A Busy Weekend

Yesterday I wrote about Friday and Saturday: three (plus ) hours to Ashland, Kentucky Friday night, car shopping and nice visits and then three more hours home (about 30 minutes of it in a driving rain) Saturday night. We walked in the door after 10:00.
Sunday I was up by 6:30 or so in order to get to church early for the 8:30 chapel service where I was hosting. I also hosted at 10:30, which meant I was at church till after 11:30. (I ran to get gas and pick up a few things at the grocery store at 9:30!)
We at Jimmy Johns vegetarian sandwiches for lunch and were back in the car by 1:20 to drive to Grove City, Ohio, where one of Evelyn's former students and D-group members was getting married.
We were there by 3:00, and it started raining about 3:03. It rained till almost 3:30, when the wedding (set up in the courtyard beside the banquet room at the golf club) was supposed to start.
The groomsmen scurried and dried all the chairs, and we were seated. We had been waiting outside, and I don't remember ever feeling hotter. The rain just made the humidity all the more oppressive, and the temperature was high. I was SO glad when the short ceremony was finished and we could get inside to the air conditioning.
We found a few CCU people Evelyn knows to visit with during the "cocktail hour" and found our seats in the beautiful ballroom sometime after 5:00. We stayed till almost 7:30, but we still made it home not long after 9:00 p.m.
It was a long weekend, with very little time at home. But we have some nice memories.
We're getting ready to drive to New York Thursday afternoon and Friday morning for our long weekend with all the kids. We talked with Geoff tonight to nail down possibilities. It will be nice!

Evelyn posed with Jimmy and Monica, the bride and groom, and Lynn, all former students.
We had a nice time visiting with Lynn and saying hi to several other former D-group members
who were in the wedding party.

One of Hundreds

OK, so I don't have a picture for today's blog. I admit it. But I chose this picture, because this evening I hope to finish sorting through the baZILLION wedding pictures we DO have to choose some for an album I'm creating. I want to have some to show to company that's coming for dinner this weekend, and then I want to take the album to California with me next week to show to some old friends, good friends I'll be visiting with then.
So it IS legitimate that I use one of these wedding pictures with today's blog.
Jennifer made me promise not to "go wild on Facebook" with all these pictures till she had a chance to share them herself, which is a fair request. But since she already posted this one on her page, I figure my reposting it doesn't qualify as going wild. :-)

Choosing several dozen to share with friends is a big challenge, because we have HUNDREDS of good pictures. But I have to agree with Jennifer. This is one of the best!

Evelyn and I cut grass after work and then ran to Izzy's for supper. Haven't had one of those wonderful Reuben sandwiches in months. It was a good choice!

Congratulations, Carla and Harry!

This evening we witnessed the joyful celebration that was the wedding of our colleagues Carla Crane to Harry Johns. The ceremony and reception were at a wonderful venue we'd never seen or visited before, Lake Lyndsay, north of us off of Liberty-Fairfield Road.
It was a beautiful evening, whose heat gave 'way to a pleasant cool as the sun set. Not only were there many Standard, RCL Benziger, and CFM Publishing employees there, but also some former Standard employees, and it was fun to catch up with several of them. We had a wonderful meal and fun conversation with the people at our table as well as several others.
Congratulations, Carla and Harry!

Bloomin' Memories

Nobody but I may care about this, but for myself I decided to compare pictures of our wedding center pieces with some of the flowers as they're growing in pots in our yard now.
This pretty pink zinnia, and the cream  one in the background of this picture are growing in front of the house in a pot with one of those asparagus ferns. I have a couple of these beautiful coleus plants in pots around the yard too, but I didn't get pictures of them snapped for this post.

The salmon vinca (and another asparagus fern) in this pot on our patio were photographed with a coral colored rex begonia, which, unfortunately, didn't survive when I tried to transplant it this summer. But the one vinca is a bright addition to our deck.

This picture doesn't do this beautiful pink begonia justice. It's in a hanging basket on a shepherd's crook between the pine trees straight out our back door, at the back of the yard beyond the deck. It is one of the most beautiful "survivors" of our wedding, in a pot with a couple of variegated ivy plants, which were a part of our wedding center pieces too.

Life is hard. People are complex.

