Last week was a very hard week because of Mr.Sinta's heart attack.
This week has been very stressful for different reasons which I will not reiterate. I will relate the following stressful story which has a happy ending.
Tonight, when I was really stressed, I left the house for the grocery store. At one particularly busy corner, I was stopped for a red light when a biker pulled up beside me. He appeared to fall down in front of my car's wheels, and I thought my car lurched forward slightly in the interim. My engine died. This is mega stress. I honestly thought that I had accidentally run over a biker who was already on the pavement. As I was getting out of my car, he stood up. I had not done anything. His chain fell off, and he bent over to try to adjust it. As he did so, he lost his balance and fell off of his bike right in front of my car. He was embarrassed and not stressed at all. I told him that he scared the bejeevers out of me. He assured me that he was absolutely fine. I must have imagined my car lurching forward. I was now headed to the grocery store stressed and thankful that I did not kill another human being at the same time. This is the happy ending.
It is a little different than the wedding driving story. Cars are stressful.
So, in lieu of doing something else, I am going to give thanks to the Lord. You may hang out with me and give thanks or go watch Nerf Office Wars again. I am not insulted.
Dear God,
I am thankful that I am alive, and the power is on because I am no good at journaling.
I am thankful that each of my family members is alive. Today, Mr. Sinta found out that the window washer's daughter died tragically last year. Please comfort this man; he is still grieving.
I am thankful that I am healthy enough to train for a marathon.
I am thankful for a house to live in, and for food in the refrigerator.
I am thankful that the oven works even though it was too hot to use it tonight.
I am thankful for a bike to ride to work, and that I did not accidentally run over it while backing the car out of the garage because I forgot to put it away after work.
I am thankful that I was able to reconcile four bank statements today, and everything balanced.
I am thankful for the many Bibles that I own, and for my church home. Thank you that I am not being excommunicated, or in trouble with the pastor in any way. Thank you that he even came to the hospital and prayed for Mr. Sinta last week.
Thank you for Bob and Shirley and how much they came to see us last week. I felt really cared about, and I really needed to feel cared about.
Thank you for the small group of ladies that I meet with each week.
Thank you for my prayer partners who are so supportive right now.
Thank you for my hard working husband who takes us to church. I have friends who only dream of those things.
Thank you that my mom is alive and that she likes me. Teresa's mom is alive and hasn't spoken to her for 20 years, and now her grandma, who speaks to her, is dying. Please give her special grace as she goes back to hopefully see her one last time.
Thank you for lots of friends.
Thank you for the cars working.
Thank you for smart, hard working kids who hug me sometimes even when I don't deserve it at all, and rarely mention my 18,000 parenting mistakes that they could mention each time we are together. Thank you that they still speak to me at all, and that they have not gone on Oprah to do a home school expose.
Thank you for being my Shepherd and leading me even when I don't understand. Thank you that understanding is not a necessary part of obeying, or I couldn't.
Thank you that You are God. Always Faithful. And I like Your white horse. If it were up to me, I would make You wear a cape because You seem to rescue me so often.
Thank you for commanding us not to worry because then we can go to sleep knowing it is okay not to be worrying about things.
Thank you that Your mercies are new every morning or we would be burnt toast in our beds when we wake up tomorrow.
Good night.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
He's Home
On Wednesday morning, I found Mr. Sinta in a hospital conference room being lectured about the heart by a fat woman who was an expert. Next, we heard from a very in shape exercise expert about the activity level to have post heart attack. This was followed by instruction by a dietician. Next, his nurse gave us a run down on final other instructions and drug instructions before they sent me down to bring the car around for him. They didn't make him get in a wheelchair, which is good because I think there might have been a scene.
He said that his heart does not hurt at all. The only thing that hurts is where they stuck some apparatus in his leg to dig around to find a vein and take pictures of his heart in the cath lab. That REALLY hurts. Other people tell us that it didn't hurt them at all. I think that he had a real rookie who was terrible doing it. It makes him walk with a limp, but hopefully that will be healed soon.
The doctor said that his heart is in good shape, but he was very concerned about his diabetes which was out of control because Mr. Sinta had not been maintaining his diet etc., so he is back on meds for that. He has four prescriptions in all for this month.
We consider this a very scary wake up call to take care of his body.
It was scary for everyone to have him be unconscious in the parking lot and taken off by the paramedics to the hospital. I hope I never see it again. It was overwhelming.
We went to the grocery store to shop for new foods that he can enjoy and still be healthy yesterday.
We took a 1 1/2 mile walk this morning. Today we went to Sage Hen Reservoir for a few hours to relax and be with friends. We took the deluxe route through the towns of Ola and Sweet. We hiked a nature trail.
Tonight I went to another Boise Burn. Some people who prayed for me had very encouraging prophetic words for me. That meant a great deal to me. This week kind of seemed like Hell Week or something.
It is really good to be home with Mr. Sinta!
We are even planning on going camping with friends soon to Granjean, up by the Sawtooth National Forest. Mr. Sinta is shocked at me. For years, I refused to camp with anyone other than just our family. I guess that I am mellowing out a little. It actually sounds like fun to go with other people. For some reason, I never wanted to do it before.
He said that his heart does not hurt at all. The only thing that hurts is where they stuck some apparatus in his leg to dig around to find a vein and take pictures of his heart in the cath lab. That REALLY hurts. Other people tell us that it didn't hurt them at all. I think that he had a real rookie who was terrible doing it. It makes him walk with a limp, but hopefully that will be healed soon.
