Sorry that I stayed gone longer than I'd planned. Davis' mom passed away, last week. As you probably know, she had Alzheimer's disease and had broken her hip over the Thanksgiving weekend. Even with all those things plus 87 years working against her, we were still caught off guard as she seemed to be doing ok.

Davis and I will have our 26th anniversary in February and we dated a year before we married, so Mrs. Billie (or Granny as I've called her since the kids were born) has been in my life for 27 years. The mother-in-law/daughter-in-law relationship is one which is often described as adversarial....like the lioness and the antelope.....but I can't say that I've ever been able to relate to that. I can't nod my head in agreement when my friends tell me about their mother-in-law woes. I've never gotten the mother-in-law jokes. I even told someone at her visitation that, in 27 years, I can't recall a time when I was ever angry, resentful, aggravated, or the least bit perturbed at her. Honestly, I can't. She was just that kind of sweet, gentle person who never provoked anyone to have any sort of ill feelings.

I hit the mother jackpot when I was born but what are the odds that I'd win it again when I married Davis? What a precious lady. Our humble, kindhearted, selfless Granny. We're so happy that she's free from the heavy weight of this world and is with Jesus, but we surely will miss having her sweet presence here with us.
The holidays seem like an especially sensitive time to have to process grief. All this has had me thinking about Christmas and how it changes. It's always evolving and moving along with the current of our lives. We've all got our favorite memories of Christmas. From the years of dinner around grandmother's table and lying awake on Christmas Eve to quietly assembling a Barbie Dream House and Bob the Builder tool bench at 1:00 in the morning. From year to year, the landscape of Christmas can look just a little different. Santa only visits our houses for a season. People fade from the home movies and the family pictures and new ones come on the scene. Traditions may require adjustments. Children grow. Settings are altered. Some to accommodate happy changes. Others to adapt to loss.

When I think about the eventful year that's about to close, I know a lot of people who are facing a Christmas that won't look like any other they've ever had. For whatever circumstance, this holiday won't live up to the warm memory of Christmas past. There will be one reason or another why the joy of the season won't pour over them like it's done in years before. An anticipation for Christmas to come may be replaced with an anticipation to see it go. So, if your family is nestled in a place in time where all is cozy and right with your Christmas, well, don't forget to pray for those who are missing pieces to theirs. Give thanks and soak up every minute of Christmas present. One day, it will be the Christmas past that you'll look back on with misty-eyed nostalgia.         

I do hope you have a wonderful time with your family over the next couple of weeks. Whether you're grieving or transitioning or have it just the way you want it, the hope of Christmas remains, year after year. The hope that no matter what has happened since our Christmases past, our Christmas future is secure because He went from the manger to the cross for us.

So, I'm done with my shopping......except those things that I keep picking up because I just can't help myself. Davis says it's not a good thing that I start my shopping early because I just buy for longer. You know how you have those years when you think you've hit it out of the park with gifts and you can't wait to give them?  Well, I think I'm having one of those years but only time will tell if anyone will ask if I kept the receipts. Bought my Christmas groceries today.....selling a kidney tomorrow to cover those. Saturated fats seemed to be the overall theme of my shopping cart. Decided a while back that New Year's cards would be more realistic than Christmas ones, so I have a few more days to ignore that task. Tomorrow is the last day the gift shops will be open before Christmas, so we'll have about 4,500 men come in around 3:45 and start thinking about their gifts. We have 4 consecutive days of Christmas family gatherings coming up, followed by a birthday celebration on day 5 and so I'm on track to be back to my pre-wedding weight by day 6 if not sooner. And as a random, unrelated, and unsolicited piece of information, if I hear one more My Pillow commercial, I'm going to snap. Just sayin'.

I'll see you after the New Year! With everything going on, I've got my plate full with family business, thank you notes to write, and New Year's cards to address and so I'll start 2018 off with a resolution to blog more consistently. Maybe '18 will prove to be a little quieter than '17 was for me.  Whew, it was a doozy!

Thanks for spending time with me, this year! I may have limped along with my tongue hanging out, but we made it. 

I appreciate you more than you know! Really, I do!


Merry Christmas to you all and Happy New Year!!


