July 2022 Recap: A Family Wedding!

Well, the month of July went right by, and I never wrote about the most memorable parts of it!  But better late than never, right?

Just before the Fourth of July, the oldest child of one of my husband's younger sisters got married.  Although both this son of hers and his lovely bride grew up in NC (they met in grade school and started dating in high school), he had spent many weeks of his childhood summers in Upstate NY, staying at his maternal grandparents' house on the lake (the same house where my husband and I now spend our summers, while we manage our Oyster Have rental property just down the road).   The bride had visited often over the years as well and fell in love with the area, so they decided to get married up here.  For the extended Pearl family, this was extremely convenient.  Aside from the large house where they grew up, three of my husband's sisters own a total of four houses within spitting distance of each other and the family homestead, so not too many on our side needed to find lodging.  Also, my husband's older sister owns Valcour Brewing Company, a craft brewery/restaurant located in an historic building known as the Old Stone Barracks, and it has a number of inn-style rooms to rent.  She blocked off all the rooms for family and that's where our youngest son and his wife (the only ones who as yet have no children) stayed during the wedding weekend.

Our gang didn't end up staying at our Oyster Haven house as you might expect, because we rented it to the bride's NC-based family for the week leading up to the wedding until the day after.  The rehearsal dinner, followed by a party for all the wedding guests--where we enjoyed dancing to live Irish music provided by a family band made up of relatives of the bride (I believe it was agreed that they'd out-Irished the very Irish Pearl clan!)--was at an event center literally next door to Oyster Haven, so our house was perfect for them.  And they enjoyed the lake in the time leading up to the big day--and also enjoyed getting pictures of the bridal party after the wedding, with our extremely picturesque view in the background.  (My husband and I, and three of our boys who have 13 kids between them, stayed in a local hotel.  Then we all moved into the house the Sunday after the wedding, for our annual Pearl family lake vacation; but more about that in a future post!)

Anyway, it was such a beautiful, joyful day!  The wedding ceremony took place in the church where my husband and I got married way, way back in 1980.  (The parents of the groom, and many other Pearl relatives in attendance, had gotten married there as well!)  I can't believe I didn't get one picture of the happy couple at the church, as they were joined in Holy Matrimony...or maybe I can, as everyone in the family had been included on the guest list.  That means 13 of our 19 grandchildren were in attendance that day (our oldest son and his family who moved to Iowa in January were not able to make the trip), and we sat with some of them during the wedding Mass.  So I was not in picture-taking mode.

After the wedding, there was some lag time before the reception started.  So we took the kids over to the Pearl family homestead, and we let them go down to the lake (while mothers' cries of "Don't get your clothes wet!" could be heard drifting down from above).

At "the wall" (the seawall near the water) at my husband's childhood home,
with a few of my boyfriends.  ;)

The setting for the reception--on the grounds in front of the Old Stone Barracks--was absolutely perfect for an event that included so many small children: outside, under a tent (and the weather totally cooperated!), with tons of room to run around and play.  

It wasn't that long ago that these two had their beautiful wedding
reception in a similar setting: out in a field, under a big white tent!

The kiddos really brought their A-game.  They all behaved so well.

And they danced!

Daddy-Daughter dance!

Mother-Son dance!

This is how Papa and Grammy dance, with a baby between them!

There were three sets of triplets at the wedding: our almost-5-year-old grandchildren (who belong to son #4), my husband's younger sister's college-aged trio, and the twenty-something BRIDE and her brother and sister.  

Triplets, in triplicate!

It was a truly wonderful day, enjoyed by all.  And I hope it will be a happy memory for all of these little people I love so much!

Hola, Hermanita!

I just got back home yesterday, after spending five days staying at the house of son #4 and his wife, Braveheart.  I went over there because they were due to welcome baby #4 any minute and needed Grammy on deck, ready to watch their 2-year-old triplets (identical twin boys Pumpkin and Peanut, and their sister, Paquita) when it was time to go to the hospital.

The first time around, Braveheart had had a C-section at 32 weeks.  She was told that therefore, even though this was her second pregnancy, her body might behave as if it was her first labor and  delivery--so it might be tough and take a while.  But of course we were all hoping that this would not be so.

