When I offered to host the baby shower that my Visiting Teacher was throwing for her daughter I had no idea what they had up their sleeves. I planned to put out the punch bowl with some eats and let people visit open house style as her daughter opened some gifts. I got the vibe this was more involved when they came over weeks early to see what seating I had, and what serving platters, and where they could put their decorations. I would simply be hosting by opening my home and making punch. They RAN with the rest!
The day of, October 26th, they came over hours early to start setting up. They pulled up in a truck and had boxes of decor, signs, food, and diaper cakes! I watched in awe as my front lawn and front porch were changed into little Betty's paradise. Matt was cutting back the asters on the side of the driveway and I opened the garage door and mouthed, "Can you believe this?" He couldn't. I was glad they felt like they could do what they wanted, I just would never go to such trouble. And I'm one who goes to trouble! I finished cleaning as they set up decor. I found the kids whoopie cushion and asked, "Where do you want this?"
I overheard a phone conversation of Matt's before the shower and asked him what it was about. He was going to aerate the lawn. Oh no he was-n't.
In leu of gifts there was a money jar for a rocking chair donation. There was also a diaper raffle. After I had delivered the 20 ward invitations they realized they had forgotten to include the part about the diaper raffle and asked me to re-take around the invites. If it meant that much to them, sure. Their first daughter (18 mo) was terrified of Matt. Once he got home from the bowling alley she ran screaming from the room so he went downstairs. She peeked her head down there, saw him, and ran screaming again. haha.
I had taken down all of my Halloween decor for the occasion because when I had JOKED that I would they said, "We'll even help you put them back up afterwards." The spooky thing that did happen was that when Katrina was driving up the street an 11-yr-old on a go-cart flipped a U and ran into the back of the truck. She got out of the car but his parents were already scooping him to take him to the ER. His leg had a bad gash and was bleeding like crazy. An officer came over out of routine to get her side of the story. All of this happened right at the start of the shower. Matt was taking the kids bowling and I said, "Wait, you have to stay and deal with this." So while fluffy buttercream was happening inside the house, outside the house was cops and robbers but I don't think anyone was the wiser.
Matt and I had a parent dinner/seminar in Provo that night we had purchased tickets for. However, I was not about to cut that shower short or even mention it when I saw all the work they had gone to. After they gathered their goods and left there was only time to make it to the seminar portion of the evening. Speakers included the Eyer's, Nienie, and Chad Lewis. It was really well done and we gleaned a lot of good information. Matt took me to Black Sheep afterwards. I had to kick him under the table when they were offering their special of the night, rabbit stew. No way! Then I went and did something stupid and ordered quail. Why? I don't know. It was the saddest thing to see those two birds on my plate and I could hardly pick at them. Matt's enchilada was delicious though and enough for both of us thankfully. I really like birds, why would I order them to eat? I guess compared to bunny it seemed the lesser of two evils.
The next day at church people kept asking, "How is Katrina?" I didn't know what they were talking about. Word of the truck/go-cart collision had spread fast. Some of the stories were that I had hit the poor boy in the van. Oh well, let people speculate. The family Matt home teaches offered to come give her a blessing. Truth is Katrina wasn't shaken up. The next night for FHE Matt did a lesson on the Holy Ghost, he said the Holy Ghost can be a comforter. He jokingly used the example of the boy running into Katrina's truck, "That would be a time you may need to pray for comfort IF it was bothering you." It wasn't.
The people who were struggling was the boys family. They were sure we would be upset at them for it. Their younger son wondered if he could still come to scouts at our house. We took some of those shower cupcakes over after church to check on them and assure them, it is FINE, accidents happen, we get it. NO WORRIES.
No worries. Be happy. Have a cookie with a naked baby on the top.
