Ahhhh- I can finally breathe!!!!

Yes, I know, it's been a very, very long time. But friends, there is a reason. I have barely had time to breathe the past three weeks. This summer has gotten off to a crazy busy start. I can't believe it's almost halfway over. I'm at the beach now with the family recovering from the madness, so I thought I'd take a minute and update the ole blog.

After school was over, I went right into wedding mode. I made list upon list of things that had to be done, what I needed to get, where I would get my dress altered, what I would wear to the bridesmaids' luncheon and rehearsal dinner, etc. Although I wasn't working everyday, I didn't really have time to relax yet. The week of the wedding came. I enjoyed a couple calm days before the storm hit. To be honest, the wedding ceremony itself and my amazing sister were beautiful, but the combination of the stress I'll go into in a minute makes me want to consider eloping (if/when the time comes). I hear people say the time and money are not worth it all the time, but I lived it a week ago.

It all began when we found out a week before the wedding that Trey's dad had to have triple bypass surgery. He went in on Friday morning and PRAISE GOD, did amazingly well and was able to not only attend the wedding, but stand next to Trey as his best man a week later. We were so thankful but were definitely stressed and worried about him. In addition, most of you know Cortney's one wish was to have an outdoor wedding. I've never been much of a risk-taker, especially when it comes to a day as important as your wedding. We had heard however, that it hadn't rained in many years on June 14 in Florence, so we were hopeful. As luck would have it, the rain won. We got up Saturday morning and had to make a call by 9:00 am in order for the florist to do what he needed to do to build the outdoor arbor. At 9:00, it was storming so we had to move the ceremony inside. Oh, but of course, by 4:00 it was beautiful outside but by that time we couldn't go back. Not only did we have to move the wedding inside, but Cortney's AND Trey's wedding cakes were messed up. Her's was supposed to be square and his round, the caterer reversed it. She took it like a champ, but still....Not only that, but Cortney started feeling sick at the reception so I went with her to a classroom in the church building to sit down and rest a minute. Five minutes later she was throwing up. That continued until 4:00 the next morning, and she didn't feel good for the most part of the honeymoon. There you have it...S-T-R-E-S-S! Bottom line though, they're married and to those that witnessed the day from the outside, it couldn't have been more perfect. As for me- I may have an appointment at the courthouse one day.

Here's a picture of my beautiful sister on her wedding day.



I left the day after the wedding to go to Impact. It was good, as always. The theme was "Day of Reckoning" and I have no doubt God was in that place and worked in the hearts of tons of people. It was good to get to see lots of old friends.

I left Impact and drove straight to the McKinneys' house (so strange to say that!) to spend the night and leave yesterday morning to come to the beach. That brings me up to date. I'm sitting on the balcony as we speak listening to the sound of the water and kids playing. It's so relaxing- and so welcomed for me right now.

I hope you are all doing well. I'll post pictures of the beach when I get home!