The week of the wedding.

This will be a long blog. Go potty, get snacks and a drink..... Sorry.

I can't really believe I posted a blog on Thursday morning. I don't even remember doing it and where I got time from.....I can't even guess.

Sunday the 3rd of July (just last Sunday) we found out that Jason and Stacey decided to just get married now instead of waiting for August. Within 5 days we succeded in putting together a small wedding. I made 70 chair back coverings, Katie made a darling cake, my girls and Jason really pulled together and made this event happen. There will be pictures later. Carolyn was real trooper and helped alot even though she was leaving for California the very next morning. (Her boys never letting her forget - asking every few hours when they were leaving). The funnest part of the whole event (besides the actual ceremony) was that secretly Jill flew in to surprise everyone. I was the only one who knew and I had to lie like crazy to cover any of it up! She called me about 11am on Wednesday to tell me that she would be out there the next morning at 7am and asked if I could pick her up. So, the lies began. Later that evening I told Doug that I needed to take one of my visiting teaching ladies to work (I take her often so that wasn't unusal, but the time - 6:30am - was the odd part). I wouldn't be able to do my usual carpool for summer school and asked if the rest of the family could work it out. He was a bit annoyed, but then suggested that I just take her and HIM to work at the same time - she happens to work by him. Um.........(Dang, how was I going to get out of this lie). Also, Jill was not going to bring her carseat and so I needed to borrow one from somebody. I called Carolyn hoping she might still have her infant carseat - she didn't, and then asked why I needed it.........um.....I told her that one of my VT ladies needed a ride with her baby somewhere and then SHE asked why the mom didn't have her own babyseat.....um....I came up with something about her husband had taken the car forgeting to get the carseat out and ......whatever....I was getting in pretty deep fabrications now. Luckily one of my REAL neighbors had a carseat that her toddler had grown out of and I could use it. Thanks Lola!!! Okay, so now comes Thursday morning and I knew I had to leave about 6:30 to get to the airport on time, well, I had made the mistake of saying to Doug that Michelle (my vt lady) said to pick her up anywhere between 6:30-6:45am and we'd make it on time. Doug was taking his time. Or at least I was so nervous it felt like he was. When he's ready I go down to Shannon and tell her that as soon as I back out of the driveway to count to 10 and then call my cell phone and just ignore what I say......um....yeah. So Doug and I are headed to pick up my lady and luckily Shannon does what I've asked and as I talk on the phone I lead Doug to believe that she, my vt lady, is canceling and got a ride from her husband instead......phew. Doug doesn't question me too much on what she said. Shannon has been on the other end, going 'mom, what are you talking about, mom, are you okay? mom, you know this is Shannon right?' Too funny. I drop Doug off and speed to the airport - luckily I'm only about 5 or 10 minutes late picking up Jill.

Now.....I need to go back a few hours. Brian and Celynda had decided not to come to Jason's wedding because Celynda was having a procedure to turn their baby 'in-utero' because she was breech. (thank goodness this didn't have to happen). And also Brian is really under a lot of stress for his boards that are coming up within a few days.......so I called him on Wednesday night letting him know Jill was 'sneaking in' town for Jason and I didn't want him to be mad that if he found out later she had come and we hadn't told him, he might have tried to come..... Oh well. I thought I'd left it as a secret - but I guess he told Celynda.

Okay, now back to Doug. He was at the office and needed to call Billie Jean (Celynda's mom) about some tax papers. Celynda's mom was over in Nevada with Brian and Celynda and when he found out about Celynda's doctor appointment he wanted to talk to her and she, not knowing it was a secret I guess, said how sad Brian was for not being able to see Vin and Jill.......oops. Doug asked her how did she know Jill was coming, he hadn't heard a thing! She said she wasn't sure, maybe she had ruined a surprise. SO...........he hangs up with her and calls me and asks....'I thought we were going to discuss big purchases'. (Okay go back to Monday or Tuesday - we had called Jill to let her know and she said she probably wouldn't be coming because of finances and they had a nephew visitor, so don't count on her coming.......but she was totally crying and making me cry, later that night I asked Doug if there was any way we could help fly Jill out by helping with the ticket price...) back to Doug (blue) and my (purple) conversation.....

'What are you talking about?

Did you buy a ticket for Jill?

What are you kidding? I did not! (luckily I hadn't ) Is she coming?

He goes into the Celynda conversation....asking me again....

Is she coming in for the wedding?

Doug, I haven't heard about this?

Are you telling me that you don't know?

I'm telling you, maybe you heard Celynda wrong and that Brian would have come if Jill did too!

Okay picture in your mind that Jill is sitting right next to me during this whole conversation and we were so worried little Vin would do his little screech owl sound. I looked over at her, mouthing the words 'Should I tell him?' She said no, so I continued to lie.....

'I did not spend one dime on a ticket for Jill - what are you talking about?

and it went on for a few more minutes....I was really starting to sweat in my pitters! And now we are only a few minutes away from Doug's office and we had planned on stopping by to surprise him and hopefully Jason and Kevin too. We walk around the corner and there is Kevin and he yells, "what are you doing here?" to Jill and then Doug sees her. It was awesome. Sadly Jason had already left for a job. We get home and Katie was awake - unusual for her at that time- and working on Jas and Stac - cake. Jill goes up the stairs real fast and surprises her...it was awesome. We all three pile into the car again and drive to Carolyn's sneaking in the backyard to hopefully find them at the dining table - the boys are there, but not her, so Griffin lets us in and we sneak upstairs to Carolyn. It was funny...both Katie and Carolyn did the exact same reaction as each other. I wish I'd have taken video. Later we made Jill hide down stairs and when Shannon and Allan were both home she came up and surprised them. Now, almost everyone knew except Jason. Dad arranged for him to meet here at home to pick up Kevin for the next job and Jill got to surprise him then. (We didn't time it very well, because when she came up stairs he was on the phone with a client and he couldn't do his real welcoming yell). It was wonderful and made all my lies well worth it.

I can't tell you all how happy we are and what wonderful kids we have. Having Jill here - missing Jonathan terribly and little Vin really missed his daddy- was great. Having a happy day for Jason and Stacey was also great. And little man Camden is just as much a part of us as any of our grandkids.....he totally fits right in. Thanks to all of you who made this a wonderful week and weekend. I love you all. Sorry about all the lies.....but you agree, they were worth it, right?