We Are Home!

We made it home safely from our trip out west. After an all too brief, but really great stop at my sister's in Portland, we were off again and the wedding was lovely, the bride lovelier. Things went smoothly and Katherine made it through the wedding ceremony in her dress without grass stains or bruises, which she promptly got following said ceremony. She made good friends with the boy of a long time friend whom we haven't seen in awhile, though they live in Fort Collins these days. We just don't get up north that often, but there are a handful of people I would like to see at some point, including my goddaughters in Wellington. It has been too long, but that is nothing new. Perhaps in the nearer future things will be different, we shall see.

We had a wonderful Pascha in the pretty little church of St. Martin the Merciful, in Corvallis. It is a beautiful church full of truly great people. We were able to make it to a small portion of the 12 Passion Gospel's on thursday evening, after we went to the rehearsal and dinner and I had my confession with Fr. James. It was interesting because there was a momentary purging of all my conscience in such fluidity I had to wonder from whence it came. Good Friday was spent peacefully working a bit around the house of our hosts, though I would have liked to helped more. They are a fabulous family whom we hope to see more of in the future and not so much time in between (I can't measure the time it had been since seeing them last!) Saturday was a massively busy day with liturgy in the morning, getting lost trying to find a store that wasn't there, getting back to the house only to realize we had a super short window of time to eat/rest/shower/change/etc. before being whisked away to the wedding site where they were taking pictures beforehand, ran an errand, back for the ceremony and keeping Katherine from mussing her dress prior to THE event, had some delish gf/df vegan pasta dish and cupcakes, enjoyed a bit of dancing and catching up, back to the house to gather our Pascha basket items and anything else we hadn't had time to remember, off to church for the end of the Acts of the Apostle's, midnight service, it rained on our procession, Katherine was barely awake (Lord knows how we made it through!), she fell asleep wherever she could in the church until being woken for communion and all she wanted to do was sleep and eat an egg. That wasn't even the end, because, really, it is only the beginning of anything when the Paschal bliss sets in and the tiredness slips away into nothingness as we gathered ourselves and walked across the dirt road to the priest (and his family's) house for the post service feast! Phew! We had a lovely time and went home, slept around 5 until 9ish, got up, had some snacks, Jay requested an espresso of Martinian and Evgenia as his special Pascha treat. I felt like we were so welcome to stay and could have for ages, but also that I wanted to make it down to my folks' to settle in. We met them at their Pascha party at a parishioner's home near their own and that kicked off our next week.

Our visit in southern Oregon was fairly relaxed and pain-free. We didn't try to do too much, which is usually my fault and ultimate demise. I did get to take my husband to a B&B for one night in the little town nearby, which was amazingly lovely, while Katherine went on a movie date with Gran and Grawmps. I took my sister out for some lunch in Jacksonville at a great deli-style place who advertise working with people's food choices and needs, total awesomeness! Spent some time with my nephews who are getting so big and darling. My mom got to be off of work and wasn't sick the whole time like last summer, so we got to do stuff. Katherine and my dad nurtured their relationship, which is good for them both, I think. It was almost too short, but it was enough to do things and have a memorable, pleasant time with everyone. Glory to God!

One day home and I was out planting seeds with hopes of a large (for us) and delicious crop, though small and contained in our little patio garden. Gina brought Gracie back to us and we spent some time getting back in sync with them. Katherine and Jack played a lot and the weather was so nice that Kat thought she'd wear a tank top, so now she is learning about her fair skin that isn't acclimated to so much sun, especially this early in the season! Poor girl, at least we have a good amount of aloe! All is quiet and I should be off to bed, I just wanted to pop in for a few to give the latest and greatest :o)