            

Well, about a week ago, I got our house decorated for Christmas. Who knew that there was some kind of Christmas tree shortage, this year, and so, by the time I got to the tree lot, well, it was a tragic situation. Something about a bad growing season, blah, blah, blah. From the parking lot, I thought they all looked quite small and one of the first things I ask of my Christmas tree is that I not look down at it. However, in the distance, my eye was drawn to some fuller, taller trees which sat off to the side and so, as I walked through them admiringly, the tree lot attendant informed me that they were all sold and that there were only two left in that height range. He told me to follow him and we walked for what seemed like forever, all the way to the back of the lot to the section where they take people who wait until the last minute. The island of misfit trees.   

There they were. The two remaining trees over 5' tall. Oh, what a sight, they were. Sitting next to the tent where they make fresh wreaths. My suspicion is that they'd be hanging on a door by a nail right now if I hadn't come when I did. Anyway, I'm sure it was my imagination but even the trees looked embarrassed.....kinda like you feel when someone knocks on your glass door and there you stand in your pajamas, bedhead, un-showered, and with no bra. You fully recognize that you look really bad and desperately don't want anyone looking you over. Yeah, the two trees looked ashamed like that. But, I'd already been to another store and the contestants there were even more homely, so I had a decision to make.   

There were obvious flaws, yes, like maybe they'd fallen off the truck and then were backed over but that's just mere speculation. One had a large, gaping hole on the side and looked awfully sparse at the bottom......like perhaps where truck tires had been. The other one, well, it was one that only God could love. So, I decided to go with the gaping hole, sparse bottom choice and paid the man in arms and legs and was on my way. Trees are apparently priced strictly by height. Beauty is not something that is factored in.

I imagined us carrying it home and bringing out its hidden beauty. And I think we did......if you keep the lights dim enough and tilt your head to the left.

Well, we get there and take a number and turn to see that there was quite a crowd gathered. We found a couple of chairs together and settled into our seats as we assumed they'd be our home for the next little while. In true southern fashion, she and I both spoke to the people on the other side of us and made their acquaintance. We used the ice breaker, "How long have you been waiting?" as our lead question. Two hours on my side and an hour and a half on hers.

Then, we hear the automated announcement, "Now serving J019 at window 2." We looked down at the number on our slip of paper and, with a little subtraction, knew we had a ways to go.....not only numerically but alphabetically. It's bad when you've got numbers and letters to work through. Periodically, the Siri sounding voice would announce another number and, every time, we'd look down at our paper like maybe it had changed. I felt like we were playing bingo and had a really bad card. 
Well, minutes turned to hours and Mrs. Jean kept insisting we leave and that she'd come back another day, but I was in it to win it. You know, sometimes, you cross a certain threshold where there's just no going back. We were too invested, at this point. So, we listened to the numbers and chit-chatted as we stared ahead at the poorly decorated Christmas tree. I thought, at one point, what a shame it would be if we had to spend Christmas there at the Mississippi Highway Patrol Office but with only 2 of the 6 windows open, I wasn't ruling out the possibility. They must use Wal-Mart's equation for figuring windows open/customer ratio. It was then that I was forced to think about how all I had was the half pack of gum and tin of Altoids in my purse that I could give Mrs. Jean on Christmas morning, I mean, if it came to that. I felt so ill-prepared for all the scenarios that were becoming possiblities. 

When the two open windows became one due to it being someone's lunch break, I began to plan our Christmas breakfast through the vending machine glass. Honey buns, powdered donuts, and orange Fanta looked like the most fitting combination that I could come up with and so I made a mental note just in case.

Approximately 3 hours and 15 minutes after we arrived, we heard the most glorious alphabetical/numerical combination ever to fall on the human ear. "Now serving A056 at window 2."  You've never seen a woman in her 90's move so fast in your life. And being in her 90's, she opted for the 4 year license and not the 8 and, after taking a pretty picture, we were on our way.

I thought about how much I'd enjoyed those over 3 hours with her. While everyone else looked down at their phones, we laughed and giggled and had the best time joking about our situation. Even the most mundane things can be fun if you're in the right company. Mrs. Jean is always the right company for a good time.

Today, I went to visit my longtime friend, Michelle, who's recently had surgery. I couldn't be there because of a decorating job, so I just wanted to see her and get a hug albeit a gentle hug. I took lunch and we had a good time together......well, as much fun as you can have with a person with stitches, but still. We enjoyed eating, lounging, and talking. Never let it be said that I will not eat and lounge with a friend in need. They're some of my most sharpened skills.

