Journal: Weddin' Bells Are Ringin', Ringin'

Last week I was looking for some information amongst some old journals, and found a note Lydia wrote in August of 2002, when we were getting ready to go to Colorado: 

Vacation Plans

pack clothes

pack supplies

pack people

pack into car

pack car into Colorado

pack into campground

pack back home 

Silly girl.  She would’ve been 11 back then.

Last Tuesday, I brewed a pot of coffee... did the laundry... cleaned the kitchen... filled the bird feeders... watered houseplants... brewed a fresh pot of coffee... did some computer work (typed a journal, paid bills, etc.)... filled the Thermos... and gathered up coffee mugs, Thermos, purse, coffee mugs, Thermos, camera, coffee mugs, Thermos, jacket, coffee mugs, Thermos, sweater, coffee mugs, Thermos, shoes, coffee mugs, and Thermos.  (Don’t let me forget the coffee mugs and Thermos.) 

We were going to see Hester, Andrew, and Baby Keira that evening.  We had to stop at the Urgent Care Center on our way out of town and get printed proof of our flu shots; they’d forgotten to print the papers for us the previous week.  It had been one week since we got our flu shots, so we were able to go in the room with the baby and see her.

My goodness, a picture simply cannot tell you how small a two-pound baby is.  But she was doing pretty well, and was up to 2 pounds, 4 ounces.  Her birth weight was 2 pounds, 2 ounces, and three days later she was down to 1 pound, 15 ounces, which is fairly normal.  She is tolerating her milk pretty well, and they are gradually increasing her feedings.

Here are Andrew and Hester in front of the tall, double ‘waterfall’ in the hospital lobby. 

Hester’s hands looked better, with swelling nearly gone; but her ankles were still awfully swollen.  She said they don’t hurt, and she was walking just fine, though she tires quickly.

Andrew changed the baby while we were there.  I’ve never seen such tiny diapers.  He has such a gentle touch, and he talked and crooned to his wee infant the entire time he changed her.  Sure pulled at our heartstrings.

Monday, Andrew had started working in Omaha at the office his company has there.  He said it really wasn’t any different than working at home.  Sometimes it’s amazing how, when things go wrong, other things ‘work together for good’ to help us cope with the unexpected, isn’t that the truth?

We went with them to the extended-stay suite they’ve gotten at the Marriott (NICU parents get rooms at a discount), had some coffee, and visited with them before heading off in search of some supper.  

By then, most restaurants had closed, so we went to the all-night Denny’s.  I ordered a salad, but they didn’t have any, because of an E. coli outbreak that has sickened people across several states.  Instead, I got some type of a ‘southern omelet’, which came with fried hash browns.  Omelets are not what I consider ‘supper’, and I never eat fried hash browns (or anything fried, for that matter); but the omelet was tasty, and I even ate a few bites of hash browns (and then griped about them for a few minutes). 

Do all Denny’s restaurants have a mucky pond out back from which they dredge the sludge with which they make their coffee??  I eat out seldom enough – and at Denny’s so rarely – that I forget just how bad their coffee really is.  Doesn’t seem to matter which Denny’s, either; all Denny’s pond slurry is evidently grown from the same bacillus.

I tried it black, as I usually drink coffee, made a face, then poured a couple of little cups of creamer into the coffee, along with a packet of sugar substitute.  I tried another swig.

Blech, yuck, ugh; that didn’t help.  I don’t like pond slurry plain, I don’t like pond slurry creamed, and I don’t like pond slurry sugared.

The next time the waitress came by, I asked for iced tea.

“Oh, is something wrong with your coffee?” she asked, all concerned, looking at my nearly-full coffee cup.

“It’s all right,” I fibbed, “just a little stronger than I’m used to.”  It isn’t her fault, after all, if Denny’s uses microalgae and giant kelp in place of coffee beans.

I drove home, since Larry was nodding off over his meal before he was quite done.  “That’s what happens when you go to a restaurant that promises ‘comfort food’!” he told me.  He goes to work before the sun comes up, so it had been a long day for him.

Wednesday, I was talking to Loren on the phone, and he mentioned a dilemma:  Loren’s house is full.  Norma’s house is full.  How will they combine everything into one house?! 

“Even the walls are full!” said Loren.  “We’ll have to pick and choose,” he said, “and get rid of stuff that’s just ‘stuff’, keeping only important and special things.”

I told them, “Whatever you do, don’t try to do it all yourselves!  You have lots of children and grandchildren, nieces, nephews, great-nieces, and great-nephews, who will be delighted to help.”

