Catching My Breath

We're home - for two days - so I am scrambling to do laundry and keep things together, pay bills, relax, breathe. Sigh.

Missouri was actually not completely unenjoyable - ! Usually, I find it painful. My in-laws mean well. But they are ... different. They live their lives very differently than we do, and it can be trying to be around them for a long time.

They are completely unaware of this. They have no idea. Yet, at the same time, they have many words to say about living so close to Gary's grandmother. We love her, but wow, she would drive anyone crazy. But my in-laws see no similarity in the situation. She can be unbearable, but they are just as accommodating as can be.

Before I go further, I should say that they are good people. They mean well; they have good intentions. But they live at a very different level than we do. Conversations are about how well the garden is growing, discussing how the cousins/aunts/uncles are doing, what's happening at church, and how good dinner was or will be. The election was broached - briefly - and my MIL put the kibosh on that conversation - too controversial. No opposing viewpoints allowed.

The big anniversary soirée was Saturday night. The room was nicer than I expected. Props to my SIL - she did not have a lot of venues from which to choose, and this room was quite nice. It was a warm 72 degrees in there the entire evening (not so good for the three men in suits) but really, quite nice. A few highlights should give you an idea of how it went:

• Venue calls on Thursday - providing champagne for toast tricky and expensive. Can we bring it ourselves? (Yes, but why you didn't tell us this in, say, December when the room was booked is curious.)
• We worked out a rough timeline for the evening: Cocktails/gathering 5-6, dinner at 6, presentation, toast, dessert. My SIL says, I told them we'd eat at 5.30. ?? 5.30? You must be joking - that is outrageously early to eat, and 30 minutes is not enough time for socializing. She called to change it, and they'd already scheduled dinner for 6. Naturally. My SIL has no event-planning savvy.
• Power point was flawless - great animations, thanks to my girls, great photos, all organized with commentary and quiz questions. Perfect. My SIL shows up with the projector ... which will not hook up to our Mac laptop. We have only USB inputs. (Gary swears we have that adapter at home, but I still don't see it.) We transferred the power point to his work laptop, which was unable to read all the photos we had dropped from a disk into iPhoto, but we were able to salvage them from his parents' computer. But the animations did not transfer (version difference in power point), so we had to settle for lame second-best quiz animation. Small problem, all told.
• SIL finds decorations, including little confetti 50s, in Kansas City. Arrives on Friday without them. So we drive to Hallmark in Festus, park the car, look up, and we are parked in front of party store - how fortuitous is that?? Found just the confetti we wanted. Perfect! Arrive to decorate and are told, No problem, just no confetti. Sad ....
• Invitations say 5 p.m. People arrive at 4.35. I just don't understand. Bar refused to serve til 5 - fair enough, we said 5. Can't people read? Gary's parents didn't even get there til after 5.
• I won't even get into the fashion nightmare. But I will say this: I know it was a summer event. I know it's Festus, Missouri. No tie was required.But I think you can do better than jeans, tennis shoes, and a t-shirt. Really.
• Power point was a hit - my girls are very clever and creative. They did a nice job. Gary did a great job as MC.

My girls looks beautiful - when we get photos, I'll post one - they were so cute. My husband looked pretty good. And I had a great dress and shoes - must have been great, because my feet were killing me.

All in all, the event went well. And they deserved it - not everyone gets to celebrate 50 years of marriage. We'll be doing something along these lines in 2011 for my parents, though I imagine it will be somewhat different.

Congratulations, Joyce and David Mueller, on 50 years of marriage. Here's to you!