To describe the events of the past few weeks would require many hours and countless visits to the online Thesaurus. I don’t recall a time when so many things happened in such a short period. The good, the bad, and the BEST! Through it all, I managed to stay alive, although my composure suffered a bit.

To spill the beans on the source of all the excitement….MY DAUGHTER GOT MARRIED! This was a good thing, no, A GREAT THING! I couldn’t be happier.

Best kiss eva

To celebrate the event, my entire clan drove or flew into Portland from 7 different states. This is the first time we have all been together-all at the same time in 17 years.We are a damned good looking family, if I do say so myself. The wedding went off without a hitch, which was a giant relief. We all had so much fun, and the party afterwards was memorable, to say the least. With all the dancing, my feet hurt for days.

The weeks leading up to the wedding were full of emotion, activity, details, and all sorts of stressful moments. I wouldn’t have changed a thing, though, except for the gallons of my shed tears. I often wondered how Mother’s of the Brides survived the ceremonies without large doses of prescription medications. I opted against that plan, although I did stock up on “mother’s little helpers” just in case. I chose to let my workouts do my therapy. Let the good times roll, baby. There’s nothing like a grown woman, sobbing while running her zone 2 work out. Yep, it happened.

One week before the wedding, I was completely out of my mind. I thought I was keeping a level head about the whole thing, but I still had to make my daughter’s veil, print the programs and seating cards, organize the balloon decoration delivery, fill 140 bags with candy, fix the hem on MY dress, make all of the flower centerpieces, AND the 7 bridal bouquets. All of this while working 10-12 hour days, and trying to fit in my workouts. Did I also mention that my large family started to arrive? Bodies in every bedroom? Washer and dryer running around the clock? Family members ages 4-80 crawling all over my house? Woohoo, Calgon, take me away.

I had one particularly difficult run that pretty much turned into my emotional breakdown of the century. I was out for a 1 hour run, in a zone 2 heart rate, with surges every 20 minutes. The first 20 minutes went fine. The next 10 were horrible, and by 35 minutes, I found myself on the bike path near my house, in full out sobbing mode. We’re talking hiccups and everything. there was no stopping me.

Oh yeah, full on, snot bubbling, choking tears

I didn’t even care what I looked like. People started swerving around me-it was that bad. This lasted until around 40 minutes, and by 45 minutes, I had given up all hope of running, and walked the last mile or so home. I repeated this one other time that week, much to my disgrace and embarrassment. I survived that day, and enlisted the help of my numerous sisters to lighten the load and get things done. Thank God for sisters…and mothers. My mom was always there asking what she could do to help. My family is amazing.

This week, I can feel the stress moving further away from me, as the wedding is over, the bride and groom are happy, and everyone traveled safely back to their respective homes. I did take 3 days off from my grueling work out schedule, but I am back now, abusing my body with Kettlebell, swim, run, and bike workouts. Today was a particularly hard run, but once it was over, I celebrated my success with a trip to the farmer’s market. Fresh Raspberries will always make you feel happy to be alive.

There are so many more things to write about regarding this wedding and the visit from my family, but right now, I am still basking in the utmost satisfaction of all the love that filled my house last week. That kind of love is  meant to be swallowed up and hugged tight. The memories are many, the tears still come, but they are tears of the overabundance of gratitude and unconditional love for a very large group of eccentric, silly, and wonderful people.A big THANKS to my mom and dad for having all of us!