Wedding Tidbits

Here are a few things about the wedding that were fun. For the rehearsal dinner/picnic, the ladies from Lubbock made 11 pies.  ELEVEN.  Fresh berries and all! Not only were these pies scrumptious, but they sported dinosaur cutouts as decorations since the bride is particularly fond of dinosaurs.

My dear husband found a free app for his phone showing various ways to tie a tie. Not only are there different ways, but you can chose a certain way depending upon your height, face shape, etc. He chose the Kelvin knot which is slightly asymmetrical.

We had lots of fun shopping not only at Trader Joe's for the wine, but also at Costco.  Note the Dr. Pepper - a real must for Texans.

This might be my favorite tidbit story. Kat, the bridesmaid, made the bride and groom cards which said "bride" and "groom". This way they could play the "bride card" if they didn't want to do something, or if there was something they particularly wanted to do. I'm not sure if they actually did use their cards, but I played my hypothetical "Mother of the Bride Card" when we went to Dutch Bros. for coffee on the morning of the wedding. (Notice that it was cool enough to wear a sweater in the morning.) After we hemmed and hawed about what kind of coffee to get, the nice guy in the booth told me that it would come to $7. I looked at him and said, "What kind of discount can I get since my daughter is getting married today?" He thought a moment, and without missing a beat, he said, "That will be $3.50." Needless to say, he got a tip, and then we went back the next morning, too.

More About the Wedding

If one should get married in Oregon, and one wants an outdoor wedding, August is the perfect month for the event. Mt. Pisgah Arboretum is a lovely venue for a wedding. Next to this large pavilion stands a large oak tree under which I'm sure many couples have said their vows. After the ceremony, the pavilion is an excellent place to host the reception, the guests having a place to enjoy each other's company while the family and bridal party take photos under the great oak tree.

The ceremony was short and sweet. The bridal party, intimate. The couple chose one of their good friends to perform the ceremony.

Bridal Party

The happy couple with the celebrant and his wife

The food came from two places that are special for the bride and groom. I did not get photos of the pizza, but the delicious pie came from Mezza Luna Pizza and the cakes (five of them! each a different flavor), came from Sweet Life Patisserie. The couple chose a cake called Cloud 9, and each of the bridal party chose their own favorite type.

To make this wedding unique, since L and C are such great gamers and love Mario Kart, instead of having a first father/daughter and first dance, they played Mario Kart instead. Here the bride is explaining the controls to her dad, although he wasn't very chivalrous and ended up winning that race. The bride was kinder to her new husband by waiting at the finish line for him before she crossed over.

A Wedding in the Family

We arrived home late, late last night after a two-week vacation which culminated in the marriage of our daughter on Thursday. I'll certainly have more to blog about in the coming days, but today is reserved for all that stuff that needs to be done upon returning home. 

Here is a photo of the happy couple for the meantime.

Random Friday Photo

Here is a flower that was growing in my garden in June.

Gazpacho Recipe

Here's my favorite gazpacho recipe made from the great tomatoes from my garden this year. I found it in the LA Times and added plain greek yogurt as a topping.

A Peace Corps Blog

You know you are getting old when people you knew as children are now adults and out in the world creating change. I recently found out that a young woman who was on swim team with my daughters years ago has not only finished her master's degree in biology, but is now in Equador in the Peace Corps working on water projects for a village there. You can read about her adventures in her blog here. Way to go, Dani!

#30

Today I have been married to my best friend for 30 years! Here is a picture from our honeymoon as we drove through Minnesota on the way to Lake Carlos where we rented a little cabin and sailed a borrowed sunfish sailboat for a few days before heading off to our new home in Madison, Wisconsin.

How could that have been 30 years ago?

The Burning House

One of the articles I ran across while flipping through Flipboard concerned the website theburninghouse.com. It poses this question:

I took the challenge, and although my photo shows that I do not value the practical (I figure that I can replace my electronics, my instruments, my books, furniture, etc), it became an interesting exercise for me. 

I started by wandering through my house to see what I had that could never be replaced, and I started with items that I have from my grandparents. The first thing I picked up was a wedding present from my grandfather who carved a knot and inscribed our names on it. Then I saw the brooch that I chose from my grandmother's jewelry box after her memorial service. That got me to thinking and I went through the Christmas decorations and chose the angel tree-topper that my other grandmother had given me years ago. Unfortunately, I do not think I have anything from my other grandfather.

The rest of the items are correspondence (with the exception of a drawing that I made when I was 4. I remember drawing it and thinking then that it was THE most beautiful piece of art. Ever.). The rest of the letters represent all the other letters that I have in boxes. A letter from my husband when we were dating. A thank you note from each of my daughters (who write excellent thank you notes). A letter my father wrote to his parents when I was young. A letter my mother wrote to her in-laws when I was young. (I was looking for the letter my father wrote to me when I was expecting our second child with a whole list of suggested names for that child, none of which we used, but all of which I enjoyed reading. I need to find that letter.)

As a blogger, it's easy to conclude that I value the written word (pictures, too) which document even the most mundane aspects of lives. I am sentimental. That is not news to me or anyone who knows me well.

Flipboard

This is the app that uses up half of the battery life on my iPad (the other being Words with Friends). Flipboard is billed as "a new approach to browsing social content" - a magazine-format aggregator for your mobile device. What?

It collects the content of various sites (including Facebook and Twitter, but I really like the news portions) and allows you to swipe the pages to browse the content which is beautifully laid out. It's quite intuitive, and I can lose track of time while flipping through the pages.

Random Friday Photo

Apparently you can take Driver's Ed in a Mini Cooper these days.  Sweet.