Mish-Mash

This post's title is essentially a nod to Heather's Hodge-podge:

1. I have been busy.
2. We had STAR testing this week, so I didn't have to teach as much and I didn't have all of my kids every day; that was nice.  Back to the regular schedule tomorrow!
3. My neck got sunburned at school today.  The whole junior high and high school student body and staff walked to a park for a student-staff softball game.  It was fun being in the sunshine and talking to some of my kids. :)
4. Only 51 more days! :D
5. Amos is sick with some bug that went around in NE last week.  Theodore, Reuben, Barb, and Caitlin got it, and now Amos succumbed.  I'm hoping I can avoid it. :/
6. I believe spring/summer has come to stay, finally.  Enough of the rain already!
7. Katie is now a Vlieger!  She looked beautiful in her wedding dress with her beaded (decorated? fancy?) headband.  Seth was really funny; he came up to the first floor of the Ralston home "dressed" for the wedding in his pajama shorts and shirt and his wedding tie and vest.  He got his picture taken. ;)
8. I have 19.5 days left of school.  It is going to go too fast and too slow, all at the same time.
9. That's all for now!

Vests

Vests.
That was at the top of the list for today, followed by flowers, backdrop fabric, ribbon, and shoes.
Wedding.
That is at the top of our minds these days, especially for the next sixty-three days!
Yardage.
150 yards of ribbon, eleven yards of blue backdrop fabric, three yards of blue table fabric, and three yards of green table fabric.
Acres.
Acres of flowers to be looked at in anticipation of bouquets and boutonnieres.
Ounces.
Many ounces of Starbucks purchased as part of their 1/2 off frappuccino sale, May 6-15!

Amos and I spent a good part of the day in downtown LA.  We looked at flowers in the flower district so I could know in advance what I wanted for the flowers.  As we were driving by the flower shops looking for a parking space, Amos commented that he could smell all flowers...and we had the windows rolled up!

Next we set off for the men's clothing district.  Armed with a white index card detailing the measurements for Amos' groomsmen, we wanted to find some one blue and three green vests.  Well, even with a ton of suit shops, it was more difficult than we anticipated!  Several of the dapper owners of the shops expressed surprise when we said we were looking for blue and green vests.  I don't know why they didn't have nice blue and green vests, considering all the mustard yellow, burgundy, orchid, and lime green suits we saw!  We went to one shop and talked to the older folks who ran the store.  We told the lady we wanted a dark blue vest, and after rooting around for a minute, she came up with the perfect vest.  Amos tried it on, and his face lit up.  He LIKED this one. ;)  His vest was taken care of, on to the groomsmen!  We didn't manage to find vests that would fit all three guys, so we will keep looking.

Then it was time for lunch.  We stopped and had Subway, which isn't my favorite but looked better than El Pollo Loco or any of the other places around.  I wasn't feeling well, so I sat down at a small table in the packed restaurant while Amos ordered our sandwiches.  As Amos was talking to the guy behind the counter, another customer approached my table and asked if he could join me, or was I with someone?  I pointed at Amos' back and said, "Yeah, I'm with someone" and he thankfully wandered off to find another place to sit.  I don't think he was creepy, but it was a little odd.

The next adventure involved bulk fabric.  We went to one store that sold fabric by the pound rather than the yard.  We got some fabric to decorate the tables at the reception and moved on, looking for ribbon and some fabric for a backdrop.  We wandered down the street, touching nice fabric, laughing at funny fabric, and shuddering at hideous fabric.  We found some blue fabric that worked, and one of the men working at the store quoted us $6.00/yard.  He took the price down to $5.00/yard, but it was still too much.  The owner saw us looking at the fabric, so he said he would give us a better price.  He asked us how much we wanted to pay and I promptly said, "Three."
"Okay."
Well, that was that!

We had more adventures finding spools of ribbon, and we eventually left downtown LA about four hours after we arrived.  I was really surprised because it seemed like we were there for forever.  We drove out of downtown and decided to stop at the mall in Burbank, just to see if they had shoes for me.  I told Amos I didn't think he'd want to walk around the whole mall, but he thought it would be better to go rather than wonder if we could have found something.  We searched the mall directory for shoe stores and found a store that I had seen on-line.  I found the shoes I saw on-line, and they looked even better in person!  The salesgirl gave me a huge bag for my small sandals, so I eventually ditched the bag in a garbage can.  We went to another tux shop, but of course, they didn't have the right vests, either!  Not too sure what to do about that now.

After that we got our 1/2 price frappuccinos.  I tasted Amos' first to, you know, make sure it wasn't poisoned or anything. ;)  We went home and figured out fonts for our invitation envelopes (coming soon!), tried to find stamps that weren't cheesy or ugly, and said goodbye.  Amos had to take a nap before work, and I just needed to take a nap.

All in all, it was a good day of spending time together, holding hands, and, as our wedding pastor says, enjoying the journey. :)