very full.

The title of this post reflects the week we've just had. Very. Busy. 

And, naturally, plenty of pictures to go along with that. 

We will begin with last Saturday... Erica and I walked down to the park for Hoopfest, the planet's largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament. There were hoops and people in basketball shorts everywhere. We just walked around because to be honest, we were just going to say that we'd gone. It's just a huge Spokane thing! After walking around for a few hours, I made dinner for us and we enjoyed Ben and Jerry's and a movie!

On Sunday, Rachel and I started prepping for VBS. We hit the dollar store and Wal-Mart to outfit our classrooms. She was craving Nerd candies so we indulged. The weird wrapped-up thing is a monkey for John's room... we wrapped it in gauze to represent death. The picture of me with the piece of paper is because I was demonstrating how many people there were at the Feeding of the 5,000 in preparation for my lesson.  Yes, I counted dots. Actually there are not 5,000 dots, because I got to 2,000 and my hand hurt and it was taking forever. Even 2,000 is a lot. The last two pictures are my classroom. That's what we did all day Monday... decorated. 

Also on Monday I decided to bleach my hot pink tennis shoes. I was going for something not quite so bright and used too much bleach... I may dye them a more neutral color later...

Tuesday was the first day of VBS! Rachel, John, Stephanie and I taught four different lessons during the day.  It was scary and the first day was definitely not our strongest teaching time, but all went well. CTR had a record number of kids this week! It was fun and exhausting teaching them.

On Wednesday night, the doorbell rang while Josie, Chris and I were watching Father of the Bride II. I could tell from the way it went off (it was pressed 79873 times) that it was Carson, and I was right! 

So he was here Wednesday night - Saturday morning. 

After VBS on Thursday, we visited Manito Park. We walked around (yes, Carson is actually falling asleep in that picture), got lunch, explored, and enjoyed our time. Then we got groceries (and the corner picture shows Carson with a "blue moon" beer - it's his childhood nickname so i made him smile).

At Manito, we set the timer up to take pictures under this bridge. 

Thursday night, we decided to be lazy and order dinner from a restaurant (in all truth, I forgot to turn the crock-pot on...) so we got Italian food from Ciao Mambo and had dinner at home. A romantic dinner, Carson was quick to stress (which included conversation about our budget and other such romantic topics!). It was excellent. 

On Friday, Carson helped with VBS as a leader of the green group, which was the group I taught that day (which made me nervous). We came home to relax in the fact that VBS was over, and enjoyed these little dessert cups. We had beef sandwiches (I remembered to turn the crock-pot on finally) and Carson bought me lilies. We played Scrabble and watched a movie and I took a picture of his "tattoo" of my name. The final picture was taken at 5:45am on Saturday. He woke me up to go and lock him out of the building, so this is the last picture he has of me in his head. Hope he comes back......

I didn't go back to bed on Saturday morning. 

Instead, I hung around the house, cleaned it a bit, and painted. I'd made this old green thing with flowers and a verse but the background was so dark that I couldn't even read it and it bothered me. So as I watched a couple of TV episodes online, I made this:

In the afternoon, my friend Meagan came over and we walked downtown to Olive Garden for lunch. 

Then we went to the Polka Dot Pottery for a fun creative afternoon. She made a tiny little bird (it's in her hand) and we both made scalloped bowls. After that, we enjoyed the most amazing caramel apple (covered in chocolate chips, peanut butter and caramel) from here.

So last night, Rachel helped me clean the church and then we started a movie which I was too tired to finish. Come to think of it, getting up at 5am will do that to you. 

Today, I have some homework to complete and then I'm going to just relax. Maybe even a nap! It's been a busy week.