White Lobelia

I shouldn't do a blogpost today.........since The Cows already did one; they can be just so considerate at times! But, I had to show you this wildflower from the road ditch:Its a pure white lobelia, a rare occurence, so says some of the wildflower literature I've read. Elsewhere in the ditch are the usual blue-colored lobelia. Evidently the pure white variety is just an occasional fluke........if you keep the seeds, they won't grow back white again, so says the literature. You have to do a root cutting, it said. There's only one stalk of this white one and I hate to mess around with it, but would love to somehow transplant it to my flower garden. I'm goofy like this, but I think this flower was sent in honor of my son and daughter-in-law's wedding this summer!

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I also wanted to show how amazingly gorgeous the sky was this morning! We're having much cooler temperatures now; I've worn long sleeves all day today. Autumn is my favorite season......so BRING IT ON!!

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The Cows mentioned the wedding videos, I see. Sigh. Yes, its wonderful to have the lovely ceremony captured forever on video.......but.......but........I won't whine anymore.

Husband's brother did the videotaping with his new little video camera; it records on those smaller-sized CD's. He was here today and we were trying to figure out how to make copies of them, without success. I did manage to copy them onto our computer, but cannot burn them to a DVD........an error message keeps popping up: "Copying disabled." OK, whatever.

Besides the wedding ceremony, Brother-in-law taped the whole receiving line coming out of the church, as we parents greeted everyone. (The bride and groom stood in the church aisle and greeted guests as they exited from the pews.) The receiving line is really fun to watch, for you get to see everyone who was there! And, there's my voice shrilling in the background, saying for what seems like hundreds of times, like a broken record: "Thank you for being here!" Good grief. When my next child gets married, I'll need to come up with some variants of that greeting!

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The Stolen Bride

Yes, a True Confession coming right up.........I look really concerned about doing such a thing, don't I......probably because I have nothing exciting to confess, other than I'm the typical Lutheran garden-variety "poor, miserable sinner".

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First of all, a confession of stupidity........look at the photo and consider how idiotic I was back then in 1978: It was the middle of JULY.......there I was in a long-sleeved wedding dress, with a collar up to my 20-year-old double-chin and short neck. Whatever was I thinking?

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Actually, the scene in the photo is of when I threw my bouquet, out in front of the Baptist church; and a wimpish, paltry throw it was, landing just a few feet behind me. The girl who nabbed it, I believe, has never married!!

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Here's the who, what, when, where, and why of the theft of Jeannelle the Bride, a little over thirty years ago:

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A bit of background on "bride stealing", what I believe must be an old, old tradition, probably dating back to Cave Man days when Ogg would come to Ugg's cave with club and clobber Ugg over the head and drag his woman by her hair back to his own cave. He'd of had trouble getting a grasp on my fine, thin tresses, that's for sure!

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My Husband's people all came from northern Germany; perhaps bride-stealing was customary there, a tradition from the Dark Ages, when a nobleman would steal the poor peasant guy's bride and hold her for ransom; there was a ransom involved in my kidnapping, in fact. Or maybe a Viking gang from the next village would come to pillage and grab a bride for good measure.

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At any rate, I, the blushing bride of just a few hours, was innocently conversing with guests at our wedding dance, when suddenly I was picked up by the feet and the shoulders by several men and hauled outdoors and stuffed into the backseat of a waiting car. Not to worry.......the driver of the car was a good friend, and my sister was there on the passenger side. We drove to the next small town and went into a tavern. I, of course, was in my wedding dress, and had no shoes on; the bleary-eyed beer drinkers at the bar grinned and stared. We may have sat at a booth for awhile and had a drink, I don't really recall. It seems like maybe we shot some pool, too.

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Meanwhile, back at the dance hall in our absence, cash for a ransom was being collected in my shoe, being passed around the room. Much to my chagrin, my wedding dress had arrived way too short, so I had to wear completely flat ballerina slippers to the wedding. That conjures up a romantic image.......a silly, little, flat shoe being passed around.......an alluring high heel would have been better. But, it was only recently that I learned that cash during bride thefts was collected in a shoe; the cash had been given to us in a cigar box after the dance, so I had assumed that was used.

