Week 46

I'm a day late this week with Project 365 because we've been super busy. It's been a whirlwind of travel, time with family, with our church, the first of two bridal showers for our daughter... but let me just tell you about our week through photos...

Last Monday Ivan spent a total of TWELVE HOURS finalizing the paperwork to buy the lot. It involved sitting at the bank for a good part of the day until the money we had wired down was finally put into our account. Then he had to make the rounds of several offices for various signatures. Here he is with the seller and the escribana who handled the legal stuff.

We made the 6 a.m. flight from Cordoba to Buenos Aires on Tuesday and, faced with an almost 15 hour layover, decided to find a hotel and get some rest. Ivan was able to get us a room at this cute little bed and breakfast about five minutes from the airport. I only slept for three hours and then I slipped out to this lovely courtyard and read for a while.

Tuesday night we boarded our flight to the U.S. and watched the lights of Buenos Aires disappear into the distance as we headed north.

This walkway at the airport in Chicago reminded me of a display of paint chips at a home improvement store :)

Our daughter and future son-in-law met us at the baggage carousel and when I started to unpack my winter coat Tina said not to bother. We walked outside and it was almost 70°! Which made the Starbucks frappuccinos that Kyle brought even more refreshing. I wrote all about our travels here.

Tina showed us her office and we watched a video project they were working on.

I was SOOOOO happy to see the autumn colors weren't all gone! Friday we went to Michigan so we could attend a small group meeting that our hosts were having that night. As we headed out of Winona Lake we snapped this photo; just look at all the lovely red and yellow...

Saturday morning Ivan got up early to go to the men's prayer breakfast. It was dark when they left but a short time later I glanced out the window and saw this gorgeous sunrise. I couldn't get a good photo from my room so I slipped on my robe and Reboks and snuck outside to take a picture.

Later that day we were all busy preparing for the festivities on Sunday. We had a combined bridal shower for Tina and Night of Blessing for Kyle. The Night of Blessing is a tradition the men in our church have for the groom. Wally, who's chopping zucchini in this photo, explains it on his blog, The Daysman.

We are blessed by an amazing church family, and I'm particularly grateful for the women who have been an important part of Tina's life as well as mine. Wally took this photo while we were setting up for the party.

I almost shared a picture from our one little mini disaster :) I ground the coffee beans into a powder and then put too much in and it clogged up the pot, causing it to overflow all over the counter and sending the five of us in to action!

Wally asked Kyle and Tina to stand on the stairs so everyone could see them, and share the story of how they met and got engaged. Even though I'd heard the story before, it was fun to hear it again and to share in their joy.

After we ate the men headed upstairs and the women gathered in the living room. Woman after woman stood to encourage and bless Tina.  Some were serious, some were funny, and we laughed and cried and had such a special time.

Because of the combined event, we knew there wouldn't be time for her to open all her gifts, but Katie thought it would be fun for Tina to open the one I had made her so the ladies could see it too. Here's Tina looking at the dedication page of the cookbook I made on blurb.com. She loved it!

I got the idea while (finally) getting my Project 365 from last year ready to send to blurb.com. I happened to notice they have recipe page layouts and had one of those "Ah ha!" moments :) That's the secret project I mentioned a few weeks ago. It ended up taking about 50-60 hours but it was SO worth it to see the smile on my daughter's face :)

We're pretty busy right now but things will slow down a little in December (we hope) as we finish gearing up for the wedding. It has been so much fun to see as many friends as we have in just our first week. Can't see everyone this trip, but we're going to see as many as we can!