The Wedding Extravaganza

Kate and Don are officially hitched! Now you'll know why we were exhausted...my feet hurt so bad I didn't put my grown up shoes on until right before the wedding. I kept my furry house shoes on until absolutely necessary. It was chaotic but totally worth it! Check out pictures below....

 The sanctuary

 The pew bows....not tied by me...I'm a bow-tying failure. We're lucky I don't have to wear velcro shoes.

 We're going to decorate the sanctuary like this for Christmas next year...too pretty not to.

 Jace the Flower Girl...pre dress

The beautiful bride.... 

 Reception center pieces....way to go Mom!

 Don't be jealous of her shoes....they were her favorite part of the entire day

 Look at those adorable groomsmen, all dressed and sitting there so composed. It may have something to do with the fact that the wedding planner told everyone to be at the church for pictures by 11am - even though pictures didn't start until 11:45. Yes, that's right - I lied. We had a schedule to keep people! Kate thanked me for my sneakiness later.

 Ta da! Didn't she turn out pretty!

 My parents and Jacie

 Pretty, pretty bridesmaids

 Jacie telling the photographer what to do...there's a shocker.

 Dad and Lee...Looking at them you'd never know I almost committed homicide at Goody's over their tux issues...

My sister Em and niece Sydney....I'm pretty sure Em needs a second career in cosmotology... Syd's hair and Kate's hair turned out beautiful

 Shhhhh.....wedding in progress....

The beautiful reception....the cake went under the tent 

 Who needs a grooms cake when you can have a candy table instead? It was a huge hit!

The wedding party table

Glad I can feel my feet again,

Mandy

My Masterpiece.....

So, you probably know that my little sister Kate, got married the weekend before Christmas. 


No, I'm not going to get all sentimental on you. 


So what if I can remember holding her when she was born....
or how she had little Yoda ears when she was a baby...
or how much she loved the pet turtle I secretly released from his ice cream bucket home when she was six (Sorry Kate, you had to find out someday). 


Its amazing how time flies and tiny, follow-you-around-everywhere-siblings grow up into beautiful brides. 


Anyway, not only was I her wedding planner - I was also the cake maker. 


Can you tell I like a challenge? Its either that or I'm crazy. It probably takes a little of both to survive in my world. 


Either way its absolutely true that I love Kate (and my new BIL Don) 4 tiers worth of blood, sweat, and almost exhaustion induced tears. And I have the photo to prove it. (All actual evidence in this case has been eaten)


I struck out on my adventure to learn to make cakes like this a few years ago and I have Googled and experimented and bluffed my way through it. I have learned.....


1. Mini marshmallows are oddly versatile....hence the Marshmallow Fondant on the cake pictured below. 


2. The afore mentioned mini marshmallows WILL spontaneously combust just like an Easter Peep if microwaved for too long. 


3. Flowers, ribbon, and stenciling are not just pretty....they're mistake hiders :)


4. PVC pipe isn't just for plumbing.... its also a wonderful gigantic rolling pin when you need it.


5. In fact, any household item can qualify as a "cake sculpting tool"...toothpicks, q-tips, pizza cutters.....


6. How many people does it take to cover a large cake layer in fondant? -If you're short -at least 3


7. Forget Oil of Olay...Crisco Vegetable Shortening will give you hands 10 times softer for a fraction of the price. 


8. If I made homemade fondant every day, Michelle Obama would want to trade arms with me. 

Mom did the flowers and bridesmaids-of-the-year Michelle and Morgan helped me with the layers! They were wonderful assistants. We're still waiting on Ace of Cakes to call and ask us for our autographs. 

Wedding pictures coming soon to a blog near you...

Cake Crafter Mandy

Christmas Around the World

....was the title of our kid's Christmas play this year....which means that each kid got to dress up in a different international costume. 

That's right...you see a Japan, Ireland, Sweden, Rome, Africa, Scotland, America, and Mexico represented.

 Our Roman soldier was hilarious!...he was barefoot and had a sword and shield to entertain himself with

The only angel I've every seen with a pacy.....

