Countdown To The “Big Weekend”

Earlier this week when the calendar turned to September my wife and I began the countdown to the biggest weekend of the year for our family. It involves 3 big events that are all happening concurrently during the 2nd week of October.

On October 11 our 27 year old son and his fiancé will be getting married in Nashville.

Our 20 year old son will be coming home “on leave” from Iraq. He’s been there since April. He’ll be here in time for the wedding and be staying about 2 weeks.

My two sisters, brothers in law, youngest niece, and only nephew will be coming down from Pennsylvania to visit and to attend the wedding.

The “soon to be” newlyweds have been engaged since Christmas ’05 so we’ve been waiting for them to start their new lives together for a few years now.

Our soldier in Iraq has recently started “conversing” with both his mom and me on AOL instant messenger. He’s been telling us both how much he misses home. He’s really looking forward to getting back home; even if it’s just for a visit.

Ever since I’ve lived in Kentucky my family and I have been exchanging visits to each other every other year. Last year I went and stayed with them for a week in June. This year they decided to hold off their summer vacation in order to coordinate their visit with my son’s wedding.

I’m excited about seeing my sisters for a couple of reasons. My younger sister had gastric bypass surgery this past February. She’s lost close to 100 pounds. I can’t wait to see how good she looks.

My other sister had knee replacement surgery in May and is able to get around much better now. I can’t wait to witness her new mobility. Perhaps even take a walk with her.

While these are all exciting events and we have been anticipating them since the beginning of the year it’s hard to believe they are just around the corner. So as of today I want to “officially” begin the countdown. Since all the events are subsequent to the wedding I’m going to use the date of the wedding as end of the countdown. We now have just 33 days left before it all happens.