ianuk

Well, my day was fantastic. I got to relax for the first time in ages. I played around on my laptop and got a memory card full of project pictures and my laurel telling. I got to dink around the house and had wonderful help from Richard and Gallant with the pavillion etc. So much help in fact, ivan got a well deserved nap when he got home. I was smart enough to make sure the we had someone get pizza before the entire show started. I got to help blossom with the food. (Course now I need to know if people can identify their dishes and if cabbage rolls are freezeable). I chatted with folks until enough people showed up who wanted to talk privately that I was out in the tent the rest of the evening. It was nice but I know I missed folks I wanted to talk with a bit. It got cold in the tent too...silly me wearing somewhat summer weight clothing and no socks. I was uber surprised by the arrival of

bertana and of

swordmage. Got lots of fun gifties including and engineer's pin, a hand made raven stuffed animal and a naked mole rat plus much more. The night ended with Wander and then talk with all of the family gathered in the kitchen. It was a nice night. I didn't sleep well from all of the coffee I had drank to stay warm...but it was okay.

We got things going well for the event.

fibergeek and

argent_lupin were fantastic family and got lunches packed and having

public_shaylan sing happy good morning was awesome. Ivan went to site with the trailer and we followed along a bit later. It was good cause the tent was almost up when we arrived and my preplanning with the court book and other things made for an easy and stress free (for me) morning. Just before court I started getting way nervous and had to pump my sugar up but that was okay. Many wonderful awards were given out to many good people. I tried not to fidget much. Then came in

lferion singing a song she wrote specifically for ME! Wow!!!! I couldn't believe it. I can't remember the words right now but hopefully she gave me a copy.

Then I was even more nervous and started very slowly on my speech about my masterwork (I'll document it here tonight some time) and just made sure I enunciated and spoke clearly and didn't go to fast. My biggest fear was that

duchess_asa wouldn't like it and well, I was very wrong about that. The look on her face was fantastic and the oooh of the crowd was the loudest I have ever heard. (The announcement of us going to be B&B might have been louder...not sure). So I thought I had gotten over the hard part...but the hard part was just kneeling. The wonderful boots that ivan had made for me dug horribly into the backs of my thighs when I tried to kneel. I was worrying that I would pass out from having to balance on the points of my knees. But I did fine. I wish I had thought to have someone video tape the words of my speakers but Balldrich almost had me crying, Katerina had me laughing and Mingo almost made me fall over (Gosh darn Ibn Fadlan!!!).

snotblossom was fantastic and justin made me feel like I was walking on air. Just wow....I don't remember the words but I remember the feelings. Then the ceremony took off and I was then given the glorious (and uber heavy) hubcap of Tir Ysgithr and a surprise by my husband and Sir Steffan of a lunar pendant laurel medallion made by their hands (to be worn only after I give up the hub cap :( The Mantle was comfortable and the hat was uber fuzzy (I think I need to trim it down slightly but the picture that Godfry has of me being presented was faboo. I had read the fealty oath so many times that I know I added to it but I felt that that was important. I loved the fire/water added to the ceremony, thank you

lferion. So many special things. I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures. I really need to sit and look at the scrolls cause wow!!!!

After court I was drained and so tired. I think all of the stress wasn't sure what it wanted to do. I ate lunched gabbed and finally ended up sitting comfortably in the shade with a nice circle of the girls doing embroidery. Daddy, Thegn Sean became our Captain and that made me so proud. The day ran late but good and all had a good time. The evening meal at Sweet Tomatoes was memorable. 16+ people getting together for dinner....such a fantastic thing. The chair roulette made the time fly and seeing

karzboi out for the first time in I'm not sure how long made the day even more special and hearing little Ryan say "JEN! JEN! JEN!" made my heart so warm. The family got home and I collapsed in a heap under a heat pack on the floor and then got sent to bed. I slept wonderfully!

Sunday dawned very early. The family met at joe's + Ed/Candace and Bertana to have a breakfast. Good food, our fav waitress and much hilarity ensued. We got home and packed up for the event....had to fix a scroll and then leave the house. All good. Sunday was lots of fun and good times. I enjoyed court, watching the kids, playing with eggs, sharing hummus with the crowd and in general having a good time. Must always remember to have picnic lunch with extra for friends and family. All good. Medric, Steffan and Cole are our new gaurdsman and the tourney was ended with a grand bout against sean. Then we had a treasure tourney with the chocolate eggs and then egg races with the guys in armour. Such fun to watch.

robo_markov won the egg race. Then the rapier guys took the field for chocolate and kids and Carys won a ducky for faydra who was home sick. It was a good day. Got home about 4pm...we all changed and then did research and finally hit bookman's just after 5pm. They were closing at 6pm but we all got books that we wanted. I finished spenging my xmas gift cert and then we had dinner at El Paso with the family. Rob scored the check with some great hand gestures and then it was home to chat. Cousin Curran joined us for the bookstore/food. Mel was tired and went to bed early. The rest of us stayed up talking and I was finally in bed by 1130.

Well, I slept good except that I woke up when curran got up at 5am. I guess he went back to sleep and rob got in the shower around 545am. I was gonna sleep in but I didn't and that was okay. I got a bento packed, got everyone settled with breakfast and coffee. Curran got left to his own devices and I took rob and becca to the airport. I got to work about 45min late which isn't too bad considering. My big meeting with the operations manager was a bonus as a thank you for a project we did well on. I guess when you save $400k+ its a good thing. So the day was okay. I was tired and my mind wandered a bit but it was okay.