Wedding Week - Family Arrivals!

Our wedding week was quite a jam-packed event!  On Wednesday (4th of July) Keith and I headed home to my parents house in Louisville with our cars loaded up with all of our wedding clothes and necessities, along with our honeymoon luggage.  I gave the pups a few extra treats and some wuv time (love time) before sadly heading out and promising to be back in 12 days.

While I normally quite enjoy the 4th of July, I actually despised it this year because it stupidly prevented me from getting a ton of my wedding errands taken care of (like printing the guest list at Kinkos and picking up gifts for my bridal luncheon hostesses).  All was not lost though, because my sister and brother in law and my sweet little Mason arrived around 8pm and we poured some wine and relaxed with my Aunt Sherri, Uncle Ara, and cousin Summer who had flown in the day before from Cali.  We had a big time hanging out in my parents backyard while the boys smoked cigars and the gals chatted it up and watched the neighborhood fireworks. 

If you can't tell, this is my favorite way to sit...legs draped over the boy.  I do it at home, at the movies, and pretty much everywhere, including the gate at the airport while waiting for our flight to leave on Sunday, and on the plane.  Can't help myself!

On Thursday, the real festivities began!  I woke up early and went on a run with my sister before the boy and I headed down to the County Clerk to get our marriage license.  We thought it might be a time-consuming errand, but once we got there, it actually only took about 15 minutes, and I might add that despite some long-standing stereo-types about people from Kentucky....you cannot marry your cousin there (they verify if you are related when you apply). 

By Thursday evening, pretty much all of our out of town family had arrived in Kentucky, including a plane with 14 family members on it, flying in from various parts of California, and my aunt Patty & Uncle David from Georgia, Aunt Karen from Texas, and the boy's family from Georgia as well.  As has become the tradition, we welcomed everyone to my parents house for a cook-out, some adult beverages, and a little corn-hole.  We probably had about 40 people at the house, and with it hovering somewhere around 100 degrees, it was HOT, HOT, HOT inside and outside of the house.  Even though we were pretty much melting, spirits were high and we had a great time.  I will admit though, that seeing how miserably hot is was had me freaking out all week because our wedding and reception was outside.  It was hard to put that aside and try not to obsess about it (which I did anyways) but I tried to just enjoy the evening for what it was.

Cousins Jayme and Summer, and myself

A mix of my cousins, the boy's family, and members of the wedding party

mom and brother

Me and future husband

A little cornhole action

Aunt Kathy and Uncle Mike

Cousin Kevin and Uncle Mike

We found some hilarious pics of my aunts in the 80's while looking through my baby pics...we blew them up and made them into fans to use at the cook-out...it was really quite amusing, though somewhat less amusing to Aunt Patty and Karen

Me chatting it up with the boy's mom and looking like I have a baby bump (a just to be clear, I do not have one and won't for a long while!)

The point in the evening where Brynn started just holding her wine in everyone's face while she was talking to them...just for funzies

brothers, cousins, and mom being ridiculous

I will say that of all the great conversations and catching up I got to to with mine and the boy's family, the real highlight of my night was coming out to say goodnight to everyone after I had washed my face and put my glasses on, only to find my mom, dad, sister, brothers, fiance, and several members of the wedding party shotgunning beers in the backyard.  Apparently I just don't know how to party. 

It was a fun evening had by all, most especially my dad, who the next morning said, "The last time I felt like this after drinking was in college..."  And let's just make a round-about guess about how many years back that was, shall we?  Unfortunately for my Dad, he had been working on a golf scramble for the last month with about 25 of our friends/family members for Friday morning, and they had 9:30am tee time.  Did I mention that it was about 104 degrees on Friday?  I'll let you imagine how that went...

Next up will be a recap of Fridays events, starting with my bridesmaid luncheon!  Can't wait to share more!

~A Firefly Summer~

I spent last night with the boy doing all the things summer is about...and loving every minute of it.  It occured to me that this summer has really started to fly by.  I let myself get caught up in work and worries, and I don't stop enough to savor the sweet moments of summer.  I know I am not the only one.  As I went for my run this morning, I started thinking of all the things I love about summer and my wish for the rest of the season and the wish for my readers. 

Here is my wish:

I wish for you a firefly summer.

I wish you tanned legs and a cute pair of espadrilles to show them off...

I wish you mornings at the dog park and afternoons at the pool...

I wish you the perfect summer sundress that shows off your tan and makes you feel beautiful...

 

I wish you a summer romance that makes your heart skip a beat....

I wish you dancing under the stars and nights that you wish would never end.

I wish for you scents that make you feel unbridled nostalgia...charcoal and fresh cut grass, saltwater and sunscreen.


 

I wish you mason jars filled with sweet tea and lemonade and the shade of a tree thats been growing long before you were a blink in your parents' eyes...

I wish you nights on patios were the wine is abundant and friends that make you laugh so hard you feel your soul could burst...

I wish you summer concerts and days were you could drive forever with the windows down and James Taylor on your radio...

I wish you farmers markets and strawberries so perfect you think God put a little piece of heaven in each bite...

I wish you sunday brunches and weekend nights were the grill is hot and the grillmaster is even hotter....

I wish that the mosquitos are kind to you and the sun is kinder...and I wish you an endless supply of bug spray and aloe vera in case they are not...

I wish you sunrises that renew your spirit and sunsets that take your breath away....

I wish you a summer book you can get lost in and a nap in a hammock...

I wish you a run through the sprinklers and a sip from the garden hose...

I wish you frozen margaritas and home-made salsa....

I wish you rocking chairs and front porch swings, and a wave from all the passers-by...



I wish you summer weddings where you watch your friends and family embrace love and a new life....

