May 20, 2009

• WHEW!!

  What a weekend!!

  We are NOT used to so much activity at once.

  But it was wonderful!!

  Saturday morning we traveled down to Milwaukee for the newlywed’s graduation.

  The   Cum laude graduates/newlyweds

  This picture was taken at the Baccalaureate service before the graduation service.

  

  The graduates/newlyweds with both sets of parents after graduation.

  

  We left before this.  We had arrived when the doors opened, and had 3 hrs. of sitting in the bleachers.  We chose the bleachers to be closer to the stage, but didn’t realize that every one would come and stand in front of us to take pictures of their graduates!!  We were on the bottom seats of the bleachers.  We couldn’t see a thing once the diplomas were being handed out.  Ken had gotten up much earlier and went to the back of the field house so he could walk around.  My back started bothering me about 1/2 way through the diplomas, so I told Greg and Lori that we were going to leave already.  Lyd and Nate had received their diplomas already anyway.

  We drove the 1 1/2 hrs. back home, and had just a little over an hour before we had to leave to go to Avery’s concert at Lutheran High Saturday evening.  Ken decided that after 3 hrs. of driving and 3 hrs. at the graduation that he couldn’t handle another 2 hrs. in hard-seated folding chairs.  So, I drove over to Greg’s and went with them.  They had just gotten home from graduation.  They sat in the bleachers at Lutheran, but I sat right by them on the end of a folding chair aisle.  The concert has just started and in walks the newlyweds.  They decided to come up for  the concert, too. 

  Avery was in the large choir, the swing group, the barbershop quartet, and a 9 guy acapella group, and also did a duet with his girlfriend, who also plays the guitar.  It was all VERY good, but the sound system wasn’t the greatest.  The guys’ barbershop group (They did Hello Mary Lou again) got the biggest round of applause of any of the performances, along with yells and hollers!!

  The art class also had a display of art work in the commons area, which we looked at after the performance.  Avery had several pieces in the show, and all were excellent.  Greg had won a newpaper contest with a photo he had taken years ago when they lived up north on a lake on a private ranch.  The picture was of a tree stump with the little lake behind it.  Avery took that photo and painted an impressionistic painting of it. 

  Avery and his painting:

  

  Came home, and couldn’t sleep well.  So much excitement!!  Think I got about 4 hrs sleep.

  Sunday morning was granddaughter, Louise’s confirmation.  And the newlyweds showed up again for that!  It was a very nice service.  In our church, the confirmands are usually “examined” by Pastor in front of the congregation the week before Confirmation.  That means they are asked questions in order to show that they are knowledgeable about the beliefs of our church.  In recent years a lot of churches have started something different.  And this church is one of them.  Each confirmand gets up and reads an essay.  Sometimes it is a topic of their own choosing, or else an essay on the various tenets of the church—which is what this church did.  Louise’s essay was on The Lord’s Supper—Holy Communion, and she did a great job with it. They each even had a PowerPoint presentation to illustrate their essays.  There were 6 confirmands—-all girls. 

  Greg’s family with Louise.  Silas wasn’t there—he is still at college.  But, as I mentioned before, the newlyweds made it.

  

  When I saw this picture of Ken and I with Louise, I was not happy.  That sweater makes me look even heavier than I already am!!  Louise looked adorable—as always.

  I said this was a picture of Ken, Skinny Minnie, and Two Ton Tessie!!  lol

  

  After confirmation, we were invited over to Greg’s for lunch, which was fun.  Got home around 3:30—and collapsed!

  So, it was one wild, busy, wonderful, and VERY memorable weekend.

  I think Greg and Lori were happy it was all over, too! 

  Then in two weeks, we (and they) have Avery’s high school graduation.  No party for that, though.

   

  On Monday, Lydia had to come up here again regarding her job.  She stopped in here to pick up some things they could use in their apartment.  And, she will be here again to pick up a couple things she couldn’t fit into the car on Monday.

  So many of her friends on Facebook were asking her for details on their wedding.  She wrote the following, and I got permission to put it up here for our family and friends.

  Back in September, Nate and I were deciding where we wanted our relationship to go, and we both knew that we wanted to get married. We decided that a big wedding was not for us, first of all, he is going on to grad school and money would be a bit tight, and second of all, we didn’t want to go through all of the planning associated with a wedding. We decided that the best thing to do was to “elope” or get married in a courthouse. 
  Since then, we had been taking care of little things like buying rings, finding an apartment, pre-marital counseling, how it would happen, how Nate’s mom would react, and stuff like that. 
  We ended up having a small ceremony performed by the campus pastor. We got married May 14 in the mini chapel on campus. Mark, Nate’s brother, and Kate, Lydia’s good friend, were there as witnesses, and for support. It was short, and sweet, just how we wanted it to be. 
  After the wedding, we called our parents, siblings, and grandparents to tell them the good news. They were overwhelmingly shocked, yet so happy for us. Nate’s brother Lucas was by far the funniest, all we heard on the other line was silence followed by “that’s just great guys.” My grandma was also funny and wouldn’t believe it happened until she saw the ring on my finger. She called my mom though and soon found out that it was true. 
  As of today, Nate and I live in Sheboygan. Half-way between his school (CUW), and my work (Holy Family in Manitowoc). We are both very happy and appreciate all of your congratulations and support through this time in our lives.

   

   

  • 4:40 pm
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