We're Going to Disneyland!

Kaitlin and Ben had a great honeymoon at Disneyland and the beach. When they came home on Friday they seemed super happy and said they had a great time in spite of a few mishaps along the way.   As of Saturday, they are living in their new apartment where they will finish up a few more weeks of online classes look for jobs before the fall semester starts.

Here at our house, we spent the week recovering from the wedding, sorting through things, returning things that were borrowed, washing tablecloths, cleaning the wedding dress, and selling things that we didn't want to keep.



Ruth's New Job

I failed to mention a couple weeks ago that Ruth has started a new job. She works for a heating and air contractor that works with Lowes.  In essence, she sits at a table at Lowes and tries to sell heating and air services to passer-bys.  She gets paid a good hourly wage plus commission for sales.  Although Ruth says the actual work is pretty boring, she is glad to be getting practical business experience.  While most of her friends are working fast food she feels like she is getting her foot in the door in a field that interests her.

Ruth at her first day of work

This weekend was our Towne Days and Ruth helped stage the town parade with the youth council then the youth council appeared in the parade. Their group got an award from the city for all their service. 

Kaitlin and Ben's Wedding

On Friday, Kaitlin and Ben were married.  It was a beautiful and perfect day.  The ceremony was lovely and they were both so happy.  All the family was there and we took pictures at the temple.  The Platt family put a nice luncheon for all of us.  Then that evening the reception went really well.  We had around 300 people pass through to give their good wishes.   

We had so many people come and help us.  Kaitlin's bridesmaid, Rachel, showed up at 7:30 am to do her hair.  I had several friends iron tablecloths and help set up the reception.  My sister Donna ran the refreshment table all night, and finally, a lot of Kaitlin's friends, and Donna, and my friend Julia and her daughter Avery, stayed until past 10 pm to clean everything up.  It was a monumental task, but everything went so smoothly because so many people helped. 

Kaitlin and Ben have really been on a long journey to get to this point. They have made a lot of sacrifices to serve in the church.  They put off being together for two years, communicating in only letters.  Thiers is an amazing love story. 

20 years ago I left a really bad marriage, and the main reason I did that was because I wanted Kaitlin to have an example of a loving and respectful relationship;  I wanted her to see how she should be treated by a husband someday.  It was so satisfying to me to see her get married to Ben, who is such a gentle, hard working, friendly guy.  It feels like I succeeded in a great work. 

I'm not sure what details to include so here are some pictures from the event.  I've tried to choose ones that didn't appear in other social media.  I'll also put up pictures from the photographer when we get them.  Most of these pictures were taken by other people. 

Ben did a dance of joy leaving the temple.

They were so happy!

Family pictures.

The groomsmen were all Kaitlin's friends in high school. It was so great to see them all together at the wedding. 

I think we look pretty great. There was minimal crying during the ceremony so our makeup was still intact. 

Ruth and some of the other bridesmaids.

We had over 50 lanterns at the reception. (Thanks Lisa!)

Kaitlin didn't want the parents to stand in a line, so while Kaitlin and Ben greeted guests the rest of us were free to mingle. (You can see Donna there on the right, busy at work on the refreshment table)

Kaitlin's dress turned out lovely! They were a handsome couple. 

Their friend took care of the car decorating. 

Here is a video of the bouquet toss. I won't spoil it for you and tell you who caught it.  (if you get this blog via email, you'll have to visit the blog online to watch the video)

Jared's 100-mile Bike Trip

While we were all doing last minute scrambling for the wedding, Jared was with his scout troop doing a 100-mile bike trip on the White Rim Train in Canyonland's National Park.  His troop has been getting ready for this trip for awhile. They left early on Monday morning and came home late on Thursday night (they came home a day early just so Jared could make it back for the wedding).

Jared said it was a lot of fun but some of it was really hard.  He came home a little sunburned and a lot tired.

finalizing the table decorations

Have I mentioned that Kaitlin's getting married?  No?

Well, she is, and we spent some time this week getting ready for that.  We took a few trips to the seamstress to get the final fitting on her dress, and we shopped for things, and we made plans. Chuck has been building the backdrop in the garage.  It seems I think of something new every day that we have to add to the list.  

We were lucky enough to be invited to a neighbor's wedding reception at the same venue, so we were able to go and see the room in action. It really helped us solidify our plans and how we want movement in the room.

All in all it's coming together.  Most of the planning is done.  It should all come together just fine.

Kaitlin is holding up really well. She has not gone bridezilla at all. I think her overwhelming feeling is that she just wants to be done with it and move on to the next part of her life.

Wedding Plans

Things are starting to come together now for the wedding. We are less than 2 weeks away.  Kaitlin and Ben got their wedding license this week.  They also borrowed a trailer and truck and moved all their belongings to their new apartment in Idaho.   They will be settling there immediately after their honeymoon.  Kaitlin said the new apartment was really cute but hard to move all their stuff up two flights of stairs.


Volunteering

While Kaitlin and Ben were moving, I spent Saturday volunteering for Comic Con and for the Mama Dragons at the Pride festival downtown.  I had a great time giving out posters and t-shirts for Comic Con during the day and even more fun meeting a lot of other moms and new people at the MD booth in the evening.

