My brother’s wedding was the main event last week, but it wasn’t the only thing I did while I was in Texas. Stephen and I were Stateside for 5 days, and we tried to squeeze in as much as we could, especially knowing that we have no plans to return any time soon. While I was home…
I rehearsed.
The wedding location the day before. Some of the guests ended up dancing in the fountains towards the end of the wedding! Now that is a party!
I’m way too type-A to be all, “I’ll just stand here, no big deal, whatever whatever.” I asked the wedding coordinator more questions than anyone else even though my part was the tiniest. I had a lot of anxiety about using the microphone. Go figure, the day of the wedding I had to hunt down the coordinator (in my heels, in the heat, traipsing through grass and gravel) because the mic was nowhere in sight.
I cried my eyes out at the rehearsal dinner.
My brother (with the flower girl) thanking everyone for attending.
My mom planned this part of the wedding, and it went off without a hitch. (Give people good food, and they’ll go home happy.) But the highlight was surely the speech-a-thon. So many people stood up to speak (I think 10ish- that’s a lot!). Quotes from Ludacris, to Shakespeare, to Oprah were included in the toasts. There were mentiones of backiotomies, Joss Whedon, broken down cars, picking up girls in bars, and lifelong friendships. I laughed a lot, but I cried even more. Seriously, if you are a skeptic when it comes to love, go to a rehearsal dinner – that’s where all the love it.
We celebrated Mimi’s 89th birthday!
Stephen’s grandma’s birthday just so happened to be the same day as the wedding. We had just enough time to swing by Mimi’s house to drop off some flowers and visit with fellow birthday-celebrants.
I chopped my hair off!
I’ve been jonesing to give it a good whack for a while. This was the first appointment I could get while we were in town, and I snatched it up.
I ran with my best friend!
When Stephen and I went to visit Mark and Mary Beth, MB had planned to run 2 miles that day. I went with her to the YMCA, and we ran on neighboring treadmills. I loved running with her! (Much more fun than solo running!) And she hit it out of the park with a new PDR! (While we ran, the boys stayed home and played with baby Whitley.)
We sold our car!
Post-deployment, Stephen bought a Volvo in Germany. (We live off post, so he needed a way to get around.) The plan was always to ship our little red Corolla to Germany. (The Army pays for it!) But, after careful consideration and lots of talking, we decided to sell it. I’m not working, and we don’t really need two cars. The amount Carmax offered us covered our payoff and gave us some extra to put in the bank. Best part: no more car payment. (You can read about my experience selling our 4Runner last summer here. It was just as good this time around!)
During our time home, we also got a box of our favorite donuts, I swung by my old school to visit the teachers still working there, we walked around Cabela’s (but didn’t buy anything), Stephen had lunch with his grandpa, and we feel like we squeezed in a lot of goodness to a short amount of time. 5 days well spent!*
I’m glad you two were able to squeeze in lots of fun things while back in the states. I love your hair! It looks great.
Congrats on selling your car and having no car payments. That is such a good feeling. We’re getting ready to ship Craig’s car to Hawaii….and then we’re paying to ship mine (ugh, $2300!!) but, it’s cheaper than buying a new car. Blah.
Good luck with shipping your cars. I know there is such a ridiculous amount of paperwork involved! I think that was part of the reason we just sold ours – I was super intimidated by the shipping process.*
It’s definitely easier to ship my car through a civilian carrier than it is to do the military provided way. That requires five copies of Craig’s orders, blah, blah, blah. Fortunately both of our cars are paid for and we have the titles, so it’s MUCH easier than having the bank release the title. I can see why you chose to sell your cars. Sometimes I think the military likes to see just how far we can bend before we break and go monkey ape crazy during the PCS process.
bwahaha love that photo of Stephen with the car.
Is your hair tough to put up now or is it still long enough to be out of your face when running? Or are you moving SO FAST that hair gets whipped out of your face anyway??
Stephen is very sentimental and hated saying good by to Ol’ Red, even though he hasn’t spent much time with it recently!
My hair is just long enough to pull back. On today’s run, I put my hat on. That was prefect because it kept the bangs and short pieces out of my face, and I still could pull it into a pony tail.*
Very clever. My head is not correctly shaped for hair bands or pre-wrap that’s popular right now so I just used a ton of hairspray when my hair was shorter. Hat = much smarter.
I love your hair! Super cute
Hey where did your brother get married? I’m still hunting for a good spot in the Dallas-ish area for the ceremony and the reception.
Thanks! He got married at Marie Gabrielle’s in uptown Dallas. It’s a great blend of city space and garden. Plus there’s tons of indoor space. Good luck with the venue hunt!*
I will have to check it out…thanks for the info!
Wow you guys sure did a lot in such a short timeframe!
We will most likely be purchasing a new car in 2014, so right now we’re saving up for it! I know we won’t be able to save the whole amount–cars are expensive! and i’m working to pay off my student loans too! but if we can sve up a good chunk that will help make the payments lower…
I don’t have anything clever to say…
just hello 
Love you,
MB
Glad you said hi! It made me smile!!!*
Daaang! Y’all really did pack in a lot in those 5 days! Consider us impressed! You’re hair is so cute short like that! We hope to have an awesome rehearsal dinner just like that in 26 days! =)
That sounds like the perfect trip home! I was so happy to hear that you were able to make it back to your bro’s wedding. I can only imagine how happy he was that you both were able to make it — as you just never know with the army.
I’m glad the wedding was so wonderful! I hope that you were able to everything that you wanted. Like always, safe travels.
Whenever I go home, I eat all of my favorite food that isn’t available here. Sometimes I think I just go visit my parents so I can eat all the things. Glad you had fun and managed to fit everything in!