I forgot to mention that on Thursday evening Dick and Mike had loaded up all the folding tables and chairs from Houserville House of Hope into Dick's pickup truck and then unloaded them in Anthony's garage.
On Friday morning Amber and Megan met Dick at my Fillmore church office to load up all the folding chairs from there. They stopped in here to see my house and grab a few bites to eat. I was enjoying coffee and breakfast with Martha, Miki, Christel, and Maria.
The first order of business for Martha and me was the mall. Martha had not brought shoes that were suitable for the rough, hilly terrain at Anthony and Lori's, so we needed to find her some flats. We went to Shoe Department where I had already gotten a pair. As it turned out, she got a pair of black ones exactly like the navy blue ones I had bought!
Finding the right shoes had been quite an adventure the previous weeks. When I got my dress at Ross, I wasn't quite sure if it was black or navy blue. I found a black, sparkly pair of flats I really liked at TJMaxx. They were really pretty and comfortable too. But when I held them by my dress in the sunlight, it was clear that my dress was navy blue. So I returned them and ordered a pair from Macy's online.
I really liked them when they came, but they were not comfortable. Actually, they were a bit big and I could easily step right out of them. I bought those grippers to put in the heels to tighten them up. That Saturday I was cleaning my house and decided to wear them to break them in. Oh my. I tried all kinds of things. My heels were starting to hurt, so I took out those grippers and tried putting cotton balls at the toes instead. After a while my heels were really starting to hurt, so I put bandaids on each of my heels. After a few hours I had full-blown blisters on my heels. No way were these shoes going to be ok.
So on Monday (Labor Day) I went to the mall, first of all to Shoe Department. That is where I found the flats in the top picture. I didn't think they were as pretty as the others, but they were more comfortable, and cheaper too, so I got them.
From there I walked to Macy's to ask if I could return the pair I'd gotten online. While there, I discovered these sandals with a very slight wedge heel. They felt wonderful, they were pretty, and only $13! I was able to return the online pair, so I got these sandals. I knew that, with my feet issues, it wouldn't hurt to have two different pairs to switch out the day of the wedding.
That evening I tried everything together and felt satisfied.
While Martha and I were at the mall to get her shoes Friday morning, I had another shoe adventure to go on. Destiny needed a pair of cool sneakers to go with her dress, and she had checked if the Journey's store in our mall had the ones she wanted, and her mom was going to send cash with her for me. But I had to get them. What seemed so easy turned out to be crazy. Destiny could not check her phone to answer my questions except between classes. First of all, I mistakenly got Vans instead of Converse. Thankfully Martha and I had not left the mall yet when I discovered that mistake. So back we went to return the Vans and buy the Converse instead. Except there were size issues. I went with the sales guy's recommendation and got size 6 because they run big. But later she told me she was sure they would pinch her pinky toes. And maybe they wouldn't match her dress after all. I told her I didn't have time to do anything about it.
Martha and I had to run to Giant to get subs for all the hungry workers at Anthony and Lori's house. I think we got 8 huge ones, arriving there around 12:30. Everybody was hot and tired and a little grouchy. I think we saved the day.
The next order of business was putting up the huge tents. There were 70 people coming to the rehearsal pizza party along with a strong possibility of thunderstorms! We recruited everyone possible. Two more of Jeremy's friends had already arrived, Jeremy offered the two landscapers extra cash if they would help, Dick, Anthony, Mike, Jeremy, Martha. A real team effort on a very hot, humid day!
I forgot to mention that Jeremy's boss, Desi Miller, and her fiancé had arrived from Portland just before we put the tents up. They were given a big shopping list (things like ice, etc) and were on their way. (Desi also is a licensed minister and would be officiating the ceremony.)
When that was done everyone dispersed hither and yon. I had some errands to run, so I took that chance to make another quick trip to the mall to deal with the shoe issue for Destiny. She ended up deciding that perhaps white sneakers would be better. So I got them, but kept the burgundy too so she would have a choice, then I'd return whichever ones she didn't want.
I was also getting excited as I was hearing from more family members arriving in town. Thyda posted this lovely picture of her and Ray eating at a Mexcian restaurant close by.
On my way back I stopped by the Residence Inn where most people were staying. Look who I found in the pool!!! And then I met Thyda in the hall. I was getting so excited!
When I got back to Anthony and Lori's I got even more excited! Lisa, George, and Sophie had arrived from Florida! They had flown to Baltimore and driven a rental car to State College.
Before the pizza and the arrival of all the others who were coming, the rehearsal was held. Bianca held Sophie's hand and stood there as sweet as pie the entire time! Next to them is Mike's sister Linda from California. (Some of you may remember a number of years ago when she donated one of her kidneys to Mike.) Next to her is George, then Linda's daughter Sheldon and her son Quintin. Next is Colleen (one of Mike's good friends from high school days in Pittsburgh), and then Kevin (good friend and neighbor in DC.)
On this side are Shauneen (wife of Kevin on the other side), Tom (a good friend of Jeremy's from his Florida years), Lisa, Josh (a good friend of Jeremy's from his Lancaster years), Miki, Daryl (good friend of Jeremy's from his Lancaster years), and Austin and Sammy.
Sammy was a hoot. After about 15 minutes of everyone talking through the rehearsal, Sammy looked up at Desi and said, "Is this what we're doing? Just standing here talking?? I thought this was a party." Of course everyone cracked up, so he hammed it up some more after that!
Because of the amount of people coming for the evening, they had been asked to park at a nearby church and call Dick's phone when they were ready to be shuttled up to Anthony and Lori's. He made good use of our 7- passenger van! One really funny story out of that: Someone called Dick and he told them that he's on his way and will be there shortly. Right after they called him, a van drove into the church parking lot and the people walked over to it, opening the door to get in. Except it wasn't Dick, and the driver had no idea why these people were trying to get in, hahahahaha!!!
My camera was pretty much missing in action that evening. I spent a good bit of time just hanging out on the screened-in porch with grandchildren and dogs. Sophie really loved finally getting acquainted with Hunter.
At the end of the evening I found this sweet sight inside the house.
That night Martha was sleeping at the hotel, but we got the dogs instead! Miki's friends were crazy over them, so they got lots of love.
By the way, there were no thunderstorms! Just a slight drizzle at the very end of the evening!
The next post will be all about Saturday!
