Blessings

Ethan,

I know your dad has already begun a journal of sorts for you, but I already have this blog and I may as well write in it, right? Three months late. :) Or months or years late, if you want to take into account how long I've had this and how long it's been since I wrote in it.

Today seems like an auspicious day to start up again since it was the day of your baby blessing. I read somewhere once that in Bali (I think), babies are carried by their parents for the first 180 days of their lives, no part of them ever never touching the ground. They aren't named and are simply kept alive, carefully. It isn't until the end of that 180 day period that they are celebrated with a grand party, given names and allowed to touch the earth, the rationale being that if a child that young was to die, it belonged to the gods anyway, not to their human community on earth. Once that period of limbo passes, the babies then belong to their families and are tied to the land. While I wouldn't ever say you belonged to the gods at pretty much any point past the moment you left my womb, I thought it a good parallel to begin writing to you today, the day you were celebrated and officially "sent off" onto your great journey of life. Plus, several local people I admire (Lara, Princess Lasertron, your dad of course) write monthly letters to their babies and I want that record for you, too!

We aren't religious. We both grew up Catholic but left the church for varying reasons, the explanations of which I'm sure you'll be subjected to throughout your life. I feel more spiritual-agnostic, personally, and I think your dad feels the same (although he'll gruffly say he's atheist-agnostic. Get a drink in him and he'll soften up). Regardless, we both felt it was right to have some sort of ceremony officially welcoming such an amazing addition to our lives--you-- and speaking to the hopes we have for and promises we make to you as your parents. Plus, it made your Grandma Magnuson really happy to have something slightly resembling a baptism. ;) So we planned this totally personalized, non-traditional gig with secular readings, a Beatles song, a pagan ritual, Christian oil to rub on your body, and invited lots of people who love you.

It was great. It was a beautiful, cool and sunny fall day out. I filled your tummy ahead of time so you'd be content and quiet throughout. You wore this ADORABLE hand-woven jumper and booties we bought in Guatemala in 2009 (we figured we'd have a baby someday). Your grandma and great-grandma Magnuson made some little hors d'oevres and I bought cupcakes and pumpkin whoopie pies from my friend Joni. Your Mimms (Grandma Lawson, just in case that nickname doesn't stick) listened to the ceremony via Skype; unfortunately, the video feature wasn't working. What can you expect from a free service, right? Several of our closest friends came, some with their own babies. Everyone spoke some words of blessing or wishes for you, and wove a ribbon onto a wreath for you to represent their sentiments. And we, your mom and dad, were humbled and pleased to find ourselves surrounded by people gathered there for a common purpose-- to show love and honor to our greatest joy, our first child, our unbelievably perfect boy. You.

Welcome to this life, Ethan. You're going to love it.

I'm going to be an auntie!

So this has been on the super downlow for awhile, but now Melissa's showing so it's pretty much pointless to try to deny it. Can you imagine how that conversation would go?


"Hey! I didn't know you were pregnant, congrats! When are you due?"
"I'm not pregnant. You dillhole."
"...but you have a baby bump. Like right there."
"THAT is my STOMACH, you JERK. What, are you calling me chubby? You think it's cool to assume? OW!"
*bump moves*
"What was that?"
"The ba....my lunch kic....I have gas."

Awwkwaarrd. So now that that's settled, Meliseester had an ultrasound this morning where the sex of the baby was revealed!

TA DA!

If you'll look carefully at the picture, you'll see IT'S A BOT! Just what I've always wanted!! I have lots of knitting to do...gotta keep those steely joints warm. :D

UNO's voice of George Crumb

He sounds remarkably like my sister....





That's me taking pictures up front. I always get the best seats. :)

An evening with George Crumb

Well, only part of an evening. And, an evening that was actually about a flautist earning her Master's degree. Whom I had never met.

Melisser and Daddo drove the 13-hours from Columbus so that she could make a guest appearance tonight at a friend's graduate recital, lending her signature avant garde George Crumb awesomeness to accompany said friend's (frankly) spectacular flute-playing. I'm so proud of my preetty seester and her beautiful, crystalline voice!

