The Final Countdown

The day before the day we've all been waiting for arrived this morning,
because Dave and Kara get hitched tomorrow.

That meant that today was obligated to be full of family, fun, and last minute preparations.

We started off with breakfast with Grandma & Grandpa Kooistra at a diner near Keith and Marisa's house.  

(I just have one thing to say--Yum.) 

We ate to our heart's content, in celebration of our boy.  

Then, there was the requisite mother/daughter mani/pedi,

(which marked my 2nd mani/pedi in a week--a treat for a girl who typically averages one every three years...)

followed by the all-important flower arranging:

All of this, of course, was just filling time until Kara arrived at the hotel,

 where the bride and groom happily reunited after being apart for two whole days while Kara was with her family.

The rest of us happily joined them for some sibling togetherness.

Soon, however, it was time for Keith, Marisa, Dave, and I to return to Mom & Dad's 

in order to get ready for the evening ahead.

The boys and I crowded into the bathroom, 

and reminisced on days gone by as we primped.

Somehow sharing a sink was a lot easier when we were littler...

but despite the lack of mirror space our primping paid off,

and we gathered at the rehearsal dinner with family and friends.

After some good eats, we headed off to the church.

We took our appropriate places,

and behaved ourselves (for the most part)

as the reality hit us that this is for real...

...tomorrow our Davy becomes a married man!

Can I get a witness?

No.  But I can be one!

Apparently you need to have a marriage license before you can have a marriage.

What's more, you need to have a witness to attest that your marriage will not be a fraud.

Hence, I signed my life away this past Tuesday:

"I solemnly swear that these two are who they say they are..."

(I think....?)

After we filled out the application, we raised our right hands in front of our new friend Angela and swore we were telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth (so help us Angela).  

Then we did a little dance of joy.

That evening we began wedding family togetherness:

The men hit golf balls in the back yard.

The women prepared the food.

And then we simply reveled in how good God has been to us.

Let us be a witness.

There are Benefits to Being in Boston

After Kara's Bachelorette Extravaganza officially finished up on Sunday, 

I stuck around for some quality alone time with Kara & Dave. 

 

We spent much of Sunday talking and churching, 

but there was also some wedding preparation attended to

while I made myself useful in the kitchen.

Monday morning these two headed off to work while I took care of some pieces of my life from their apartment.  

At the appropriate hour, I took myself downtown.

I met Dave for lunch.

I wandered through H&M, Anthropologie, Crate & Barrel.

I visited Kara in her office at Park Street Church, 

and then sat for a few luscious hours in the Public Garden, 

getting some valuable studying done within view of this guy

and the willow trees that are my favorite part of the garden.

When Dave and Kara finished work, we met up briefly, 

and wandered a bit in the sunshine until it was time for me to meet up with

Karen!

(Karen was my roommate in Princeton and now lives in Boston...)

We ditched D & K and settled down at a table in Cafe Jaffa, a Middle Eastern restaurant that I highly recommend.  We feasted on lamb and falafel, and caught up on all of the excitement happening in both of our lives (particularly her newly engaged one).  We relished in the fact that we were actually seeing each other face-to-face, instead of playing our usual game of phone-tag.

We ended the evening with some Turkish coffee--which is quite a way to end an evening--and the perfect way to end the perfect day.  

Kara's a Bachelorette...

...but not for long! 

So, last Friday, her sister Laura and I drove up to Boston to take her out on the town to celebrate.

We arrived to a meal of chicken enchiladas and sangria prepared by our hosts, and spent Friday evening in horror, watching Bridezillas.  

(I highly recommend that you search "Bridezilla Karen" on you tube--you will discover the reason why our favorite quote of the weekend became "I'm nawt apawlagizing to a dawhmaan"...)

The next morning found us at a salon on Newbury Street, where some of Kara's friends joined us. 

We were treated like princesses,

as we laughed and talked and were generally pampered.

After we were sufficiently prettied up, we took Kara for some essential bachelorette shopping,

and then headed home to get ready for dinner at a fun Italian place near Fenway.

We finished off our evening with drinks at Top of the Hub--

a swanky little joint at the top of the Prudential Center with a stunning view of the city--

and then arrived home to these adorable cupcakes made by the doting groom.

We couldn't have said it better ourselves!

Seek That Which Is Essential

Today I am in New Jersey, thinking about that which is essential.

To be "essential" is to be "indispensable"--necessary. Requisite. Imperative. Vital.  Important. Having to do with the very nature of a thing, at its most basic.

As in--when all is said and done, what is it that you most need? Because nothing else should matter.

For instance, when in New Jersey--as I happen to be--it is essential to make a visit to the local bagel store the very first moment one has a chance.  Bagels are essential elements of life. (You think I'm kidding....)

(Ok, I am.  Sort of.)

So, this morning I picked up my New Jersey bagel on the way to visit a friend who is essential to my life.  A friend I would travel to New Jersey a day before I had to just to see. Ironically, the friend who taught me what it is to seek that which is essential.

This particular friend lives in Macau.  Google "Macau", and you will understand that she and I do not see each other frequently.  Her name is Deb, though I lovingly refer to her as "Deborah Ann" most of the time.  I met her at Camp-of-the-Woods, an eon ago, where she quickly embedded herself into my summer and into my heart.  Where she quickly became--essential.