Braveheart started having contractions on Friday, and who knew how quickly things would progress?  (Not as quickly as she and my son would have liked, as it turned out; not by a long shot!)  Just in case she was going to have a quick labor and delivery, I decided to pack an overnight bag and drive over that day to stay with them--even though we only live 35 minutes away and I probably could have made it in time if I'd been called last minute.  I figured that I could give my daughter-in-law a bit of a break and help out with the three munchkins until the baby came. (My husband was out of town but would join me when he could.)

I flew solo most of the time; but Papa came on Sunday in time for dinner,
 and he was able to be there for part of the day Monday, before leaving again
for work on Tuesday morning.

Braveheart labored all through the night Friday and into Saturday, but still wasn't sure if it was time or not.  By late Saturday afternoon, the contractions were getting extremely painful (and although they were not coming regularly, when they did come, they lasted an agonizing three minutes each!).  The kids decided to head to the hospital, hoping that it was go time.  After more than four hours of observation, however, they were sent back home.  Braveheart was only one centimeter dilated and they said she really wasn't in active labor yet.

Then just a few hours later, at about 11:00 at night, my son woke me up to tell me that he was putting the triplets' baby monitor in the guestroom (soon to be nursery) where I was sleeping, and that they were heading back to the hospital.  My poor daughter-in-law was just in so much unrelenting pain.

This time, thankfully, she was admitted, and before long she was progressing nicely.  She had her water broken and received an epidural, and she was finally able to get some relief from the pain.  But her labor was long and difficult.  Her contractions were irregular and lasted much longer than normal.  At one point, it looked like she might have to have another C-section, and our son posted a prayer request on our family text stream.  The prayers worked: shortly afterward, she was fully dilated and ready to push.  Unfortunately,  though, she had to push for an exhausting three and a half hours.  Finally, just before midnight on Sunday October 27, she delivered a beautiful, healthy baby girl with a head of thick black hair.  At 8 lbs. 11.05 oz. and 22.05 in., she weighed more than twice as much as her largest triplet sibling at birth!

On Tuesday, this sweet baby girl (who shall heretofore be known here at the blog as Hermanita--which in Spanish means "little sister") came home.  Her brothers were largely unimpressed and uninterested in her, although they came over to check her out and smiled at her.

Her big sister, on the other hand, had a totally different reaction.

At first, Paquita was confused and jealous and couldn't stop crying.  But those emotions soon evaporated and were replaced by a wave of fierce maternal love and protectiveness.  (Who says girls and boys aren't wired differently?  That little girl, hardly more than a baby herself, had an instinctive desire to nurture that baby!)  She wanted to hold HER baby constantly, to kiss her and hug her.  She kept putting her chubby little finger to her mouth and saying "Shhh" to the rest of us as she held her baby sister.

We were joking that Paquita might love the baby almost too much, if that's possible.  She's rather possessive and it's very hard to get Hermanita out of her arms--she puts up quite a fuss when that happens.  So Mom and Dad are going to have some challenges as their little family transitions from three to four children and everyone gets used to their new routines and their new normal.

I took some selfies with my precious new granddaughter soon after she came home.

When I saw the above photo it reminded me a little bit of a snapshot my husband took of me and our firstborn son shortly after we got home from the hospital, way back in October 1983.   The way I was positioned and holding the newborn infants in these pictures taken 36 years apart looked so similar, not to mention the expression of pure happiness on my face (and tiredness, too: in the old one, caused by childbirth...in the new one, by childcare!).

Did you notice the small, extremely old-fashioned TV photo-bombing us in this picture?

I still wear ginormous glasses (wait long enough and everything comes back in style!).  I still wear my hair long (but it's thinner and grayer these days).   When it comes to my fashion sense, very little has changed.  But oh, in almost every other way my life is so different now!  That inexperienced young mom was on cloud nine after the birth of her first baby boy.  But she could never have imagined how much richer and fuller (how could that be possible?!) her life would be one day: how four more sons would follow this one; how all five of them would get married and bring her daughters; and how, just when she started to mourn the loss of her babies, she would get so many new ones to love.

