely impressed. HUGE thanks to Emily for being such a trooper! Katrina Larson and Hannah Hanson took turns drying ALLLLLL those dishes. THANK YOU GIRLS!!! Everyone did such a good job jumping in to help clean. That's always the hard part. But we finally got it done at about 11 that night! I was definitely ready for bed. I crashed at about 1 when I got home. Getting up at 5 in the morning and going to bed at 1 doesn't feel too good the next day. =S lol.

WOW. That was insanely looong. Now that you just read my latest book... Here's some of the pictures! =P



Setting up tables...







Ok. Here's the proof that we actually lifted and dragged these things into the other room! LOL. Ain't we strong? =P



Here's all those sets of silverware we were putting together!



And here's those wonderful girls washing dishes! =D



Here's a pic that shows most of the dishes and stuff. There were so many!



And here's a pic of the table decos. =)

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Well, Srry this is it. These are all the pics that i already downloaded last week. I can't get to my pictures cuz they're all on the hard drive... in the mac... at the shop. (did i use enough prepositional phrases?) =P You'll just have to look at Rachel's blog to see the rest of the pics. (livingourlove) It's in my list of people I follow. She posted one about the Banquet too.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!!

Two days late....


I WAS going to post it yesterday... but was WAY too exhausted. And Saturday I was gone the ENTIRE day. Oh my word... I've never seen the mall so jam packed! Wow. It was insane! You could barely get through the food court without it taking you 10 minutes! You would literally stand it place for a minute before the couple in front of you would start MOVING again. Yikes! And the stores were crazy too. I went into Aero and could barely get in. Everyone and their boyfriend seemed to be in Sioux Falls... Like ALLLLL day! Although it was pretty cute seeing guys of all ages in Walmart with carts and bags filled with roses, candy, jewelry and stuffed animals. Laura and I saw this one guy (who looked like he was about 70) buying this HUGE... I mean HUGE... stuffed pink teddy bear in Sam's. I thought it was pretty funny. But man... they were like $50! I think she would have much preferred a new kitchen appliance. LOL.

But anyways... So, sorry i couldn't post for the real Valentines day! But i hope you all had a fun filled day with flowers and candy and people you love! Here's a hug from me to you! I LOVE YOU ALL! =) XOXO

...here are just a couple pictures from Saturday that I (or amy) took.



Getting our coffee fix! We all had to get up around 5:30 to meet in sioux falls at 7.


Us in the car getting more than hyper...


Here we are in Walmart trying DESPERATELY to figure out the budget, the food proportions, the quantities, and MATH... yuck.


We went over to get some vases and on the way decided to take pictures with the flowers... Amy is laughing at Laura cuz she keeps getting in the picture! Laura, Laura, Laura...


FINALLY a good picture. =D


We were in Hobby Lobby looking for... what were we looking for again??? Uh... Oh yeah. Decos and door prizes... Well, anyway, on the way through I found this AWESOME crown thingie! It fits! LOL


I think we were talking about door prizes and candy...


Well, regardless of what people tell you... I DID have a valentine yesterday. Vanessa is going to kill me. MUAhahaha. LOL. haha... right. (No seriously... i wouldn't stoop THAT low. Oooh... ouch. Srry Troy.) =P



HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO ALL YA'LL!!! =D XOXO

Illustrator-style drawing in Photoshop...

Ok! I FINALLY finished!

After 12 hours, 18 folders, 75+ layers, and a really stiff back... lol... Here it is! The challenge was to create a drawing, in this case a bass guitar, without using any pictures, ready made patterns or brushes. This is almost ALL pen tool, brush, and effects. The wood was absolutely hilarious at first. I made some pretty weird looking grains. I got some clues from someone, and finally made the adjustments needed. Still not perfect, but WAY better. The hardest part, besides the wood, was probably figuring out how to do the shading and highlighting and how to make the 3D stuff look... 3D! Like the shadows under the strings; the shadowing where the fret board meets the body; the lighting around the edges of the guitar; and how to make the knobs look like knobs and not 2D hunks of paper thin metal. lol! Even the tiny screws (that you probably won't notice till now that i tell you!) have 5 colors blended into them to make them look 3D. But I finally figured out some technics which helped a lot. I was going to give the wood a glossy look... but hehe, I ran out of steam toward the end of the night. I just finished it like, 20 minutes ago. So my eyes are shot and my back is killing me! I'll just do it next time. =P The signature at the bottom could've been better... but i don't have a tablet... so the mouse made it a little edgy. Oh well. =) I hope you like it!! =D =D =D

Luv ya!

Business card ideas...

Hey guys, since I'm on a GD (graphic design) kick, I thought I let you see my card ideas. I made three, but I can't decide. They're totally different (except for the one I just changed by putting vectors in), so idk... Maybe I'll just use all of them. I think I like the reflection looking one, but of those two... idk. SOOO, tell me what'cha think! Thanks guys!

Think think think...

Well, I'm in another writer's block. Soooo... w/o going into a big paragraph as to why I can't think of anything... I'll just post another picture. =) Luv ya'll lots!

OH! I almost forgot!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RACHEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A few days late... but better late than never! =D Thanks for being such a sweet and awesome friend, Rachel! You are such a blessing to me and all the people around you! If I ever need help with anything... guess who's one of the first on my list to call? Yup. You! I can ALWAYS count on you for anything. Even with this Banquet I'm TRYING to plan, you've been an awesome help! I couldn't do it without you. And you're such an example of a godly wife! I love you so much and hope it's a great new year for you! Oh! And get better too! I missed you Sunday!

Hmm... a paragraph.... now where did that come from???? \=)