The Wedding!!!!!!!!!!!! Sept. 8, 2012

It all started out in a class at the college.  They got to know one another a little at a time, and then it hit, they knew.
After a year of dating he proposed.  When he told us he wanted to marry her, we were not surprised.  We would have been surprised if he had not proposed. For her family it was a little different proposal, he called her mother and told her he wanted to marry Liz and then asked her permission. That was a year ago. Their relationship has been a long distance one, her living here and him being 4 hours away.  At least we got to see him more often when he came to see her.

 (A couple of the pics are out of order)
The Kiss!!!

 The wedding was held outside and the reception inside.  The high that day got to 96, and standing in the sun is not comfortable. It ended up (after the ceremony) being a nice day.  We are so thankful that we did not have the same heat we had in Aug.  Over a week of 107-112 weather, over 3 weeks of over 100 degrees ~which is very uncomfortable.  We did manage to get some shade for the guests.






Liz did a beautiful job with the table decorations, with some help from all of us we got everything set up in time for the wedding.  Our youth group usually meets on Thursday evenings, but took the summer off and start up again on Thursday.  So we were able to get the tables set up that evening and set on Friday.

 The cake was stunning.

 I made the flower girl's dresses and a friend of hers made the sashes.  The little one is Vivi, Liz's little sister (3 1/2 yrs.) and the tall one is our granddaughter the grooms niece, Caitlin (6 1/2 yrs.) they both did a great job.  Brandon was the ring bearer (9 yrs) Caitlin's brother and our grandson.  Keith's brother was the best man and his sister was a bridesmaid.  Liz's sister~~her twin~~ was not in the wedding (she was there) because she has a new baby.
Our pastor did the ceremony with his wonderful wife doing the translation from English to Spanish.

 The Happy Couple!!!

Little Things...............

 The time has come  (before today) to make sure all the little things for the wedding get done.  Time to get the house in order for family to come and stay.  I am looking forward to seeing my daughter and her family.  We have not seen the grandchildren since last Thanksgiving and miss them.  My daughter we saw at my nieces wedding in June, and were Thankful for that visit.
I ordered my dress last week on Tuesday and it came  Wednesday morning.  I need to take the shoulder straps up and make a sash/belt for the dress. I would like to find a bracelet to wear that matches my earrings and necklace, so will be going out tomorrow to look for that.
The flower girl dresses area as done as I can do until Tuesday.  That is because the bride will be visiting her family over the weekend and will be fitting her little sister.  When she comes  back I will attach the skirt and put the zippers in both dress.
Meanwhile, I will finish the picture colleges, and other odd and small stuff that needs to get finishes.  Ten more days!!!!

Moving along............

 Wow, just 2 1/2 weeks until our son gets married and we have a new daughter in the family.  It's about time as we have already added 2 sons.  Our family is growing.
Yesterday I "finally" found a dress I like for the wedding.  I ordered it and it should be here by the 31 of Aug.  Today we will go shopping for some of the little things we need.  We are getting there.  Caitlin's dress is done, except for the zipper and tie (which someone else is doing) and now to work on Vivi's (Liz's little sister).  I will do the zippers on both dresses at the same time and sew the sash on (it will be red with some hand beading on it)

We pulled some shelves out of the dining area a couple weeks ago and finally got that wall painted and pictures rehung.  The flooring will go in after the wedding.  Now to clear the boxes (stuff that was in the cabinets) out and yard sale stuff out of the house so we have more room for family when they get here.

Bought a trundle bed a couple weeks ago and have it in the room our niece is sleeping in.  Since we but a bed in, formally my craft room, for her to live in and she has changed her mind about staying here...  we are going to leave the trundle in and now all 3 of the extra rooms will have beds in them for guests.  It means I have a lot more stuff to get rid of, but that is just the way it is.  I  would rather have the room for guests and family to visit and stay in comfortably then the stuff that took up the space in those rooms.  However, since I am a sewer (2 machines), scarpbooker and collecter of children's stories, some of it remains, I just need to weed out what is important and what isn't.  As I go through the children's books (there are so many I do not need) that I got for teaching.  Some really cute, but alas, there is a library close by so I can check out books when the grandchildren visit.  I do have my classics and first editions. And, I will keep my Bible stories for when I am doing Sunday School.

Time to get ready to do a little shopping today......................

Liz & Mariah

It is one month (yesterday) until Keith and Liz's wedding.  Still lots of little things to do.  So far it is going good.

Liz moved in with us 3 weeks ago, when her roommate asked her to leave.  Living with us gives her a little more money to spend, as we are not charging her room and board.  Keith has taken most of her things (minus what she needs until the wedding and for the wedding) to his place in Ojai. 