That afternoon I finished my customer’s 100-Patch quilt.  More pictures here.

After church that night, we gave Aaron his birthday gift:  a Leatherman multi-tool.  He’s 17 years old, imagine that.

Note: To any of you who had a bit of troubles figuring out MeWe… don’t worry, people still can’t figure out Facebook, either. I posted pictures of Donna’s quilt that I finished quilting yesterday on my Facebook page.  My own page.  Somebody who requested to be Friends a few days ago, and whom I allowed, then proceeded to write in the comment section under the pictures on my own page, “Pls dont use my acount ok”.

Eh? 

That ol’ larnin’ curve done passed her by, hmmm?

The other day, a quilting friend was telling how she had spread quilt patches out on her table, and then the wind came blowing through an open window and displaced everything. 

This reminded me of the time Caleb flew his new remote-controlled helicopter around the corner and into my sewing-room door, for the express purpose of entertaining his mother.  How was he to know that I’d just laid out a whole gob (definition:  ‘oodles’) of eensy-weensy patches all over my cutting table, in order to decide on color placement?  

You should have seen the look on his face when the copter blades sent fabric a-sailing.  It was worth collecting them all over again, really.  (But I did recommend that none of the relatives buy him a whirlybird that dropped bombs, for his next birthday.) 

I was once cutting miles and miles of netting Easter dresses, back in the day when most of our nine children were still at home, and there were no spare bedrooms to use for a sewing room.  Ergo, I had it spread out on the bed on a cardboard cutting mat.  And then... I heard the thunder of small paws – eight of them – in the hallway.  I knew what it was – it was two-year-old Black Kitty chasing her two-month-old son Tad lickety-split, pell-mell down the hall, and they were coming straight for the bedroom.

I dashed around the bed to shut the door ---------- too late.  In they flew, leaping up onto the bed.  Imagine their delight when they found themselves in a smörgåsbord of fun!  In unison, they sunk claws large and small into that netting, and then they rolled.  

I’m telling you, it took longer to extract those cats from the netting than it did to make all five cancans.

Thursday afternoon, Hannah had surgery to remove those the many polyps in her sinus passages.

It was a quarter ’til five when Bobby finally wrote to say that Hannah was out of surgery and in the recovery room.  The doctor told him everything had gone well.

I was so relieved to hear from him; I’d been waiting with all my might and main!

She had to stay overnight, however, as she didn’t recover very quickly from the anesthesia, and didn’t feel well.  That made me feel a little better, actually, that she was staying at the hospital.  I’d worried about her coming home too fast. 

We hope this helps her.  The polyps are caused by allergies, and when they start growing, they trap more allergens, and make the allergies that much worse – and of course any allergic reaction can cause an asthma attack, and usually does.

Hester wrote to say that Baby Keira was up to 2 pounds, 5 ounces that day.

And then Loren called to tell me that he and Norma had moved their wedding date up – to the next day!  Granddaughters Katie and Rachel had gone with Norma to Omaha on Tuesday to get her wedding dress... Loren and Norma had gotten their marriage license Wednesday... his new camper was ready to go, other than a few more clothes and some food... so why wait??

Larry and I were going to be their witnesses (aka ‘best man and matron of honor’), and Larry’s brother and sister-in-law Kenny and Annette would be there, too. 

As if that wasn’t enough news for the day, Bobby wrote to tell me that his younger brother Stephen and wife Melody, who is Jeremy’s younger sister, had their first baby that evening ---- and he weighed 10 pounds, 1 ounce!  Whew.  That’s five times bigger than Andrew and Hester’s baby.  Five times bigger!

Meanwhile, I started quilting my friend Sherri’s baby quilt.  She made it for her new granddaughter, who is also my great-great-niece.

I’d thought to do a pantograph, possibly; but there was a bit of excess fullness in sashing and borders.

I stood there and looked at it for a few moments, debating what to do.  Then I tucked some of that fullness back under the top rod and ratcheted up the tension.  I grabbed my ruler and began stitching in the ditch, smoothing it down as I went. 

Friday, Larry worked in the morning, then came home about 1:00 p.m. and got ready for the wedding.  Imagine, we were going to be best man and matron of honor!  Who would’ve dreamed?  Us, in our dodderage, part of a wedding party again!  😄

The ceremony took place in Robert’s office.  Afterwards, as we were visiting, he spotted his sister Susan out in the hallway, camera in hand, not wanting to interrupt...  Robert waved an arm, and said, “Come in, come in!  Just come right in and crash the party!  I can tell you want to!!”  (He reminded me of my father, his grandpa, talking like that.  😊)

Susan’s daughter Danica, who’s 19, works at one of the old folks’ homes in Columbus, and she wanted to show some of the people there a picture of her great-uncle getting married. 