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My captors and I stayed at the tavern for maybe a half hour, then headed back to the town where the dance was going on. There weren't DJ's back then; we hired a very local band to provide music at our dance.......real, live music!! Another memory that stands out about the evening was when my nine-year-old, Baptist brother gaped at me with wide eyes, incredulous that I was holding a can of beer and actually sipping from it! Good grief; I was thirsty, for crying out loud! Alcohol was outwardly a no-no in the household I grew up in, you see. 'Nuff said. I've never been more than a very light drinker, but certainly am not into teetotaling, as my brother is to this day. Our wedding dance indeed was the clash of two cultures........the imbibing, dancing German Lutherans VS the teetotaling, anti-dancing, goody-two-shoes Baptists. They had to mix sooner or later!

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One more oddity........at the dance hall, I had kicked my shoes off onto the pile of other womens' shoes, and at the end of the dance, I could find only one of my shoes. Well, no matter.......I wasn't planning on wearing the dumb things again, anyway. About three weeks later, in the mail one day, I received a box with no return address on it, and inside, wrapped in newspapers, was my missing shoe! I have no idea who had it and then bothered to send it back. Maybe anonymous shoe-stealing is a wedding tradition I'm not aware of. Or was it about kicking a Goody-TWO-Shoes attitude?!

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Maybe, just maybe........a SOLE-mate had the shoe!!

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I'm wondering if bride-stealing still goes on anywhere? Or shoe-stealing? It didn't occur last weekend after my son's wedding. Is it a dying tradition? Too much of an invasion of the bride's privacy, perhaps. She has to be a good sport about the whole thing. Honestly, I didn't mind being stolen.......it was fun, and gave me a break from the crowd at the dance hall.

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Have a great day!!

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[If you were a STOLEN BRIDE, or if you ever STOLE A BRIDE........oh, do tell in a comment!]

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Reception & Dance

Don't worry........I'll soon be done posting wedding photos. Here's a few from the reception and dance, held at a hall in the same town where the wedding took place.

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The bride's mother made the beautiful centerpieces, which provided a mellow glow at each table:

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Here were my tablemates.......two of my nephews. I especially enjoyed my conversations with the little guy in the high chair........"Bababa, dadada, gagaga", was all he would confide to me. Favor bags were passed out to the kids in the crowd, containing little coloring books and crayons, and Chinese ring puzzles.
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Ha! My daughter, always ready and willing to ham it up for the camera! She's comfortable in the limelight; she participated in several musicals and plays in high school, her parts ranging from The Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz to sweet Cinderella in Cinderella! Actually, possibly this girl is not really my daughter----she doesn't look a thing like me and we don't act alike, either. It must have been one of those hospital nursery mix-ups. Somewhere there is a quiet, short-necked, bespectacled, 19-year-old girl searching for her real mother........here I am, honey, right here and I'm waving at you through the computer screen!!

The bridesmaids were given apron pinafores to wear for the reception dinner.......in case they slopped food down their front, I guess. It was a cute idea, one I'd never seen done before.

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This dance scene photo is blurry, but adds a dreamy effect as perhaps these little girls are dreaming of the future day when their turn comes to have a wedding and be a bride!

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This was some sort of dance done in a circle, the participants following directions for hand-slapping, spinning, etc. It might have been "The Hokey-Pokey".......I can't recall for sure, and am no dancer, thus try to know very little about such things. Those silly group dances seem to draw the crowds onto the dance floor......."The Chicken Dance", "The Bunny Hop", "ChaCha Slide", "Macarena".

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Here's the group of dreamy, giggly dancing girls again, wearing their twirly dresses for the occasion:

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Whoa........do you think you'd ever catch ME out on the dance floor in such a goofy, undignified posture?? Not on your life. That's why I stay preoccupied with a camera at such events! Several years ago, I was pulled against my will out onto the floor at a wedding dance and made a fool of.......never again, I tell you......never again.

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At some point in the evening, I stepped outdoors for a breath of fresh air.........what in the world did I find going on?? My dignified athletic/activities director son-in-law caught up in his moonlighting job as a wedding vehicle decorator!! He was directing an "activity", that's for sure! Oh, my! Yeah, you bet......."Git R Dun".......looks like you did, buddy!! Good work!! Before the wedding, he showed me his stash of shaving cream, toilet paper, Rice Krispies, Silly String, animal crackers, Saran Wrap........he came fully prepared! The tricky part was getting ahold of my son's pickup keys. Husband had a part in that.......I try to remain above getting involved in such hooliganistic shenanigans. Ahem.

