Toadfrogs and Elephants

My mom was consumed this weekend with Allison’s wedding. Mom had a party on Thursday night and hosted the rehearsal dinner at her house on Friday evening. Then the wedding was on Saturday. Poor Allison has quite a few wedding stories to go with her big day. The local business pressing her gown burned to the ground hours after her dress was picked up. The rehearsal dinner was supposed to be outside but the rainy weather forced it indoors. One of her brothers got caught in a storm and was quite late flying into Paducah. One of the groomsmen’s wives was admitted to the hospital and he wasn’t sure if he would make it. Allison was supposed to take a carriage ride from the church to the reception, but the rain came at just the wrong time. Regardless of all the minor hiccups the wedding was beautiful and Allison is now married!

(I had a picture of mom and I, but my memory card and I fought over it. The card won and the picture has disappeared.)

I rode the train to KY on Wednesday and have been playing around Paducah for the last few days. I have eaten at my favorite restaurants (Chongs and El Chico). I have visited with family and friends. Then I ran all the errands that still seem easier to do in Paducah than anywhere else. For instance, Wade loves Gold Label shirts. The bad part is they are only sold at Dillard’s which we don’t have in Milwaukee. He tends to be a little hard on his clothes and the shirts don’t last as long as we’d like. Right now he is down to four. I went to Dillards and basically bought every Gold Label shirt they had in his size. Maybe this will last us till Christmas.

My workload has drastically increased since March and I am definitely working full time if not more. Wade and I decided having someone help with the cleaning would make us both happier in the end. I didn’t want to hire a service simply because I was looking for something more flexible and a little cheaper. I posted on Craig’s List and the first person I “hired” never showed up. The second lady came today. She was here about three hours and I am so thankful I didn’t have to do the cleaning.

I used to love the Schwan man chicken fajita meat and the breaded chicken strips when I was young. I can’t wait to see if they are as good as I remember.

Update – I had the chicken fingers for lunch just the way I remember – wrapped in a flour tortilla with ketchup. It was perfect. Maybe I’ll have the same for dinner. With Wade out of town my eating habits are always a little unusual.

I have been talking about getting a larger monitor for months, but have never really done anything about it. Wade decided we should go buy it this weekend and we did. I have a new Samsung 26″ monitor and I love it! I had been hoping for dual monitors, but my laptop does not support them. This is definitely the next best thing. I read papers on the computer all day so this should make life much nicer. It turns out my monitor is even bigger than Wade’s – I win!

Our neighbor, Steve, invited us over for a potluck afternoon. Steve is a musician and likes to play his instruments right outside our bay window, but we didn’t realize all of his friends were too. Wade and I spent a couple of hours listening to the music and enjoying the talent.

Wade loves soccer. Soccer does not love Wade. It was responsible for his messed up knee in 2003 and kept him from playing for a long time. He finally starts up a game here and comes home last night with a hurt knee (the other one). He stayed off of it last night and we are waiting to see how bad it is. We’re hoping just a sprain and not torn like last time. Only time will tell.

Update – Wade decided to go ahead and make a doctor’s appointment. The doctor evidently sees a lot of minor injuries and was intrigued by Wade’s. He has had his first appointment (confirmed torn ACL), is going now for his MRI, and has his follow up appointment this afternoon. At least they aren’t wasting any time. Maybe he can get his surgery scheduled for pretty soon. Hopefully he’ll be back to 100% and done with physical therapy by the time baby arrives.

I finished my project too! The windows have been stripped, sanded, and painted. I even went so far as to scrape the leaded edges and clean the glass. (For those of you who know my quirks – I had to use 3/4 of a roll of paper towels.) Now the living room looks put together. I think the last remaining project is retiling the fireplace, but we still aren’t sure what we want to do there..

Click here for a picture of the windows before.