Almost Wedding Time!

Things are just about ready! We found a Certified Beverage Server (necessary now that there will be over 50 people at the reception). The Beall Park center has been paid for, both for rehearsal and wedding/reception. Pizza for the rehearsal "dinner" has been ordered (Jamie gets a discount so that's a great deal!). Out-of-town family will be arriving tomorrow. And I've scheduled a few days off! The weather should be wonderful, although we still have forest-fire smoke to deal with. I haven't spoken with J&J, but hope they aren't too stressed out.

It has been a hectic time, though. Jamie learned her ongoing hip problems are a result of being born with  hip dysplasia, which has now developed into osteoarthritis - disturbing news when you are only 27! Her mom spent the past week recovering from retina surgery. So the wedding will really be a nice time to forget all these problems and just have a little fun.

More trees have been planted along the driveway; since the 6 we (Tom!) planted last year all survived it seemed like we should try a few more! It does look nice, so I hope they do as well.

Hopefully some pictures can be posted soon...

Still summer

Almost Labor Day, but the weather doesn't seem to realize it: Bozeman just set a record yesterday with 98 degrees. We are also suffering from smoke due to fires everywhere in the surrounding areas. I hope it's all cleared up by Wedding Day!

Last Sunday we had a small party: a Get to Know My Future Daughter-in-law/Shower for Jamie. It was lots of fun, and since we all shopped her registry at Bed, Bath & Beyond she got lots of great things she really wanted! Kandi did the catering (which was fantastic!) and Jamie had a wonderful time.

She's scheduled an after-wedding brunch for family to come visit a bit more and watch them open their wedding gifts. I think this is a fun idea and am looking forward to that.

Tom has more remodeling ideas (the flooring and toilet projects are complete and turned out great!) involving a possible new downstairs bathroom. There is no "guest" bathroom on our first floor, so we'd add something along with a shower for us - we'd like to stop having to use our sunken tub as the shower facility. This will mean losing the "office" and relocating some furniture, but will be nice once complete.

I have a new work schedule that gives me Saturdays off too - 4 long days, but 2 evenings, which so far seem to be fairly quiet, and 3 days in a row off. I think this will be a nice change.

Hope to keep posting as the wedding gets closer!

Long Time No Post!

Wow - it's July already! We've had a wonderful wet spring followed by an intense heat wave: June ended up feeling like late August, with temperatures in the 90's. This week promises to be just as warm. We don't expect summer to be quite so hot for so long!

I did spend a week in Texas in April, where I managed to pick up a case of poison ivy after weeding the flower beds. To keep from offending library patrons and coworkers I wrapped my arms in the latest "mummy style" bandages - I looked more like a burn victim but it did help.

For July 4th Tom and I visited Jon-Erik in Portland. That was a nice quick trip. I hadn't seen his apartment yet; we also go to visit some former Montana library friends.

Tom and Jon-Erik enjoy  some Grand Marnier

While walking along a Beaverton sidewalk I managed to trip, scraping elbows and knees a bit severely.That's mending slowly too, but no lasting damage.






The Library is having roofing work done this summer, so things are very disorderly - quite an ordeal for us order-loving folk! In addition, Tom is doing some repair work at home - new toilets (and the accompanying plumbing issues) and flooring in one room. So, I leave one mess and go to another! It's going to be a long summer, I'm afraid.

Wedding plans for James-Philip and Jamie are coming along. The dress is gorgeous, the invitations are almost ready to go out, guests have booked their rooms at the Henley B&B! I will be arranging the rehearsal dinner very soon.

Hopefully posts will be coming more frequently...

Springtime

The winter we didn't get earlier this year has been showing up now - a huge Easter storm arrived just in time Thursday! But it is warming up again, and in another day or two we will be back to green grass.

Tom spent his winter in Alamos, then traveled to Japan and the Philippines for a month with a group of friends. He's back in Texas now, and I will take a week's vacation there this month. Then he'll wait for the "all clear" (no snow in the forecast!) to return to Montana.

The Special Olympic scarf project turned out successfully - we sent 20 scarves to the state office.

Next year we've decided to give the scarves directly to the local chapter since we know several athletes, and they only compete in the local games. The local contact thinks they could use 45 scarves, and we're pretty sure we can do that - several crafters have mentioned they would prefer to know their contribution is going to local athletes, so enthusiasm is high for this idea. We're just waiting for the official colors to be announced so we can get started.