We'll start with the Friday before the wedding, July 7. One of the main highlights of the day was a trip with my parents to Sam's. We set out with the sole purpose of buying all of the wedding food, minus the produce. A few weeks prior to that day, my mom and I had made a trip to Sam's during which we were less than impressed with their inventory. We went in with an extensive list, and came out with about two of those items. Thankfully, this trip was much more fruitful, as we found everything we needed and then some! The trip home was fairly anticlimactic, minus me realizing that my throat had been hurting persistently for about a day. My hypochondriac side starting worrying that I was coming down with strep throat a week before the wedding. The clouds were also darkening to the north. After a few calls from Emily notifying us that they put our vehicles into shelter, we made it home. We were greeted by a News9 Storm chaser pickup idling at our corner, which is incredibly reassuring! No sooner did we pull into the garage, the storm hit, bringing about an inch of rain within an hour and lots of wind. Thankfully, the hail that was predicted had died out by the time the storm arrived. Once the rain left, we had a pretty sunset to follow.
The following day (Saturday, July 8) began with me wondering if I really needed to go to an urgent care clinic, since my throat didn't hurt as bad as it did the day before. (It still hurt a little bit, though.) Mom insisted that I go for my peace of mind, so I did. A few minutes into my visit, my suspicions were somewhat confirmed. The nice P.A. told me that I had some sort of an infection in my throat (not strep or tonsillitis), and a Z-pack was in quick order, because I had no business dealing with that the week of my wedding. I also was ordered to get some rest so I could heal and go back to normal. I spent the rest of my day taking sporadic naps, then making enough of a turnaround to help make supper and clean out a freezer. (We also found out that a cow we took to the butcher for processing a week or so earlier needed to be picked up on Monday. Yikes.)
Sunday started off with a bang. We went to church, then headed over to the hall to set up tables and chairs. That had its tense moments and lots of "creative differences". All in all, we ended up with an arrangement that satisfied everyone. By the time we finished everyone was sufficiently hot, tired, and more or less hangry. Dad improved the situation by calling in an order for us at Rooster's in Hennessey. After feasting together, we went back home to rest for the better part of the afternoon. The last part of the day consisted of Dad making his Chex mix for the reception, as it keeps well. I finished cleaning out a freezer. Mom continued working on some table coverings for tables at the church. We knew that the coming days would be long, but worth it.
This brings us to Monday (the 10th) which was largely spent putting out small fires. Dad was off work all week, so he was home with Mom and me. We also had Cody and Kyle in tow to help Dad accomplish some yard work. In the meantime, I got in touch with all of the business people involved with the wedding. That took a little bit of doing, but I accomplished that task. We also found out that Cole, Jakub, and my Dad's suits all arrived to their respective pickup locations a few days earlier than expected! That was great (and welcome) news to us! However, we also had to go back to the somewhat unwelcome news from a few days ago...we had to drop everything to go pick up beef from the butcher. It seems like we always get beef on the hottest day of the summer, which only adds to the urgency of transporting the meat before it thaws. (At least our butcher is only about 10 miles away. We used to travel upwards of 50 miles one way, so it's really not that bad.) Putting beef away was every bit as hectic, chaotic, and stressful as I remembered it. Thankfully you have to work quickly, so it really didn't take that long. After the dust settled from getting our new beef, I went to work making supper so that Mom and I could make a quick evening trip to Walmart to get a few necessities for the coming days. We had a great trip, just the two of us. We made it home much later than anticipated, but it was worth it. Until we realized that we couldn't find one of my mom's bags. It was almost midnight by that point, so we opted not to contact the store until morning. Such is life.
Tuesday morning came with a bang. Mom called the store, where they verified that she, indeed, left her bag containing AA batteries, Q-tips, and 2 different types of safety pins at the store. Have no fear, my dad decided that he (and Kyle) would go retrieve it later in the morning...
Let me pause for a moment and explain the significance of this statement. My dad loathes the Enid Walmart. The new one was built in the mid 2000s and up to this point, he had entered it a whopping three (3) times. (One of which was to use the bathroom whilst waiting for Mom and I to finish shopping.) Dad doesn't go to the Enid Walmart, period. So we just knew that this would bode well for us.
I digress...back to Tuesday. A few weeks ago, my mom contacted a company about professionally cleaning some of the tall windows in the church that no one could safely reach on a ladder. She wanted to have that completed before the wedding. Upon contacting the company and having them give us a good estimate, we scheduled a time for them to work us into their schedule. They told us they'd be in on Tuesday, July 11th. (7/11, as I distinctly remember my mom saying...) They told her that they'd arrive at the church between 9:30 and 10 AM that day. So we arrived at the church around 8:45 to do some last-minute rearranging. Thankfully, we had cleaning to do, so that wasn't our sole purpose for being at church that early. I say that because 9:30 came, no window cleaners. Ten o'clock came, no cleaners still...same story at 10:30. Finally Mom became concerned and called the company to see what was happening. Apparently there was a communication breakdown along the way, and the cleaners wouldn't be coming until Wednesday. We were annoyed, but carried on nonetheless. In the midst of this realization, Dad called to inform Mom that her bag at Walmart had already been restocked, so he had to go retrieve everything throughout the store. (See my above disclaimer about Dad and Walmart.) My dad obviously had NO clue where anything was, so my mom had to stay on the phone with him to walk him through the store. (It was every bit as painful as it sounds, I promise.) Kyle was with him, and he goes to Walmart all the time, so I like to think he helped a little. Eventually, my dad emerged with everything and promised that he'd grab something for lunch on his way back to Bison. Meanwhile, my mom, Cody, and I were cleaning like mad and getting fairly hangry. Dad showed up at the church a while later, informing us that the A/C in the pickup he was driving wasn't working. (It's July in Oklahoma...obviously that's not a good thing.) We were all a little disheartened, hot, tired, and generally frustrated. Morale was definitely at an all-time low. After lunchtime, my mom's sister (Aunt Pat) and her husband, my uncle Paul showed up and saved the day! We redirected our energy to the hall, where we had some MAJOR work to be done ironing tablecloths. (We had upwards of 20 tables to be covered...) Aunt Pat gave Mom a good morale boost and some creative inspiration. Uncle Paul chatted with Dad and lifted his spirits also. We were so grateful for them showing up! Dad and Cody managed to slip away back home around 4 PM. From that point, Mom and I (Kyle was with us, too...) decided to knock out tablecloths. It took a long time and lots of spray starch, but by 8 PM (yes, almost 12 hours after we arrived in Bison) we loaded up to go home. We were weary, but had a renewed sense of accomplishment after finishing that huge task.
(To be continued...)
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