A friend, upon hearing this, remarked, “The ladies and gentlemen at the old folk’s home will soon be a-winkin’ at each other.”  hee hee

North of Columbus about 45 miles is the town of Norfolk.  Umpteen people around these parts pronounce it as ‘Norfork’.  I, in the hopes of impressing on my children the correct way of saying it, told them, “We don’t say we’re going to visit someone at the ‘Old Forks’ Home’, now, do we??”

What I succeeded in doing was to cause most of my children, from oldest to youngest, to call any and every old folks’ home an ‘Old Forks’ Home’.

Those kids of mine.

(But they do say ‘Norfolk’ instead of ‘Norfork’.)  (Usually.)

After the ceremony, Larry and I drove out to Wal-Mart – best place in town for fresh fruits and vegetables – and picked out Fuji apples, those new miniature Rockit apples, pears, bananas, corn on the cob, grapefruit, oranges, Thompson grapes, purple grapes, various flavors of smoothies, Martinelli’s apple juice, and Walker’s shortbread cookies.  

Larry says those cookies are boring. 

“Quit eating them, then, and save them for me!” I exclaim. 

Then we went to the household department and found a big basket – almost the size of a laundry basket – made of blue and brown seagrass with a diamond design around the sides. 

I found a wedding card I liked (hadn’t had time to get one, before!).  But why is it that the card whose verse I like the best is often the ugliest color in the rack??  All the pretty ones said something goofy.  Sooo... they got a bright mustard-yellow card, since I decided the words were more important than the color. 

In the parking lot, I opened the Jeep’s back hatch and began putting everything into the basket in some semblance of order, much to Larry’s consternation.  

“Someone might see us!” 

Silly boy. 

“Grocery store parking lots are where people put things into their vehicles,” I told him.  “Would you believe that?!”

Since I wouldn’t quit, he just helped me.  😆

Then we took the basket to Loren and Norma.  They were just about ready to head off on a little excursion with Loren’s brand-new camper, but they were thinking they might first get a good night’s sleep and then start fresh in the morning.  As you can well imagine, they were tired... but very happy.

Home again, I spent some time working on my friend’s baby quilt, and Saturday, I quilted a good part of the day.  I might’ve gotten done, if I’d’ve had just a wee little bit more oomph; but I can’t stay up too late on Saturday nights, or I’ll be falling asleep in Sunday School the next morning.

More pictures here.

Baby Keira weighed 2 pounds, 8 ounces that day.  She was doing well enough that Andrew and Hester came to church Sunday morning.  And Hester got her once-badly-swollen feet into her good (high-heeled! 😲 ) church shoes.  They headed back to Omaha that afternoon.

Last night after church, we talked with Loren and Norma on speaker phone.  They were at a campground in Sterling, Colorado.  It was a windy day here, and most of the way to Sterling, too, as they drove.  But it wasn’t windy there anymore, and it was a nice campground, only costing $25, and they are having a lovely time, and Norma thinks the camper is very, very nice.  (It is.)  They planned to continue on toward the mountains today.

I posted some photos:  Loren and Norma’s wedding.  Here’s one of Larry and me.

Today the wind is blowing at 55-60 mph.  Yesterday it was blowing at 45 mph along a stretch of I80 between Aurora and Waco, and dust from newly-plowed fields along the Interstate created zero visibility.  There was a 20-car pileup, with one person killed and 14 others injured.  They belatedly shut down the highway for a few hours.

Our neighbors have gone to visit family in Texas, where they used to live, and Larry is caring for their goats.  There’s a billy goat, two nannies, and two kids.  When he went there a little while ago, he discovered that the wind had torn a piece of sheeting off one of their smaller barns.  So he came home, found the right kind of nails, and a baseboard to affix to the bottom to hold things in place, and then repaired the damage.  It should hold, now.

The goats all observed the proceedings with great interest.

Maybe tomorrow, if the wind doesn’t blow me away, I’ll take some pictures of them.

But right now, I need to fold a load of clothes, and then head for the feathers.

Oh!  Hester just posted a picture of Baby Keira, who’s two weeks old today.  She has made it up to two pounds, ten ounces.  Precious, tiny baby.

,,,>^..^<,,,          Sarah Lynn          ,,,>^..^<,,,