So, mum had asked a few times for Obi to go to church on Sunday, so that she could show off her new granddaughter and be all like "This is my son that moved to Australia and his beautiful wife" because she thinks they care. They very obviously do not care, but I'll get to that in a minute.
So it's 2am and we're in the loungeroom and Obi remembers that we need to get up at the crack of dawn for church. And he's like "I don't want to" and I'm like "Hey, I already went once, I've done my time." Which apparently dad heard. I love that man, because he thought that was totally valid. Anyway, Obi starts his mission of getting out of church by talking to this sleep-deprived man, asking when the sermon is so he can miss that. He's like "Can't we just come for the bit where everyone is social?" eventually we agree that we'll drive up for the very end bit, listen to mum's band, meet some people and go. Dad seems to really get it. I think he's not half as into the church scene as mum is; he does their financial services and occasionally runs the powerpoint presentations, but that's it. He doesn't go early to help set up if he doesn't have to, he goes the one day, he doesn't talk about fight club outside of fight club, and he doesn't try to make you go.
He warns us that they have a guest speaker/ stand-in pastor, and that he doesn't really know what to expect. Well when we got there, exactly when we planned to be the speaker was still speaking. I was happy to just go in and sit out the rest of it, but Obi wasn't having a bar of that. We spoke to some people we recognised (they also had a baby - a really tiny one with a leg brace, poor chap - and were in the lobby keeping it quiet) and tried to hang out in the lobby, but when the pastor starts shouting about "the enemy" and stuff we decide that maybe a walk around the grounds would be the way to go. So we chucked laps for a good 20 minutes, and chatted to people sneaking out early. Then I'm like "It's got to be over soon!" so we head back in. The guy is waving his arms in the air and talking about "the dark lord" so we went back out to the parking lot to feed the baby (who's cracking a shit by now) and do some more laps. At some point mum saw us through the window and came out to say hi and to... Oh!
Right so, D and DQ had given Isis some gifts, the coolest one being a little black T-shirt with white writing on it that says "Ninja in training" with a picture of a ninja of course. So we teamed that up with some black pants. We thought she looked cool. Mum thought she looked very inappropriate. Whoops. She apparently was not the only one. A few people mentioned kindly in passing that it wasn't right for her to come to church in black/ wasn't right to have a baby in black. I thought it was funny. Mum didn't.
More than forty minutes later the sermon ends, and we hear music, so we run in to hear mum play. Well we didn't need any haste. The band were just giving some background music to the worlds longest prayer ever. EVER! Eventually that ends and the band starts and so many people grab their stuff and flee, I felt bad for the performers. I know people were just relieved to get up and probably late for something else, but still. Lots of people stopped to say hi to us and meet the baby on their way out. They know Obi of course, he went to that church all his life, and they know me because I used to clean the church. Which mum must have forgotten, because she tried to introduce me to a couple of people who weren't strangers.
Anyway, dad comes down from the sound booth and him and Obi were cracking jokes at how long the sermon and the prayer was. "It was like the lord of the rings! You keep thinking it's over, but it just keeps going!" All the talk about the dark lord gives it that feel too. It's very difficult to take that stuff seriously.
Anyway I rambled far longer than I was planning to on that.
Because church went so long, we didn't really have time for anything else before we had to get ready for photos, so we got onto that. Now, the emails had specifically stated the women were to be in "summery dresses" and the men should aim for smart casual - no runners, but no ties. So I was a bit annoyed. Also, being right before dinner, Isis cried pretty much the whole time. It was stressful. Then when she'd cried enough she just wanted to sleep, we'd get her nearly to sleep (Obi and I were tag-teaming) and some idiot would come and talk to her, or make faces, or touch her and it would be the next apocalypse. I kind of wanted to kill someone by the end of it.
Anyway, I suppose I should put up some photos. Which means I need to set up an account somewhere to host said photos. Erk, effort.
The family.
[IMG]
[/IMG]You wouldn't know she was crying if I didn't tell you
Miriam gets bored with doing the same old photos. Also, someone needs to airbrush those scars out. Ahh vanity
Some of them turned out nice, but as far as professional photos go I wasn't really impressed at all. They were fairly unoriginal and just...
Well I guess the ladder thing is interesting...
Note that my SIL uses the exact same expression and head-tilt for every photo she's in. EVER.
I guess the headless grandma thing is original too.
And one last one: A photo bomb!
After a short respite we went and had Chinese (and Paul didn't come so yay!) and everyone stared at the baby the whole time. No need for tv. She was feeling better after her nap but didn't want to sit quietly, so one of us would hold her and the other would feed her, while random family members at the table would feed us. I was covered in food by the end of it, but it was fun.
Aaaaaand when we got home (we all went back to the parent's) grandma surprised me with this super massive birthday cake. I had NO IDEA. I was touched. And people gave me cards and were nice to me ^^; I'm lucky. Stay tuned for teepees next episode.
The photos are awesome. I second what people said about you and the dress
PS ninja in training shirt? sounds AWESOME. do want.
But you look freaking adorable! Almost as adorable as that little screaming baby