The doctor said that his heart is in good shape, but he was very concerned about his diabetes which was out of control because Mr. Sinta had not been maintaining his diet etc., so he is back on meds for that. He has four prescriptions in all for this month.
We consider this a very scary wake up call to take care of his body.
It was scary for everyone to have him be unconscious in the parking lot and taken off by the paramedics to the hospital. I hope I never see it again. It was overwhelming.
We went to the grocery store to shop for new foods that he can enjoy and still be healthy yesterday.
We took a 1 1/2 mile walk this morning. Today we went to Sage Hen Reservoir for a few hours to relax and be with friends. We took the deluxe route through the towns of Ola and Sweet. We hiked a nature trail.
Tonight I went to another Boise Burn. Some people who prayed for me had very encouraging prophetic words for me. That meant a great deal to me. This week kind of seemed like Hell Week or something.
It is really good to be home with Mr. Sinta!
We are even planning on going camping with friends soon to Granjean, up by the Sawtooth National Forest. Mr. Sinta is shocked at me. For years, I refused to camp with anyone other than just our family. I guess that I am mellowing out a little. It actually sounds like fun to go with other people. For some reason, I never wanted to do it before.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
The Adventure Continues
I ran a couple of miles this morning. After I got ready, Abby and I went to the hospital. She commented on the smell when we entered CCU. I thought it smelled better than most fast food restaurants, but she is sensitive. The heart doc came in and gave us information. It turns out that we met him briefly before and he is a Christian. We have mutual friends. He is extremely competent, good at communicating and friendly. That is a rare and wonderful combination for someone so highly educated in medicine.
Abby got queasy and I took her to a bathroom. She came back looking green when Mr. Sinta described a procedure, and she fainted. The doc said for Mr. Sinta to get out of the bed and give it to Abby. He has a sense of humor.
My mil and fil's neighbor is coincidentally two doors down from Mr. Sinta. He is awaiting major bypass surgery. He does not know the Lord. Please keep him in your prayers.
We had some encouraging visitors today, and it really helped.
I just received some news that Mr. Sinta's blood enzymes went down by half. This is encouraging. I hope he can come home tomorrow.
Thank you for your prayers.
Abby got queasy and I took her to a bathroom. She came back looking green when Mr. Sinta described a procedure, and she fainted. The doc said for Mr. Sinta to get out of the bed and give it to Abby. He has a sense of humor.
My mil and fil's neighbor is coincidentally two doors down from Mr. Sinta. He is awaiting major bypass surgery. He does not know the Lord. Please keep him in your prayers.
We had some encouraging visitors today, and it really helped.
I just received some news that Mr. Sinta's blood enzymes went down by half. This is encouraging. I hope he can come home tomorrow.
Thank you for your prayers.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Mr. Sinta
Today, Mr. Sinta called me from work and said to come because he was having terrible chest pains. I drove to the office and found him unconscious on the grass beside our office parking lot with Ryan on the phone to 911. The ambulance took him to St. Al's, and we followed in our cars. (Aimee drove me. Those of you who read the wedding day blog will know why.) I spent the time trying to make cell phone calls to people who would pray for Paul. I am sorry for those that I could not reach. I realized today that I have very few of our out of town relatives programmed into my phone. I keep really useful numbers there, like the pizza place, and local friends.
All of his tests were normal in the morning, but his chest hurt terribly. They made him stay for the results of some blood test. He sent us home while waiting in the afternoon. I went back to find out that he was being moved to a room because the blood showed that there was some heart damage.
After a test in which dye is injected into the heart, the doctor found that Mr. Sinta actually had the world's smallest heart attack, but a heart attack nonetheless. He is resting comfortably at this time. His blood sugar went up to 400 and that needs to come under control as well. He said that his chest did not hurt anymore.
I really appreciate all of your prayers for us, past, present and future. It looks like he will be in the hospital until about Thursday.
Okay, so now I will tell you the funny part. When he was moved to a room around 8 p.m., we had Aimee, Brent, Megan, Bob, Shirley and me. Everyone stayed while the doctor told us what he wanted to do. Afterwards, I was talking to Abby about it (We sent her to work because it looked like it was not a heart attack at 2 p.m.), Abby said that it reminded her of that scene from the movie, While You Were Sleeping. Yes, that was us, the group think family and friends.
Later the Pergersons came as well, to the waiting room, which was very nice.
Our pastor came and prayed for Paul while he was out of it in the emergency room, and anointed him with oil. It was good to be cared about.
All of his tests were normal in the morning, but his chest hurt terribly. They made him stay for the results of some blood test. He sent us home while waiting in the afternoon. I went back to find out that he was being moved to a room because the blood showed that there was some heart damage.
After a test in which dye is injected into the heart, the doctor found that Mr. Sinta actually had the world's smallest heart attack, but a heart attack nonetheless. He is resting comfortably at this time. His blood sugar went up to 400 and that needs to come under control as well. He said that his chest did not hurt anymore.
I really appreciate all of your prayers for us, past, present and future. It looks like he will be in the hospital until about Thursday.
Okay, so now I will tell you the funny part. When he was moved to a room around 8 p.m., we had Aimee, Brent, Megan, Bob, Shirley and me. Everyone stayed while the doctor told us what he wanted to do. Afterwards, I was talking to Abby about it (We sent her to work because it looked like it was not a heart attack at 2 p.m.), Abby said that it reminded her of that scene from the movie, While You Were Sleeping. Yes, that was us, the group think family and friends.
