The Trials of a Busy Mom

Month: June 2016

Cole and Emily Erickson–June 23, 2016

WEDDING!!!

Wow! Even if you are the groom’s parent’s, there is a lot to do to get ready for a wedding.

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But I’m glad they got married in June, as early as they could. Short engagement is good, and then it doesn’t drag on all summer. Getting the invitations out was kind of a mess. But hopefully we keep that list updated for when we have the next wedding. And then there’s the stress every time an invitation comes back. Do you try to find the correct address and send it again? Do you just email the person, or do you figure they are lost forever and you don’t need to try to track them down further?

As the groom’s mom, I decided I wanted to host a family dinner the night before the wedding at our church. That way I could decorate and do some of the fun and creative stuff, and we could invite a lot of family and still keep the costs down. My friend, who’s daughter got married in May, pointed me to a fabulous local caterer, and I was very happy with how the food turned out.

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Even though the location was simple, we tried our best to make it pretty. I was going for a garden theme, so I brought all my plants, watering cans, and cute garden decor. I also arranged with a few neighbors to borrow some of their plants.
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When we went to set up, I wondered what we should do with the blackboard, and I think Ryan said, “Oh, it’s just like their announcement,” So, we got Megan started in copying the writing from the announcement on the chalkboard.

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On each table there were bird cages filled with greenery. I had snipped a few branches from my laurel bushes, and also some clematis. It looked nice. We set each place with a plate, fork and knife, napkin, cup and a temple cookie in a cute bag.

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It was a nice evening! And it was wonderful that so many friends and family of both the bride and groom could come. I think we had 78-80 in attendance.
DSCN1280 Of course, when it was over, we had to take everything BACK that we had borrowed. We had more help cleaning up, so the tear down was quicker than the set up, but we were also tired. We had lots of silverware and plates to wash, too, and had to wait for the caterers to finish washing up all their dishes before we could start in the kitchen. Thankfully, I have some dear friends who helped me clean up. We were there until nearly 9:30 washing dishes, while Ryan took a few loads of plants and other garden things like our wrought iron bench back home. They plopped all the plants on the porch, after returning the ones they had borrowed.

After I was home and finally in my pajamas, Cole remembered that he needed his white pants hemmed for the temple. That will just have to wait until morning, I told him. Emily invited all her bridesmaids to sleep over at her house, so the girls grabbed some pajamas, and went over there. So fun.

In the morning, we were trying to get hair done, sew up those white pants, get the girls’ hair done, etc. 10:00 came quickly and we got in the car. Megan was going to drive herself, Natalie, Jenna and John and meet us at the Draper temple at 11:30, after the wedding. One friend called me on the way and said that they just realized the wedding was in Draper, not American fork, and they might be late. No worries, though, somehow they made it on time.

They let the parents go up to the sealing room before everyone else, and we wait quietly. It’s so beautiful!! After a few minutes, friends and family start to come in. Wow! After everyone was seated, they brought in the bride and groom. Cole was seated by me. The sealing was so special, so touching. During that ceremony, I remembered my own wedding, and I looked across to see Ryan. And so many of our families were there to show their love to Cole and Emily.
It was beautiful.
I cried.
It’s come full circle. We were just two stupid kids when we got married almost 24 years ago. Look at us now. We have 5 children, and our oldest son is starting his own family with a girl he adores.

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Here’s my first picture of them as man and wife. They come out of the temple to a large group of family and friends who are there for them. To show love and support to both of our families. It’s overwhelming the amount of love we felt.

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Then there were pictures. So many pictures.

This is my new family. Six kids instead of five. Isn’t it wonderful how a family is constantly growing and changing, all while staying the same?

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One of the smart things we did was purchase and bring 5 large umbrellas. They aren’t expensive, just from IKEA, but it helped to have some shade during the picture taking. And we could even use them as props.

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The reception that night was also beautiful. Yes, it was long, but it was so amazing to have So many people come in support of us and Cole and Emily and the Beus family. Wow. It was overwhelming. So many people came through the line to tell us how much they love Emily, how special she is, and how much she loves Cole. Such a fun evening full of love. I don’t have a single complaint about the reception, and I hope Emily and her mom feel the same way.

Wow!

Now the bride and groom are on their honeymoon. Today they spent the day in Disneyland. And the packages and cards keep arriving.

Gratitude.

It’s wedding week!

