Our Story: It's Not Even a Real Phone.

Tomorrow marks ten years since Manly asked me to marry him and spend the rest of our life together. Honestly, it seems like forever ago. We've lived a LOT of life together since then, Manly and me. I thought it would be fun between now and our anniversary(October 17) to do some posts on our relationship then and now.
I thought today I'd share the story of how we met.

Ask most girls and your likely to hear the same thing. At one time or another we have all(well most of us anyway) had our hearts broken. I am, like most of you, one of those girls. I had been in a serious relationship with "the one" for several years when that ended abruptly one day in April of 2000. I was so heartbroken and sad. I ached with regret for the things I'd done in the relationship that I assumed would end in happily ever after.
That evening, as I sat sobbing I felt the Lord saying, "You are going to be OK. I've got GREAT plans for you." The next morning, with puffy blood-shot eyes I read a passage that was part of my Beth Moore Bible study at the time. The verse read, "Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished! –Luke 1:45" I decided I WAS going to be OK, and that God DID have something GREAT for me.
I decided it was time to live my life! I met lots of great girlfriends, and even some guy friends who would end up being the most amazing support group ever. They prayed for me and encouraged me to dig deeper into the Word, and to pray for the man God had for me. I made a list of attributes I was looking for in a husband. I could say boyfriend, but at this point I was done with guys who weren't going to commit to marriage. That may sound crazy, but I knew what I was looking for and I wasn't going to except less.
So, for a year I had a BLAST being single. My friends and I would go out late at night and eat pancakes. We'd bring in a box of Kleenex to the movie theatre to watch chick flicks on opening night. I went skiing for the first(and only) time. I went to concerts. I had a great job that made great money. I bought lots of expensive clothes and drove a nice car. Basically, I had the year of my single dreams, but my heart still longed for someone to spend my life with.
In this time, I had transferred from my small Christian college to a larger state school(which I hated), so one day in late November of 2000 I decided to go back and audition for a music scholarship at the smaller school. After my audition I was visiting with some friends in the hallway when my phone rang. It was a friend making plans for the evening. As I chatted this disheveled boy walked up. I could see that he was staring at me, so finally I looked up at him. When I did he flashed a HUGE smile and said to the guy next to him, "I bet it's not even a real phone. She just wants us to think she has a life without us." I laughed, and he walked off, saying over his shoulder, "I'm Scotty, by the way..."

Ashley Gets Married!

This past weekend my BFF of 12+ years got married! I'd been praying for that day for such a long time, and it was almost like I was the one getting married I was so excited for her. Ashley has been such a fantastic friend to me over the last several years. She's brought me chocolate when I was sad, been there for me when all my babies were born, stood beside me at my wedding as my maid of honor, prayed for and with me, stood up for me, laughed with me, taught me new things, called me just to vent and allowed me to do the same. She's constant when the rest of the world is unstable. We've had our ups and downs, but I KNOW I can always depend on her. She loves me for who I am and I know she loves my family too.
When she first got engaged I was a little worried because I knew I'd likely be HUGE pregnant when she tied the knot, but it all worked out just fine. I was a bridesmaid and Manly and I sang. Here are some pictures of her bachelorette party and special day.

The beautiful bride-to-be. We went to a place where you paint your own canvas print.

It was a lot of fun and cool to see how they all looked different in the end.

They made Ash all these cute signs.

See? So cute!

Two of the other lovely bridesmaids getting ready to paint! Serena and Khristina

Two more smiley bridesmaids. Jennifer and Leigh Ann. Did I mention there were 7 of us!?

Khristina taking a little sip...

 

Ashley and her mom.

Ms. Cathy turns out to be an artist!

Ash and me.

My painting half way through. I ended up hating it in the end, but what are you gonna do?

All of us with our paintings. We were short two bridesmaids here.

The only picture appropriate for my blog from the gift part of our time together. Ha!

After opening gifts we have a wonderful time talking about what we loved about Ashley.

We each prayed over her which is what this picture is.

 

Leigh Ann doing Ashley's make-up.

Ashley arranged for two stylists to come to the church to do our hair. So much fun!

Ms. Cathy getting her hair done.

Me. In my dress. With Eli making himself known.

 

Leigh Ann(who I think looks like Adele) and me. We've been friends for a long time too!

Ash's cake was so so pretty! It looked like packed snow(her wedding was a winter theme).

She made the cake topper herself. So so pretty!

 

The girls with Aunt Ashley. They love her so much and were so happy to be at her wedding!

Olivia took this one of Ashley.

She also took this one of Ash and me.

And this one of Manly and I. He looked so handsome!!

The view from where Livi was sitting. Ha!

 

Manly singing while we walked down the aisle.

The bride and groom saying their vows.

Ashley getting ready to throw her bouquet to the bridesmaids.

By far my favorite picture of the day. The bridesmaids fighting it out!! HA!

Khristina wins! She was sad because they broke the bouquet.

The best pic of the day of our family. It was past nap time, so this was as good as it got!

The pretty bride and me.

LOVED her pretty blue coat! They had "snow" for us to throw. It looked SO pretty!!

The brides parents after they left. Such a FUN couple.

Loved them like second parents while I was in college.

Ms. Cathy living it up!!

KK sporting the Brides veil.