Later the Pergersons came as well, to the waiting room, which was very nice.
Our pastor came and prayed for Paul while he was out of it in the emergency room, and anointed him with oil. It was good to be cared about.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Virgil - The Aeneid
So, I am reading The Aeneid, and I was all the way up to page 15 when I read this about Venus, mother of Aeneas, who has transformed herself into a young woman. By the way, this is a sneaky thing to do, but what a neat way to check up on your wandering son...
She is running around, faster than Hebrus and has a handy bow hung around her shoulders. Her hair is a wretched mess in the disheveling wind. Listen to what happened to her dress: "Her flowing gown knotted and kirtled up."
I like that. Kirtled. Say it fast three times: kirtled, kirtled, kirtled.
That has happened to me before. I don't usually run around with a handy hunting bow around my neck, but my skirt has been kirtled because of the wind.
I just didn't know it.
This is just one more reason that you should be reading classic books.
How would you know if your skirt had been kirtled in a disheveling wind?
You wouldn't. You would probably say something really uneducated, like, "My dress is all messed up in this awful wind."
Now you can say, "My flowing gown is knotted and kirtled up in the disheveling wind."
You're welcome. Enough little tidbits like this and you may become literate, or at least more interesting than if you spent time everyday watching Oprah.
She is running around, faster than Hebrus and has a handy bow hung around her shoulders. Her hair is a wretched mess in the disheveling wind. Listen to what happened to her dress: "Her flowing gown knotted and kirtled up."
I like that. Kirtled. Say it fast three times: kirtled, kirtled, kirtled.
That has happened to me before. I don't usually run around with a handy hunting bow around my neck, but my skirt has been kirtled because of the wind.
I just didn't know it.
This is just one more reason that you should be reading classic books.
How would you know if your skirt had been kirtled in a disheveling wind?
You wouldn't. You would probably say something really uneducated, like, "My dress is all messed up in this awful wind."
Now you can say, "My flowing gown is knotted and kirtled up in the disheveling wind."
You're welcome. Enough little tidbits like this and you may become literate, or at least more interesting than if you spent time everyday watching Oprah.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
See Jane Run
SJR is a store in Boise that caters to women runners. I recently joined their running group, and today was the first workout. I ran and talked with a young woman from Minnesota (a town near Redwing) who graduated from U Dub in Madison. She has a degree in Art History, and works as a producer for a local film video production company. Her name is Lana. She is a Very Nice Person. Minnesota people are like that. I hope we get to be friends.
After the initial training run, we met at a workout studio and looked over training plans for the duration. Originally, I planned on training for a half marathon in October, but my trainer/coach, Lynn B., said that she thought I could do a marathon by October. (There is also a possible 1/2 marathon Aug.30 in Pocatello that I could try, but she said it is not necessary to do that. It just gives you a better idea of what the actual marathon will be like later.)
I am going to be training for an October marathon, and if it proves too formidable, I can always switch to the 1/2 marathon in October.
It is fun to have Abby back home. Girls are so much more fun than Guys to have around the house. They like to do fun things, and you can have conversations with them. It was hard to have them both suddenly gone at the same time.
Aimee and I went out Thursday to see Nim's Island because I saw trailers that actually looked interesting for a shallow movie. For some reason, Brent was not interested. I don't think he cares for shallow movies... After seeing it at the dollar theater, Aimee gave a terse, accurate review: "I would have really liked it if I were a 6 year old girl." There you have it, Laura and Rachel, rent the Nim's Island Video and have a slumber party!
The funny thing is that I have loved being an urban dweller for the last 25 years, and even I was intrigued by living on that island. It just looked like fun despite the level of the acting, the costuming, and the writing. I want to try her zip line in the worst way. I have talked to people who have done great zip lines in Costa Rica through the top of the rain forest. There is nothing quite like it, according to them.
I have to say that I really enjoyed one scene in which Jodie Foster, an agoraphobic adventure writer, (this reminded me of Romancing the Stone) is being pulled/pried out of her San Francisco row house by an invisible hero just so she can make it to the cab. It is an excellent visual of what it takes to get people to leave their comfort zones and actually take a risk to help someone else. Pastors who use video clips in their sermons should find it extremely useful.
How to improve the movie: It really needed an actor of a similar caliber of Foster to play Jack. There was too much repetition and it moved too slowly, most likely for the kid audience. But hey, it is a darn good kid movie.
After the initial training run, we met at a workout studio and looked over training plans for the duration. Originally, I planned on training for a half marathon in October, but my trainer/coach, Lynn B., said that she thought I could do a marathon by October. (There is also a possible 1/2 marathon Aug.30 in Pocatello that I could try, but she said it is not necessary to do that. It just gives you a better idea of what the actual marathon will be like later.)
I am going to be training for an October marathon, and if it proves too formidable, I can always switch to the 1/2 marathon in October.
It is fun to have Abby back home. Girls are so much more fun than Guys to have around the house. They like to do fun things, and you can have conversations with them. It was hard to have them both suddenly gone at the same time.
Aimee and I went out Thursday to see Nim's Island because I saw trailers that actually looked interesting for a shallow movie. For some reason, Brent was not interested. I don't think he cares for shallow movies... After seeing it at the dollar theater, Aimee gave a terse, accurate review: "I would have really liked it if I were a 6 year old girl." There you have it, Laura and Rachel, rent the Nim's Island Video and have a slumber party!
