May

Quite a few things have happened since I posted last. Awana ended for the year. Our family went to MD/VA for Jess's graduation. My car (the ford escape) broke down on the way home. Jessica got married. I went to NC for a week. I came home. Most of us went on an overnight canoeing trip. I've uploaded pictures of all of those things (except the canoe trip) on facebook and google+, so I'm not going to put pics in this post (and if you still need a link to either of those places to see the pics, let me know!).

Today's post is going to be about the wedding. Jessica came back a week and a half before the wedding. I got done with finals the day she got home, so we were able to hop right into serious wedding prep mode. We tied ribbons around bubbles, made tissue paper flowers, and went shopping. On Saturday, Emily flew in, and Grandpa Bob and Grandma Suzy arrived. I have to say that Emily was an amazing help. She was fun to be with, really helpful, and a nice stable influence in the chaos.

Monday night, Rachel came up and Jess, Annetta, Emily, Rachel, and I had a sleepover down at the bachelor pad (aka Grandpa's house) to test out the accommodations. We did practice makeup, ate snacks, painted nails, and watched a movie. Then we slept. And I use the word "slept" in a fairly loose and general sense of the word. Tuesday morning was Decorate the Church Day. We got most of it done. We set up for the reception, decorated the sanctuary, and even managed to hang the paper lanterns from the ceiling. After discovering that both fishing line and floss are very stretchy, we used baling twine and it worked great.

Wednesday evening, we did a little more decorating in the evening. I think that morning was when we went shopping for flowers/cake and chocolate for the chocolate fountains. We got two chocolate fountains from a church friend, but both had issues. So we got another chocolate fountain from a friend of ours, but it had issues at the reception and we ended up having the chocolate in a crock pot. That worked just fine...people skewered their fruit and dunked them in chocolate, or put a scoop of chocolate on their plate. At any rate, the chocolate fountain saga added some intrigue to the wedding story, and in a few months I'll be able to laugh heartily.

Thursday evening, the Derrs came, as well as all but one of the groomsmen. Kevin and Lisa (his sister) surprised us all by coming up early Wednesday night, but everyone else came Thursday evening. We had supper, and then went back down to the church for some last minute decorating. The decorations really did look good. We did the first set of decorating, and Thursday night was when a lady from our church came with her decorating stuff and added the finishing touches. Kevin was abducted by the guys to go watch some movie (something about star trek, I think) at a theater, so we girls finished up and went home and watched a movie. We watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding...a movie I've heard about, but hadn't seen. Jess's college friends Courtney and Allison came later that evening...Allison is the one who did the girls hair, and Courtney was all around awesome!

Friday morning, we ate breakfast and hung around talking, and then most of us played a rousing game of Fishbowl. Rachel got dropped off a little before noon so she could come to the rehearsal lunch and then spend the night. Lunch was pizza and salad at the church, and it was really good. The rehearsal went very smoothly, too. We had already basically figured out how we wanted the bridal party to stand, so all we had to do was position everyone and make sure it looked good with the actual people instead of random siblings/friends as fill ins! So we practiced the ceremony part, and the walking into the reception, and went home.

When we got home, we found that the guys vests and pants had arrived. (Jess and Kevin had been planning on picking them up Thursday afternoon, but due to an error on the store's part, the suits had been delivered to the wrong stores, so most of them were in MD. Not good.  The outfits were overnighted to Erie, and then the manager personally delivered them). The drawback to getting the suits delivered was that we had absolutely no wiggle room with the sizes we got. (No pun intended ;P ) Ardee, Andrew, and Josiah's suits looked fine. Tony and Ben's vests were basically billowing out behind them...we tightened them as much as we could, and they were still too big. So, Rachel and I spent about a half hour adjusting, pinning, pinching, and tucking before we determined how to fix it, and then we spent another hour-ish hand sewing two side seams in the back of their vests. Some pricking may or may not have occurred...some may o may not have been intentional...but Ben and Tony did a fine job of letting us sew and seam rip their vests. And frankly, I liked how ours turned out better than the original version.

