Oh, my gosh! What a weekend! And here I thought this being my third time in India would be completely uneventful...boy, was I wrong!
Saturday, June 21
Not a whole lot happened today. Ryan and I knew we would be inviting the BYU students over for dinner so we went grocery shopping. Other than the most amazing thing, nothing really big happened...but look what we found! Boneless, skinless chicken breasts! As excited as were, we know not to get our hopes up because it might not ever be there again. Besides, if it's so easy to buy chicken now, there won't be any more fun chicken stories!
Sunday, June 22
Church. Oh, church. Before I get into that I'm going to go a little out of order, starting with dinner. We did end up have 10 students over for dinner and Ryan made some amazing homemade salsa, (we found some tortilla chips at the grocery store), chicken tacos in homemade flour tortillas, Spanish rice and brownie sundaes for dessert. There was a ton of food consumed and it was worth every minute of making it! We so enjoy entertaining and it's fun to be able to cook comfort food in this little corner of the world. Unfortunately, every time we've had these students over for dessert or dinner, I've been in the kitchen and forget to take pictures...next time. I promise!
Ok, now for the fun of today. So, since I'm pregnant (very obviously pregnant) the Relief Society sisters decided to give me a baby shower at church. Oh! My! Gosh! This is not like ANY other baby shower I've EVER had!
So we go to church and the Relief Society president is making sure I am going to attend this week (last week I ended up not feeling well and going home). "Yes, yes", I confirmed over and over again. So, we get to Relief Society, they have a lesson and with about 10 minutes left of church all hell breaks loose...literally!
First, they call me up to the front of the room. "Sit, sister." I sit. "Stand, sister." I stand. They move the chair in a different position, moving tables around, by this time everyone is out of their seats, standing on chairs, taking pictures (thank you BYU students!). Cell phone cameras everywhere. I just sat there. One gal grabs a black scarf and puts it around my belly. "NO black, no black". She removes it and grabs the closest scarf she sees, on one of the BYU students and wraps it around my belly. We were both confused and I was a little overwhelmed, to say the least. By now I've got some of the older sisters in the ward, coming up to me. "Stand, sister." I stand. An older woman touches my belly with her finger and says a prayer. She tells me to sit, I comply. I have two other women on either side of me holding my hands, "stand, sister", I stand". They also are blessing me (or the baby, not sure who), "sit, sister". They then proceed to put bracelets on me. As I'm sitting in the chair they are pulling my hair back, trying to find a rubber band to keep it back in, decorating my hair with flowers. Serious chaos. By this time some of the primary children have come in, 2 of my own kids as well. I continue to get well wishes as they throw multicolored Styrofoam balls at me, half of them going down my shirt. Then the best part...they break out the cake! Oh how I love random people feeding me little pieces of cake! Dabbing it on my cheeks and chin. All I could do was just sit and smile for the camera. I've learned in the past to just sit back and not fight their tradition.
As crazy as it was, as chaotic as it was and as fast as it all happened, the gestures of these sisters on the other side of the world wanting to celebrate in the joy of having a baby was pretty amazing. I feel like I have come to know these dear, sweet ladies over the past three summers and how excited they were to be able to give me this shower...how can anyone be upset about that?
Without further ado...baby shower pictures...India style...
Receiving blessings
More blessings with bracelets..
Don't even know what's happening...just smiling because I know my picture is being taken...
Putting my hair back...
Adding the roses...
Styling the hair...
Finished hair...
Not quite done styling the hair...
Posing...(Mounikas mom is in the orange)
Just sitting here in all the chaos..
.
Time for cake! Mmmmm
Cutting the cake...
Feeding me cake...
More blessings...
And yet more blessings....
The cake...
(Thank you Dallan for the pictures) Just trying not to look dumb or embarrassed, etc..
More blurry Dallan pictures
More cake feedings...
And still more cake feedings...and dabbings...
Posing for pics (the relief society president is in blue)
Mounika and her younger sister, Choty....oh, and Davis
Yeah, so that was fun! Nothing like being the center of attention for someone that hates being the center of attention. But, the good news is that's it's over...
I'm not sure anything here could top this...I'm afraid it's all downhill from here. Riiiggghhhttt.
Saturday, June 21
Not a whole lot happened today. Ryan and I knew we would be inviting the BYU students over for dinner so we went grocery shopping. Other than the most amazing thing, nothing really big happened...but look what we found! Boneless, skinless chicken breasts! As excited as were, we know not to get our hopes up because it might not ever be there again. Besides, if it's so easy to buy chicken now, there won't be any more fun chicken stories!
Sunday, June 22
Church. Oh, church. Before I get into that I'm going to go a little out of order, starting with dinner. We did end up have 10 students over for dinner and Ryan made some amazing homemade salsa, (we found some tortilla chips at the grocery store), chicken tacos in homemade flour tortillas, Spanish rice and brownie sundaes for dessert. There was a ton of food consumed and it was worth every minute of making it! We so enjoy entertaining and it's fun to be able to cook comfort food in this little corner of the world. Unfortunately, every time we've had these students over for dessert or dinner, I've been in the kitchen and forget to take pictures...next time. I promise!
Ok, now for the fun of today. So, since I'm pregnant (very obviously pregnant) the Relief Society sisters decided to give me a baby shower at church. Oh! My! Gosh! This is not like ANY other baby shower I've EVER had!
So we go to church and the Relief Society president is making sure I am going to attend this week (last week I ended up not feeling well and going home). "Yes, yes", I confirmed over and over again. So, we get to Relief Society, they have a lesson and with about 10 minutes left of church all hell breaks loose...literally!
First, they call me up to the front of the room. "Sit, sister." I sit. "Stand, sister." I stand. They move the chair in a different position, moving tables around, by this time everyone is out of their seats, standing on chairs, taking pictures (thank you BYU students!). Cell phone cameras everywhere. I just sat there. One gal grabs a black scarf and puts it around my belly. "NO black, no black". She removes it and grabs the closest scarf she sees, on one of the BYU students and wraps it around my belly. We were both confused and I was a little overwhelmed, to say the least. By now I've got some of the older sisters in the ward, coming up to me. "Stand, sister." I stand. An older woman touches my belly with her finger and says a prayer. She tells me to sit, I comply. I have two other women on either side of me holding my hands, "stand, sister", I stand". They also are blessing me (or the baby, not sure who), "sit, sister". They then proceed to put bracelets on me. As I'm sitting in the chair they are pulling my hair back, trying to find a rubber band to keep it back in, decorating my hair with flowers. Serious chaos. By this time some of the primary children have come in, 2 of my own kids as well. I continue to get well wishes as they throw multicolored Styrofoam balls at me, half of them going down my shirt. Then the best part...they break out the cake! Oh how I love random people feeding me little pieces of cake! Dabbing it on my cheeks and chin. All I could do was just sit and smile for the camera. I've learned in the past to just sit back and not fight their tradition.
As crazy as it was, as chaotic as it was and as fast as it all happened, the gestures of these sisters on the other side of the world wanting to celebrate in the joy of having a baby was pretty amazing. I feel like I have come to know these dear, sweet ladies over the past three summers and how excited they were to be able to give me this shower...how can anyone be upset about that?
Without further ado...baby shower pictures...India style...
.
Yeah, so that was fun! Nothing like being the center of attention for someone that hates being the center of attention. But, the good news is that's it's over...
I'm not sure anything here could top this...I'm afraid it's all downhill from here. Riiiggghhhttt.
That's awesome that your family is so loved ;-) We miss you guys but are happy to stalk you on your blog while your away.
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