My recent trip to South Carolina and my sister's wedding, Part 1

I was hoping to have some pictures to include with this entry about my sister’s wedding. But for some reason, I haven’t been able to work on the 350 pictures we took while we were in South Carolina. In fact, I’ve posted only 9 on Flickr so far. But I should chronicle this while I still have fresh memories.

The airport shuttle picked us up at 4:15 on Tuesday morning. Everything is pretty much a blur until we arrived in Savannah (the closest airport). I do remember something about the kids being so excited that they were bouncing all over the place and not listening very well. I don’t know how many people they bumped into at the Atlanta airport, just because they were fooling around. I felt like I was herding cats.

Once we got to Savannah, we had to go to the dress shop to have our dresses steamed so they would be wrinkle-free for the wedding. On our way out of Savannah, we saw an amazing water tower that was painted to look like the earth. It looked like something out of a Sci Fi Channel commercial. Unfortunately, I had trouble getting a good picture of it because of traffic.

[Insert picture here, if it turned out ok.]

I’m not sure what happened the rest of the day. I have flashes of seeing my grandmother, and my sister Stephanie and Jordan. That may have been the day I earned my new nickname – Martha Stewart’s daughter. My mother is very crafty (as in artsy crafty) and had designed all the decorations for the wedding. I was put to work almost immediately cutting tulle, arranging silk flowers, and tying wraphia around tiny glass swan necks. My mother placed a basket in front of me and told me to decorate it. The next thing I know, I had created ribbons and bouquets of silk flowers and had attached them to the basket with a hot glue gun. Everyone loved it and now I have that silly nickname. Sorry, I refused to take a picture of it.

The next day, Wednesday, was a beautiful day and the kids insisted it was beach weather. So I took them down to the beach and took lots of pictures. One of my favorites is this one of Karlen jumping over waves.

[Insert picture here some day]

There were also a bunch of curlews hanging out and I got a picture of them all going in the same direction at the water’s edge. I can’t believe how many there were or that they let me get that close.

[Insert picture here some day]

The next several days were cold and rainy. I was also sick. It started out as a cough before we even left Austin and it got worse while I was in SC. My sister was already feeling stressed out about all the things still to do before the wedding, and when I woke up with no voice a few days before the wedding, I wondered if she was going to make it. How can the matron of honor make a toast if she has no voice? I whispered to her I would bring big white cards to the reception to write my toast on so she didn’t need to worry. I don’t think that made her feel any better.

I rested as much as I could but there were things to be done. Thursday, my mom, sister, Karlen and I had appointments for manicures. It took several hours and I was wiped out when we were finally done. Who knew something like that would feel like a chore? Then Friday my sister, Bob and I went back to Savannah to pick up our dresses. I got to see my sister’s dress on her and it was amazingly beautiful. She was amazingly beautiful. I tried to sleep on the hour drive back to Hilton Head because, again, I was wiped out. And there was still the rehearsal and dinner that night.

The rehearsal went well but I was a little worried about the kids. Would they know what to do on the big day? Because they sure weren’t paying attention during the rehearsal.

[Insert pictures here some day]

Then we went to the restaurant for dinner. It was held at the place where my sister works and I was really looking forward to it. I hadn’t eaten much that day (unless you count a couple of trips to the salad bar at lunch) because I knew there would be a lot of really good food that night.

Here are Bob and I having a good time.



I ate some bread with a delicious crab pate. Then I had a wonderful crab cake for my appetizer. Then I got chills, felt faint and sick to my stomach. I wasn’t going to make it. I had to go home, fast. So my mom took me and the kids home. Just before we left, my sister started handing out the bridesmaid presents. I could tell she was very upset but I didn’t know if she was worried or mad (turns out she was worried about me and mad at our mother for taking me home when Bob could have done it). I do know that I did a good job of torturing my sister the week before her wedding.

I spent the rest of the night in bed with horrible stomach pains. And the next day was the wedding.

To be continued…

Trying to attract buzzards

Miracles do happen.

We went camping at Enchanted Rock over the weekend. I was nervous because we've never taken the kids primitive camping before. Would they be bored? Would they bicker and fight the whole time? I was even more nervous because it's a mile and a half hike into the campsite and we had to carry everything on our backs, including all our water. For a family of five.

Bob and I have backpacks and we were able to fit most everything in them. But each kid had a small backpack with sleeping bags and clothes. The two older kids each carried a camelback as well. Would they be able to go all that way with their packs? The hike is pretty easy but there are areas with rocks and hills.

They all did great and I am so proud of them. Once we found our friends who we were camping with, we set up our tent and stowed our gear. Then while Bob took a nap, and Lili rested in the hammock, I took the other two out for a hike and a little rock climbing. They were so excited and had so much fun. We explored a dry river bed and found all kinds of different rocks and crystals. We were camping in Buzzard's Roost and the kids decided they wanted to attract some buzzards. You can see them here playing dead. Unfortunately, they were not successful. We think it's because the buzzards weren't fooled by Rowan's tongue hanging out.



