Much has been happening since I last made an entry here, sorry for my absence. I have a list a mile long of things to do, but felt a need to sit and write a few thought, some happy and some sad.
The happy first and the reason for my mile long list. My daughter, Erika is getting married in July. She is my only child and is a true blessing to me. So… I am going a little crazy with all the details. :-) First off, she is living in Florida with her fiancé and the wedding will be here in Austin. We have family coming from Vermont, Vancouver, and Minnesota. Yes to Texas in July!!! The first problem of where to have the service and reception have been solved (all indoors with a/c).
The next on the list was of course the dress. Erika is notoriously picky about her clothes. When she was younger, and even up to a few years ago, I could pick things she would love, but I lost my touch. Believe it or not we found the dress in 1 day, 3rd shop. We had just had a horrible time at the 2nd place and were a little disappointed with the hunt. When we got to the 3rd shop we only had a ½ hour until closing. With a quick scan of the dresses, I grabbed 2 while Erika picked out 3 or 4 more. She tried on one of her choices first, nope, not the one, then she put on the one I chose (I thought she would love it). She came out with he shoulders up to her ears and a grin from ear to ear, saying “Mommy! I love it!!” As you can see in the picture I couldn’t get her to stop smiling.
Mailing was a bit of a surprise because the box said they would need to be hand canceled but not that they would be more than a regular stamp!
Now onto the real challenge, Shoes! Erika has one foot smaller than the other. Most of us do, but her left foot is a size 5 and her right is a size 4. Yes 4!! She usually buys her shoes in the kids section but you can’t get wedding shoes there! :-( We looked all over but most stores do not carry sizes smaller than 6 in fancy dress shoes. After much hunting we found some beautiful shoes that only need 3 layers of padding on the right to make it fit!!
Okay, now that we have the shoes I can alter the dress. You may not have noticed in the shot of the dress, Erika is only 4’ 11” tall. Even with the shoes I will be shortening the dress by 6”, all 4 layers of it! Oh, Ben her fiancé is 6’4” …. ROFL
When Erika came back to look for the shoes we also got the cake and flowers arranged. That would seem to be most of it but noooooo the list seems to go on and on. I get one thing checked off and Erika adds 2 more on. :-) More on the wedding plans later.
The sad news yesterday was that my best friend’s mother had a stroke and died. Lyn is like a sister to me, we are both transplanted Yankees here in Texas. Erika and Lyn’s 2 kids are like brother and sister. You should see the looks she gets when she introduces Andy as her brother. This is going to be doubly hard on Lyn and her husband, Roger, because they are also in the process of moving Roger’s mother into an assisted living home. I have found myself at a loss of words right now. This seems very short after all my rambling on about the wedding, but for every step forward our lives take us, every new chapter added, we loose some of our roots and seem set adrift. Until we remember that the person we have lost has given us their wisdom over the years and that wisdom will be our anchor. Lyn’s Mom was a super neat woman and will be missed greatly.
