love, love, love, love, crazy love

Seems an age in middle Earth has passed since last I wrote. Somewhere in that space of time that I was away from my blog I made a trip back to Michigan to attend the wedding of my friend Stac (and Jay), which meant I was also home to celebrate my Mom’s birthday and celebrate Monster Nephew A’s 3rd birthday (a little early). I still can't believe my little monster is 3! I remember anxiously driving to the hospital to meet my first nephew; to hold this tiny little person; to make promises over this sleeping angel. And now, he is three and full of mischief just like his old auntie. Time does fly, no?

"The only reason for times is so that everything doesn't happen at once." ~ Albert Einstein

While home I:

• Slept and slept and slept on my first day home. Apparently staying up all night before I flew wiped me out. I also hadn't been sleeping well before I left so I think my body needed it
• Friday I went to Stac and Jay's wedding in Flat Rock, MI. My first time there--though I only saw the inside of the church, the reception hall and my hotel. Did a reading at their wedding--1 Corrinthians 13:1-7 ("Love is patient, Love is kind") --think it went well...up until the part where my shoe fell off as I was doing the reading (when I read behind podiums I kick one foot up behind me) and I couldn't get it back on. Doing that gracefully just didn't happen; wound up having to walk to my pew with one shoe flopping haphazardly, though my friends swore after that they couldn't even tell. The wedding was alright, I think I was too tired and travel weary to have a lot of fun. Was so glad that best friend K came up and joined me so I didn't have to suffer another wedding dateless! Thanks K!!
• My sisters' family, my Mom, my bro A3 and I all went to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village complexes were ideas from Henry Ford, who wanted places to showcase pieces of American history. Henry Ford Museum houses a history of transportation as well as rotating exhibits (now the museum has "Rock Stars, Cars and Guitars"), while Greenfield Village was designed to show what the United States that Henry Ford grew up in would have had. Henry Ford had places of important significance brought to the grounds, i.e. the Wright Bros. shop where they built their plane; Edison's lab where he experimented with electricity, etc. They are both very cool places to visit if you ever find yourself in MI. I love both places as much as I did when I was a kid, and it is now cool to see my niece and nephew Monsters S and A enjoy the exhibits
• The Sunday I was in town happened to be the weekend of my church's college grad mass, which I attended with best friend L, since she is the planner behind it all. It was interesting to think that I was standing in front of the community just a year ago, having just graduated. How much changes in a year! After Mass we had a picnic in Royal Oak: A1 and M and monster niece S and monster nephew A, my Mom, my bro A3, best friend K and J, best friend L and K and their two girls L and A, Chris and Katie, Julie and her two kids, and A1's friends: Grandma Grace, Marta, Anna, Victoria and Ella. It was great to let the kids play so we could all chat, but it was cold--what the heck it's May!!
• Had dinner Sunday night with Kim and Jesse and Camille. Nice catching up and grabbing a beer at the WAB in Ferndale, though their food really does suck. At least the Raspberry beer was good!
• Monday hung out with best friend L and K before K drove me to the airport

All in all my time home was good, albeit very busy, something I hope to rememdy when I go home in August. Less running around, more sitting and visiting in one place. But...that is never the case. It is nice to be loved and have so many people want to see me, but it's tiring too...a good dilemma to have though, no.

In the spirit of all things l-o-v-e, here is the reading I did at Stac and Jay's wedding (so glad she let me pick first!):
If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated,
it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,
it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
~ 1 Corrinthians 13:1-7

And below is a picture of my dear heart, monster nephew A's, "flowers," which he picked while we were picnicking. Miss the kiddos.