 

Honestly, I never thought flute would be so entertaining! Not only did Sara play lightning-fast, she also trilled her tongue while playing in some parts of the music, or buzzed the flute like a kazoo WHILE pulling a melody out of it. Insane. I actually started giggling with mirth and amazement at the kazoo part because I am eternally inappropriate and love it when people think I am being disrespectful. Speaking of disrespectful, there was SOME girl in the southwest corner of the room who kept making odd "mmm! hmm!" sounds only during the performance....I was so confused and annoyed at her interruption of the flute-nirvana that in trying to figure out what the hell it was, I actually convinced myself it must just be a woman breastfeeding and the baby was making satisfied grunting noises. Yes, THAT is how I made this strange noise acceptable to myself.

 

Very impressive. I talked to Sara afterward about how much I'd liked her recital, and she said she and Melissa have tentative plans to put together another performance sometime in the future. Yay!

 

Scene change. On Friday night, Meliseester and I went to see Marriage of Figaro at the Orpheum. It was gorgeous! I love the opera. I wish I could remember how many I've seen. This one in particular I kind of had to strain to see, because a dude with the widest head in existence sat in front of me. You never would guess from his narrow face either. Maybe it was just the hair at the back of his head. So I got to invade some personal space on either side of my seat, at least until I figured out I could sit on my coat. There was also a group of students that came in late, traipsed in front of a whole row of people, and then half of then decided they had to go to the bathroom or something....twice. To end the night, here is a conversation I had with Melisser:

Me: "Where's the 'Fiiiigaro, Figaro, Figaro, Fi-ga-ro!' ?"

Melissa: "Actually, that's Barber of Seville."

Captain Obvious: "...but this opera has 'Figaro" in the title."

More Knowledgeable Opera Buff: "Indeed, but the part you're talking about is in Barber of Seville."

Argumentative: "Are you sure? I don't remember any Figaro in that one."

Singer with Operatic Range: "Did you see Barber of Seville?"

Me: "...no."

She: *raises brows*

But despite all this silliness, I had a wonderful time with my beautiful seester!

Aaaaand two months later....

...two months later, this jerk (ME) decides she should probably get around to writing about her sister-in-law's wedding.

It was gorgeous, and as far as I knew, went without a hitch! The weather couldn't have been nicer, the sun was shining brilliantly and there was a very nice breeze. Perfect for a May wedding! I actually don't have pictures of during the wedding, because I sang the service and Eric was a groomsman, so neither of us were able to take any. Which is too bad, because the church looked really beautiful with its new makeover, and I would like to have some. But, we have plenty of others! This post will be mostly pictures of the wedding aftermath.


Here's a sassy Sara getting ready beforehand.


Dustin and company. Not even nervous! Eric told me he swigged peppermint schnapps right before ours.


Come to think of it, I think it was this guy (not Jeff) who gave him some!


And now we fast-forward to post-wedding stuff. Here's Sara with her two besties, Kendahl and Denise. I loved the pale lemon yellow. We took Ollie the Trolley for wedding party pictures in the Gene Leahy mall downtown.


Here's me and Eric with my hair falling out.


All our handsome groomsmen!


The lovely bridesmaids enjoying their bouquets. All except Beth--nice going there, champ. :)


The photogs had everyone leap into the air, which was very amusing.


Onward to Billy Frogg's to wet our whistles!




Just look at those baby blues!


The reception! And a sweet-looking father-daughter dance.


Action shot, bouquet toss! Those little girls are CLUELESS!


My parents came too!


Before things got uncivilized.


"IT'S TIME TO DANCE, FOOL!"


Gettin down, gettin down...


Adorable!


Sara and her new Pops.


Denise TOTALLY accosting Sue. I think this picture is hilarious!! Poor Sue, ha!


Eric and Aunt Carol


Jeff and Traci like to boogie!


And by the end of the night, everyone was feeling pretty good.


The next morning, Sara and Dustin opened their scads of great gifts. Nice shiny new wedding ring, D! I chose this one in particular because he's not making a crazy face in it. LIKE USUAL.

And that's the way it was. Congratulations, newlyweds!

the long-awaited bachelorette party!

**Featuring pictures borrowed from one of Sara's best friends, Denise.

Can I just say how much fun this party was? Granted, I arrived late because someone didn't mail me an invitation and then told me the wrong time, *coughBETHcough* (I'm not bitter) but the games and drinks at Sara's house had everyone happily loosened up and laughing by the time I got there. And the rest of the time I WAS there was thoroughly awesome.


