Oh No! I Need To Buy Another Dress!

Well, now that the excitement about the news of the wedding has died down, I need to turn my attention to another important matter. As you know, if you were reading my blog through Megan's wedding, the part I dreaded the most was finding myself a dress to wear. My sister graciously supported me through this and in the end we were successful in finding one that I was pleased with.

Megan and Jeremy were at our house for supper the other evening and we were talking about the wedding. I mentioned the need to buy a dress and Megan said that she also would be looking to purchase one for herself as well. I suggested jokingly that maybe we could go together. I said this in jest, because Megan and I don't have a very good history of clothes shopping together. Unlike other women, who seem to thrive on shopping, it is just the opposite for us. We usually both end up in a really bad mood. I did not bring up the subject again, and figured that I would ask Lois to accompany me to try to find a dress.

Yesterday, Megan stopping in briefly and out of the blue said, "I've been thinking. Let's go together to buy our dresses for the wedding." I was surprised but delighted. I was secretly hoping that we could make it a joint effort but wasn't going to say any more about it.

The two of us have not been shopping together in a long time. Probably the last time was when we purchased her wedding dress and that went amazingly well. I'm hoping that this venture is successful too.

I called my sister to tell her that she had been demoted and would not have to go along with me to look for a dress. She laughed and said that she was not one bit disappointed. She loves those kind of demotions. Imagine that! Apparently, the dislike of clothes shopping runs in the family.

So...the saga begins. Hopefully Megan and I can actually enjoy this adventure a little bit. I'll keep you posted...

Hard Times

The last couple of days have been hard. Steve's dad has not been feeling very well and it is difficult to see him so weak and tired. I remember when my dad died, at the end he just kept saying that he was so tired. I know that every situation is different but it is hard for me not to compare. When I hear and see that Dad just wants to sleep and has no energy I have flashbacks of my dad's last days. I am so thankful that we can trust God in every circumstance. I keep thinking of the lyrics to a song written by Rodney Griffin:

If this is what God wants
If this is what God says
Then who am I to doubt
or try to figure out this circumstance
If this is what God chose for me
In all His majesty
Then surely I can trust and lean on what God says

Sometimes the storms in life are not what we would choose
if we had the power to choose them for ourselves
We would choose the easy way.....

I can't remember the rest, but you get the picture. God is in control and that is enough.

Another Wedding!!!!! (And a Prayer Request)

The big news is that we are going to have another wedding in the family! Josh and Julissa are planning to tie the knot on January 10, 2016. I could not be happier for both of them. It has been so exciting to see their relationship blossom over the summer. My other three children married young, but Josh didn't seem in a particular hurry to find someone to share his life with. I think he enjoyed being single, however, the past several years, he put out a couple of hints that he would welcome a relationship so of course, some of us were intent on helping him succeed! Although I may have had a small part in getting them together, Josh's grandparents played a much bigger role and obviously in the end Josh and Julissa were the ones that decided they were right for each other. Every time I think of them, it brings a smile to my face and it was fun to see the happiness of friends and family when they announced their engagement. Who doesn't love a happy ending?!?!

On a more somber note, along with all the joy that this wedding is bringing there is some sadness and a very special prayer request. Steve's dad (Josh's grandpa) has just been diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. He and Steve's mom were the ones that were instrumental in introducing Josh and Julissa. When we asked Dad how we could pray for him, he expressed thankfulness for the love and support the family is giving him and requested that we pray that he would have peace, especially about his decision not to undergo chemo treatment. Then he added, "I would really like to be able to attend Josh and Julissa's wedding." It brings tears to my eyes every time I think about it and oh, I hope and pray his wish is granted.

Third Time is the Charm (Almost)

Well, Steve and I decided to make another trip to New York City to the U.S. Open Tennis over the weekend. If you wonder why this is momentous, you can read about last year's experience here and the previous year's experience (with my friend Becky) here. Surely this year would be hassle-free.

It all started out well. We boarded our train in Lancaster and arrived in Penn Station in New York City three hours later. We had no problem finding the subway, purchasing our metro cards (we got two, one for each of us), swiping our cards at the turnstile, and boarding the E train headed for Jackson Height-Roosevelt Avenue where we would make our transfer to the 7 train. We watched all the stations go by and then when the subway screeched to a halt at Queens Plaza which was the one before Jackson, the announcement was made over the intercom that the next stop was something else, not Jackson Height-Roosevelt Avenue! Steve and I looked at each other a little concerned and I asked the woman sitting beside me, "is this train not going to Jackson Height-Roosevelt?" She explained to us that because it was a holiday weekend, the express subway was shut down for work on the tracks and the train we were on was the local train. It would still end up where we wanted it to, but it was just making a lot of other stops in between. We were quite relieved and Raquel was so friendly and helpful. She wondered where we were going and when we told her Flushing to our motel, she said that she lived in Flushing so we could just follow her through the transfer station when we needed to switch to the 7 train. We were very grateful for her concern for our welfare and accepted her offer. Whoever said that New Yorkers are not friendly?

We got to our motel without any more stress and the following morning navigated our way over to the tennis center without any problems at all. Our metro cards worked fine. We enjoyed the day and around 7:00 left the tennis to go back to our motel in Flushing. I swiped my metro card and went through the turnstile. Steve swiped his and the turnstile stayed locked. He tried again and again. After several tries, I said, "you might as well just go under. It's not like you haven't done it before." He squeezed through and nobody said anything or stopped us. It was deja vu all over again. We were irritated and angry but what were we supposed to do? We went back to our motel and tried to put it out of our mind and enjoy the rest of our evening.

We walked to a Chinese restaurant that we had eaten at before and liked. It's a little adventuresome ordering because you are not quite sure what you are getting but it was always good food when it arrived. I looked at the menu and saw something that looked like onion rings. The English translation was "calamari."  I probably should have known what that was but I didn't. I also should have googled it but my phone was low on battery so I had turned it off. I figured whatever it was it would be good. The calamari came and looked yummy. I took a bite of one and it was awful. The fried outside part was okay but whatever was in the middle was chewy and had a taste that I didn't like. Steve was not impressed either. We left the huge bowl of them sitting, uneaten. The poor waiter came back when we were finished with our other food and pointed to the untouched calamari and said "box?" I shook my head no. In hindsight, I probably should have said yes and then just thrown them out in the nearest dumpster. He looked a little crestfallen that I didn't want to take them with me. After we got back to our motel, I plugged my phone in and looked up calamari and found out that they are squids. Obviously, some people like them but not me. I will chalk that up as a learning experience.

The next morning, we went to the booth in the subway and asked for $2.75 to be put on each of our  metro cards. That would be enough to get us one more ride back to Penn Station. I swiped myself through without any problem, but again the turnstile stayed locked for Steve. We looked at each other in exasperation and said "not again." He tried one more time and low and behold it worked! He came through and we breathed a huge sigh of relief. I don't know what it is with Steve and metro cards but we were extremely thankful that that was the last time (on this trip), he would need to use one.

We arrived back in Lancaster County without any more mishaps and all in all it was a nice little vacation for us. Our travel experience was definitely better than the previous two years, but we learned that metro cards still don't like Steve and neither of us care for the taste of squid. Maybe next year we will go somewhere else and stay away from that busy place called New York City.