Anyway, Michelle lives in another city.....one that is blessed with a Krispy Kreme and so, as I was leaving town, I saw the red star in the East blinking HOT.
And maybe most amazing of all, we got snow way down here in the deep South! Not just our normal once every 5 years, anemic, nappy snow with pine straw poking through everywhere. No, we had 7 inches at our house and it was the only snow before Christmas that I can ever recall. It was a pretty special treat for those of us who are just going through the motions when we sing about dashing through the snow and white Christmases like the ones we used to know. These are things we know nothing about.

Those of you who live in the North, just scroll on down past the snow pictures. These are for the enjoyment of our fellow Bible belters for whom this isn't an everyday occurrence. 


       

So, I ran in a bookstore, today, to look for a devotional book for one of our friends for Christmas. I'd been helping a customer with Christmas decorations and had some time to kill before my next appointment. I'm not sure if it was fatigue, the dreary, unChristmas-y weather, or just preoccupation with other stuff going on, but I was feeling kind of blah. You ever have those days? You ever just feel flat? Not really sad or mad, but just blah.

Anyway, I took my book to the checkout, where a very kind and cheerful lady met me at the register.  I spoke but, let's just say, I wasn't running at the peak of my cheerfulness potential. She asked my for my phone number and I gave it to her in a less than enthusiastic manner.   

Well, after she asked for my phone number and found my name in the system, she asked, "Aren't you the muffin top lady?"  Eeeeeek.  There I was feeling like I had on my grumpy pants and the sweet lady had recognized me as the writer of a "lighthearted and uplifting Christian blog". Dang it.    

Well, the moral of the story is that your Mama was right. You never know who's watching you. Of course, my Mama said that after someone informed her that they'd spotted me smoking a cigarette when I was 17. I've smoked one cigarette in my entire life....ONE.....and in the 1 minute and 20 second time span in which I held it between my two fingers and pretended to know what I was doing with the billowing carcinogen, someone spotted me in the passenger seat of my friend's car and called my mother. But, I digress. 

To the sweet lady at the bookstore, please, accept my apology for being less than engaging.  I looked for your name on my receipt but didn't see it. You inspired me. Thank you for your kind words. Sometimes, I feel like it doesn't matter if I post or not but you stirred up my waning desire to write in the midst of this frazzled and frenzied yet most holy time of year.  Quite possibly the most exhausting year of the 49 which I've spent to date.    

Now, let's talk about Thanksgiving.  If you were like me, you ate entirely too much. Like enough for 3 pilgrims and a couple of Indians. I'm trying to pace myself, though. I mean, I ran all those mailboxes for the wedding and, well, I don't want to undo it all it once. I'd prefer to spread the undoing over the course of the whole holiday season which has only just begun. So, easy now, Joni.

We had the usual house full of people with the usual spread. The dressing, the mashed potatoes, the caramel cake, and the coconut cake were some of the showstoppers. We invited our friend, Jim, who's from China, as he'd never indulged in the traditional American Thanksgiving dishes. He'd never even eaten turkey, which we explained was just an overgrown, dry chicken which somehow has become the obligatory mascot meat of the season.  He also told us that no one in China knows about baking and that cakes and such are always store bought. Well, I believe the women in Mississippi introduced him to a whole new level of cake.  He seemed pleased with his take home plate of this newfound thing called homemade desserts. 
Along with John Samuel's parents, we got the newlyweds moved, last weekend, too. If this keeps up, we may need to look into the rent to own program down at the U-Haul place. But, that's done and my list of work is getting whittled down, so now I've got to get our house decorated for Christmas. I counted and I've decorated about 14 trees so far, none of which are at our house. Last night, I did get so far as to launch the pumpkins off the front porch and into the woods next to us.  So, this weekend, I will decorate the house for the season.....or die trying.

Well, I just wanted to say hello.  Like me, I know you're busy with your shopping and cooking and planning and your celebrations of merriment.  Let's just meet up when we can and know that I'm praying that you won't lose your spirit of joy in all the holiday racket.....like I did today.  It's so easy to get exhausted wanting to make everything perfect for our families.  We need to try and keep the Pinterest expectations in check and just bask in the light and hope that the Baby brought to us. The world tells us that other stuff is so much more pressing and so necessary. But, really, it's all just a distraction from that one holy night that changed our eternity.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend with your family and friends!

Thank you for stopping by.