Here is the thing about essential friends: They are a part of your heart, no matter what your circumstances.  For instance, I never talk to Deb on the phone.  On occasion we may exchange a one or two sentence email. We feel no need to maintain our friendship between her visits home.  We wait until we are at least a state away and then--we do not let anything get in the way of our picking up where we left off.

Because here is another thing about essential friends: You should drop everything to get to them.

Now, where we left off always has to do with "What is God doing?" because "What God is doing" is the essential. There is nothing else that matters.  And this is what Deb taught me, all those years ago.

It was Deb who showed me what it looks like to disregard what the world says is important, necessary. Requisite, imperative and all of that. It was Deb who provided a model of what it means to sit in a chair in the sunshine, seeking, dwelling in, loving the Presence of a Holy God. Seeking His Purpose--setting aside my self, the things that I want, all that the world dangles before my eyes as a truth I should buy into.

It was Deb who helped me see:
Give everything you've got to seek the Absolute Essential, and don't worry about the rest.

Summer of Heather & Lauren

The Summer of Heather and Lauren.

SOHL.

As in "refreshing to our SOHLs".  

[Although, as someone very smart pointed out to me this morning, we could also call it SHAL, giving precedence to the "a" over the "o".  As in, "Thou SHAL(t?) spend every possible moment together, refreshing your sohls...."?] 

In any case--SOHL or SHAL or even SoHaL [which makes no sense so will be stricken from the record] commenced in full force the moment that school got done and the schedule of life became a bit more flexible.

It began with a spontaneous 

"Lauren drops by after Heather picks the girls up from school".  

It didn't go so well.  After-school time--we discovered too late--is Heather's "introverted" time.  This happens so infrequently that I am not condemning it here.  I am just stating the facts: She ignored me.  Which was fine, because the beautiful thing about family-like friendships is that you can be whatever you need to be whenever you need to be it and the other party understands.  And lets you have your moment.  

[And goes and does her own thing out on your deck.]  

It was also ok because the next installment happened shortly thereafter:

Movie night on the big screen in the chilly basement.

To kick it off: The Time Traveler's Wife [recommended to you by SOHL].  And since movie night has been identified as standard SOHL fare: The Education [Although, if someone says to you "This should be our next movie"--RUN.  Learn from me, because I wish I had....] and  Dear John [recommended, with tissues near by...].

[I also highly recommend that if you decide to pursue a SOHL of your own, you should enlist a husband to be your beer-runner.  Let's take a moment to give a shout out to Ash, without whom the Summer of Heather and Lauren would cease to exist....]

There have also been spontaneous "stay and watch American Idol!!!" and "stay and watch Glee!!!!" moments, exclamation points courtesy of Heather.  Spontaneous "come over for dinner!!!"s. Spontaneous drop-ins: "What are you doing right now? You need to see my hair cut" and "I was just on my way to the gym and thought I'd stop in" type moments.  [In the words of Heather: "The Summer of Heather and Lauren is about not calling" before dropping in.  In the words of Lauren: Lovely.]

And here's the thing about summer and spontaneity and friendships that allow you to just be: 

 You can drop in after children have gone to bed, in your pajamas.  You can call and talk for 3 seconds or an hour.  You can clean your toilets while you talk.  And you can talk about the things that no one else wants to hear about, as much as you want to--"ad nauseam" in the words of Heather, who said to me this morning "put it in there--ad nauseam".  [You can also direct each other's blogging, apparently...] 

Tomorrow the Summer of Heather and Lauren goes on a brief hiatus since I leave for wedding travels sometime in the afternoon, and will return home as Heather leaves for her own travels.  

We are not worried, however, as we have mastered the art of SOHLful phone conversation.

And--tonight's the season finale of Glee!!!!!!!!!!!--
so, guess where I'll be? 

A little bit of family, a little bit of music, a little bit of food. A lot of Blessing.

Once upon a time, in a land far away, a little girl gathered with her aunts, a piano to play.  The little girl grew, and the aunts moved away, and the next generation took over the day:

(Where did this rhyming come from? I apologize if I got your expectations up, but let's get back to reality...)

The little girl is now the eldest of these lovely ladies, the daughters of the pianist above and cousins extraordinaire. This weekend we carried on the music making tradition begun so many years ago by playing a small concert in the Adirondacks, which these precious girls and their family newly call home. 

First things first, however--we had to GET READY:  

We are girls, after all.

When we felt confident that we were dolled up appropriately, we headed to the church and to our waiting audience.  Our adoring public.  Basically--our family members, plus a few souls who weren't drawn by our competition for the weekend--Richard Marx, playing somewhere else in town.  (I was looking for a moment to sneak out to see him instead, but there was always someone watching me...)

Johanna played the violin quite beautifully.

Kate sang like an angel.

Rachel caused the piano to sweetly sing, and then proved herself to be a valuable page turner:

(other than that time she put the music on the rack upside down....)

My contribution to the evening was to accompany the musicians, and to play a few numbers of my own.  

And when all was said and done, we were smiling.  

The audience was smiling.  

The world felt like a good place to be. 

It only got better after that, because the next day we indulged in still being together.  Our hosts, my Uncle Ned and Aunt Lois, grilled us up a ton of meat.  Members from both sides of the family relaxed together, laughed together, ate together.  

My grandparents were there, my parents were there, my aunt and uncle were there, my cousins were there, I was there. 

This very rarely happens all at the same time.... 

...and this is how we felt about it.  

Blessed.