Okay, as promised, I'll tell you all about our celebrations since I came back from out east! Coming back home was nice, but the next few days were packed with cleaning and preparing for our Fourth of July celebration (held on the 2nd). In the midst of cleaning, a trip to OKC had to be made to procure supplies/food from Sam's. It was a welcome break from our preparations! (Note-The squash dish I posted yesterday came from our desperate attempt to cook an easy meal that wouldn't create a ton of dishes!) We had lots of help from my sisters and their families, as always. One of the stars this year was Cody, who was energetic enough to man the weedeater and mow the last half of the lawn. It's nice having the nephews be old enough to be of substantial assistance to us! Kyle also did a great job of helping Mom and me in the house. It was great to have extra hands around! Since everyone was over and helping, Mom and I decided to have a lasagna dinner for us that night. It was extra easy as I made it the night before and just had to bake it that night. It was definitely well-received by all!
The following day, which was the BIG day (the 2nd) was full of last-second prep work. I made a couple of batches of our traditional grape sherbet that morning while Mom finished some tidying and my dad and Thomas sprayed outside for bugs. Everyone was over at some point helping, which is probably why it seemed like the morning and early afternoon flew by! The first of our visitors, Thomas's parents and sister, were well-received by everyone. Even if it had only been a few days since Thomas and I had seen them last, we were still excited to see them here! I took Elizabeth (who had never been here) on the grand Kubota tour of our property. I think she enjoyed seeing our farm and cattle. Little by little, everyone showed up! I'm not sure how many people came over, but we had a crowd. Jeremy headed up grilling the hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken, which all tasted great! I also was able to visit with Liz, Jake, and Evan, which I hadn't done since December. As always, the fireworks show was spectacular! Most everyone cleared out by 11:30 or so, and I collapsed into bed a little after 1. Whew!
The next morning, we promised the Liese's that we'd meet them for Mass at Bison. As it turned out, Fr. Ed was feeling ill, so our deacon held a Communion service for us. We were finished around 8:15 or 8:30 (it started at 7:45), and decided it was time to grab some breakfast. We headed back to Enid and beat the Sunday morning rush at IHOP. We had more great laughs and conversation. I've said it before, but I so love how well our families get along! It truly is an answered prayer, among many! After breakfast, we bid them adieu as they hit the road back to Dallas.
Afterward, my parents, Thomas, and I came back home to get some much-needed rest. After a short while, Thomas and I had to be up and at 'em again to have our final marriage prep class. It was a great time as always. I admire them greatly and am quite grateful for investing in us! Now, we're awaiting our Pre-Cana day later on in August, after which we'll be pretty well finished with all of our preparations!
When we came back home, we feasted on leftovers and continued to relax. Gina and Emily and their kiddos came over also. While they were over, Dad decided to pop in the first "Back to the Future" movie. We found out quickly that Wyatt and Andy liked it (Cody and Kyle have enjoyed it for quite some time). Wyatt was heartily disappointed to have to leave before finishing the second movie later on that evening. They came back over the next day and were able to finish the trilogy. Wyatt especially loved the fantasy side of it! I loved seeing them enjoy a classic!
The day of the 4th was still full of lots of happenings. The men were busy installing their new toy, a hydraulic car lift. Meanwhile, us ladies decided to start planning supper for the evening, steak, Hasselbeck potatoes, salad, and brownies. Jeremy once again came through with being our resident grill master and grilled the steaks to perfection. Unfortunately, Thomas had to head back to NWA before we enjoyed that meal. After dinner all three families piled into our respective utility vehicles and drove up to a nearby hill where we could sit and watch all of the area fireworks. That alone provided us with an hour or so of entertainment! We came back to the house to eat some dessert (brownies and grape sherbet) and for the boys to set off the fireworks Dad set back for them. All in all, it was a great Fourth of July!
The days following the fourth were much less eventful, and we all breathed a collective sigh of relief. Otherwise, my excitement didn't pick up until the following weekend. Thomas still had to return his apartment key to his Stillwater apartment, so he came down to return it. While we were in town we were also able to have lunch with our best man, Nick! After lunch, we hopped over to Enid to catch the evening portion of the annual Carr pool party. The pool felt great in the oppressive July heat. I loved getting to see Tonisha and her family once again!
In other great news, we've scheduled the next phase of our marriage prep, the pre-Cana day sponsored by the archdiocese. It'll have to be a lot quicker than we anticipated only because of the difficulties of Thomas living a state away, so it's on the calendar for August. In the same vein, we also scheduled engagement photos! We're going to take photos in Stillwater, and I'm excited to see the end result!!!
Possibly the biggest exciting thing that has happened is that we are now officially under the one-year mark!!! In less than one year, I will be a married woman. Wow! After months of lamenting the fact that there's little we can really do to plan for the wedding, we're finally at a starting point! I'm still trying not to let myself get so caught up in the details that I forget what it's all about--me getting to marry the man of my dreams!!! This probably warrants a post of its own, which will come around at some point in the near future!
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