Wedding Bells Are Ringing

Tomorrow, my youngest sister-in-law, the one who used to sit in my lap and ride in the back of my little VW in her plaid skirts and knobby knees, is getting married.  Not only that, but she's marrying a man who has become one of our favorite people.  Coco Bunz, who was just a college acquaintance until just a few years ago, has moved right in and made himself at home in our little family.  (Which, truthfully, is not so little anymore.)  The in-laws love the siblings.  The siblings love the in-laws.  We've got a pretty good little situation brewing here.

My dress, which needed less altering than I had anticipated, but still enough that we had to turn an A-line non-maternity dress into an A-line maternity dress.  (If you can picture that, it's not exactly the right cut for a bulging belly, but it will work!).  The belly was actually not too tight.  The chest.  Whoa.  Seriously.  Whoa.  Thanks for the triple-letters, baby.  (Read: sarcasm.)  Shoes?  Five-and-a-half inch stilettos.  You read that right.  I've been practicing for a few hours on them now.  And when this little Walden grows up, I'll be able to tell him/her, "You know, when I was almost six months pregnant with you, I rocked some serious hooker-shoes."  Well, it'll be something like that.  Maybe minus the hooker part.

What I am most excited about is the boys' outfits.  I'll have to post pictures, but I could almost devour them in their cuteness.  Whoever said boys' clothes can't be as cute as girls' clothes hasn't seen these little boys in their Converse, suspenders, and neckties.  Adorable. 

Haircuts?  Check.
Spray tan?  Check.
Jewelry, hair, makeup?  Check, check, check. 

Tonight is the rehearsal dinner, tomorrow the wedding.  Sunday the brunch...and then it's over.  Sigh.  Pictures to be posted.

While the past couple of days has been pretty hectic, and the next several are sure to top those, it's rather nice to spend some time with the family.  On Tuesday and Wednesday, I found myself welling with tears at the thought of the kids.  I was scrolling my phone for pictures, and when my mom sent me a text that said something along the lines of Patrick telling her he really liked it when I came home, I had to blot my eyes in the bathroom and pull myself together.  Maternal guilt, I guess.  At the end of the day, I race home, but don't always make it in time before they are off to bed.  Spending just a few hours a week with the kids is brutal.  When there is no other place in the world that I would rather be than snuggled up with them, missing them is physically painful.  (I miss Adam, too, but I still see him everyday.  We also text throughout the day.  We're managing just fine. In fact, we're really good.  This crazy summer has actually been overwhelmingly healthy for us.) 

And so, for this joyous weekend, here are some words of wisdom, collected from the most reliable source out there: the internet. (Kidding, but I do find a lot of truth in it.  Life is what you make of it, and a marriage is the same.)  May God bless Alex and Ariane with the best that life has to offer...tomorrow and always.

Love is not about finding the right person, but creating a right relationship. It's not about how much love you have in the beginning but how much love you build till the end.