7 Years!!

Seven years ago (on July 21st) Michael and I married at a small ceremony in Brinkley Arkansas. If you do the math you would see that it was a Thursday and that was to make it easier on my PawPaw who was going for dialysis three times a week. We were married in the gazebo my great uncle built in my Nanny and  PawPaw's side yard. This was much to the chagrin of my PawPaw and I was told he said something like this "we have always attended the Methodist church and Jill gets married in our yard by a judge!" Good thing I asked Nanny if the venue would work. ;-)

The day started out like any other...except for the fact that there was no water!!! I could have gotten upset but lucky for me I had bathed and washed my hair the night before. (the same could not be said for our out of town guests) I went uptown to have my hair pulled up for the day. I knew the forecast was predicting 90 temperatures and why wouldn't that be the case...it was after all July in the Mississippi Delta. After my hair was done I made my way over to Nanny and PawPaw's There we got Nanny ready, picked out PawPaw's shirt and I got my make up done by my cousin Amber and her best friend Anna. Not sure how I missed the news that day (but since I generally require Michael to keep me abreast of the weather) I did not realize there was a MAJOR storm rolling down I-40. This storm brought with it ping pong sized hail...in July!! It knocked out all the power in Brinkley and almost stranded my friends who were coming in for the day on the interstate. It knocked over tables, broke large branches of very old trees, sent chairs flying all over the yard, flooded half of the seating area, the surround sound speaker was found floating face down in a giant pool of water and this all just 2 1/2 hours before the ceremony.

By the grace of God I did not panic...I don't even remember get flustered. There was a crew in from Texas for my family's irrigation business that thanks to the rain had some time on their hands and I was also blessed to have my cousins! They all rallied around and put everything back and it looked even better than new. The rain had put a shine on all the greenery that had be put up and dropped the temperature down 20 degrees!! This was very nice considering Michael was wearing his military dress uniform...of 100% wool!!

Even with the power outage I still was not phased. Nanny and PawPaw had a generator to power their house so we were still cool calm and collected and all my family was there with plenty of room to spare. If all else failed we would just get married on the steps that my dad and his brothers and sister ran up an down growing up. Everything did work out and we were able to have a beautiful wedding with everyone important there with the one exception of Michael's PawPaw who was unable to make the trip due to poor health.

My only regret is that I didn't have anyone in my family taking pictures. Robert Jenkins and his son did an amazing job but I would have loved more snap shots! Here are two that someone did get and I love them!!

I say all of that to say this...
I am so very lucky to have God's chosen mate for me in my life!! 

To celebrate seven years of marriage we took a few days and went to Tulsa! I know exotic and romantic right!?! Well it was more than perfect. Michael's mom came up from Alabama and watched Emma while we spent the first night together away from Emma. We have both be away from our sweet little girl but we had never been away together. We did spend a lot of time talking about Emma but we also spent time just talking to each other about nothing in particular for hours upon hours!! We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel

 

On our first night we saw Bill Cosby

And at 75 he's still got it. :-) He didn't do this bit but it's my husband's favorite so I wanted to share this clip on Dentists. 10 years ago his act wouldn't have made me laugh quite so hard but at this time in my life I was rolling! :-D

On Friday we slept in and had breakfast in bed! I know I am using a lot of "!!" but I really am just that happy! We went to the Oklahoma Aquarium and anyone who knows my husband knows he LOVES everything that lives in the water.

We stayed almost three hours and could have longer but it was getting time for us to eat again and we had it on good authority that we needed to go downtown. Thanks to some friends we were able to find James E McNeelie's The take me back to Tulsa sandwich was de'lish and we both had a beer even though it was 108 outside!

That night we took in the Amazing Spiderman and it was just that. You really forget how much cooler movies are on the big screen than they are on the living room TV when you don't make it a point to go to the movies. ;-)

We bid farewell to our hotel and made one last stop to get my ring cleaned and make sure the diamond was still secure! Israel Diamond Supply has been amazing and if you are looking for a diamond of your very own you should make a trip to Tulsa!! 

We came home to a very very happy little girl and took time to get some pictures with Grandmother and three generation photos on Michael's side.

I can't figure out why these won't show up upright...they did on my computer but oh well. :-)

We played more and had a wonderful breakfast and more bonding time with Grandmother before she left for Alabama again. With Grandmother even the airport can be a fun time!

 

Maybe Emma will take after her Poppy and be a guitar player. 

And our newest development of the weekend is this...

Don't worry we are NOT trying to potty train Emma at 16 months but she does go into the bathroom every time we do and she loves handing mommy the toilet paper to wipe and then waving bye bye to whatever is in the bowl. Now she even wants to take her diaper off and sit on on the toilet herself so who are we do deter her! So far nothing has happened but when we have naked baby time on the deck she always says
"uh oh" right before she teetees or poopoos so that is nice because at least she is recognizing the sensations as they come about! :-) 

Be blessed!

Jill