The festivities began on Friday evening with the wedding rehearsal. The wedding was taking place at my church so we knew to meet in the sanctuary. The moment we walk in, I see this crazy haired kid in a tie dye shirt enthusiastically waving at me.  Not recognizing who it is, I try to ignore them and then hear them calling me name. I look at them a little longer and realize that it’s my cousin Kyle who I haven’t seen in about 8 years!

Kyle is 4 years younger than me and the youngest cousin on my father’s side of the family. He is so hysterical and I actually spend most of the weekend hanging out with him.  So the rest of the wedding rehearsal was uneventful. I was basically starving and ready for dinner, so once Timothy told me what he wanted me to do, I was counting down the minutes until we could eat! So around 6:30ish, we headed over to Serentea’s which is an adorable tea shop that is a personal favorite of my brother’s. Our table was of course the rowdiest being that it consisted only of Murphys. But anyway, if you have’t been to this little shop I highly recommend it. It has the cutest decor, AMAZING tea, and food to die for!

After dinner, the “kids”, aka anyone younger than 40, went to Max’s for a few drinks. My brother was on a mission to set me up with one of the attendants but it turns out the guy was a little creepy for me. Very nice guy but gave you a death stare when you spoke to him. My sister said she felt like he was sucking out her soul every time she talked to him. So yeah, that didn’t go anywhere! Anyway, my sister and I planned to hang out there for a bit but I figured we wouldn’t stay very long considering she isn’t 21 yet. Plus, my cousins Ellen and Jackson weren’t going to be there until later so we didn’t have anyone to talk to (my brothers friends are all ministers and don’t produce the most riveting conversations). So we ended up leaving and just calling it a night.

The next morning while I was still in bed, I heard a deep bark in the backyard. Now, we have three dogs, but they are little bitty and couldn’t bark that deep. I asked mom what was going on and she said one of Candace’s friends was keeping her 7 month old 60 pound dog  in our backyard because she couldn’t have it in a hotel room. Being a dog lover, my sister went outside that morning to play with him and then realized he was gone. She looked in our neighbor’s yard and saw him looking in their window! She screams for us to come outside and help her, so Tim and I quickly wake ourselves up and run outside. By the time we get out there, we see Emily on the ground and the puppy dragging her around . We help her up and she tells us the dog practically climbed back over the fence and pounced on her. An eventful way to begin my brother’s wedding day to say the least. Fast forward a few hours… Tim had told my sister and me to be at the church by 11:30 but told mom and dad to be there by 12. So there was a lot of tension starting off because no one actually knew what time we were supposed to get there. Plus, dad had to pick up one of the ministers (there were 3 leading the ceremony). We finally got there (20 minutes late according to my sister and me) and ended up sitting around for 45 minutes. Candace was still getting ready and we were missing several people. Around 12:30, Candace steps out of the bridal room wearing her gorgeous dress.

The next hour consisted of picture taking and trying to figure out where the heck Mama and Papa where. Around 1:30, we see Mama roll her wheelchair into the Parlor where we were waiting for the ceremony to begin. She has a “babysitter” with her. For those who don’t know, my grandmother has suffered from dementia for the past 5 years. My dad decided he was not going to let his mother ruin his son’s wedding day and that we would let someone else have the responsibility of taken are of her if she has an episode. Anyway, as soon as she enters the parlor, the entire room goes silent. We aren’t sure if she is going to know who any of us are or where she is. Tim greets her and tells her that he is so happy that she could attend his wedding. She told him it was going to be a very special day and she didn’t want to miss it (yes, I teared up). Shortly after, my grandmother’s sister enters the room with her attendant. It took a few minutes for Mama to realize it was Aunt Christine but when she did, we had an incredible moment

Finally, it was showtime! Now if you know my brother, he is not a traditional kind of fellow. He ended up wearing an Indian style get up (I have no idea what it is called) that was white with gold embroidery. And his hair was in a bun. Honestly, I would have been disappointed if would have worn a tux. The ceremony was also very unique. Tim believes that a marriage should be a union between you, your partner and God, so he had a worship service for his wedding.  When my family entered the sanctuary, my grandfather called out, “look what the the cat dragged in!” He can’t hear very well so he thought he was whispering but really everyone in the sanctuary could hear him and giggled. We began by singing “I Was There to Hear your Bourning Cry” which is a beautiful hymn. Afterwords, one of Tim’s friends led a call to worship and Emily and I read a couple of scriptures (No, it wasn’t Love is patient blah blah blah). Mine was about how God created a rainbow as a covenant to us and Emily read something from the book of Ruth.

Once my part was complete, I lost it. And it wasn’t just tearing up, it was sobbing! All I could think about was how 8 years ago, we weren’t sure if my brother would even make it to 20 (he had cancer). I just kept thinking how lucky we were to still have him in our lives and now here he was getting married! You could really see the love they have for each other too. He kept caressing her hand and she kept staring at him. It was beautiful. The homily came next, which made me cry more and then came the vows. I really didn’t stand a chance as far as not crying goes! The ceremony continued with prayer blessings (you write a prayer that is directed towards the couple) and communion. We ended in prayer and exited the sanctuary.  (Mama had to leave about 5 minutes after the ceremony began because she was yelling out, “Where am I? I want to go home!”)

