In Which The Bride-To-Be Comes Home

These past two weeks have been two of the busiest, most stressful weeks of my life. All good, though! My little girl got married last Saturday and we couldn’t be happier.

But let me back up just a little.

I realize it’s been five months since I wrote my last post. The post that informed my genteel readers I was going to be blogging again. Thank goodness I added this caveat:

When can you expect my next captivating post? I don’t know, but it would go better for you if you just don’t expect anything at all. Set the bar low. Very low.  Because I have great intentions. Always have. It’s just that follow through I struggle with.

Life has been full and busy and good in the last five months and there have been many blog-worthy things to tell you. But that full and busy part left me with little head-space to compose much of anything. We have embarked on home projects and wedding planning and guest preparations and wedding planning and a part-time job and wedding planning and… and it all seemed to culminate in the festivities of the past two weeks.

Except for the home projects part. That is the song that never ends. Ever. But that’s a post for another day. For now I’m going to take a couple of days tell you about the last two weeks.

Katie came home the week before her wedding, which was a very full week, indeed. She arrived on Friday night and Saturday morning found us heading to Havertown for her final dress fitting. You know us. We had to run through Starbuck’s first because Havertown is more than 5 minutes away. It’s how we do.

Good news. The dress fit! So we took it with us and headed out for Lancaster. She had a salon run through in the afternoon, which left us with about three hours to drive the one hour there, run through Hobby Lobby for last minute wedding necessities, and grab some lunch at Panera next door.

Our plan had been to stop at the grocery store on our way back from the salon run through and make a nice dinner to enjoy a quiet, last just-the-four-of-us family meal. Run through took significantly longer than we had expected, though, so it was Chick-Fil-A instead. Still, I wasn’t mad about it.

Just like most of the country, we had to spring forward on Sunday. Blech. Add to the loss of an hour, it was also rainy. Todd played in the band at church and Katie and I did good to make it to the 11:30 service. We had plans for that day as well, but it was rainy and cold, so we decided to observe Sabbath wait until Tuesday.

I worked 10 to 3 on Monday. Have I told you I work for dietitians? No? Well, I do. I am a client, as well. And I’ve been pretty good. I was losing weight and then mid-February happened and everything that goes along with planning a wedding and preparing for out of town guests. So my goal since then has been to maintain. Which I had done. But these last two weeks? I don’t know. I’m just hoping my people don’t read this. It could be grounds for dismissal because, holy cow, have I been enjoying myself!

Okay. I know I won’t actually lose my job because the people there are great. And I’m not just saying that in case they’re reading. They really are. Bonus for me – I am stubborn and have very little in the way of pride, so I don’t mind being mocked at work. Except I can’t tell my dietitian she’s not the boss of me, because it turns out she IS the boss of me.

Literally.

Anyway, back to my timeline. Katie went to the grocery store while I was at work and made dinner for us. I just don’t remember what it was. But it was good – partly because I didn’t have to do anything for it and partly because she’s a good cook. Probably leaning more towards the “I didn’t have to do anything for it” aspect, though.

OH! And I had a cleaning service come in and clean the house. That was glorious, too. Because, what I haven’t told you, is that the home projects I spoke of included installing new floors before the wedding and two weeks of guests. And by “we”, I mean me. AND, we thought it would be a great idea to do it ourselves. And when say “ourselves”, I mean Todd.

Oh my gosh, people. That in itself is a whole book for another day. Like an epic saga type of book. In fact, War and Peace would an appropriate size and title. And yes, Todd and I are still married and speaking and generally like each other.

My only defense is that it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Anyhoo, the house was so dusty from the flooring (which isn’t done, but you’ll have to buy the book to find out why), that I decided to take one thing off my plate and have a professional come in and clean. One of my best decisions to date.

On to Tuesday now. Princess Sookie Beatrice had a spa date and Katie and I did the running around we had originally planned to do Sunday. We hit up DSW, Charming Charlie, Soma, Ulta, and Wegmen’s. Then we came home and made up the guest rooms, one of which is actually Katie’s room, and she was banished to the basement. Before I knew it, it was time to pick my mom and sisters up at the airport.

While I was gathering people, Tina the Apple Lady delivered caramel apple deliciousness. The caramel apples from Divine Apples will seriously ruin Rocky Mountain Fudge Factory caramel apples for you. They are SO FANTASTIC! (BTW – she ships…) So after we had some fall apart roast, we sat around the table and bonded over caramel apple slices.

Wednesday was our pre-wedding family girls’ fun day. The five of us went to Peddler’s Village, had a delicious lunch, did a little shopping, hit up the candy store and then the cupcake shop. (You see why I don’t want my dietitian to read this, right?) Again, we were going to make dinner when we got home, but the day took longer than expected so we did something, but I just can’t remember what. I think it was a “whatever” night, because we weren’t all that hungry.

Poor Todd. All those women in the house and nobody to cook for him. (That sounds way more misogynistic, now that I’m reading it out loud.)

Thursday was a haircut and a little bit of color for me. I haven’t colored my hair in four-and-a-half years and I actually like it. Most of my gray is confined to my temples and it looks almost like I meant to do that. But there are more and more strands of glitter (as my cousin says), so I decided to cover them and leave my grayed temples for the wedding. So my hairdresser did a “Just for Jen” (as opposed to Just for Men) temporary treatment that will eventually wash out.

That afternoon my sisters and Katie and I went to get our nails done. In all my years, I’ve never had my nails done with my sisters. It was a fun first!

Two of Katie’s bridesmaids from Virginia came that night and slumber party shenanigans ensued in the basement that night, I’m fairly certain.

And then it was Friday.