Love at First Growl

When Ellen (the woman who shoves dogs into celilings) and Raphaella (my supervisor) said they wanted to throw AHB and I a themed shower for both men and women I was more than worried.

It wasn't the "men and women" part that made me nervous - as previously established - I have a lot of male friends. And it would be fun for AHB to witness what a shower is like. Men just miss out on this experience!

I was more worried about the theme. They also mentioned it was nothing you would find in our registry....so a nice "bathroom essentials" theme was out.

These are the same people who are trying to urge me to have a boudoir session before we get married. Apparently this is really popular amongst today's brides. If you don't know what a boudoir session is, basically it is when you get bedroom photos taken in questionable attire for your future husband. You can google it. I mean, some of it is really lovely. But, there is no way in heaven or hell that would be something I would do. Absolutely Not. So, as you can imagine, I was a bit worried about their secret nature when planning this shower - and the theme idea about did me under.

When they showed me the invitations, the title on the front was "Love at First Growl." (They like to combine our name into BearPaw (Berry Pawsey)...growl...) The theme ended up being Savannah - where we are going on our Honeymoon! Although, it could still get a bit spicy, we were really excited.

My favorite comment came from our friend Sarah LIdy who asked me a few days before the shower:

Sarah: "So, a themed Savannah shower?"
Me: "Yep."
Sarah:"What is it with you Residence Life people and your damn themes for EVERYTHING? We're getting you a gift card."

:) That is why we love the Lidy family. :)

Thanks to Ellen and Ralph for a GREAT shower. We had so much fun - as did many of the men who had never experienced a real shower before. Food was delicious, games were REALLY fun, (AHB, Dan, Eric, and the men won...I am not sure if any women won!! They all swept their first shower experience!)
and the gifts were mostly appropriate! All in all, a good day! :)

Highlights: Kel, Scott, and Dan all pointing out the "hickey like burn" on my neck within the first few minutes of them seeing me - I swear I burned my neck getting ready for church! The BearPaw cookies on a stick, the shoe game Ellen made up, and the creative and fun gifts around the Savannah theme.
Here are some photos from the event:

Ellen put us back to back and had us answer questions by rasising shoes.
"Who will want kids first?"
"Who will clean the house?"
"Who will take out the trash?"
We each had one of our own shoes, and one of the other person's shoes. So fun.

Pictionary was divided into groups of men and women. We were neck and neck and it came down to the tie-breaker between AHB and I. First to guess correctly took the game. Sadly the men won!

:o)

Ellen's gift is the one where we are both looking quite speechless. Haha.

Also, I can't forget to say thanks to 3 of our groomsmen for coming to stay the weekend with us. It has been way to long!

Can't wait to be married!
mmp