Just wait until next year!!

The Hogs didn't win against Ole Miss and Coach Houston Nutt, as we had hoped yesterday. They almost had it right at the end, but we are quite certain the officials were paid off by those rich Mississippi folks and they started making unfair calls. Seemed that way, anyhow.
Steve and I picked up Connie and had the XTerra loaded to the rim as we headed up the mountain to start tailgating yesterday.
We unloaded at Connie's nieces house and then I ran over to drop off more wedding gifts and all to Mary Beth at work and to pick up Glo at ther place. Mary Beth will likely be working every weekend forever, she says, after taking off so much for the wedding! Glo had made her yummy pumpkin dip and had it ready to serve in a cute pumpkin dish with vanila wafers and ginger snaps--just perfect for a crisp fall day like we had.
Steve got the grill going and had burgers and hot dogs ready pretty quick for the starving crowd. Connie's mom joined us, as well as her brother Mark and his family. Sarah and John came up from Little Rock for the game and joined us as well.
Greg had a meeting for the UAPD about security and all and got to use his new zoom lens, which is pretty sweet. I can't wait to see the photos he is taking with that! Hmm....on second thought there may be one or two I need to delete! haha

Steve and Greg enjoy this part of tailgating for sure. Steve even brought turkey legs to grill.

Glo and I think we are the ones that are sisters, not sister-in-laws. She WAS a Brown before she married my brother, so it makes sense, doesn't it?

I think the bees were after everyone at this point. Probably Steve's honey beer.

Sarah and Connie take a second to pose. Like Chris said...same, same....original.

Connie decided to hold the parking $20 sign up for Megan and Mallory for a while and we all decided that we just needed to cover up the word "parking" and see what kind of extra spending money she could bring in for the evening.....she never said......=-)

Did I stutter?

Well, this will be a short one tonight. I'm up to my eyeballs in paperwork trying to catch up on everything that I let slide over the last couple of weeks. If I were to work continuously overnight for the next 4 days I MIGHT catch up, but since that seems pretty unlikely, I will have to use some of the advice I give out every day....do what you can and then call it a day. It will still be there tomorrow! Somehow it always sounds better when I'm telling it to someone else.

Now to my brief point I wanted to make. I wasn't sure if I had made myself clear when I gave my little speech at the rehearsal dinner last Friday evening. We certainly had a good time at the Williams home with their tailgate party theme and great food and decorations. I think everyone enjoyed themselves tremendously. I was impressed with how many people fit into their backyard. There were a lot of people there!! Anyway, back to the speech thing. I had not really intended to do this thing, but it had been on my mind since I realized that it was sort of a thing for the parents to do. I knew Steve was not comfortable doing it and if you have read Rachel's blog you know that public speaking is on her list right around having splinters in her foot and going bald. So, I gave it a lot of thought the night before and even typed it up in case of a brain freeze.

My topic was on having someone "ADORE" you. I chose that because I have talked so often to the girls about that being how it is supposed to be. Not just being loved by someone, but totally adored. I talked about that because that is how I feel about Steve and how he makes me feel every day of my life. I never felt that way until I met Steve and I can't imagine not feeling that kind of love. My girls know this. I think Greg knows it too because I do talk about feeling adored and the importance of it because it helps you to overlook someones mistakes and flaws.

Somewhere along the way though I wonder if people thought I said ignore instead of adore. Does that sound like what I was talking about? That's not what relationships need. I've had that and most of us have had a relationship where we were the afterthought, the "person to call when no one else calls with something to do." That is not a good place to be. Adore does not mean ignore. Not by any stretch of the imagination. If I stuttered or stammered in my speech somewhere, please accept my humble apologies right now.

The Bride

Mary Beth looked absolutely stunning this weekend. We don't have wedding photos yet, but I thought I would post a few of her from her portrait sitting. It has been such a whirlwind year for our family and this last week was so wonderful. I cannot imagine what it would have been like if we had not planned ahead so much with the details.

I've told so many people that you could pick apart the little things that you would do differently if you had the chance, but in the scheme of it all they are so little.

It is about making it a perfect day for Mary Beth and I think we all did just that. She was so happy and so beautiful. Having Rachel and Chris here for the whole week made it great too. They were here to run errands and give a helping hand whenever we needed them too. Thank goodness that Emme had loaned them her 4Runner for the week-how would we have ever made it without it? Of course the funny thing was when Steve and I were driving it that one time and he thought it was on dead empty, stopped to fill it up and it was full...he was just reading the gauge wrong. It's tough to get old!!! I even had to get the book out to find out how to flip open the gas tank door!!!

Greg was awesome helping out with the slideshow. And of course, he was always there with one of his great hugs that he knows he mom needs. When did he grow up anyway?

I would advise everyone to always have a videographer because you can't be everywhere all the time. I totally missed her throwing her bouquet at the reception because there were so many people there I didn't even know it was going on! It will be nice to have that footage to look back on and see the things we missed or were too stressed out to really take in and enjoy.

And Steve was, of course, my rock through it all. I was so clearly reminded of why I love and adore him and why I married him. He gave so willingly and generously to make Mary Beth's dream come true, even though he could have pulled the "but I'm only her stepfather" card....he never did. That's just not who he is. It was her dream wedding and he helped to make that happen.

As for me, I was reminded of how blessed we are to have family and friends that love and care about us. The outpouring of family that would drive so far to attend the events of the weekend, some of them even in poor health, just amazes me. It was so heartwarming to look around and see such a variety of friends, both old and new, from so many different areas of our lives. It makes me more committed to try to make attending these events a priority. And of course to Connie, Sarah, Ashley and Glo that came early and stayed late....what can I say? You girls have our hearts forever. It would never have happened without you tying, decorating, running for ChikFila for the family and bridesmaids at the house, laughing and crying with me, helping make decisions about what goes where, and of course always encouraging us to keep going. And Steve and I did keep going because of all of you. No one in the world has greater friends and family.

More photos and posting later. I'm back!

I'm not dead.....I will return!!!!!

Sanity is a funny thing. For all of you mothers of the bride out there, I now understand what you have gone through...the emotional roller coaster that you have ridden on for months in preparation for what will, no doubt, be a memorable day in the life of your family. We get so caught up in the details and all that we often forget about the big picture of what is going on.

I hope that over the next seven days that I can just remember that ....soak it in, relax, enjoy and take photos (mentally as well as the real ones!).
It is stressful to plan a large wedding on a tight budget, but I think somehow it all comes together in the end just because of love. That' s all that really matters is the love. My love for Steve and my children.....my willingness to do whatever it takes for their happiness. That's just what you do when you love people. They would do the same for me.
So when you see me tearful at the wedding just know they are tears of love....not sad tears. Lots and lots of years of love.

I will be back blogging like crazy very soon....so get ready!