Small Group Love

Tonight was a bittersweet night for me.  It was my last small group :(  These ladies have meant so much to me the past two and a half years.  They have walked with me through some difficult times, encouraging to rely on God and to dig deeper into my relationship with Him.  They remind me to focus on the positive instead of being the Negative Nancy that I want to be by nature.

I really enjoy that each of us is in a different point in our lives.  We have mothers who bring the parenting perspective into my understanding of God's love for me.  There are married women with no children who describe how a husband's love is representative of Christ's love for the church.  We have single and dating women too.  They help show me that while having a boyfriend is their heart's desire, God is sufficient.

I will greatly miss these women who have been so instrumental in my life the past almost three years.  I look forward to skyping into small group every now and then.  I love you all and can't thank you enough for your involvement in my life.

 

Happy Birthday Jessica!

Happy birthday to my sassy and beautiful best friend Jessica!  I know you liked the number 24, but I have a feeling 25 will be a great year for you.  I love you so much bestie and look forward to all the memories we will get to make in the future.

I'm Marrying a Local Celebrity

I joke with Brett all the time that I feel like I'm marrying a local celebrity.  His dad was the high school football coach for quite a few years, and his mom is the local sweet southern woman.  Brett and his brothers grew up at the fields.  Everyone knows the Hickmans.  His family is so well liked in Ocean Isle/Shallotte. 

This weekend, we had two wedding parties in the beach area: one thrown by Gail's closest friends and another hosted by Brett's aunts and uncles at Lake Waccamaw.  It would be my family's first time meeting most of his family so I was a bit anxious, but after some affirmation from Brett, I knew they would get along just fine. 

We met Brett's family at Sharky's, which was probably less than a mile from our condo.  You know a place is good when it's a packed house.

Gail was sweet enough to find us an oceanfront condo to stay for the weekend.  Oba loves the ocean so it would be perfect to ease some of her anxiety of meeting new people.


Saturday was a slow morning.  We had to be at Brett's parents by 12:30 in order to get to the first wedding shower.  Gail's friends had reserved the members' clubhouse at River's Edge, an Arnold Palmer signature golf course.  It was absolutely beautiful.  The women threw us a tailgating shower, with everything from wings to lots of different dips.  The ladies had college memorabilia from UNC, State, Clemson, App State, Wake Forest, and IU.  To top it all off, Megan and Jessica were even able to make it.  I have the best bridesmaids.

Here's a photo collage from the afternoon.  I loved being able to meet all of Brett's wonderful family friends.

We left with tons of wonderful gifts, and lots of well wishes.  I went back to the condo to relax some before we headed to Lake Waccamaw.  Brett's aunt and uncles threw us a Key West party.  We had shrimp (YUM) and lots of dips.  Excellent food again.

(Before I go on, please look at how cute Maggie is in that picture at the table.  I love it!) I absolutely love his family.  I've never been around another family that was as close as mine.  I feel blessed to be marrying into a family like his.  Aunt Joann went around the group and started saying how many years all the couples had been married.  Most of the couples had been married for more than 30 years!  I have learned recently how important it is to have examples of solid marriages around us.  I am thankful that Brett and I grew up around such committed couples.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend.  I am so excited that our families got along.  The only bad part was I didn't get to spend much time with Brett.  I won't see him for another two weeks.  But at least that is the last two weeks we have to go without seeing each other.  27 days til the wedding!

Sun, Laughter, and Bachelorette Love

When the topic of my bachelorette weekend came up, I told Megan that all I wanted to do was relax, go to the beach, and eat good food.  I'm not the type of person who wants all the "typical" bachelorette things.  I wanted a weekend that I would be proud to tell people about, not one that I would be ashamed of sharing.  That is exactly what my bridesmaids gave me :)

Because my month is starting to fill up with appointments and I have to miss some of work, I decided to work until almost 5 p.m. on Friday, then leave straight for Oak Island. BIG MISTAKE!!  Oh my word. It took me almost 1.5 hours to get to Holly Springs, which should have taken 25 minutes. Many prayers were spoken for patience, as traffic tends to make me frustrated and angry, especially when I'm excited to get to my destination.  I got a really bad headache and rode with my sunglasses on the whole trip.  What should have taken me under 3 hours ended up taking 4.5 hours.

When I got to the condo that the girls rented at Oak Island, I walked in the door and the first thing I saw was a sign on a bedroom door that said "Bridal Chamber."  They had given me a whole suite (double bed and ensuite bathroom).  Megan, Laura, Jessica, and Michelle waited for me to get there before eating dinner.  It was the latest I have ever eaten dinner, but it was good. 

Even though I didn't feel well, I knew the girls had put a lot of work into throwing me a great bachelorette weekend.  I told myself to put aside any pain I was feeling and really show them how much I was enjoying myself.  It was hard to do (I tend to wear my emotions and physical conditions on my face), but I think it was good practice for when Brett and I get married too.  I'm learning that I have to be intentional about putting self aside for the betterment of the situation.

We had a delicious dinner then it was time for the lingerie shower.  I won't be putting pictures of those on here but needless to say, there were a lot of laughs. I got some really cute things.  After the lingerie shower, Laura asked me a whole bunch of questions that she had asked Brett.  I have to say, I got about half right, a quarter where I had narrowed it down to two answers (one of which was right) but picked the wrong one, and the rest I had no idea.  Brett has never talked about Fred, his first dog, ever. Oh well.  After the game, we just hung out and talked until about 2 a.m.

One of the many sweets we had.

Before opening the presents

Reaction to one of the gifts or something that was said.

We had a slow Saturday morning.  Paige, Jennifer, and Natasha got to the condo around 11 a.m.  We were at the beach from 11:30 until around 3:30.  It was the perfect beach weather. Probably around 75 or 80, no cloud in the sky, with a breeze to keep you cool. We just hung out and laughed a lot. We had to teach Natasha some "beach etiquette," like don't shake your towel with people down wind. 

We decided to go to Fishy Fishy Cafe for dinner.  I got the shrimp and grits which were good.  We took dinner to get a whole bunch of pictures.  I absolutely love these women.

Michelle had to leave after dinner.  The rest of us went back to the condo, had some cake, tried to get comfortable with our sunburns, and watched Bride Wars.  For the second night in a row, Megan, Jessica, Laura, and I stayed up until almost 2 a.m. talking. 

The next morning, we had to check out by 10.  Everyone left except Megan, Jess, and me.  We decided to go to the beach for another day.  Unfortunately, I made the mistake of only putting on sunscreen on select parts of my body.  I have finger marks on my skin where the sunscreen stopped.  The majority of the time, it was cloudy and windy.  However, for about 10 minutes, the sun was so hot that I could feel my skin burning.  Not good.  We had some great conversation though!

As soon as I got in the car, I realized how burnt I was.  I am probably still the color of the red dress I wore in the pictures above.  It was so worth it.  After dropping Jess off, I stopped by Mom and Dad's to surprise them for Mother's Day.  It was a great way to end my fabulous weekend.

Thank you Megan, Laura, Jessica, Michelle, Paige, Jennifer, and Natasha for throwing me a bachelorette party that I loved.  Thank you for giving me exactly what I wanted.  I love you seven dearly and am so thankful for all the time, effort, thought, and money you have put into my wedding so far!