Wedding #2: Olivia and Brian

The time between the two weddings just flew by! I spent a good deal of that time washing and carefully folding and hanging many, many white tablecloths. (I bought them so I could use them for both weddings.) After Julie and Big Sam's honeymoon trip, they stayed with us until Olivia and Brian's wedding. This past summer, when all my children were at home, were some of the very best times of my life!

Olivia's wedding took place at First Baptist Church in Corinth, Mississippi. We hosted the reception there too. It is a beautiful building, and my florist and The Wedding Planners (aka Lynn and Leanna) did an absolutely fabulous job of decorating!

 Joy, Brian's mother, helping him get ready

 the handsome groom

 the men having fun!

 sweet Tracy, styling Olivia's hair. 

Tracy used to babysit Olivia....now she is all grown up, married, and has four children of her own.

 I guess I am fluffing the dress?

 pinning on the veil.

 the beautiful (inside and out) bride

 precious!

 so pretty!

 Sisters!

 Olivia with her sister, Julie

 Olivia with her other sister, Leah

 the pretty bridesmaids.

I love the pink!

the handsome groomsmen

 our family before the wedding

 Olivia with Mims and Pops

 These sweet flowers girls are twins! They are Brian's nieces.

 Everything was so pretty.

 The Wedding Planners making one more final adjustment before the big moment!

 All married now!

 This is my parents' family--all their children and grandchildren.

 Mims and Pops with the bride and groom

 My grandmother, Momo, with Olivia and Brian

 Our whole family with Grandmomma, Jimmy's mother.

 Brian's entire family--his parents, his siblings (standing), and all his siblings' children (seated)

 Tom and Joy with Olivia and Brian

 the happy couple

the entire wedding party

 This is one of my favorite pictures.

 The food display turned out to be so pretty! I had the same caterer for both weddings, and she did an amazing job!

 Elle made Olivia's wedding cake too, and it was delicious!

 Tom, Brian's father, made cheesecake for the groom's table. His cheesecake is delicious too!

 Olivia requested to be showered with fresh rose petals as she and Brian made their getaway.

And they're off!

And I survived.....barely!

Wedding #1: Julie and Sam

I just realized today that I NEVER BLOGGED ABOUT THE WEDDINGS. 

It was such a busy and somewhat stressful summer, and then I took a trip to Seaside, and then I quickly got ready for another homeschool year, and then we took Clay to college 12 hours away in Florida, and then cross country season, and then and then a trip to Utah, and then on and on, and you know I have been such a terrible blogger.

So. Here is a recap of Wedding #1:  Julie and Sam (Remember, Wedding #2:  Olivia and Brian was 7 weeks later.)

Julie's wedding was held a a venue called Blue August in Baldwyn, Mississippi. We rented it for the weekend and had the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, wedding, and wedding reception all in the same room! The picture below is from the rehearsal dinner. We used the same arrangements plus more for the wedding reception tables. 

We set up 200 or so chairs for the wedding ceremony, and then we had to flip the space for the reception. How that was done (and the master minds behind it--Lynn and Leanna) is a story for another blog post! 

 rehearsal dinner

Honestly, the wedding day is a blur. Julie and Big Sam began their day (along with Jimmy, Big Sam's father and brother and a couple of other groomsmen) by running a 5K race!  I just tried not to think about it! 

My sweet sisters-in-law, Mary Margaret, Amanda, and Megan hosted a beautiful bridesmaids' breakfast in Mary Margaret's home. The groomsmen enjoyed their breakfast hosted by two of my dear friends, Karen and Sheila.

Following the race and the breakfasts, we all met at Blue August to begin dressing and preparing for pictures. 

 I was overcome for a moment.

 sweet Julie getting ready

 Olivia helping her with her veil

A side note. I can't remember if I shared this or not, but Julie, with lots of help from my mother, Mims, lovingly made her wedding dress and veil. She trimmed both the dress and veil with lace that she painstakingly removed from my wedding dress.

