Chapter 17

I woke up the next morning, pretty tired from tossing and turning the night before.  I wanted to go back to sleep but I knew I wouldn’t be able to, so the girls and I went to church with my parents so I could talk to my pastor about the wedding.

We got there early enough that I was able to catch him before the service started.  He checked the church calendar and crossed off July 7^th for the wedding, which lifted a bit more stress off my shoulders.  He also said he would be honored to marry us, so I was happy about that too.  He opened the service by announcing that he would take part in the wedding of a church family member and was more then happy to be a part of it.

I got a call from Natalie in the middle of the service, and ran out to answer it.  She told me that James had done well in all the tests they had done and was in the process of getting discharged. He would be leaving with a bag of essentials, such as special sunglasses to wear outside, an eye cover to wear and earplugs to wear on the plane. They were Pittsburgh bound within the next hour.  Natalie knew how much I wanted to come home, but she told me to get wedding stuff done and that she would be taking the best care of James until I got home. I was unbelievably thankful for her. 

After church, we all went home to change, my mom, the girls and I went looking for a place for the reception. I had a list of places that I had in mind, and it didn’t take long to scratch off the first one, it was a 30 minute drive and at least $11,000 to rent a banquet hall.

Sandia Casino was next on the list.  It was in a gorgeous location, almost as nice as the first resort I was thinking about.  Nicole was our wedding planner/helper; she was very informative, adding that she has been throwing receptions for 10+ years. 

She gave me a price list for everything, the hall rental would be $8,060, and it would include the catering, a bar, as well as tables, chairs, centerpieces, all that important stuff, which was not included in the package at the first place. That left us to find the music, photography, cake, plus deciding on what centerpiece we wanted, and the kind of food and any extra stuff for the wedding party.  It was a lot of information to take in, but thankfully, Nicole had given me a folder full of all the information to take home with me.

Another thing to get was the cake.  We decided to have a vanilla cake, I found the perfect picture of what I wanted, so I had it with me when we decided to go to the cake shop to see if they could do it, which thankfully they could.  

The long and relatively stressful weekend was coming to an end, but I was thankful for being able to get a lot of stuff done and taken care of.  I mainly needed to talk to James so we could get a final number to give to Nicole, and figure out everything else.  I know that would have to wait a while, with James recovering, but I was ok with that, I wanted him to be back to 100%.

The girls and I were sitting in the airport waiting for the plane so I decided to call Natalie and see how James was doing.  She said he’d been sleeping off and on, and the team doctor went to see him and he was happy to see how well James had been progressing.  She also told me that she would be picking up Vero and I, while Max would be picking up Miranda.

*

Back in Pittsburgh:

“Well James, I’m really proud of how well you’ve been progressing,” Dr. Burke says

“Thank you,” I respond

“How are the headaches?”

“Still get them, but they aren’t as bad as they were,”

“That’s good, they will continue for a while, but will lessen in pain as time goes on,”

“Dr. Burke, how should we prepare his fiancé to take care of him when she gets back?” Mario asks him

“I’ll give you some information on that, but basically the same as here, keep the light to a minimum, no TV, or reading,”

“And Natalie is going to pick Jay up from the airport, is it ok that I go with her?”

“Absolutely, just make sure you wear the sunglasses I gave you,”
“Ok, and what about traveling? I won’t be going to Ottawa for All Star Weekend, but can I go anywhere else?”
“Let’s see how your doing when the time comes, but I don’t see it being a problem,”
“Ok, thank you,”

*

2 flights and 1 layover later, we land in Pittsburgh, and I never thought I’d be so excited to be home. I get up right away and impatiently wait for people to exit the plane. 

We make our way to the baggage claim, right away I see Natalie standing with Max, Marc…and James. Was this seriously happening?

“Oh my gosh!” I say running up to him

“Hi baby!”

“Hi! What a surprise! How are you feeling?”

“A lot better actually, Dr. Burke was just at the house to check up on me and he said I’ve been progressing really well,”
“Yay! Oh I don’t think I can explain how excited I am right now to see you!”
“Yeah, you should have seen her, she shot up in her seat right as the doors opened, she was a woman on a mission,” Vero says, laughing

“True story, but I had to make sure my baby was ok!”

“Let’s go home baby,”

While Natalie is driving us home, she tells me about James’ appointment this morning, how he’d still get headaches, which was expected; he would be sidelined for 4 weeks to be on the safe side, oh and not to mention those ridiculous sunglasses that he had to wear, I tried not to make fun of them but he looked adorable with them, I don’t think I’ll let him live that one down.  Unfortunately, it was still unknown if James would be able to come home with me, that would have to be a last minute deal.

I had been unpacking and doing laundry while James took a nap, “Sleep is the most important thing he can get right now,” I hear Natalie saying in my head, so I let him sleep. As I’m doing things around the house, I get a phone call from our realtor that we had been talking to.

“So, the house that you and James are interested is on the market, and your paper work is in the process of being cleared,” Danielle tells me

“Cleared? But we barely saw the house last week!” I say, shocked

“James faxed over everything to me, between the both of you, your line of credit is amazing, and it also helped that James had shown interest in that house the first time it went on the market,”

“Oh wow! I didn’t know that, so when will we know for sure if we got it?”
“Well right now I’m 90% sure it’s yours, but it should be official by Monday,”
“Oh my gosh, that’s so exciting! We couldn’t ask for better news right now,”
“Absolutely, I saw the game the other night, how’s he doing?”
“Better, it was only a grade I concussion so it’s not that bad, but he’s progressing really well,”

“That’s good. Ok, well send him my well wishes, and I will be calling you on Monday, ok?”
“Ok great, thank you so much Danielle!”
“Absolutely! Talk to you soon,”

James wakes up not much longer after I get off the phone, so I tell him the news and he’s excited to hear the official word next week.  It was a perfect location too, it was 2 houses down from the Lemieux’s, and it was security gated 4 bedrooms, 2-storys with an amazingly remodeled back yard, had a new swimming pool and hot tub, plus a mini kitchen to grill outside. I fell in love the minute I saw it.