Weddings and Lately

As you know I've been home for a while now (about a month and a half), and I've slept SO good, with no neighbors stomping around at all hours above me, no bass thumping obnoxiously below me, no lovers making whoopy in the room next to me, and no obsessive-compulsive, power-hungry, control-freak, high-maintenance roommate. And........

I GOT THE APARTMENT I WANTED!!! A couple weeks ago they called and said they have a one-bedroom available to me for the fall. I am SO excited to have my own place. My prayers worked :-)

My sister's and Brian's wedding was absolutely fantastic. The ceremony was beautiful and sweet, I didn't fall walking down the aisle, the pictures Jake took are absolutely amazing and better than many professional wedding photos, the reception was extremely fun with everyone (kids, teens, young adults, middle-aged adults, and seniors) ALL dancing, the DJ played great music, the food was DELISH, my mom's cake was beautiful, everyone liked my toast, and everyone just had a great time all around. The party finally ended around 11:30 pm, and we got back home around 12:30 am. It was hard to go back to work last Monday after such an incredible weekend.

I'm on a lunch break from work right now. I like my job a lot. It can be challenging at times, like with fighting children, sensitive children who cry about everything, and children who want to run away. But I like it nonetheless. Tomorrow we take them on a bowling field trip which will likely be MADNESS. And interesting...5 and 6 year olds trying to bowl. My dad's 50th birthday is on Friday! I have to work, but I think I'm taking him to lunch and we're throwing him a surprise party on Sunday. We're pretty sure he knows about it though...
The YMCA is practically the only office/organization/whatever open on Friday, because many places are recognizing that Friday for July 4th. Oh well.

I'll blog more later, but I have to get back to work soon. Have a happy week!

Been awhile...

I guess being home makes me less susceptible to much time on the internet. I have greatly enjoyed being home these past several weeks, am enjoying my job with the YMCA summer camp as the 1st grade head counselor, been busy preparing for my sister's wedding, watching my little brother graduate high school, and more (as a brief update). Last night was my sister's bachelorette party, and it was very fun, and, um...well, I won't get into details. Today we started decorating the reception area, and it was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. The first practice processional, I got super red because I walk down the aisle alone, and I got really embarrassed. Sigh. At the rehearsal dinner, my sister handed out her gifts to her bridesmaids and flower girl. All us bridesmaids got a very pretty silver necklace with the first letter of our names as the pendant. Since I'm the maid of honor, she gave me something extra. I opened the box to this extra something, and tears streamed down my face before I even realized how emotional I was getting. Seriously, I've never been that suddenly emotional. It was a silver picture frame with the word "Sisters" at the top, and at the bottom were our engraved names, "Shanda & Erika". The picture in the frame was one from when she was probably four years old, and I two years old. We're sitting on our yellow and orange plastic table at our old house, and my sister is hugging my face and has her face nuzzled against mine, and my face is all squished, but I look pleasantly surprised. As soon as I saw the picture, I didn't even feel the tears coming until they were streaming down my face. I think I surprised everyone at the table (including myself), and I got up and quickly went to the bathroom to sob. I was so stunned. After a couple minutes, my sister and mom came in (someone told them that her gift made me cry and that I had run to the bathroom in tears), and the three of us hugged in there, and cried a little, and giggled a little. It reminded me of that episode of Friends, the one at Monica and Chandler's wedding reception, and Phoebe, Rachel, and Monica lock themselves in the bathroom and soon are crying and hugging because of Rachel's pregnancy. Anyway, I seriously don't ever remember being that immediately emotional. Like I said, it was like the tears were streaming down my face before I knew I was about to cry. When I came out of the bathroom, several people were looking at me and smiling sweetly because they'd heard what happened. I was so embarrassed. Then everyone wanted me to show them the picture, so I kept getting choked up over and over. Christina, Brian's sister, wanted to see it, and got choked up too, just seeing the picture that made me so happy and sad at the same time.
I love my sister. I'm so happy she's happy. And I wish her and Brian the best in life.
<3