Wedding week. EEEK!! It’s so strange. My fistborn, my sweet little Cole, My Kolipoki…he’s getting married!

Maybe we should watch “Father of the Bride”.
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Or maybe not. Maybe later.

There were many things I was going to do ‘before the wedding’.
-Lose 20 pounds
-Get a spray tan
-Get the house cleaned and organized
-wax the eyebrows

Now it looks like we are just going to do the necessities. I have lost 5 pounds, but not 20. Oh, well.

Last night I packaged up 100 shortbread cookies for the wedding dinner. Oh, and our air conditioning went out. But, hooray, it’s working again, so that’s a good thing.

It’s all about these two cuties.
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We are so happy for them!

It’s a stop sign

really stop(Warning…grumpy old ranting ahead)

Dear Parade of Homes,

Let’s start by saying I’m not a big fan. People come to all different styles of houses that they can’t afford and gawk at the extravagance and excess. Or maybe they are looking for ideas to use in their own houses, but then leave discouraged because real people with real mortgages can not spend that much on amazing extra features. And why pay $15 and drive all around when you could just look at the pictures on the website? Ryan and I went to the parade of homes once. We were in the “get ideas” phase before we built a house. I think that was a mistake. Unrealistic expectations and disappointment is what I brought away from that experience. But maybe that’s just me. Maybe I’m the only one who looks at an amazingly beautiful, absolutely spotless house and compares it to my own house, and then feels inadequate.

Sometimes I get inspired by new houses. I visit teach a lady and we had heard about the house and watched it being built. I was so happy for them when they finally got to move in, and I was in awe of her organized pantry. I came home that day and started to organize my pantry. Not to the level of HER organized and brand new pantry, of course, but I was inspired to action instead of just depressed about the state of my pantry.

But mostly, I compare.

Can we be realistic, though? The houses that are being built near us are enormous. Who needs a house that big? My sister. My sister and her husband have 15 kids. And a mother-in-law living with them. They sold two houses to build one big house. It is very big. But it’s built for 18 people! I don’t see any families that big moving into these other houses. Two kids, maybe three? Excess. It’s embarrassing. When we host exchange students from other countries, they are amazed by the size of our house. Our house is quite large and we have a big yard. We do have 6 bedrooms in our house, now. Enough for 7 or 8 people, and there’s always room for guests, even if we have to kick someone out of their room for a guest to sleep in their bed. But when someone from Japan or China comes, they are always shocked at the size of our house. It’s Utah, folks, where there is a lot of land, so we can spread out a bit. But 8000? 10,000? 12,000 square feet of house? Who’s going to keep that clean? A housekeeper? Probably.

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This is the house in our neighborhood. It is beautiful. I especially love the back yard, and I was glad to see this picture of the backyard on the parade of homes website, since I don’t know if the new homeowners will invite us over for a barbeque. Probably not, if they ever read this post.
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My REAL complaint about the parade of homes, however, would be the DRIVERS. We have had trouble with that stop sign since it was put in. stop People don’t stop. And now, with 40+ cars coming to see the house on parade, do they stop at the stop sign? NO. Do I lay on my horn when they don’t stop and give me the right of way? Yes, I do. And I wish there were a police officer there to pull them over. I was SO happy on Saturday, when I was driving into our neighborhood, I saw a police officer with lights on pulling someone over RIGHT there. Just past the stop sign that they had ignored. Maybe these drivers don’t realize that PEOPLE live in these neighborhoods. People with kids. People with jobs and dogs and scooters and wagons and strollers. We are trying to go about our lives, going to work or scouts or the grocery store, and we really don’t want to be hit by Mr. and Mrs. Parade of Homes attendees who can’t bother to look up from their maps or their phones to see a stop sign and actually STOP for it. really stop The stop sign requires you to stop, whether there is a car coming in the other direction or not. What? Yes, folks, that’s how a stop sign works. We are SO sick of the drivers. We thought the stop sign running was bad when it was just construction workers. We had a neighborhood meeting and talked to the city council about how to handle the problem. I feel especially bad for the people that live right by that stop sign. They have taken down license numbers, called the police, left notes, and done everything they can to help people notice the stop sign. One of those blinking stop signs would maybe work, but we don’t want something so obnoxious in our neighborhood.
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A few more days is all we have to put up with this parade of homes traffic, and then hopefully the rest of the time it will be people who actually live here.

So, there you have it, Parade of homes. Sorry to be so blunt, but we don’t really want you here.

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