and she became his wife...

When we were growing up, we owned two white cassette tapes full of clips of Garrison Keillor telling the News from Lake Woebegone.  We listened to those cassettes over and over while we dried dishes or drew clothes for our paper dolls at the little table by the wood stove.  In one of those News clips, Keillor told the story of a man from Lake Woebegone who went to New York City and came back with tales of city life and $7 dinners, which made New York City an awfully intimidating place to some people.  But to me, Keillor said, in the way only Keillor can say it, it was extravagance, wonderful extravagance...and I couldn't wait to get there myself.


My little sister Valen married the love of her life, Kurt Randall, yesterday.

I don't have many photos.  Not my department.

But it was day of extravagance.


Nathan woke me at 4:35, and I after I settled him back down I lay there next to B.J. like a little child on Christmas morning, unable to go back sleep.  

I caught the sky while B.J. and the girls finished breakfast.  The morning was clear, still.  I shoot the sun rising over the place where I grew up, and I smile to myself, knowing that people I love are up and moving in those trees, their hearts skipping just like mine.

I spend the morning mixing up a casserole for lunch, setting out wedding clothes for the kids, and doin' myself up.  Then at 11:45 our friend Lori shows up to watch Willem, Marie, and Nath, and I head to the winery to help do up the bride and her maids.

So we spend the afternoon in the loft of that lovely place while big band music plays in the background, chatting, munching, dressing the bride, making up the ladies, laughing...

The sun rolls high, the air is clear.  

Then home again to get the kids, to the church for photos, food, and then the wedding.  Music and loved ones, Kurt and Val's vows, talk of God's love...

I could write about the way the winery sparkled up on the hill as we approached, the hum of the guests at the tables, watching Kurt and Val, listening to Paul and Erin, Sherry's poem, Tim's toast - Live with your wife - the cheering, the clapping, the singing, the Family, the photos from days gone by...


(See the kids singing here.)
(See us singing here.)


B.J. and I ended the night cuddled on the couch, him tugging pins out of my hair and asking,


"Whatcha thinkin?"
"Not much..."
"It couldn't have been any better, Dear."
"I know.  It was wonderful.  All of it.  This side of heaven, it doesn't get any better than today."


But when my heart is so full, the words jumble and I don't do it justice.  


And today it's back to dishes and diapers, and what's there to eat, Mom?  But first this morning, we're spreading love on toast and thanking the Father for extravagance.  For glasses of wine and faces that shine.  Psalm 104:15

We left even before the bride and groom - Nathan is not yet well - but I don't think they missed us as they drove away.  As we drove away, I leaned my head against the cool glass of the van window and thought extravagance.  What  heart-aching, breath-taking, wonderfully extravagant delights have filled this day...

...and I can't wait to get There, to that sparkling, hilltop Mansion, myself.