Snickers update: When I wrote last time, we were still in the throes of trying to get Snickers stable (although he was starting to do a little better). I had to take in a urine sample on Saturday the 13th. He still had some ketones in his urine, which isn't a good sign, so they asked me to bring him in to get some fluids injected--it just took a few minutes, and the fluids would slowly spread into his system over the next couple of days. Thankfully, it didn't cost $1000 either! (Less that $50.) Snickers was definitely feeling perkier than before but he still wasn't great. He continued to have a poor appetite and to be resistant to taking his medicines. But Frank got better at getting the medicine in him and both of us have become pretty efficient at giving him his insulin shots. Thankfully, he is really good about the shots and doesn't wiggle or anything. While Frank was in Utah with us, Snickers stayed with a technician that works at our vet's office, and that was a blessing because it really added to our peace of mind, knowing that he was with someone that knew how to take care of him (even better than us, actually!) Our dog sitter reported that Snickers stayed about the same--he would eat chicken or ham but not dog food (other than small amounts of the high nutrition dog food we got from the vet) and he still wouldn't take his medicine voluntarily. He whined a bit the first couple of nights that we were gone, but settled down and seemed fairly content after that. Frank reports that Snickers was VERY glad to see him when he picked him up Saturday afternoon (the 20th) and that he seems to be doing pretty well. He even ate about half a can of regular dog food this morning, so that is a good sign.
Seth's busy Sunday: Seth was asked to give a talk on Sunday (the 14th). He was also asked to teach the lesson for Deacons Quorum. He taught a lesson once before, but this was his first talk in Sacrament Meeting. His topic was choice & accountability. So I spent some time on Saturday the 13th helping him organize his talk. I gave him suggestions, but he did it all in his own words. The only other suggestion I gave him was to look up once in a while--don't just read through his talk and sit down! Well, he really surprised us. He was so poised and comfortable--he looked like he'd been giving talks for years! We were really proud of him. Afterwards, a whole bunch of people in our ward came to him to compliment him on what a good job he did. One person even called him on the phone later in the day. He had such a big grin and his face and felt so good about it, and we are so thankful for the love and encouragement he receives from members of our ward! They're like family. Apparently, his lesson went really well too although of course we weren't there for that.
My hair color: On Saturday the 13th I also got my hair done. (It was a busy day!) Last time I had my hair done, I got some highlights put in (something special for the first wedding!) but they really didn't show up a whole lot. So my hair stylist said "next time, we'll make your base color a little darker so there will be more of a contrast." So this time, that's what we did but it wasn't a little darker--it was a lot darker! I wasn't sure at first if I liked it, but after the first day I got used to it. (I think maybe it's lightened up a bit from at first too because now, over a week later, it doesn't look as dark to me.) Actually, I didn't just get used to it, I decided I like it better this way. It's a lot closer to my natural hair color so I think it looks better with my skin tone and eye color. (My hair stylist said the same thing.) So I guess I will stick with this color--at least for a while! The day I had the color done, she also asked if she could try putting some curls in my hair, instead of drying it straight like she usually does. I wasn't going anywhere important or anything, so I decided to let her give it a try. It looked kind of cute at first, but it was definitely a change, and the curls didn't really hold well so a few hours later I felt like my hair was sticking out all over. So no more curls! I like it much better straight! (If you had told me back in the 1980s that I was going to say that someday, I never would have believed it!)
Wedding stuff: The second pair of pants I ordered for Seth fit him, thankfully. The second dress I ordered for myself fit better than the first one although it still wasn't the best fit. I decided that if I had time, I would look for one after we got to Utah to see if I could find a better option. As it turned out, we had some time to kill on Thursday the 18th, in between going to see Tanner & Darlee's apartment and stopping at Darlee's house to pick up some watermelons (which I was cutting up to be served at the reception). We went to the mall in Orem and after trying on several dresses, I finally found one that fit right, that was modest, and that was one of the right colors. It's really pretty, actually, so I'm happy that I kept looking.
