What's new

I know I haven't been around much lately. Have you missed me? There are lot of exciting things going on around here lately.

Josh and Karen have moved up their wedding date, so I am trying to learn how to put together a beautiful wedding and reception. The date is set for July 18th. Yesterday we reserved a beautiful location for an outdoor wedding. So next the focus will be on the invitations. We will use the pic that I showed you earlier, and the area with the tan will be where the info goes. I'm planning on trying my hand at creating them, but I'll go to a professional if I find that I can't pull it off. They will be 5" x 7" cards. I'm trying to decide if regular photo paper will suffice, or if I should have it printed out by hubby's work (cardcafe.com). It will all work out, I just need to decide quickly and get them out in a week. Whew!

In the meantime, Karen and Josh (but we all know how this works, right? I say "and Josh", but poor Karen will be choosing everything. Josh just wants to know when and where to show up looking good in his tux!) will need to choose colors and then we'll tailor the wedding around those.

The wedding will be at a large gazebo in a park-like atmosphere with lovely flower gardens and a fish pond nearby. My job will be to decorate it beautifully. Next week I'll post a pic of the location and you all can help me with decorating ideas, okay?

So those are all of the things on my "soon to do" list.

But do you want to know the source of my most excitement? I'm going to be a grandma! I've looked forward to being a grandma since Josh was born! I hear ladies talk about their grandbabies and how they are even more fun than their own children. And people, living in Utah I am SURROUNDED with babies! I think Utah is the baby capitol of the world. I remember living in Kentucky and seeing a pregnant woman or a new baby was a treat that didn't happen very often. Here in Utah you just have to make one trip to the grocery store to see at least one expecting mama and many sweet little babes. So with every grocery store trip, I get more and more excited! With every Walmart trip I see all of the cute little baby clothes, and can't wait until fall when the warmer stuff comes out so that I can start picking up a few things for MY GRANDBABY!

Those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile know that Josh is my oldest. So yes, he isn't married yet. And yes, that has strained some relationships that I have with people who've given unsolicited advice or made poor comment choices. The worst being a close friend who told me that they should give it up for adoption. Are you kidding me?! These two have been living together for months. They have been engaged since Valentine's Day. They made their commitment to each other long ago. In my eyes, the marriage has already started and we just need the ceremony.

Enough of that nonsense. That is all I will say about that. In fact, maybe I shouldn't have even brought up the negative and spoiled the moment, but I've been stewing in those feelings and needed to just put them down on "paper" and then be done with it.

I've realized these past couple of weeks how therapeutic this blog is for me. In addition to being a place to connect with you all, it is also a place where I can put down my feelings and think about things a bit deeper. Writing in itself is therapy for me. But I was trying to weigh the pros and cons of revealing Josh and Karen's newest adventure before the actual wedding pics have been uploaded.

Traditionally, I wouldn't tell and we'd just pray that no one noticed any little bulges at the wedding. Oh man! That is just so not me! If you haven't noticed, I'm a person who likes to just be out with things. I hate secrets. I like being myself and hoping that I'll be accepted, but if not I'd rather have that than have to be something I'm not.

So for the past couple of weeks since I first received the scared phone call from Josh at midnight, I have been keeping a secret. And so I haven't written at all because that is the information has consumed my life for the past few weeks. And now that all of the relatives know and won't come to my blog and be blind-sided I can tell you all my exciting, yet scary as hell, news.

For my family, we are moving into brand new, uncharted territory. Never before have my children been aunts and uncles. Never before have Steve and I been grandparents. And never before have Josh and Karen been parents. And the weight of the responsibility brings tears to my eyes as much as the joy of having a new, dear, sweet little baby come into our family.

Up until now, Karen has been Josh's fiance, and we have loved her dearly. But now, Karen will be a permanent part of our family no matter what. She is our grandbaby's mama. She is now part of our bloodline. How crazy is that?! A stranger to us before last September, and yet now she holds a permanent place in our family line. No matter what happens, she is my daughter. Crazy! Wonderful crazy, but crazy just the same.

So yes, big things are happening. Huge, wonderfully exciting and yet still scary things that will change our lives and rock our world. Kind of like a really great roller coaster ride. So we'd better be buckled in and holding on: this ride-of-life just keeps getting better and better!