Friday night, we (we =  most of the bridal party, plus Allison and Courtney, and anyone else who was at our house) watched the movie Hitched. It got done around midnight, and we said our goodnights and headed off to try to sleep before eeeeeek the wedding!

So, Saturday morning arrived! I woke up around 6 am, and Rachel (who slept in my room) and I started chattering. Jess heard us and came in and we talked a little bit. Allison started with my hair around 7:30, and so the morning (well, from 7:30 to about 10 or 11) was filled with breakfast, hair, and makeup. Rachel did most of my makeup...Elizabeth came up and started whipping Lydia, Hosanna, Joanna, and Katrina into shape :) Rachel and I waled across the road to a lilac bush and picked two bouquets for Jess...one for real and one for just in case. I drove down to the church to get ribbon. Mrs Arnold, the photographer, and her assistant arrived and started taking pictures. The guys, meanwhile, ate breakfast, cleaned Kevin's car, got ready, and took pictures.

Around 10:15 or so, Jess and Kevin had their first look and things started happening for real :) the girls dashed upstairs to don our dresses, and then we went outside to have bridal party and immediate family pictures. We got done around noon, so we packed vehicles and ate lunch. Around 1:15 or so, we loaded up and went to the church. The guys lit candles and the ushers got ready to ush, and the bridal party girls retired to the ladies bathroom! We sprayed perfume on, talked, helped Jess get all ready, and then we prayed for her. Then we took a few pictures and it was time to line up on the stairs! We walked out of the bathroom into the fellowship hall, where we watched on the tv monitor what was happening upstairs. We could hear the Pride and Prejudice soundtrack playing the prelude music. Then it stopped and Mrs. Berndt started playing for the seating of the grandparents. We lined up on the stairs, and Mrs. Berndt started playing the song for the lighting of the candles by the mothers. Emily and I unbustled Jess's train. Daddy came from escorting Mama and stood with Jess. Then Mrs. Berndt started playing the bridesmaid song, and Elizabeth (thanks so much, Elizabeth!!) nodded at Jenn to go. And then Rachel. And then Annetta. And then Emily. And then me. The guys were all perched in their places, already. I got up to my piece of tape and had enough time to see about 1/3 of Josh and Katrina's walk down...Katrina did a great job throwing petals and smiling, and Josh did a good job letting her hold his arm. Then Mrs. Berndt started playing the bridal march, the doors opened, everyone stood up, and Daddy and Jess walked down to Kevin.

The rest of the ceremony went fine. Pastor gave his exhortation. Christina did a fabulous job playing her violin. I adjusted Jess's dress every time she moved. Daddy gave an exhortation that made everyone cry. They said their vows. Andrew and I didn't lose the rings. They lit the candle. They kissed. He carried her down the aisle. And then it was time for us to walk out and stand in the receiving line. After the receiving line, Andrew and I got to sign the marriage license/witness signatures/whatever it was we did, and then it was time for us to head into the reception. Jess and Kevin cut the cake, Rachel and Andrew gave toasts, we decorated the getaway car, ate food, and talked to some people. After everyone left, we cleaned up...basically it was our family, the Der family, the bridal party, and a few friends. It was a lot faster coming down than it was going up :) We were home by somewhere around 8, I think. And we ate leftovers and watched a movie and talked and basically crashed.

Sunday morning, we had breakfast with the people who were still here (I guess that would be the Derrs plus Ardee), and then they left to go back home.

And that was the wedding.Tune in next time to hear about other stuff!

In Which There are Pictures of Random Things

In April, Katrina and I decided to make pie. So we made apple pie and it was good!

And here are a few pictures from the homeschool game night we had! It was a lot of fun! And we clearly demonstrate that one can never be to old to play a rousing, intense, and competitive game of musical chairs. 

Changing gears a bit...about a week ago, Rachel came over to help us work on some painting at my Grandpa's house. Because we're planning to house the groomsmen and so forth down there for the wedding, we have a good incentive to get work done down there.