Getting ready for our trip: Monday the 15th and Tuesday the 16th were crazy! I was trying to get all the regular things done (including exercising and brain balance) plus getting ready for our trip and making sure that things were in place so that nothing would get missed while we were gone. (Like bills getting paid on time and so forth.) I also mowed the lawn and returned the first dress and pair of pants that I had ordered for the wedding. Seth had a doctor appointment on Tuesday--his annual "well child" visit, plus a medicine check up. He also needed a couple of shots, since a few of his immunizations needed to be updated. He was really nervous about the shots, but he was brave about them and they didn't turn out to be bad at all. I also had to jump through a few hoops with the pharmacy to get his prescription refilled before we left, since we'd run out while we were in Utah if I didn't (it was a day or two earlier than we are usually able to refill). Everything worked out, though, and it looked like everything for the trip was coming together and getting done and I was starting to pack when I happened to check my email and yikes!!...
My bank account got hacked: I had one email letting me know my Zelle account had been set up successfully (I didn't set up a Zelle account), another one letting me know I had successfully added Kevin Jones to my contacts, and two more letting me know that my transfers of $480 and $490 to Kevin Jones had been successful. All of these emails arrived within 5 minutes of each other. So instead of spending the evening leisurely packing and making sure we didn't forget anything, instead we spent the evening on the phone with our bank trying to straighten all that out. I'm going to make a long story short and just say that it was a big hassle and involved a trip to the bank in person the next morning, which we really didn't have time to do since we had a plane to catch. It also meant that our bank account was frozen the entire time Frank was in Utah with us (because there was not enough time to straighten things out before we needed to leave, and we needed to protect the funds in our account) so we didn't have access to our money at all. But neither did anyone else, at least. Frank and I have both been on the phone with our bank today and I think everything is fixed and we have access to our bank account again. But really??? Did that have to happen right then??! It could have been much worse, though, so I am grateful it wasn't worse. And it all turned out okay in the end so I can't complain too much.
Trip to Utah: In spite of all the crazy things that happened the last few weeks, we did actually (thankfully!) manage to get on a plane on Wednesday the 17th as planned and made it to Utah in time for Tanner's wedding!! Jared & Jessie met us at our house Wednesday morning (after our bank trip and after we dropped Snickers off with the dog sitter) and we all went to the airport together. It was extremely hot and humid, and I felt thankful to be heading to a dryer climate!
The flight was pretty uneventful, other than we sat on the tarmac for a while because they had a ground stop while they figured out how to route all the westward bound flights around a storm, but it was just a short delay and we still got to Utah on schedule. It was kind of funny because they had the seat belt lights on for almost the entire flight and had the flight attendants sit down a couple of times because of anticipated turbulence, but it was probably the most turbulent-free flight I've ever been on! Frank and Seth watched movies most of the flight and I read, did a few puzzles, and tried to sleep a little bit. They must have rerouted our flight to the south because we came in over Provo / Orem (usually we come in north of Salt Lake City) which was kind of fun. We spent the evening at Mom's house--she fed us dinner and Scott came by to see us too. Erin's family and Liz were here too so it was nice to visit with them.
On Thursday Jared & Jessie were supposed to go look at an apartment they were thinking about renting, but then they found out their appointment was cancelled because the place was already rented, so that was a bummer. We went to see Tanner & Darlee's apartment, as I mentioned before, and it is really cute! They had the opportunity to buy some furniture for really cheap from someone who was moving way back in December, so they have had their furniture since then! It's really nice furniture, too. They have a 2 bedroom apartment and they have the second bedroom set up as an office with a desk for each of them and appropriate artwork on the wall above each desk. (Darlee's is pink garlands and such, and Tanner's is super hero themed artwork.) I already mentioned that we did some shopping and picked up watermelons to cut up. After that we went to Mom's, stopping on the way to get ice cream cones at Macey's. Frank and Jared both made the mistake of ordering Kong Kones (the biggest size): Jessie & Jared opened a bunch of presents. (They had an Amazon gift registry and they had it set up to send gifts to Utah instead of Maryland since they will be living in Utah this fall.) That was fun, and they got a lot of nice things.