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Wedding Essentials

There's not time to say much, except that here are some essentials for a successful wedding:

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A ribbon-lined aisle leading to the altar:

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Lovely flower bouquets in the wedding colors and.......wedding rings resting on a pillow, most definitely (let the rings sleep until needed).

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Shiny, spiffed-up dress shoes for the guys:***
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A gorgeous wedding dress and veil for the bride:

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Slim young things with slim young arms to carry beautiful flower bouquets:

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Last, but not least........an appropriately-colored and exciting conveyance for the mother-of-the-groom! Hey, why not a Harley? Have I ever ridden one? NO. Would I like to ride one? Yes. This one belongs to Husband's brother, and was parked at our farm last weekend. Once again, I blew a chance to do something fun, as I could easily have asked my brother-in-law for a ride........but did I do such a thing? NO!

Actually, the only time I rode on a motorcycle (it wasn't a Harley) was one evening back when I was in high school: Husband's (he wasn't my husband yet, though) brother took me home from babysitting his little boy. Yes, I rode with the self-same owner of this Harley in the photo..........only a few miles, but it was a thrill! Somewhere deep in my psyche exists a desire to roar off on a motorcycle toward the western horizon some evening and crash into a fiery, orange sunset. What do you say........would you care to join me?

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Today will be too busy.......there's hay to bale and a daughter and her mountain of STUFF to move back to college. That means two trips to Cedar Falls for me in the morning, and helping lug all that STUFF up four flights of stairs to the dorm room. I feel exhausted already. My daughter's roommate's family is supposed to be there to help, plus the roommate's cousin. The roommate says her cousin thinks my daughter is cute and he broke up with his girlfriend after he met my daughter at a county fair a few weeks ago. Hm-m........I think I'll make like a nosy mother and get a look at this guy.

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Then, in the afternoon, if the weather holds, I'll go round and round in circles in the hayfield, driving the baler.

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Onward to the day we march!

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Wedding Classics

In his comment yesterday, Russell of Iowa Grasslands Blog mentioned a horse and carriage.........well, here's the classic carriage of the wedding day........a Chevy of some sort (I'm not up on classic car info):

This car is very special; it is owned by the bride's parents----a classic couple---- and is indeed the car that THEY courted in years ago! My son and his bride were conveyed from the church to the reception hall in this classic car, driven by another classic.......the bride's father! He even still smokes......that's smoke emanating from his laughing smile! He's smoked all his life.......I probably wouldn't bother to quit at that point, either (if I smoked, which I don't). He's a great guy........a man of few words, big smiles, and lots of gadgets! I found out Saturday that he is a great photo subject......he has fascinating facial expressions.

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Oh, my.........my one big regret of the wedding day: Not taking a spin in this sparkling-clean, classic Chevy Impala convertible when I had the chance.......and I DID have the chance! Some of the wedding party rode in this car, with the best man, my 16-year-old son, at the wheel. After we all arrived at the reception hall, my son tossed the keys at me so I could give them to the owner of the car. I slipped those keys into my purse and just about sneaked outdoors to take the car for a drive around town.......that is the honest truth. I wanted to so badly, but good sense won out. Sheesh. Classic good sense.......why don't you leave me alone once in awhile!
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Good grief, I can't believe I've actually found the gumption to post a photo of myself. I must be out of my mind; but, the circumstances of this scene do make it a bit easier to do. This is the honest truth........for my whole life long, as long as I can remember, people have been telling me that I look EXACTLY like my mother (prompting the premature sprouting of white hair on my head, I'm sure). She and I knew our look-alike-ness might be a problem at the wedding, that people might get us two mixed up. Thus, my mom was very considerate and agreed to straighten her hair, dye it Navajo Bronze, and have her neck pumped up for a more attractive look, plus wear elevator platform shoes for more heighth. She conceded to wearing my pallid green dress from Penneys, too, along with the earrings purchased at Nordstrom's Rack at the Mall of America back in June.