We continued the celebration by going to the fellowship hall and eating lots of cake!  The only traditional thing that really occurred was the bouquet toss which my brother helped her throw. Some demon child came out of nowhere and grabbed the bouquet before anyone even had a chance to think (the pic is priceless, just look at my sister and my face). Oh and of course there were lots and lots of bubbles.

Once we cleaned everything up from the reception, various family members went over to our house for a family dinner. Being that my cousins and myself are still the youngest in the fam, we were considered the kids table. Of course, we were the loudest (probably because we drank the most wine) and broke out into song every 5 minutes or so. Candace and Tim opened a few more presents after dinner and then headed on their way to a bed and breakfast. I loved everything about this weekend. I saw a lot of family members that I hadn’t seen in years and ate more food than should be legal. I am so happy for my brother and his new beautiful wife. I could not ask for a better addition to the family and am proud to call her my new sister!!

Which leads to… Erin Cecile’s Annoyances for the Summer

1. I have had ZERO job interviews. Normally in the summer, I will apply for a school district, visit the KY teacher openings website, visit the principal at schools that are opened nad bring my resume, call principals and see if they have began interview, email them my resume just in case they lost the first one, call again and finally visit the school one more time just so they remember my face. Doing this gets me at least 5 interviews. Unfortunately, I have not been as persistent due to my schedule so it has been rather frustrating to say the least. Yesterday, I went to visit one of the schools that I had already visited once, called twice, and emailed twice and the principal was in the middle of interviewing. I left my resume walked out the door and busted out into tears. I think I cried for about an hour. That school was seriously my last hope at a job this year. I would not be so frustrated  and upset if it wasn’t for the simple fact that people who don’t deserve the job are getting them over me.  Seriously, I have talked with these teachers and they are the ones who only want to teach so they can have the summers off, it’s convenient for childcare, or they think kids are “cute”.  What about the teachers who are passionate about teaching? What about the teachers who have been playing classroom in the bedroom since they were five years old? What about the teachers who you never see sitting at their desk but always working with the students? WHAT ABOUT ME? I may not have all of the connections as these other teachers but my entire heart is in teaching. Even now, I spend countless hours on the internet looking at new strategies nad teaching tools because I want to be the best possible teacher I can be. I just don’t understand what I am doing wrong…

2. Friends who are constantly trying to hook me up. Yes, I am aware that I am single and have been for the past four years. Although I would love to meet someone, you telling me to make out with every guy I talk to is not helping. In fact, it is quite obnoxious. I am not a sorority girl looking for a good time.  When I meet someone and want to make out with them, you will be the first to know. I promise.

3. Being 25 and living with the parents. True, it has been nice for the most part. But when I am constantly being scolded to clean up my room or make my bed, I get a little fed up. Plus, if I need your help to look for a job I will be sure to let you know. Get off my back about what schools have openings. I most likely have already looked into it or am not interested in that particular location. And thanks for offering to help with the guard mom, but I can really do this by myself. This is not the same program that it used to be  and can’t be approached in the same manner. I love you both but I like my independence and don’t need someone around me all the time. I am perfectly happy working on things in my room instead of together ALL the time. It’s been 100x worse since mom quit her job. I have to drive her everywhere and she always wants to do things together. I love spending time with her but I need me time!

I am not even sure if half of these complaints made sense but I don’t really care. Ahh, I feel better now

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My brother came into town on Wednesday with his fiance. Funny thing was he rode on the same flight as best friend Lane. Lane and her boyfriend were visiting San Diego and apparently were leaving the same day as Tim.  On Thursday, our church hosted a bridal shower from them. I believe I ate 3 plates worth of food. My minister like to pick on me with my eating habits so he was definitely entertained.  Emily (my sister) and I were in charge of writing down the presents and keeping them organized. In half of the pictures that were taken, Emily and I are peering over the couch at Tim and Candace. Kinda creepy.  Anyway, they mostly received gift cards and recipes (that’s what that asked for) with the exception of a few baking supplies because Candace has a mad sweet tooth. When we got home, we are all talking in the kitchen and Candace told us that she couldn’t wait to have sisters. I can’t wait until you are my sister either Candace

I was supposed to work Friday night but due to lack of traffic one of my managers called me and told me I wasn’t going to be needed. Since I had the night open, I asked Emily if she wanted to do something. We ended up going to Los Garcia which is always an excellent choice. We shared a pitcher of margaritas and the owner ended up giving us another margarita on the house. Needless to say, I didn’t finish mine. Afterwards, we went over to her apartment so she could show me her new “Telephone” dance that she was going to be teaching to a group of people the next day. That led to reenacting our zombie dance (both of us are tipsy, mind you) in the kitchen. My neck has been extremely sore all weekend! Eventually we whipped out the dance company tapes and watched a few of our favorite pieces.