The funny thing is that I have loved being an urban dweller for the last 25 years, and even I was intrigued by living on that island. It just looked like fun despite the level of the acting, the costuming, and the writing. I want to try her zip line in the worst way. I have talked to people who have done great zip lines in Costa Rica through the top of the rain forest. There is nothing quite like it, according to them.
I have to say that I really enjoyed one scene in which Jodie Foster, an agoraphobic adventure writer, (this reminded me of Romancing the Stone) is being pulled/pried out of her San Francisco row house by an invisible hero just so she can make it to the cab. It is an excellent visual of what it takes to get people to leave their comfort zones and actually take a risk to help someone else. Pastors who use video clips in their sermons should find it extremely useful.
How to improve the movie: It really needed an actor of a similar caliber of Foster to play Jack. There was too much repetition and it moved too slowly, most likely for the kid audience. But hey, it is a darn good kid movie.
Friday, June 20, 2008
The Aeneid
Last night when I was supposed to be reading The Aeneid, I was sleeping. Tonight, I can iron, weed the roses or read The Aeneid before Mr. Sinta returns home from his trip.
Tomorrow is Abby's summer recital. She missed 8 days of practice and one lesson because she was on a missions trip in L.A. with the Dream Center. Her favorite part was ministering on Skid Row. As a 17-year-old-home schooled female, I am sure it was unlike anything she has ever witnessed previously. Let's be honest. I'm sure it was unlike I have ever experienced. They gave away food at housing projects, witnessed to people, offered to pray for people, visited high schools and invited people to different events etc. She said that the people who were the most closed to ministry, like completely, were the prostitutes. Some of the high schoolers that she invited to a youth event told her that they could not go because it was a different gang area, and they would be killed over there. This is definitely a different way of life. She honestly could not tell who was high and who was just smoking, which was sometimes a problem. Thank you to everyone who prayed for her. I have watched my kids take off to do different things over the years, but this one left me anxious until people started praying. She plans on going to Portland Bible College, and returning to the Dream Center to volunteer as an intern for a year. She also got to do some really fun things like see part of a movie being filmed, visit Malibu beach, and shop at Hollywood Blvd. The last day she rode the coasters at Six Flags Over Magic Mountain with Pastor Alan because everyone else was too afraid to go. Abby loves roller coasters. Everyone has their gift. Mine is not the L.A. slums or or roller coasters.
Tomorrow is Abby's summer recital. She missed 8 days of practice and one lesson because she was on a missions trip in L.A. with the Dream Center. Her favorite part was ministering on Skid Row. As a 17-year-old-home schooled female, I am sure it was unlike anything she has ever witnessed previously. Let's be honest. I'm sure it was unlike I have ever experienced. They gave away food at housing projects, witnessed to people, offered to pray for people, visited high schools and invited people to different events etc. She said that the people who were the most closed to ministry, like completely, were the prostitutes. Some of the high schoolers that she invited to a youth event told her that they could not go because it was a different gang area, and they would be killed over there. This is definitely a different way of life. She honestly could not tell who was high and who was just smoking, which was sometimes a problem. Thank you to everyone who prayed for her. I have watched my kids take off to do different things over the years, but this one left me anxious until people started praying. She plans on going to Portland Bible College, and returning to the Dream Center to volunteer as an intern for a year. She also got to do some really fun things like see part of a movie being filmed, visit Malibu beach, and shop at Hollywood Blvd. The last day she rode the coasters at Six Flags Over Magic Mountain with Pastor Alan because everyone else was too afraid to go. Abby loves roller coasters. Everyone has their gift. Mine is not the L.A. slums or or roller coasters.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Mrs. Sinta Gets A Life
Congratulations to any faithful blog readers who actually made it through the entire wedding day blog entry! Jenn A., the dope-smoking worship leader, informed me that she was not smoking dope in the photo, but she put one of the little cake stands in her mouth and was attempting to eat the frosting out of it after the wedding. If everyone believes that, we can cancel the intervention meeting which was originally set for Friday. Thanks for cluing us in.
I am not going to write much tonight except to repeat what Mrs. V. told me after I told her that I joined a running club (Mrs. B. is going to be one of the coaches) at See Jane Run, and I am a new part of Veritas Coffeehouse Classic Book Reading Club that caters to women who take two weeks to read a classic book. Also, I explained that my complete curriculum for Abby's senior year consists of an American History book and and English language book, because Abby will be taking her other classes at BSU. To this Mrs. V. responded, "You have a life!"
Yes, I do have a life, but I have procrastinated in kind of a bad way about reading The Aeneid, which Ryan highly recommends by the way as being an actually interesting classic book, and now I need to go spend some time reading it.
I loved teaching my children at home, and having my children around the house. And I do remember hiding in the bathroom to get some alone time to read a book more than once when they were small. Only God knows the exact number. The pronounced red indentations on my rear were probably somewhat like those tree rings that you can count. I have to say though, that I had a life before I had more free time on my hands, and I loved it. Now I just have a different kind of life, and I am learning to love it.
I am not going to write much tonight except to repeat what Mrs. V. told me after I told her that I joined a running club (Mrs. B. is going to be one of the coaches) at See Jane Run, and I am a new part of Veritas Coffeehouse Classic Book Reading Club that caters to women who take two weeks to read a classic book. Also, I explained that my complete curriculum for Abby's senior year consists of an American History book and and English language book, because Abby will be taking her other classes at BSU. To this Mrs. V. responded, "You have a life!"
Yes, I do have a life, but I have procrastinated in kind of a bad way about reading The Aeneid, which Ryan highly recommends by the way as being an actually interesting classic book, and now I need to go spend some time reading it.