My boss for many years at Standard Publishing, Gene Wigginton, had a saying that my wife and I repeat to each other regularly. (She even makes it the answer to a test question in her human development class.)
"Life is hard; people are complex," he said, and we remember that every time we come up against something about someone that is sad or inexplicable or odd.

I thought of those words again this evening in the wake of some shocking news we heard this afternoon. Ray Henry, director of operations at Memorial Hall, died today after shooting a friend and himself Friday afternoon. The woman he shot is still alive in critical condition. His family isn't talking to  reporters. We may never know why this shocking tragedy happened.
For us this isn't just another news story. We had many contacts with Ray in the months before our wedding, because our reception was at Memorial Hall, and Ray was the person who arranged the details, recommended the caterer Jennifer chose, opened the building when we or others needed to check it out--for months before the event.
Carol and David Ray did most of the leg work and planning for the reception, and today David spoke of Ray's good nature, interesting stories, and cooperative spirit.
Responding to the news of the apparent murder-suicide, Jennifer described him as "kind (I thought)." The news story spoke of a police record that contained other violent incidents against women.
One of her friends responded on Facebook, "Often things are not as they appear."
All this underscores for me the truth of Wigginton's proverb. It's the "people are complex" part that strikes me. Because we didn't just think Ray was kind; he was kind! It's not that things are not as they appear; it's that things are often more than they appear.
Who is the preacher who loses his temper at a staff person without warning? He is the man who preaches the gospel faithfully and brings comfort to the bereft and besieged. He is both. It's not that he's a fake when he stands in the pulpit; it's just that he's more frail and fallen than he appears.
Who is the man who can't keep his eyes off the young women dressed in garments too low, too tight, and too high on city streets in the summertime? He is the man who loves his wife, sacrifices for his kids, and follows the rules at work. Is he a good man? Yes. Is he broken and beset by temptation? Yes. He's both.
Who is the woman who's jealous of the attention her pretty daughter receives? She is the mother who would give her very life to see her daughter healthy and happy.
Who is the elder who jokes about homosexuals? Who is the deacon who harbors racial prejudice? Who is the Christian consumed by consumerism? They are leaders of our churches, people who love God and his Word, folks who give to good causes and work toward good ends.
Another phrase I remember and repeat is from an old hymn: "O to grace how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be." I have not committed crimes of record like Ray Henry did, but I am more than I appear. All the good some folks know about me is true. But God knows dark corners of my heart they have not seen.
Ray Henry's tragedy reminds me again how utterly grateful I am to have discovered the God of amazing grace . . . and how sorry I am I didn't have the chance to tell Ray about him. And I can't help but wonder how much pain or confusion or fear or heartbreak lies hidden behind the smiling faces of so  many people I meet regularly. They are kind and bright and intelligent and productive. And they are more.

Perfect Except for a Pear Tree

This is the pear tree at the corner of our house. Maybe I mentioned that in the storm Friday night, about one-third of it broke off in the wind.
I'm recording this for the sake of my memory, because by next week this time, the tree, all its branches, and its trunk will be gone. Well, it may take a bit longer than that for them to get the stump out of the ground, but the man  who came to look at the situation this evening said he'd take it all after the trunk has time to rot a little.
I'm not happy to have to spend the money to take it down and out, but Evelyn and I have said to each other and to others, more than once, we are SO GLAD we did not lose power last Friday. So many in Mason did. I'm not sure how we would have gotten a house full of people coiffed and made up in the dark Saturday morning, without power for blow dryers and other appliances (coffee pot!). This will just be a memory to mark the occasion, another reminder that no occasion on this side of eternity can be completely perfect, as well as an occasion to thank God once more for his goodness to us.

Red, White, and Blast Furnace

The almost-100-degree heat continued today, but it was cool enough outside at 8:00 this morning for Evelyn and me to enjoy our breakfast on the deck, looking over the yard and my little flower pot garden. It was quiet, there was an occasional wisp of breeze, and we pulled our chairs into some shade from the morning sun, created by our trees and the neighbor's roof line. It as a nice way to start the holiday.

This was our view as we ate our breakfast this morning on the deck.

The day felt a lot like a Saturday: odd jobs in the yard, a run to the grocery store, bringing the check book up to date. perusing Facebook. I did a lot of hauling the hose to water trees and bushes.

