Weekends jammed/weeks busy

Once again, I am so very busy and I realize I am not writing here as I want to...

Last weekend, we went to Lake Town for a "wedding scouting trip" and we took my mom along for the ride (particularly since it was Mother's Day weekend). We left town after work on Friday night and arrived in a town close to Lake Town late (no reason to spend big on a nice hotel or inn when you are only in it from 11:30 until after breakfast!).

Our first stop on our scouting expedition was the actual wedding location. We had reserved a day-use site overlooking the lake and had done our best to choose it sight-unseen. It's a good thing we went to check (DB's idea)! The location, while pretty, was very sunny (would be unbearable in July) and on a slant...so any attempt to put catering tables would have been difficult. With the help of an extremely nice and knowledgeable ranger (thanks, Ranger Rick!), we found another totally perfect spot. We can actually used the huge picnic tables for our reception (so no need to rent tables). And the location for the ceremony is perfect...and all in shade. Ranger Rick was able to tell us about where the shade would be in July so our guests will be comfortable. AND, we were able to switch the reservation at no extra charge so we are all set.

After this, we went for lunch to the restaurant where the caterer is headquartered. The food was yummy so we were in a good mood for our meeting with the caterer right afterwards. We had already had an estimate so we knew that we were in the ballpark with this company. She thought of lots of things that I hadn't thought of -- linens, tubs with ice for beverages, reduced per-head rate for kids. I was really impressed. And I was really surprised just how fun it was. Being a girl who never thought of details of a wedding, I wasn't very interested in all the trappings, but I'm having fun with things like this! Am working on flowers now too. :-)

When we had finished with the caterer, we went back to the wedding location to measure the tables for her, then we took a drive around the lake and checked out the houses we have rented for our family from the outside (we couldn't, unfortunately, see the insides). I realize I may not have written about all this -- this wedding is for our family -- none of whom could come to the wedding in September. Our immediate family is over 50 people! Anyway, the houses are all walking-distance to each other and look very nice.

I had reserved rooms at what looked to be a nice inn near Lake Town (Lake Town only has one hotel and it's PRICEY). After checking in and seeing our rooms were lovely -- and each with a private deck overlooking a rolling lawn down to the river -- we went to the on-site winery for a tasting. On the way strolling up the hill, we said hi to the alpacas. The wine was really great -- I've never been to a winery where I liked so many of them, I don't think. I joined their wine club! After this, DB and I had a glass of wine at the wine and beer garden which was also on the property. It was beautiful. Then we all went to dinner and DB and I finished our night back at the wine/beer garden with live music and dancing under the stars. A truly fantastic time.

On Mother's Day, we took my mom into Yosemite Park for brunch at the historic Wawona hotel. It was a dream. So very beautiful and the staff was very accommodating. But before this, we had coffee on the patio of the inn...not wanting to leave. As we went back to our rooms, my mom asked us to come into her room because she had something for us. She handed me a small box which was obviously jewelry. It was the cameo necklace that her mother gave her on her wedding day in 1960!! Of course, I know this necklace as it's in all her wedding photos. It matches my dress perfectly and it's over 100 years old. We both cried. It continues to be so interesting to see how important this wedding is to our family and friends.

All in all a really fun weekend -- I've booked DB and me into the same inn for the night before our wedding week starts so we have a little alone time before the family descends. :-)

This recent past weekend was in town, but jammed! One of our friends was graduating with her masters in nursing on Saturday and we had offered long ago to help set up for her party. I had been asking her for weeks what time and where we should be. I knew the party started at 1 so I figured we wouldn't need to be there much before noon. On Friday when our friend finally responded to my repeated requests for info, she said we needed to be at her house at 8:30 and then sit at the beach saving space until everyone came (which ended up being around 3). No bueno, amiga! We had no time to do that, but we got up early and did take a couple of her friends down to the beach to save space until we could get back at 11:30. We literally sat there for all those hours. People arrived around 3. I was cranky. But we did end up having fun...and learned that this particular friend has a lot of trouble communicating. All her friends involved in the set-up were pretty pissed off and DB and I spent time diffusing some "situations".

After the party, some of the people ended up coming to our house...along with PD1 and her 4 kids who were staying with us before an early-morning visitation with The Molester (which continues to suck). We all had a great time and everyone headed to bed a little before midnight. I decided to stay up for a little bit to play Words With Friends before sleep. When I got to my bed, there was DB and two of the grandkids sound asleep. No room for me! So I got a non-comfy 6-hours of sleep on our (very cool, but not very comfy) 50-year-old sofa.

At 6 am, I hear rustling (which often happens when the grandkids are over). I get up and see that one of the grandkids has left our bed so now there's room for me! I go to get into bed and, ugh!, it's sopping. My 5-year-old grandson had wet the bed...ALL over. I stripped off what I could and put towels where I could. Then a light went on upstairs and there was my sweet grandson, all dressed for the day. He had taken care of himself as best he could. I told him to come down and I'd help him with buttoning his shirt and I said "you forgot to get up to go to the bathroom, huh?". I told him it was ok and asked if he wanted to come back into bed with us in his clothes. He did, so 4 people in the bed. Then the 3-year-old showed up and, with 5 people in the bed, all sleeping was pretty much over. We did rest though and I had fun listening to 3-year-old practicing his words while he thought we were all asleep. Cute!

After visitation, DB and I got a teeny rest, then I went over to a friend's house to help her weed her garden. We had been over there a couple of weeks ago and I saw lots of weeding needed. I love to weed. I mean I really love it! And I have no real yard so don't get to garden at my house. They are selling their house so I asked her if I could help and we made it a party! After about 3 hours, some other friends came over and we had a potluck dinner outside and watched the eclipse (after we showered, of course!). It was lovely. And there's still weeding to be done next weekend!

Today my body is sore in all the good places. Gardening is such good exercise. I miss it. And I've been off yoga for almost three weeks due to a bad back attack. Going back tomorrow...and have acupuncture in the afternoon in case I tweak something again.

Life is good...and full! ;-)