The weekend in Dallas!

Wow it's been a CRAZY last 4 or 5 days. Let's start out back before we left Portland...

Friday
I left work around 11:30 and went to go find a black dress for the memorial activities for Aunt Julie. I found it really quickly, so went home to finish packing and get stuff ready to go. Around 2 I stopped by Geoff's parent's to see Taylor and Rebecca who just got into town. Then I went back home, got there about 3, and waited for Geoff to came home. I miscommunicated with him about him leaving work at 3 and coming home and leaving right away... he was under the impression that leaving at 3 was great and we were in no real rush. So he came home, changed clothes, did a few things, and we didn't leave the house until about 3:30 for a 5:30 flight (I was planning on leaving RIGHT at 3:15, but like I said I communicated poorly). Plus we had to check a bag and park the car. And that didn't take into account the fact that there was an accident on I-84. We got to the airport about 5:15, parked in short term parking, left the bag we were going to take, and ran through security and got to the gate about 5:32. I figured it would be too late, and it was. Luckily they were able to get us on an 8 PM flight connecting through Vegas and landing in Dallas at around 4 AM. I have SEVERELY underplayed the drama that occured during all of this, I was FREAKING OUT, crying, upsetting Geoff, etc. It was really not a pleasant afternoon. So once we were on the new flight, Geoff went back out and got his bag (which had his suit for the memorial) and then moved the car. Then we took the 8 AM flight and got in to Dallas at 4 AM.

Saturday
I will start here with Saturday, though the line between Friday and Saturday is somewhat sketchy. Since we were going to have to leave for Houston at 5 or 6 anyway, the whole family picked us up from the airport and took us straight to Houston. It's a good thing we left that early, because otherwise we would have been late to the burial. There was MASSIVE thunderstorms pounding on us and we had to drive about 45 MPH most of the way. We grabbed some food at Sonic (we were planning a nice breakfast out but that didn't happen!) and then went to the burial. It was a nice service, and it was nice to see my cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. My Uncle Arlen (the husband of my Aunt Julie) said to Geoff "I'm so sorry you had to meet us under these circumstances, but you have now seen us at our worst and soon you will see us at our best". It was a really sweet thing to say! We went back to my Aunt Lisa and Uncle Jeff's house for some lunch and to spend time with our cousins, and then to the memorial service. The last song we sang at the memorial was Joy To the World and I saw my grandfather (who had to come in late and was sitting alone but near us) start to cry, so I walked over to him and just put my arm around him. It was a sweet moment. After the memorial, we saw many family and family friends we hadn't seen in years - for example my grandmother's best friend that she's known since junior high, my parent's first realtor, my great aunt, a second cousin, etc. Although it was a sad occasion, it was remarkable to see all of these people again. After that, we headed home to Dallas. We ate a late dinner and went to bed!

Sunday
I woke up at 6:30 because Geoff and I had engagement pictures at 7:30. It was raining and not good! We took pictures for about 45 minutes, then went over the contract at Starbucks. Our photographer is someone we found on Craigslist, and she's just awesome! Then we went home and had a great breakfast casserole my sister made, and then went to church with my family. After that my aunt and uncle came over to visit for a while, and then we rested for the afternoon. Then we went BACK out around 6:00 to take more engagement pictures... that time we didn't get home until about 9:30! But honestly, that's when we took the good pictures. Annette (the photographer) says that happens a lot, because people start to relax. There was no rain and the lighting was better so we were able to get some good shots. We came home and had a late dinner again, and I stayed up late talking to my mom... but oh well...

Monday
I woke up at 7 to get some work done... we met with Pastor Anna, who will be marrying us, at 9. She was SO GREAT!!! She spent a lot of time talking with us about who we are, how we met, etc., all of that good stuff! Pastor Jim (who is doing our pre-marital counseling here in Oregon) had asked us why we think this was right for a lifetime... and neither of us had very good answers. It was all of the "good on paper" sort of stuff - we're funny, smart, challenge each other, etc. all of that. I didn't like that, and had thought about it for a few days. I told Anna that it's all of that stuff... but you could say that about a lot of people. It's the things that you CAN'T describe, the way we relate to each other and communicate, things like that, that make me want to marry Geoff. Geoff also said that the reasons we could list weren't adequate and said that really it just comes down to "I love her". It was cool. We also talked about the wedding ceremony, and I think we are going to do communion during it! I had thought about that but never seen it done before, but Pastor Anna said that she LOVES doing it. Communion is really special to me and Geoff, in fact we picked our church because it has weekly communion, and so that was SUCH a cool idea. We'd also be able to serve our guests the communion which I love the idea of. And we'd take the Lutheran church's communion service (our pre-marital counseling is at a Lutheran church) and use it and say "this service is a gift from Pastor Jim and the St. Matthew Lutheran church". It was all just SO cool! We still have a lot of details to plan, but I'm very excited. After that we spent lots of time driving around, doing errands, etc., then had dinner with my parents and off we went. We got home around 3 AM, I'm exhausted. That's why the end of this entry is rushed, because I'm going home. I might fill in more details about meeting with Anna and other things tomorrow... for now I will leave you with some engagement pictures! Some I love, some I hate, but there will be more to come later. And the ones I hate are NOT because of our photographer, but because we just look silly!