When Life Gets Stressful...Go to a Wedding!

What perfect timing!  Just as things were getting a little crazy at my house with all the awesome volunteers doing various things in various rooms, it was time for me to get my children together and take them to a wedding.  My cousin Buck and his beautiful bride Jen got married.  I was glad to leave for a fun celebration to get my mind off of things.  This is them with the quilt my aunt made them.

Jen is from here in Cedar Rapids so it was a treat for us to be able to drive a couple miles and be there.  A lot of these occasions require a day of driving and sometimes an overnight stay.  Don't get me wrong, we love those trips too, but this time most of our relatives had to make the long drive.  The kids had just spent a few days at the farm not long ago so they were excited to go and see our cousins again.

While I was at the wedding I was getting updates from people about how the work was coming along at the house.  I was so proud of myself when I got a text from a friend that said "I love the blue on the house!"  I had left for the wedding before the painting started.  When I saw "blue" in the text I was a little concerned.  It turns out to be perfect so I am glad I didn't get worked up about it.

Pictures were taken of the grand kids who were at the wedding.  There are 20 of us total so this was a pretty good representation of the group.  

Matthew had a lot of fun dancing.  His favorite dance partner is his cousin Mady.  He showed her some moves for sure!  He had never been to a wedding that he remembered before and so there was a lot of explaining going on.  Who he could or couldn't marry when he got big, when was the exact moment they were married.  He asked quite often during the ceremony "are they married yet, Mom?"  I got to steal a couple of dances from him myself!

A small reminder of the real world came as we were leaving the church and my aunt Jo, who you can get to know better at www.joscountryjunction.com told me that she had something for me in the car.  This happened at our last wedding the end of June when my cousin Carly got married.  I was looking ahead at that time to surgery on July 3rd.  She gave me a gift card to Barnes and Noble for my Nook to read while I recovered.  Now that I have surgery coming up again on the 15th, she gave me a quilt that she and my cousin Kelli had made.  I still have most of the gift card left (I love to read but I don't read very fast) so while I recover I can read on my Nook and snuggle in this wonderful quilt. 

She is such a talented and creative individual, I remember as a little girl wanting to be just like her.  Weddings are fun reminders of our blessings and the people we love.  I received so many well wishes and so many who told me they were praying for me.  I think that these family celebrations peppered in between the "not so happy" surgery events in my life of late have been so good for me.  I feel very loved and that is a huge weapon in conquering fear and discouragement during the trials of life.