Of the Days Preceeding

Good afternoon, y'all!

How are you? We're all well...It's hot outside-a good, steamy hot that feels good to breath in. (that is when you're going back inside shortly, LOL:) Blue skies today, with little lacy clouds....I brought a cinco de mayo rose in from Dorothy's garden, and it smells so good. It reminds me of GrandMama, summer time, and Dorothy. We're really missing Dorothy. We're all in good health, except for a summer's worth of poison ivy that certain of our number are hosting...bless their patient hearts. They're bearing it all with out complaint, though, sweet dears, and it seems to be tapering off.

Oh! Guess what we just had delivered to the new garden spot? Tons and TONS of compost. Literally. Cool! It was amazing watching them unload it.

Well, I do believe I keep quite a tardy blog. A thousand apologies on the lateness of all posts wedding-ish, yon readerlings! But, better a late recording, then no recording at all. So, from now on 'till I'm done, I now give you:

The Exceptionally Blessed and Wondrously Exciting Events That took Place on a July Day at Calathora, And of the Days Preceeding

And here is the preceeding part. :)

Ah-well, the week before the wedding. I can hardly believe that it's already passed. I do believe preparing for a sibling's wedding is among life's most delicious activities. :) And the time is also among the very sweetest, stressful,(for whom?) most exhausting, incredibly invigorating, THE most excitement-filled (to overflowing!) and enjoyable times in one's life. It's amazing that so many different aspects can go into one 7 day period, and go into each so fully, LOL. But they do, and it's wonderful.
Good afternoon, friends. Jeanine, here, tag-blogging with Adeline. You will get one of the sister's and the mother's perspectives - interesting, no?

And our Church family is wonderful. We are blessed, Beyond words.
The love, excitement and help of the local church is one of the sweetest parts of a wedding. Working together on the plans, and living through the experience together is a relationship-building time par excellence. And it's so much fun!!!!

On Monday, our precious friend Amanda came for the week, and did all of the cooking and kitchen cleaning. I can't begin to say what a blessing it was to come down from some wedding-ish project to find the table set, and a huge, hot meal, with fresh bread and all, waiting for the whole family.
Yes, this is secret #1 to a happy/stress-free wedding - a kitchen/culinary expert who moves in and takes over the kitchen! I always tell my girls - we don't 'do' special events instead of our regular work, but 'in addition to' our regular work- and with a house full of hungry sons and guests , to know that the meals will be there, served up with a smile, takes the stress off and releases the ladies of the family to tend to the preparations for the wedding. Amanda's dear grandmother, Harriett, stepped in to Amanda's place at home, so we are so grateful to the D. family and the P. family for letting Amanda come over.
Amanda not only tended to the meals for the entire household three times a day, she even remembered the afternoon snacks , milkshakes and coffee !!!!!(and gano) that is quite the tradition in the Morton household.
On a side note, she also served as secretary to one non-stressed mother of the bride/event planner who almost lost it ordering pizzas. :)
Wednesday afternoon found our wonderful grandparents over to throw all the July birthday girls and boys a pizza party-they are so, so sweet! :) Amanda made salad, and here she is, getting the buffet ready for the hoards of hungry munchies.
We have the most awesome grandparents. And here's Grand Daddy, being adorable. ;)
Dakota also came over Monday and stayed 'till Tuesday night, doing everything under the sun-cleaning, polishing, errand running-what a huge blessing he was!
Ah, yes, secret #2. A Man Friday. The mother of the bride must have a strong helper. We called Dakota in and he agreed to come and help. This young man served us so kindly - he toted bamboo, raked yards, moved furniture, did all manner of hard and heavy jobs, and all with a smile.
Poor man even chauffeured 5 women on an all day shopping trip Tuesday. Now that is service that nears one to sainthood.
Yes, now that was luxurious - having a chauffeur!! "Drive on, Roster."
"We must have cappacinos, Dakota. Pull over!"
Dee darling with some of her favorite loot! Coffee, new shoes, and a diamond on her finger-does it get any better?
A note to all the mothers - remember taking the time to run outside and look at the clouds and lizards and roses your daughter wanted to show you when she was little?
We need to remember to make time at this special time for fun trips and outings and hikes and meals and snacks with the daughter who is, now, fixing to leave home. This was a fun day.
( for those unversed in southern-ese, 'fixing to' means 'about to')

On the long drive home, us girls, asleep in the back, were wakened by Mama and Dakota yelling about raccoons in the front seat. "Oh no. The shopping's finally gettin' to 'em." After I was fully functional, LOL, we looked, too, and saw an entire family of raccoons huddled on the edge of the road, waiting to pass over! It was so cool. We turned around, all exclaiming now, and got a few pictures. Making their way across...
This little fella at the bottom of the tree stopped and posed. :) Very obliging specimen.Tuesday night, Willie Roberts dropped the Roberts girls off for the night. They were so sweet-they came bearing bags of chocolate and junk food, to eat while we had a special time with Dee.
One of the dearest groups of friends in the world. We're going to miss Dee so, so much.

Campbell looks especially excited about the whole chocolate thing.It was inhaled at a disconcerting pace. ;)They stayed the next day, and were invaluable assistants! (we worked those poor darlings to the bone!) Here, Daisy hems a curtain,
Norma works in the kitchen with 'Manda,
And Campbell irons oddles of clothes. Marty helped Dee pack and was like her right arm.

Ah, yes. Secret #3. Lots of help. So sweetly given by the Church family. And again, so much fun.Mother dear typing. She is incredible.
All these dear daughters and friends make me look good, don't they?

And today, Wednesday, me and Norma went up to all the gates and but wraths on them , with big white bows that moved around in the wind...they make it look so wedding-ish!!!

More on the week's end to come...