                     

               
 

Well, open houses are behind me.  They were a success and I've now cleared the Christmas retail transformation hurdle.....but not without working many 11 and 12 hour days, which is way more than I prefer. Carson's basketball season has started. Concession stand duty, tomorrow night.  I can't go to bed until the uniform is finished washing and I can throw it in the dryer. I've missed a thousand Christmas choir practices, which will certainly doom me to chime in during a rest, at some point during the program, if I even attempt to participate. It's Carson's senior year and I'm helping with a lot of the senior class activities. Missed the last one. I've started helping Blair and John Samuel pack for another move on the day after Thanksgiving. I know what you're thinking....yes, we just moved her three months ago, but a new job means a relocation to another state. I've not visited my mother-in-law at her personal care home or helped my father-in-law out with meals in a while. I haven't talked much to my own Mama lately. She'd call but I didn't have a long time to talk or to get together with her. I need to check in with several of my friends. I've also got a growing list of sick and bereaved sitting next to my chair.....people who I need to reach out to since I've been chained to work for the last little while. I've missed some funerals that I really should have attended. I'm ashamed to say I've had to slip out of church after Sunday school for the last two weeks....not staying for the church service. I'll start helping a few customers with their Christmas decorations, this week. Because of Davis' mom's health, I've got a Thanksgiving dinner to get together for the weekend. I can't remember the last meal I cooked at home for my little family. We've been eating out of Styrofoam and paper wrappers for about three weeks now. And, everyday, Facebook reminds me of how my Muffin Top followers haven't heard from me in a while.     

I'm not trying to feed you a sob story because I'm sure your list looks something like mine, too. Maybe it has different names or different activities but the same amount of graffiti probably marks up your calendars. We always hear how we need to learn to say no but, that's just not an option with 90% of what we do as women.    

This time of year, especially, I start feeling like a piece of cheap sandwich meat. You know the kind that comes in the package with the red price sticker in the corner.....usually going for under a dollar a pack. Sure, the meat covers all corners of the bread, barely, but it's so thin that it really doesn't get the job done in making the sandwich.  Everybody gets a little bit but it's not enough for anybody. 

That's how I feel right now. I'm pressed out so thin that I'm feeling pretty skimpy and ineffective like a piece of transparent, processed turkey.    

I wish I had some deep and meaningful words to help us all feel more substantial and meatier to face our long lists of obligations and responsibilities. I wish I could come up with a solution for meeting these busy times of life with more effective coverage, but I'm honestly too tired to think of anything too profound right now. I just thought it might help you to know that, if you're feeling like you're barely covering all of your bread, you're not alone. I'm right there with you. We're just all trying to reach end to end and make it work for everybody because that's what mamas, daughters, wives, and girlfriends try to do.

Maybe if we allow God to fill us first, then we'll be better able to serve those around us and everyone will be more satisfied. 

Chew on that sandwich as you get back at it tomorrow!


Have a happy Tuesday! 



         

              

So, just checking in and letting you know that I'm still among the living.  It's Christmas open house season and, well, that should explain that. I've been working late into the night trying to get ready for those. One down and one to go, so next week should find me with much more time on my hands. 

Christmas open houses at florists/gift shops/boutiques are usually held the first couple of weekends in November and, in the South, it can be difficult trying to put people in the Christmas spirit as it's usually still pretty humid and warm.  Yesterday was no exception.....but, nothing that bumping the air way down and turning on some Bing Crosby can't fix.

So, my head is completely empty and my body is exhausted and therefore, unfortunately, I have no words to pen, but we did get wedding pictures back, last week, and so I'll sign off with some of those. If you're not interested, then you can go ahead and slip out now and I won't blame you the least little bit.  I'm like that grandmother coming at you with a wallet full of school pictures.....but I guess when you invest so much time and loving effort into something, well, you just want to share it. 

I look forward to having more time to hang out here soon.

Talk to you later!














    

 

My brothers and their families were coming over, this weekend, to celebrate my Mama's birthday.  I was busy getting the food ready and setting the tables while Davis vacuumed the den rug and took out the trash. It didn't take long for me to notice that our old dog, Sugar, was taking every step that I was taking. She was looking at me like she was needing some reassurance that something out of the ordinary wasn't about to happen.

I'm her person, you see. I'm the one she looks for when she's not too sure about something and I can read her like a book. We all love Sugar, of course, but I have the deepest bond with her, I'd say. So, I could almost hear her inner voice saying, "Why don't you just sit down in your chair, please, and I'll lie in my bed next to your chair and we can relax in our comfortable, predictable routine and just forget about this whole company thing!" I suppose when you're about 87 in dog years, you're at the point where you just want every day to be the same. No surprises. 

