It's a Wonderful Weekend:)
I was going to wait until Wednesday to write a big, sweeping entry about my thoughts on being a "nearly wed." But this morning it finally occurred to me that if I wait all that time, my thoughts will pile up, and I'll miss out on adding to this blog, which has really been a great experience.
This weekend has been unusually busy for me-- but in a good way. Friday I surprised myself with my energy and resourcefulness, preparing for a Halloween party nearby.
Starting the day before, I realized that I didn't have a hostess gift. I know the "rules" of party-going have changed, and usually people just show up, and that's more than okay. I was prepared to do that too, of course. But then I waxed nostalgic for just a minute, remembering a time when people treated being invited to some one's house as an honor, and sincerely wanted to thank them for their hospitality.
With this in mind, I browsed a nearby store, and after much deliberation I finally settled on something pretty but also functional-- the best kind of gift, in my opinion. And I remembered just in time to stop myself buying it that there is a lot of gift wrapping stuff at home. Most of it is left over from Christmas last year, when Michael and I had a wonderful time buying and hiding gifts for each other in that tiny apartment, then spoiling who ever else we could think of with gifts specially chosen:)
To my amazement, I walked right to the gift wrapping I needed at home like I'd known exactly where it was the whole time, and let me tell you, in the storage room that's saying something! Friday I just couldn't wait for the hour to arrive. There was a whole day to get through; I forced myself to make phone calls and do some housework just to kill some time. Then all of a sudden there were only two hours left, and I still wanted to bake a little something for the party.
Mikel consulted on this:) My mom and I were grocery shopping a few weeks ago, and I spotted a cupcake kit where the cupcakes are decorated to look like zombies with their brains exposed-- the brains being the icing:) Mikel always used to tell me "I love your braaains", the way a zombie cartoon would:) I almost chickened out, because I realized I'd forgotten powdered sugar to help make the frosting!
Thank you Foods Class teacher from the 6th grade-- I called her bluff and put two cups granulated sugar in the blender (thank you Val for leaving that). Viola! It wasn't powdered, but certainly finer! And piping turned out not to be as frightening as I'd thought it would be. A few of the cupcakes didn't get liners, just no-stick cooking spray. They stuck to the sides of the pan and refused to come out in one piece, so I sacrificed them to the disposal.
After that, miraculously, I had plenty of time to have dinner and put on my costume-- a velvet dress, cape, and beautiful witch's hat I'd gotten all at different times from different places, but somehow found each other and fit together perfectly!
The party was a great success and very nice. I met lots of new people and enjoyed watching the few cupcakes I'd brought disappear:) Moving around with my wide-brimmed hat proved to be difficult, but luckily I just moved from one place to another and sat down, a few times during the night, and there was always somewhere to sit and a conversation to join.
I had planned on leaving early...that didn't happen:) I played several games of Uno in my witch's hat, with my new friends, talked and laughed, had a wonderful time. The first thing I did Saturday morning was add each of them to my "friends" list on Facebook. But even my weekend hasn't been boring, as it often is these days:)
Yesterday my cousin-in-law and her adorable daughter who was going to be my beautiful flower girl game up up and we spent a perfect several hours roaming the winding, beautifully landscaped trails of Frederick Meijer Gardens. A few special indoor gardens are enclosed in pretty little rooms in the main building, along with cafeteria that serves delicious food under a ceiling decorated by the visionary Chicago glass sculptor, Dale Chihuly. I loved the "tropical garden", which houses the butterflies in March and April. It's warm and full of waterfalls, towering leafy plants, exotic blooms and bridges:) But my favorite had to be the beautiful, ethereal "Victorian garden."
Mums were everywhere, including in big globular yellow topiary hung from the ceiling of that very pretty room. To add another level of sensory delight, there was a large mound of fresh apples on the floor of that room; they say the scent inspires imagination...perhaps it helped in the decoration!
The three of us had such fun in the children's garden. The whole beautiful outdoor exhibit is designed to appeal to all five senses, with little statues of an eye, ear, nose, tongue and hand to illustrate. To little Madison's delight there were also three iron horse statues of different sizes, one being enormous, the other standard size, and a final one being the size of a toy-- "take home?" she asked.
It was a wonderful day, and as a final, happy curtain across the day, my new friend and wound-be best man chatted with me while I was watching TV, as he did some final shopping for a barbecue he and Mikel's brother Nate were going to have:) A lot more weekend than I'm used to! I slept in as late as I possibly could this morning. But it was purely enjoyable, and now I have a whole day before the dreary work week begins again, to lounge around in my fluffy purple bathrobe (thanks again for that, Babe!) and add to my blog.
