My baby girl gets married 11-13-21

Well, the girl is MARRIED!  After 10 months of planning the day was finally here.  I had prayed and prayed for no rain.  Erin really wanted to get married outside.  Well, it didn't rain...... however, it was 50 degrees! BUT it was the most wonderful day and the wedding was BEAUTIFUL.  I asked her if it was all she dreamed and she gave me the biggest smile and hug.  Let me just tell you that warms a mother's heart!! All we want is for our kids to be happy.  💓 

We started the day at my house.  She spent her last night single with her mom at my house. 💓  My daughter in law which was also the matron of honor spent the night also.  I made everyone coffee and we were off to the venue.  The hair and makeup girls would be arriving by 8am ready to start on all 8 of us...  6 brides maids, 1 bride and 1 mother of bride.  The girls had the best time relaxing in the bridal suite.  It was a carefree morning.  No fussing.. .no stressing...  I had prayed with the girls before we got out of the vehicle at the venue and told them only happy thoughts rest of the day. 😍  Erin had been so stressed the last couple of weeks that I was afraid she was going to break.  She had a good cry the day before and I told her most brides feel the stress.  It's STRESSFUL planning a wedding.  She had picked out everything down to the smallest detail.  Did I say she's a perfectionist???  SHE IS! 💗 The girls were awesome just chilling and talking about happy memories.  It really relaxed Erin and I was so thankful!  Erin's aunt Debby, Aunt Francis and Allison brought food for the bridal suite and grooms room.  So they had nothing to worry about.  The hair and makeup girls were amazing!  They also did a good job relaxing everyone.  Katie and Kellie (their twins) and AMAZING! 

Soon it was time for pre wedding photos.  Boy it was cold outside, but NO rain.  Everyone was beautiful!  Even the little kids did amazing and didn't complain about the cold weather.  

Soon it was time to lock the bride up till her time to walk down the isle so I went to the bridal suite with her.  It was a bittersweet last minute with her before I had to go walk down the isle and be seated.   It was a beautiful ceremony!

There is so many details I could share about the wedding / reception.  I'll have to come back and do that when I have some time. 

Here are a few quick notes:

1. Groom and groomsmen were early to venue 👍

2. I stood up for bride and no one stood... for several seconds that seemed like an hour.. 😅  Erin didn't walk in to the wedding march so I don't think people were ready for her.  She walked in to Ed Sheeran's Perfect Duet. 💓

3.  Kids LOVE TO dance

4.  I did the chicken dance with the kids 😂

5.  The photobooth was awesome

6.  The wedding cake was not only beautiful but amazingly good!

7.  The flowers that Jill did was outstanding and exactly what Erin wanted! 

8.  The bride and groom had a blast!

9.  The wedding party had a blast!

10.  All mom & dad's money paid off. 💓💓

11.  ERIN WAS STUNNING IN HER DRESS!!! 

12.  The wedding painter did an amazing job on the painting!

13.  ALL my siblings and both parents were there!!

Now here are a few quick pictures.  

 

St. Jude Memphis Marathon 12-4-21 (Marathon #22)

My 9th year as a hero in MEMPHIS! I can't believe it.  Thanks to the Good Lord! He's strength not mine!  Isaiah 40:28-31   Also, me, mom, Erin & my daughter-in-law, Whitney had a fabulous time at the  Peabody!  We all visited the SPA this year which was a fabulous treat.  We may have to save up and do this each year!  💓

Also spent some time with some super friends on my run team!  Frank, Jennifer, Krista and Lyndie over the weekend!  Lyndie completed her first half marathon!  So proud of her!!

I LOVE that my mom, my daughter and daughter in law walked the 5K together. 💓💓

Short race recap:

Me and my PPRF GIRLS snuck in earlier than our start time .

It was mass chaos at the start line with the way they were trying to have a small start area and only allowing people in at different times. Corrals would had worked so much better … just our opinion

Thankful we were able to sneak in and not wait till 9am to start. We all ran together for a few minutes until the crowd started thinning out. I had my earbuds in and felt really good so I just started running my pace. Soon I realized we had all separated. But that was ok. It happens sometimes in a race when we are all different paces. Sometimes we will hang together though. Just depends on race and how we feeling. Yesterday I kept hearing Lisa Johnson saying don’t limit yourself in my head. So I ran my pace.

Before long I needed something besides my music. I stopped and started my peloton app. Which I I needed those voices giving me running tips in my ear!!

1 60 min class with Matt

1 60 min class with Becs

1 60 min class with Robyn

1 20 min class with Robyn, which was her 911 remembrance run and was perfect timing for the street that was lined with St Jude patients pictures. I shed several tears down that street.

Didn't even notice the cute guy running beside me! And then I was done. I was so thankful for my coach and peloton coaches in my ear as I ran alone the entire marathon without my friends. I did talk to several other runners along the course, but it’s hard when you run without those training friends for 4 + hours. I did miss them, but we got 3 more marathons coming up together that I know we’ll run together. For me St Jude is where I got my PR several years ago. It’s my heart race. Hope to get another PR here one day, but yesterday was not it. When that sun came out it got hot. So I missed beating my PR by a couple minutes. However, I give God all the glory for allowing me to run yesterday for the kids. It was his strength that got me to that finish line. . Isaiah 40 28-31

My PPRF girls!

My team raised over $16,000 for 2021. In years 2013-2021, we've raised over $225,000! I'm so thankful for all my team members! They show up each and every year to help the kids! Looking forward to year 2022! My 10th year as a hero! 💗💗💗

Virtual Boston Marathon 11-6-21

 

For the first time in history the Boston Marathon opened up the race to virtual Participants. In my PPRF running group we had one that had qualified for Boston so Penny and I decided to sign up for the virtual. We were going to run it virtually at home supporting her while she ran it in person. Well, thanks to the dang pandemic, the organization decided to cut down on the number of in person participants so the shortened the qualifying time which cut her out. We felt horrible for her. However, the race then got postponed to the same weekend as the Chicago marathon! All 3 of us were registered for Chicago so we got to all be together. 💓

However, once back home, Penny and I knew we still had another 26.2 miles to run for the virtual because they were mailing us a medal. We don't take those unless we earn them. 😁 So we sat a date in November to run the virtual. We did it on 11-6-21 on the Trace in Hattiesburg. Several of the PPRF girls came out and ran miles with us. It was a great day!

Penny and I were a tad sad that day that we didn’t have our virtual medals yet. We had hoped we would have them for the run to take a picture afterwards.

Well when I got home a box was sitting on my carport. When I saw the unicorn I was like oh my gosh!!! I rushed to open it. And there was my medal. Perfect timing since we did the 26.2 that morning. I couldn't believe it. It was such a sweet surprise! I love the medal. Some call us crazy running a virtual. We think of it as a really long training run. 😀 The swag is just icing on the cake. 💗

I was very blessed to have the PPRF girls to run with me!

Happy Running!

D