A catch-up day, that's what today feels like, but I'm at work and all the things I would do at home to "catch-up", I can't do here.  Before I came in to work though, I moved the cushions out to the deck and hoped it wouldn't rain on them before I got home.  I put a tablecloth on a dresser in my new "guest" room, added a lamp and some old books. (I made Erin give me back the full bed last night, so I would have a bed in the guest room.  Since Erin and Nathan are moving in about a month,  I thought it would be fine to ask for it back since it was on loan to them, and my guest will need it) . I left for work and went to a thrift store where I bought a couple of things to be added to the guest room and then came in to work.  I need window coverings for the room and I wish I didn't have so many chairs in the room (and other furrniture!), but it will be presentable when my nephew, Robbie comes for ten days.  He's visiting his parents and brother (and the rest of us), arriving on Friday evening.  He will drive all the way from Phoenix to here by himself, a long trip in the heat.  It will be his first long, solo drive.  I'm sure he'll do fine though.

Erin came by for lunch today.  She comes down to the store either on Monday or Tuesday when I'm at work, and we talk and have lunch.  She always combines it with errands or whatever, so it's not a wasted trip.  I have enjoyed these times and they will soon be gone.

Mary brought me a belated birthday present.  She was gone for my birthday, and so she stopped in today and left me a iced Hazelnut latte and a $30.00 gift card for Durango Joe's a sweet card and two cute bookmarks.  You really can't have too many bookmarks, and she didn't know it, but I LOVE bookmarks.  Silly, I know, but what a fun little thing to have in a book when you're reading.  The book I'm reading now, is a book by Sue Hubbell, called Far-Flung Hubbell, Essays from the American Road.  I first "met" Sue in a book she wrote about bees.  That is still one of my favorite books.  In fact, I need to read it again.

Sunday night we had a barbecue at the Stanley's.  We "all" went, which means, Pete, Heather, Jonathan and baby Daniel, Kevin, Paul, Beth, and Erin, Nathan and Doyle and I.  It was fun to get caught up on all of them.  Amy had just come back from a mission trip to Australia.  What fun it was to hear about her adventures and how God used them.  We celebrated Ken and Glenace's 25th wedding anniversary (June 16), Doyle's birthday coming up on July 6 and my birthday which was June 20th.  Aren't celebrations fun?

Speaking of celebrations, Erin and I are "doing" another wedding.  This is for a young couple who went through our marriage class in the fall.  They have done a few things backwards, living together for four years and have a beautiful baby boy (born in May), but we are happy they are committing to a marriage relationship and Doyle will be marrying them on July 25th at our little church.  We have turned out to be the wedding planners, and since Janet and Alberto don't have much money, we are doing most of this on our dime.  If I do say so myself, it will be beautiful and hopefully "just what she wants."  Alberto doesn't really care, as long as he didn't have to wear pink (He's wearing a purple tie, NOT pink!),, he will be happy.  When we initially sat down to talk to Janet about what she wanted in a wedding we just saw dollar signs.  But, we decided we could do most of, if not all of what she wanted on a thrift store budget.  Erin made the beautiful invitations and they were mostly handed out in person (so only a few stamps).  The cake is being made and donated by a woman in our church.  The bridesmaids dresses have been found (in the right colors) in thrift stores, laundered and look brand new.  (In fact one thing we learned in our local bridal salon, is that they wash bridesmaids dresses, formals and wedding dresses in the washer, in cold water, delicate cycle and drip dry.   So........we decided we could do the same with the bridesmaids dresses.  Sure enough, works like a charm!  Erin made the veil, redid a cake topper to almost brand new.  We are buying fabric for the table runners, and some candles.  I have most of the vases already.  The reception will also be in our church and we have several days to decorate if we need to, so we won't kill ourselves trying to get it all done in a day.  The rehearsal "dinner" will be a barbecue in our back yard.