Summer is Comming

This was my last week of work. It was a super busy week as we were getting ready for next year.  I made over 100 laminated homework folders and compiled hundreds of little booklets and journals until stacks and stacks of them lined the walls.  On my last day, one of my classes presented me with a big card with all their handprints and little notes from them, and then the class sang "Feliz Navidad" for me. 

Ruth and Jared have been winding down as well, doing final tests and turning in assignments.  It looks like the both will have mostly A's and a few B's.   They are good students and I do very little to nag them, they just naturally want to do well - which is a big blessing to me.  

Kaitlin's Bridesmaids, Kira and Tiana

Kaitlin, on the other hand, works in a year-round school, so she still has a month of work. In addition to that, she spends several hours a day working on her online classes which have turned out to be more challenging than she expected.  

On Saturday Kaitlin and I went to a family bridal shower planned by Ben's mom. It was a chance for Kaitlin to meet the women in  Ben's family and extended family.  Everyone was really nice and they put out a fancy spread of food.  

Happy Birthday Me!

I had a crazy busy week this week as you will see by reading this blog post.  A lot of the busyness was a result of my birthday. I opened my birthday gifts the day before my birthday. I got a video game and a full-length mirror for my bathroom (pictured).  My birthday was on Monday, but we didn't have time for a family celebration until Wed. My celebration included some birthday cookies from Kaitlin, birthday doughnuts from Chuck, and a fun family game which I won.  I took advantage of a lot of offers from friends to do fun things for my birthday, which resulted in a few lunches out, and a friend gathering where we played Settlers of Catan.  I also went to a library craft night with another friend and had an impromptu motorcycle girls night out with another.   Nearly every day this week I did a fun birthday thing with someone.  It was a great birthday and I felt really loved.

On Tuesday I sang in Kensington Singers final concert of the season. It was a pretty good concert; I thought we performed really well.  Singing in this choir has been a pretty big time commitment but has been worth it.  I've learned so much from singing at this level and it's made me a much better conductor.



Jared's Final Band Concert

I spent my birthday at a dress rehearsal and when I walked in the door at around 10pm, I discovered that Chuck and Jared had gone out to buy a drumset they had found in the online classified. Sure enough, 5 minutes later they came bursting in, hands full of drum set.   About six months ago Jared asked for a new drumset (we had a really cheap old one). I told him that I would get him a new one if he started practicing more regularly. For the last few months, he has been playing every day. Many days he has played for hours until his hands have bled, he loves it that much.

Jared also played in his final band concert of the year.  I had to miss it because I was also singing in a concert that night, but I got to watch in on video, and then Jared played along with the video for me on one of the songs. I felt like I had a first-row seat.  I've said before how awesome it is to have a percussionist because it's like they have a solo on every song. You always can hear exactly what they are playing.

I'm attaching a short video clip of Jared playing the snare drum in a song called "Train".

Ruth Wins More Things

For the last while it seems like the name of this blog should change to "Awesome Things Ruth is Doing" and this week's entry is no different.  Ruth came home from school one day with an arm full of prizes.  She found out when they made an announcement over the intercom at school that she had won the Lagoon Physics Day logo contest.   Every year Lagoon, our local amusement park, sponsors a "physics" day for high school students.  As part of this, they offer a logo contest where students from all over the area can design for next years physics day.  Ruth's teacher told that class that if they entered the logo contest they wouldn't have to do a worksheet, so Ruth entered the contest... and won.  She won an air cannon, a plasma ball, and two tickets to Lagoon. Her logo will be used on t-shirts and advertise for next year's Lagoon day.

Ruth also had her end of the year Debate banquet where she was recognized for all her achievements this year.


New Car for Chuck

Ever since we sold Chuck's truck when we were unemployed, Chuck has been driving the old mini-van.  We nicknamed it "The Man Van."   This week he bought himself a little Subaru Outback.  We hope to now buy a small trailer so we can haul our motorcycles around in it.

Kaitlin's Shower

Kaitlin and I decided awhile ago that we were not going to put on a bridal shower, Kaitlin didn't want the extra attention, and we didn't want the extra work.   I'm not sure if word got out about that or how it became known, but one of Kaitlin's old church leaders (and good friend), stepped forward and told us she was going to put on a church/neighborhood shower for us.   We didn't have to do anything, just show up.   The shower was lovely and a lot of our local friends came to wish Kaitlin well.  Kaitlin was overwhelmed by their kindness and generosity. It was a really fun day.  Thank you so much Stephanie, for planning, and Tricia, for hosting! We felt really loved. 


We got Appreciated

You might have heard that two weeks ago was teacher appreciation week, but did you know that this past week was auxiliary worker appreciation week?  No? It's true. Both Kaitlin and I were appreciated at our jobs.  Kaitlin got lunch twice, and I got lunch and a huge stack of adorable handwritten thank-you cards from my 1st graders. 

Happy Pre-Birthday 

Instead of Mother's Day, today we are celebrating "pre-birthday".    In celebration of this special day, Kaitin gave me this amazing pre-birthday chocolate bouquet of her very own making.