I loved teaching my children at home, and having my children around the house. And I do remember hiding in the bathroom to get some alone time to read a book more than once when they were small. Only God knows the exact number. The pronounced red indentations on my rear were probably somewhat like those tree rings that you can count. I have to say though, that I had a life before I had more free time on my hands, and I loved it. Now I just have a different kind of life, and I am learning to love it.
Monday, June 16, 2008
The Wedding Day
Okay, Fans. Your voices have been heard. Yes, I have taken an extended vacation from my own blog. Basically, I have wasted lots of computer time playing Word Twist and Scrabulous on Face Book. I learned how to make a photo album on Face Book, and I made so many albums that people were sick of seeing my albums. I have no more excuses. Abby is off on a missions trip. Mr. Sinta is on a business trip. Ryan is busy doing other things. The dog is fed. My small group Bible study lessons are caught up. It is time to tell the story...
Aimee left the house early on her wedding day with Brent. They drove to Jenna's who did Aimee's hair. Beautifully.
Megan came over to our house with the sound equipment for the wedding. Because of denominational rules, there are no instruments allowed at weddings in the church. Megan graciously offered to bring sound equipment, and since that is her job while she is in college, she actually knows how to set it up, and got a great deal for us: she did it for free! The fun part of having recorded music is that you can have exactly what you want. Exactly. No shrieking soloists or sweaty pianists or twanging guitarists who talk too much. (Mr. Sinta despises worship leaders who are talking heads. If we wanted them to talk, they would be pastors...shut up and sing.)
The phone rang and it was the Cake Lady telling me that she thought her son had already delivered our cake at the appointed time, but when she looked in his room, he was still sound asleep. By this time, he had missed the contact person at the church. Also, the frosting on the cake oxidized so it was bright yellow and not pale yellow. By the way, the only roses she could find to put on the cake at Costco were also of the bright yellow variety. She did not mention that she completely forgot about sending the wedding cupcakes that we ordered or that she shorted us on the hand pressed mints. WE ARE NOT LIKELY TO RECOMMEND THE CAKE LADY TO ANYONE ELSE.
I tried to call Aimee and warn her that the cake was late, but forthcoming, and I found her cell phone's service did not work in Midvale. (Maybe, I said to myself, it is better that she does not know all of this. She and Brent are supposed to be meeting the photographer early. We want a happy bride.)
Eventually, we were all ready enough to pack up and leave. I somehow ran out of time at the end and dumped out someone's graduation present bag and loaded it with my essential makeup and threw it in my car. Of course, I noticed at this point that I did not have enough gas to make it to Midvale, but I did not want to have to tell Mr. Sinta who is a stickler for leaving on time. (Mr. Sinta, Megan and Abby were traveling in the truck.) I was incredibly thankful when Abby called me on my cell just before we passed Megan's workplace to tell me that they needed a subber or woofer or connector or something, and I used the 180 seconds to squeal into the gas station, run my card through the pump and literally splash out enough gas to easily get me to Midvale and then a little more because Aimee and Brent were going to borrow my car and I did not want them stranded in Midvale for their honeymoon, gasless and unhappy. I ran back into my car, started it up and headed to Vista Ave. just in time to meet the truck and get on the Freeway. Yikes!!! That was close.
We drove happily down the road for some time, and eventually Mr. Sinta decided we should stop at a convenience store to pick up some sort of snacks during the two hour drive. I tried to order a sandwich at the in store food place, but some complete twit was taking his sweet time ordering for his family of five and he did not really know what they wanted so I settled for a bag of salted something and a cold pop that was accidentally too large, would not fit in the cup holder and had to be held between my legs. No danger of falling asleep on this trip.
At approximately 11 a.m. I called Ryan to remind him that yes, today is Aimee's wedding day, and he has one hour to take a shower and two hours to drive here to make it to the service. In just a few moments, he called me back to ask me where the maps to the wedding were.
This is a critical point in my story, because I want to tell you ahead of time, so you do not wet your pants, that I lived through what I am about to tell you.
While I was trying to tell Ryan where the leftover maps from the invitations were, and what they looked like, Mr. Sinta, just ahead of me in his truck passed a car. This made me feel intimidated because while I could tell Ryan where the maps were, I had no idea how to get to the church myself, other than by following Mr. Sinta. So, I did one of the stupidest things that I have ever done in my entire life. While talking on the cell phone, I attempted to pass the car that was now ahead of me on the narrow two lane country road. Too late, I realized that there was an oncoming car and now there was no time to go back to my spot in the line of traffic. I was in 5th gear in the VW Turbo bug, but when I tried to max the gas, for some reason, I did not accelerate. I am now in a great position to star in my own Signal 20 movie. We used to watch Signal 20 movies in high school driver's ed. The title of my movie would be Late Mother of the Bride Makes Her Last Phone Call.
The three occupants of the truck informed me later that they are now screaming at me at the top of their lungs. I am sure that this is an all out effort to save my life. It is too bad that I could not hear them, however, I could see death approaching at about 55 m.p.h.
I am very thankful for the person who was now driving behind me who slowed down considerably probably praying and hoping that I would move back into my spot on the correct side of the road. I am also very thankful for the oncoming car who slowed down and pulled to the shoulder because they lacked an Eminent Death Wish, and I had won the Chicken Game by default. I am reminded of my late Aunt Alice (She did not die in a car accident, but in a nursing home because she lived her life carefully and wisely.), who said that God watches over drunks and the feeble minded. This was the grace of God. I lived. Many times that day, I said these words: I am so glad to be alive. Probably not the usual thing for most mothers of the bride to say, but true in my case.
