(from an email to JJLondt, CEO LondtCO)
Recap: Friday 6:30pm outdoor rose garden wedding at Minnestrista accomplished between 4 thunderstorms with ping pong sized hail and winds strong enough to snap patio umbrellas. The new wedding photography team of StudioPro31: Susan, Kristen and Holly debuted and successfully (we hope) capturing the moments.
Friday night Kristen went home with Holly. I was invited but declined with the intent to really make a dent in reorganizing the house. That didn’t happen. I read the assigned reading by Dave Eggers A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, 2000 Simon & Schuster. It was staggering and repulsive and impossible to put down. I was exhausted again though this time, mentally, by this long work of Creative Non Fiction. I didn’t get much housework done, though a few things did find their way back to where they belong. Kristen decided to spend another night in Noblesville. Kelly came over for a short time with the kids. She and Aaron were not seeing eye-to-eye. He, like Holly and James has purchased a fishing license and that seems to be the recreation of choice at the moment.
Sunday, it was my turn to teach Sunday school which I felt ill-prepared and hypocritical about since I had read roughly 12.5 f…k you’s to the page for 15 hours for 2 days prior. It did go well though and it was an applicable lesson for me and they even sang “Love Lifted Me” in strained, grandmotherly voices. (This was Grandma Lillie’s favorite hymn.) I had to hit reality running by going to Wal-Mart for staples (meaning bread, milk, eggs) and watery band-aids for Kristen’s exhaust pipe red badge of courage on her right leg. Dennis (on the blue bike) and James and Kristen (on the red one) joined the rest of us (in the Gnapster Yukon) on the voyage to Emily’s graduation. The bikers and I attended the ceremony, late, but not too late to hear Emily’s accolades and her portion of a 5 person speech (their GPA’s being too close to call at the end of the school day on Friday). Gnaps and Holly retreated to Grandma Coles and fished during the commencement and we reconvened there until 5:00pm when the party was to start at Pat/Judy’s house. We were given a tour of the water pipe rupture in G/G basement. They are mid excavation and repair with Grandpa confiding in Aaron that he knew the pipes were spent but he was hoping that they would outlast him. He also was the recipient of a wasp sting on his right hand so there was considerable swelling. Grandma was in good spirits and pretty good health, though she told Kelly that her new GP is trying to diagnose her with every disease under the sun. I didn’t notice her chest rattling though we weren’t ever in a quiet place together. She didn’t noticeably cough but has started to wear compression stockings for strange bumps on her lower legs.
Emily’s party was fun and packed and well attended by their church and the local family. No Chelsea or Cassondra, but other than that everyone else was in attendance. Holly asked me to bob her hair on Friday and since the weekend was evaporating we accomplished the first segment of the job in Pat’s basement. We finished it after a harrowing ride home when a Marathon gas station could not be found and the Yukon was ticking away the miles until actual “E” on the gas gauge. Being a car full of left brainer’s, it was decided to stop in Huntington on Broadway and with $5 procured the arrival at the Marathon at I69 guaranteed. Taking all the suspense and excitement out of the trip, we settled back to view Gnomeo and Juliet with Kristen wedged between the middle seats having opted out of an earlier return trip via motorcycle. The Noblesville Londt’s left for home at 11:00pm with bobbed hair, various sunburned parts and a very early work day on the morrow; the rest of us retired shortly thereafter.
I’m sorry that I didn’t realize that Abby’s recital was yesterday. I definitely would have made a point to at least telephone my congratulations to her. Thank you for the rapid post of the photos and accompanying narrative. She looked radiant!
