Wedding

Yesterday was the niece's wedding. She got married in a Seventh Day Adventist church by a Lutheran minister, with the SDA minister saying the opening prayer. She is Lutheran and he is SDA. It took us ALL day to get ready. We needed to leave by 2pm and I wanted an hour for myself to get ready, and of course I ended up with 25 minutes to shower, do hair and makeup and get dressed. I had bought a pair of black pantyhose, and even though I'd just filed my nails, my skin is kind of rough and I put a hole in them while putting them on. UGH! They were ultra sheer. Luckily I had another black pair in my dresser, even though I can't remember the last time I wore hose.

Here's how it went:

Get up
Eat breakfast
Put load in wash
Give T. a haircut
Nurse A.
Call MIL and ask if I. could spend the night
Bathe K. and T.
Pack I's backpack to spend night
Nurse A.
Look in basement for A's tights and K's belt
Put in another load of laundry
Nurse A.
Feed K. lunch
Put K. down for nap
Look in basement for A's tights and K's belt--find them this time
Nurse A.
Tell D, J and L. to eat lunch
Pack spare clothes and PJs and snacks for little ones
Nurse A.
Eat lunch
Tell D. to iron the boys' shirts
Tell D., J. and A. to eat lunch
Nurse A.
Give Daryl a haircut
Nurse A.
Get in shower
Blowdry hair
Curl T's hair and tell J. to pack some hair accessories--I"ll do hers in the car
Get dressed
Curl my hair
Put on most of makeup
Get mascara on lower edge of left eye
Attempt to wipe mascara off without smearing entire eye
Grab last minute items and run out door

Daryl had gone out in the morning to drive I. to Grandma's to get ready for wedding (2 hour roundtrip) because she was a flower girl in the wedding and had to be there very early to have her hair done (by my SIL because I am hair impaired). She was supposed to go there on Thurs. for the rehearsal and spend Thurs. and Fri. nights, helping decorate the hall on Friday, but got sick on Wed. with the flu. She was still feverish in the morning, but not as bad, and that flushed, glittery eyed look was actually quite beautiful with her white dress.

Daryl also had to stop at Kohl's and get D. some dress pants. D. was in a foul mood--spent the entire day complaining that: he has to share a room and his brother left the door open, making it impossible for him to sleep late because the rest of us are so loud (the chronically sleep deprived mother was able to work up a lot of sympathy); his dad planned to take him skiing for the remainder of the long weekend but he had homework to do and trombone to practice and why didn't anyone inform him of this; that he had to wear dress pants in the correct size, not baggy; and obsessively asking me over and over what time we were leaving for the wedding and how late we'd be staying at the reception.

A. had a fussy day. would not nap at all unless attached to my breast. The kids took turns holding her, and J. dressed her and K. for us. K. didn't actually sleep because I put him down much earlier than normal, and managed to stay awake for the 1 hour drive as well. I did my best with J's hair, which amounted to pulling back the front and twisting it a little and putting in a clip on top. That combined with putting on eyeshadow made me feel very motion sick, so I consider arriving at the church without barfing to be a success. A. wanted to nurse as soon as we got there, and so I went to the basement where there was a nice sitting area and nursed her on one side, then was summoned to my seat as the ceremony was about to begin.

I. was strikingly beautiful as the flower girl, and did a great job of walking slowly down the aisle and strewing rose petals. The bride was beautiful as well, if a little teary.

Unfortunately with no nap, K. felt he needed to nurse. He sat on my lap and scream "MIMI" which is his word for nursing. I was not about to nurse him in church, so we took a walk, ended up in the basement in the room the bridal party got dressed in, and found some snacks. We went back upstairs, sprinkled Pringles crumbs all around the vestibule, and I caught the tail end of the ceremony.

There was general milling about during the receiving line, and Daryl tried to convince the relatives that they should have one large group photo of everyone with his 95yo grandmother, who was there but would not be attending the reception. She was recently very ill and in general doesn't attend many events, so there won't be many of these opportunities, but no one seemed interested.

On our way to the reception, we drove through McD's and got kids a snack, since we knew the food wasn't going to be served immediately. Even D., who hates McD's since watching "Supersize Me", had some.

K. didn't eat any dinner, drank about 4 glasses of soda, and each place setting had a bag of candy, so he ate lots of candy. There were also mini bottles of bubbles in the bag, which of course were spilled on the floor by my kids, and quickly wiped up so no one would slip on them. Another high point was while I was in the bathroom with T., K. spilled a bottle of water on the polished floor and was playing in it. I saw this as we walked up and before I could tell someone to wipe it up, T. had slid in it and fallen, banging her mouth on a metal chair. Lots of crying, no blood.

This was a small town wedding, so many guests were Daryl's highschool classmates, so he was busy reminiscing rather than helping me with the kids. No booze or wine, only beer, to my dismay. 370 people attended, so the buffet took a LONG time. There were the traditional dances of mother-son, father-daughter, bride-groom and wedding party, throwing of bouquet and garter and putting garter on catcher of bouquet (all of the single people had to be dragged out on the dance floor for this activity, and most of them jumped AWAY from the garter and bouqet), and a dollar dance. Then the music switched to classic rock and got gradually louder. It was deafening by the time we left.

The kids help up well until about 9:30pm at which point we left. J. was torn, because she wanted to spend the night at Grandma's but didn't want to miss skiing. She hadn't packed any clothes, and her cousin, who was also staying at Grandma's (and lives out of state so they only see each other a few times a year) was bugging her to stay. After a few tears she decided to stay at Grandma's. Daryl had decided in view of the snowstorm that was forecast for today (and has arrived) that they would just ski locally for the day, rather than drive to Northern MI for the weekend, so she wasn't missing a big trip.

All in all, It was fun, if a lot of work, and I got some nice compliments on the family.