Pin the Junk on the Hunk!


After games, Sara opened gifts--hilarious, pretty, frilly and sweet ones.

I wish I had taken a picture of the food! There was a funny penis cake that was actually quite tasty, and tortilla rolls, and really cute little cheesecakes.

Following gifts, we all sat around with drinks and waited for the party bus Beth had booked. This reconstituted school bus was supposed to be awesome--all leather couches, sweet party lights, and-- a POLE! The fact that the "leather" couches turned out to be recycled college couches and the party lights were Christmas lights, just endeared the company to me, and if I ever get to plan another bachelorette I am totally calling this place.

Everybody wanted in on that pole action!

Our first stop was the Underground, in the Old Market beneath the French Cafe. It was a little subdued in there, but there was plenty of room to move around, sit, chat, and down shots. After about an hour there, Sue and Kath split and the rest of us hoofed it to Billy Frogg's down the street. There, Mandy and I were regrettably ensnared into a conversation with a guy pretending to be a French TA at Creighton.

(minus the daylight)


(actual photo of "French" kid)

But Beth rescued us, and were off to our third and final destination--Boondocker's, for Thursday night karaoke! Of course, I loved that. I sang Hotel California because I LOVE THAT SONG.

I don't remember how many rounds of shots we ordered here. I do remember it was enough that some of the girls actually started refusing to take them...holy cow. At last call, we all piled back into the bus for more pole dancing, and disembarked at Sara and Dustin's house, where we promptly awoke all the neighbors.


So, FABULOUS night! Seriously, one of the best bachelorettes I've ever been to, and not only because this time I didn't slip on beer at the Max and bust up my elbow. This was a great last hurrah for Sara, and it looks like everyone had a fabulous time.

Birthday time!

I turned 28 on the 14th. It was a lovely Thursday! A bunch of family and friends met Eric and me at the Crescent Moon for dinner and beers, then we went with the friends to Sullivan's for some karaoke and more beers. It was kind of a late night (as in, the-bar-closed-late), but surprisingly, I had no trouble getting to work in the morning. I still got it! :D

I didn't manage to take any pictures, but Melissa did. Here's one of me, Eric and our friend Anne:


Two more years til the big Dirty Thirty. Eeesh!

Sara's husband-to-be...

had a bachelor party.

Here's the happy couple:


And here's a picture of Dustin on the big night:


The lucky lady is Fatty Patty, and she sure knows how to have a good time!

A recital

The day after graduation, Melissa held an encore performance of her senior recital for our family, who had flown in from Ohio to help celebrate her accomplishment. She was, as per usual, stunning in her performance, showing her degree was well and studiously (ha!) earned. She has a pristine, delicate voice that sounds like it could shatter, but it never, ever does. It's quite the edgy experience. I only wish I could post a video!

Her ensemble consisted of her preferred theme: fascination with death. Pieces included David Del Tredici's Lament on the Death of a Bullfighter, John Adams' This is Prophetic!, Igor Stravinsky's No Word From Tom, some others I can't recall, and my personal favorites...songs from Apparition, by George Crumb. This involved amplified piano Particularly striking and possibly the creepiest song in the entire world was Dark Mother Always Gliding Near with Soft Feet. All of the Crumb songs were fantastically chilling, and very spooky; I think my other favorite was called Death Carol, in which Melissa hooted and called like some ominous nightbird. Gorgeous.

As a special surprise to our parents, I joined Melissa at the piano after her main performance and we sang a duet that thoroughly trumped her death theme....The Flower Song, from the opera Lakmé. I think everyone was pleased and surprised, and it was nice to share that experience with my seester!

Cheers to the graduate!

So my seester Melissa finally finished her degree, and ahead of me too! (Well, the whole population's ahead of me.) She is now a distinguished recipient of the University of Nebraska at Omaha's degree in Vocal Performance. I'm so proud of her! College is hard.

May 8 was the big day, and a beautiful, sunny day at that. Graduation took place at the Civic Center downtown. Here is the Accomplished One with our parents:


And here's one of we siblings:


And here I am ruining the picture, the only one of Meliseester and me with our husbands:


After graduation, we had dinner at Vincenzo's downtown, which was incredible. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of that event because I was too busy worshipping my baked sea scallops and asparagus with cherry risotto. OMG. It was a good day!