So, I decided to check in just one more time before Blair and John Samuel's wedding.  We're only a couple of weeks out and things are coming at us fast now.....almost as if we were standing in the middle of a freeway....so I don't see myself having a lot of time to write between now and then.  So, I'm just going to sign off with a few last minute moments to share......

1) As the wedding nears, I suppose it might be normal for the mother of the bride to have dreams about the big day.  Some might be pleasant and storybook-like yet others could be more of the nightmare variety.  Last week, I dreamed that, on the wedding day, as we drove up to the plantation with its 1/4 mile oak tree canopy lining the front walk, we gasped as we learned that October is coincidentally the month in which they prune the 350 year old oak trees back each year.  As in all the way back.  To the trunks.  And someone had failed to mention this to us.  So, in my dream, this.....

Had become something like this.......
We won't even get into the dream I had in which I couldn't find my shoes on the day of the wedding.  After looking in all the closets and under the beds in the old mansion, I finally had to borrow some random person's tennis shoes hoping that my dress was long enough to cover them.  Now, I'm no dream interpreter, but I'd say this might indicate some deeply buried concern exists that something could go wrong.  But, that's just a shot in the dark.   

2)  As the wedding approaches, friends from my Bible study gave me a fun party to help ward off any mounting anxieties that might exist and they showered me with pampering gifts such as a certificate for a full body massage, some baths products, aromatherapy items, etc. 
3)  As the big day was nearing, at last, I got the call to come for the final fitting of my dress. It fit me perfectly.  Perfectly as in like a glove.  Perfectly as in no room for error.  At this point in the game, it is more important than ever to stay the course with my exercise, so my friend, Laurie, gave me a shirt which serves to remind me that the finish line is near and I mustn't stop now.
4)  This is the point in the process at which the mother of the bride will want to shop and make her final selections in the foundation garment department.  Y'all know I've had my eye on these for a while now.  My hairdresser warned me from her experience that, sometimes, those things can just push the muffin top upward because, well, it's got to go somewhere.  Well, when I came home, I immediately tried my new one on to see if that would be the case and, sure enough, just over the top of the girdle-like contraption, resting comfortably on the tight, elastic band was a puffy ring which had once sat around my midsection.  It was a ring kind of like Saturn has except this ring was more jiggly.  I suppose, like a tube of toothpaste, if you cinch something up at the bottom, it's invariably gotta come out the top.  So, you must pick your poison as supreme authority of the wedding.  Want your muffin top high or low?  These are the choices a mother is given as she marries off one of the reasons she has the fatty ring to begin with.   

5 ) During the last couple of weeks before the wedding, everyone will want money from the bride's parents.  Everyone.  Just give it to them.  At this point, what is money, anyway?
6)  And I'd just like to sign off by saying that I appreciate you all hanging with me through this.  I know I've been in and out a lot with all the preparations and festivities but I look forward to being back on a more regular blogging schedule after everything is over.  This weekend, we go to New Orleans for bridal portraits.  Next weekend, there's a bachelorette weekend and, then, we're there a few days later! 

I'm thankful that Blair and I have enjoyed this journey together.  I can honestly say that it's been an experience with no major disagreements or testy nerves.  Pretty much everything has come together with ease and we've really enjoyed working on her big day as mother and daughter. 

I'm most thankful that my daughter has found the love of her life.  I'm thankful that when her Daddy and I were praying for her spouse when she was little that God was preparing a little boy to capture her heart.  He was setting the stage, even back then, to cross their paths at just the right moment.  He knew, of all the little boys, which one she needed most and which one needed her.  And for the peace of knowing that she's found the one who was chosen for her by the real Supreme Authority, well, that is a gift to her mother's heart.   

For now, I'm signing off! 


Talk to you all later.