 Sweet Big Sam 

 Sweet Sisters!

Another side note:  Jimmy lovingly spent hours building the wooden arch! And Lynn and Leanna spent at least an hour (or more!) draping the fabric perfectly!

 Julie with her bridesmaids

 Sam with his groomsmen

 the entire wedding party

 Brian and Olivia, Julie and Big Sam

 the children

 precious!

 the bride and groom with Jimmy, me, and my parents, Mims and Pops

 Julie with my grandmother, Momo

 Sam's parents, Dan and Tami

 Paul, Dan, Tami, Julie, Big Sam, and Abe

 All the Peters--Paul and Alayna, Dan and Tami, Julie and Big Sam, Grace and Abe

 Sam with his brothers

 So Sweet!

the big moment! 

The wedding cakes were made by Julie's friend, Elle. They tasted absolutely delicious! I ate leftover wedding cake for breakfast for several day after the wedding. I may or may not have hidden the leftovers from the rest of my family!

 A happy bride and groom on their way to begin their new life together!

The saying on the napkins pretty much sums it all up!

Friday

We are taking a Spring Break beginning now!  I am leaving in just a few minutes to pick up Clay and his college roommate from the airport. We are all so excited for the week that lies ahead--even Jimmy is off work the whole week. I have several things planned for the week including our Family Bible Study tomorrow night (so I will need to clean house tomorrow!), Teen Bible Study next Friday, vet appointments for all five dogs (Clay and Bret will be taking them for me), Jimmy an eye doctor appointment, plus I also have a few deep cleaning/purging/organizing tasks for myself. Plus I am still sewing curtains for our tiny pop-up camper (which I began last March and stopped for many, many months because:  weddings.) I also want to visit our local fabric store to get some fabric samples for Julie's baby nursery! She, Leah, and hopefully Olivia, and I plan to sew some bedding and various decorative items for her nursery. So much fun! I want her to have the fabric and plans chosen before she arrives on July 11 so we can hit the ground running with baby preparations! She will have only 8 weeks until her due date when she gets home to Mississippi.

A running update: Ever since my last blog post I have been consistent in my running and attending CrossFit classes. It's true that a body in motion tends to stay in motion. Once I got into the groove of running 5-6 days a week and attending CrossFit twice a week, it has been easier to keep it up. When I finish my miles tomorrow morning (just 3 left), I will have completed the weekly running plan I made for myself for 4 weeks in a row. I am pleased. I have also managed to stay injury-free in CrossFit. That is mainly because of my wonderful coach, MC, who modifies most every workout to accommodate  my shoulder challenges. I appreciate her so much. And I love my classmates (5 ladies from my local church)! They make exercising fun--well, almost fun....at least they are encouraging and a fun distraction from the grueling workouts!

I hope you are enjoying your March. The month of March always seems like a good time to do spring cleaning, both inside and outside the house.

Let's Talk About Running Again

I have a love/hate relationship with running. Although I have run fairly consistently for 11 years now, it continues to be a struggle most days. Up until about three years ago I continually trained for six marathons and numerous half-marathons. I ran my last marathon in December of 2014, and I have not even considered running another one since! I have still run one or two half-marathons a year since that time, but I have almost lost my interest in that too.

I ran two half-marathons recently--one in December and one in January. The December one was ok. My training was poor. I ran only 1-3 days a week, but for the last four weeks prior to the race I did a  10-12 mile run weekly. On race day I finished with a respectable time, (however pretty slow for me), but I was sore for days. I vowed then that I would train better for my January half-marathon.

But I didn't.
It was Christmas holidays and all my people were here for almost two weeks and of course I did not want to run. My plan for the Mississippi Blues Half Marathon on January 27 was to run/walk and somehow finish before Jimmy finished the marathon. Note to self: running a half-marathon without proper training is not the smartest idea.
I walked/ran in about 1/2 mile intervals. It was cold, and it rained the entire time. I listened to podcasts and just took my time. I set a PR for my slowest half-marathon ever!

