Wednesday - Rehearsal

Wednesday was Steve and Shay's rehearsal...

We gathered at the venue, Firehouse Chicago, where coordinator Sarah got everyone organized.

Planning positions

Granddaughters came to see the rehearsal

The wedding party

Shaylyn and Steven

Shay and her dad practicing the hug at the front.

Working through logistics

Practicing putting the rings on.

Since it was formerly a firehouse, there was a firepole that could be used during the event... Here's a video at the rehearsal: https://youtu.be/MqucvV7zvbA

From the wedding venue, we went to Michael's Original Pizzeria and Tavern for the rehearsal dinner.

All of the grands at rehearsal dinner

Some of the Williams "Sibs"

Steve with some friends at the rehearsal dinner

Plenty of food at the dinner

Carl with lap full of grand-girls!

Grands enjoying time together

Since the grands wouldn't be at the wedding, a picture of them with the bridal couple!

Tuesday - preparing and remembering

On Tuesday,

... we picked up Carl's rented suit -- how many Carls are there in that mirror?!?!?

Doesn't he look dapper with the nice suit paired with his Kane County cap and everyday shoes? The saleslady at Men's Warehouse suggested that a driving cap might be a better choice...

In the afternoon,

Carl and two of his girls visited Sue's gravesite, remembering her on this 3rd anniversary of her passing.

Carl wrapped up the day by picking up our dry cleaning and...

went to get the Jeep tires rotated. They said that we probably will need to get new tires within the year based on the tread depth.

Sunday and Monday with family and future family

On Sunday...

... we joined worship with the Elgin Campus of Harvest Bible Chapel where Carl's son, Scott, is on staff...

... a little after-service discussion.

Scott and Kristin had invited us over for lunch...

... so we got to visit family a bit more while there!

On Monday evening, we drove into Chicago to meet up with Steve and Shay, and to have the opportunity to have dinner with Shay's parents.

The happy couple -- Shay and Steve

"The Perch Kitchen and Tap"

The restaurant was within easy walking distance from Steve and Shay's apartment.

Shay's mom, Reni, and her partner, Ron

The families - with Shay's dad, Dave, in the middle back of the group.

It was nice to get to meet Shay's parents and to visit with the families in advance of Steve and Shay's big day on Thursday!

Saturday around the campground

On Saturday afternoon, we did some updates to our bikes:

At the campground, we keep them covered...

... a BBQ cover does well to cover both of them. We also have them locked to the slide mechanism of the bedroom slide.

The display on my bike had started having a brighter and darker part... so I contacted the company and they sent a new one and we got it here in Elgin. Before replacing it, I took a picture of the number of miles I had accumulated on the original display (you can't really tell the issue with the display in the light that existed when I took this picture).

New display installed -- 0 miles again. Also, we got bells so we can gently communicate with others when we are about to overtake them on a path -- the new bell is the round thing below the handlebar on the left.

Putting the bell on Carl's bike

Kim and her girls came over Saturday afternoon...

They brought beanbags from Scott and Kristin's house...

...so we played a couple of rounds of corn hole...

...or bag-o...

... or bean bag toss. Carl's team consistently won!

We followed that up with a game of UNO out at the picnic table.

A visit from granddaughters and a repair

On Friday evening, Kim and granddaughters came to visit...

They remembered climbing on the climbing rock in the campground...

... though they said that they thought it was smaller now than they remembered!

They also built a volcano in the sandy area by our firepit. They are great at finding entertainments for themselves!

While they were building the volcano, I was sewing a chair -- you may recall that I had repaired the matching one a few months ago (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2022/04/getting-some-things-done-and-move.html) -- on Thursday evening, the second chair's seat started giving way, so it needed attention too...

... I got most of the side that had given way re-sewn... I will need to work on reinforcing the side that is still (currently) holding on another day -- but it will "do" for now!

Mom's new room and my new look

I had an ophthalmologist appointment on Friday morning way down in Naperville, so afterwards we decided to visit Carl's Mom. 

I mentioned a few days ago that the facility (Windsor Park) would be moving Mom to a newly renovated room "soon" (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2022/09/a-visit-to-see-mom.html) -- "soon" translated to Thursday this week. Carl and I were busy with scheduled appointments pretty much all day (I saw a new doctor to take on my "regular doctoring responsibilities", and saw the same dentist that I had seen last year -- this time for a cleaning, and Miss Kitty had an appointment to see her new vet, as her previous vet in Coppell retired about a year ago) -- so most faithful Karen went to be with Mom as her belongings were moved.

Mom in her new room

Looking toward the building hallway

The newly redesigned closet area -- there is to be a small refrigerator put into the spot where the boxes currently are.

I mentioned in the previous post that I was surprised to find no medicine cabinet, but was pleased to see that they have put a medicine cabinet up on the side wall of the bathroom. Karen was able to get almost everything into the closet and drawers - other than those boxes - and we were able to get the two big boxes relocated to the space under her desk.

We had wanted to take Mom out for lunch, but taking her out of the facility is rather exhausting for her, so we took her to the grill that is just off the main lobby. She seemed to enjoy the Reuben and fries that she had for lunch.

On the way, we passed the Woodshop, with this interesting sign!

After seeing my new primary care doctor on Thursday, she recommended a number of followup appointments with other doctors. This had its own set of challenges in scheduling as we plan to leave this area by mid-October. I was able to get an appointment with an ophthalmologist on Friday morning (although a good distance away, in Naperville). I have had a swelling on my eyelid for a couple of months - I figured it was just a stye, but I wasn't accustomed to having them stay around for a long time. The ophthalmologist confirmed that it is a stye and recommended frequent hot compresses -- with a microwavable heat pack so it would stay warm longer -- along with some ointment...

My look with the new hot pack -- it is rather difficult to have my glasses on while I have the hot pack on too, and the face recognition software on my computer doesn't seem to recognize me anymore, but at least I can kinda sorta type this blog while undergoing this treatment. Any additional typos or oddities should be blamed on this additional challenge!

Trying out new chairs

Our neighbors in the campground were sitting outside and invited us over to visit. They had interesting suspended chairs from REI (they said that something similar is available from Sam's Club at a lower price):

I wasn't sure that Carl was going to get up again! The chairs are nice because you can star-gaze in them!

They brought out the foot rest for me -- I could get used to this!

These are the NEMO Stargaze Luxury (https://www.rei.com/product/128052/nemo-stargaze-recliner-luxury-chair). They are comfortable, though a little challenging to get out of...

Our neighbors had said that the Sam's Club version was a little taller, which made me think that they might be easier to get in/out of, but it appears that they may be out of stock (https://www.samsclub.com/p/members-mark-swing-chair/prod23120337). I was thinking that these might be able to replace our large lounge chairs (that we don't carry with us anymore because they take up so much room)... Maybe they will be back in stock at Sam's next season.