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.