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So here we are-----my mom and I----can you tell us apart? Do I look OK in that salmon orange color? Perhaps I'll need to have a talk with my mom, though......that short, plump neck is just a little bit too attractive, I think. Seriously, the following is the absolute truth.......when I was about eleven years old, one day my mom out of the blue told me that my sister had "natural beauty" and I was "attractive". I'm sure I just gaped in puzzlement at her, not having a clue as to what she was trying to say, and most likely a few of those white hairs started growing on my head right then. I even remember what room we were in in our house when she said it! It was a galvanizing moment in my life, I think.......I was "attractive" and my sister had "natural beauty". What in the world was THAT supposed to mean?? To me, back then (and now), it meant that I DIDN'T have natural beauty, and maybe was a bit on the homely side. Perhaps my mom's mother had said the same thing to my mom at one time, considering that we do look so much alike.......so everyone says, anyway. There have been times in my life when I felt like punching the next person who came along and said to me, "Oh, honey.......you look just like your mother."

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Please, parents........be careful what you say to your kids.......it may affect them for years and years, and much later they might even blog about it!!

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[For your own safety's sake, please DO NOT click this photo to make it larger!]

Anyway, guys.......NO, absolutely not.........I will not send you my mom's phone number!! She is happily married to a baker (who moonlights as a carpenter and jack-of-all-trades........he is another classic guy!). He baked the classic wedding cake, in fact. It was lovely and very delicious!

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Have a classic Wednesday!!

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The Kinkenmeyers

As reported in the previous post, we were at the bride's parents' lovely home on Sunday afternoon for a delicious lunch and to watch the newlyweds open their gifts. Most of us had been up until way after midnight the night before and occasionally the tiredness would show, especially when one sat still for awhile, as evidenced by my daughter as she waited for her turn in the lunch line.

Here's a bridal doll, decked out in her finery, crocheted many years ago by the bride's grandmother (the dear lady who spotted the diamond in the dirt, as related in the previous post). This doll with her bright blue eyes watched over the gift table.
We guests lounged around in the pleasant living room; it was our family and the bride's parents, plus her out-of-town aunts and uncles. The bride is an only child.......quite an amazing story there.......her parents had been married nearly 24 years when she was born! I'm sure they had long before given up hope of ever conceiving a child. At any rate, her parents are the age of my parents, as are all the aunts and uncles, so Husband and I feel like youngsters when we're with these very delightful people!

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As I said, we were sitting around the big living room, watching the couple open gifts, visiting and laughing.........and one thing we were chuckling about was that Husband had fallen asleep in a recliner in the corner, his head way back and mouth wide open (fortunately, he was not snoring). The poor guy was completely exhausted from the weekend's wedding activities plus trying to keep up with farm chores at home.

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So anyhow, Husband was asleep......which is a factor in this next story: The gift opening was rolling along smoothly. Then a certain box was opened, revealing the gift inside to be a rather homely pink vase (I failed to get a photo of it....darn!); the bride quizzically read the name on the card out loud, as, "George, Mary, Kim & Ken Meyer. "Who is that?", she asked. We all just looked at each other and shrugged. The bride's mother then took the card, peering at the signature and saying, "No, its George, Mary & Kim Kenmeyer. Does anyone know any Kenmeyers?" Again, we all shook our heads. She handed the card to me and I took a look, then announced, "It appears to be from George & Mary Kinkenmeyer." Again.......the name rang no bell of recognition with anyone present. The unattractive vase was passed around the room. It appeared old and in need of a cleaning. One of the uncles piped up, "Its probably a gag gift." But, from whom? None of us had a clue.........none of us in the room who were awake, that is!

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Later, on the way home, I said to Husband, "Do you know anyone by the name of George & Mary Kinkenmeyer?" He thought for a few seconds and then burst into laughter. It WAS a gag gift........from Husband's brothers.......the vase having come from amongst the piles of useless whatnots they removed from their deceased dad's house last winter. Husband even knew that the culprits were going to use the name "Kinkenmeyer"; he said they had probably signed that name somewhere in the guestbook, too! My daughter laughed and said, "Yeah, wouldn't you know it, the only person in the room who could have solved the mystery was the guy who was SOUND ASLEEP!!" We were glad he was, though, for it made the story more amusing to relate later over the phone to Husband's brothers.......they just laughed and laughed. I guess it doesn't take much sometimes to prompt laughter around here. For some reason, I think I can accurately predict that the Kinkenmeyers will show up at family events for many years to come, under various aliases, and bearing odd gifts.......prompting laughter and great memories!

