Ramblings

I haven't had much time to just randomly write lately, so I have a few things that have come to mind recently I wanted to write about.

Weddings
In the next two weeks, I will be attending two of the three weddings the Andes Family was invited to. The first is this weekend in Indianapolis for my friend Kelsi - who sadly I have not seen since my wedding! The second is on May 23 in Cancun. With all the excitement of the upcoming weddings, I've been thinking back to my own back on June 3, 2006.

It was awesome. That is no understatement. Troy and I had a ridiculously awesome wedding and reception. As the ceremony began, my bridal party and I were in this room off of the church. We all lined up, and the party left the room. Which left me standing in there, all alone. I heard the song they walked down the aisle to, and tears just started rolling - happy, nervous tears! I remember my dad coming in and seeing me like that and asked if I was okay, and I said yes, grabbed his arm, and we walked - er, ran - down the aisle. I really really despise being the center of attention and it freaks me out when large groups watch me. So I tried to get from point A to point B as fast as I could! I walked down the aisle to "You Raise Me Up" played on a piano and Troy and I stood there just looking at each other while they finished the song. I was ready to get married! We had a great ceremony, then it was over and we did pictures.

After our pictures at the church, we climbed into the limo with our bridal party, popped the bottle of champange, and drove downtown to get our pictures taken at the Arch. We have some amazing pictures from this - my favorite is the one where we are all in a line walking and you see the arch in the background. Another favorite is the picture that I have at the very end of our wedding album, Troy and I walking down this path lined with trees holding hands.

Our reception ROCKED. The open bar probably helped, but it was the most fun ever. I sometimes wish we could go back to the night and relive it. We had our cocktail hour upstairs and cut the cake and visited with friends. Troy tried to kill me for the first time while we were feeding each other cake! We then went downstairs into the room for the reception - oh, we had our reception at the Millenium Hotel, which overlooked the arch. Our actual dinner and reception were downstairs, but we had a clear view of the arch while we had our cocktails. The dinner was great, Troy and I walked to all the tables and spoke with nearly all of our guests....then the music started!!

I remember dancing with my dad to "Butterfly Kisses" and we just talked and laughed the whole time. Troy and I danced to "Inside Your Heaven," and I sang like all the lyrics while we danced. When everyone hit the dance floor, we just had an awesome time. At one point, they played "Country Roads" and our entire WV crew hit the dance floor. And it was just the WV crew. We stood there, kind of in a line, and all had our arms around one another and sand "Country Roads...take me home...to the place...I belong...WEST VIRGINIA...mountain momma...take me home...country roads..." I really wish I had a picture of that, but the photographer had left. It is one of my favorite memories. Another favorite memory is Troy and I dancing to "Mud on the Tires" by Brad Paisley. This song held special importance to me because after hearing these lyrics I decided to move to West Virginia to be with Troy. Corny, I know, but it's true:
Sometimes the best things in life are found far from any paved road, and the only way to get there is to get a little mud on the tires.

We had a great time!! I think we stayed until the very near end, a lot of our guests left before we did!

The Mommy I Want to Be
I told Troy this morning that I hope I am the type of mom that Lauren's friends will always talk to. I want to have a great relationship with her, and also with her friends. This hit me this morning as I dropped her off and had a fun conversation with a little boy at the daycare, who is the older brother to her daycare "boyfriend". Here is the conversation:
P: "Hey, do you remember when Lauren went to Will's party?"
Me: "Yeah, I do!"
P: Smiles and looks down.
Me: "You sat by her, didn't you? You guys ate cake together."
P: Smiles and scoots back on his toy.
So I squat down with Lauren, holding her and getting her warmed up like our normal days. Her "boyfriend" comes over and we are just standing there, and P comes back.
P: "My brother is starting to say a LOT of new words!"
Me: "Really? That is awesome."
I look at her friend and he smiles.
P: "Lauren doesn't say much."
Me: "No, Lauren is still learning how to say her words. And she is kind of tired in the mornings. She has to warm up to everyone. But she is saying a lot of words now, too."
P: "Yeah" and then rolls away.
It was just so cute that he came over to interact with me, and he knows that Lauren and his brother are good friends. He always says hi to me and Lauren will wave at him and his brother. After I left, I was sitting in my car just thinking that I want to continue to be that kind of mom - the one that talks with the kids and gives them attention, because I want my daughter and her friends to feel comfortable talking to me when they are older as well. Lauren will get jealous sometimes when the kids come over to give me a hug, and I make it better by asking if she wants to give them a hug, which she loves doing. I am so blessed to have her in a daycare I trust and where she is surrounded by her friends - I feel that if I can't be with her all day, every day, this place is truly the next best thing.

When I picked her up yesterday, she got this huge smile on her face and ran over to me. She was in the 2-year old room, sitting at the table reading a book. The teachers in that room both just told me how much they enjoy when Lauren is in there. One of the girls, who is currently in college, told me, "She is the prettiest little girl I've ever seen. I'm not just saying that, seriously, she is beautiful!" and the other teacher told me that she's said she hopes to have a girl that looks just like Lauren. But she's not only pretty, she's so sweet with everyone. They said she's getting assertive and will tell kids "no" when they try to take her toys, but she will snuggle up with the teachers and they all just love it. I am so proud of her for thriving in that environment. And for reading her book instead of watching the dinosaur movie. :-)

Cancun
Getting very excited about our trip!! I'm going to miss Lauren like crazy, and I know I'm going to cry on Sunday when we are separated. I've already started warning and threatening my mom to take great care of her. I know she'll be okay, but it makes me nervous being away from her for so long. But, Troy and I are looking forward to some downtime. We got an email from the excited couple yesterday and it looks like we'll have a couple of dinners with them while we're down there. I'm excited to start figuring out what I'm going to wear for the dinners...and just to lie on the beach in general. It seems more real now since we got that email, and also that Lauren and I will head out in 10 days! Crazy!