I think the nicest part of the day was receiving a call from Nettie Dunlap, my cousin John's wife, who called to ask all about our wedding and to tell me how very sorry she was that they didn't get to make it. They were planning to come till the last minute, when a power outage caused them to need to stay home to take care of John's mom, my Aunt Louise. It was fun reliving the wedding with her and catching up on their lives. I told her we'd invite them for dinner when we get our video and pictures of the big day.

And the other nicest part of the day was a phone call from Jim Pierson who wanted to know all about the wedding, too. More reliving, more repeating my pride at how special Jennifer and Matt (and Geoff and Lisa) had made the ceremony and the reception. 

This evening Bill and Verna Weber and Terry and Shirley Wuske came for hamburgers on the grill. We heated up the baked potato appetizers left over from the wedding and had ice cream sundaes for dessert. Lots of laughter, a little more reminiscing about the wedding, quite a bit of catching up on Webers' and Wuskes' latest family developments (moving Verna's mom; Jonathan's moving to California!).

They left after 10:00, with the sounds of fireworks all around us, but the neighbors didn't come through with the displays we've seen in previous years. Mostly all we had were kabooms in the distance. But I know there will be other opportunities for fireworks before the summer is over!

A Day at Work Between Two Days Off

How's this for a movie choice in the week after our wedding?! Evelyn and I have our second evening alone in a row, and I decided I'm too tired to go find some fireworks--although I was tempted! :-)
So when I stopped through Kroger's on the way home, I picked up "The Vow" from Redbox. We're going to watch it as soon as I finish this blog post. I'll give my review tomorrow.
I was surprised at how tired I was at work today. But I guess I shouldn't have been. The past few days were virtually non-stop movement and thinking about what's next and how it, whatever "it" was, was going to get done.
I spent quite a bit of time this morning cleaning out e-mails. Dealt with details for our Brazil trip. Looked at the final proof for the fourth of four issues uploaded to the printer today. Chose web tags and the posting dates for two issues already in print.
On the way home returned unused plastic dessert plates to GFS (we had bought 500, at the caterer's recommendation, but we sure didn't need 'em all), deposited my pension check, and returned easels to the church (they held posters and props at the reception).
Just about everything from the wedding is cleaned up, put away, returned. Just about.
Tomorrow's the holiday! We're having Webers and Wuskes for hamburgers on the grill and left-over stuffed mini potatoes from the reception.

Memories of a Wedding

Dave Faust and I were exchanging e-mails last week, and he told me, "The wedding days of my daughters were the most exhilarating and exhausting of my life." The two words come close to my experience yesterday. But all the memories of the day will be positive.
Miles rode home with me from the reception, and he said, "I think my favorite part of the ceremony was the vows."
"Really. Why was that your favorite?"
"Well, they were so meaningful."
He's right. In addition to the traditional vows Jennifer and Matt exchanged, Matt and Miles and Nina had brainstormed together a list of family vows they would make to Jennifer.  They included promises to try everything she cooked, to be quiet in the morning and not bother Jen till she'd had her first cup of coffee. They spoke of their anticipation of their life together: concerts and ball games and graduations and grandchildren.
And Jennifer wrote her own vows to the family she was joining. One line sticks in the memory: "Miles and Nina, I wasn't there to see your first steps, but I will be with you for every future step in our life together."
Jennifer's quivering lip as she read her vows, and as our "adopted daughter," Wendy Wagoner, read the Scripture ("Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!") and the big tears rolling down sweet Nina's cheek at the end of the ceremony--those were moments that touched everyone's heartstrings.
Afterwards, I pondered what we all know, that marriage is not to be entered lightly, and tears are appropriate for a commitment as big as all of them were making. But so was the laughter that punctuated lighter moments in the ceremony and the happy banter--the mood of celebration--that echoed through the rooms of Memorial Hall during our happy reception.
There will be much better pictures than mine posted here. I imagine some have popped up on Facebook already, and believe me, the photographer captured every moment 15 times. But here are a few more I snapped for this diary/blog. Each is simply a reminder of a day whose memories will be exhilarating for the rest of our lives.

Today's the Day!