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This post will end with porch scenes from the bride's parents' home, a big, old, small-town house, complete with porches decked out with leftover wedding decorations, the bow arrangements having adorned the ends of the church pews at the ceremony on Saturday.

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Have a tremendous Tuesday! Wedding busy-ness spilled over from the weekend into Monday, plus my son's high school football team had their "Meet the Team" event last night, so there was no chance to rest yesterday. Maybe today.......I hope!!

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[Update: Just thought of this........if any of you readers have the last name of Kinkenmeyer, I want you to know I'm not trying to make fun of your name. Actually, its not my fault that name was used, remember........Husband's brothers thought it up!]

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Lost Diamond

Its late on Sunday evening, at the close of my son's wedding weekend. I'm emerging, exhausted from the deep end of three days of constant, but joyful activity.

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(My apologies for the blurred photo; I hope you will read the accompanying story, if you have time.)

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The weekend's final wedding event----the gift opening----was held at the bride's parents' home this afternoon; on our way home, I thought, "How do I choose what to blog about first?" The answer came as soon as I walked into the house and reached up to remove my earrings........one was missing! Oh-h, I just hate to lose things. A search of the car turned up nothing. My daughter said, "Mom, you still had two earrings on when you were taking that picture of the blue beta fish in the bowl, right before we headed to the car." From that tidbit of information, I could deduce that the earring fell out somewhere between the house and the car, probably in the backyard, so I drove back to the bride's parents' home to do a search for the colorful, glittery "1928" clip earring, half of a pair which I been tickled to find at Kohl's a few weeks ago. Rarely, do I have much luck finding stylish and interesting earrings of the clip persuasion. (I'm too chicken to get my ears pierced.)

I retraced my steps in the backyard after the moment of photographing the beta fish..........I had next snapped this photo of Tippy giving my daughter his famous "High Five"! I was quite certain the earring must have fallen off right in this vicinity. The bride's father-----famous for being a gadget-guy in our small town-----appeared with a metal detector and started scanning the area. Soon I stepped on something hard, like a stone.......hooray......the earring! And, it was lying in just about the same spot where Tippy's front paw is at on the ground in the photo.
The lost earring circumstance prompted the bride's mother to tell me a most amazing true story: Many years ago, shortly after she and her husband had celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary, she was taking dictation one day at the lawyer's office where she worked when she suddenly noticed that the diamond was missing from her wedding ring!! She and the lawyer immediately searched the floor in his office, with no success. After that, with sinking heart, she realized she could have lost it anywhere, even in her mother-in-law's garden where she had tilled with the garden tractor the day before.

Now get this.......one morning, FIVE YEARS LATER........(and remember the missing gem was a small diamond), her mother-in-law was washing dishes at the kitchen sink, gazing out the window when she suddenly saw a bright flash out in the dirt in the garden. She went to investigate and found the tiny diamond!! After FIVE YEARS and several seasons' worth of the soil being turned over and over during plowing and tilling! Incredible! The diamond was returned securely to its home in the wedding ring setting, and it looked no worse for wear yesterday when I gawked at it in awe!

Anyhow, I thought it was an incredible story and just had to blog about it! Standing there with me yesterday, listening to the bride's mother tell the tale was an old family friend from Colorado, and afterwards, she voiced her hope that the bride's mother would write the story down so it wouldn't be forgotten, to which the bride's mother just shook her head. At that moment, I made a mental note to relay the tale on the blog, even if the bride's mother doesn't ever choose to preserve the story on paper!

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Whether you'll be able to tell it or not, I don't know, but this post contains photos taken with a new camera, which I splurged on for my 50th birthday a couple months ago. A Nikon D40. My knowledge of SLR cameras is nil, but I had a blast snapping a milkcan-full of festive wedding photos on the Automatic setting this weekend!

Wedding colors: Blue, orange, and silver. These milkcans, functioning as flower holders, were spruced up with silver paint for the reception. They're embossed with Holstein cows in honor of the dairy farm where the groom grew up!

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Somewhere in the back of my tired mind, a weary little voice is reminding me to read last week's posts on this blog to find out what subjects the cows chose to write about. I had put Freckles the Cow in charge of the blog while I was busy preparing for the wedding.......I hope that was a prudent decision.......Freckles seems rather low-key and ego-less most of the time, but one never knows what hidden personality quirks might be prodded into the open by blogging.

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