A Bat Mitzvah To Be Reckoned With

Wow.
What an incredible weekend.

Friends and family were invited, and some of my dearest friends from Colorado and North Carolina weren't coming.

"Oh well, I completely understand." I thought, "It's not like they'll BUY plane tickets and come just for my bat mitzvah. And Deborah, Deborah has a wedding, so she can't make it."
I was resigned.
I understood how ridiculous it would have been for them to come, it was just too unhandy and too much of a mess.
November 10th.
We were all sitting in the Living Room, relaxing and taking deep breaths before the craziness officially began.
Dad was in a weird mood that night, all jittery and excited.
Him and Zach randomly burst into laughter over things that hardly anyone else could see humor in.
"IS ANYBODY HOME??"
followed by uncontrollable giggles and screams.
I was absolutely thunderstruck.
There, IN OUR LIVING ROOM, stood Monica and Kelci Miller, my friends from Colorado.
It took about 10 seconds for everything to register in my little overtaxed brain.

'monica, and kelci, are in OUR LIVING ROOM.
monica and kelci are in OUR LIVING ROOM.
monica and kelci are in OUR LIVING ROOM.
monica and kelci are in OUR LIVING ROOM.
MONICA AND KELCI ARE IN OUR LIVING ROOM.'
I was literally shaking and almost speechless for about ten minutes.
I never knew I couldn't take surprises. 
Wow.

    this photograph was taken a little while after the initial shock wore off, for the good of all humanity.

                                              We immediately began being strange.
                         life is short, we always say.

Soon, my vocabulary returned, and my brain stopped fuzzing, and my limbs stopped vibrating, 
                                The very next morning, some of the illustrious aunts arrived.

They traveled through rain and snow, sun and cloud, night and day to arrive.
(they seriously left at 12:00 P.M.)
     (they are the bomb.com)
We began our day in preparation for the big day.
(We Barkmans are normally so organized and plan-aheaders. I have no idea what happened to us.)
eHEM.
We began the preparation by . . . 

                                              carving pumpkins and . . .

                                                            gutting pumpkins.

                 Reader, have you ever, in your whole life, gutted a pumpkin?
                      No, you say? Well, the next photograph is basically pumpkin gutting summed up.

                                      Please, please click on this picture for utmost clarity.

                                         And then, we began cutting holes into them.
                                               
moving on.


                                    The setting up at the church began.
                                 It turned out beautifully with my aunts' ingenius suggestions.

                                                     . . .

       My window, filled with a few of my favorite things.

                                         We stared at random people from the windows . . .

                                      Zachary and Sheila really did all of the dirty work.

                                           Trevor serenaded us with music.

                                          and I received my very FIRST bouqet of flowers.
                                                  it made my day. week. month. LIFE.

                                         And then, the other family members began to arrive.

                                           We had an absolutely topping time.

                         
                              The blessings I received that night (and the next night)
                               were absolutely wonderful. 
                               I think I could live on them for the next five years.
                               They absolutely blew me away.


                    We had around eleven girls sleeping in one room for about two nights.
it was wonderful, all the inside jokes, and embarrassing moments, and uncontrollable giggles we shared.
Then the very next night, we had the "Main Event" at our church house. I don't know how to explain this evening in words, so I shall simply post random pictures of the evening 

                                                    Zachary was thrilled at the menu.
                                                          Soups and burritos.
                                                                Poor Seg.

                                                   Grandpa was able to come!
                                           P.S. I shall not take credit for most of these pictures,
                                      my lovely cousin Victoria was shooting most of the ceremony.

                                            Father's blessing. Father cried. I almost cried too.

                                 Now, let's all stand back and laugh as the innocent Christy gets
                                   doused with whipped cream. She got quite a few back, I must say.

 

                                            I would never tell you to click a picture, but . . .

                                                       Oh, Deborah.
                                              DEBORAH. I didn't tell you the Deborah story!
                                 deborah had been invited, but she was so so sad because, she had a wedding on friday, and she said she probably couldn't go all the way back to N.C., and then back up here the same night.
                        *enter gullible Christy nodding head and trying to be sympathetic.*
                     Friday night, (the night with only family) she came and surprised me.
               how she surprised me, I shan't tell, but I'm quite sure that I'll never be able to live that one down.
                            ( I don't think I can take one more thing that's not planned out 20 years ahead of time)

                                             Some of my lovely, lovely friends.

                                                And almost the whole group of us.
                                                      This is how we really and truly are . . .

                                                         When we aren't like this.

                                                        Or this.

                                    Now, before you all begin to think that I am an absolute mess,
                                           and that I have no sense at all and that I am a grasping fool,
                                                        just understand that my love language is gifts.
                                       So, this wonderful pile warmed the "cockles of my little heart".

                                        Isn't this wonderful printed wrapping paper? you may say to yourself.
                                       I am here to say that my friend Kelsey spent a LOT of TIME STENCILING
                                         a bunch of French words, and Eiffel Towers, and a whole crowd of lovely things.
                                                   I am enraptured.

                                               The pen of my dreams.

 I just want to spout a HUGE thank you to everyone who came and blessed me so wonderfully. 
     I don't know what else to say, but that it means SO MUCH to me.
             I shall now leave you with a few pictures that make me exceedingly happy right now.

                                                                   -----------------

         
                                                       -Me