The Beauty and the Mess

And now....a long update!

My bridal shower on Saturday almost didn't happen. I've mentioned that my mom recently remodeled their entire house, which included new carpet and new kitchen tile. I arrived about an hour early, and my mom mentioned a lot of gurgling coming from the refrigerator. We moved it out from the wall to see what it was, and water started gushing out from under the fridge, heading toward the newly carpeted dining room. We set up a barrier of towels, then frantically ran to get neighbors, who brought a Shop-Vac and turned off the water line at the curb. It turned out that the tile guys had run over the water-line hose when they pushed the fridge back in place, and there was a hole in it. The neighbor fixed it easily and turned the water back on. (We later took them party leftovers as a thank-you.) It was a close one. :\ God was taking care of us, though.

The party was great. Lots of friends came, including Robin, who was so sweet and gave me an array of towels. I'm excited to have them. Yay towels! :) Debra did a fantastic job hosting, which was even more impressive since she had done all the planning herself. I've been a bridesmaid four times now and I don't think I could handle a shower all alone! We watched the slide show Kathy's mom put together. Then we played the traditional shower games, plus Pin The Kiss On Clay Aiken (for those who haven't seen the photos). :D The food was excelente. My mom made sausage cheese balls, which I hadn't had in years. They're SO good. Kathy's mom couldn't be there, but she sent a gift - a Crock-Pot! She had given the same one to Kathy right before her wedding, so she says this is her way of replacing my Crock-Pot. LOL! Anyway, it was great to spend time with so many friends in one room.

After the shower everyone took off except for Myla, and we hung out and talked for a couple of hours. Then she went home and my mom, sister, and I went to see The Terminal at the second-run theater. To me, it was just as much of an experience the second time. I am excessively touched by that movie, and I'm not sure why. I don't think anyone else has been affected by it the way I have. Maybe it's just Tom Hanks, because Cast Away produces similar feelings. That one is sadder, though.

On Sunday morning Evan had to work, so I went to church without him. :( It was Communion Sunday (we have Communion once a month), and instead of having a whole sermon, my pastor did a communion meditation about Jesus as the Living Bread. It was neat. I wish I hadn't been so sleepy, so I could have concentrated better. After church a bunch of us went to Huey's, and then I went to my parents' to hang out for a while. When Evan was done with everything, he came over to get me and we went ring shopping! We ended up buying the bands we'd looked at at Gordon's - titanium for him, white gold for me. We considered a diamond band for me (it was so pretty) but agreed that it wasn't practical, given our financial situation. Maybe for our tenth anniversary. To celebrate, he took me to dinner at Firebirds. It was very nice. :)

We went to Wal-Mart after dinner to get some paint samples. In the tradition of Wal-Mart injuries started by Danielle, I slipped and fell in the rainy parking lot. At first I thought my foot was broken because it hurt so much. Evan wanted to carry me to the car, but I was afraid he'd fall too, so he brought the car around to get me. We sat examining my foot until we determined that it was okay- just a bruise and some swelling. Yesterday I was still hobbling a little, but today it's mostly better. I'm not up to doing aerobics yet, though. No hopping for a while.

My Current Mood has not changed since yesterday. I just want to sleep and sleep and sleep. Maybe I need more vitamins. Tomorrow the VP from Beverly Hills is coming for two days, so I have to look perky. :P

My brother had to go back to the eye doctor today because he was seeing "flashes of light." Something is wrong with his retina and he now has a 60/40 chance (60 being the good side) of losing his sight in that eye. If you guys could say a prayer for him, I would appreciate it more than you know. Thank you.

Sorry I didn't post these earlier. I kept hoping to get more pictures, but it didn't work out.

( Now I need some long gloves )

We had a family catastrophe yesterday. I was on my way to a church cookout when my mother called in a very freaked-out state to tell me that my brother was over at their church and had been hit in the eye with a drumstick and they had called an ambulance, and I needed to come home right now. So I turned the car around and managed to get to the house in ten minutes, praying and freaking out the whole way. I kept thinking about my brother's archery and golfing and all the things he loves, and how hard it would be to do them with one eye. It turned out that he just had a scratch on his eye (not the lid, his actual eye), which is nothing to sneeze at, but at least everything's still intact. He's in some pain, but he's taking it generally well and finds his temporary eye patch very funny. I'm so thankful that it wasn't worse.

The rest of the weekend wasn't much better, really. I spent a lot of time with MaryElaine- we grilled out at her house and watched Stargate SG-1 (hi, dakoda), and hung out at the apartment and watched Star Trek: Nemesis, and had a nice quiet time together. But I was kind of annoyed about other things. I just need to hang on for another two weeks, and then California will clear my head. :)

Oh, I had an LJ dream last night! Jessica and Dania and Lisa, and I think Jonathan, were all at the apartment, and there was another horrible storm with tornado sirens, and I was like "Why does this always happen when people come to visit me?" Then I told Kathy that we couldn't do Pilates in the morning because everyone was sleeping in the living room. And then my alarm went off, and, since no one was actually in my living room, I had to get up. :)