D minus 6 and counting...

Well, as the excitement for the wedding continues to build, this weekend's weather has really made life interesting.

I was going to post about our experiences with planning the liturgy, but got sidetracked by the weather. However, that meeting went very well, and Sarah and I have chosen readings, hymns and songs that will make the day extremely poignant.

And now onto the weather. On Thursday the meteorologists were predicting snow and ice storms. Of course, because Friday was to be our last day before break, the kids were fantasizing about having a snow day. Looking at the weather forecasts all day, I played Mr. Rational and said that I thought we'd have a 2-hour delay, but I doubted we would have a cancellation.

Well, feed me worms and call me stinky (any Perfect Strangers fans out there remember that one?)! We DID have a school cancellation! Apparently the ice was so bad that the roads were unable to be safely navigated by the buses. I'm glad I didn't bet my kids on this one; the last time I did that I had to buy donuts (and no, I'm not talking donut holes...actual donuts) for my first hour class.

I will admit that I enjoyed the early break. With less than a week to the wedding, it was nice to have an extra day to kick back and get some little things done. Heck, I hadn't even begun my Christmas shopping yet!

Things went downhill, though, while I was out running errands Friday morning (yeah, I should have been a mailman--I'll go out in just about any weather!), and Sarah called to tell me that tree branches had fallen on our power lines, bringing them down. Oddly enough, we still had power, but Frieda could not go outside because we didn't know how safe it was.


It was not until Saturday afternoon that NIPSCO came to fix the lines. That may seem like a long time, but I had never seen ice covering branches before, and apparently lines were down all over Northern Indiana. When our repairmen came, we asked how long he had been working. He replied that he had been going non-stop since Thursday, and probably wouldn't be done until Tuesday. My hats off to those people for braving the elements like that!

While we didn't lose power, Sarah's parents did for awhile, and my sister and brother-in-law had some power surges. Luckily, as of this posting, everyone is doing well. Today's high temperature is only going to be about 6 degrees, but it will be warming up over the next few days. The forecast for Saturday is for temperatures in the 30s with a chance of rain/snow. We'll see how it goes though. That's still SIX DAYS AWAY!

Final Countdown

Well, after nearly a year of talking about it and thinking it was so far away, Sarah and I are now ten days away from getting married. Today we went to the county government complex to get our marriage license. That was an interesting trip.

When we got to the Clerk's Office, there was what looked like a line of people waiting. I looked in the office, and a couple was just coming out. The people in the hall that I thought was a line was actually the family of the couple. Apparently they had just gotten married. Now I've heard of people getting married by a Justice of the Peace, but it was strange to see that someone had just done it. In fact, adjoining the dinky, worn-out office was a chapel that was decorated in they typical white netting. Add that to the fact that Sarah and I overheard them talking about going to the Cracker Barrel to celebrate made us smile. Not your typical wedding plans, but when two people are in love, it's hard to keep them down.

The next interesting event was that the one clerk in the office was an amazing multi-tasker. In addition to handling our license, she was getting certified copies for another couple that had just gotten married as well as answered the phone for several other people wanting to know about getting a license.

Finally, though, we had all the paperwork filled out and received our license. The clerk then had us raise our right hands and swear that we were doing this of sound mind and body. One of the questions asked us if we were under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Technically you are supposed to respond "yes" or "no." My response? "Just love." Sarah, the clerk, and another worker who was in the office all cracked up. I figured the workers would have heard that line before. Isn't that why everyone gets married?

Tomorrow is our meeting with Sister Joanne, who will help us set the ceremony. Sarah and I have selected the readings and prayers for the service, and we'll be talking about it with Sister Joanne tomorrow. More on that when we return!