More to come...

Mandy

Kings Kids Christmas

The month of December has been complete. utter. mindboggling. CHAOS for the Knight family. I am sooo ready for January to get here so we can be boring again. Here is a glimpse of one of the wonderful things that filled the last 30 days....

This year JCN adopted 7 kids from our community for the Christmas season. We interviewed families and had the kids (ages 1 - 9) make their Christmas lists out. One little picked out EVERY item in the toy catalog (which is really the antithesis of picking) and one little girl picked out every PINK item in the toy catalog. A few weeks before Christmas I met several people at Walmart to do the Christmas shopping. I have never felt more inadequate in my life.....who knew shopping for toys could be so difficult. So I commandeered a couple of kids to help me out in the toy section.  One Wednesday night before Christmas we had a pizza party with all of the families, told the Christmas Story, and then let them tear into their gifts. It was so much fun!

Elf Abby Lynn.....she was perfectly enthusiastic. (and it got me out of being the elf myself!)

 Yes, that's right...Santa arrived to take pictures with the kids.

 The conversation I had with Elf Abby just before I told the Christmas Story:

Me: Abby, can you help me lay out the quilts so we can tell the Christmas Story?

Abby: Which Christmas Story??

Me: ABBY?! THEChristmas Story... you know, the one with Baby Jesus in it.

Abby: Oh, that one. 

 Each kid got to pick a handmade ornament off the tree to take home.

 Our faithful teens! They jumped right in and made our guests feel right at home!

Our kid friendly Christmas tree....our Women's Ministry made a ton of ornaments to decorate our colorful tree.

I hope at some point this Christmas you got to open an excited kid open a present! 

Mandy

Wanna Come Over for Dinner?

Last week we all observed the most American of holidays - Thanksgiving. Which reminded me that I forgot to mention Kevin's newest skill. 

That's right folks. He cooks. He bakes. He does it all. After recently coming out victorious in chili making (we decided onion skins in the chili don't count),  Kevin decided to satisfy his sweet tooth with a homemade apple pie. 

Watch out Martha - he's gunning for you.

The pie is pictured below. NOT pictured is the pie maker himself. Because he was kind enough not to photo document my oral surgery adventure of 2010, I am repaying the favor and NOT posting (although my fingers are itching to do it) a picture of him in mid-pie creation. It just wouldn't be fair. Or nice. Or remotely mature. 

And you all know how mature I am. Thats why I'm saving it for the next time I need the upper hand in a argument. Then I'll enlarge it to an 8 X 10 and threaten to post it for your viewing pleasure. Ha!  I will tell you that the color of the apron he was wearing rhymes with the word SINK. 

Let your imagination do the rest.

Happy Late Thanksgiving!


Mandy 

Fall Festival

We survived the Fall Festival again this year. It helped that we could feel all of our fingers and toes and that there was no freezing mist falling from the heavens. I'm pretty sure we've been praying since about halfway through last year's Fall Festival that this year would be 40 degrees warmer and sunny with balmy breezes. 


My favorite part (other than blue cotton candy) is and will forever be the sumo wrestling. We matched Hannah and Dylan (youth group arch enemies) against one another. 


My version of creative problem solving. 


I was Hannah's "coach" and Kevin was Dylan's "coach". Generally, I make it a rule never to encourage the kids to smash each other into oblivion or smother one another while wearing fat suits, but once a year I must break my rule. I MUST sit on the sidelines and watch them hobble toward around in clumsy attempts to destroy one another with bellies Santa Clause himself can only dream of.


The event unfolded as follows:

Hannah suiting up. Its harder than it looks - especially if you're short. 

 Dylan smashing my little Hannah Banana

Dylan - victorious. 

 Never was a truer warning stated. Even with helmets, I still got a lot of "Ms. Mandy! So-and-so smashed my head when we were sumo wrestling!"

My response to whining sumo wrestler: "Its SUMO WRESTLING! What did you think was going to happen??!!"

Yes, I know. I'm working on my compassion skills.