A goal is a goal, and my goal was to post every day. But I'm not promising to give an update before I fall into bed tonight. I'm writing this at 8:30 this morning. Wendy is up and showered. Jen has showered, and her hairdresser has arrived. I've fixed snacks for all of us to eat at lunchtime just before the ceremony--it's supposed to be a hot day, and we don't want any fainting! We have a big bowl of fruit on the counter (for breakfast, and again for dinner tonight), Evelyn's coffee cake, and the coffee cake a neighbor sent for us to enjoy. The sun is shining, and there's only a 30% chance of rain.
It's going to be a good day.

Thursday of Wedding Week

Today, the hottest day of the year, and two days before our wedding, I mowed the lawn. Actually, I planned to mow just the green spots around the trees we had watered. But by the time I was done, I had probably run the mower over 3/4 of the lawn. It wouldn't have taken much longer just to run over all of it. 

And then I edged the lawn and the flower beds. I hadn't been done for weeks, and I was waiting to make it sharp just before we have extra company this weekend.

After lunch, the ladies went on an outing to get pedicures, and Matt and Miles and I took two cars to the Thunderbird Car Wash where Ryan White treated us to freebies and upgrades. Thanks, Ryan! Then  I went to the store to buy groceries for the rest of the weekend, including extra soda for the rehearsal dinner and our post-wedding afterglow, protein and other sustenance for lunchtime at the church, between the photographs and the ceremony, food for dinner tonight, and other assorted necessities. I hadn't eaten enough lunch, so when I got home, I foraged for a snack and got beaten in Chinese checkers by Miles. Then they and Wendy went swimming in the neighbor's pool while I worked on flowers for the wedding reception. 

I had found a flat of salmon vinca with maroon centers. I transplanted them into 4-inch terra cotta pots; they'll decorate the food tables. While Jen was gone I lined all the travel cases with black plastic.
 After supper from the grill (hamburgers and asparagus; Evelyn made potato wedges in the oven), Jen and I assembled the centerpieces, and really, we're quite pleased with the result.

We got done in time to meet Dan and Cindi Cooper at the Cone, and then Matt and Miles went home with them to spend the night so we have a bed for Geoff and Lisa who are driving here from NYC even as I write this and will get in sometime in the wee hours of tomorrow morning. 

Wednesday of Wedding Week

Someone once said that the truly productive person works most days like he does the day before vacation. I don't know if that's possible, but today (my last day to work before  next Tuesday) was very productive for me. I actually was able, through a combination of delegation and concentration, to cross almost everything off my list! Of course, there could have been more on my list, I guess, but I did leave work feeling at peace about what I was leaving behind.

I met the gang at Twin Dragon restaurant for supper. The Johnson kids like Chinese buffets (who would have guessed?), and we hadn't been there in years. It was surprisingly good, and we had fun.

Afterwards, Jen and Matt and I stopped at Meijer's and bought plants for our reception center pieces. Quite a few of those I bought and have been watering for weeks just aren't going to be pretty enough for the wedding. But we found some beautiful substitutes, and Jennifer and I will have fun tomorrow putting them together.

When the three of us arrived back home, plants in hand, Evelyn, Wendy, and the kids were warming up on corn hole tossing (our neighbors lent us a set for the rest of the week), and we had a tournament  that managed to involve all seven of us. Matt and Miles were a team, and none of us were surprised when they won. Ah, maybe the oldsters will prevail tomorrow!

All's Well That Ends Well

Little challenges that marked the day:
We post all our business expenses online. Today I had one $13 tab to post, but the site wouldn't take my password. So I clicked the button to ask them to send me a new password. They sent me the e-mail with the new password. I entered the new password, but the site wouldn't accept it. I tried this one more time: new password, enter new password, the site wouldn't accept it. And then I got a message saying I had attempted log-in too many times and was being logged off.
Tomorrow's the deadline for submitting June expenses. Maybe my $13 will be authorized then.
Second event to record for posterity: a warning ticket on the way home. Cincinnati-Dayton Road. There was a line of at least 50 cars heading toward West Chester Road from Union Centre Blvd. All of them were going straight; I wanted to turn left. So I crept along beside the straight line of cars, through about two or three left turn lanes (for the offices, etc., on my left). But you're not supposed to do that. You're supposed to wait till you're close to the intersection and that intersection's left turn lane is open for you.
The friendly West Chester policeman was jovial and kind and he didn't give me a citation. "You've just received your first wireless warning ticket," he told me as he handed my driver's license back to me. (He had returned to his car and entered all my data into the computer mounted on his dash.)
This made me almost late for dinner, our welcome-to-our-house dinner for Matt and Miles and Nina who arrived in Indy this afternoon.
We had lots of fun over Evelyn's wonderful spaghetti and meatballs (Rachael Ray's recipe, tried for the first time) and salad and French bread (we ate the whole loaf!)
After dinner we walked to the park and had a big time on two sets of playground equipment until almost dark, when we walked back home for ice cream before bed.