But the wedding dress was the best story of all.  When Janet told us she wanted a long train, strapless and lots of beading, Erin and I just knew the cost of a new dress would be out of her league.  Sure enough at the end of an afternoon looking for a dress, we left Janet almost in tears.  So, after Janet left, I turned to Erin and said "Let's go to some thrift stores and look for bridesmaids dresses..........knowing we might find them, but probably not a wedding dress.  So we went to two thrift stores, NOTHING.  Then I decided to go to Twice Blessed, one of my favorite thrift stores.  We walked in with five minutes to spare and started talking to two women about my age.  While I was telling these two customers what we were doing, they told me they had a dress for $25.00 if we wanted to buy it, but Erin had spotted a wedding dress hanging in the corner.  Almost to afraid to look at it, we took it down, it was brand new, still with the tags from Davids Bridal.  The original price was $599.00.  It had a train, it was strapless and it had lots of beading on it.  The size looked about right, but the price was still $300.00 (perfectly reasonable, but out of our price range).  So, I walked up to the counter and asked Brenda (the manager) if she could do better.  Well, she had heard our conversation with the two customers (and I am a regular at this thrift store), so she leaned across the counter and said, "for you, I'll do $100.00!  I couldn't believe it, but I was more than thrilled.  I told her to "hold" the dress and we'd bring the young woman in the next day to try it on.  The next day, we met Janet at the store, she tried it on, and it fit almost perfectly! The ladies at the thrift store told us they had been praying that the dress would fit. (Erin made a couple of adjustments later.)  But, when I asked Janet if this dress would "do", she said, "It's everything I wanted!"  Ah, dear Janet, I told her, "Isn't God good?"  I'm always humbled when God does something so sweet and personal.  Isn't God good?

  This morning at 12:01 a.m. (on June 21), we welcomed our new little grandson into the world.  Daniel Jack weighed in at 7 pounds, 1 oz. and is 20 inches long.  He is precious and we are already in love with him. Mommy, Daddy and baby are doing fine.  We went up to see him in the hospital (Mercy Hospital in Durango, CO) and these are pictures taken just before he went home.

First picture is Doyle's hands (proud Grandpa, or Paca as Jonathan calls him) holding Daniel, second picture is me holding him and third picture is tired and  proud son Peter and wife Heather, with the STAR of the show, Daniel Jack.

Today at work a woman came in and as I started talking to her I was struck again at how interesting people are.  She was an attractive woman about my age, and was sporting a handmade purse she had made out of Starbuck packages.  At first glance it wasn't obvious that her bag was made out of Starbuck coffee packages, but when I asked her where she got it, she told me she had made it.  She just moved here with her husband from Alaska.  Her husband works for B.P. and in the hour she was in the store I found out she was a Christian, they went to Pinion Hills Community Church yesterday, they are looking for a new home (in the $300,000 range), she has lived in nine states, she has three kids, two grand kids, a kid who lives in Alaska still, a kid in college near Denver and a kid in Alabama (I believe).  We talked about where she should live (she was meeting a realtor at 1:00 p.m.) and she wanted to know where all the thrift stores were.  I suspect we'll all get to know her, I hope so, anyway.  Her name is Gail.  In Alaska they snowshoed and cross country skiied out their back door.  They were only there for two years, before that they were in Denver.  While Gail was in the store, one of our "regulars" came in.  The contrast and difference between the two women couldn't have been more obvious or startling.

After this woman left I told Gail a little about her.  Her name is Kathy and she looks worse everytime I see her.  I don't think she's homeless, but she looks worse than most of the homeless people down here.  She wants a "Chatty Kathy" doll.  How she will ever be able to afford one, I don't know, but she does buy things from us.  My guess is she's mentally ill and on so many drugs she doesn't know if she's coming or going.  She's dirty and reeks of cigarette smoke, she walks with her head down, with her dirty hair covering up most of her face.   My heart goes out to her.  I try always try to  talk to her, connect in some way with her.  When there are other customers in the store, I know she makes them uncomfortable, but I want to see her as a real person, with real wants and desires and hopes and dreams.  What does she dream?  Does she have any hope at all anymore?  I don't know.  I wish I knew her better or that she would talk, but she doesn't, I'm sure she has been beaten up if not physically, emotionally for sure.

Last night Doyle officiated at a wedding at San Juan Country Club for a young woman who've we known since she was probably four years old.  We've lost touch with her over the years, reconnected, lost touch and connected again.  Her story is confusing, she is confusing, but when she wanted someone to marry her, I told her I thought Doyle would do it.  She has been coming to our Tapestry Women's group that meets once a month, for the past year.  Her mother and I are old friends, but have mostly lost touch too.  But anyway, we really like her new husband, Heath and really like his parents.  We connected with them almost instantly.  The wedding was beautiful and Doyle did an awesome job officiating.  He got many, many compliments.  He kind of thought that was strange, but I told him, that it was obvvious to everyone that he had put a lot of thought into his eight minute message, and he really connected with the audience.  You could have heard a pin drop most of the eight minutes (and we were outside on the golf course!).  I am very proud to call him my husband.  I hope Angela and Heath lhave a long, happy life together.

(Side note..... I found out in talking to Gail that she had seen the wedding last night as they were driving around the country club.  She wondered who it was, and then today she found out we were there!  Strange!  My friend, Jill and her husband Ken were playing golf last night and saw the wedding too, and wondered who it was.  She laughed when I told her we were all there!)