April 26, 2017
2:50 a.m.

I should be asleep, but I'm too wound up to even try. I could play the toss and turn game, but it would only mess up the bed and piss off the dogs.

Maybe in a while I will try to catch the last two episodes of "Grimm".

What a week! What a busy, crazy, stressful week!

My son has been a married man for nine whole days. That's epic.

It was nuts, you know. The weather was lovely; sunny and warm. We arrived early, got the paperwork done, and then, as luck would have it, things got a little stressful for a bit. And then, miraculously, everything worked out beautifully.

I'm uncomfortable with the stressful. Thank God for the miracle stuff, that's all I have to say.

After taking a ton of pictures we went out to breakfast and visited for awhile.

I did not join in the trip to Estes Park afterward. My stomach and I had a disagreement over something or other. Like we do.

That was Monday the 17th.

A reception was planned for Saturday, the 22nd. Outdoors, at the home of good friends. I had ordered tables and chairs, possibly a tent in case of rain. And all indications were that the rain would probably come.

Terrific. We couldn't have had the rain on Monday, when everything could have been done indoors if need be?

So I put out a call for everyone to ask the powers-that-be for a little help in that regard, and low and behold, it worked! No rain!

But I got a call on Friday asking if the rental place could deliver everything a day early--at no extra charge, bless them--and there was no way to make that happen. No one was going to be there to sign for the delivery!

(I have got to break down and get my driver's license and get a car.)

So I asked if--maybe--I cancelled the tent, and just got the tables and chairs, which required no set-up time for them, I could get the delivery as previously planned.

That worked out, too. Now, please God, let the no-rain forecast be true, because if it rained, a lot of people were going to get wet!

My youngest daughter and her three children arrived on Friday morning after driving all night from Oklahoma. She and her eighteen-year-old daughter--who just happened to be celebrating her birthday that day--went to sleep for awhile. The five and four-year old grandsons joined forces with the nine-year-old grandson who lives here and proceeded to behave like little boys until I had to yell at them.

I don't like losing my temper with my grandchildren. I want to be the "nice grandma". But, oh my goodness! Yeah, they got into a bit of trouble with this old gal.

I was cooking up a storm and doing a lot of chopping and stirring until my hands were just a cramped up nightmare. Toward the end of the day, my hand badly, badly cramped and kind of got stuck and I was being a bit whiny about it. My five-year-old grandson expressed concern and then asked me "Do you want me to kiss it?" (He said "tiss it"--so cute!)

Well, I told him I sure did want it kissed, and he kissed it all better for me. Half an hour later he came back to check that I was feeling better. Wow! What a thoughtful little boy!

So, it's Friday night and my house is full: six grandchildren, three parents (Oklahoma Dad had to work and didn't get to come), son and daughter-in-law and me, all trying to get prepared for the shindig scheduled for the following day.

And along comes the middle daughter. her husband and two more grandchildren. Cooking fools, and it's getting late.

Now, the park where I live has a no-parking-on-the-street after 11:00 p.m. without a permit statute, and I had secured parking for my out-of-state visitor, but we all forgot about the other visitor, and their car got towed as everyone was busy cooking and cleaning!!

Now, I personally find this whole policy nothing but a racket between the park, the police and the towing company. I mean, I have neighbors who have told me that their visitors' cars have been towed while they were dropping off or picking up children who were being babysat. My number one daughter and son-in-law's car got towed shortly after they first came to Colorado. He went out to go to work and it was gone. None of us knew about the policy then--it was fairly new, and I have lived here over a decade. My visitors had always parked where they had their car with no problems, ever, and now they had to go pay a towing fee to get their vehicle back. This at a time when they had come to the area to find work and get back on their feet!

Needless to say, I was just as pissed off in the early morning hours of Saturday as I was when it happened to the other kids last fall. More so, because I had notified the park that I had visitors! But there was nothing to be done but wait until the lot opened and go bail the car out of jail.

Good grief!

Sixteen people in the house, all running on little sleep, lots of frustration, limited time to finish preparing. I'm thanking all the powers that be that I finished my cooking the day before, and middle daughter had finished much of hers during the night, because too many women in a kitchen spells nothing but trouble if you ask me!

