Sunday, July 1, 2007

Two Weddings & A Baby


Saturday was kind of a busy day for me. I picked up Nikki, we went to breakfast then headed south towards Effingham for our friend Karen's wedding to Ben. For those of you not "in the know", Karen is one of my Assembly Hall buds, and lived with me for a semester a number of years ago when she was doing her student teaching in Champaign. Anywho, the picture above is of Nikki and I with the lovely bride. It is probably one of the few pictures out there of the three of us where we are not dressed in Cardinal red or Illini orange posing at either a baseball or basketball game, with some hand painted sign with a clever slogan declaring our undying love for our team. Yep, Karen and Ben were the ones doing the declaring of undying love on Saturday. Not to brag, but us sporty girls can clean up pretty good.

One of the very best parts of the wedding and reception was hanging out with one of my new favorite guys, Jeremiah. I enjoyed hanging out with his parents, John and Marla, too of course (John would be from the Assembly Hall gang as well), but they don't usually have as many new tricks to show me as Jeremiah does. The little J Man is almost eight months old, has blue eyes that won't quit, and is possibly the best baby ever! He is always such a good baby, happy as a clam, content to be passed around from lap to lap and smile and giggle at you. In between the wedding and reception he showed us how he as learned to crawl, and this is a picture I snapped when he was taking a break. At the reception we soon learned that he is quite the Kool & The Gang fan, as he was really into "Celebration". Jeremiah has his own blog (he is very advanced, but I think he has an assistant or editor perhaps), and a couple of months ago when we took him to Busch Stadium along with his parents, Nikki and I so made his blog. Thanks for the good press J Man, right back at you bud.





Unfortunately we couldn't stay long the Patterson-Christner reception, as Nikki and I needed to head on over to Oreana for a wedding reception for my cousin, Mark and his new wife, Sheri. They were married in Hawaii in March, and were having a reception to celebrate. Conveniently enough Nikki was invited to this shin-dig as well, as her family is good friends with Sheri because Nikki's younger sister, Angie, and Sheri's daughter, Courtney were best buds growing up. Anyway, it was nice to have company on the nearly 2 hour drive from Newton to Oreana.


We were a little late to the second reception, but still had a great time. I had a great time hanging out with the family, especially my "M Cousins" (Mark, Mary Beth, Marcia, Michael and Martin and their respective families) many of whom I don't get to see all that much. I can't really recall what all was said, but I know I laughed A LOT! I do remember the guys doing this whole bit about my Uncle Merv throwing a good party and spinning some jammin' tunes. The boys were all doing impressions of Merv as DJ, and they said his DJ name should be "Near Death"..., I suggested my Dad could be his sidekick and his name could be "Hop-A-Long G".


A lot of time in the car, but so worth it! Congrats to Karen & Ben and Mark & Sheri, and may God bless your marriages with much happiness and laughter. Love you all!


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