Week at Home

WARNING: This post includes an extended account of wedding shopping among other activities. To enjoy a more concise review of the week, visit JM's post or the Week at Home Summary on our team blog.

Thursday of last week, I flew home to Kanses to visit my family and spend time wedding planning with my mother. I'm pleased with how much has been accomplished, though there is still much to be done before December.

I had done some checking of bridal shops in Wichita by Internet and by phone before I arrived home. So when I landed shortly after 2:00 last Thursday, we headed out shopping for a bridal gown. I had an appointment with David's Bridal on the east side of town for 6:30, so we decided to check out a promising shop on the far east side of Wichita first. We could catch David's Bridal on the way home and if we needed to come back to Wichita later, we could hit the stores on the closer west side of town.

Visiting Tomorrow's Memories in Andover, I didn't really find anything new. Tomorrow's Memories was founded for renting bridal gowns and bridesmaids dresses, but they (of course) also sell dresses. They also have a miracle of a seamstress as the owner. We were told to go ahead and look at any dresses in the shop. If something didn't fit, it could be altered....they'd even seen her take a size 20 gown and re-make it for a size 4. Adding sleeves in a variety of styles on a strapless or spaghetti strap gown was no problem. ...Little did we know.

We left Tomorrow's Memories and headed for David's Bridal. I found less that I liked there than I had almost anywhere. Though there was one dress that my mom liked a lot. I agreed it was beautiful, but it wasn't what I'd been describing to people for the last week as what I wanted.

I headed home discouraged and very tired. Once home, I took a few minutes paging through one of the catalogs we'd picked up at Tomorrow's Memories. Suddenly, I was intrugued. One of the gowns pictured had two of the four major features I had specified for my gown. The third was that it be a chapel train with some detailing, but the picture wasn't good enough to tell how big the train was or what decorations it had. The other feature was that it was a strapless gown, when I was set on having sleeves, but I'd been told repeatedly that sleeves that could be added by a seamstress. On top of that, this particular line--Da Vinci--advertised one week delivery for some gowns.

I went to bed tired and not at all sure that I could order a dress that I hadn't tried on.

By mid-morning on Friday, I was still thinking about the gown, so I called Tomorrow's Memories to find out what more I could about the gown. She asked me to call back in a few minutes.

Before I arrived home, my mom had been chatting with my aunt who mentioned that she had 3 bridesmaid dresses for a wedding that had been canceled. If we could use them, we could have them. So before I called back Tomorrow's Memories, we made a quick trip out to my aunt's to check out the dresses. The dresses are a purple, one of the colors we were considering. The biggest problem is that they were in size 8, 16, and 18. The size 8 fits my sister D perfectly. Size 16 & 18 are WAY too big for my sister SR (5'4" and built like me) and my sister L (12 years old). But, since we'd heard about this great seamstress at Tomorrow's Memories, we took the dresses to see what could be done.

I called back Tomorrow's Memories after we visited my aunt and found out that they could have the gown for me by Wednesday. I would just need to be up there to get measured and pay for the dress so that they could place the order by 3:00 that day (Friday). As it was already nearly 12:00 and it's a 1.5 hour trip up there, we grabbed a very quick lunch and were off.

We made it up to Tomorrow's Memories by 2:20. Some quick measurements and the dress was ordered!! The dress even had a shawl with detailing at the ends that could easily be used to add sleeves. We also asked about the bridesmaid dresses. Linda (the seamstress and owner) was confident she could re-make the dresses for my younger sisters. We arranged to be there first thing on Monday.

Leaving Tomorrow's Memories less than an hour after we'd arrived, we decided to do a bit more shopping before heading home. As Hobby Lobby (craft store) hasn't made it to my part of Virginia, we stopped there. There, we discovered that they had everything in their bridal section for 50% off. After more than an hour, we left with ribbon, bows, candlelighters, announcement paper, silk flowers, tableclothes, and other items--practically all of it from their bridal section.

We made it home Friday evening in time for the last of the children's crusade (VBS) our church was having. They had a good group of more than 25 kids participating in the activities. It looked like everyone was having fun with puppets, fishing, games, prizes, and snacks!

Friday evening, D made it home for the weekend. I was talking with JM on the phone when she arrived. My family had already been commenting on the fact that I hadn't talked to him in more than 24 hours when he called.

Saturday was my parents 34th wedding anniversary. May they share many more happy years! D remembered that Dad has a fondness for DQ ice cream cake. Since our local DQ closed down several years ago, D went 30 minutes out of her way to pick up a cake on her way home Friday evening.

Saturday and Sunday were spent in the hometown area. I saw family and friends. Of course, church on Sunday was another chance to catch-up with community activities. SR showed me what she'd done with the church library. Since I was home in Decemeber, the library has been moved to a nicer room, dedicated to the memory of an initiator, and has experienced a renewed interest in the form of use and donations. SR is doing a fabulous job keeping the library open, tracking the donations, and making the new materials available! She's also working with a programmer in the church to develop a custom circulation and shelf list system.