So here I am. I have not been motivated to run for so long now. I even stopped going to CrossFit for all of December and January. I began CrossFit again at the beginning of February, and I am slowly getting my groove back. I also printed out a training plan for the Coke 10K on May 5. I actually completed all my miles for week one (which ended today). Progress. 

For me, exercise is like most other tasks. Once I get started and in a routine, I am fine. It's just taking the first step, literally. I am ALWAYS glad once I am through exercising. I like how I feel when I run in the mornings or go to Crossfit (well, except for being sore sometimes after Crossfit---but I am so weak and am basically starting over and my Coach is modifying everything for me---so I am not really even that sore yet!) My clothes fit better when I run on a regular basis. 

So I am challenging myself, again, to follow a training plan for an upcoming race. This time I am going to do it. 

Do you need to challenge yourself? Do you have a fitness goal? Do you want to join me in making exercising five days a week a top priority? Walk, run, aerobics, CrossFit, yoga, pilates.....whatever form of exercise you are motivated to do. Please join me. Let's be successful together. 

Cooking Around the World: South Sudan

Way back on January 29, I cooked and served a South Sudanese meal. It was not as yummy as the Egyptian meal, but again, my family were good sports and ate what I had prepared. I downloaded an album from a South Sudanese musician, and we listened to it while cooking and eating.  (I can't remember the artist's name.....and I have already deleted the album from my Apple music.)

I cooked South Sudanese Tomato Salad, Sudanese Kirsa, and Peanut Stew With Beef and Spinach Combo. I used recipes I found on Global Table Adventure.

 the tomato salad

I really liked this, but I love tomatoes. Leah and Sam are not fans of tomatoes, so I am not sure if they even tried a bite.

 the beef, peanut, and spinach stew

This was interesting! Not my favorite (the peanut butter taste was a little strange to me.)

the kirsa

This flatbread was the best part of the meal!

I have not cooked from another country since this day. The first week of February we were in Florida for a week visiting Clay and attending some of the Florida College Lectures. We also went to Disneyworld for one day while we were down there!

This week I have been cooking normal American food because I had to make my grocery list during the 12 hour road trip home last Saturday, and I just did not have the energy nor brain cells to research and plan an international meal. I scheduled my grocery pick up from Walmart that very night when we arrived home.

I bought my groceries today for next week, and I have planned a Mexican meal. Yum! One of Clay's good friends in college has grandparents who live in Mexico. His mother cooks authentic Mexican food (he told me all about it), and he helped me plan my Mexican menu. I bought two products that are new to me.  I cannot wait to cook and eat this meal!

So Many Things to Share

I don't even know where to begin!

I have a whole blog post written in my head about the value of friendship.....I'll get to typing that later.

Our passports came in a couple of weeks ago! Jimmy, Clay, Leah, Sam, and I are going to Romania to visit Julie and Big Sam later this spring. I am so excited, and we are all counting down the days. I am a little nervous about flying over the ocean and traveling internationally, but I'm sure all will be fine! I just found out yesterday that the first flight of our trip (from Atlanta to somewhere in Canada) has been cancelled. The nice lady from Turkish Airlines (where we booked our flights) assured me that another flight was available that left about 30 minutes earlier. Of course I have to now call Air Canada to book the new flight, and when I called them yesterday I got a recording saying that due to the weather conditions their phones were swamped (basically that's what it said) and if it's not an emergency to please call back another day. So I put that on my list for tomorrow.

And now for the MOST EXCITING NEWS OF ALL!

I am going to be a grandmother!

This is an ultrasound picture of Baby Peters.

Julie and Big Sam are having a baby!! He/she is due September 6, and to say that we are all thrilled is an understatement!

They will be coming home to Mississippi in July for her to wait and deliver the baby here in Tupelo. My doctor has graciously agreed to take her as a patient. 

I am SO EXCITED!