Night before the wedding

It is the night before the wedding, well actually I guess the morning of since it is 3:34am, and I am sitting on the floor of the Comfort Inn DeLand trying not to disturb my maids while they sleep. I absolutely haven't been able to sleep tonight- and trust me I am exhausted! I am just so excited and ready for the day, at about 3am I couldn't stay laying down any longer. So here I am.

Boy! Has this weekend been a whirlwind. Everyone tells you that, but until it's your life you truly cannot imagine how quickly it really passes. I am so lucky to have such amazingly wonderful family and friends who have worked their tookuses off to make mine and Ricky's day special. Everyone is MVP.

When Ricky was looking a tad bit worn at the rehearsal, I took a moment to pull him aside and talk just us at dinner. I asked him if he was feeling okay, having fun with his guys, how tired he was, etc. He told me he was fine, just really ready for it to be tomorrow already! He is such a sweet guy and I am so lucky to have him.

Before the 2pm wedding we still have to put together the reception flower arrangements, get ready (my hair and make-up appointment is at 11am and I will finish just before one and then straight to the ceremony to finish getting ready) and some how, at some point, eat something!

Kitchen Shower from the ladies of Stetson Baptist

I am so blessed! The ladies of Stetson Baptist threw me an amazing shower. Nicki was such a gracious hostess, who organized something awesome! It touched my heart to be prayed over, I think since the engagement the shower was maybe one of the first times I had heard someone pray for Ricky and I and our marriage. I teared up a little but luckily no one saw since we all had our heads bowed.

Nicki had matching invites, recipe cards, gift tags, and thank-yous made to match my kitchen colors for me:

(they didn't have the things blurred out in real life)

Cute Mint green invite

So, two of my most wanted items on the registry were two I least thought I was going to get. My kitchen-aid mixer and multi-clad Cuisinart cookware (basically this is a more affordable and often better rated version of AllClad). Nicki organized the shower so that each person contributed to a fund to buy me these items! Wow. What a blessing. I had seen in the registry (Nicki calls me a registry stalker, I am just not good at surprises, never have been), that the pots and pans had been bought a while before the shower- and I felt to blessed just by that. I teared up a little then and kept thinking how amazing it is to have such generous and wonderful people in your life. 

But I had no idea at all that I was getting the mixer too! I didn't even know the half of how blessed I really am. (I am sure I still don't know the half of it when we take so much for granted.)

There were so many wonderful ladies at the shower, ones who have known me my entire life and those who are new friends from the past few years. It is such a wonderful feeling to be loved on by so many people. Thank you to all!

Okay, now pictures (also courtesy of Nicki):

Moriah, me, and Mom

The gracious host Nicki and I

Table of cute and delicious offerings

My pots and pans!

A little teary

What's this? No Way...

AWESOME SURPRISE

Excited

Cake Cutting

VBS and my last week as Assistant Nursery Coordinator

VBS was July 9-13th and boy was it an awesome, fun, long, and tiring week!

On Monday we had pancakes, painted with sidewalk paint, went for a walk and had a yummy blueberry themed snack for blue day.

Sidewalk chalk painting

Holder and I

On Tuesday we had Red day. Yummy strawberry smoothies, Peanut-butter and Jelly muffins and fun!

Me, Holder B, Mandy, and Miler

Red is Holder's favorite color!

The whole nursery gang ready for VBS morning rally

On Wednesday it was yellow day. We had banana muffins and a good time!

Me and Holder by the swings

On Thursday it was orange day. We had peaches and goldfish and we made awesome butterfly sun-catchers.

Holder and I

Miller and Holder. Love those boys!

Our awesome nursery staff!

Friday was green day and the end of a long week! We went on a nature walk, and had a yummy snack with kiwi.

What a week we had!

Sunday the 15th was my last day in the Nursery as Assistant Coordinator. I got a little teary when Amy gave me the pretty plant that Hannah picked out and the handprint card the kids had made. I am going to miss them. 

Georgia

After the busy weekend we had a few days in Georgia with family (and a splash of friends!). It was a little hard being away when I knew how much there was to get done at home, but I am glad we got to go for a bit. One of the main reasons we headed up there was to drop Moriah off at camp, every summer since she was 7 or 8 she has gone to Winshape summer camp. It is an amazing place run by Chick-fil-a, Moriah is on a first name basis with Trudy Cathy. So on Sunday July 1st we dropped Mo off at camp. Then Mom, Dakota and I spent several day doing things with my seven-year-old cousin Elijah who is going the be the ring- bearer at the wedding. He is fun but exhausting (as almost any kid that age is). Over all it was a nice trip with lots of bowling, family and a few fireworks.