I'm telling you: one day you're a 25-year-old first-time mother...and before you know it, you're a 61-year-old grandmother of 15.

And this grandmother is still recovering from five days of wrangling three very busy, very chunky toddlers. I've been catching up on my sleep and I believe a nap is on my to-do list today.  After all, grandchild #16 is due any time now, and I'm going to be on call to watch her three older siblings when her parents leave for the hospital, at least until their other grandmother arrives to take over...so I better be rested up!

Cuteness--in Triplicate!

I have spent a lot of time with three special little people the last nine months.  They are the firstborn children of my fourth son and his wife, triplets who made their much ballyhooed entrance into the world last August, at 32 weeks.  After spending less than a month in the NICU, they came home and have been growing like weeds and hitting every milestone ever since.

There are two boys and a girl in this adorable trio, and it's very likely that the boys are actually identical twins (their parents may eventually have them tested to find out for sure).  They look so similar that it's positively uncanny.  Our firstborn grandchildren are our oldest son's identical twin girls, who just turned 7.  If these triplet boys turn out to be identical, too, I'm going to start wondering if this is something than runs in the Pearl family!

I just wanted to share a few picture of these three sweet babies who have wrapped their Grammy around their chubby little fingers.  Their parents have given them nicknames that I am going to use as their blog handles as well.

PUMPKIN (the larger of the two boys):

PAQUITA (the lone senorita in the group):

PEANUT (the little guy who wasn't supposed to make it):

They are cuteness cubed.

When we brought son #4 and his wife over to see the new house we had just decided to buy in VA (a mere 35 minutes from where they live), she had just found out she was pregnant and had no idea yet that she was expecting three at once.  We always knew that moving down here to be closer to our kids and grandkids was a good idea, but little did we know just how much our help was going to be appreciated!  It's definitely vital to have a lot of helping hands when you're dealing with multiples.

And I am most happy to oblige.

As is Papa.

Back when my daughter-in-law Braveheart was expecting these little munchkins, I asked you to pray for the health of mom and babies.  And dear readers, those prayers were answered, in spades. She was able to carry the babies until the all-important 32-week mark, and they were born tiny but remarkably strong and healthy.  Even little Peanut, who wasn't supposed to make it, and who doctors felt might be the best choice for elimination if our son and his wife wanted to reduce the risks of her pregnancy (insert angry, red-faced emoticon here!!!), is doing great.  He does have some GI issues and struggles a bit with eating, and he is due to have his tongue snipped next week.  (He is tongue-tied, but this was not properly diagnosed until recently--the poor little fella!)  So once again, I am asking for your prayers. #prayforpeanut

I am sometimes in awe of the fact that my husband and I--who had babies of our own only YESTERDAY, it seems--are the grandparents of 12 already.  Your family grows pretty quickly when your kids keep having multiples, I'll tell you that.

Sunday Goings-On

Happy first Sunday of Advent, dear readers...that is, if there are any of you left out there; and if so, God bless you, because there hasn't been a whole lot going on here at the blog as of late.

It's not that I don't have anything to write about, either; quite the opposite, as a matter of fact.  But the problem is that I just don't seem to have the time.  Or perhaps I do, but when I prioritize all the things I want to do or should do each day, sitting down to write keeps ending up at the bottom of the list.  (Kind of like working out.  And my expanding waistline is proof of that!)

So much has been happening in our family, it's enough to make my head spin.  The triplets were baptized, for instance.

I made the boys' christening gowns and bonnets with fabrics that my

mother-in-law had collected; the wee lass wore an exquisite 

heirloom gown from my daughter-in-law's family.

And a brand new granddaughter--our 12th grandchild--recently joined our clan.

My third baby, with his third baby.  It's the circle of life!

We celebrated our first big family Thanksgiving in our new house in VA.

The "grown-ups table," set for 11.  (There were also 12 kids,

aged 6 down to newborn!)

The first anniversary of my father's death came around, a tough day, followed by what would have been his 83rd birthday; and I had hoped to write the story of his amazing and inspiring last week on earth (the story of the making of a saint, I believe) by now, but even with a whole year to get it done, I still haven't been able to do it.