The weather this evening was cool and beautiful. We soaked it up, because it's supposed to be sweltering for wedding day!

Today, To Do

When I first started this blog several months ago, several said, "Every day? You're going to post every day?"

Today is one of those days I understand why they were dubious.

Today was one long series of to-do's. Part of this is because we're working ahead at work because I'm going to be gone most of two weeks in July and the first week in August. Part of this is because I'm going to be out of the office this Thursday through next Monday, and then there's the holiday on Wednesday. Part of this is because we're gearing up to produce our first monthly edition of Christian Standard, and the second monthly edition is already largely planned, and I'm on the verge being late with planning the third monthly edition. And in addition to planning, there's production (editing, proofing, writing, art choosing) for the current issues. And consulting with marketing folks about promotions relating to the roll-out of the monthly.

And after work, errands and then a meeting with some guys from church in Loveland, and now I'm back home catching up with Evelyn and Wendy and Jennifer about their day. And this blog feels like one more item on the to-do list.

Jennifer got here about 11:30 last night after a day that was much longer for her than today has been for me. She had her own list of to-do's today, and I'm guessing her list will continue into tomorrow too.

But the do's are getting done, and that's good. And we're not unhappy about the week before us. It's just, as I told someone today, that your only daughter's only wedding is a once-in-a-lifetime series of events, and so there's nothing really to compare it to.

More on this incomparable week tomorrow!

Plates for a Wedding

Found dessert plates for our reception—504 of 'em—at the third (and the fourth) place I shopped today. The quantity was suggested by the caterer; we'll have 'em not only for dessert but as extras if the other plates run out for the appetizers. Another item off the list!

And I picked up my suit at Macy's after the slacks were finished. Another item off the list!

The wedding rehearsal is one week from tomorrow!

Most pleasant part of the day: sitting outside on the deck in the humid dusk with Evelyn and Wendy, talking about the challenges of re-entry into the West after living in the Two-Thirds World. Both Wendy and her sister Christy and Christy's husband Zach have experienced the challenges in the last week.

Check This!

It's nice to check things off a list. Today:
Get visa applications for Brazil trip in the mail. Check.
Compose directions from the church to Memorial Hall for the wedding reception. Check.
Get decision about whether to buy plastic dessert plates instead of renting them from the caterer. Yes. Check.
Stop by Costco to pick up plastic dessert plates for the reception. Check.
Determine that Costco doesn't have the plates and decide to check another Costco, Staples, or Wal-Mart. Check. :-)
But we are making progress.
Tomorrow I pick up my suit from Macy's.
I've always been a big list maker. Every week I make a list of stuff to accomplish that week, by category. This week I've relied on last week's list with new, daily lists of tasks for each day this week.
Of course, there are always a few things from yesterday left for today. The reason for the daily lists is that the length of the weekly list might seem a little overwhelming. But, indeed, it is satisfying to check those items off!

Earlier this summer (in desperation for picture for my blog) I took a picture of my new tomato plants. I think I deleted it from my camera, and I was wanting to publish it here to compare with how they've grown by now (I'm desperate for a blog picture today, too!).
Oh well, they ARE coming along, and in another month, the contrast will be dramatic (I hope!)
And all without writing anything on a list!

Making a Difference

Our church's men's ministry asked me to emcee this morning's Dads Make a Difference seminar that met this morning 7:30-noon. About a hundred guys came for breakfast, followed by two challenges each from Jeff Stone and David Vaughn. I wouldn't have attended if I had been asked to emcee, but I'm not sorry I was there. It was good to get better acquainted with a couple of the guys there, reconnect with Jeff, and hear Dave's heart as he spoke so openly about his own vulnerability and brokenness.

