Days like this come one right after another. The pace is overwhelming. Let me catch my breath.
My daughter got married in August.
Did I mention that my daughter Amanda got married? It was a great day, a hot, August day that came at the end of a whirlwind summer. I suppose the whirlwind had something to do with the fact that we were preparing for a wedding. Yes, I'm quite sure we were preparing because, when August 10th arrived, we were prepared!
Susi had callouses on her fingertips from wrapping wires around silk flowers to fashion them into boutonnieres and corsages. My contribution to that project had been a trip to Michael's Craft Store in Yakima, where I made up a game to play with the boys while Susi & Katie picked out the raw materials and sent pics of all the possible floral arrangements for Amanda's approval via text message.
I, on the other hand, had no callouses because I always remembered to take along my leather work gloves when going out to "The Meadow" to mow or use the weed whacker. By mid-summer this had become a weekly trek: a scenic 7 mile drive out Highway 10 along the Yakima River, to milepost 100, almost to the Thorpe Bridge. I'd load up the gas can and "whacker" and coffee and water and my floppy straw hat and sunglasses and some extra cord for the "whackin' machine," never forgetting my gloves. It was peaceful out at "The Meadow," and it gave me a good feeling knowing I was helping get things ready for the "Big Day."
Susi wore mitts or used potholders each time she would take the large cake pans out of the oven, six or seven in all. I lost count but before it was all over we froze enough cake to feed 250 people strawberry shortcake for dessert and then give leftover cake away. They all loved it. But how could you go wrong with fresh ground whole wheat flower, raw sugar and real butter, not to mention the eggs our chickens had just laid. Then there was the whipped cream. Mary helped us prepare for that. We thought 12 Costco-sized cans would be enough, and we had done the "testing" to prove it. But she said our portions were too small. In the end we decided to let people put it on for themselves and have as much as they wanted. We bought 24 cans and had only one left over!
Getting it all done early is what we call "Front-loading." And if it could be done early, we did it.
Another thing I worked on was the electrical hookup. That's how I know that the path I walked Amanda down was almost exactly 300 feet, from the basement of the house where all the bridesmaids were getting ready, to the start of the aisle that would lead us up front to the place where I would give my daughter away. When we got that I was prepared for that too. I had the notes for my comments written out and I had run it by Susi to get her feedback. I shared what a joy it had been for us to raise Amanda and how she had really given her desire for a husband over to God and what a lucky guy Joel was to be "The One." Then I just sat down and let Kev do the ceremony.
There was a thunder storm the night before the wedding, and we knew it could have rained that day also. After the rehearsal dinner we put everything that was outside that we didn't want to get wet under canopies and lowered their legs down so stuff would be protected. It did rain hard that night and the next morning Jessica Hudson called and said "Oh, I'm so sorry! Do you need help with all the table decorations that got ruined by the rain last night?" But we got out there and uncovered things and aired everything out and preparations went ahead with no problems.
It was warm and sunny but we had bottled water on ice for people to drink. They seemed to like that and a lot of the seats were in the shade so that was cool too. The ceremony was beautiful, including the cereal and milk unity bowl, which you probably have never seen before and will never see again.
When that was done we put all the tables in place for the reception and it was getting kind of hot, like about 90 degrees and I was thinking, "Are people really going to want to sit in full sunshine in this heat to eat dinner?" But within five minutes of that thought there came an enormous overcast cloud cover for shade and it even rained large, wet, raindrops on us but nobody cared because it felt so cool. Then we did sit down to a delicious dinner of Penne' pasta and Alfredo sauce and chicken and parmesan. And the weather was perfect and the company was special.
After that we made good use of the rented dance floor for about the next three hours, dancing and drinking wine out of Mason jars and having a great time. And even the cleanup the next day was no big deal because of all the wonderful people helping us.
So that's what I did in the Summer of 2013.
My daughter got married in August.
Did I mention that my daughter Amanda got married? It was a great day, a hot, August day that came at the end of a whirlwind summer. I suppose the whirlwind had something to do with the fact that we were preparing for a wedding. Yes, I'm quite sure we were preparing because, when August 10th arrived, we were prepared!
Susi had callouses on her fingertips from wrapping wires around silk flowers to fashion them into boutonnieres and corsages. My contribution to that project had been a trip to Michael's Craft Store in Yakima, where I made up a game to play with the boys while Susi & Katie picked out the raw materials and sent pics of all the possible floral arrangements for Amanda's approval via text message.
I, on the other hand, had no callouses because I always remembered to take along my leather work gloves when going out to "The Meadow" to mow or use the weed whacker. By mid-summer this had become a weekly trek: a scenic 7 mile drive out Highway 10 along the Yakima River, to milepost 100, almost to the Thorpe Bridge. I'd load up the gas can and "whacker" and coffee and water and my floppy straw hat and sunglasses and some extra cord for the "whackin' machine," never forgetting my gloves. It was peaceful out at "The Meadow," and it gave me a good feeling knowing I was helping get things ready for the "Big Day."
Susi wore mitts or used potholders each time she would take the large cake pans out of the oven, six or seven in all. I lost count but before it was all over we froze enough cake to feed 250 people strawberry shortcake for dessert and then give leftover cake away. They all loved it. But how could you go wrong with fresh ground whole wheat flower, raw sugar and real butter, not to mention the eggs our chickens had just laid. Then there was the whipped cream. Mary helped us prepare for that. We thought 12 Costco-sized cans would be enough, and we had done the "testing" to prove it. But she said our portions were too small. In the end we decided to let people put it on for themselves and have as much as they wanted. We bought 24 cans and had only one left over!
Getting it all done early is what we call "Front-loading." And if it could be done early, we did it.
Another thing I worked on was the electrical hookup. That's how I know that the path I walked Amanda down was almost exactly 300 feet, from the basement of the house where all the bridesmaids were getting ready, to the start of the aisle that would lead us up front to the place where I would give my daughter away. When we got that I was prepared for that too. I had the notes for my comments written out and I had run it by Susi to get her feedback. I shared what a joy it had been for us to raise Amanda and how she had really given her desire for a husband over to God and what a lucky guy Joel was to be "The One." Then I just sat down and let Kev do the ceremony.
There was a thunder storm the night before the wedding, and we knew it could have rained that day also. After the rehearsal dinner we put everything that was outside that we didn't want to get wet under canopies and lowered their legs down so stuff would be protected. It did rain hard that night and the next morning Jessica Hudson called and said "Oh, I'm so sorry! Do you need help with all the table decorations that got ruined by the rain last night?" But we got out there and uncovered things and aired everything out and preparations went ahead with no problems.
It was warm and sunny but we had bottled water on ice for people to drink. They seemed to like that and a lot of the seats were in the shade so that was cool too. The ceremony was beautiful, including the cereal and milk unity bowl, which you probably have never seen before and will never see again.
When that was done we put all the tables in place for the reception and it was getting kind of hot, like about 90 degrees and I was thinking, "Are people really going to want to sit in full sunshine in this heat to eat dinner?" But within five minutes of that thought there came an enormous overcast cloud cover for shade and it even rained large, wet, raindrops on us but nobody cared because it felt so cool. Then we did sit down to a delicious dinner of Penne' pasta and Alfredo sauce and chicken and parmesan. And the weather was perfect and the company was special.
After that we made good use of the rented dance floor for about the next three hours, dancing and drinking wine out of Mason jars and having a great time. And even the cleanup the next day was no big deal because of all the wonderful people helping us.
So that's what I did in the Summer of 2013.
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