Then we made tissue paper flowers! We've made quite a few over the past couple weeks...I think we're up to about 60 or 70. We'll be using them to decorate for the wedding.

And here, our flower girl poses with the flowers... :)

Another part of our wedding prep is cake practice. Luckily, we have neighbors who have willingly volunteered to help with this, in the form assisting with the eating part. Saturday evening, we found ourselves in dire need of said assistance. So we ate this cake and it was good.

And finally...a couple days ago I bought a vehicle. It's a 2003 Ford Escape. Here, Katrina poses in...the driver's seat. And actually...it'll be a little under 10 years before she can sit there for real. Scary, yes?

Holy cow.

I have to share this screen shot. After roughly 4 hours of working on this online precalc quiz...I got a 100%. You'll understand my great and vast rejoicing when you understand that my current gpa for that class is a C-. It may actually be possible to get a C+ in this class after all... Anyhow, that was rather encouraging to me :)

Catch up time!

March was a busy month! I know we've posted about the trip (to an extent), but I haven't yet posted anything about the church camp retreat, Cadet Leadership School, the bridal shower, the cleaning day, or the actual trip to Florida. But, today is a Day To Get Stuff Done, so here we go.

Chronologically, the first thing that I haven't yet blogged about is the church retreat we went to. I put all my pictures up on google+, and honestly, I think most of the people who would be interested in seeing them have seen them, so I won't put them up again. However, if you are one of the few who want to see them, let me know and I'll email you the link (I think I'd rather do that than put the link out here on my blog. Cause of all the creepy criminals and stuff who stalk me, ya know). Anyhow, our entire family went to Camp LiLoLi with our friends and their church group. Another family we're friends with went as well which was fun. We girls again got to sleep in the loft above the chapel, which means that we definitely did stay up late talking. Just like last year, we had church services, played lots of games, went sledding, helped out in the kitchen, talked, and played even more games.

Cadet Leadership School was the last weekend in February (I think?). I was on public affairs and admin staff, and Hosanna was in Foxtrot flight.

Jessica's bridal shower was the first Saturday in March. Because of her work schedule, she didn't get here til Friday evening and left on Sunday, and since Kevin was working, he wasn't able to come up with her. But his sisters Christina, Lisa, and Catherine came up. We had a birthday party for Joanna and her little friend Megan Friday evening.






Later that evening, the older kids (Jess, Christina, Lisa, Annetta, Lydia, Hosanna, Joanna, Catherine, Logan, Jordan, Duncan, Megan, and I) went down to the church to set up for the bridal shower! As you can see, it was lovely and purple. (photo credits go to Jess)

The bridal shower was the next day, and it  went well! We had perhaps 60 ladies attend to bless Jess with a nice shower. We played some games (MC'd by yours truly), had a short devotional from Mrs. F, and ate some snacks put on by the ladies of our church. Jess got a lot of gifts as well.

That evening, a representative from Mary Kay came to give Jess and 10 of her friends a lip and facial treatment because Jess had won some sort of prize from David's Bridal.

The second weekend of March was the day that we had a cleaning party at my Grandpa's house. We had a huge dumpster...we started with it empty and ended with it stuffed full. We took a trip to the dump, also. Logan did tall person work on the wall over the stairway, and the rest of us found random jobs hauling stuff out to the dumpster, cleaning, and moving and organizing stuff. (Photo credits from the cleaning go to Clayton.)

After we cleaned, we came up to our house for a pizza supper. We made great progress on the house...we're very appreciative of the people who came out and worked! There's still a ways to go, but Annetta and I went down this evening and did some stuff...we have vacuuming and setting up of furniture (hey, if anyone knows of anyone who's getting rid of beds/mattresses, let us know!), but the vast majority of the interior work is done.

Okeydoke...that's all for this post! Thanks for reading!

Day Eight - almost there!

I can already hear the screams as you've realized I have posted again..

(Whether they're happy screams or screams of horror, I prefer not to think about.)