I think they liked the rock climbing the most and they didn't get enough of it. We promised them we would go back soon for a day trip. We'll pack a lunch and bring plenty of water and snacks. I guess I didn't get enough either because I'm ready to go back, too. But I think I'll wait until I'm not sore anymore.

The saga of the socks continues

I recently took R-boy to Target to get some new socks. I knew what brand we needed to get but I made the mistake of letting him pick out what style he wanted. He chose a very thick, ankle-length sock. As soon as we got them home, he decided he hated them. Maybe they are too thick. Maybe the ankle-length bothers him. He prefers something that goes mid-calf and he will wear them that high even when he is wearing shorts. I'm sure when he's older he'll be wearing light blue bermuda shorts and black mid-calf length socks. Ugh, it's a mother's worst nightmare. One of them, anyway.

R-boy also has this tendency to "accidently" rip holes in every article of clothing he owns. Even his socks. I'm not sure how this happens. I suppose it's a boy thing.

The point is, he still doesn't have very many pairs of socks that he will wear. And every morning it's the same thing. He can't find any socks. This morning he came downstairs holding one black sock. He couldn't find the match (probably because it was thrown away with a hole in it). There was another unmatched sock lying on the stairs, a green one. He picked it up and asked if he could wear that one. I told him I would rather he wear no socks than mismatched socks. That was my second mistake.

I dropped the kids off at school and as they walked up the sidewalk toward their classrooms, I noticed that R-boy was wearing the one calf-length black sock. The other foot was sockless. And, of course, he was wearing shorts. At least they weren't bermudas.

Birthday recap

Last Sunday was my birthday, but because it was a weekend, I claim the whole weekend as my birthday. It was a very nice weekend, too.

Saturday was pretty nasty outside but two of my kids and I decided to brave the shopping mall anyway. K and I needed new shoes for the wedding and hadn't had much luck at some of the non-mall shoe stores. I knew we would have luck at Dillard's.

I am not the typical shoe shopper. I hate shopping and I hate shoes. You can imagine this was a trip I was dreading; but it had to be done. And it was successful with only 40 minutes of pain. We found matching shoes that we both like and now I can cross that item off my to do list.

By Saturday evening, the weather had cleared up and Bob and I met up with some friends for dinner at Dona Emilia's. I'm still thinking about how yummy the food was, how fun the company was, and how tasty those pitchers of mojitos were. It's funny how I still feel so satisfied. We followed up dinner with a VCRP show. It was a good night.

Sunday morning, I headed out early for a church committee meeting. We were done in 30 minutes (only because none of us had anything to report, not because we are so efficient) and then Jenna and I stayed for breakfast and conversation. I felt like I hadn't talked to Jenna in forever even though I had had lunch with her earlier in the week. She gave me a present that was from about 10 of my friends: a house cleaning from a local maid service! OMG, it's so awesome!

I went home after breakfast and my family was gone. I called Bob but there was no answer. I figured they were out, desperately shopping for a birthday present. It turns out they had gone to church, which was probably the best birthday present they could give me. They did go to Target after church and got me some fabulous gifts, though. I also highly appreciated the quiet and solitude I had at home for a couple of hours while they were out.

Before they even got home, I went to my covenant group meeting and had a lovely time. There were only 4 of us there and I really loved the intimacy of being a small group. Maybe it's time for our large group to split? That's a thought for another day. Carolyn gave me an ashtanga yoga dvd and I can't wait to actually do it. I watched a good part of it the other day to get a feel for it and now I'm ready.

When I got home around 4 p.m., I saw my family for the first time that day. It seemed really weird to not spend so much of my birthday with them and I really missed them. They gave me my presents: a different ashtanga yoga dvd (I guess I really have to do ashtanga yoga now), a Ren and Stimpy dvd box set, my very own copy of Zoolander, and a book on UUism that I need to read for my covenant group. K also gave me a necklace she picked up at the Austin Children's Museum with a massively huge crystal pendant.

Being a good mother, I proudly put that necklace on and we headed out to El Mercado for dinner. Kinky Friedman was eating dinner at the table across from us. I tried to encourage my son to go ask him if he was going to be our next governor but Bob told him not to. Too bad. I think that would have been neat. I wonder how many kids go up to him and ask that?

After dinner, we got the kids settled and then we watched Proof. It was a pretty ok movie. Gwenyth Paltrow had a pained look throughout the entire movie. Jake Gyllenhaal was hot throughout the entire movie. Anthony Hopkins was fat throughout the entire movie.

Ah, what a nice birthday weekend. Oh, and I've lost 14 pounds since the beginning of the year, despite eating at Dona Emilia's and El Mercado in the same weekend.