Literally hours before death, here he is: raising his glass of

Tia Maria and smiling, after enjoying a Thanksgiving meal

with his family at the hospital.

My mom has had a slew of health issues this past year; she has quite literally been in and out of the hospital or the rehab center.  Because she is not ambulatory anymore without a great deal of help, she is no longer a candidate for the assisted living home into which she'd moved shortly after my dad's death.  So not too long ago, she moved in with my baby sister and her husband, who hired round-the-clock aides to help with her care.  But as I was writing this post, my sister texted to say that Mom is sick again, about to be admitted to the hospital for the umpteenth time since she lost her husband of 60 years.  Please keep her in your prayers, if you would!

As you can see, there's so much to write about--so much, in fact, that I am overwhelmed and suffer from almost crippling writer's block.  I miss writing, and one of my resolutions for 2018 is to do it more regularly.  So...in the spirit of getting back on the proverbial horse, I am going to force myself to post something here today.

I thought maybe I could tell you about the holiday craft fair at our new parish in VA this weekend, and about how I decided to rent a table to sell my books.

I had fun setting up my wares; but I started out feeling really shy, even though there weren't really too many shoppers after the anticipated Mass on Saturday evening.  But on Sunday, I started to come out of my shell a little bit and enjoyed meeting and talking to some of the parishioners after the Masses.

I made a few sales--six copies of Erin's Ring and two copies of Finding Grace.  And talk about stepping boldly outside my comfort zone: I even asked a couple of buyers if I could snap photos of them to include in this post.  They were very good sports, as you can see.

In the spirit of the holidays, I wore a Christmas-y red Talbot's knit sheath dress (purchased on clearance)--because as my sister-in-law who wears almost exclusively Talbot's clothing likes to say, when your outfit is attractive and well-made and you feel comfortable in it, you feel happy and therefore you can't help but spread happiness.  (I have talked about this Talbot's happiness-spreading quality before here at the blog, actually.)  I paired the dress with a black 3/4-sleeved ruffle-front jacket from Dress Barn.

Okay, well now this is turning into a My Sunday Best post, isn't it?  So you know what?  I'm going to link up with Rosie et. al., as long as I'm talking fashion.

I closed the front of my jacket with a special pin--it's actually a tiny picture frame.  I found it on Etsy and fell in love with it, thinking that if I slipped a tiny picture of one of my book covers inside it, it would make the perfect brooch to wear for book signings.  (Or for church holiday craft fairs like this one, where my books didn't exactly sell like hot cakes, but more like "tepid cakes," as my husband so humorously put it.)

A couple of tables down, there was a sweet gal selling hand-made Rosary bracelets, and I couldn't resist getting one for myself.  I am a sucker for a Rosary bracelet.  Or anything made of pearls.

Although I didn't sell many books, I feel like it was a successful outing for me.  I grew in confidence as time went by, and I met lots of nice folks.  I'm finding that almost everyone I meet down here is so friendly and exudes the hospitality for which the South is famous.  The longer we live here, the more comfortable I feel in our adopted hometown.  I will always have a soft spot for the Northeast, and a deep sense of nostalgia for the beloved home on a quiet wooded street in Dover, NH where we raised our five boys.  But northern VA is proving to be a very nice place to live.

And those five boys?  Four of them, and their wives and kids, live a stone's throw from us down here.

Life is good.  It is very good indeed.

Well, that's it for today.  But I'll be back.  Sooner rather than later, I hope!

(Now head on over to Rosie's for more Sunday Best fashion talk.  And remember that you can get a signed copy of Finding Grace for $10 here at the blog, from now til Dec. 10.  Email me for details, or use the "Buy Now" button to purchase your copy via PayPal.)

My Sunday Best: 80's Style

For Sunday Mass this morning, I wore a dress that I bought at TJ Maxx long, long ago, in 1988 or 1989, back when the fourth of my five sons was just a chubby baby boy. (And now, he's a husband and a father to three babies of his own--triplets born on August 20.)

