The Reception

 After the ceremony there were pictures.

 We actually suggested that one of the photographers 

cluck like a chicken to get Baby X to laugh.

He did- awesome shot.

 My mom was two-fisting it.

(Not really, she was just holding my brother and sister's beer.)

 It's how we roll.

The Brat Child photobombing in the background.

 We actually hiked up to the falls.

Hiking in a wedding dress is no easy feat.

I got several interesting stares

but mostly people congratulated us.

 We also took photos on the famous Swinging Bridge

We arrived!

 We had our first dance.

 My dad and I danced.

 The brat Child and I danced.

He had this whole plan to dance to Ghostbusters 

with Nerf guns 

and pretend we were hunting ghosts.

He chickened out.

 There was delicious cake

 And time with friends and family

 

The End.

If you're interested in any of the DIY projects I did, you can check out my other blog The Wannabe Farm where I will share some of the details.

The Wedding

Now that the wedding is over,

I can finally share some of the details.

Cascade Falls

 The wedding and ceremony were held at Patapsco Valley State Park.

If you've read older posts on this blog,

you might remember the name of the park.

My great-uncle "Pepop" 

was once the superintendent here.

Bloede Dam

I spent a lot of time here as a kid too.

And one of my grandmother's favorite photos:

l to r: my brother, my grandmother, my sister and me

was taken at this park.

So it made sense to have it here.

 I had my custom made wedding shoes.

Since the wedding took place on flag day

and all bride's need something blue

I went with the blue and red theme.

The wedding date is embroidered on the side. 

Yes, I know I'm wicked cool.  

 There was the arranging of the arbor.

The arbor was built by Big E.

We cut the the branches for it ourselves
 from trees needing to be cleared from the fence line at home.

The day of the ceremony it was realized that the arbor wasn't quite sturdy enough,

so my dad and brother helped with those corner supports you see in the back.

 My sister did the flower arranging.

She actually did all the actual hands on arranging-

I just gave instruction on what flowers went into what arrangements. 

(from what I heard, my brother also helped with the flower arranging on the arbor)

My brother Lunchbox being cool- in my gardening gloves.

There was setting up of the chairs.

And by chairs I mean straw bales.

The finished product for the ceremony.

I scored those 2 large hydrangeas last minute.

The Brat Child looking serious.

The Brat Child looks so solemn

and Baby X is hanging onto the wagon with both hands.

I just now realized that my dad wore his sunglasses.

Here's the first look.

 There was the ceremony

 Midge sang "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri

 Then Big E surprised me with a song "Grow Old Along With Me"

Then we kissed.

Tomorrow I'll share the other photos.

Birdhouses and Things

Deltaville and wildlife seem to go hand-in-hand, at least in my head they do.  Pepop (my great-uncle and subject of a previous blog found here), was the former superintendent at Patapsco State Park in Maryland so most of the time spent with him ended up being some sort of lesson on nature.  I am full of all sorts of facts and useless information about the ecosystem of the Tidewater area and all the wildlife that resides there.  While some might think those lessons were boring, I hung on every word,  absorbed every detail and turned into that girl who is bringing home every wounded animal she finds (once had my chorus teacher give me a ride home after I found a baby rabbit in the schoolyard- it's mother and siblings squashed).

I've spent a lot of time watching the squirrels chase each other and throw things at those of us sitting on the deck.  I love listening to the birds (some I can imitate).  No surprise that we have a couple of birdhouses around.  One in particular is a most unique birdhouse.  My grandmother and grandfather fashioned it out of an old coffee pot.  A few years ago, a bad storm blew it out of the tree.  I came across it and took it into the house in the hopes of managing to fix it and hang it again.  I'm one of those freaks people who has a lot of respect for the past and nostalgia.  I hate change, especially in my little heaven on earth.  So the birdhouse coffee pot sat in the corner of the kitchen under the bar stool.  There was also a birdhouse on top of a metal post that had seen better days that I had been planning on replacing. 

Last August, my dad cut down the pear tree in the yard and one of the branches smashed the birdhouse.  I figured it was time to make good on my promise.  My grandmother, who was slowly declining in health, was supposed to be coming to Deltaville for the last time.  Now was a good time to get her precious birdhouses up. 