Sawyer - Hayride Tractor Driver. At the end of the day he said, "I love this tractor. I wish I could  drive it all the time." 

I thought I had more pictures. Evidently, I got busy and didn't take as many as I thought. Oops. Overall, the festival was a raging success and we had lots of visitors from our community. 

Happy Fall!

Mandy

2010 Laymen of the Year

I'm a little behind... with this one but these guys are so great I couldn't not post about them! During JCN's homecoming each October we announce our Layman of the Year. This year the church board nominated two men - there was no way we could choose one over the other. Not a chance.

These two men are responsible for 99% of the remodeling that has taken place in our old sanctuary to create the youth center and the children's church. So, not only do they have my undying gratitude, but now their names are are etched on our plaque of fame. We also took a picture of the teens in their new fancy space and had them framed in autographed mats so each kid could write them a personalized thank you. 

Watch our 2011 Layman of the Year - I don't know how you'll top these two!

Mark Bordwine and Bill Neal a.k.a. "Superman's Mentors"

Nurse Kevin

So, last Thursday Kevin drove me to Chattanooga to have my wisdom teeth cut out. Needless to say, I was not thrilled at this turn of events, but it cost my dad a lot of money to create this smile so it just didn't seem right to let my wisdom teeth hijack it. 


Here are ten reasons why Pastor Kevin deserves a medal for being my nurse for 4 long days....


1. While I was sitting in the waiting room, bleary-eyed and planning escape routes, he promised to storm the surgery room and rescue me from the clutches of Dr. Spann if I yelled, "Kevin! Help! Come get me! Save me! I can't do it!" 


2. He listened carefully to all of Nurse Pam's instruction about post-surgery care and faithfully pulled the car around to the correct entrance to collect me after my morning of surgical adventure.


3. Not once did he pick up his phone or a camera to video/photo-document my drugged state of being. Hence the lack of photos for this post. This was a no camera zone.


4. He faithfully donned his latex gloves to remove and replace soggy gauze and listened without laughing when I mumbled proper gauze placement instructions incoherently.


5. Every time I turned my hazel eyes in my moon-shaped face to him and asked, "Does my face still look swollen?" he faithfully said, "No, I think its getting better," when in fact my face was obviously trying to double in size without asking my permission.


6. He brought me pain pills, rented movies, fluffed my pillows, arranged my blankets, cooked scrambled eggs, bought me a milkshake, and kept me from tipping over when I unwisely decided to stand up and walk around.


7. When I decided to break my 15 year "no throwing up" record as the anesthesia wore off, he stood next to me to make sure I didn't fall down or run into the furniture as I wove my way to the bathroom. No kidding - it was similar to what happens when you drop a Mentos into a 2-liter of Diet Pepsi - eruption is imminent.


8. Every once in a while he'd poke his head into the room and say, "Are you okay? Do you need anything?" just in case I was too loopy to remember to ask.


9. He gave me a pep talk in the car before we went into the surgery center and gave me ideas about how to distract myself from the IV that I knew was coming. (Luckily, Nurse Pam was good so I didn't feel it!)


10. When I'd start to fall asleep with my glasses on he'd take them off and put them on the nightstand so I didn't roll over and smoosh them into my face. 


I'm doing much better and went back to work today! Hope your hubby is as awesome as mine!


Mandy

Breathe

About 6 weeks ago some of the ladies at church began meeting at my house on Tuesday nights at 6pm for a Bible Study. However...this isn't anything like any women's bible study you've ever done before....

1. There is no workbook...Why assign homework if it stresses us out to the point that we don't enjoy the study?

2. Ladies of ALL ages are attending....I wanted a variety of perspectives and experiences to all come together and mingle in my living room :)

3. There are no "fill in the blanks" flip charts, videos, acronyms, or matching questions. 

For our study, we're all reading one chapter of the book each week and then coming together to talk about it - and how its changing us. We're getting to know one another in an environment where we can be encouraging - where we can help carry one another's burdens to Jesus.  Its a study for the hassled. worried. hurried. and stressed among us. (Go ahead 'fess up....you fall into one of those categories!)

