Black eye

Saturday morning was the big Relief Society event that we've been planning for a while.  I will never, ever take these kinds of events for granted again.  I know how much work they really are.  Our theme for the next 12 months in Relief Society is service, and we wanted to kick it off with a big service project.  We wanted to do something more local (as opposed to the international humanitarian aid service projects that the church sponsors-- those are really great, we just wanted to do something more local this time).  It is hard to find good projects that can be done at the church by a large group!  Really hard!  Anyway, we settled on a project making fleece and flannel blankets for a couple of charities-- Project Linus, which provides blankets nationally to NICU's, children's hospitals, children entering the foster care system, etc., and the Gabriel Project, a Catholic pro-life charity here in Texas that provides support for women in crisis pregnancies.
It was lots of work.  I went to Walmart probably 4 times for fabric and other supplies (I got to know the lady working in the fabric department pretty well :-)), spent quite a few hours cutting and washing fabric, making some sample blankets, making templates and instructions, and researching other local volunteer opportunities to put together in a handout for everyone. My committee leader did a ton of work on this and made the final handout.  She also met up with the Project Linus people, made up instructions for the fleece fringe blankets.  The rest of my committee also spent hours organizing the lunch, making invitations and posters, making centerpieces for the tables, and of course setting up and cleaning up the actual activity. 
I think it ended up going well.  I tried hard to organize everything so that there was always something for everyone to be doing-- no wasted time or waiting for another part of the project to be finished.  We had an ironing station to iron the fabric at the beginning, and then at the end before the final top-stitching.  We had cutters and pinners who cut the fabric to size using templates I made, and then pinning the front and back together.  We had sew-ers (there really needs to be a better word than that) who sewed the blankets together, and then did the final top-stitching at the end.  We had a fleece station where people cut the fringes around the edges of the fleece blankets. 
From what I observed (I was sewing), everyone was busy the whole time, and I think the process went smoothly.  I had fun and wished we could have kept working another couple of hours!  After that we had lunch (taco salad and Texas sheet cake), and Kellie (my committee leader) and I gave a short presentation on the service projects our RS will be involved in over the next 12 months.
We were able to finish 30 blankets, which was great!  Actually more than I thought we would be able to complete.  I wish more people would have come, since only about half (or maybe less) of the people who signed up actually showed up.  That's always a bit discouraging and disappointing to me.  It is SO much work, and I can't help being just a bit deflated when people don't come.  I'm sure everyone who didn't come probably had a good reason, and, honestly, I was so relieved to have it over with, that I didn't mind that much.  But I thought it was a really fun activity, and I wish everyone could have come because I think they would have had a great time!
After the activity, Ben came to the church to lug ALL my stuff back to the car, and help clean up.  On the way home, we stopped at Lowes so he could buy some wood to make a water slide for our pool.  I was so exhausted (I was up until 3:00 AM finishing all my preparations), so I stayed in the car while Ben went into the store.  He came back with several large pieces of wood that he then loaded in through the back of the van.  The pieces of wood were 12 feet long, so he had to push them clear up toward the front of the van.  I had been laying back in the driver's seat trying to catch a few winks when suddenly the big pile of wood he had loaded into the van slipped, and one of the giant 12-foot 4x4 beams fell down, the corner of it slamming into the orbital bone of my right eye. 
I'll just say that I'm sure there are many important evolutionary reasons to have so many sensitive nerve endings around the eyes-- namely to preclude injuries exactly like the one I received.  But, given that I DID receive such an injury, I was mightily wishing some of those nerve endings were not so sensitive.  I haven't been that tempted to say a naughty word in a long, long time.  :-)
By the time we got home, my eye was swelling up and I had a raging headache.  I took some ibuprofen, put an icepack over my eye, and fell asleep for a few hours.  When I woke up, I saw that yes, indeed, I was definitely going to have a black eye.  I went to HEB that night for some ultra-coverage concealer, since I'd really rather not people be speculating whether or not I am getting beat up at home.  Although I did joke with Ben that when people asked me about it, I could honestly say that my husband hit me in the face with a 4x4.  :-)  It just happened to be extremely accidentally.
It's now really super-attractive if purplish-blackish-blue happens to be your favorite color.  :-)  I've been trying to come up with a good story to tell when people ask me about it, but the best line I've come up with so far is, "If you think this looks bad, you should see the 4x4!"  Ha, ha, ha. 
Actually, the 4x4 looks awesome because it is now a part of the water slide that Ben made.  He used a plastic slide leftover from one of those Little Tykes plastic play structures we used to have when the boys were small.  He built a frame around it, and then attached the old ladder that used to be in the pool.  The boys have been LOVING it, and I'm really impressed with Ben's handy skills.
Here are a few pictures of the boys on the slide.  I haven't taken a picture of the corresponding black eye, for which everyone ought to be very grateful.