Wedding Weekend!

CHRISTINE AND JUSTIN GOT MARRIED!

Christine and Justin’s wedding made for a beautiful weekend and I was very proud to be a part of it. Christine has been a very good friend to me since freshman year of college. She is now a teacher, a homeowner, and a wife. She did a phenomenal job planning this wedding and it paid off, it went very smoothly! And because I adore Christine, I took A LOT of pictures this weekend. Below are some of my favorites. I will definitely have a few more wedding posts this week as I come off my weekend wedding high.

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More Justin and Christine Wedding to come…

Celebrating TRENT

I first met JMO’s little brother at a football game almost four years ago. Trent was shorter than me then. I know that shouldn’t matter so much, but I always want to tell him, “I used to be taller than you! There was that one time!” Here he is sitting, so I clearly tower above him.

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Trent reminds me a lot of my brother. He makes friends whereever he goes and he is always up for anything. Whatever he ends up doing will be interesting (also like my brother). He is heading off to Oklahoma State, and I have no doubt he will have a million friends and a million job offers before he graduates college.

Trent & iPad

The kid cleaned up on gifts. Here he is with his iPad (gifted by his brother). JMO swiped his computer the day before and put all his stuff on it, including an art project Trent did and used it as the background.

My favorite part of the weekend was getting to spend time with and meet various relatives of the Oswalt clan.

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I met cousin Oran, he was quite entertaining.

The Original Oswalts

I got to spend some time with JMO’s dad, Granny and Aunt Carol.

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I got to hang out with JMO too.

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I also met one of the cutest little girls I have ever. This is Berlin, JMO and Trent’s cousin Nicki’s daughter. She laughed a lot.  There were many kids around and she LOVED playing with them.

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The Oswalt family officially has grown-up boys now. Trent will be good at this grown-up gig. If not, he has a million friends, so he won’t ever be out of a place to live.

Sandra turns a Quarter Century

Sandra's 25th birthday
This picture may look a mess, but it was a fun night and I think this captures that. Sandra has turned 25. This girl continues to amaze and impress me. She works full time while raising two adorable boys. Sandra has taught me so much about how lovely things can be if you just put a smile on your face. Thank you Sandra for 7 years of inspiration, I can’t wait to see what I learn from you in the rest of our grown-up years.

Christine’s Bridal Shower

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Christine is getting married and the festivities have begun! Her party was wonderfully planned by the maid of honor, Kim. Kim gave all of us bridesmaids (pictured above) our tasks for the day. When you only have to be responsible for a fraction of the shower, it is not nearly as overwhelming.

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My fraction of the shower was to make the sangria. And if I say so myself, it was well done. I used The Pioneer Woman’s recipe from her cookbook. Christine’s Great Aunt Jeanette brought me a piece of paper and a pen and told me, “Jot down these ingredients!” I’ve made the recipe a few times now and it has been a pretty big hit each time. I noticed several people popping the lid off to scoop fruit out and sticking their cups under for more.

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The rest of the food spread was quite impressive, and sadly I failed to get a picture of it. We had sandwich fixings, salads, sausage balls, spinach dip and fruit trays. We ate. It was delightful. Christine got lots of wonderful gifts and it was really neat to see all her relatives and friends there to celebrate her.

Christine has really grown up into a real woman in the past few years. She is a very hardworking, caring, and entertaining girl. At her shower we got the chance to meet those people that have known her from a childhood, those who have known her from high school, those that have known her from college, those from work and those people that just know her from life. It was fascinating to see the many people from the many areas of her life. The first festivity was fabulous and I can’t wait for everything else. Congratulations Christine! We love you!

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2009, The year a few things happened

Holy Moly. What happened to 2009? I just breezed through the last year on my blog and tried to scoop out the highlights, I have that problem where everything is a highlight, narrowing down doesn’t work so well for me. Overall, it was a great year. JMO moved back from New York. I quit my job working in an office to work on my teaching certification and picked up quite a few interesting adventures. Here is the best of my year – in no particular order.

1. Great trip to NYC before JMO left.

2. My family went on a trip to NYC over Thanksgiving.

3. Sandra had Christian. I got a new godson!

4. Mike and I went on road trip from Orlando to San Antonio. He names it Southeast Shuffle. Great week. My brother is fascinating.

5. I quit. Wow. Still can’t believe it.

6. Vegas. 9 girls. Leah got salmonella.

7. I got a job in an elementary school.

8. I turned 25. JMO and friends threw me a surprise party. Awesome.

9. Did this list in September when I explained the best of being 24 years old.

10. Most importantly, I got to spend a lot of time with people I love. Mom, Dad, Mike, Emily, JMO, The Oswalt Family, ALL the Pickerts, Tranee’s family, Sandra’s family, Leah, Christine, Michelle, my students, Sylvia, Sarah, Lesley and youth group kiddos and many other lovely folks. I am truly blessed to have such fabulous people in my life. Cheesy as it is – PEOPLE ARE THE BEST OF 2009.