I have a little time to catch up, to breathe, but just a little, so I’ll get right to updating The Chronicles of Nani readers on what’s going on!
2 days until the reception and things are going okay. Well, they’re going okay except a few people that had to cancel on us and my back. I got a nasty knot in the lower back on the side with my bad knee Tuesday night. The pain was awful! I ended up not going to school yesterday because I just couldn't move well enough to get dressed and to the car, let alone get from the parking lot to class. Besides, sitting in a chair hurt. David brought my laptop and books up to me and I worked on the bed. I had a heating pad that when i spoke with my physical therapist later, I was told to switch to ice because heat was bad. It was good advice! Where my pain was, on a scale of 1-10, a 20 yesterday, today it's a manageable 7 or 8. I’ll spend some more time with the ice today and I figure I’ll be back to my normal self by tomorrow. My disposition is much brighter today. Yesterday, I was predicting rain for Saturday. Tori looked at me and said, “Now that’s not the Nana I know, the Nana I know is not negative.”
David says a few people canceling at the last is normal. This is my first marriage, I don't know! Even my Dad told me he might be late. Can you imagine if it had been a regular wedding? I’d be at the church looking at my watch and wondering if I was going to be walking down the aisle by myself!
Okay, truth is that when we were talking about the wedding thing, I figured I would walk down the aisle alone unless it was a big deal to Dad to do it. I have long thought that weddings and the reception events that went with them are for the guests, not the bride and groom. The marriage is for the bride and groom. That being said, my back can hurt, everyone can bail on the weekend and it can rain cats and dogs. I STILL have the dream I wanted out of the deal. It’s just that now that we’re doing the summer reception for our winter wedding, I want to enjoy it.
My First AG!
Tori and Rina have been here for a couple of weeks, We usually take them for a long weekend trip in the summer. Last year Rina went to the Railfan weekend in Altoona with us and Tori came for a yummy weekend in Hershey. This year they decided they wanted to share their weekend and both went to the Mensa AG in Pittsburgh with us. There are more teenagers at the big annual event than there are at the smaller regional gatherings and they even have a track of events especially for the “TeenSIG.” We had lots of time spent with the girls and they also had plenty of things they did on their own, so it was a great combination of aunt and uncle time with independent time too.
2 days until the reception and things are going okay. Well, they’re going okay except a few people that had to cancel on us and my back. I got a nasty knot in the lower back on the side with my bad knee Tuesday night. The pain was awful! I ended up not going to school yesterday because I just couldn't move well enough to get dressed and to the car, let alone get from the parking lot to class. Besides, sitting in a chair hurt. David brought my laptop and books up to me and I worked on the bed. I had a heating pad that when i spoke with my physical therapist later, I was told to switch to ice because heat was bad. It was good advice! Where my pain was, on a scale of 1-10, a 20 yesterday, today it's a manageable 7 or 8. I’ll spend some more time with the ice today and I figure I’ll be back to my normal self by tomorrow. My disposition is much brighter today. Yesterday, I was predicting rain for Saturday. Tori looked at me and said, “Now that’s not the Nana I know, the Nana I know is not negative.”
David says a few people canceling at the last is normal. This is my first marriage, I don't know! Even my Dad told me he might be late. Can you imagine if it had been a regular wedding? I’d be at the church looking at my watch and wondering if I was going to be walking down the aisle by myself!
Okay, truth is that when we were talking about the wedding thing, I figured I would walk down the aisle alone unless it was a big deal to Dad to do it. I have long thought that weddings and the reception events that went with them are for the guests, not the bride and groom. The marriage is for the bride and groom. That being said, my back can hurt, everyone can bail on the weekend and it can rain cats and dogs. I STILL have the dream I wanted out of the deal. It’s just that now that we’re doing the summer reception for our winter wedding, I want to enjoy it.
My First AG!
Tori and Rina have been here for a couple of weeks, We usually take them for a long weekend trip in the summer. Last year Rina went to the Railfan weekend in Altoona with us and Tori came for a yummy weekend in Hershey. This year they decided they wanted to share their weekend and both went to the Mensa AG in Pittsburgh with us. There are more teenagers at the big annual event than there are at the smaller regional gatherings and they even have a track of events especially for the “TeenSIG.” We had lots of time spent with the girls and they also had plenty of things they did on their own, so it was a great combination of aunt and uncle time with independent time too.