At this point, the problems with the cake, and any other problems, paled in significance.
However, pretty much there weren't any other problems. Eventually the cake came, and no one cared that it was SCREAMING BRIGHT YELLOW instead of pale yellow because it was chocolate marble with a white chocolate filling and it tasted really great. However, I am getting ahead of myself.
We arrived intact at the church, and got dressed in the empty parsonage next door. The photographer arrived a little late. (I was hoping that she had not witnessed my driving stunt.) She was pleasant and very pretty with an air of confident expectation. I wrote out her check and hoped that she was as talented as she seemed. Katy is someone I would recommend to others.
She took photos of the girls preparing, and then of the bridal party, and then the parents and grandparents etc. So many friends came that it was really fun to be the mom and be one of the last people seated. Yes, time to socialize and pass out bubbles (not rice). Aimee was incredibly relaxed and beautiful. She looked like Barbie. Her hair was perfect. Everything was perfect. Her bouquet was outstanding. Her dress was gorgeous, white with a navy tie at the waist. She wore a tiara and an elbow length veil that was very lovely.
Mr. Sinta told me later that as the two of them waited outside the church, he kissed her, put down her veil, and wondered how in the world he would make it through this. He was already starting to cry, and they were not even in the church. This is very tender because I have known Mr. Sinta for 27 years, and he almost never cries. Most of the times that I have seen him cry, it was because he was laughing so hard that he had to cry. He has cried at maybe two movies. He cried when our first baby died. He is not one given to tears. That tells you deeply this was affecting him.
The groomsmen led in the moms and went up front with Brent and the pastor. The bridesmaids came in, very carefully, I might add because they had stilettos and they had to navigate a 3 foot grate with tiny holes in the middle of the aisle! Success. No one stumbled. Our worship leader, Jenn A., led us, sans instruments, in a hymn. We willingly complied with the no instruments rule, but we never bothered to check if they minded female worship leaders. We know of one Boise church that was decimated by the thought of a female worship leader. It appeared that no one minded. Everyone loves Jenn. However the photographer seems to have caught her smoking dope at the reception. We have no proof other than the photo.
The pastor made a few announcements, and then Aimee's music started. She had music from... This is terrible. I can't remember. The movie with the ring and the short guys with hairy feet. Lord of the Rings! That's it. It was something very beautiful. She was very beautiful. Our great photographer really captured a lot of great moments, and I do not remember ever seeing her take a single picture. She was invisible.
Any way, when the pastor said, "Who gives this woman?" Mr. Sinta said, "Her mother and I." My emotions, other than still being very glad to be alive and not in a bloody mass at the Midvale morgue, was, "Yes!!! This is awesome. These two were meant for each other." Mr. Sinta's voice cracked, and I loaned him Kleenax. I think that when Brent heard Paul's voice that he teared up as well. It was very emotional. I did not cry. It was a happy, beautiful, wonderful, joyful thing to me, not something to cry about. I did not expect that. (The funny thing is, I cried at my own wedding. My shoulders shook. I was so happy to finally get married that I sobbed. I was all of 20 years old.)
It was a beautiful service, beautiful and simple. Aimee kept emphasizing that she wanted a simple wedding. It was a wise thing to want.
The building was very adequately sized for a wedding of about 150 people, which was good because we had about that many people, but there was no place for a reception line so the bridal party all lined up outside the church (it was a beautiful day) and shook hands with everyone. The very funny thing was that then we all went back in the church for the reception! No one minded. Like I said, it was a simple and beautiful wedding.
The crowd was seated watching Aimee and Brent get their photo taken with the cake, but then it was time to serve cake, and nothing was happening. I asked Mr. Sinta to either pray for the cake or announce it was being served. He did something that was absolutely wonderful instead.
He wrapped one arm around Brent and one arm around Aimee and he prayed a father's blessing over their marriage. It was extremely beautiful, simple and unexpected. It made one young woman cry who witnessed it. Amazingly, Katy caught it on film. Anyway, then we all ate cake and talked and Megan caught the bouquet and we blew bubbles and told them good bye and packed up their gifts and cleaned up the building and tried to leave.
At this point, you are probably already thinking that I have done my idiotic act for the day, and that I couldn't possibly do anything to top it. I am about to top it.
Paul, Abby and Megan are in the truck, Brian and Devon (They are incredibly fun relatives from Utah who came to the wedding and were going to spend the night with us) were in their car, and I was supposed to drive Aimee's car home. In my haste to not fall behind the wagon train, I jammed the key in the ignition and could not get it out. Eventually Mr. Sinta got most of the key out, but it was the trunk key. Now, we could not get the trunk open to get my stuff out of the car, and we could no longer get the correct key in the ignition because a part of a broken trunk key was jammed in there. I felt extremely ridiculous. Even I do not normally do two things like this in one day.
To make things worse, at this point, we got a call from Aimee and Brent, and they were headed back to the church before they left on their honeymoon because they forgot something. Megan and Abby and I looked at each other and promised not to tell them anything about what I had just done to Aimee's car so they would not worry about it. It worked. They never suspected.
Brian and Devon let me ride in their car back to Boise. I was really glad not to drive. Extremely glad. It was so much fun to be with them that I was not able to sit and think about the fact that my very wonderful oldest daughter, middle child, was now married, and would not be coming back to live at our house anymore. I am very glad that Brian had lots of stuff to tell me about his church and ministry because I never got that sad, let-down-she-is-gone feeling.
