Summertime

It's been a long time once again since I posted last - but life has been full of many things and the pain of waiting on dial up Internet to upload pictures has been the last thing I wanted to waste my time on.

The a couple of weeks ago, I went on a trip to my friend Rachel's wedding. For people who were at my wedding - she was one of my bridesmaids- the one whom I met on-line and have only seen in person a handful of times (this was the 5th time). I was slated to leave on Wednesday afternoon - and Tuesday night as I made final preparations for the trip, I started to get a scratchy throat and some other signs of an oncoming illness. Wednesday morning I did not feel very good - and even at one point debated not going, since I had trip insurance and I knew I could get my money back from the ticket- but I really wanted to be there for Rachel - so I went again. After sleeping in as long as possible - I headed out, driving to Grand Forks where I planned to pick up some cheap American groceries and then get on the plane for Boise. I was feeling pretty lousy, and by the time I finished my shopping and boarded the plane I was pretty much worn out. Flying with a head cold is not fun I learned - the take off was fine, but the landing on each flight was killer as my sinuses were so congested that it took a really long time for the pressure to equalize in my head. I had a 4 hour lay-over in Minneapolis which turned into 5 hours with a delayed plane. We finally boarded at about 11pm my time and set off for the 2.5 hour flight to Boise - I tried to rest, but its hard to get comfortable on a plane with people all around you when you are sick...bleh. We landed about 12:30 Boise time and Rob was there to pick me up with his hilarious truck.... I'm sure he would prefer to use other words like hott, sexy or some other word, but I'll just refer to it as hilarious. We tossed my luggage in the back on top of a plywood ramp and a few other miscellaneous treasures that are often found in the bed of a pickup truck. Oh - let me explain, this is not just any pickup - but a 1978 chevy Luv....

The truck suits my brother perfectly as you can see by this picture of him...

I really love my brother - but I also get to laugh at him...actually with him - as he is very good at laughing at himself too :P

So why did I call the truck hilarious? well, besides what you can see in the picture, the hilarity is caused by the top speed of 50mph, the extremely slow turn signals, the two settings on the ventilation system (blazing hot engine air or regular outside air), the view of the road alongside the gear shift, the sunroof, the lack of a horn and last but not least, the roar of the engine at top speed which makes en route conversation consist largely of yelling and gestures....I love it...

So, off we go down the interstate out to Amy's house for the night - its about 1am....we're hungry, the only place we find open at the exit we take is a del taco drive thru - neither of us have been there before but its cheap and we're hungry - the service was great with a young man that has a wit to match my brother taking our order - that made for some laughs right there. For 7 dollars Rob got a massive combo of two or three different kinds of taco things and I got a breakfast combo of two breaky burritos with hashbrown things and medium drink (I forgot what Americans call a medium is what we would call an extra large - no wonder people get fat in North America - the cheapest food and drink is also the worst for you!!) . On the road again for Sand Hollow - we arrived to Amy's at about 2AM and said a short hello before falling into bed.

The next day I slept until almost noon - trying to get rid of the cold - it didn't work, but it did revive me. Rob and I ate lunch and visited and played with Amy's dog Katie until Rachel and Aaron arrived to pick me up for the last leg of my westward journey.

Aaron and Rachel were on their way home from Boise after running various errands in preparation for the wedding. The truck was quite loaded down with meat, alcohol, flowers and supplies for the reception. We made another stop along the way home to get a few more things - and for a stop at the coffee bar (Rach can't go too long without her java!! :D) I also made a 5 minute stop at payless for some wedding sandals - I had picked out one pair but on the way out I saw a really cute pair for $7 in my size, so I picked them up without trying them on. I found out later that they were really a size 7 - so they didn't fit well, and I ended up giving them to one of the other bridesmaids. Aaron dropped us off at the house along with part of the truckload of stuff and we got lost in the flurry of getting ready for the weekend's festivities. I met tonnes of people - family and friends of Rachel's mostly and spent the weekend at her house along with several other girls - it wasn't exactly a weekend of rest! After the rehearsal and dinner, us girls went out bowling and then had fondue and girl talk back at the house for our version of a bachelorette party. There are lots of good memories and great pictures from the weekend! Saturday dawned beautiful and sunny, but by the time Rachel's hair appointment was over, storm clouds were rolling in. We went out to the ranch and got ready and when the time for pictures came around it was windy, raining and there was thunder and lightning all around. We started doing some pictures in the house, and then it stopped raining long enough to go out and get all the pictures done that the family had wanted. We went back into the house to wait for the ceremony time, and it started storming again. We were all praying and waiting to see what the weather would do - and about 5 minutes before the time they were going to make the decision of whether to move the event into town, the sun came out and the clouds rolled up - it was amazing! It was actually hot standing out in the sun during the ceremony and during the pictures after the ceremony it started getting dark again, and at the end it started sprinkling and just the time we were all in our cars or at the house, the clouds let loose with a belly full of rain. It was really amazing how God worked it all out - we had just the perfect weather really - the rain kept the dust and the heat down and made the whole world sparkle a fresh green and we had sunshine for all the times we needed it - another reminder of His unending faithfulness! The wedding and reception went off without a hitch. I ended up leaving somewhat early, since Amy had come to pick me up and she didn't want to be out too late - but it was great to visit with her and my Aunt Bon on our trip back to Boise. So much for Amy's plan of not being up late though, as we spent a few hours talking - I think we went to bed around 2AM - and we had planned to meet the rest of my family in Boise for breakfast at 8(!!)AM the next morning. After a great breakfast at a little cafe on main street in Meridian, Amy and I went into Boise to do some shopping before I got on the plane. The rest of the trip home was long and tiring and when I fell into bed around 1AM, I was toast! I ended up calling in sick on Monday and sleeping in for 18 hours - it took me over two weeks to rid myself of that cold....but the weekend was worth it!

I've got lots more to blog about but this is enough rambling for one night!!