Friday, October 31, 2008

Rehearsal Dinner with Jackie

Jackie drove up to Lafayette on Friday morning to help her family cook pork chops, prepare a meal and serve all the people that rehearsed for Austin and Hannah's wedding the next day.

On Thursday night, I was up until 3:00 AM making some final touches on a video for the reception on Saturday. A video was completed a week before the event, but that was not quite up to Jackie's standards. I complained a lot, but the finished product was worth the effort.

After getting up for work at 5:00 AM, I got home early at 4:30 and packed the Jeep so that Becca could get off the bus at 4:45 and get in the car so we could get to Lafayette by 10:00 PM. Considering all the sleepless activity leading up to the drive, we are very fortunate to have made it all the way without stopping.

We arrived at the Best Western to find that we were sharing the hotel with the Michigan football team and I was encouraged to find out that Jackie had worn out her nieces who are much younger than I am.

It was very good to see family working hard together to celebrate the union of two people that represent hard work. Austin is a man of the soil and Hannah tends to animals. Throughout the course of history those trades have been synonymous with hard work.

It was only fitting that we wear ourselves out for them.

Even though Heidi and Bethany were exhausted, they rose early in the morning to help their color challenged Aunt Jackie pick out a new blouse to better match the rest of her outfit.

They worked well together and enjoyed the day.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Three month sprint

For the last three months, I have been completely consumed by multiple projects at work, watching the kids play volleyball and football and working to support their teams. During that span of time, Jackie and I have had to put several relationships on hold.

One of the most difficult for me was the Monday night prayer group. We have also missed out on adjustments to the small group that we attended last summer.

After our nephew gets married this weekend in West Lafayette, we should be back to some of the "normal" levels of participation in the church.

One of the lessons I learned during this unhealthy sacrifice is that neglecting a home is an expensive downward spiral. I have about four weeks of vacation that I will be applying to home repair at the end of the year.