Mariah flew in on the 2nd of Aug. and will be going back on the 11th of Sept.  She will not be staying with us to go to school, instead she will be going to school in Penn.  She and Liz enjoy one another's company and that is good as they are close in age so they have many of the same interests.

I have been working on the flower girl dresses, and they will be cute.  Today I am taking a break on the dresses, I am doing some shopping for the Bridal Shower (Sat.) instead and some house cleaning. Elizabeth will be down to help me with that and when the day is over we will celebrate her birthday.

Needless to say, we are not enjoying the heat.  Sat. it is suppose to be 109, ugh!

Change of plans

Our niece was suppose to arrive on June 20th, at San Francisco Airport.  We made our plans to pick her up and then head over to our daughter's for a couple days.  Our son-in-law is an art student at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, which has a Spring Show going on.  So....as the story goes, we were going to take our niece to the show while there, as we had planned on going anyway.  Also, because our niece is interested in a future with art.  She loves to draw.  Two days before her arrival she called and said she wanted to spend more time with her mom, so she made changes to her flight.  She is due to arrive at SFO Aug. 2.  We sure hope so.  She wants to go to school and work and has a better chance here then her hometown.  Why, because she lives in a very small town where the large shopping is done at Kmart.  There are no colleges where she lives without moving away from home to the city (which isn't close by).  We will wait and see what happens, hoping she will come. 

She has a boyfriend now and I really do not know how serious she is.  It's not as if she can never go home again, but to get ahead sometimes you do need to move on.

As it was, we went on up to our daughter's, as planned.  Here she is trying to get her dogs to pose, which they never did.

 This is some of the art there.   One of the pictures is his, but I do not feel I can post it alone without his permission.

 

 We rode BART into the city, then walked the rest of the way.  The building was past Pier 39.  It was a good walk.  The ride back on BART was later, with commuters on their way home, kinda jammed in  there like sardines.  I was told it's not usually that full. 

 We ate at a Mexican restaurant that was in another part of the same building the art show is in.
We had an enjoyable couple of days, sad our niece was't there to enjoy it also.

Wedding and a Visit

 Last weekend the daughter of a family we have known for many years was married.  Her oldest sister was Elizabeth's maid of honor when she was married.  She just graduated from Biola University in S. Cal., while he will continue with his studies.  I understand he plans on becoming a medical missionary.  It was at a park in Brea, in S. Calif.  The setting was very romantic.  They said their vows over looking the lake.  The table on the dock was where they took communion while we sang.  Very nice! 

 We first went to Ojai to visit with Keith.  We ended up setting up a tent and sleeping outside, on an airbed of course.  I tried to get a reservation and could not find any hotels that offered any rooms within a reasonable price anywhere close by.  Come to find out it was graduation weekend for UC Santa Barbara and over 4,000 people were expected to attend, thus all the affordable rooms were booked (probably some months in advance).  Had I known  that I would have started looked earlier, as we have known about the wedding for months.  But we did not know Keith was going to have to move so we would have booked in Santa Barbara at a hotel we usually stay at.  It worked out and we had a good weekend.

Elizabeth came down to go with me to the wedding, and she brought Winston with her.  He preceded to torment Sugar, who spent his time in the closet.  The cat is bigger then Winston and all he had to do was stare and Winston would have backed away.  However, since Keith just moved to this place the cat is still being kept inside and is a little fearful of the move and us. After we left Keith said he came out of the closet.

 The day after the wedding we went to a place called "Pete's Cafe" in Ventura for breakfast (Father's Day).  It was a place we saw on "Diner's, Drive-In's and Dive's" on the food channel. We enjoyed it.

 Liz came  with us, and after breakfast we went to a couple of beach parks where Elizabeth took a series of engagement pictures for them.  They also took some at a park in Ojai and around where Keith lives.

 Winston got his very first visit to a beach and wasn't to sure he liked the ocean waves.  I guess when you are that small even small waves look huge plus the water was cold, after all it is the Pacific Ocean.

 Keith slept on an airbed inside, the girls slept in the bed and we slept on an airbed in the tent I mentioned earlier.  We will be getting a new airbed soon, the one we used had a slow leak in it.  When he blew it up I remembered it and didn't realize we still had it.  I slept on it camping when I was pregnant with Elizabeth 26 years ago.  It leaked then.  When we both were on the bed it was OK, only when one of us got up did we then feel the cement under us. It did get more air put in it the next night before we retired.  We were only there 2 nights so it was bearable for these bones.