Check out Breathe: Creating Space for God in a Hectic Life by Keri Wyatt Kent. You can get it on Amazon for cheap. Keri's writing style is very conversational and full to the brim with real life examples you will relate to. This study will touch your heart and remind you that your value comes not from what you do but from who you are. - You are a beloved child of God.  

Let me know if you like it!

Mandy

Go Warriors!

Fall is in the air and I can sense that its football time! It might be the moans of agony coming from the living room every time Georgia touches a football or maybe the chill in the air or the fact that your backside is numb after about 10 minutes of sitting on the bleachers, but you can just feel it around here.


Either way, Marion County's homecoming has come and gone once again...check it out. 

Hannah is one of my seniors and she was the best yellow jacket ever! The senior float involved her getting squashed by a giant fly swatter....Jordon is her cousin and maybe the sweetest "all boy" I've ever met. 

 We're serious about supporting our kids! We paid to advertise on the fence at the stadium. There's one at the softball field too. 

One of our other seniors, Dylan, is #20...He's in this picture somewhere. This kid has the most heart of any player out there....and he's our comedian. 

You wouldn't think Dylan or any of the other players would know who's there and who's not. A couple of weeks ago we tried to flag him down but we didn't think he saw us. We were talking about the game the following Wednesday night at church and we told him we figured he couldn't see us, but Dylan said, "I see you. I always know who's there." Kids know when you care enough to show up! 

 He loves that we show up to support them...regardless of the score at the end of the 4th quarter. 

This Friday night JCN is sponsoring 5th Quarter....aka feeding 60 ravenous football players and their fans pizza at the Warrior Fieldhouse after the game. Its going to be exhausting but its a great way to tell our kids that they're worth our time and attention! Saturday we're throwing our annual Fall Festival....

So if I don't post pictures immediately, its probably because I'm in an exhausted coma or Kevin squashed me in the sumo ring....

Mandy

Happy Birthday "Paster Keven"

I'll go ahead and apologize for being a blog slacker. I promise that I've been trying to post, but my camera and I got in a fight with the Mac again and it has just been downhill from there. I've outsmarted it for the time being.....just so we could all say "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"... who cares if its 3 weeks late. It just makes the birthday fun last that much longer. 

 This was the photo on the front of his birthday card from me this year....We will definitely re-enact this in another 40 years.

The kids all wrote cards to "Paster Kiven" so I picked out a few to share. They speak for themselves.....

 To: Paster Kiven

From: Robbie

 When can we go play golf. And can I go with you.

I hope you have a great Birthday Special "K"!

Love, Abby-Lynn

P. S. I love you :)

Happy Birtheday Paster. Keven. you rock. 

A special Birthday boy like you your a good Pastor like god wanted you to be. 

Love, Gracie-Mae Jordan

I took the birthday boy out for some italian at Tony's in the Bluff View Art District....take that Olive Garden!

Mandy and Kevin

Backpacks

About three weeks ago, something tragic happened. Kids all over town threw fits -  stomped their grungy, sunburned feet, and cried crocodile tears as they scratched their mosquito bites. 

Summer had officially - ended. The school bell started ringing. Gone were the bathing suits, flip flops, and hours of endlessly texting their friends. They emerged from their houses bleary-eyed. Dressed in collared shirts, khaki pants, and shoes that did not bare their toes.

They huffed and grumbled and lumbered to bus stops and waiting mini vans all over town - heavy laden with backpacks - filled with paper, pencils, and hand sanitizer. (They're a pretty germy bunch)

When all of us adults finally quit chuckling and snapping those blackmail-worthy "First Day of School" photos, we realized that some of the kids in our community didn't have everything they needed for the traditional trek back to the classroom. 

So, the JCN Women's Ministry set to work stuffing backpacks with all those much needed learning necessities. This year we were able to buy and fill 15 backpacks for kids at Jasper Elementary School (baby steps people, baby steps). Next year, we hope to provide even more backpacks for the students in our community.

Happy School Year!

Mandy