Ethan helped me find one and he also picked out the paint colors and I let him paint the replacement birdhouse.  I was unsure what to do about the coffee pot.  I had no idea how I was going to attach it to the tree again.  Finally I found an old piece of wood, painted it, attached the pot to it (after several cuts, thankfully I have a current tetanus) and got it attached back on the tree. 

My grandmother never made it down to Deltaville again, but I was able to send her photos of our handy work.  She was pleased.

The new birdhouse on the metal pole.  Paint job by Ethan, I painted the pole.

Coffee Pot birdhouse.  Doesn't matter if nothing nests in it at this point, it's all about the memories

Pepop

I have so many stories and things to say about Deltaville that it's hard to pick what I am going to write about.  Afterall, I've been spending time there for 30+ years (granted I don't remember all 30+ years since some of those were spent as an infant).  But I thought I needed to talk about someone who was a large part of my Deltaville experience and who still influences me today though he has long since passed.

Pepop was my grandfather's brother.  My grandfather died when I was 5, so Pepop took on that role for me.  My cousins Ty and Jeff (who I will mention now and again) were Pepop's actual grandchildren.  When I was younger, Pepop and his wife Memom were called Uncle Roy and Aunt Helen.  I don't remember when the Pepop/ Memom names came about, but Kelly and I just started using them along with Ty and Jeff.  I remember Ty thought it would be cool to shorten Pepop to PP, but Pepop but a stop to that pretty quick.

Pepop's given name was Charles LeRoy "Roy" Jackson.  He served in the merchant marines and was also the Superintendent of Patapsco State Park in Maryland.  This job I'm sure is the reason why he had such a love and knowledge about wildlife. 

Memom and Pepop lived in the house next to ours.  In the years before we had a house there, we had a trailer, and after our stay was up, we would always take over our perishables to give to them.  Ice Cream and milk probably wouldn't make the 4.5 hour trip back to Baltimore.  And during our stay, you could always hear me yell out that I was going over to Pepop's house.  I spent a great deal of time there.  Usually I would watch he and Memom play pinochle (a weird card game I never could learn to play.  And don't get excited that I knew how to spell it- I looked it up).  A lot of time in the evenings, the whole family would gather around Memom's kitchen table and we would all play Uno. 

Things I remember about Pepop:

• He had a tattoo of a swallow and an anchor- if I ever had the nerve to ink myself, I would probably do some variation of his in rememberance.
•  He had this large leather chair he would sit in at the kitchen table.  It had a high back and padded arms and metal brads lining the seams.  If we dared sit in his chair, we would be tickled until we threatened to pee.
• His crabbing permit number he had on his pots was I-107.  Some might think it strange that I remember that, but when you spend as much time as I did pulling pots, it's burned into your brain.
• He always wore some ratty old hat (I have recently learned this is called a BCH- birth control hat) a button down shirt- unbuttoned and a pair of plaid shorts.  Usually this outfit was finished off with a pair of dirty white rubber boots that smelled like fish.
• He had a beat up white pick up truck that he loved that we took on errands around town or to Mathews to get dead smelly fish crab bait.
• He always had a dog, I remember one named Sam, but the one dog that I remember best was Sheba, she went everywhere with Pepop (but she's another post).
• He would send me letters and cards and always had pictures of the local wildlife he saw- Blue Herons (Big Bird), squirrels (Inky and Dinky), ducks( Quack, Qua and Qua), etc.  They all had names.
• His CB handle was Pigpen.  If you were on his boat, you know why.
• He had a small trailer next the house that he used as his work shop.  He kept his big toe in a Fleischman's Margarine tub on his work table (it was amputated).  My oldest cousin Jeff used to chase us and tell us he was going to get "toe juice" on us. 
• He had an AWESOME vegetable garden.  He used crab shells as mulch and compost and the corn was a great hiding place when we all played hide and seek.

Around the time that I turned 16, Pepop passed away.  Funny, writing that makes me get a lump in my throat and tear up a little.  He was such an awesome huge figure in my life.  I worshipped him.  While he was sick, I sent him letters nearly every day and even sent him home made cookies.  He never failed to send me letters back.

Whenever I am in Deltaville, Pepop is on my mind.  I am close to him there on the water and in the fields and woods.  And when I see a blue heron, I tell my kids his name is BigBird, and share a bit of my past with them, and a little bit of Pepop too.