My cousin Chris with his Sparkler

Elijah and Dakota

Dakota and I being silly

Cousins and Mark's girlfriend for Christmas in July

On Tuesday night we also had an opportunity to go and spend sometime with great friends who just recently moved to the ATL metro area. Jeff and Melody Dowdy are awesome folks! Jeff was the youth pastor at our church for a very long time, starting when I was in 8th grade, he was my initial choice for the wedding and their family has been a huge part of our lives. Even though they had only been gone a couple weeks, it was great to visit for a while. :)

Me, Jeff, and Dakota

A Busy Weekend

Hello World!

What a busy weekend I had June 28-30th.

On Friday, I spent basically all day in the library and finished up my paper! It is now totally complete and emailed in to my professors, I am waiting to hear back from them on a date to defend my paper. After my paper was all taken care of, I needed to go home and change to get ready for the first premarital counseling session for Ricky and me. It went great, I know we made the right choice of minister for us. We were very comfortable with him and the conversation was easy but insightful. One of the rules already laid down is fine by me: After marriage, dating must continue. I like the sound of that. I am excited for our session next week, when we will go deeper into a discussion of Real Love.

After our counseling session we rushed off to the cheesecake factory to meet my family and Ben for Ben's birthday dinner. Even though it took Ricky an hour to park with how busy it was, it was really fun.

Ricky and I at Cheesecake Factory

On Saturday morning we had my bridal shower thrown by Mrs. Diane. It was so lovely, so many sweet ladies showed up and we had a great time. Moriah and my mom had planned some cute little shower games, my mom did a version of the newlyweds game- where she had emailed Ricky some really tough questions that I had to guess the answers too. That was a little daunting, since I just don't like being put on the spot ever. But it was still fun. And boy am I blessed. I received so many wonderful gifts from our family friends. Ricky and I now have an awesome new vacuum, as well as many wonderful things for our kitchen.

Vacuum!

Le Creuset salt and butter crocks!

Right after the shower we ran home, loaded up the car and drove up to Atlanta. So Sunday, June 30th was a long day!



Since, I started the draft of this post over two weeks ago, I am just going to call it done. :)

Photos

Some oldies but goodies:

Christine found this in my photobooth while using my computer once:

To which she replied (but I didn't find until a few weeks later):

But paper writing today makes me feel more like this:

Than This:

Kids are funny sometimes

Yesterday morning I was babysitting for two of my favorite kiddos. The older of the two is one of my best little buddies, but he was having a really tough morning yesterday and we got off to a rough start. And since TS Debby has finally gotten out of the way of summer, we were going to have a picnic lunch on the porch. The boys sat in the living room to watch an episode of Octonauts while I prepped our yummy lunches, then I filled everyone's water cups and set up our food. I called the boys over and we went out onto the porch for our fun picnic. It was going swell, we had fun and giggled. Then the big boy asked for more "scrawberries, please!" so I got up to grab some. When I tried to open the door to get back in the house it wouldn't budge. Somehow we had gotten locked out.

I was feeling a little panicked, but I reminded myself that it must now be at least 11:30am and the parents would be home at 1:00pm. So I decided to be honest with the boys about my mistake, ration out our water-sips carefully and keep them engaged in playing as much as possible. Inside I felt like crying!

Central Florida summers are hot! Even on a shaded porch. I told the boys I was sorry we got locked out, the older one (3 1/2) let me know he was sorry too! The boys maintained a great attitude about the whole situation, and we had water sips every five minutes. The poor little guy got a dirty diaper about 45 minutes before we got let in and it broke my heart not to be able to help him out, but he didn't even get whiny. I think kids can tell when something is really out of your control.

However, I almost burst into tears when their mom was there to let us in! What a relief, my poor little buddies were getting hot. And I am thankful that they are a kind family who was very understanding about my little goof up -which I am still not sure about how I did!


The rest of yesterday afternoon was much more fun, my mom and brother got back from Miami and we went to Roadhouse together, where I did give in and eat two rolls. They are just too good to pass up. We went to bed, Bath and Beyond and got some great home goodies for Ricky and I with a giftcard the ladies at work had given me at the end of the school year, and then to Target to buy some of the items on the registry with a couple of checks that generous and loving family members had sent. Nesting is so much fun, I can't wait to get everything set up with Ricky.

Right now I am taking a little break from working on my paper in the library at school, so I need to get back to that now!