Well, she stayed on my heels as our house filled up with people, a few of which were children, Sugar's least favorite kind of people. Discomfort was written all over her face. She likes to do the exact same activities, every day. At the exact same time. With the exact same people around. Even something as small as putting up the Christmas tree and the minor furniture adjustments required for that is anxiety-inducing. Basically, any deviation from the norm causes Sugar distress.
    
I don't know how but she just seems to sense when something is about to go down. She knows when we're getting ready to go on a trip.......even days before we leave. She can tell when we're about to have company. She knows if we turn a different way in the car than we normally do.  The sight of luggage sends her into a depression. We even tried to replace her old, raggedy blanket, one time, but she found it behind the garbage can and, with great effort, pulled it out and all the way back to our door.      

Needless to say, she's had a hard time of it lately in her quest to live a predictable life.  We've been out of town a good bit. We were definitely running on a different schedule throughout the wedding season and our house was rearranged with gifts and extra furniture everywhere.  Now, I'm starting to work longer hours getting ready for Christmas. Things have just been a little topsy-turvy around here and she's not liked it in the least.       

As heart-tugging as it is to deal with Sugar's tight grip on a routine, I was thinking how we're all like my old, unbending dog to some degree. We kind of like things to be pretty consistent. We spend time making our little nests and getting all comfy and nestled deep down in the feathers of its familiarity. It's why we get the blues after Christmas. Why we have trouble when the kids go off to college. Why we have a hard time adjusting to retirement. Why we catch ourselves wanting to call someone who's died. Why we can't wait to sleep in our own beds no matter how wonderful the vacation is. We get used to something or comfortable with the way things are and change kind of throws us off.

The funny thing about life, though, is that it's constantly messing with our nests. Just about the time we settle into one stage of life, we have to adjust to a new reality.  People die. Friends move. Jobs change. Children grow up. Roles reverse. Life is constantly moving and, sometimes, we feel like an old dog who's frantically looking for a recognizable face who will sit with us in a familiar place and just curl up under the covers of the way it's always been. 

I guess I'm writing about this because, from where I stand, I've seen life throw a lot of unexpected curves at people, lately. There have been some unbelievably life changing, dream shattering, unwelcomed winds of change blowing through several families we know and know of.  Not to oversimplify or sound flippant, but it just came to me, as I held my Sugar during the party, that when big changes happen.....when our minds are spinning with anxiety and our hearts are racing with the fear of unwanted shifts that have come our way, I suppose, like my old dog, we look around for the face of the one who always offers us the most comfort. The face of the one who we know loves us more than all the others.  The face of the one that we can always count on to bend down in the chaos and reassure us.

I'd be willing to bet that we're all in the process of some kind of change. Some small. Some overwhelmingly large and crippling. Some we knew were coming. Some hitting us out of nowhere. Some we'll recover from quickly. Others will have us on our backs for a while. Some for which we've had a lifetime to prepare. Others, no one could ever be prepared to face. Whatever change we're in or adjusting to, there is a face that we can look for in the unfamiliar chaos.

No matter the change you're facing, stay on His heels and take every step He takes through the unknown. He knows exactly how you're feeling because He can read you like a book. His heart hurts for you because you are His.  He'll never forget you're there needing His reassurance. He'll never be too busy to hold you.   


Y'all have a good day!                  

   





         

Well, I'm just feeling kinda like it's the night before Christmas.  After 5 1/2 grueling months of suffocating humidity, mosquito slapping, and heat that would drain anyone's will to live, there's finally going to be a cool down tomorrow. 

Yeah, I know. The first day of fall came and went, a while back, for most of y'all but, in the South, fall is just a fancy name for Summer, Part 2.  Sure, we've had a cool day, here and there, and a handful of pleasant mornings but this week promises to finally break the back of those dang upper 80's and lower 90's, once and for all. 