Thank you for reading all the way to the end of our wonderful day. I am so glad to be alive.
P.S. I have now progressed to being very happy that she is very happy! It only took three weeks to get the car fixed, and I am behind on my ironing because my iron was in the trunk, but eventually I will catch up. Aimee has yet to move most of her stuff in her room in the basement. It is still a huge mess; so, in one way, it seems she is still with us.
Aimee left the house early on her wedding day with Brent. They drove to Jenna's who did Aimee's hair. Beautifully.
Megan came over to our house with the sound equipment for the wedding. Because of denominational rules, there are no instruments allowed at weddings in the church. Megan graciously offered to bring sound equipment, and since that is her job while she is in college, she actually knows how to set it up, and got a great deal for us: she did it for free! The fun part of having recorded music is that you can have exactly what you want. Exactly. No shrieking soloists or sweaty pianists or twanging guitarists who talk too much. (Mr. Sinta despises worship leaders who are talking heads. If we wanted them to talk, they would be pastors...shut up and sing.)
The phone rang and it was the Cake Lady telling me that she thought her son had already delivered our cake at the appointed time, but when she looked in his room, he was still sound asleep. By this time, he had missed the contact person at the church. Also, the frosting on the cake oxidized so it was bright yellow and not pale yellow. By the way, the only roses she could find to put on the cake at Costco were also of the bright yellow variety. She did not mention that she completely forgot about sending the wedding cupcakes that we ordered or that she shorted us on the hand pressed mints. WE ARE NOT LIKELY TO RECOMMEND THE CAKE LADY TO ANYONE ELSE.
I tried to call Aimee and warn her that the cake was late, but forthcoming, and I found her cell phone's service did not work in Midvale. (Maybe, I said to myself, it is better that she does not know all of this. She and Brent are supposed to be meeting the photographer early. We want a happy bride.)
Eventually, we were all ready enough to pack up and leave. I somehow ran out of time at the end and dumped out someone's graduation present bag and loaded it with my essential makeup and threw it in my car. Of course, I noticed at this point that I did not have enough gas to make it to Midvale, but I did not want to have to tell Mr. Sinta who is a stickler for leaving on time. (Mr. Sinta, Megan and Abby were traveling in the truck.) I was incredibly thankful when Abby called me on my cell just before we passed Megan's workplace to tell me that they needed a subber or woofer or connector or something, and I used the 180 seconds to squeal into the gas station, run my card through the pump and literally splash out enough gas to easily get me to Midvale and then a little more because Aimee and Brent were going to borrow my car and I did not want them stranded in Midvale for their honeymoon, gasless and unhappy. I ran back into my car, started it up and headed to Vista Ave. just in time to meet the truck and get on the Freeway. Yikes!!! That was close.
We drove happily down the road for some time, and eventually Mr. Sinta decided we should stop at a convenience store to pick up some sort of snacks during the two hour drive. I tried to order a sandwich at the in store food place, but some complete twit was taking his sweet time ordering for his family of five and he did not really know what they wanted so I settled for a bag of salted something and a cold pop that was accidentally too large, would not fit in the cup holder and had to be held between my legs. No danger of falling asleep on this trip.
At approximately 11 a.m. I called Ryan to remind him that yes, today is Aimee's wedding day, and he has one hour to take a shower and two hours to drive here to make it to the service. In just a few moments, he called me back to ask me where the maps to the wedding were.
This is a critical point in my story, because I want to tell you ahead of time, so you do not wet your pants, that I lived through what I am about to tell you.
While I was trying to tell Ryan where the leftover maps from the invitations were, and what they looked like, Mr. Sinta, just ahead of me in his truck passed a car. This made me feel intimidated because while I could tell Ryan where the maps were, I had no idea how to get to the church myself, other than by following Mr. Sinta. So, I did one of the stupidest things that I have ever done in my entire life. While talking on the cell phone, I attempted to pass the car that was now ahead of me on the narrow two lane country road. Too late, I realized that there was an oncoming car and now there was no time to go back to my spot in the line of traffic. I was in 5th gear in the VW Turbo bug, but when I tried to max the gas, for some reason, I did not accelerate. I am now in a great position to star in my own Signal 20 movie. We used to watch Signal 20 movies in high school driver's ed. The title of my movie would be Late Mother of the Bride Makes Her Last Phone Call.
The three occupants of the truck informed me later that they are now screaming at me at the top of their lungs. I am sure that this is an all out effort to save my life. It is too bad that I could not hear them, however, I could see death approaching at about 55 m.p.h.
I am very thankful for the person who was now driving behind me who slowed down considerably probably praying and hoping that I would move back into my spot on the correct side of the road. I am also very thankful for the oncoming car who slowed down and pulled to the shoulder because they lacked an Eminent Death Wish, and I had won the Chicken Game by default. I am reminded of my late Aunt Alice (She did not die in a car accident, but in a nursing home because she lived her life carefully and wisely.), who said that God watches over drunks and the feeble minded. This was the grace of God. I lived. Many times that day, I said these words: I am so glad to be alive. Probably not the usual thing for most mothers of the bride to say, but true in my case.
At this point, the problems with the cake, and any other problems, paled in significance.
However, pretty much there weren't any other problems. Eventually the cake came, and no one cared that it was SCREAMING BRIGHT YELLOW instead of pale yellow because it was chocolate marble with a white chocolate filling and it tasted really great. However, I am getting ahead of myself.
