oops

Well I'm a little embarrassed that so much time has gone by without a word from me. Super oops! Lots has happened since May

We had our 2nd anniversary in June.

We found 2 abandoned kittens living under our porch and took them in.

   Cadence turned 10 and we celebrated with a family dinner at home on the actual day plus a bowling birthday party on the weekend which was attended by my family and a friend of Cadence's from school.

My mother turned 100 and my family came down from Alabama to celebrate with her...

but she tested positive for COVID that morning so we weren't allowed to do much more than poke our head in and see her sleeping. She had mild symptoms and is fine now but it was a big letdown for all of us and I don't even think she knew we were there.

We went to Chris's family reunion where he and his brother won the gold medal in lawn darts!

Our cat, Willow, had 3 kittens so that makes a total of 5 kittens at our house and they are all cute and sweet but we have to find homes for all of them.

James has been playing competition basketball through the YMCA this summer and loving every minute of it. Chris volunteered to coach and is like a big kid out there on the court. We spend Monday evenings and Saturday mornings at the Y for practice and games. The last game is next Saturday and Chris got his company to sponsor the medals for all the kids in the program and I know he can't wait to hand them out. Hopefully James will be able to play in the Fall program as well. Cadence would like to do soccer but the Y doesn't offer that program yet due to lack of a field.

And last but definitely not least, here's a wedding update.

We're still getting married, it's just 3 months now and we finally settled on a wedding plan. It's everything I didn't want - ceremony and party at our home. It means more work for me, I won't get to just show up and be pretty, but it'll be cheap. 

We have an area with big trees right outside of our front gate. It never occurred to me to have a ceremony there until Chris mowed the whole area one day and then it looked pretty, in an overgrown completely untamed rough kind of way. Chris says he's going to build an arbor that we can take with us wherever we move (this is a rental property we're in right now) and I'm going to find the perfect boho macrame wall hanging to put there along with some lanterns and pumpkins and it'll be great...I have to keep telling myself or I'll cry. 

For the "reception" we're throwing a Halloween party so we're encouraging people to come in costume. I have no clue what we'll serve, we can't afford a caterer and I refuse to spend the week before my wedding cooking or the day of my wedding arranging everything so we'll probably order deli platters from Publix and maybe even do assorted pizzas to be delivered right before the ceremony. 

The one thing I've wanted to do from the beginning is a trick or treat candy buffet. I'm going to order some personalized bags for everyone and display candy in Halloween containers and let everyone "trick or treat" their way through the buffet.

We have some decor already but we'll have to get more Halloweeny stuff as soon as they put it out in stores. We have 2 fog machines that I want to use for both the ceremony site and the party area to create that magical spooky feeling. 

I still LOVE my dress. I took it to the alterations lady a few weeks ago because it's a tad too long and I don't want to trip over it. Everywhere else it fits perfectly and I'm thankful for that. I love my shoes with the blingy skulls and I adore my hat (pictured above) which was purchased on the last vacation Taz and I ever took, going back to Carmel. It was a perfect vacation and he insisted I buy both of the hats in the picture so I'm wearing one of them so I will have a little piece of Taz (and Carmel) at my wedding. 

I've asked my little sister to be my maid of honor and we picked out a dress for her when she was down in June. I asked my brother in law (my deceased older sister's husband who has been in my family longer than I have) to walk me down the aisle and I want my kids to blow bubbles and walk Charlie down the aisle.

Speaking of my brother in law - he beat me down the aisle and got married in June!

My older sister died 4 years ago in August and in the midst of his grieving he was there for me every step of the way just 3 months later when Taz died. We've been doing this widowed thing together this whole time and nobody was happier for me than him when I met Chris and nobody has been happier for him than me when he reconnected with his new wife after 50 years and they jumped right into the whole marriage thing. I was kind of "jealous" when they got married because they had just done it and were married and we've been together for 2 years and engaged for a year and still have months to go.

So there, you're all caught up with my summer. I am making a vow here and now that I'm going to document the hell out of the next 3 months while we finalize all the wedding plans so expect to hear from me at least once a week. I'm going to take pictures and videos of everything from here on out.

This weekend we'll be sending out the formal invitations (which just came in the mail today) and going to Publix to order the cake and get information about deli platters. 

Thanks for joining me on this journey!