I showered and packed up all the goodies I could manage. Out of town guests arrived and we tried to get everyone information for getting to the house of our friends.

I'm clock watching and realize that I might be late to the venue to sign for the tables and chairs and pay the rental place.

God, I HATE being late. It's a huge pet peeve for me.

Luckily, the rental place agreed to meet me half an hour later.

Sheesh!

I spent the ride over texting my woes to my sister.

At last, I signed for the tables and chairs and handed over my money. Adios, dinero!

My daughter-in-law went to work decorating the tables with the lovely centerpieces she'd made, and I went to work chopping vegetables with my bestie. Then we ran off to get dressed up a bit. Yep, I dressed for the occasion.

We had the great good fortune to have my parents, my sister and brother-in-law and my brother and sister-in-law come for the reception, and they arrived after the tables were delivered and mostly set up. GPS is a miracle in itself; no one got lost!

We also had the wonderful luck of having my brother-in-law, who is the brother of my children's father, come with his wife, son, daughter and his daughter's fiance. This is a man who once conducted a blessing ceremony for his sister and her husband at their reception many years ago. My son attended that ceremony and told his Uncle that if he ever married, he wanted the same blessing. His Uncle agreed.

Time passed, as it does, and this Uncle assumed that the request had been forgotten, but it had not. When my son called to invite him and ask that he come, he agreed happily. What a blessing!

Over the course of the day, people ate and drank, talked and laughed, met for the first time or got reacquainted after time apart.

I prepared food and visited with my bestie and with my family, ran back and forth a lot, held babies, ate a couple of things I shouldn't have--you know, party on!

Our wonderful friends who opened their home to us will never be forgotten for their kindness!! The big backyard was full of laughing children playing with the many toys. Kids jumped on the trampoline and played in the playhouse. It was great.

The men dug a fire pit and built a fire, which was quite welcome, since it was a chilly day, even without rain.

Many of us ended up inside, where we all soon congregated for the blessing of the rings and the couple's marriage.

My wonderful brother-in-law is one of those many immigrants who manage not to learn English even after years of living in the USA. No, he is NOT illegal. He just isn't confident in his use of the language, and so our friend translated the blessing into English. I wasn't confident enough in my use of Spanish to volunteer, so I was very grateful there was someone else available! Between the two of them, the blessing was beautiful and appreciated by all.

So, as you can see, a busy, crazy, stressful week.

And that was just Monday through Saturday.

And that's not including having a nice dinner with my daughter-in-law's mother mid-week. I made barbecued chicken breasts and loaded mashed potatoes that turned out yummy! It was nice to be able to visit with her more before she had to return to Louisiana. I wish she could have stayed for the reception, but unfortunately, people have to work. I'm making her some videos!

Youngest daughter stayed through Sunday night and then went back to Oklahoma. Her very own bestie from our Wyoming days--where she hasn't lived since she was fifteen--was another guest, and they took all the children to the aquarium downtown to see the fishies.

In the meantime, my Sunday was spent arguing with my stomach again. Food and I just have to come to some sort of agreement, you know. I want to eat it, and I want it to let me!

Lots of other things were going on during all this chaos. Stress is a gift that just keeps on giving, even in the times that should be most joyful.

But I think I will just focus on the joyful for right now, because stress seems to have settled in for the long haul, and I will have to deal with it come morning.

My son got married to a wonderful woman. That is joyful.

His Uncle came with his family, and performed a blessing that was beautiful--and joyful.

My family was here! Parents, siblings, in-laws, all my kids, grandchildren. Joyful.

The overflow pipe in the kitchen waited until last evening to break, so... okay, not joyful, but it would have been so much worse if it had happened earlier. Like on Friday or Saturday.

So, fiddle-dee-dee, as Scarlet said. I'll deal with it tomorrow.

(Okay, today. Whatever.)

As for the other crap? Guess we'll figure it out as we go along. Because no matter what, there's always going to be crap, isn't there?

Holy cow, it's nearly five a.m. Might as well stay up until the kids get up and get ready for school. Coffee and Sudoku.

Good Morning!