K.E.N.T.U.C.K.Y. night!

We hit the road by 5am on Saturday morning. Heading for Kentucky to witness the marriage of my nephew and his bride. Unfortunately the entire time we were in Iowa, there was freezing sleet and instead of getting into Missouri in 3 hours, it took 5. We saw many accidents, a bus overturned with wrestling players crowded onto the shoulder of the highway, many cars facing the wrong direction in ditches, 45 minute traffic jam, etc. It was like God was trying to tell us to go home. But we persevered and made it to Missouri where the roads were clear.We didn't want to stop too long anywhere so I brought a loaf of bread, peanut butter and oranges. By the time we got there, I was burping peanut butter a lot... This trip may have cured me of pbj's.

Anyway, did you know there are NO straight roads in Illinois or Kentucky? Yep. And our GPS found every curvy road in those states and forced us to drive on them. And at the very last mile or two, pointed us in the wrong direction. Yes. We were less than 2 miles from the church and good ole Gypsy made us turn right instead of left. Hmm.. No church here. We drove around a little, called my dad who had traveled down too and woke him up. He'd been napping in the car while my sister Teresa and mom were in a store. He hadn't driven, so he didn't know. So I called the groom's mom, my other sister Tammy. Since we couldn't tell her exactly where we were, she made a few guesses and then we saw a sign. Whew! We were 2 hours early, but we weren't leaving the church for anything!!!

Got to visit with my nephews and nieces for a while before the wedding. It was great! I only see them at Thanksgivings, funerals & Facebook. Now weddings! There are 9 kids in their family. 7 boys and 2 girls. Finally getting the chance to see them all together was great! Usually only a few come up at a time to visit.Then my sister and parents showed up. After making a biting but joking comment about my outfit proceeded to conspire with Meri to make me think they were talking about me... I love my family!

The wedding started 30 minutes late, but was very lovely. Rose petals everywhere! Crabby miniature bride, weeping mothers of the bride & groom. It was great.

And then they were married.At the reception, I found out that my sister Tammy, mother of the groom, had catered all the food herself and had spent all day at the hall preparing food! wow. My other sister, Teresa, and I helped dish everything up and set up the serving table. Sending some young man around with hor doerves. (Ok -I know I'm spelling this wrong... but spell checker just ISN'T helping me out!)

When I put our gift for the couple on the gift table, I accidentally knocked over a decorative tree. Which almost hit a lit candle, but instead knocked over a different decorative tree. After much persuasion I managed to make them stand up without falling over. But some ladies at one of the tables kept an eye on me. I think they thought I'd found some of the "adult" punch... Nope - just me with very little sleep and a sore back from the car...

My girls had a good time catching up with their cousins and when the dance started, we realized we had to leave. We drove an hour back towards Iowa and stayed at a hotel that I can only describe as follows...

Bates motel / Children of the Corn / Elf /My Name is Earl / Deliverance.

After church the next morning in Cape Girardeau, which also has no straight roads, we headed home. The roads were clear all the way and we finally saw the sun when we got to the Iowa border!

Oh - here's my outfit that I made for the event and for my Christmas dress. I've doctored it a bit, so you can't tell that it actually makes me look wider in the front with those little flappy things... Not sure about those. I may change it up a little if/when I make it next.