Open House = Wonderful House

I was so blessed to have my dad and step-mom (only use that term for clairty, she is a great mother to our family) come to town and spend the day helping me get ready for the big night. My father and Prince number one ended up fixing the light switch on my Suburban that went out on my way home from the wedding. God blessed me to have headlights until I got home before they started acting up but the dash lights went out in the middle of the night while driving.

I KNOW God loves me when he answers those types of prayers for me. Those switches are usually about 100 dollars but I called the junk yard and they had one for fifteen dollars. Dad and Prince number one went and bought it and put it in. Also, when I had my thermostat reaplaced a few months ago, I guess they didn't clamp the hose down tightly enough and antifreeze was leaking and on quick glance, my mechanic thought I may need a new water pump. Dad quickly tightened and tested the hose clamp and it seems to be working well. How blessed am I.

While they were doing the car parts, Mom and I were working on the food for the open house. I had all those rolls we made at Christmas and we made chicken salad and those yummy sandwiches I posted about last week and some turkey and cheese. We really enjoyed the time working together.

Lying in bed thinking things through one night, I was worried about space and how to have all the sandwiches made and ready to go without having them stacked all over the house. I came up with a solution on how to stack them. I used legos and blocks to stack the trays ontop of each other. Each type of sandwich was stacked on top of itself. The sandwiches that were baked were topped with foil and the others with saran wrap.

To my suprise, some long time friends from the Boston area showed up many hours early to offer their help. Several of my other helpers didn't show or I told not to come due to having enough help (so I thought). Tom and Brenda need a HUGE thank you for their help decorating the front porch area. I wish now I got some pictures of them working but I was a bit busy.

We enjoyed the night and I was about to take some pictures when a neighbor fell and it threw my night off. I felt horrible about the situation and really never got back into the mode of picture taking. She is fine and I visited with her and she assures me she is fine. It is just one of those things that can happen any time and anywhere.

I was thrilled that I was able to get some photos of the girls and the bride to send to Princess number 2 who is now safely in Taiwan. I laughed when I thought about how I got picutures of the decorations at the reception but non of our family and how I got some pictures of our family at the open house but no pictures of the final product on the decorations.

Well, any way I look at it, I am just VERY happy that it is all over. For just over the past year, I have had trips, weddings, missions, schooling, kids health issues etc looming somewhere in the near future. Looking forward from here, I am happy to say I don't have many "Big Events" looming. I feel like I may be able to start working on my house and some other projects. Not that I don't have lots going on still with the girls. Princess number three gets ready to graduate and head to college in a few months. It's just that I feel a great relief having Princess one married, with a good job and a good husband and he is just about finished with school, they are doing well and happy.

Princess number two is safe and happy in Taiwan. The rest of the gang is doing well and I pray no issues, accidents or other calamity comes up as I could use some time off. What to do next..........