Wedding plans, birthday busyness, and doctor stuff too!

WHEW!! Busy week for sure! Dress shopping on Wednesday was pretty much yuck. Fun , but yuck.  We didn't have time to go to OKC  or Tulsa to a mall; we were limited to the stores here in town. We got a late start on our only day to go shopping at all, an unplanned run south of town to drop the boys off at their pals' house popped into the schedule,  and just  as we were loading up stroller and baby and girls girls girls, the phone rang with  a  "There's been an accident" coming from my friend to whose house I had just taken the boys!  Deep breath. Isaiah had  hit his head in the pool and was bleeding quite a lot. My friend Lynn didn't think that it needed stitches (being a super experienced mom of 6 boys herself!) but probably steri-strips, of which she was out.  She thought  that I really needed to assess it myself anyhow. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO,  we finished loading up, I told the girls that we'd take steri-strips, go check on Isaiah and IF he needed stitches, we'd take him,  and shop after. IF he was Ok, I'd dress his head and we'd be on our way. THANKFULLY, he had a gash that was truly not quite  stitch-worthy and my criss-crossed steri-strip job seemed to be ,at least temporarly, sufficient. We dosed him with Motrin for headache, I hugged him, kissed his forehead , thanked God for safety even in an accident and THEN, we girls  hit the road! First stop; Mexico Joes for lunch so we could request to be in Esther's section and hang out with her too. She had to work on my only day to shop, and I had had to care for Hannah's childrenon her only day to shop. This was my best compromise motion.
Shopping for bridemaid's dresses,  decorations for the church, shoes for the little girls were our order of business. Without going to a bridal store and ordering dresses, it is super challenging to find three dresses of the same style and color in three very different sizes. The ONE dress we found did not fit 2/3 of the girls in an attractive fashion whatsoever. The next option, a fun -print skirt which we found in all three sizes,  but finding a fun blouse...............not such great fortune. The end result was not what we'd hoped for. Next skirt option with blouse ,OK, but no one was really happy.   Decorations at Hobby Lobby.....we have selected the "wrong color" for this summer apparently. Since when is turquoise  NOT a popular summer color???
I found just enough tulle netting and ribbon  to decorate the wedding arches and we will color in with white flowers. I think we have enough ribbon to tie single white roses for the pews and for the girl's bouquets. HOPE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then on to Sopheak's other mission:  A BATMAN SUIT for Malachi for his birthday (yesterday)  Our costume store had one, for more than she planned to spend, but she knew he REALLY  wanted that suit. HE'd been looking all over Cambodia too. We split the price, got his suit and had good success finding shoes for Naomi and Rachel at JC Penney.  Online later that night I found dresses at Dillard that were much more to everyone's liking so I ordered those. I am the "Return queen" anyhow so a trip back to Belk will beon today's schedule!  AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
So Malachi's birthday yesterday. His requested dinner was family all together, grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans   and chocolate cake. Gotta brag jsut a smidgen here. My  cake turned out amazingly delicious! Chocolate layer cake, with a semi-sweet chocolate filling, chocolate butter cream frosting, drizzled with more of the semi-sweet filling as a glaze, and for  fun, a Batman toy and his morotcycle as a topper!
Today is music organizing and food planning. NOT SURE  how many people I am planning for, and I have a pretty wide range.Hoping for more RSVP info today. Several friends suggested that  I text message and request a reply.  Its all coming together and we are excited!!! We met with a photographer yesterday  but then had an offer of a gift photogrpaher almost simultaneously!
The "Something old"  is also going to be  the "Something blue" when Sopheak wears my mother's reset diamond ring. The diamond was HER MOTHER's  engagement stone, my dad had it reset for my mom years ago  in a white gold setting with saphirres around the diamond. Hannah wore it for her wedding . ( My mother is 83, her parents were married for a while before she was born so that stone is nearly 100 years old!!!) Hannah gave the "Something borrowed" with her  wedding tiara; the "Something new"  is of course the wedding gown. That is not a Cambodian tradition so we had fun explaining it to Sopheak who really liked  the little rhyme and the tradition.
We are still working diligently to find a pediatric gastro-enterologist for Daniel so we can schedule a consult and "Mickey button" feeding tube surgery. THAT  has not been so successful , I am not happy to report. Our current insurance program  requires a physician ordered referral. I can't just make my own appointments and the ones I have requested have NOT happened as promised. Making  follow-up phone calls to ask "Why?" "Why not?" "When?"  is not one of my favorite activities, especially when I am super busy with the rest of my life and I know I have DONE  my job. Lord please keep me patient and compasssionate and POLITE!!!!! Oh yes, I can be absolutely none of  those things far too easily!! There is a very good reason why I have a framed "Fruit of the Spirit" painting over my office corner!! I need to be reminded that JOY  is love's strength, PEACE is love's security, LONG-SUFFERING is love's patience,
GENTLENESS is love's conduct,  GOODNESS is love's character, FAITH is love's confidence, MEEKNESS is love's humility, TEMPERANCE is love's victory, and that "against such there is no law."
Please pray with me that I do  continue to ( and better and better ) exhibit the Fruit of the Spirit which is within me and that I do not allow the "stuff" of life to blow my testimony with  family, doctor's offices or wedding related persons? We do not need a banging gong or clanging cymbal  where God's love should be flowing freely. I do not want to be that gong or cymbal, but a sweet sweet sound in the ear of my God and my world!!