Katie + David = Happiness

My best friend got married this past weekend and I was honored to be there, not only to witness, but to stand up as a matron of honor.

Katie and I have known each other for 12 years (as of today, actually) and it was wonderful to see her marry David, a guy so perfectly suited to her we couldn't have dreamed him up if we tried.

Scot doesn't start work til Thursday, so he was able to stay here while I took off early to VA to help with last minute details and maintain a level head in the midst of the frenzy.  And a stressed frenxy it was -- but all for a good casue and with fabulous results.

Never have I been around a bride who was so well organized, knew the things she didn't want to budge on, knew the things that were budge-able, and in the end, knew she was just planning as best she could, but come go-time, she had to just let it be and let the people she delegated to run the show.

She woke up happy and relazed and totally excited on her wedding day, and that was the biggest blessing of everything.  It set the tone for the entire day and I was just praising the Lord we all got a good nights sleep.  We had all day to get ready, and we all just hang out at her parents house while a hair stylist methodically went through and did 10 heads of hair.  (She did such a great job on my hair that I not only wore it through the wedding, but dancing like a crazy person at the reception AND slept on it, and woke up Sunday morning with almost no hairs out of place.  So I wore it like that the rest of the day.)

All in all, everything was fabulous.  The weather was perfect.  Which means pictures are going to be amazing.  Katie was calm and collected through everything. Tears that were shed were cute and dainty and happy tears.  We all made it down the aisle with no trips or stumbles.  And the reception was as it should be: a party and celebration of these two lives coming together and proceeding through life now as one unit.  It was beautiful.

She was exquisite.  He was dashing.  They laughed and danced and we sent them off with rose petals falling behind them.

Pictures from the week are here.

falling into a rhythm

We're falling into a nice rhythm of life.  There is a general rise and fall to our day.  A pattern to be counted on.  There is comfort in that and we're embracing it.  We're enjoying it.

Scot has this month off work, or rather, he doesn't start work until Aug 1st, so this month is dedicated to studying for boards that are in early Sept.  He has established his own pattern for studying and it's working very well for us.  He studies most all of the day (out of the house) and then comes home and is ready to hang out for the evening.  I really don't know what to do with it most nights!  It's lovely.

The boys have adjusted seamlessly.  Well, almost seamlessly.  Old friends are asked for, and as we're driving, old parks are mentioned and yearned for.  Otherwise, though, it's been seamless.  The same goes for me.  Almost seamless.  There's just something about being home that makes a transition less off an issue.  I miss friends, though.  I thought I would miss more of Ohio -- the landscape, the ice cream shop, the farmpark, but I don't.  We've found other fun things and places here already that have captured our attention and so make it harder to really miss the old haunts.

Not the case with friends, though.  There is no replacing friendships.  While we're all rekindling old relationships as well as building new ones here, we are also desperate for our friends on Ohio.

A special treat we had last week was going to the zoo with our dearest Ohio friends who happened to be out here visiting family.  It was so hard to good-bye, but as the song-lyrics go: this is not where it end, I will carry you with me!  And Lord willing, I'll be booking myself a flight in just a few weeks to see friends and the turning leaves.

I just realized I didn't post anything about our 4th of July!  Oops!  We celebrated with my folks at a nearby state park for a morning hike and picnic lunch.  It was just what we needed after such a crazy few days.

The boys have VBS all next week (and I have a list of errands a mile long to take care of during those mornings I'm not volunteering) so we'll continue our busy but steady pattern.

Here are some pictures to let you see how we're doing.

Look who's FIVE!

First of all, Scot is HOME!  He got home late Sunday night, but that was ok.  He was in plenty of time to be here for Evan's 5th birthday.

Has it really been 5 years since that momentous day?

It has.  And it's hard to believe.  I'm sure I'll say it each and every year, but this one it seems to be especially hard to believe. We're finally home.  Family was present and didn't have to fly in.  Friend came to help us celebrate.  Evan felt like a king for the day and we were all just so happy.  But in the middle of it all, I couldn't help but think has it really been five years?!

Per our tradition, we went out for birthday breakfast.  Evan asked for pancakes with blueberries on the inside and blueberry sauce (compote).  It was a little tricky.  One place had plain pancakes with the sauce, one had blueberries and granola baked into the cake, and one (thankfully) had both blueberries on the inside and out.  He was happy, but suffice it to say we'll try out the other two places at some point.

After breakfast Evan said he wanted to go to a fun park, so we ventured down the street to our old-favorite park (where we actually had his first birthday party) to play for an hour or so.  It was so fun for Scot and I to watch the boys playing together.  So fun.

We went home and opened family birthday gifts.  (Let me back up a moment and just say how wonderful it is to have my folks just an hour away.  They had something to do up here Monday night and stopped in with their gifts for Evan and we let him open them then -- the kid got a head start on the gift-opening!).  He was happiest with the hotwheels cars he got from his dad and his soccer ball.

We don't do parties every year, but five is a big deal, so we had a good sized party (for us) for him.  Over 20 people showed up to help us celebrate him and his sweet life.  We had family (my folks, my great Aunt Nina, and Scot's uncle Dave and wife Jenny), and then friends from here, the springs, and Cleveland!  It was a great mix and we were very thankful for our large back yard.  The Lord was good and we had fabulous weather.

When asked what his favorite part of his day was he told me he had two parts.  One was having people over for a party, and the second was his cake.  He requested a green dinosaur and since I love doing cakes for the boys, it was fun for me to come up with something for him.  He didn't see the cake until we were ready to eat it, but his reaction made my day.

Evan felt loved and went to bed happy.

Good friends stayed the night with us and the boys had a great time Wednesday morning playing with their friends in the cool of the morning chasing rabbits and eating breakfast in the sunshine.

More pictures of the special day can be found in this album.