The Face I Love

A few weeks back, Ty's mom gave me a stack of photos of him throughout the years. I loved going through all of them and seeing what my soon-to-be husband looked like as a baby, a three year old, and during those awkward preteen years. Let me just throw my 100 percent biased opinion out there -- he was stinkin' precious! I hope our children will look like this!

How could I not be in love with this face?

My Best Friend's Wedding

In the midst of our final weeks before the wedding, my best friend, LJ, was inspired (finally) to do something with her wedding pictures. I can hardly believe that was almost a year ago. It feels like two months at the max. So, she posted some pictures on Facebook, in which her photographer captured some truly priceless moments between she and I. Mostly involving the bouquet toss.

It started something like this. All smiles, but considering my linebacker stance, I was preparing to wrestle Lesley to the ground. It's only fair considering her height advantage.

The bouquet is released and it was as if the fates had chosen me. It looks like Lesley is getting ready to give me the fight of her life, but LJ has perfect aim ... and she was probably tired of hearing me talk about when Ty and I might get engaged! That's a best friend for you. She's not only tossing the bouquet, but she's sending a gentle nudge in Ty's direction. 

This next photo is quintessential of mine and LJ's friendship. Nevermind that my eyeballs are about to bulge from their sockets in excitement, what is LJ doing? I my mind, I think she did a helicopter spin.

And then the catch. I feel a little embarrassed to see the looks on the other bridesmaid's faces. They're thinking I've lost my mind, and I'm secretly thinking I've had too many glasses of chardonnay.

Looking back, this was such a fun time. We reminisce about it often. This picture brought back memories of last winter also:

The further into winter we get, the less Ty realizes his beard is starting to look like the Unabomber's. In his words (Ty's not the Unabomber's): "Man, that's a big beard." My response: "I tried to tell you."

And then we did this:

My goodness, weddings are fun!

My Groom is Being Held Hostage

Last night, some of Ty's guy friends rolled into town early for Ty's bachelor weekend, so we thought it was the perfect evening to grab dinner and drinks at Noble Savage. I love the food at Noble Savage. It's unexpectedly gourmet and in complete contrast to the restaurant/bar's atmosphere, and the specials are always delicious.

None of the out of town guys arrived in time to eat, but for the rest of us, the food was spectacular. Is it strange that the soup course is always my favorite? God bless a good soup. For my main course, I ordered the lamb chops and the guys ordered elk, and I began to figure that this entire meal was nothing more than a ploy to butter me up before dropping a bachelor party bomb on me.

"You can't talk to Ty all weekend," Groomsman A said.

I listened as these two single guys explain their reasoning, and then I called malarkey on the whole idea. I'm not a needy phone person. It's not like Ty and I are on the phone with one another all day long, but it's nice to touch base with the man you're going to marry in three weeks. Am I wrong?
I'm sure the husbands on the trip will touch base with wives and children. And I'm sure the single guys will touch base with women throughout the weekend.

But for Ty, this is not just his bachelor party. It is also a hostage situation.

The Three Things I Swore I Would Never Do

Ty is heading out of town this weekend for his bachelor party. I'm not worried in the least because I happen to be marrying the most trustworthy man on the face of the plant.

But just in case, I coached him that if any of his friends tried to peer pressure him into something he didn't want to do, he should remind them that they're all married and most of them are dads. And if that wasn't incentive enough, I reminded him that body glitter is easily transferable and difficult to get off your skin and clothing.

Really, I trust all the guys with my future husband. I imagine it will be a weekend of numerous canned beers, several country music concerts and a nice float down the Guadalupe River.

All of this reminds me that I never posted about my bachelorette party several weeks ago. We took an overnight trip to Dallas where we did tons of shopping, eating, drinking, etc. Going into the bachelorette party, my hostess asked me if there was anything I didn't want to do. I had a short but very restrictive list: No penis paraphernalia, no veil/headwear, no shots.

And here's how that worked out for me:

I'm calling my bridesmaids and best friends a lot of very bad names right now. However, in some regard I guess they were gracious because I wasn't crying on the bathroom floor at the end of the night.

It's a tall price to pay for new panties.

Wedding Readiness Exercises

A few weeks ago, Ty and I met with our friend and ceremony musician Callie to go over the music for our wedding. Callie is amazing and agreed to put together a string quartet for our big day. I didn't want anything too complicated -- traditional wedding songs, no special music, beautiful and classic and elegant.