So much going on

Georgia has been out of the hospital and rehab for a few weeks now.  She is going to physical therapy a couple days a week.  She still needs to take it slow and easy, after all heart surgery and valve replacement is major. I go over at least once a week to clean for her.  Her apt. is small and the cleaning and mopping can be done in a couple hours.  We visit, I walk her dog and she makes lunch for us both.  Occasionally when I go over I take her shopping, and of course those days are a bit longer. She misses her ministries, visiting shut ins and doing her Bible study group.  I pick her up for church and take her home after. Now that school is out another woman at church is able to go over and help. She will take over the cleaning when I am out of town.

We have a wedding in the L.A. area on Sat.  Dan, Elizabeth, Liz and I will head down to Ojai, to our son's place, in the morning.  Elizabeth and I will head to the wedding Sat. morning.  We have other stuff planned while there.  So it will be a good weekend.  Oh, and for those who know Winston, he is also going, not to the wedding  Dad get's to dog sit the chihuahua while we are at the wedding. He loves to walk and is a good traveler and on the leash. He will also get to meet Sugar the cat, a little bigger then he is.

In the meantime I have been switching around rooms so my niece can have a room of her own when she moves in.  It is hard to believe that she will be here next week.  With all I do and the kids coming to visit I haven't gotten as much done as I'd like.  The bed is in and next week, after we return from Ojai I will have 2 days to finish.  It will be ready for her with the exception of the closet.  I had turned the room into my craft room so the closet is full.  I have another closet to clear out and then  I can move some drawers full of material, sewing supplies and other supplies.  Looks like I am going to have a huge garage sale sometime around the middle of July to the beginning of August.  At which time I will be also making flower girls dresses, and finishing a quilt for my nieces wedding the end of June. Oh, around the middle of July we are going to start getting ready to replace the flooring in our dining area and kitchen.  We'll do the counters and redo the cabinets next year sometime.
I will do the Bridal shower the beginning of August, but that will be at the church so I won't have to worry about the "floors" at my house.  That date will be set soon.
Think I'll go pack now.
God Bless

Punkin and a Rug Rat baby

 While sorting through some boxes of kiddie toys, I came across a baby rug rat toy from a kids meal somewhere.  I wound it up for Punky and he didn't know what to think.  The pictures speak for him. 

I've come to the conclusion that Blogger really doesn't want people to blog as much, or new people to join.  The changes STINK!!!

Up date!

 Georgia was able to home to her apt. on Friday.  She is so happy to be home.  She really misses Misty her Shitzu-Yorkie mix, little dog (really cute).  Her daughter is taking care of the dog and she does get visiting rights.  However, that type of dog requires exercise and Georgia is not up to long walks yet.  I will be going over weekly to help doing some cleaning for her.  Both her daughters work, one is a young widow with 3 children, the other has 2 special needs children, so I help when I can.   She is slowly regaining her strength and can walk a little around her apt. complex, but she has her limits.  We all tell her to listen to her doctor and one of her friends is a retired nurse, and that helps.

Visit

Again I will say "I DO NOT LIKE THE NEW BLOGGER!"  There I said it!

Saw Georgia yesterday.  She sounded better then she has in weeks and she looked good.  She is in a rehab center now for some physical therapy, especially as she is weak from not walking for over 2 weeks. We took communion to her and had some Bible time with her.  She enjoyed that very much.  She asked if I might take over her Bible Study at her apt. complex.  I've never taught one but I can try. She lives in a complex for low income elderly.  Pray for me that when the time comes I will do it God's way.
Our visit was just under an hour as we didn't want to make her overly tired.  She may feel good, but having a heart valve replaced isn't minor surgery and she still needs to rest to help her recovery.  She is so positive, she looks at being in the rehab center as a chance to witness (she does) and do some Bible studies with others.  There is no keeping this lady down, she is a woman of God!

Geoergia

Before I update on Georgia, I again want to say I am NOT HAPPY with the changes blogger made. 
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Georgia had a heart valve replaced a week ago Wed. April 25.  It was not invasive, in otherwards yes they had to cut her and no they did not have to cut through the breast bone.  The doctor that did it teaches the new method and is a christian.  That made Georgia very happy.  We took her communion the day before the surgery, she called me at 7:30 requesting it.   A couple days before she called at 6:30, requesting a visit.
Her daughters kept us updated on her progress and we finally got permission to visit her 3 days ago.  They are guarding her closely and want people to call them to find out if it is ok to visit.  Georgia will move to a rehab in a few days, for around 10 days.  All in all, she is doing better and the doctors are getting other issues under control.  God is good.