Rina's first Mensa eventIt was my first AG, David’s too. We’d been to smaller Mensa events, but this was the first time for the big one for all of American Mensa. Yes, ALL of the eggheads in ONE omelet! After so many years of knowing each other by instant messages and email, I finally got to meet Ben, my “smart little brother,” in Pittsburgh! I also got to meet Joan Marie, a fellow member of GenX, several other groups and the M&Ms yahoo list. We talked for a while after David’s presentation of his train slides Friday Night. The presentation had a decent attendance, including two nieces and several members of TeenSIG. Just before David’s trains, Tori and I discovered “The Werewolves of the Pittsburgh Mensa AG.” Werewolves is SUCH a COOL game! The game we played was The Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow. Were were newbies, but you learn and become addicted to it quickly! There’s a link to the basic directions at the bottom of this post! Tori actually left the dance on Friday night to play more werewolves and we used our peer pressure to bring David and Rina into the addiction Saturday.
Tori making Happy SocksOn Saturday, the girls and I went to the Operation Happy Sock workshop at the AG. Operation Happy Sock makes cat toys for shelter cats. The toys are made with donated socks, fiberfill and cat nip. I’d guess the small room of Mensans talking abut their cats made over a thousand collectively in our hour together. Everyone was encouraged to take one of the toys home for their own cats and take some to donate to their local shelter.
Kaline and Baggle loved their Happy Socks! I’d done their “sock puppets” with legs from tights bundled up with just cat nip in them, but the squishy filled ones are even nicer. As much as they liked theirs, I think the shelter cats were even happier!
Our kids LOVED the Happy Socks
Tuesday afternoon, Rina, Tori and I took half of the large box of Happy Socks we brought home to Paws and Whiskers in Toledo, Ohio. Half of the Happy Socks we brought home were for a Toledo shelter and half are going with them to an Indianapolis shelter. Paws and Whiskers is a no-kill nonprofit cat shelter. In many ways, it broke my heart ot see all of those homeless cats in cages.
Paws and Whiskers is a nonprofit, No-kill cat shelter in ToledoThey had so many kittens too! David and I have been reading about pets that have been given up or even abandoned in this economy when families have lost their homes and had to move to apartments that didn’t allow pets or even the ones who just could no longer afford to feed or care for pets. We’ve been thinking that it might be time to look for a new brother of sister for our kids. We’d want to adopt an adult cat from a shelter. Cute little kittens have a much easier time finding a home than adult cats do. When we walked in to Paws and Whiskers, the woman who greeted us took a phone call where she had to say that they had no room for more cats right now. They even have adult cats that were adopted there and ended up back there a few years later because of circumstances beyond the kitty’s control.
We got to put the Happy Socks in the cages ourselves. The “house v=cat” there, who lays on a shelf near to the entrance as the shelter’s greeter, became very interested in the bags we brought! We gave her one and brought the bags to the walls of cages. They must have smelled the cat nip, because as soon as we opened the first bag, they were all meowing and poking paws out to say, “Don’t forget me!”
We got to put the Happy Socks in the cages ourselves. The “house v=cat” there, who lays on a shelf near to the entrance as the shelter’s greeter, became very interested in the bags we brought! We gave her one and brought the bags to the walls of cages. They must have smelled the cat nip, because as soon as we opened the first bag, they were all meowing and poking paws out to say, “Don’t forget me!”
These kittens at Paws and Whiskers wereadopted and waiting to go to their new home
Most of the cats and kittens there were so friendly and affectionate. They did a really good job of “selling themselves.” I’d have taken them all home if I could! I had suggested foster-parenting cats, but David doesn’t like that idea. He figures he’d get too attached to the foster cats. He’s probably right. We are planning to look into some volunteer opportunities. Hey, they even have a Texas Hold ‘Em tournament with proceeds going to the shelter. David is planning on that one!
Digitalegacies Designs Reception Sale
35% OFF July 11 & 12One last note for all the scrappers! In honor of our wedding reception weekend, I’m having a sale! If you head over to Scrap Bird on Saturday or Sunday, all and I mean ALL the products in the Digitalegacies Designs store will be 35% off!
Be sure to stop by this weekend! After Sunday when the party mood settles and I realize that exam 2 has been posted for my class, it’s back to business as usual!
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