Hanna and a beautiful wedding

Hanna - a meandering rain on the west, wind on the east event that threatened cancellation of several celebratory events for people who planned weddings on the first weekend in August. I cannot at this time post pictures regarding this post - I have over 1200 just from Saturday to hunt through. I know they are not all good.

I had my regular 6 month mental episode on Thursday at work. Largely due to the general feeling that I am going crazy lately. I knew this month was going to be hard in my personal life but the past 6 months at work have been so trying and I am only able to hold it together for so long. I even owe Cynthia Hippo hugs - why in the world do I blow up at those closest to me and not the idiots that cause the problems? I am still in need of a manicure but at least my outburst got some other things in motion. I honestly think it is about every 6 months that I do that (except when I was pregnant and the filter was completely absent).

So, I can count the number of drinks I have had since Beca was born on my two hands - all wine. Except Thursday night. I called on my way home and asked what liquor we had. Turned out to be Rum. Fine - we had Coke too. And it mostly worked. Except I forgot to take my night meds and did not sleep all that well. I was nervous about Friday and the weather and everything with the wedding. Friday morning, I finally got to see Beca before the clock clicks to PM on a weekday. After that, I managed to pack Beca and Zoe's things, introduce Zoe to my friend at Biscuitville and get Zoe a dog bone biscuit at Biscuitville (I miss that place when I'm gone), pick up some new orthotics, drop Zoe off at Mom's with all Beca's stuff and set out all Zoe's appropriate sheets and such (all while she huffed and sighed and glanced pathetically at me from the mat by the back door - "lift eyes, sigh, lower eyes, sigh, huff, lift eyes, sigh, huff, lower eyes"), get my glasses adjusted, buy some camera stuff, go to the grocery store, drop off stuff at church, empty my car (a LOT of Biscuitville bags), vacuum my car, pack my stuff, clean my camera, and finally Steve and I strapped the gazebo to the deck. We have yet to determine the final resting position for our gazebo structure on the deck and it was easier to use bungee cords to lash it to the deck and some chairs. And just as we left the Raleigh area (1:10 pm with picking up lunch), the MOB calls and I told her we would try to be in North Myrtle by 4pm. And it had started raining. Various rain bands caught us all the way down 40 (there sure were a lot of people going the opposite direction from us!) and then as soon as we got around Wilmington, we had no rain all the way down 17! It was great! And we got there right at 4pm! I will not divulge my speed but I swear the 17 bypass takes sooooo much time off that trip. I'm sticking with that. The rehearsal was inside with a rain band driving steady rain outside and was only interupted briefly by a visit from a police officer. Apparently the house they were renting sits right next to people who have nothing else to do but complain that cars are in a driveway next to theirs. The NMBPD is on their speed-dial so the officer was more aggravated that they called up during a storm (like the cops don't have anything better to do and are you really planning on venturing out during this weather?) and that they always threaten to sue because they are convinced they are going to pull out into a car coming down the road. It was an amusing addition to the fact that there was a tropical storm already putting a damper on the wedding festivities. The rehearsal finished, everyone knew what they were going to do (well, sort of - I directed the last wedding with the bride's family so I knew a few things that would change from what the Pastor was mandating would happen while he was standing up in front of everyone but it all worked out), and we all went to dinner. It was a neat place - been there a long time and has a lake out back. The kids quickly spotted the alligators! What fun! The dinner was great and the DVD of the bride and groom's lives was wonderful! So are their friends, who we sat with. Everyone was so nice and willing to flex with the craziness of the weekend.

I got our hotel room with my points that I earned last year staying at LaQuinta for weeks. Pretty much glad it didn't cost anything. Next time, I'll spend some money. The only good part is that the King Jacuzi suite was the same number of points as a regular room. Unfortunately, the bathroom floor had been raised up when they put laminate over whatever was there so the bathroom door didn't quite clear my pinky toe and pulled the nail up. And the light on the desk was coming apart - you could pull the part of the light that holds the light bulb completely out of the base piece that it is supposed to sit in. And the wireless was non-existent.

Saturday morning, we slowly awoke and went for the all necessary Starbucks for Steve and sweet tea for me. It was a relatively quiet breakfast for us. I didn't once have to remind anyone to sit down or eat your food or anything. By the time we arrived at the house, the folks running errands had already gone and the rest of the group was slowly waking up. So Steve and I went and checked out the wedding location and then went shopping - it's bad news for me that the Disney outlet moved onto 17 - it was much more difficult to justify a trip there when it was at the Myrtle Beach Factory Outlets past the Waccamaw area. Oh well. We mostly bought stuff for Beca.

Beca's comments on the phone while we were gone "Are you in Muh-rtle Beach? Is it wet? If it's wet, you need to make sure you put your shoes on!". Then when I told mom that my neck had broken out again (ongoing "travelers disease" - happens any time I sleep anywhere that is not my own bed and is aggravated by hair products, sun screen and who knows what else - the QE has found not good pattern and cannot devise an appropriate design of experiment to really figure this one out) and Beca asked me "Mommy why you break you neck?" She's so funny.

By the time we were done shopping and eating lunch, the wind had pretty much died down and it was back to being a typical sticky summer day at the beach. We took short naps (mine shorter than Steve's), got ready and got to the house. I stayed to help the girls dress and Seve kindly became Petie's gopher. They got everything over to the wedding site. I had the girls go to a house near the wedding site to take some pictures - those turned out well and it gave the bridemaids and brides a chance to sit down for a bit before the wedding. The flowers were gorgeous - orange stock for the girls and various oranges and whites for the bride. The bridesmaids had on turquoise dresses so the colors just looked amazing together. From then, everything went off pretty well. The storm had washed ashore lots of creatures - big shells, starfish, urchins, spiny things, slimy things, shelly things, smelly things, and the kids had a blast catching them all. I fussed over the position of the sun and the groom got tired of me taking pictures. The bride was darling through the whole thing. She was just happy everyone was there and that they could be on the beach. Instead of a unity candle, the MOB and MOG presented their children each with a vial of sand - bride had pink, groom had blue. The bride and groom poured it together into a large glass vase. It was very elegant.

The day after a storm at the beach is always amazing. The sky is bluer, the sand is cleaner and the clouds shimmer. Everything was amazing for this special couple. God knew how to bring this together. And it was good. Great, even.