The week was all about the wedding and seeing the California side of the family, who were arriving on Thursday. Between the preparation and the wedding weekend, time just flew by.
I started Monday at physical therapy for my thumb, which was feeling back to normal. Monday was the last day for “normal” of the week – work, knitting and bed. Tuesday was a food day at work and AP/Payroll was cooking so I had extra time in the morning so I went to Wal-Mart at 7:30, getting the first of the groceries and supplies for the weekend. Despite working late while Mary dictated a to do list for the F&A proposal work before she was leaving for a conference, I still went to swimming, figuring it’d be my last time in the pool for a week so 30 minutes was better than nothing. It was a good move because it felt great to swim after more than a week out of the pool because of my thumb. Wednesday was my last physical therapy session (they wanted me to come for more but I insisted. God knows what this will have cost me!) then a busy day at work, lunch in the sun with Nora at Maggie’s (the best veggie wraps ever) and food shopping after work. The California clan would be arriving in less than 24 hours and I was pretty much ready. Yay!
Their flight got into Omaha at 6:00 so I had planned to go to Contagion with Darla (we’ve been trying to schedule a movie for months) to kill the time until they arrived in Lincoln. The movie was good and I met up with Helen and her friend Annette from Oregon afterwards and only waited half an hour before they got there. It was great to see them all – Debbie (my cousin) and her kids, Danny, his wife Zena, Marcie and Kelley. They were starving so we went for a late supper of yummy sandwiches at Bison Witches, which had a fun, college bar vibe they seemed to like. It was fun to just hang and chat with everyone. Duh! I went home and right to bed but slept badly. Little did I know that was the beginning of a trend.
I had cranberry cole slaw to make for Friday lunch and since I wasn’t sleeping, I got up at 2:00 a.m. and made it then, thinking that it not being done might be contributing to my lack of sleep. I did sleep well after it was done but not for long enough. I woke up earlier than I’d wanted to and got ready then sat watching morning TV waiting for them to call. I was in Lincoln just after 10:00 and we hung out in Helen’s room, munching homemade granola and chatting while everyone showered. From there we went to The Apothecary Loft, where the rehearsal and dinner would be held that evening but we had the room all day. We did a brief Goodwill run while Helen and Annette did some last minute food shopping then went back to the loft. Helen and Annette worked to put together the cake she had made for that evening's dessert while we all hung out. Helen had made food for lunch (and I made cole slaw ) so it was a relaxing afternoon. The rehearsal dinner was bbq and then we all played games. We played some new dice game that had me doing timed push ups at one point and running from room to room (again being timed) at one point. It was lots of fun.
I had the only good night of sleep that night, probably because there was nothing expected of me on Saturday. I waited for the call that they were all up and about and then headed to Lincoln to hang out with the family while Helen was doing wedding stuff. We went to a couple more thrift stores and an antique store then headed to the capital, arriving just in time for a tour. By the time we were done there, it was time to get dressed back at the hotel. My mission was to get them to the wedding venue between 4:00 and 4:30 and we arrived at 4:23. Yay! But Helen was in a panic, sure she'd told me to have them there at 3:00 for pictures but she hadn't said that and I had specifically asked about time when I wrote up my schedule and to do list on Tuesday. It was no problem though. The photographer snapped a couple of pics of Michael's side of the family and we were done. The ceremony was outside and it was a bit windy but nice. The surprise for me was that Michael had changed his name legally to Densmore, Helen's maiden name, so that the Witkowski name of his turd of an adopted father would not follow him, Brenda and any future kids. How wonderful! But no one had told me that (Helen was sure she had but NO!) so I was surprised and, of course, teared up. There was lots of that this weekend. The reception was fun. We danced and sang and had lots of fun. I left just after 11:00 and went food shopping AGAIN on the way home. It was a long day.
Again, I didn't sleep well, this time getting up at 2:00 a.m. to take a shower, hoping that'd make it easier to sleep, which it seemed to. I woke up at 7:00, ate a bowl of cereal and started getting ready. I was doing lunch for 11 at 1:00. My original plan had been chicken kabobs and brats on the grill but since I had all the leftovers from Friday's lunch in my frig, I went with plan B - chicken enchiladas, leftover salads and brownies for dessert. I got the table ready (put in the leaf, brought up chairs from the basement and cleared off the cobwebs), cleaned up the deck and made 3 appetizers. But the 1:00 start time turned to 3:00 so no one ate them but the enchiladas were a big hit. We all ate and then started playing Pit, which is an absolute blast! Only 8 can play at once so we took turns sitting out but it's just as much fun to watch as to play. Everyone left ~6:00 and Debbie had done most of the dishes so all I had to do was put the food away and sit like a zombie until bedtime. I was exhausted but the fun was all worth it. I went to bed relatively early, hoping for a good night's sleep before their last day, which I'd taken off of work. What a wonderful week!
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