I wish you three-day weekends and afternoon naps....

I wish you still evenings where the only sound for miles come from crickets and cicadas...

I wish you sun-kissed cheeks and hair, and a worn in pair of cut-off jean shorts...

I wish you floppy straw hats and bare feet...

I wish you morning runs and bike rides that quiet your mind, and the sound of acoustic guitar....

I wish you quiet nights outside with someone you love, and the music of Ray Lamontagne and James Morrison....

But most of all, I wish you evenings in your backyard where the fireflies light up the sky like twinkly lights at Christmas....

Happy Firefly summer everyone...

....enjoy it.  It goes too fast....

sparkler "pose-offs" & acoustic trauma

Happy 4th of July to all my sassy readers out there!  I have to say that the 4th of July is slowly becomming one of my favorite holidays, if for nothing else but the fact that it allows me an extra paid day off work.  This year it has been especially helpful in that it delays the inevitable email jail I will be in upon my return from vacation at least on more day.  Hallelujah!

I also love Independence day because it affords me the freedom to drink copious amounts of acohol with my girlfriends and try not to pee myself from laughing so hard at our sparkler pose off we had this weekend.  The boy loves 4th of July too because this year he had a little mishap with a sumo-sparkler that will allow him to play deaf for the next week everytime I ask him to put the toilet seat down in the bathroom (though I suspect he does this anyways)....but more on that later...

So our celebration started out with a little cookout and adult beverages at Miranda's house and ended with  me coaxing my Sawyer boy out from under the grill cover because he's not much of a fan of fireworks.  Poor boy.  Here he is when he was still speaking to me:

Anyways, no 4th of July would be complete without fireworks, so being patriotic like we are, we brought about $20 worth of sparklers, fireworks, and rocket sparklers to the party.  The fact that he got to light things on fire made the boy pretty happy....

As I said, the night started out innocently enough with some sparklers....

And then the boy got the party started with some things that pop and make pretty colors....

Look at how proud he is of his work!  At this point, one of Miranda's neighbors had come out to her driveway to express her displeasure at our firework show, by watching silently from her front porch.  I'm not all that sure what was so offensive about our show other than my constant reminders to the boy that I was not stuck with him and if he bent over the fireworks one more time while they were going off, I would come visit him and his mangled face in the hospital with my new boyfriend.  Besides, if she didn't like the show to this point, I doubt she cared much for our next display of drunkenness: The Rocket Sparkler Pose-Off.

I went first.

Then went Whitney....

Ahh....fire can be so much fun.  The boy tried to get festive and take a turn at the pose off with our last Rocket Sparkler, but as I we were readying ourselves for pictures and watching the fuse burn down to light the sparkler, something strange happened.  Instead of lighting off the sparkler, it caught and blew up....no really...it was a boom so loud, I got in bomb shelter position like it was the '40s or something. 

Once we all got up and stopped our stunned laughter, I thought it was appropriate to check on the boy and make sure he still had a face.  Turns out he does.  He also had some ringing in his ears that wouldn't go away either.  No worries though....he consulted his friend who has a doctorate in audiology and he said that he will probably have some ringing and hearing loss for a few days, but it would go away.  Besides, a little acoustic trauma never hurt anyone.

In closing, I leave you with these....happy 4th friends, strangers, and stalkers!  Hope you all have a safe, acoutic-trauma-free holiday!

 

Summer Solstice

Greetings to my 21 blog readers!  Guess what...it's the first day of summer and the longest day of the year.  How are you planning to celebrate??

I know it's not Christmas or anything, but it does only come around once a year and is usually filled with many things....the promise of pool weather, summer flings, flip flops, and (if you live in the south) the reassurance that the sweating off of your make-up on a daily basis is really only just beginning.

Today I started my summer off right by hitting the snooze on the alarm for exactly an hour.  Do I feel bad that the boy was trying to sleep next to me while I let the alarm ring every 10 minutes?  No, I do not.  He in turn likes to leave his watch in random places in my bedroom which goes off at 7am every day.  Let me tell you how fun it is searching for a "beep beep" noise all over your bedroom on your one morning you get to sleep in a week.....

Ummm, moving on....So, as I said, I'm kicking the summer off right today by partaking in the following activities:

1. Sweating through my work clothes no less than 3 times today.

2. Pulling the hair off my neck to fan myself every hour on the hour.

3.  Checking for butt sweat stains on my way out of all my customer appointments.

4.  Making sure there is a less-than-adequate amount of freon in my car to run the A/C at an acceptable level.

5.  Letting friends and strangers alike use the reflection from my oily skin as a mirror.

6.  Listening to all of my favorite summer tunes.  Oh wait.....scratch that....I still have no CDs.  Good thing I'm not bitter about that though (see this post for the back story on that).

7.  Adding Hilton Head Island to my list of locations on all of my WeatherBug apps on every wireless device I own so I can check the updated forecast every half hour.  Did I mention I will be there in 4 days?????

Oh, and since the summer solstice theme is "heat", I also celebrated by scalding my tongue on both my coffee and my Lean Cuisine today.

I also plan on giving serious consideration to taking my dog to the dog park, only to ultimately decide that it's too humid and opt to stay in and enjoy a Skinny Girl Margarita instead.  Gotta love summer. 

The boy is also celebrating the solstice by working obscene hours at his job, dropping his credit card in the door of his truck where it will get stuck (side note: how the hell does this actually happen??), having his super cute gf bring him a smoothie at work, and I suspect will cap his celebrations off later by eating watermelon and drinking from the garden hose. 

_________________________________________________________________________________

Now your turn!

How are you celebrating summer? 

Leave your comments below!