Home Safe and Sound

I'm back in St. Louis now. I had a good time in UT even though I missed Branden the entire time. I was actually surprised at how much he missed me. I received many texts telling me how much I was missed... Including a few in the middle of the night which, while sweet, interrupted my sleep.

I cried intermittently on the plane while flying out to UT. I knew I would. Branden lent me his iPod Touch in an effort to distract me from such things. Yep, I cried while watching Wall-E and while listening to music and playing solitaire. I think the lady across the isle from me thought I was a little mentally unstable. Oh, well. Rick picked me up from the airport and I almost didn't recognize him- his hair was kinda longish and bleached blonde! He took me to Mom and Dad's house where I watched TV and took a nap. Around 1 PM I decided that I should get started on the frosting for the cake.

I was making American buttercream which requires shortening. I opened the can and found that it was grainy. I've never seen that before and I don't know what caused it, all I know was that it was unusable. Thankfully Mom left me keys to Dad's truck so I jumped in and headed to the store with the Can of Grossness. The lady at the service desk felt my pain and sent me back to get a new can. Unfortunately, all of the cans of that shortening had the same expiration date. Sure enough, when we opened the can I chose off the shelf it was also grainy. Ms. Service Desk was kind enough to let me exchange my shortening for one that was a little pricier since they couldn't do a straight across trade. And, yes, she also let me check it before I left the store.

I managed to make all the frosting and still get to James' work in time to give him a ride home. He had to create Chantelle's wedding video so I sat on the couch and talked to him while he worked. Amy was able to come up to Ogden and hang out with me. James was a total sweetheart- he normally is a pretty nice guy- and made us hamburgers for dinner. After Amy left, James and I waited for Mom and Dad to get home from St. George. Mom and I played a couple games of Rumikub and I lost both... In my defense, it was 2 AM my time and I wasn't exactly the most wakeful person. When Mom went to bed, Dad and James and I sat up and talked for another hour and some. I finally crawled into Chantelle's empty bed and was almost instantly asleep.

I awoke in a near-pitch-black room at 9:30 Friday morning. Turns out that Chantelle's old room is pretty much always pitch-black. Mom was upstairs waiting at the kitchen table and as soon as I changed she took me out to breakfast. We had a good time talking and then shopping at JoAnn's. We chose out the ribbon for Chantelle's cake and looked at some of the fall decor while I had nightmares... I mean DREAMS of my own upcoming wedding. We picked up the wedding flowers and headed back to my parents' house so I could decorate the cake.

Things went pretty smoothly on that front. The cake was baked by a very nice woman who knows my family and it was great to work with. I froze it and, aside from a small mishap when I dropped the partially-iced, still-frozen bottom layer on the table and nearly gave Stacy a heart attack, I had a fairly easy time of things. I will say that I wished they hadn't chosen to have the middle and top layers red velvet. It stayed together just fine but it also showed through the buttercream if it was less than 1/2" thick. Once the cake was iced, wrapped with ribbon and stowed in my parents' outside fridge, I was able to help out with a few other things before taking a shower and getting ready to go.

Skipping the part where Chantelle was freaking out about being late and I had to shake some sense back into her, the reception seemed to go quite well. The video James made was quite nice, I heard good things about the looks of the cake, the muffins that the caterer served were quite tasty- though I suspect they came from Sam's Club- Chantelle was a pretty little bride and Jeremy was all smiles and I got to see some people I was looking forward to seeing. Katie's son Josh didn't really remember me at first but after I picked him up and tossed/spun him around a little he remembered... And wanted me to toss him around some more. I was a dork and forgot to bring the camera but thankfully Christina took a bunch of pictures and James was kind enough to email some to me. I will post a few later, but probably not tonight.

I did get a little sad, though, because by the time I get married next year, all of this will be old news for my family. I'm the seventh child out of nine to marry even though I'm the fourth oldest. I try not to mind that two of my little sisters and one of my little brothers managed to get married before me. After all, I am engaged and I am happy with the man I will be marrying. If I'd gotten married before all of them, I wouldn't be with him or where I am today. I don't know where I'd be, but I don't really believe that I'd be a lot happier. Branden and I love each other and we're generally happy. What's more, he's my best friend... The other part of my box set. Yes, we are fine separately, but we're so much better together.

Back to my trip: I spent Friday night at Katie's house and once again stayed up past my bedtime talking. Saturday morning Katie had to go practice a dance so I cuddled with Josh while watching Nightmare Before Christmas- his choice, I swear!- and chatted with Sharon. My mom picked me up for lunch and we played a few more games of Rumikub- this time I won a couple! Afterward, I spent FOREVER helping my mom sort, delete and generally clean up the pictures on her computer. As a reward, my mom fed me brownies, YUM!

Amy picked me up and we went shopping to find a dress for her and Katie to wear at my wedding. Katie met us at Dillard's where we gave up on the mall and headed over to Target. We found a fun dress on clearance for $6.24! So now we have a place to start for them. They'll need some sort of jackets or shrugs as it's a summery dress and Amy's will need to be hemmed, but at least we have something! I was concerned about finding a dress for them that would be inexpensive but also have potential to be something they'd wear again. I let them pick it themselves so... I HOPE they weren't both lying when they said they liked it.

Saturday night was pizza night with the family. We had just the kind of conversation Mom likes to discourage us from having at the table- full of stories about poo and vomit. :) I spent the night at Katie's again and got a little bit more sleep this time, though not much more. Joshie woke me Sunday morning and was SO cute I had to take a couple pictures. Katie made us biscuits for breakfast then she and I went shopping for my Christmas present.

I should state that Katie is an awesome shopper and loves to do it. The only shopping that I like is grocery shopping- which I LOVE but that's another post entirely. All of my clothes are wearing out, though, and I'm 27 and only wear t-shirts so I told her it was time for a change. Nothing drastic, but maybe some polos or some shirts that were more than t-shirts but less than nice shirts. She helped me pick out some things to try on and we managed to find four new shirts that are just the sort of thing I was looking for. She sent one home with me and will wrap the others and mail them to me for Christmas.

One more trip back to my parents' house to say good-bye to everyone and get a ride to Amy's house in Bountiful and my trip was nearly over. Amy and I ate lunch together at Dee's in Sugarhouse. I love Dee's and they have a great special for November: a ham and cheese melt with fries and a GIANT piece of pumpkin pie for less than the normal price of the sandwich and fries. All too soon it was time for me to be at the airport. What I didn't realize was that Amy can use her Delta badge to get through airport security and she came with me all the way to the gate!

Once on the plane, I only cried a little. If home is where the heart is, then my home is about 85% in St. Louis with Branden and about 15% with my family and friends. I love them, I miss them, but I was always going to have to leave them in some form or other. As the holidays commence, I know I will miss being in UT immensely. I will be sad to miss seeing extended family at Thanksgiving and/or Christmas. I will miss opening presents, decorating and baking with my family. Christmas won't be the same without the excitement of children or the lights on Temple Square or in Downtown Ogden. BUT, this is home now. I had a good time in UT but it's still good to be home.