A Few Candid Photos from the Min/Staff Dinner 2016

 It was such a blessing, once again, to be able to attend the ministers and staff dinner of the mincon this year.  The dinners get better every year.  I try to never take things for granted though I'm sure I do being human, but what a blessing it has been to attend these.  I'm definitely not a big shot, more like a little shot, literally...I'm short.  :-)!  Here are a few of my little candid pics that I shot.  These are definitely not official or anything, just shot them for fun and for memory sake.  Sharing the joy!  :-)

ABOVE:  The lovely table in which it was such an honor to sit; the Culpeppers, Malone's, Mr. Wire, Mr. Symons, and sweet Jessie Beezley.  We had some great conversation and also threw in a little humor as well.  My fav fun saying of the night at my table...."If men are steel and velvet, what are women?"  I said "silk" in a question form thinking of fabric, but Mrs. Culpepper had the best answer...."fascinating!"  A+  :-)  (Thanks to Justin Goodearl for taking the above table shot. :-)  )

BELOW:  Posing with Mr. Wire.  This pic is special b/c going all the way back to when my dad was baptized in the 70's back when he was single, Mr. Wire was the minister who actually baptized my dad and he's still around and serving!  Obviously, I'm here by God, but Mr. Wire was the human instrument that started the Coats family journey on into eternity.  :-)

 BELOW:  The bro and sis in law.  Looks like they found a baby sitter for Sophia.  That can be hard when so many other people were in attendance and probably looking for babysitters themselves.

 The Culpepper's went all out with the decor.  They covered the backs to every chair.  I know from experience in helping with weddings etc that, that takes A LOT of time.

 Mr. and Mrs. Calvin and Olivia Culpepper put together the dinner theme and setup for the evening and I have to say that I've been friends with them for a long time, but never realized how talented they were in "party planning" so to speak.  This was one of the best dinners ever.  They put together the below invitations which were really the quality of a wedding invitation.  Amazed and proud of my friends.  :-)  The decor shown in earlier pics was great as well!

 WOW! is a good word for the menu that was definitely fit for royalty.  I don't remember ever having a meal that had two main courses.  That was a blessing that isn't taken for granted.  At first I was thinking, how to save room for so much food, but it was proportioned out perfectly.  We discussed at our table how blessed we are here with food in abundance even though the prices may be getting higher, we're still so blessed.  After our conversation last night it makes me want to try harder to be conscious of that blessing and not be wasteful.

 BELOW:  Getting more up close and personal with the trout.  :-)

 and the beef course was so yummy.

 The Krueger's and the students were so wonderful.  I didn't even say anything as I'm nothing special and would never ask for special favors, but they thought of little ole me and made sure no cheese was on anything that I was served on any of the food, and I got a "special" dessert.  ABOVE:  everyone was served a ice cream parfait type dessert and I was served BELOW pureed frozen raspberries.  Wow!  I definitely didn't deserve that, but it was definitely appreciated. Mr. Malone wins the award for best pun for my dessert..."Berry good"  ;-)