A New Chapter

I'm going to be a mother-in-law! Wow!! On Saturday evening, David had Michael (his roommate) text him and Callie, asking them to go to the chapel and get some flowers and a note that he, Michael, had left there for his fiancee. Of course, they were for Callie. Unfortunately, Callie said, "Oh, David, you go get them - I still have to change and we're already late for our get-together with the parents at Minerva's.." David tried a couple of gambits, but they failed utterly and he found himself at the chapel - alone. Finally inspiration struck, and he texted Callie that he had accidentally locked himself in a room whille searching for the flowers. When she arrived to rescue him, he was sitting on the chapel steps with the flowers, the note and the ring. She knew then, of course. I'd arranged the blue hydrangea and yellow daisies (Callie's favorite colors - and mine - and her mother's) in some semblance of order, and though the hydrangea was still somewhat wilted on account of being left without water because its stem was shorter than those of the daisies, Callie found them beautiful. She cried over the note and loved the ring - "It's exactly exactly exactly what I wanted!"

Meanwhile, Pete and I and Callie's parents, Jon and Laurie Berg, were sitting at Minerva's wondering why it was taking them even longer to get engaged than we had imagined. We were about to call them when David called and said they were on their way. We enjoyed appetizers, champagne, dessert and the play-by-play of the whole affair. Michelle and Britta stopped by to give hugs; when Callie went back to her dorm, she and her roommate Mandy (who also happens to be the above-mentioned Michael's fiancee) knocked on a number of doors to share the good news, resulting in quite a bit of screaming and further news spreading.

Yesterday at Augustana's cafeteria, we settled on September 1 as the date (probably) and the Draxton Wedding Barn as the location. The Bergs and the Draxtons have been very close friends for years and when the Draxons had cleaned out a hundred years' worth of manure and were having a celebration of their Century Farm in May of 2003, Jane, the oldest Berg daughter (of four - no sons) asked, "Couldn't I have my wedding reception in this barn?" The Bergs and Draxtons spent the summer renovating the barn and each of the daughters has been married there.

At the Browns' for the Super Bowl, the rest of the Stadems screamed and hugged and welcomed Callie with sufficient enthusiasm. She's excited to have "little" brothers and a multitude of new cousins. Grandpa Stadem will officiate, as Callie doesn't know the current pastor of her church very well. And so we enter a new chapter - adding grown members to the family! God bless us, every one!