We arrived intact at the church, and got dressed in the empty parsonage next door. The photographer arrived a little late. (I was hoping that she had not witnessed my driving stunt.) She was pleasant and very pretty with an air of confident expectation. I wrote out her check and hoped that she was as talented as she seemed. Katy is someone I would recommend to others.
She took photos of the girls preparing, and then of the bridal party, and then the parents and grandparents etc. So many friends came that it was really fun to be the mom and be one of the last people seated. Yes, time to socialize and pass out bubbles (not rice). Aimee was incredibly relaxed and beautiful. She looked like Barbie. Her hair was perfect. Everything was perfect. Her bouquet was outstanding. Her dress was gorgeous, white with a navy tie at the waist. She wore a tiara and an elbow length veil that was very lovely.
Mr. Sinta told me later that as the two of them waited outside the church, he kissed her, put down her veil, and wondered how in the world he would make it through this. He was already starting to cry, and they were not even in the church. This is very tender because I have known Mr. Sinta for 27 years, and he almost never cries. Most of the times that I have seen him cry, it was because he was laughing so hard that he had to cry. He has cried at maybe two movies. He cried when our first baby died. He is not one given to tears. That tells you deeply this was affecting him.
The groomsmen led in the moms and went up front with Brent and the pastor. The bridesmaids came in, very carefully, I might add because they had stilettos and they had to navigate a 3 foot grate with tiny holes in the middle of the aisle! Success. No one stumbled. Our worship leader, Jenn A., led us, sans instruments, in a hymn. We willingly complied with the no instruments rule, but we never bothered to check if they minded female worship leaders. We know of one Boise church that was decimated by the thought of a female worship leader. It appeared that no one minded. Everyone loves Jenn. However the photographer seems to have caught her smoking dope at the reception. We have no proof other than the photo.
The pastor made a few announcements, and then Aimee's music started. She had music from... This is terrible. I can't remember. The movie with the ring and the short guys with hairy feet. Lord of the Rings! That's it. It was something very beautiful. She was very beautiful. Our great photographer really captured a lot of great moments, and I do not remember ever seeing her take a single picture. She was invisible.
Any way, when the pastor said, "Who gives this woman?" Mr. Sinta said, "Her mother and I." My emotions, other than still being very glad to be alive and not in a bloody mass at the Midvale morgue, was, "Yes!!! This is awesome. These two were meant for each other." Mr. Sinta's voice cracked, and I loaned him Kleenax. I think that when Brent heard Paul's voice that he teared up as well. It was very emotional. I did not cry. It was a happy, beautiful, wonderful, joyful thing to me, not something to cry about. I did not expect that. (The funny thing is, I cried at my own wedding. My shoulders shook. I was so happy to finally get married that I sobbed. I was all of 20 years old.)
It was a beautiful service, beautiful and simple. Aimee kept emphasizing that she wanted a simple wedding. It was a wise thing to want.
The building was very adequately sized for a wedding of about 150 people, which was good because we had about that many people, but there was no place for a reception line so the bridal party all lined up outside the church (it was a beautiful day) and shook hands with everyone. The very funny thing was that then we all went back in the church for the reception! No one minded. Like I said, it was a simple and beautiful wedding.
The crowd was seated watching Aimee and Brent get their photo taken with the cake, but then it was time to serve cake, and nothing was happening. I asked Mr. Sinta to either pray for the cake or announce it was being served. He did something that was absolutely wonderful instead.
He wrapped one arm around Brent and one arm around Aimee and he prayed a father's blessing over their marriage. It was extremely beautiful, simple and unexpected. It made one young woman cry who witnessed it. Amazingly, Katy caught it on film. Anyway, then we all ate cake and talked and Megan caught the bouquet and we blew bubbles and told them good bye and packed up their gifts and cleaned up the building and tried to leave.
At this point, you are probably already thinking that I have done my idiotic act for the day, and that I couldn't possibly do anything to top it. I am about to top it.
Paul, Abby and Megan are in the truck, Brian and Devon (They are incredibly fun relatives from Utah who came to the wedding and were going to spend the night with us) were in their car, and I was supposed to drive Aimee's car home. In my haste to not fall behind the wagon train, I jammed the key in the ignition and could not get it out. Eventually Mr. Sinta got most of the key out, but it was the trunk key. Now, we could not get the trunk open to get my stuff out of the car, and we could no longer get the correct key in the ignition because a part of a broken trunk key was jammed in there. I felt extremely ridiculous. Even I do not normally do two things like this in one day.
To make things worse, at this point, we got a call from Aimee and Brent, and they were headed back to the church before they left on their honeymoon because they forgot something. Megan and Abby and I looked at each other and promised not to tell them anything about what I had just done to Aimee's car so they would not worry about it. It worked. They never suspected.
Brian and Devon let me ride in their car back to Boise. I was really glad not to drive. Extremely glad. It was so much fun to be with them that I was not able to sit and think about the fact that my very wonderful oldest daughter, middle child, was now married, and would not be coming back to live at our house anymore. I am very glad that Brian had lots of stuff to tell me about his church and ministry because I never got that sad, let-down-she-is-gone feeling.
Thank you for reading all the way to the end of our wonderful day. I am so glad to be alive.
P.S. I have now progressed to being very happy that she is very happy! It only took three weeks to get the car fixed, and I am behind on my ironing because my iron was in the trunk, but eventually I will catch up. Aimee has yet to move most of her stuff in her room in the basement. It is still a huge mess; so, in one way, it seems she is still with us.
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