Matt's Wedding

I'm going to start with a disclaimer. This post is extremely long. You are more than welcome to read everything, but if you are like me, I like to skip to the good parts - the pictures. The problem is that the reason why this post is so long is that there are a few stories that don't have pictures. So I'm going to change the color of the text of stories that I think my reading audience won't want to miss but also don't have pictures.

This has been a crazy week. It started with me making Clara a new dress on Monday so that she could wear Matt's colors to his wedding.

I was supposed to leave on Tuesday, but Mom called me Tuesday morning to inform me that she was really sick. Since Jeremy couldn't get off work to go with me, I had planned to connect with my Mom halfway between her house and our house. Jeremy would drive me to the meeting point, Mom would pick me up there, and then Mom would drive us to her house. We would stay the night and then leave for California the next morning. Well, my mom lives with 2 of my sisters, my brother-in-law and 5 kids. 5 out of the 8 people who live there were sick. Since my mom was so sick, she couldn't drive to meet me, neither could the well people since they were taking care of all the sick people. Our car wouldn't make it to my Mom's house and that's why we were meeting half way. It looked like I was going to have a hard time getting to my little brother's wedding.

My mom happened to call when my good friend Aubs was visiting. When Aubs heard the situation, she kindly offered to let me use her car! Jeremy has a cousin in the area where my Mom lives, so I called them and asked if I could stay there instead. They said yes even though I only gave them about an 8 hour notice. So 3 hours after my mom's phone call, I was on the road with Clara on the way to Lon and Melanie's.

Clara and I had so much fun visiting with them. I've met this family a few times, but it was always with lots of people around, so I didn't really know them. It was great to get to know the Egbert's better. Clara had so much fun playing with them. They had a motorized bike that Clara loved to ride on.

She also loved getting to play on their neighbor's playground equipment and of course, Clara loved to play with all their toys. Thanks Lon and Melanie for letting me stay at your house, and a BIG thanks to Aubs for letting me drive her car 4 hours away and letting it sit for almost a week until I got back and could return it!

The next day brought a remarkable recovery for all who were sick. There was no more symptoms for about 12 hours, so we decided to let everybody go. (At least we thought so. The kids got their symptoms back the next day during the wedding ceremonies. 2 more of our family got this sickness and all of Kamee's family got it, including the bride and groom, so they had an interesting honeymoon! But at least the day of the wedding was a success!) We didn't leave until about 3:30 due to all the discussions, so we pulled into CA around 12:30 in the morning.

We were up very early in the morning to prepare for the wedding day festivities. The sealing was wonderful and both the bride and groom had perm-a-grins for the entire day.The luncheon had a pinata to accommodate a Panamanian tradition. (Matt served his mission in Panama and really wanted a pinata on his wedding day.) It took quite the beating before it finally broke, but all the kids sure loved it.The reception brought lots of dancing. Here is a picture of Clara dancing with Claire, my cousin's girl. Those two girls danced the night away.Matt and Kamee did the "wedding dance," something they saw on You Tube. But they sure had fun doing it, and it was a crowd pleaser as well.Matt was very nice to Kamee as he fed her cake, but Kamee smeared it all over Matt!Clara loves her Aunt Emma. Clara would often say, "I need Emma," and then run and get a hug from Emma. It was sure cute. Here is a picture of one of the times she did that.The day after the wedding, we had a day for our "family reunion." We spend the morning at a spray park that also had a playground. Clara loved getting to roam free and run around.When we got back to my brother's house, Clara had fun climbing up to the top bunk. She even helped her 18 month old cousin climb up there too by saying things like: you can do it, keep coming, and you're almost there. It made me laugh and both had a blast.We left the next day for my Mom's house again and then I left yesterday to meet up with Jeremy. I didn't think I would miss him as much as I did. I couldn't wait to see him. While I was gone, we had some crazy things happen to us. Just as I was heading out of town on Tuesday, Jeremy called me to let me know he had been offered a full time graphic design job! We were both so thrilled. I almost turned around to bring him with me, but he had to start his new job the next day, Wednesday. So I smiled the entire drive up north. Jeremy finished out the day with Verio and then quit. He also talked to his part time boss that night and put a 2 week notice in. I was so excited to finally have a full time graphic design job, a job that Jeremy would love, and one that made all the time and money for school worth it. Jeremy called me on Wednesday and told me how much he loved his new job. On Thursday, while I was in the sealing, Jeremy tried and tried to call me. He left a message on my phone saying that I needed to call him as soon as possible. By the sound of his voice, I could tell something was wrong. I thought, "He sounds like he's been laid off, but that can't be." Sure enough, it was. After working a day, he was called into the office. The company had hired him without getting permission from the main office in Ohio. They didn't think there would be an issue since Jeremy was replacing someone. They guessed wrong. Corporate didn't approve the budget for the new hire, so Jeremy was laid off. The company felt so bad, and I guess they fought corporate for a long time, but lost. So now we are back to square one. Luckily, Jeremy gets to work at his part time job still. But we no longer have a full time job. Talk about a roller coaster of emotions this week!