We all slept in a little more on Wednesday, and with good reason. We'd earned a little rest at that point. Mom headed back to Bison in hopes that the window cleaners would show up. Dad and I slowly got ready to head to OKC to pick up his suit from Men's Wearhouse. The whole way there, I prayed fervently that his suit would fit well and that it wouldn't require multiple trips to get everything correct. Dad and I had a nice talk, and he enjoyed not having to drive to OKC. (Mom made us go alone for that purpose...she knew we needed that time. She's so smart!) I knew Dad didn't feel all that comfortable in Men's Wearhouse. Let's face it, most farmers who do well to wear slacks to church on Sunday (instead of their nice Wranglers) don't have tons of experience with suits or formal wear. God bless the guy who helped Dad, that's all I'm saying!
Dad emerged from the fitting room, announcing that the jacket sleeves were a little short and that his tie straps were askew. (It wasn't an actual tie.) By some small miracle, they had the same suit jacket in the next sleeve length up, so they swapped those out and fixed his tie strap. Dad still wasn't sure about sleeve length, but we assured him that he looked much better with the new jacket. We left, and headed home, no more than thirty minutes after arriving. Meanwhile, Mom was happy to see that the window cleaners showed up, as promised. Even better, they did a great job!
We all came home, loaded up the remainder of our things to take to the hall, and caught our breath for a bit. I received yet another gift from Dillard's in the mail. (I've been receiving packages off and on since May.) This package contained a Fiestaware butter dish that was supposed to have a cover. Of course, it didn't. I called customer service, where they worked quickly to resolve the situation. I was emailed a shipping label and was instructed to take the package to FedEx and ship it back to the warehouse, where they'd send me the complete butter dish, at no cost to me. I also had to run a few other errands, including making an exchange on one of the cans of spray starch that didn't have a spray nozzle, bought during our ill-fated Monday night Walmart trip. (Mom and I decided that we should've just got up early on Tuesday and went. Everything about that trip, besides the time we spent together, was fruitless.) Running errands alone was good for me, as it was a nice outlet for my nervous energy. The rest of the day was fairly anticlimactic, minus Thomas finally arriving in Oklahoma! I was SO happy to see him!!!
Although the last few days were busy, Thursday was probably our most full day of preparation. It began with Thomas and me heading to Enid to procure our marriage license from the courthouse. While there, we had to wait a bit for it to be printed. From that point, we headed back to Bison, where my parents, Cody, Kyle, Gina, and her boys were all stationed. Upon our arrival, we got right to work unloading vehicles. Since we had a significantly larger volume of people around, it took much less time than we expected. It also helped that Dad brought a dolly for us to use. After unloading, Dad decided that he needed to go pick up his Jeep from the dealership where it was undergoing some maintenance (a story for another time.) It wasn't really the best timing for that, but Dad, Thomas, and Kyle all left. We decided that the remaining kids could go over to the church playground to get some energy out. We lathered them up in sunscreen, and sent them on their way.
I'd like to say that they were over there for an hour, and we accomplished a lot in that time. I'd like to, but that was NOT the case. They all ran back over after about ten minutes, informing us that the lot adjacent to the playground, where the family raises lots of show animals that are only contained by a single-wire electric fence had a rogue rooster that was accosting them. We still accomplished a little bit, but not a lot. Thankfully in their time out and about, Dad returned with sandwich supplies, chips, and drinks for the kids. It was all a welcome sight! Dad also decided to go up to Enid to pick up the fruits and veggies. Along the way, Dad discovered that the problems that caused his Jeep to require service in the first place were not resolved. As soon as he came back with produce, he headed back to the dealership to have them fix it again.
Once our produce arrived, we could get to work on food prep. At various stages, tensions were incredibly high. Thankfully, we persevered and turned it all around! All four of the older boys (and us adults) were all given a carton of grapes and a metal bowl with the task of de-stemming them. It was beautiful to see how well we all worked together with a common purpose. The boys loved getting to be involved (especially after hearing for days that their help was not needed). After grapes were de-stemmed, we moved on to various other tasks. Once again, everyone was given a very specific task to complete, and we worked in assembly-line fashion. As the old saying goes, many hands really do create light work for all. Somewhere in there, Thomas' parents and sister arrived. I was a little edgy at various phases, and I like to think that that was when I was at peak bride-zilla mode. Once everyone settled in, we realized that we had accomplished all of our produce prep, and no one was left out of the mix. (Amazing things can happen when 11 people are working together with a common purpose!) Little Jakub even managed to stay busy, entertaining himself with a Swiffer! The walls, the floor, everything was Swiffered, thanks to Jake!
Dad came back right about the time we finished produce prep. Of course, jokes were made that he was dodging work! All of the men started work manning the meat slicers to get all of our hams and turkey breasts sliced up. Gina and Elizabeth worked to organize the end product. Somewhere in this time, Jeremy and Scotty showed up, as well as my mom's cousin, Cheryl who was going to assemble all of our fruit, vegetable, meat, and cheese trays for us the following day.
Tonisha and her niece Jela also showed up, ready to help. At this point, we were in a holding pattern at the hall, as meat was still being sliced. I still needed to mop the church and do a couple other small tasks there. Since there wasn't much we could really do to help at the hall, Tonisha, Jela, Kyle, and I absconded to the church to do work over there. Jela and Kyle were happy to run the dust mops, while Tonisha and I got to work mopping a different area. When they finished their job, the kids saw some of the other boys outside and decided to go play with them. (They may or may not have had a vendetta against the rooster at this point. I assure you that the rooster was in no real danger, despite what the boys may have said they wanted to do.) Tonisha and I worked quickly to finish mopping the main body of the church.
Let me say this now, you know you have a good best friend when she'll show up and help you do manual labor right before your wedding. Just saying! I loved getting to have that one-on-one time with her, and I helped familiarize her with the structure of a Catholic church. I was also able to answer her questions and give her a heads-up of how things work during a Catholic Mass. At some point, Mom and Diana ventured over, floored by how much we had accomplished in a relatively short time.
Before we knew it, we were done. Everything that needed to be done at the hall was finished. We decided that we were ready for dinner--Dad's treat. The Lieses, my parents, Tonisha, Jela, Thomas, and I all headed down to Rooster's for fried chicken. It was well-earned for all at that point. Eventually, we all split ways for the evening and rested up. It was a good day after all!
(To be continued...again!)
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