So this weekend, the entire Newhouse family (soon-to-be Grandparents & Parents) made the journey to Tyler, Texas to attend Bob's sister Sue's wedding. It seems like the entire weekend was just a comedy of errors. Our trip started with me forgetting my pants & having to turn around and go back for them (pregnancy pants are not quite so easy to come by). Once we were finally on the road, we had to travel through downtown Dallas during rush hour in hopes of making it to the church in Palestine by 7 pm. We finally rolled into the church around 8 pm, and my pregnancy squeezed bladder was about to burst. I'm pretty sure I haven't run that fast since before my waistline began expanding with our triple blessing. (I blew past Sue's future in-laws like the flash yelling out apologies as I searched frantically for the bathroom).
Bob, Jim, and Kathy helped to rearrange the furniture in the "parlor" to be more wedding friendly as I sat by and watched the heavy lifting. Sue made a list of what needed to be taken care of while her fiance waited in the hospital to see if his pneumonia had progressed to the point that they had to admit him. Luckily, they gave John (the groom) a shot and a CAT-scan of his lungs and sent him back home to rest up for the wedding, and the Newhouses proceeded from the church to the Fairfield Inn in Tyler.
Saturday started with an early morning wake up call and a request to fill John's prescription at Wal-Mart. After a free continental breakfast at the hotel (why is it that expensive hotels charge you $20 for breakfast while the cheap ones throw out all the Jimmy Dean sausage biscuits you can eat for free?), Bob and Kathy headed out to take the prescription in. Even though they got to the Wal-Mart right as the pharmacy opened, they were told it would be an hour and a half wait. They decided to return to the hotel to wait and get cleaned up. After the hour and a half wait, the prescription was still not ready and Kathy decided to go over to Sue's house in order to help her get ready for the big event. About three miles from the hotel, our new vehicle blew a tire, and Bob had to wait for AAA to come and rescue him (since the car was so new to us, we couldn't find the jack and had not put any tools into the car yet). An hour later, John & Sue had come to pick up Kathy, and "Larry the Cable Guy" had arrived to get us mobile again. Apparently, our suburban has expensive rims, and the tow truck guy was unable to change the tire, so he loaded the suburban on the flatbed and took Bob to the tire place.
All of this activity and inactivity gave Jim & I plenty of time to enjoy the fact that we got left behind at the hotel. I was able to really put the Chi iron I got for Christmas to great use, and my hair turned out fantastic. I guess even I can clean up good if given enough time. A couple hundred dollars later, Bob was able to return to the hotel and pick us up and head to the church. We knew that we were going to be pretty late, but John and Sue held the wedding for us so that Jim could walk Sue down the aisle. Once we made it to the church, about twenty minutes late, things went off without a hitch. John managed to struggle past the pneumonia and didn't pass out during the vows despite his profuse sweating (which could have been due to the fact that the air in the church was not working) and swaying. It was a very nice ceremony, and the BBQ at the reception was great (especially since we skipped our lunchtime snack). Bob gave a very nice toast, although he had to follow John's sister who through out a Bible verse in her toast. Then it was time for cake!!! As all larger ladies who are single for a large portion of their childbearing years, I have served many a cake at many a wedding, and I stepped up to do the task again at Sue's wedding with Kathy passing out the plates to the guests. The cake was excellent - even the cake nazi, my lovely husband, enjoyed a piece.
Following the reception, we loaded up the cars and headed for the newlyweds' house to deliver the leftovers and the gifts. John was pretty sick, so we stayed for a bit to get them settled into the "in sickness" part of their vows. Our party headed out to grab some dinner at Johnny Carino's which was fantastic, the went back to the hotel for cocktails and diet 7 up. Upon arriving at our rooms, Jim & Kathy couldn't get into theirs for about an hour - the lock had freaked out and they could only get in with the help of the front desk. Finally, we decided to call it a night and put ourselves to bed.
This morning, we were supposed to have brunch with the new Mr. & Mrs. Murray, but we decided to make it a take-out lunch at their house so that John didn't have to get out of bed. To kill some time, Bob & I stopped by Babies R Us to register. I think we put some useful items on our registry, but who knows. I tend to get a little overwhelmed when I think of all the stuff we need and have to decide what exactly we want. Regardless, Bob had a GREAT time scanning Cookie Monster & sports toys. It was pretty fun to watch him get excited about all of the fun toys that we want for the boys.
Upon arrival at John & Sue's, after stopping for the "World's Best Hamburgers" at the end of their street, we arrived to find Sue in the front yard freaking out because her car (my former beloved Jeep) would not start. Since I forgot to put our emergency roadside kit in the new car and they didn't have any jumper cables, the Newhouse men decided this was a job for AAA. In the midst of our lunch, John called the doctor and decided that it was time to go back to the hospital, so we volunteered to stay behind and wait for AAA while Sue took her new husband to the hospital.
As luck would have it, the same tow truck guy showed up at Sue's house and helped us get her car started again, and after letting the battery charge up for 45 minutes, we finally got on the road to get back home. Once we recovered from the trauma of the day, we decided it was time for take out pizza for dinner, and as Bob left the house to pick it up, our Camry came into contact with the car whose foolish owner parks it at the end of our driveway. Luckily, there was no damage to either car, and it all worked out, but I hope that we are done with vehicular trauma for a while. To cap off the evening, as Bob arrived at Mr. Jim's to pick up our pizza, the pizza was delivered to our door. I must say that the boys and I are ready for this weekend to be over. I'm not sure I've ever been so happy to see a weekend end!
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