Rehearsal Shenanigans

Just a quick little post this morning before I take The Worst Dog in the World for a walk.

We had the BEST time yesterday pulling together Thomas and Dana's rehearsal dinner!  We had some fabulous helpers and it was busy as a beehive, but the final product was all we could have hoped it could be!  Here are a few pictures of the prep!

First, I have got to talk about my girl Jillynn!  For those that may not know her, she was the spectacular photographer I got to hide in the woods with on engagement day. Our day in the woods was the first time we had spent any serious one on one time together and y'all, she is something special. I haven't known her long, but you wouldn't know it by how much I love her now. 

So, yesterday she swung by my house to pick up a sign she was going to jazz up for the rehearsal dinner.  Within two minutes of her walking through the door with a bucket of greenery, I was out in the garage sawing wood, gathering my drill, clipping boxwood limbs off my bushes. She was a tornado of creativity and I don't even need to tell you how much I love that kind of tornado.  

So this is a sign I painted for the ice cream table.  

Look what she did.  She bedazzled that simple sign into something absolutely precious! 

Then she did the same to this darling name sign. 

The simple addition of greenery was so transformative.  I was so impressed.  Also, now I can already tell that every bush I drive by I will want to clip a few branches off of and wire them to something in my house.

We arrived at the venue at 4:00 and had an army of folks on hand to transform this blank space into a celebration! 

My boys jumped in to do some heavy lifting.  Thanks guys! 

This is the spectacular kitchen before we really got going!  I hope there is a picture of the chaos that ensued during the process! 

These girls!  Linda did all the hard last minute chopping, dicing, slicing, scooping....what a ROCKSTAR!  Linda has been in my world for a long time and is one of the most encouraging, kind, smart girls I know.  Her only fault is she is an Auburn fan. I can't even hold that against her because I love her so hard.  And, finally could these girls be any cuter? 

Nephews and nieces were enlisted to do so much running back and forth and setting the tables and centerpieces and putting 7,000 candles out. We could not have done it without them! 

Kitchen crew prepping some appetizers!  I also hope there is a picture of those appetizers somewhere because they were adorable!

This bunch of hard workers!  Hi, welcome to Austin, I will be your drill sergeant for the evening! 

They did all the things and they were fun!  Don't even get me started on the clean up crew!  They had that place neat as a pin within 45 minutes!  Dream Team! 

Look how darling this ice cream buffet turned out? 

We had just enough time for a few pictures before guests started to arrive. What a great time we had!  I wish I could have recorded some of the laughs we had in the kitchen.  Behind the scenes is the place to be!  It will forever be in my memory as a sweet, sweet night. 

Flowers placed, candles lit, appetizers, food and drinks ready!  Let's celebrate!  

Big smiles. Happy hearts. Grateful. Blessed. In fact, someone gather together for me all the adjectives in the world to describe how wonderful it is to walk through life beside people that you love.  It is the best.     

Stockpiling

ACKKKKK!  Hello.  Hi.  How the heck are you?

I have a blogger problem.  It has been so long since I have written that now I don't know where to start.  I feel like I have stockpiled so many activities and stories and now I don't know whether to go back and catch up on all that or just start from this moment.

I think I am just going to do a little of both, which really kind of negates the whole reason for writing that last paragraph, but please just ignore that.  I have opened and closed this page six times in the last week, because jumping in after a long break is hard.

I can do hard things.

Let's jump back in with a classic "Top Ten Things Rattling Around in my Brain"

1.  Lana is at the cancer center as I type having the third of four necessary chemo treatments.  The chemo is doing its thing and killing cancer cells and kicking her butt pretty good.  She feels really crappy for a couple of weeks after the treatment and then has a bit of an upturn during the third week.  Starts feeling better just in time to do it again. Cancer is not for wimps. Fortunately, Lana is not a wimp!  And, only one more treatment left!