I actually have two days to tell you about because, yesterday, we went to the mall and I know how much any guy who happens to be reading this would want to hear about our shopping trip. ;)

(To clear up confusion, I'm skipping a few days. We may as well pretend they didn't happen, because you don't get to hear about them. However, if you're inclined, fill in the blank with whatever exciting adventures you like - a hostile takeover of the house by raging terrorists, a small tornado that for some reason only targeted this house, or maybe the animals from the nearby zoo decided to live here for a while...
It all feels true...)

I digress. Anyway, yesterday was a great day. Why? I found a cute shirt at a bargain price at JCPenney's. (The guys are allowed to groan; girls are expected to squeal.) And guess what? I wasn't herding around two little kids because they were playing at Bounce-a-lot. (My dad got to watch them. He is a superhero.)

Bounce-a-lot is something some clever person came up with after tripping over the little kids at the mall who are running around in circles because their mom is taking forever to pick out the perfect outfit/perfume/shoes. Basically it is a giant bounce house. And they charge an outrageous price because they know you'll pay it. They had fun, though, and so did I.

Then we went to Wal-Mart. I took Katrina to get cat food and conditioner and Josh went with daddy to get groceries. Katrina and I went in the right door - there was a taffy vendor outside the main entrance and he happened to be giving out free samples to anyone wearing green pants. (Katrina was wearing green pants.) Things like that restore my faith in mankind. :) 

I have to get up and make lunch, so I'm going to fast forward to this morning.

Yay for bath day. Who knew it was possible to bargain  with a six year old? (I prefer the term bargain over bribe.) Apparently bath time isn't as much fun now-a-days as it was when I was little. Ah well. She's clean now, so that's what counts...

Oaky, the natives are getting restless..
 This could be my last post for a while, people, so *sniff* farewell! 

-Cinderella

Day Four: At A Friend's House

Day Four: Annetta reporting.

Today, Josh, Katrina, and I drove over to a friend's house to spend the night. We arrived at 11 o'clock, and ate lunch; and it is currently 4:21 p.m. 

I know how much you all wanted to hear from me, so I've graciously decided to blog for my fans again... (You may laugh as derisively as you like, I can't hear you.)

I have my two friends, Kim and Rachel with me, and they are co-writing, just to give credit where credit is due. :) I apologize in advance for all the pictures. If you don't like pictures, close your eyes; this post isn't for you.

Do you know how much luggage is necessary to pack even for an overnight trip? To give you an idea, below is *gasp* a picture! This is only some of it...  

(Hosanna, that is NOT your backpack. I would never steal it. Never. It only looks like your backpack , 'k?)

the girl's luggage

 Me being the wonderful babysitter that I am, I forgot to comb Katrina's hair...since Sunday. I know. So, fortunately, Rachel was able to do something with it. No tears either!

Katrina's cool hair

 Okay, people, now I can introduce Kimberlynne and Rachel. Kim is on the the far left, I'm in the middle with Katrina, and Rachel is on the right. Oh, and notice the pretty pink walls! They just finished painting and redecorating their room, and I have to admit I love the way it looks! (No jealousy here, folks, none at all... :P)

this is one of the "nice" pictures; I can't vouch for the rest...

 Four girls taking pictures...you know what that means. Silly faces. Get used to it; we've got more coming right up...

 Here's a picture of our lovely nails...we should open a salon, don't you think? Try to guess which is which, if you dare.

 We dug out the accessories at this point. :) Notice the flowers...the picture is a little dark.

 More accessories...hey, we're girls. Don't judge. Hat and scarf time!

 Individual pictures...

 Here is where you can be jealous. We got cookies. :) They were delicious, by the way!

Katrina apparently likes cookies :)

Maybe some of you are wondering where Josh is in all of this...

Kim and Rachel have six younger brothers, so Joshua has been in good hands! In a couple of hours, we'll be eating supper, and then the girls have a chick flick to watch. No boys allowed!

Now that we're done regaling you with our adventures, it's time for you to comment and tell us about your normal/wonderful/exhilarating/humdrum/awesome/or whatever-the-case-may-be lives. 

Four (almost) down, six to go!

Cinderella signing off.