"5 years" alternately titled: "when did we get so old?"

Five years ago today, I walked down the aisle with a slightly forced smile and deer-in-the-headlights look to marry my best friend. And before you think I'm psycho, the reason I looked that way was NOT because I was unhappy about, or afraid of, marrying Brian. It had more to do with the massive case of nerves that hit me as I was waiting in the back of the church about 5 minutes before lift off. I had been uncharacteristically calm all day up until that very moment.

My biggest fear was that I would cry during our wedding. Actually, my biggest fear was that Brian would cry during our wedding. Thank the Lord, Brian held it together. I, on the other hand, did not.

Side note: I have no problem with other people crying during their weddings. It's just that the thought of 150 of our closest family and friends witnessing such an emotionally intimate moment really freaked me out.

Back to the story. As I waited with my dad, bridesmaids and flower girls, I suddenly became so nervous that I felt sick. I remember crouching down on my feet (in the big dress) and one of my bridesmaids moving my veil off my face in case I threw up. I didn't, praise the Lord. When it was time to walk down the aisle my heart was racing, and I remember that the combination of the veil over my face and all the white lights and candlelight in the sanctuary cast a magical glow. About halfway up the aisle, I remembered to look up, and there stood my prince charming! I was so relieved/happy/nervous/excited/nervous/petrified/nervous...

Brian was smiling, calm and brimming with confidence, as usual. He was relaxed when he repeated his vows with a clear, strong voice. I, on the other hand, said them so quietly they were hardly audible. And, I realized at some point in the ceremony that I was rocking back and forth on my feet. Embarrassing. Then, the mother of all my worst, emotionally-stunted nightmares: during the lighting of the unity candle I was overcome with emotion while listening to my dear friends sing and Brian pray for us. I cried.

This was not a lose control, sobbing, ugly cry, but it was definitely more than a glisten in my eyes. My sister surreptitiously passed the tissue she had been clasping around her bouquet. I had my back to the congregation during all of this, and I wiped my eyes and regained control before I turned back around. I'm good like that. What I didn't realize until later was that this entire display had been captured by the videographer in the choir loft. Right down to the lip tremble before the tears started flowing. Ugh.

When we were pronounced husband and wife and walked out to Vivaldi's Spring, I felt so much joy and relief wash over me. We were married, and I had survived the ceremony! I was extremely relaxed and happy through the reception. Until I started thinking about the wedding night. And on that note, I will leave you with some pictures. Of the wedding. Not the wedding night ;)

Walking down the aisle

The unity candle debacle :)

Relieved!

The cutest flower girls in the world!

Leaving the church and feeling much better.

A little pit stop at Sonic for Dr. Pepper, and I felt much, much better

Hill Country sunset

Getting nervous all over again...

Over the river and through the woods

Last weekend, we took Reid to my parents house in College Station for the first time. It was a fun and relaxing weekend. We also took both cats, and I have to say that they were higher maintenance than Reid during the car portion of the trip! Warning: major picture overload follows! :)




With BeBe and Grandad in front of their house


Chatting with BeBe on the couch


Meeting my childhood cat, Noah


Hanging with BeBe with my mischievous expression


Posing in my sleep sack


Pulling Grandad's hair


Sleeping in the new Ergo Baby Carrier...LOVE it!


Flexibility drills with Daddy


Three of my favorite boys


He's started sleeping on his tummy with his butt in the air, and I can't stand how adorable it is!


This was how he napped at my parents' house. Disclaimers: a) I always put him down on his back and he rolls himself over; b) he was never left unattended on the bed and c) I have no problem with the cat being in the bed with the baby


At Grandad's office pretending to be City Manager


Putting Grandad's desk to good use :)

Five Months

Almost Famous

I had a the thrill of a lifetime...or maybe just this month, when THE MckMama emailed me last Tuesday night. Who is MckMama, you ask? Only my very favorite blogger of all time! She's a young mother raising her 4 kids (under the age of 4!) in Minnesota. She's also famous. In the blog world, anyway. She has had millions of hits on her blog, and it's not unusual for her posts to get more than a thousand comments.

She blogs about loving Jesus, daily life with her kids, eating organically, potty-training, her miraculously healed (but now sick again) son and dates with her husband. If you want to laugh, cry and get great parenting ideas, head on over to: mycharmingkids.net It's addictive. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Anyway, I've always thought her youngest son looked a lot like Reid. This was particularly apparent in a recent photo I took of him. So, I emailed it to her. (Which is brave since it was a crappy picture, and she's a professional photographer). She emailed me back right away agreeing they looked alike and saying how "cute, cute, cute" Reid is. Now I love her even more.

So, I've decided that MckMama emailing me makes me almost famous...