We picked up Wendy from the airport last night about 7:30 and brought her straight home. She took a shower, visited with us a few minutes and went to bed, exhausted. She relaxed through the day at our place. We went to Stein Mart to look for bargains during their big sale; we didn't find any, but Wendy bought a sweater to wear with the dress she plans to wear to the wedding. We ate supper at LaRosa's, came home, and Wendy went straight to bed.

I cut grass in the front yard; Evelyn had cut the back and sides this morning while I was gone.

Stayin' Alive

"Hey, Mark, you ought to consider being a writer," Greg said to me across the platform during worship team practice tonight.  I wasn't sure what he was getting at, and then he said he enjoys reading my blog.
"So I put your picture in my blog, and you decided to read it?"
"Yeah," he smiled. "And I've been reading it ever since."
Frankly, I'm always surprised when someone new tells me they're reading this. My little diary entries about each day's activities seem pretty mundane to me. But, hey, Greg, thanks for the compliment of checking in here from time to time.

Before worship team rehearsal, I left work and went to Wendy's for chicken nuggets  and a root beer frosty float, one of my favorite treats. Then I went to Hobby Lobby and bought two bags of Spanish moss for our wedding reception centerpieces. I'm keeping coleus, impatiens, vinca, hosta, zinnia, rye fern and variegated ivy alive till we assemble the centerpieces two weeks from tomorrow. In fact, I'm fertilizing them to beat the band so the vines will be green and the flowers will be blooming  when we need them soon.

Rays of Sunshine

This is the third night in the last four that we've had company for dinner. It doesn't seem that heroic to me, but then again, I haven't been doing the cooking! (Well, I did cook on the grill Saturday and Sunday, come to think of it.) Each evening has been enjoyable and memorable and full of laughs, none any more than tonight when we welcomed Carol and Dave Ray for the evening.
Carol (and Dave!) is staging Jennifer's wedding reception, and this evening she came to see all the "props" Jennifer has gathered to decorate the room. It was the perfect excuse to eat together, and Evelyn fixed an old stand-by, "Party Chicken." The Rays are one couple we had never served it to before! After a hot day, the evening became dry and almost cool, and we ate dessert on the deck, visiting outside  till 11 o'clock!

Just One Year

One year ago on a Friday, Wendy Wagoner and Jennifer met Evelyn and me in New York City. They had been in Pennsylvania, because they had agreed that Wendy should meet Matt Johnson and Nina and Miles before she went to Africa. And Wendy had never seen New York, so they combined destinations. We met Lisa at her beautiful office overlooking Manhattan, ate lunch at a sidewalk cafe outside the Rockefeller Center, and saw the city from Top of the Rock.

That evening we drove to Long Island and heard all of Geoff's jazz bands play at their spring fundraiser and concert at the high school where he teaches. It was a beautiful evening, a wonderful concert, and a fun time.

Saturday we tried to show Wendy some of the city, although the rain kept us from some of what we wanted to do. She could still see the Statue of Liberty through the fog.We walked through Chinatown, stopped in at a small museum, and ate dinner at one of Geoff and Lisa's favorite restaurants before adjourning to their apartment to visit for the rest of the evening.

The next morning, Geoff took Wendy to the airport so she could fly to Florida to do a VBS. That afternoon we walked the Highline, went to Geoff and Lisa's church, passing the theater where the Tony awards were being presented that evening, and then ate dinner outside at a restaurant in the park beside the Hudson River.

Lisa quizzed Jennifer about Matt: How do you feel about his kids? How do you feel about his church? Is he a good kisser? :-) We passed by the Lincoln Center where we yucked it up for picture poses in front of the fountain there.

One week from today, on a Friday (actually just five days from now), Wendy will come to Cincinnati to be here for Jennifer's wedding to Matt Johnson.

Three weeks from today, on a Saturday, Jennifer will marry Matt; Miles and Nina will be their wedding party. Geoff will play, Lisa will sing, and Evelyn and I will smile and cry. Then "party" is the theme for the reception we're planning at Memorial Hall after their afternoon wedding. 

The time will fly between now and then, just as it has since we were in New York together just one year ago. And I'm filled with anticipation about what the next year will bring in all of our lives.