Mother of the Bride

Well, now three of my four daughters are married. I won't say that I've given them away - since I'm still holding on for dear life - but I have watched them enter into a different stage of their lives, where I will be on the fringes instead of a central character. We have been blessed with three good sons-in-law and I'm thankful for that. But a part of me still aches for those little girls that my three brides used to be. Thank goodness for grandchildren. They do ease the pain associated with watching my children grow up.

It was a wild few weeks around here, getting ready for the wedding. We don't have a huge house but were having lots of out-of-town guests. I'm not the world's best housekeeper and Butch isn't a handyman. So there were lots of little projects and a whole lot of cleaning that needed to be done before everyone arrived. I went a little crazy with paint - I even painted two floors - and finally Butch suggested that the dishes in the sink might be more of a priority than painting baseboards...

We moved Clay and Andy out of Emily's old room (which I longingly call the guest room although it never really will be). Cathy cleaned it spotless for Josh and Laura. Then we moved all of Grace's stuff to her apartment and set up a second twin bed in the room she's been staying in since last August when she returned home from Provo (in our house setting up a bed means stacking the appropriate number of wheat boxes and topping them with a mattress). I couldn't find the other twin dust ruffle - which covers the boxes - so I made one (again getting off the straight and narrow path that leads to a clean, orderly house).

Finally we had Grace's room set up for her and her former roommate, Hillary, who came from Provo for the wedding. We made Emily a bed on the floor in my room and put the boys on the couches in the den. Later Clay asked if anyone had seen his bag. I asked if he meant the garbage bag that had been sitting in the den. He said that was the one and that it was full of all his clothes. Since he was now a man without a country - he had put all his clothes in the bag so he would have access to them. I thought this was funny but Andy said, "Actually, that's a pretty good idea. I don't know where any of my clothes are now." We had left his folded clothes in his drawers but had moved his hang up clothes to the closet in Grace's room (where he and Clay will stay now that all the company is gone). In the process he lost track of his belt and never did find it until after the wedding. We were looking at some snapshots taken of the wedding party and Andy shook his head and said, "I don't look good in any of those pictures without my belt." Poor Andy.

Hillary left on Sunday (Andy took her to the airport right after he finished giving a talk in Sacrament Meeting). Laura, Josh and Harrison left on Tuesday morning and my niece, Ruth-Anne, left on Tuesday night.

So, today I'm a bundle of emotions. Relief mixed with grief. Happiness mixed with sadness. Trying to count my blessings and forget about the things I wish were different.