2.  Weddings, weddings, weddings.  My dear friend Martha's son Thomas is getting married this weekend.  It is so exciting and lovely and all the beautiful words, feelings and emojis.  I honestly can't believe we even have kids that are old enough to get married.  I am happily helping with the rehearsal dinner and could not love it more. There is a crew of friends doing the set up for the event and we have a timeline and map of the room and lists on top of lists. Maybe the map, the timeline and the lists are my doing. They are. I am a planning, organizing menace to society. My dining room table is rehearsal dinner central and it is finally here!  It is going to be a spectacular weekend!

3.  In addition to Thomas' rehearsal dinner, I am also helping my sweet niece Megan plan her wedding reception for the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  That is exactly one week after Thomas' wedding.  Unfortunately, Megan and Esra's reception is in Alabama so all my planning has been from a distance.  I think we are in really good shape, but it will be a busy, busy Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving to pull together the last minute details.  I can't wait!  It is going to be a blast!

4.  What am I wearing to all these wedding festivities?  Well, that question has taken up more brain space in my head than you could even imagine. What I do know is that I have spent double the money on the under clothes shapewear than on all the clothes options combined.  Kind of follows along with my bathing suit coverup being way more important than the actual bathing suit.  

5.  Harry had a phone interview with the Texas Rangers to work in their communications department next season.  It went great and now he will be driving up to Dallas after Thanksgiving for an in person interview.  I was going to say how much I would love having him close to home...but Dallas is seriously still like three hours away.  BUT, he would still be in Texas and within driving distance of his mother and getting to live the dream and work in major league baseball.  Would appreciate your prayers that all goes well in the next step of the process.

6.  Chip has been trying to eat healthy and he is killing it.  As his main chef and food provider I am constantly trying to come up with something new and delicious he can eat that will give him a little variety.  Mostly, he is good with the main meals...it is the snacks and something a little sweet he misses.  I have tried several recipes that I found online and they have been 100% garbage. I only pick the ones that have glowing reviews that say things like..."Tastes just like a Wendy's Frosty", "Better than a Regular Chocolate Chip Cookie"....LIES.  Absolute LIES!  I don't know when these people have last had a Frosty or a regular Chocolate Chip Cookie...but I am guessing it has been a hot minute. That all changed last night. My friend Karen gave me a recipe for an individual Keto Chocolate Lava Cake that Chip loved.  He said it was probably the best cake I have ever made. So either I am a pretty sucky baker, or this is really good.  Here is the recipe if you want to give it a whirl.

7.  I have bought one Christmas present.  

8. I got invited to the coolest event last week.  A group of ladies brought together to talk about being brave and figuring out what your individual skill or calling is in this life.  Where God wants to use your gifts.  We chatted on a beautiful back porch, painted with watercolors and three brave, beautiful souls shared their personal stories of wrestling with and trying to figure out their gifts and dreams.  It was powerful and has been on my mind a lot. 

9. We got to babysit our sweet Love Box kids a few weeks ago. It was the best!  Four kids, seven adults....they wore us out!  Playdoh for days.  We sure got lots of hugs and had a lot of laughs!! These kids bring joy in abundance! 

10. My dog is getting better but he is still the absolute worst dog in the world by a country mile.  Martha came over to drop something off to the rehearsal dinner dining room table one evening last week, so we suited Cooper up in his leash and collar for restraining purposes. In a failed attempt to pull him into the other room, his collar slipped over his head and he was free.  He was 84 pounds of spasmatic doing all he could do to jump up and lick Martha's back molars to see what she had for lunch. I had to ask her to run to the office like a gazelle to lead Cooper behind his gate. Then she slipped back out the gate and the excited beast was left confused as to how he ended up behind the gate.  Insanity.  Super relaxing to hang out over here.  Be sure an wear your tennis shoes if you pop by for a visit.  

Should be a great weekend ahead!  I hope I remember to take lots of pictures!