It was an appointment like all the others, we talked out the details and then Callie started playing. Immediately, a lump the size of an apple core was in the back of my throat. Sitting in the middle of the First Methodist Bossier youth room, my face got red and my eyes watery.

I didn't get emotional when I met with the baker. Or the florist. Or the photographer. But I managed to underestimate Callie's ability with a violin. Something would have to be done if I didn't want to be a blubbering mess before I even reached Ty. Even happy tears can be ugly, and I've never admitted this before, but I seem to have really big tears. Make me cry sometime and I'll show you. It is the definition of crocodile tears.

In an effort to calm my nerves, I've downloaded all the ceremony music so that I can listen to it religiously for the next few weeks to desensitize myself.

If it doesn't work, please give me a hug, lie to me and tell me you didn't notice.

Cupcake Stephanie

She's sweeter than me. She's smaller than me. She's always got a smile on her face. Her eyebrows are perfect. Heck, part of me is afraid to leave Ty alone in the house with this little lady!

Let me introduce you all to Cupcake Stephanie. The ladies at my office hosted a bridal shower for me yesterday evening. We had cupcakes for dessert, and the topper on the cupcake stand was a small, cupcake version of me.

This isn't exactly how I'm planning to wear my hair on the wedding day, but it does remind me of my hair for the first 18 years of my life. OK, busted. The first 22 years of my life. And the dress is eerily similar to my actual dress, although mine is not made from frosting and isn't dome shaped.

They told me I had to eat her at the shower, but I felt all wrong about it. Isn't that sort of like a hamster eating its own baby?

Instead, I think I'll save her in the freezer forever and pass her down to my children one day. That seems reasonable, right? After all, I think my grandmother still has a piece of cake in her freezer from my sixth birthday. My desire to freeze Cupcake Stephanie is purely a genetic trait.

I just don't know what to do with myself. Or my cupcake self.

In One Month, I'll Be Here

When I get overly stressed out about minor wedding details like toasting flutes, wedding favors, my hair piece and place cards, I go here. I let the soothing sound of running water wash over me, I take a few breaths and remind myself that I'll soon be spending a week here with my husband ... and no one cares what my toasting flutes look like anyway.

This is where Ty and I will be honeymooning for a week. There are about 40 rooms at Zoetry, so the resort is private and personal and gorgeous!

With wedding stuff and a busy work schedule, I can't wait for a full week on the gorgeous west coast beaches of Mexico, delicious beverages, gourmet food and some one-on-one time with Ty.

Can we go now?

It's the Final Countdown

Exactly one month and one hour from now, I'll be getting ready to walk down the aisle. I'm ready for all of it. The wedding. The marriage. The husband.

It's amazing how in the stress of the last few months, Ty and I have grown even closer. You think you love somebody with all of your heart, and then you feel yourself loving them even more than you imagined was possible.

All I can say is, I'm ready to move into the next chapter of our lives. A new name, a new world of possibilities and a companion to share it all with.

In conjunction with this post, I thought it was fitting to share some picture from our engagement session.  You can take a look here: http://blog.followellfotography.com/2010/08/03/stephanie-ty/

I hope to see many of you exactly one month from now. Let's all pray that it will be a little cooler ... and not raining!

The Amazing Aqua Diving Dog

In the past two weeks, I've been to Dallas, Chicago and finally back home again. Ty and I always stay pretty busy, but these past few weeks have been out of  control, so our plan for this weekend was complete relaxation. We didn't have any showers. We didn't go out to eat. We didn't see many friends. We didn't really do much of anything besides hang out together around the house.

And a weekend like this usually equates to some quality time in the pool.

And that usually equates to our overly eager, water-loving lab thinking she's invited to lounge in the pool with us.

Lacy can't help it. She was bred to love the water. But I think she's started going a little overboard. She's good at fetching tennis balls and other things that float on the surface of the water, but going after things that sink?

May I say, I apologize in advance for you having to turn your head 90 degrees to watch this video. I don't have a video editor to correct the problem, but I promise it's worth it!

Lacy has learned to dive ... and with such grace! I love it when her legs stick perfectly straight up in the air, like she's doing handstands! Looks like there's another naturally-gifted swimmer in our family.