I've blogged about this infamous dress before here at String of Pearls.  There is actually a sort of sweet story behind it.  (You can read that story here, in an old post from the archives, if you so desire.)

I have thought about giving this dress to Goodwill numerous times over the years, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it (even when it had become hopelessly out of style and I hadn't worn it in a dog's age).  They say that if you hold onto something long enough, it will come back in style.  Maybe that's why I still have this dress hanging in my closet.  (Or maybe it's because of this.  You know, the aforementioned sweet story, which explains how for me, even a dress can become a precious artifact, a tangible reminder of the long, rich history of my life with my husband.)

Two things made me fall in love with this dress when I saw it on the clearance rack at TJ's.  First of all, there was the fabric: the deep royal blue color; the floral print; the swishy silkiness.  And secondly, there was the beautiful lace collar.  I've always been a sucker for lace.

The puffy blouson-style waist, the lace collar, the shoulder pads, the gathered fly-away sleeves, the well-past-the-knees length (my favorite length); these were all the rage in the late-80's/early-90's. This modest and uber-feminine dress pretty much screams "Princess Di," the fashion icon of the era.  She was the well-dressed woman we were all trying to copy.

My favorite thing about this blouson style is that the waist is completely elasticized, and then the top of the dress blouses over it.  This is the only reason I can still wear a dress that I wore almost 30 years ago, when I was just about the same age as that father of triplets I was telling you about is today.  I remember that even when I bought it, I was thinking ahead to a day when I might be a bit thicker around the middle; I hoped that because the waist could expand with me, I might be able to wear it practically forever.

It has probably been about 15 years since I've had this dress on.  So don't listen to the fashion experts who tell you to purge your closet of any garments you haven't worn in the past year.  You might just miss them down the road.  I think I would have missed this faithful old dress.

I did decide to add a cardigan with pearl buttons, even though it was pretty hot and humid here in VA today.  I was delighted to see that I actually had one in the perfect shade of royal blue.  This sweater matches so well that it looks like it was made to wear with this dress.

I feel like the cardigan makes my 80's frock look less outdated.  It's another bargain find from (where else?) TJ Maxx.  The brand is Audrey and Grace, which I can only assume refers to two other fashion icons with timeless appeal, Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly.  Not bad company to be in, I'd say.

After Mass, I went over to the rental house that our oldest son and his family are going to move into soon and will call home for the next two or three years.  (For the past month or so, our daughter-in-law and four granddaughters have been living with us, while they wait for our son to finish training for his job.)  I had offered to paint their kitchen, which would be very nice if not for the bright yellow walls.  And the rather garish sponge effect.

Speaking of the 80's and bad style...my peers and I, we were all sponge painting our walls back then.  But you'll have to excuse us: we didn't have HGTV to guide us.  So our walls tended to look like this.

Yep, we were all Princess Diana wannabes, with sponge-painted walls.

Well, my second Sunday Best outfit was not as lovely as the one I wore to Mass.  It was the old pair of jeans and the Boston Celtics T-shirt that has become my painting/staining uniform.  It has gotten a lot of use the past few years, as you can see.

The order of the day was NEUTRAL color.

Et voila!  Before and after.

 

Today was a good day, a productive day.  It made me happy to do this for our son and his family.  When I put on that sentimental dress this morning, I was a little verklempt.  I couldn't stop thinking about how unbelievable it is that I'm old enough to have owned a dress for almost three decades...and more unbelievable still, most of my sons are now older than I was when I first bought it.  I don't know where the years go, I really don't.  It's a bit scary!  But whenever I feel the urge to throw myself a pity party, I need to remind myself that although I'm getting older, there are some pretty amazing rewards for having lived this long.

Remember those triplets I was just talking about?

And those are just three of the eleven-going-on-twelve grandchildren with which my husband and I have been so richly blessed.  And now that our oldest is moving nearby, we will be seeing all of them on a regular basis, without having to get in an airplane to do it.  Life is good--SO good.

Well, that's it for me.  Now you might want to head on over to Rosie's (where you'll undoubtedly find more up-to-the-minute fashions, worn by less long-in-the-tooth women).