Ohio Trip Part Two and the Aftermath

I finally have pictures! Yay! The first picture is of me with Kyle and Kira after the Kirtland Show. After that is some pictures from the rehearsal and then the wedding. The ones during the ceremony were taken by my brother, Jon. Here is what happened after my last post:

On Sunday I got up and attended church in Tallmadge, which was my ward until David and I moved this past January. It was good to see a bunch of the people I had been missing. After church I went home and read until Mom and Jon got home. Mom made chocolate chip pancakes for lunch and then I left to go to the Carey's house. My friends, Kyle and Kira, are both going abroad soon so it was a combined bon voyage party. Kyle is headed to Japan to teach English for anywhere from one to five years. Kira is headed to Germany for either one or two semesters as part of a study abroad program. Her major is German Translation, so this is definitely a good move for her. I can't imagine a better way to learn the language. Anyway, I hung out over there for a few hours and then headed to Grandma and Grandpa Ridinger's for what I thought was the rest of the evening. Grandma had invited my aunt and cousins over as well so it was a big family dinner in honor of my being in town. During dinner, however, my brother received a call from my sister, Katie, who was in Virginia working at a girl scout camp. She had been fired by her crap-for-brains ex-friend and needed to be picked up. She was so upset it made me want to cry! Anyway she asked me to come get her and I couldn't say no so I went to Grandma and told her I was sorry but I would have to skip out on the rest of the evening. As sad as I was to have to leave, I was excited to see my sister, and I was touched by how our family came together to help Katie out. Grandma and my aunt Sue went to the kitchen to make Katie a sandwich, Jon went and printed directions for me, and my dad gave me $80 to pay for gas and tolls. I also heard from my other brother, Andy. He and his wife, Heather, live in Maryland and offered their apartment for us to sleep in since it was fairly close to camp and we would be there late. Andy and Heather were vacationing in North Carolina, however, and the guard left too early to let us in, so that didn't work out, but Andy also offered to get us a hotel. I just felt like everyone in the family was there and ready to help. It was a great feeling. Anyway, I drove to Virginia in Katie's car (which she had left behind) and arrived at 12:30 am. I might have been there sooner but 90 miles of the PA Turnpike was closed due to an accident and I had to detour. We drove straight home (the turnpike was open by then) and made it in five and a half hours. We were tired by the time we got home, obviously, so we went to bed. I got up a few hours later and showered before meeting my friend from high school, Linday Kean, at Panera for lunch. After lunch I went home and slept some more until 5:30 when my dad came and took Katie and I to Mike's Place. After that we went and saw "The Dark Knight." It was SO well done. Heath Ledger did an amazing job as the joker. He was so disturbing in that role...I was very impressed.

Tuesday, Katie and I went shopping at the mall, and we all had dinner at the Derby's. I got some glow-in-the-dark nail polish and some travel items I needed. Wednesday we went thrifting before I went to the airport. Luckily my flight was on time and I reached home safe and sound. David picked me up at the airport and we went to Wal-mart to get some things for our campout this weekend. Then we went home and found a note from Chris that said he was at his new apartment and would drop his key off later. We were a little confused because up until that day the plan had been that Amber would move into the apartment until the wedding and Chris would stay with us because she wanted to be away from her parents and she had already requested the transfer to Clearfield for her job. We went to his room and found it empty! Chris had just taken off while we were gone. I had mixed feelings about this. Chris had been living with us for over a year and while the last few months were overly stressful with him here and I was in many ways looking forward to him having his own place, I found it incredibly rude that he would take off the way he did. Even if he had decided to move out earlier than we expected, common courtesy would have been to come to us and tell us that he was going to move, preferably a few days before he actually moved so that we could prepare and even help him. It is irrelevant if he was angry with us for whatever reason or whatever else because I think at the very least we deserved more respect after housing him (rent free for half of that time) for the last year. He stopped by later that night to drop off his key and I could barely look at him it was so awkward. I couldn't think of anything nice to say so I just sat there most of the time. Supposedly she is staying/moving back in with her parents and he is going to live at their new place for the next few weeks. While this is a good thing for me and David, in my humble opinion, it is a big mistake for Chris. He is putting himself in an even more dangerous situation. She got the transfer and therefore will be commuting from Bountiful to Clearfield until the wedding since she can't live at her place due to his midnight flight. They say they won't due anything stupid but they've already proven that is very difficult for them and honestly, I just don't trust them at all. They still don't even know if she's pregnant or not so I don't know how they can feel relaxed about any of this. He knows that if anything happens he'll be excommunicated and yet he keeps putting himself in the same situations hoping the same thing won't happen again. I believe the definition for that is STUPID. Retarded and ignorant are also good words. However, after some venting I decided that this is AWESOME for me and David! It feels great to have our own place again. In fact, I already redecorated his room into our new guest room! As soon as he picks up the rest of his junk, I can finish redecorating our office (which will be a nursery eventually....but not anytime soon, I'm afraid). I have pictures of that room, too. I think it looks awesome. So come visit! We have lots of space!