Getting excited!

Today was rehearsal day! I took the day off work. Rick and I went to renew our driver's licenses and then to the bank to straighten up a mess they made. I got home in time to watch Warren and Parker while Sarah went with Laura to have her nails done.

I gave the boys a bath and got them ready to go to Huntsville.

Splish splash

Doing the curls up

On the way to Huntsville to pick up tuxes

To cute for words

Now that's what I'm talkin' about!

Rehearsal dinner at Logans

Not just any ordinary boring bridal shower. . .

Oh no, not for Laura! It had to be a Halloween costume required bridal shower and it was a hoot!

Our lovely hostesses: my sister the Sweet Potato Queen, my mother the clown, the lovely bride as The Corpse Bride, and Laura's aunt as Miss Piggy

Can you believe we did this ourselves? Awesome cake!

Food table

Laura and her soon to be mother-in-law

Me, the Queen of Hearts

Sarah and Parker, Alice in Wonderland and the Cheshire Cat

My mother and sister baking

Costume Prizes awarded by the bride. On the right is my husband's aunt dressed as Gene Shalit.

The Corpse Bride

Puppa's Birthday Surprise

Rick thought Sarah wasn't coming until next Friday so when I put him in the car and told him to follow the GPS to his birthday surprise he had no idea where we were going, at least until all those airport signs started popping up.

Warren racing to Puppa

Puppa's bestest surprises

Sarah and Warren at the Aquarium Restaurant

Rick and me with Warren

Puppa and Pucker

Oh boys!

Good Bye My Friend

My friend Lisa (29 April 1958 - 13 October 2009)

Twenty years of friendship we shared.


We raised our children together. . .

School programs . . .

Afternoons in the sprinkler . . .



A lot of Halloween's . . .



Birthday parties too . . .

Easter egg hunts . . .

Alabama style sledding (on pizza pans in a drainage ditch) . . .

Six Flags Over GA . . .

Point Mallard . . .
Surviving breast cancer . . .

And teenagers.



Bye my friend. I'll see you there.

I cried to sleep last night thinking what a lousy friend am I. Didn't even know my friend was so sick, didn't know for days after she passed. How could I not know. I loved you. I would have held your hand, you know. I would have held your hand.

Laura's costume

The date is drawing near! Not the wedding. Well, that's drawing near too. The Costume Bridal Shower on Halloween I mean. Laura has finished her costume all but some tiny details. The Corpse Bride has been a really fun costume to make.

Laura ordered a used wedding gown on Ebay. She did a little stitching to convert the zipper to lace up. She dyed it, spray painted it (dying didn't really do the trick), trimmed it, slit it, burned it even, added the exposed rib bones. It's awesome! Here's a little preview. After the shower I'll post pics of her in it.

Final touches

60!

Happy Anniversary to Mother and Daddy celebrating 60 years of togetherness!

They are amazing.

Meet Rue

I went with my mother to pick up a dog this afternoon. One of her friends was looking for a home for a dog she didn't really have time to take care of and Mother has been looking for a dog to keep her company. A perfect match, I think. We'll see.

The dog is a three-year-old Poodle/Yorkie mix but looks mostly Yorkie. He's solid black with auburn whiskers and eyebrows. Really pretty. He was in bad need of a bath today but mother will have him professionally groomed by mid-day Monday. She's like that.

A very friendly dog, every time you reach for him he immediately rolls over to have his belly scratched.

He's bigger than Mother is used to and he came with a 12 foot leash, well, maybe not that long but it might as well have been, and this dog can pull little tiny mother to the ground if it gets too excited. It also has a habit of wrapping the leash around her legs. First thing we do is get a two foot leash and teach the little guy to heel. Ah he's going to be a lot of fun.

Mother and Rue.

Mother adores him already.

Rue is a silly name for a dog. We're thinking Rufus maybe.

He's so cute.

But he's a male dog and has already marked territory. We're hoping he doesn't become Rue-nd this, Rue-nd that.

Happy Birthday Papa!

My dad turns 85 years old today! We celebrated his birthday Sunday with chicken -pot-pie, salad, and chocolate cake with chocolate icing, his favorite.

Mother and Daddy

Listen.

Can you hear that? Bells. Wedding bells! The wedding draws near and as it does, the invitations go out. Here's Laura's engagement announcement and wedding invitation. She created and printed them all herself. She's so talented. If you are ever at the Morgan County DMV, you'll want to be in her line.

Announcement Front

Announcement Back

Invitation

Fresh paint!

I spent the holiday weekend painting my toy shelves and touch up painting everywhere else including doors and the steps in the daycare room. Aaaaaah, fresh and clean it is and of the first three parents in the door, nobody noticed. Ugh.


I still haven't painted the play loft. Maybe next weekend?

Keeping up with the Jones's (A Stupid Conversation)

Hubby went dove hunting Saturday. Apparently not many birds were flying this first few hours after the official (legal) opening of the season because they only came home with a couple of birds split between five guys. Apparently the conversation kept them entertained for hours and hours.

Yesterday, as hubby was patting out burgers and I was in and out of the kitchen cleaning, painting, and such, Rick started talking about the conversation they had in the grass field. He said, "We went out to pick up Bubba (In the south, particularly in Lawrence County Alabama we sometimes call grown men by this nickname. Generally you'd try to stay away from guys called Bubba but this one is really a nice guy.). Bubba and his wife have a really nice house. His wife even has her own tanning bed, Carol."

I responded, "Tanning beds are no big deal. We could trade that Bowflex you haven't used one time since you got it six years ago for a tanning bed easily. Besides, it's not about the tanning bed, it's about the cute dude that works at the tanning salon.

Hubby, "Men work there?" I nodded.

"YOUR wife has an eight seater hot tub she usually has to sit in ALONE."

"I get in it with you."

"Rarely."

As I was leaving the room again, Rick yelled, "And Bubba's wife texts him to come home because she needs his big ____."

I poked my head back around the corner and said, "If my husband would get text service on my cell phone and my husband HAD a big ____, I might text him the same."

"You don't think I have a big ____?"

'Yeah, baby, I think you have a big ____. Maybe even bigger than Bubba's [though I've never seen it, really I haven't]. Maybe Bubba's wife hasn't had the opportunity to survey as many ____ as I have, honey, and doesn't know what a big one looks like. Do you wish to continue with this conversation?"

Hubby, "Well Tim's wife sends him naked pics on his cell phone."

Oh brother, "Well if my husband wasn't so cheap and would pay for the internet service on our cell phones I could send him dirty pics too. You know I have dirty pics, a LOT of them." Do you want to spend all day at work wondering who saw those pics before you did or do you want to end this conversation here?"

Hubby, "I better just finish patting out these burgers."

Today hubby is going to get a dirty pic at work on his cell. We do sort of have the service (I fixed that and he doesn't know it) but it's pay per use and can be expensive but I'm going to do this just one time.

Y'all have a nice day at work!

21 Century Kid

Oh gosh. I must share this one. My 35 month old daycare child and I were sitting on the couch together looking through Scholastic Book Club fliers. I was trying to decide which books to order for my daycare and she was asking me, "What letter is that? What number is that? What color is that?" And then suddenly a book cover caught her attention and she yelled, "Click on this one, Nini!"