Weekend Wrap Up

Not an original title but my brain is too full to come up with something clever. It is likely to remain so until at least the second week of January, 2015. And this is a weekend wrap up sooooo...

The weekend. It was fun. And full but it seems all weekends around here could be described as such. Maybe not next weekend. Next weekend is looking like I might finally get a long overdue nap. Maybe.

We headed to my brother's house on Friday morning to celebrate Independence Day. My brother lives about two hours south of here and his house overlooks a river. They have a deck out back, then beyond that a path through a little bit of woods, then the property opens up and voila-the river. Conveniently it is directly opposite their spot on the river that their little town shoots off fireworks every fourth of July. Let me just say for a small town they put on a big show. Some of the best we've ever seen anywhere.

The weather was odd, but delightful. I'm not normally in jeans and a sweatshirt on the fourth, but I think I enjoyed that more than the ridiculous heat and humidity we typically have on the day. Daughter1 trained it to Philly on Friday afternoon,and we've just decided to have her come home as often as she can this summer and fall, since she's getting married soon and moving thousands of miles away.

Carpe Diem!

Back to the fireworks. I have not mastered the art of photographing fireworks, but I don't think I'm alone in that. Plus I think fireworks are something we should watch with our eyes as opposed to viewing through an iPhone camera lens. On top of that, we were so close ash was literally falling at our feet, so I had to pay attention.

After the big and very grand finale we moved back up to the deck to sit for a while. Remember that scene in E.T. where there's a whole slew of people rummaging through the woods with flashlights looking for the alien? Well my brother's back woods looked a lot like that after the fireworks ended. There must have been six or seven firemen with flashlights patrolling the woods all along the river, I guess checking for any lingering hot stuff. Worrisome and reassuring at the same time.

Daughter1 brought her mandolin home and my brother and a friend of his played their guitars while she
pickedpluckedstrummed along on her almost new mandolin.  My brother gave it a try too, but his guitar was too big for Daughter1 and the mandolin is made for brides with dainty fingers.

I love the way a mandolin makes any song sound a little folksy. We were pretty impressed with her playing since she's only had it a month and she was following along with guitar chords. Apparently the mandolin is set up more like a violin and the placement of your hands for the chords is reversed from that of a guitar. Something like that...I'm not the one to explain it (obviously!!), but suffice it to say it took some skill.

Which she got from her father's side of the family.

Saturday morning we took my mom out to breakfast because she is celebrating a birthday tomorrow, and that calls for breakfast out. We drove home Saturday afternoon, and Daughter1 and I got busy addressing save the date cards for her big day. I ordered special pretty stamps that should be here today, and will be happy to have something ticked off the to-do list. Almost. I still have the mother of the groom's list to address but we're 2/3 of the way there and that's something.

We had a leisurely, low-key dinner beside the lake on Saturday evening which was really enjoyable. We knew we had a long list of things to tackle on Sunday before Daughter1 headed home, so we all sank into the tranquility of sunlight dancing on the water, an al fresco meal served lakeside, and a to-do list that would still be there tomorrow.

And of course it was.

A wedding to-do list is pretty much three steps forward and two steps back, because as soon as you tick three things off the list you remember two more things you need to add. Daughter1 and I attempted to synchronize our calendars for a trip to wedding town, made a list of questions for the wedding planner, photographer, and videographer, screened potential bands, went through items the bride and groom want on their still unregistered registry, confirmed an October shower date with a special family friend who will open up her beautiful home as the venue, discussed welcome bag containers and contents, previewed invitation options, and attempted to capture what we want in terms of the 1001 details that we'll lump under the heading of 'reception'... all in a matter of a few hours.

Hubs grilled out Sunday afternoon and then we did that thing we do so often and so well-take a child to the train station and send her back to her city far away. Not as far away as her new city will be, but it's Monday and I'm not going to think about that today. That thought would be about number 457 on my list of 10,000 things to think about between now and January so it can wait.

Happy Monday!