Let me put it to you like this.....for over 165 straight days, we've been sweating our patooties off down here and, for those of us who have little desire to attend the dress rehearsal for Hell, well, we grew tired of it about 164 days ago.  I promise you if 99.9% of the people that I love didn't live down here in this steam bath, I'd set out in search of a cooler climate. 
So, I have some new cosmetics that I haven't told you all about yet. I must preface that with a little bit about my background. I'm pretty sure I've told you that I grew up with two brothers. The one on the right tormented me and I, in turn, tormented the one on the left. The circle of life. Yeah, I grew up between these two. Whatever they played, I played. Wherever they went on their bikes, I went, too. (These pictures were taken at the wedding in an unusual sighting of them in suits. They generally don't look this fancy.)
So, needless to say, there wasn't a whole lot in the way of girly at our house unless you want to count bottles of Doe in Heat. As a result of growing up betwixt these two, cavemen, I've never been one to care to study makeup application and such as that.  Not that I don't like to look nice but I don't get too bogged down in the techniques and specifics of it. I don't watch YouTube makeup tutorials or read reviews about hair products. I mean, I want to look presentable but, please. (You can imagine my shock when I gave birth to the mother of all things girly.) 

Anyway, when we got to New Orleans before the wedding, I realized I had never gotten my wedding lipstick, so Blair was more than happy to go along with me to Dillard's to find what I needed.  A perky lady in a white coat seemed all too anxious to help me as she instructed me to sit in her chair near the illuminated mirrors. You know those ladies in the white coats whose faces are made up to perfection, who want to sell you all the little brushes and creams and foundations to make you look just like them? Well, Blair explained what I needed and the color of my dress and they began to talk between themselves like I wasn't even there. I felt like a kid being taken to the doctor....."this is what's wrong with her, what can you do for us" kind of thing.

They began throwing around words like matte, gloss, liner, and skin tone as they looked me over intently. The lady bounced over to the samples and then came back to apply a shade to my lips.  Of course, while she applied it, she commented on the dryness of my lips and that I might want to try one of their moisturizing products. I'm sure for another $65, she could've hooked me up with some of that, but we were on the eve of funding a wedding and so the $1 Chapstick near the Wal-Mart register would have to suffice. 

Anyway, she applied the first color and she and Blair both stepped back and cocked their heads to the side to analyze the lip color.  It was like they were looking at a painting at an art gallery as they discussed its warmness and its faintest hint of purple and how it really made my eyes pop.  To be sure, they cocked their heads the other way and both made approving noises.  After a little while of trying different shades and discussing the pros and cons of each, they decided that Pink Chocolate was definitely what I needed.  I was all ready to check out until Blair opened her mouth and told her I never wear lip liner despite her repeated efforts to convince me.  Well, that was like calling the lioness over to enjoy some fresh antelope. "You don't wear lip liner?" the white coat lady asked with a puzzled look.

Never in my life have I worn a lip liner.  What is the purpose of that anyway?  I wasn't sure, but they both seemed so adamant about the need for it in my life that I added it to my purchase.  I gave it all to the lady who did our makeup for the wedding, the next day, and it did look lovely with my dress, I must say.  But, now, I'm back home in the humble, little world in which I live which does not include a personal makeup artist and now I have this brand new lip liner, that cost me no telling what, which I have no idea how to apply. And I'd imagine it's something you don't want to get wrong.    

So, now that the wedding preparation frenzy is over, Davis and I can concentrate solely on Carson, our high school senior. You remember how it was when something big was going on in your sibling's life that consumed the family's time and attention and you were just sitting over there like, "um, hello, I'm still here....your other kid."  Well, that's what I've felt poor Carson has been like.....except that he's a boy and boys seem to prefer it that way. But, now, like it or not, we're all his and just look how excited he is about it.  Basketball season will start soon and other senior activities are cranking up and I'm sure he's praying another project or two will come along to give us other hobbies besides him.  He's not going to get rid of us that easy, though.           

Well, the wedding is over.  And it was glorious. I've had several of you request pictures and a rundown of the day so I thought I'd do that today. Maybe share some special touches that the cameras didn't capture. With the couple's permission, of course, blogging about the special occasion will help me document it all for myself, too.  Of course, we don't have the real pictures back so I'm just going to use various pictures that people took.

I don't even know where to start.  As you know, Hurricane Nate was making his way up through the gulf about the time we were headed down to New Orleans for their wedding but besides a brief, light mist for a few minutes after the ceremony, it didn't affect us at all, so that was a big blessing from God.  It was actually a beautiful day near the Big Easy.

I'll just use pictures to tell the story from here. 

The wedding was at 6:30 but the day started early for the girls. Blair has the very sweetest friends and they tended to her every need from the very beginning. Steaming. Looking for things that were lost....which can be a problem for the bride, sometimes. Checking teeth for lipstick. Offering bathroom support with the 40 pounds of tulle skirting.  You know....things like that.  They have been sweet and precious friends in life and also in wedding-dom.