First thing Monday morning, all the girls piled in the van with the bridesmaid dresses. We made it to Tomorrow's Memories by 9AM. Before 1:30PM, Linda had completely re-made the two larger dresses to fit my two smaller sisters! It was quite an impressive feat! We'd taken "before" pictures on Sunday evening, snapped a few during the alterations, and ended with a few "after" pictures. Before we left, we downloaded those pictures from our digital camera to her computer for proof of what she could do.

From Tomorrow's Memories, we made a quick stop for lunch and shoe shopping before picking up JM and Jer at the airport. Jer made friends with SR and "the eyes" (hand puppet) on the way home.

Tuesday was D's birthday. Happy Birthday, sister!!

It was also the day she had to drive back to TX to be at work on Wednesday. But before she left, we finished up the ice cream cake she'd picked up on Friday and went bowling. Everyone had fun. D gave an impressive finish--moving from less than 45 points in the 7th frame to finish with more than 100 after bowling 2 strikes in a row!

During my nap on Tuesday afternoon, I was woken up to take a call. I normally don't like to be woken up from naps, but this time it was worth it--my wedding gown had arrived!!

Wednesday morning, Mom and I made another trip up to Wichita (4th in 7 days) to have my wedding dress altered and fitted. The cap sleeves were added and ties were added to allow the train to be bustled for the reception. I very much like the dress. And yes, the train was a chapel train with some detailing, as I wanted. We did a bit more shopping in Wichita before making it back for the evening at the fair.

Wednesday evening was the Style Review and Royalty Crowning at the Harper County Fair. L was in the style review and did a very nice job. The judging had been done the previous week, but awards were not disclosed until that evening. L received a Reserve Grand Champion for her skirt and jacket set. Very Nice!

Thursday morning, I think it was, we made a trip downtown. Stopped by the thrift shop to visit my aunt. Then JM and I stopped at the local jewelry store to see what they had in wedding bands. We decided we liked plain gold bands about as well as anything. When they said they could probably have them for us the next day, we decided to go ahead and get one more item knocked off our list.

Thursday afternoon was more fair activities--lunch at the fair, visiting the animals, L and SC preparing to have foods and photos judged. Most of the family stayed for the afternoon, but Jer, JM, and I headed back home earlier for Jer's much needed nap. While Jer napped, JM and I took the time to clean out the water in the ducklings tank.

Oh yeah, everyone loved the ducks. My family had hatched some ducks 6-8 weeks ago. 3 of them have survived and were the "big" ducks that washed in the birdbath, shaded under the front tomato plants, and loved to eat grasshoppers--especially when someone else caught them. Then 2-3 weeks ago, more ducks hatched, but there was only one surviving member of that brood. His home was a large cattle water tank propped up with a rock on one side, so that he had a small pond on the lower end of the tank and dry land for food and fresh water on the higher end. The three big ducks stuck close together and practically never wandered out of our front yard until the very end of our visit. (This week they had to be moved to a neighbors back yard and pond where they'll have more room and less danger of being struck by vehicles.) The little duck, when taken out of his tank, would follow anyone who seemed to be going someplace and was VERY cute to watch try to keep up.

Thursday evening, JM and I had a double date with my parents. We headed to a local pizza place and had an evening of enjoyable conversation, including some advice and sharing of expectations.

Friday was the last day home. While I already felt like I'd accomplished so much more than I'd planned, there was so much that I still wanted to do and just spend time with friends and family most of all.

I don't remember exactly everything we did during the day. I believe the guys headed out in the morning to do some farm work (cleaning seed wheaet, cleaning bins, etc) and also ended up visiting friends and neighbors.

I guess it was Friday afternoon that we took the time to make up some mints to play with making colors for the wedding. We ended up with a deep purple marbled with white as our favorite colors for mints. We tried to find a green to use as well, but weren't successful. We only made one batch of mints (less than a 100 of what we actually liked), so mom or someone will need to make some more if we are to have enough for the reception.

Too quickly, it was Friday evening. JM called to confirm reservations and discovered that Jer had gotten moved to a different flight without him. It took him most of an hour on the phone and talking to at least 5 different people before they were both on the same flight again.

More visiting with neighbors and a final good-by visit to my grandma and the evening was gone.

It was getting late and I hadn't even packed. With the changes in security, I had to completely go through my carry-on luggage to remove all the creams and liquids. While I didn't need to carry back ALL of the stuff we'd purchased through the week for the wedding, I did need to come back with some of it. So sorted through that and found a sturdy box to pack it in to be checked through the flight. What I left behind will be stored at home. Some of it will be shipped out to me as the date is closer. Some of it will come out with my parents at Christmas time. The packing actually took less time than I feared it would.

Saturday morning. Another trip to Wichita. Good-by's were made. The check-in and security went smoothly and reasonably quickly. The flights were all on-time or a bit early. Back home to Virginia!

I still don't always remember that the next time I'll see my parents will be less than ten days before the wedding. At least D will get to spend a weekend here with me in September!