Off to Illinois!

Sarah and Praveen returned from their honeymoon on Sunday, opened some gifts, and headed to Illinois Monday. I miss them soooooo much!





Back from DisneyWorld










Time to move into their own little nest.

Praveen and Ben

Rebekah, Sarah, and Jill

All done packing

I feel so good right now - I just finished packing Sarah's breakables. Becka packed her clothing. I thought we were almost done until I picked up some dishes from my mom, thinking they were ready to roll. But then I checked them, and they weren't, having been stacked without any packing between. I made good use of the bubble-wrap my sister gave me from her job. Good stuff that. What did folks do in the 1930's when they moved? Probably packed their breakables in their clothing.

Well, anyway, she and Praveen are ready to go to Illinois. I guess this packing was the last step in the wedding/move. I will miss Sarah sooooo much! And I will miss getting to know Praveen better faster. But over time, we'll get together. I suppose Sarah and I will talk on the phone a lot, but it's not the same...

Becka and Ben are bothering the daylights out of Cosmo. He's sleeping and they keep whining at him, "Cosmo, wake up and play! You've been sleeping all day!" Then Ben talks in Cosmo's voice which is male, but kinda whimpy.

I'm done with my job on Sunday. So Becka and I need to boogie on over to Banana Republic before I lose my 50% discount. She's really impressed that I even want to do that: "We never go shopping - that's like a normal mother-daughter thing." It's funny. Ever since I started working this job, whenever I fold the girls' clothing, I think of Becka, and wish I'd been able to take her shopping more as a little girl. But that seemed to be my mother-in-law's thing. We were always strapped, and Nanny enjoyed taking the girls out shopping. If it wasn't for her, they'd have had half the clothing, and most of it from Walmart. So they're grateful! I remember once, I did buy brand new dresses for the girls. It was very special, and they were about $20 each. I remember putting them in those coodinated dresses and feeling so good about buying them. The girls looked so cute in them! I'll have to find a picture of them. They weren't fussy. More like playdresses. They were striped and had appliques of little kitties or some such on them. It's funny the things we remember.

Brrrrrrrrrrr!

It is SO cold outside. I think it's in the low-20's. The poor cat. As soon as I took the dogs out, there she was, mewing pathetically for some food to help keep her belly warm.

Rebekah is still in bed, and I need to get in that room and pack what's left of Sarah's stuff. I'm hoping to get to my friend, Faith's, house around 11, so I may just invade the warm sleepiness of that sanctuary, with disregard for the zzzzzz's in the air...

My seasonal retail job is soon ending, and I'm glad. But it's helped me lose about 10 lbs, so that's the downside. I was 163 in the summer. Now I'm 149. I'll need to get walking every day. Maybe I can find an accountablitly partner...

I'm pretty much recovered from the wedding. I hope Sarah and Praveen are having a nice time, despite the cool weather they didn't expect on their honeymoon.

A Wedding to Remember

Sarah and Praveen are now man and wife! The wedding was beautiful. They used some of the vows from Pride and Prejudice, from the 1600's. Sarah's harp teacher played for them, as a gift. Sarah came down the aisle to Arabesque, after the bridesmaids walked down to Pachelbel's Canon. Praveen and Noah wore tradional Indian outfits called sherwanis. And Sarah said a sweet phrase in Hindi to Praveen.

Sarah, Praveen, and I cried a little. I found out later that at least two of my friends did too. Rebekah, David, and Adele choked up a little during toasts (and Adele's poem, written just for the occasion).

My sister, Gayle, did the photography. The reception was very classy, and the dancing was a blast! Even some of my quiter friends couldn't resist a little disco action. At one point, I saw my mom and Ben cutting the rug, and later my mother-in-law was teaching me how to swing! Sarah and Praveen danced to All I Ask of You from Phantom of the Opera, and then David and Sarah waltzed to On the Beautiful Blue Danube. David and I got a couple of dances in too - I especially enjoyed one to What a Wonderful World. The evening went so fast - soon we were throwing birdseed at the happy couple and off they went! Family and friends pitched in to clean up, and we all dragged ourselves home. We ended up with a LOT of leftover cake. We pretty much crashed upon arriving home... Noah peeled off his sherwani, and crawled right into bed. He had danced a lot, and told me, while resting between dancing, that, "This is the BEST wedding ever! I can't wait for their anniversary party!" Here are some snapshots I caught: