Before the Wedding - the Rehearsel Dinner

After a long year of anticipation, it hardly seems possible that the wait is over and I'm a mother-in-law.  I loved this year's Mother's Day card from Alex and Laura:

What can I say, the wedding was the most beautiful I've ever attended.  I admit to a certain amount of predjudice, of course.  I'll be posting some pictures.

Elmira ( the wonderful lady, without whom I could not have raised my boys since being a sexual assault nurse examiner for the city and county of San Francisco meant having to leave home at every hour of the day and night and never knowing when one would return! ) and I left for Sacramento about 11AM on Thursday, May 6, 2010, an incredibly beautiful sunny day and made the trip in two hours.  We went first to Laura and Alex's home so I could see my granddogs. 

Taffy and Bucky seemed to sense that something was in the air.  While everyone paid attention to them, they were clearly not the top priority as they usually are!

Bucky looks a little sad in this photo!  Even though his Uncle Jeremy and beautiful Katie would be staying with them when Alex and Laura spent their wedding night at a nice Sacramento hotel.

Taffy decided to give Mommy's face a lick for good measure....ummm, this makeup tastes good!

Since the boys were off to pick up their tuxedos, we girls thought we should find a place for lunch.  Laura just couldn't sit still, anyway.  We headed to downtown Sacramento and Ma Jong's.  The rest of the city seemed to have the same idea since it was pretty crowded. 

Here I am with beautiful Laura - you can see how lucky Alex is!

Here are Elmira, Katie ( Jeremy's lovely girlfriend ) and Laura

Carmen and Elmira

Laura and Katie

Laura's Thai basil chicken chow fun ( she didn't eat very much! )

Ma's eggplant with shrimp ( I had no problem finishing mine! )

Elmira chose Shanghai noodle soup ( there was plenty of this left over )

We dropped Laura off at home, then headed to the Hampton Inn in Elk Grove to take a little nap and get ready for the rehearsel dinner which was held at Bucca de Beppo in Sacramento.  Laura's great aunt and grandmother were at the hotel so we all had a cup of tea together before nap time.  My brother, Charley, and his wife, Susan, had arrived from Atlanta, much to my delight so Alex would have some family on his side at the wedding.  I really appreciated their making the trip. 

We had a great evening at Bucca de Beppo.  The menu was incredible and there was so much food and myriad dishes - gnocchi, eggplant parmagiana, some sort of linguini, ribs - I can't remember it all.  The wines we chose were excellent - Chateau St. Jean chardonnay and an Italian blend I still can't remember - sangiovese, merlot and cabernet that got a Best Buy and a 90 in the Wine Spectator.  

The wedding party opened their gifts from the bride and groom-to-be and we left filled with happiness and good wishes for this lovely couple.

 Laura and Alex

Trudi, Laura's grandmother

Mandy, Laura's maid of honor

Christine, Laura's mother

I can't remember if this lovely young lady's name is Lani or Nani!

Jeremy ( the groom's brother ) and his lovely girlfriend, Katie

Alex with Susan Henesy, his aunt from Georgia

Collin, reading his card

Laura, Alex and Elmira

Tomorrow I'll post the shots of the wedding.  I'm hoping to get permission from some of the other relatives, who took incredible pictures, to use them in my blog.  Not only did I get a beautiful daughter from this marriage, I now have an extended family which is so wonderful for me.  Aside from my brother, Charley and my sister-in-law ( she's really more like a sister ), a half brother, John, and an aunt Jane, both of whom we rarely see, the Henesy clan is very short on family.  It is wonderful to have met so many great folks to whom Laura is related. 

I'm Bucky - Making My Debut on Pet Pride

Bucky

I'm Bucky - Making My Debut on Pet Pride

Well, I couldn't be outdone by my sister, Taffy!  You met her last week so I figured it was high time I introduced myself.  After all, I'm a year older ( and wiser, I like to think ) and the male member of the doggie duo in our household and I share the same grandma, Carmen Henesy of Carmen's Chronicles.  I think Grandma Carmen loves me just as much as she loves Taffy though I take up more of the bed when I sleep with her and I am a bit heavier than Taffy.  I kind of like to play rings with her and wrestle a bit.  She always worries that I'll lose my teeth pulling on those rings but I am very strong and so are my teeth!  I scare her a bit when I race through the doggie doors like I'm running the Indy 500.  So far, I've never missed the opening and hit the wall - my eyesight is perfect!

I joined the household two months after my mom and dad, Laura and Alex, brought Taffy home from the same animal shelter, Yolo County.  They knew I'd be good company for Taffy and I could protect her when they were away at work.  Not that she can't look after herself.  Don't let that sweet little face fool you.  She can put you in your place when she feels like it!  She's a bit prissy, though.  When we got out for runs, she doesn't want to jump in the mud puddles like I do.
What's wrong with getting a bit dirty, I say!  Also, she's not one for playing with toys or running after balls.  At the dog park, she'll run after dogs, running after balls ( not in a mean way, or anything ) - she just doesn't get a kick retrieving balls.  Now me, I should be on a major league baseball team, I'm so good catching balls and bringing them back!

I do try to get Taffy to play and wrestle so she doesn't just sit around all the time looking regal and pretty.  She'll do it up to a point, then, geeze, I'll hear a little growl, and, all of a sudden I see those teeth, and I back off.  We never really fight, though.  Look at this picture of us at meal time, side by side, slurping up our food ( I have a bigger dish and more food because I'm bigger and
more active! ).

This is me giving my Uncle Shawn a real work out with the rings.  He can lift me all the way up off the floor and I won't let go. 

My dad, Alex, really loves me and Taffy

( and Laura, of course - their wedding is a week away, May 7 )

I wish they would let us go - Taffy wanted to be dog of honor and I wanted to be best dog!

Saturday Ramblings - 4-3-10

I woke up early this morning, for some reason. This house has been eerily quiet with the three male residents away in Las Vegas for Alex's bachelor party. I never realized how much noise three testosterone filled young men can make! I guess I've just gotten used to the loud shrieks of laughter or heated debates or - heaven forbid - wrestling matches - ensuing from upstairs! I guess that's why, when Jeremy asked me if his lifelong friend, Jorell, could move in with us, I didn't bat an eye. He was almost like a son, anyway, and Alex had moved away after high school so we were a boy short in this house. Jorell's the quiet one, anyway - or, should I say, the quietest of the three. After Tuesday, when Shawn reports to Travis AFB, I won't hear his guitar strumming at all hours of the day and night. It's been part of my life as long as I can remember. Maybe I'll have to get him to make me a CD to comfort me while he's away. Uh oh, I'd better stop that or I'll be crying again. Or I'd better get all the tears done before the kids get home tomorrow night. I don't want to cry in front of Shawn.

I think I'm taking the gang to dinner at Manivanh on Monday night, just in case Shawn doesn't get back down before they deploy. It's a Thai restaurant, owned by a Laotian family, that have become friends over the last fifteen years. I'm going to write a blog about them sometime since they are truly special to me and signifigant in our lives. Every important occasion in our family has been marked by dinner there - birthdays, graduations, losses - including my job. I love the
Douangpanya family and it is only fitting that Shawn's farewell dinner be there in the midst of chicken wings, duck salad and the Carmen's Special ( I even have my own dish which is eaten by hundreds of San Franciscans! ).

I cannot believe my suitcase lies here unpacked, for over a week.  I'm in some kind of state of inertia ( well, okay, laziness ).  I've hardly stepped outside the house.  I've not even put on eyeshadow so, of course, I cannot go anywhere.  I have spent useless hours on the internet, playing FARKLE.  It is pretty sad, too, since, yesterday, I had two million points and, today, I am down to one hundred.  It is a good thing I am not playing for money. 

I am supposed to be working on a poem to be read at the wedding reception of my son, Alex, and his lovely bride-to-be, Laura.  For some reason, I have writer's block.  There is so much I want to say but I need to keep it brief.  I want there to be some humor but I want to convey how much I love this child and how happy I am that he chose such a wonderful girl ( oh gosh, here go the tears again - what is wrong with me? ).  I've come up with random verses over the last few weeks but, did I write them down?  Of course not.  That would have been too smart and I'm not functioning that way these days. 

My brother called yesterday from the extended care facility in Gwinnett, Georgia.  He had my mom in a wheelchair, sitting outdoors in the warm sun.  She is no longer going to rehab as she would not participate - I don't really think she is capable of doing so.  She is so sedated, she falls asleep constantly.  Sadly, that means she cannot ambulate.  She did, however, feed herself the other night when Charley was there and she finished her entire meal.  Apparently, the food is quite good and there is a pretty extensive menu selection which I filled out for her before I left.  Charley said she loved the okra and tomatoes....good old Southern cooking!

I will see my good friend, Joanne Olivieri, poet and blogger, and fellow jazz aficionada, for an
Easter breakfast tomorrow and a consultation about publishing my first book of poems.  She's just done her third book, this time on Amazon.com.  It's wonderful - "Nameless Faces" - but I would expect only the best from her.

Thank you all so much for your support during this time, with my mom's illness and Shawn's imminent deployment to Afghanistan.  It means so much to me.

Blessings to each and every one of you at this Easter and Passover season.  May you share it with those you love.