This weekend has been unusually busy for me-- but in a good way. Friday I surprised myself with my energy and resourcefulness, preparing for a Halloween party nearby.
Starting the day before, I realized that I didn't have a hostess gift. I know the "rules" of party-going have changed, and usually people just show up, and that's more than okay. I was prepared to do that too, of course. But then I waxed nostalgic for just a minute, remembering a time when people treated being invited to some one's house as an honor, and sincerely wanted to thank them for their hospitality.
With this in mind, I browsed a nearby store, and after much deliberation I finally settled on something pretty but also functional-- the best kind of gift, in my opinion. And I remembered just in time to stop myself buying it that there is a lot of gift wrapping stuff at home. Most of it is left over from Christmas last year, when Michael and I had a wonderful time buying and hiding gifts for each other in that tiny apartment, then spoiling who ever else we could think of with gifts specially chosen:)
To my amazement, I walked right to the gift wrapping I needed at home like I'd known exactly where it was the whole time, and let me tell you, in the storage room that's saying something! Friday I just couldn't wait for the hour to arrive. There was a whole day to get through; I forced myself to make phone calls and do some housework just to kill some time. Then all of a sudden there were only two hours left, and I still wanted to bake a little something for the party.
Mikel consulted on this:) My mom and I were grocery shopping a few weeks ago, and I spotted a cupcake kit where the cupcakes are decorated to look like zombies with their brains exposed-- the brains being the icing:) Mikel always used to tell me "I love your braaains", the way a zombie cartoon would:) I almost chickened out, because I realized I'd forgotten powdered sugar to help make the frosting!
Thank you Foods Class teacher from the 6th grade-- I called her bluff and put two cups granulated sugar in the blender (thank you Val for leaving that). Viola! It wasn't powdered, but certainly finer! And piping turned out not to be as frightening as I'd thought it would be. A few of the cupcakes didn't get liners, just no-stick cooking spray. They stuck to the sides of the pan and refused to come out in one piece, so I sacrificed them to the disposal.
After that, miraculously, I had plenty of time to have dinner and put on my costume-- a velvet dress, cape, and beautiful witch's hat I'd gotten all at different times from different places, but somehow found each other and fit together perfectly!
The party was a great success and very nice. I met lots of new people and enjoyed watching the few cupcakes I'd brought disappear:) Moving around with my wide-brimmed hat proved to be difficult, but luckily I just moved from one place to another and sat down, a few times during the night, and there was always somewhere to sit and a conversation to join.
I had planned on leaving early...that didn't happen:) I played several games of Uno in my witch's hat, with my new friends, talked and laughed, had a wonderful time. The first thing I did Saturday morning was add each of them to my "friends" list on Facebook. But even my weekend hasn't been boring, as it often is these days:)
Yesterday my cousin-in-law and her adorable daughter who was going to be my beautiful flower girl game up up and we spent a perfect several hours roaming the winding, beautifully landscaped trails of Frederick Meijer Gardens. A few special indoor gardens are enclosed in pretty little rooms in the main building, along with cafeteria that serves delicious food under a ceiling decorated by the visionary Chicago glass sculptor, Dale Chihuly. I loved the "tropical garden", which houses the butterflies in March and April. It's warm and full of waterfalls, towering leafy plants, exotic blooms and bridges:) But my favorite had to be the beautiful, ethereal "Victorian garden."
Mums were everywhere, including in big globular yellow topiary hung from the ceiling of that very pretty room. To add another level of sensory delight, there was a large mound of fresh apples on the floor of that room; they say the scent inspires imagination...perhaps it helped in the decoration!
The three of us had such fun in the children's garden. The whole beautiful outdoor exhibit is designed to appeal to all five senses, with little statues of an eye, ear, nose, tongue and hand to illustrate. To little Madison's delight there were also three iron horse statues of different sizes, one being enormous, the other standard size, and a final one being the size of a toy-- "take home?" she asked.
It was a wonderful day, and as a final, happy curtain across the day, my new friend and wound-be best man chatted with me while I was watching TV, as he did some final shopping for a barbecue he and Mikel's brother Nate were going to have:) A lot more weekend than I'm used to! I slept in as late as I possibly could this morning. But it was purely enjoyable, and now I have a whole day before the dreary work week begins again, to lounge around in my fluffy purple bathrobe (thanks again for that, Babe!) and add to my blog.
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