Unfortunately, the rest of last week was not quite so thrilling. I thought my child was developing multiple personalities last week. He was moody even for him. However, when he woke up on Thursday morning, I could tell right away that he had a fever. And, it was a work day for me.

My super amazing husband stayed home with the sick munchkin all day and even took him to the pediatrician. Turns out, Mr. Reid had a virus involving fever and sores in his mouth and throat. All we could do was give him Tylenol, and it was so sad to watch him whimper pitifully all day Thursday and Friday. By Sunday he was good as new, though.

Here are some pictures from our last couple of weeks:

Eating a little avocado and breast milk. Isn't that how you make guacamole? ;)


Tasty.



Fourth of July fun with Eric and Beau Loyd


Reid and Beau reading a book together. They are so intellectual!


The super amazing husband referenced above gets Reid ready for day care, drops him off and picks him up on days I work (I'm a lucky girl!). Typically, I put an outfit on the changing table for Brian to dress him in. One day I forgot, and Brian sent Reid to day care in the shorts you see pictured. That's right, folks...those are shorts hitting his ankles! I laughed all night long :)


Reid is very in to sucking on his toes these days. In fact, he loves to suck on his toes between bites of rice cereal.

I was a bad mom one day. I just wanted to take a shower and dry my hair. This is Reid in the swing watching Baby Einstein. Scary how early they learn the "zoned out" stare.


Happy boy.


The new toy he got after his 4 month vaccinations.


This is the second time I have scratched him and done significant damage. Actually, he might have done this one to himself. I wasn't sure so I immediately trimmed his nails, and in the process, cut his finger for the first time. Feel free to nominate me for Mother of the Year.

Sign of the times?

I'm sorry, I just have to get this out of my system then I will return to my regularly scheduled blogging about my adorable son...

Did you hear that Michael Jackson died?

It's been minor news for about the last 13 days, and can I just say, that I am SO over it? I realize that devoting a blog post to good ol' MJ is a double standard since I'm complaining about the onslaught of media attention. But, it's my blog and I'll be a hypocrite if I want to :)

I'm as big a fan of celebrity "news" and gossip as the next girl. In fact I check people.com once a day to get my fix. That might be a low estimate. I digress. When I heard that the King of Pop died on my way home from work two Thursdays ago, I knew it was big news. I figured there'd be a little tribute on the Today Show and it would get mentioned on the news. I guessed that MTV and VH1 would have some MJ video marathons and radio stations would play his songs all day Friday.

I was surprised and intrigued/saddened/annoyed/disgusted when I turned on the Today Show on Friday morning to find the ENTIRE 3 hours devoted to Michael Jackson news. I mean, he died. It's sad. What could there possibly be to talk about for 3 hours!? They interviewed attorneys, music industry big wigs, his personal spiritual guru (who could only be reached via cell phone since he was on a spiritual retreat in Iceland) and doctors who had never treated him but wanted to discuss possible theories on "what went wrong". Meredith Vieira had even flown to LA on Thursday night so she could report LIVE from the epicenter. Okay, so the Today show isn't exactly hard-hitting news. Maybe I can understand. But...

All 3 major networks devoted all of the nightly national news to the same silliness. Seriously, people?! And it's been pretty much non-stop since then until yesterday when all the major networks preempted their regularly scheduled programming to cover his entire 2 hour memorial service LIVE. From the little bit that I saw, Katie Couric was covering the event live in LA, but they kept cutting back to the studio in NY for updates and analysis. Are you freaking kidding me?!

This has nothing to do with how I personally feel about Michael Jackson (although, since you asked, I think he's a strange, sad man who at the very least had grossly inappropriate relationships with children). Apparently he has millions of fans. I get that they are sad and want to know what's going on. So read People magazine. Watch Entertainment Tonight. But, for the love of Pete, can we please use news broadcasts to cover actual news?

While MJ's dead body sat around garnering all the media attention for the last 2 weeks, did ya know what else was going on in the world?

• North Korea test fired 7 more missiles
• South Carolina's senate voted to censure their governer
• A Yemeni airliner crashed off of Comoros killing 152 people
• Obama met with Putin in Russia
• A serial killer struck repeatedly in South Carolina (they're having a bad month in SC, apparently)
• Ethnic violence erupted in China
• Honduras' president was overthrown in a military coup

That is just a tiny sampling of the real stuff that was going on in the world.

Ultimately, the news networks are driven by ratings. Ratings are increased by showing the people what they want to see. SO...

What does it say about us a a country that we want to devote all of our attention to a man who sang, danced/made lewd pelvic movements and was addicted to plastic surgery while we virtually ignore the real issues?! Nothing good, my friends. Nothing good.

Now, if someone will bring me an extenion ladder, I will climb down off my giant soap box. Sorry for the rant. For the record, I feel much better now :)