Neither of them were able to finish their cone!
After we got to Mom's, Jessie & Jared opened a bunch of presents. (They had an Amazon gift registry and they had it set up to send gifts to Utah instead of Maryland since they will be living in Utah this fall.) That was fun, and they got a lot of nice things:
Seth took most of those pictures, and he couldn't resist doing this too:
He also enjoyed playing in the boxes afterwards:
After that, all the boys, including Frank, had Tanner's "bachelor party". They went shooting and then ate dinner. They were gone a lot later than I anticipated...didn't get back until almost 10:00 pm. Meanwhile, Jessie and I hung out at Mom's house. She and Mom helped me cut up the watermelon, which I really appreciated. It would have taken a really long time for me to do that on my own!!
The Wedding: Finally, the big wedding day arrived! And it was beautiful. I loved being in the temple with a lot of my family members. The sealer had such a sweet kind spirit about him; I really liked that. I don't have a lot of pictures, but here are a few:
After taking a lot of photos at the temple, we headed to BYU for the luncheon we were hosting. It was nice because everything was ready to go when we got there. I think it was nice, and the food was really yummy. Here's the view from the window of our room:
They played the shoe game too and it was really cute:
After the luncheon we barely had time to go back to Amy's to pick a few things up and then to Mom's to get the watermelon. I was feeling really tired by then--partly, I think, because we had chicken alfredo at the luncheon and I'm not used to eating pasta anymore!! But there was no time to rest. It was on to the reception! We got there a little early and had time to help a little bit with getting some things ready:
The reception was beautiful and a lot of people came. It was a lot of fun! Here's a few pictures:
Lots of yummy treats:
Lots of presents:
I love that beautiful quilt in the corner!:
The strings of lights were pretty too:
Throwing the bouquets (she actually had 3):
After the reception ended, we helped with the take down / clean up and got to bed really late (again)!
Post wedding activities: Frank, Jared, and Jessie had an early flight so they had to get up at the crack of dawn, but they made it home safely. Meanwhile, Seth and I took it easy most of the day Saturday. I got some laundry done. In the evening, Seth went to dinner and to see the movie End Game with Scott while I went with Tim, Rachelle, and Gwen to the Pioneer Day Concert. It was wonderful! We ate at the Lion House and then Tim went to get ready for the concert while we went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to see some nice views:
The concert itself was amazing!! I really liked the guest artist, Sissel. Not only did she have a beautiful voice, but she really sang from her heart. You could tell that she loves singing and that she was feeling the meaning of the words. And the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra on Temple Square were fantastic, too, of course!
View of the temple, coming out of the concert:
I got back to Amy's at about 11:00 pm and found Seth like this:
But he actually woke up when I removed the book and that was good because I discovered that he was still in his clothes and had not brushed his teeth. So he took care of those things and then went back to bed.
On Sunday we moved all of our stuff over to Mom's, where we will be staying the remainder of our visit, and we went to church with Mom. We had a nice relaxing Sunday, which we really needed!! Today has been pretty relaxing too but we have quite a few activities planned for the rest of the week so it's good that we've had a few quiet days.
Tanner has texted me a few times today--first to let me know that they were at the airport, then to let me know they landed in California, and then to let me know they were getting on their cruise ship. So they are on their way and will be back at the end of the week.
And that is everything! It's hard to believe that after all the stress and planning and excitement that we made it through to the other side of the 2 wedding adventure! I'm grateful to have some time to "regroup" now, and I'm very grateful that everything turned out so beautifully and that we have some wonderful family memories that we will never forget.
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