Timothy and Candace had another wedding shower planned in Hopkinsville on Saturday evening. I decided since I hadn’t seen one of my best friends Rebecca (she lives in Crofton with her son) in about a year, that I should get lunch with her and catch up. We ended up going to El Bracero, yes another Mexican restaurant. She let me know that her and Calvin (her son’s father) have decided to be together (for those who don’t know, they have been on and off for about 6 years and it has been extremely hard on Rebecca). It was really nice to be able to see her happy with him since they have had so many ups and downs. She had to run a few errands so I decided to tag along so I could spend as much time with her as I could. Eventually, she had to go to another party so we said our goodbyes ad I went on to the bridal shower. It took me a while to find the right road but then I realized it was about half a mile from where I used to live. There were a lot of older people there and I hate doing the fake happy conversations with people I barely know.The old west area minister was there and since he used to be my boss when I worked at camp, I spent a lot of time talking to him. My sister also sat with us because she is the same way. We spent most of the time talking about how gorgeous this house was and what items we wanted to take. Emily wanted to take a wooden duck and I wanted to take a ladder on wheels for the book case. Don’t worry, we didn’t take anything Most of the presents they got were very sentimental to Candace and she cried about 3 times. It was mostly poems and recipes from deceased relatives that got her so emotional. My brother was cute though because he would hold her hand and continue reading where she left off. After a few hours of talking, eating, and opening presents, it was finally time to leave. As soon as my sister and I got home, we played some board games on the Wii (so much fun). Let’s see, I think it had Boggle (my new favorite), Battleship, Sorry, and a few others.

Yesterday morning, I met up with my friend Adam at church before our worship service began. Adam is a good friend of mine from church camp and I’ve known him forever. He sings and plays his guitar at our early service every Sunday. This year, Adam is counseling high school church camp and we actually were paired up together to lead a small group. So anyway, we went over a few ideas that we have for next week’s camp. I am so happy to be partnered with someone who is going to help me lead instead of the nightmare of a partner that I had last year. Once we had a game plan, it was time for the late service. Mom came along so she could do a few measurements of the sanctuary for Tim’s wedding. It was such a great service because we sang some of my old favorites like “The Old Rugged Cross”,  “Here I am”, and “Mine Eyes have Seen the Glory”. At one point, I looked over at my mom and she was bawling. I don’t blame her because “The Old Rugged Cross” was her dad’s favorite song (he died when she was 15), “Here I Am” was the song that my brother loved when he was recovering from cancer, and “Mine Eyes have Seen the Glory” was a song her mother loved (She died 2 years ago.). After church, I got a call from Lane saying that her and Darby were in town so I went over to her parent’s house. We ended up playing with all the guard equipment in my car. Darby tried to learn but I think he wasn’t into the whole guard thing. Afterwards, we went to Parkers to get some milkshakes which lead to an hour long nap in her parent’s living room. As soon as I woke up, I realized I was supposed to be at my parent’s house for a barbeque. Lane still hadn’t seen our dance company show so she rode in a different car over to my house. We watched a few of my favorite pieces and then she had to leave since we were beginning dinner and she had to go to her own dinner.

This week will be much more mellow with only a few guard practices, SATC night with Rachel, and working only 2 days this week. Next week, I am going to be at KBY!

May 27 Tim and Candice shower at the church
June 6-12 High school church camp (counseling)
June 13-18 Nothing planned yet but I am sure I will be having my guard girls practicing their behinds off! (Yup, I am Lone Oak’s new color guard instructor!)
June 19-26 Universal Studios (Yay Harry Potter!)
July 2 My 25th birthday
July 4-9 Junior church camp  (directing)

At least two weeks at the end of July will be preband/band camp for marching band.

Keep in mind that I am still looking for a full time position as an elementary school teacher so my free time will consists of pestering principals and hopefully interviewing for a job.Also, we are meeting once a month for book club so who knows how many I will actually be able to attend.

• We could meet once a month. I know we all work or go to school so this shouldn’t be too hard to accomplish.
• Each week we could meet at someone else’s house. Whoever is hosting that week provides cookies or vegetable trays or whatever they feel like making for the guests
• We only have to share one book we read that month. Now don’t give me any crap about not having time to read. If you have time to watch TV or sit on the computer hour after hour, you have time to read.  And if I just described your leisure activities, you should probably be doing more reading anyway
• Find less known books. No one wants to hear about Twilight, Harry Potter, or Nicholas Sparks books. Yes, these are some of my favorites but everyone knows about them. I would rather someone suggest a book to me that I have never heard of so that I can discover some new good reads.

Alright, I think that is it with my ideas. Let me know what you think!

Even after a month long hiatus, I still don’t feel like writing a long in depth blog. I guess a bulleted summary of the past few weeks will have to do!

• I have handed over my credit cards to my mother. At the rate I was at, I was never going to be debt free. Closet full of cute clothes? Well of course but I would much rather have an apartment to myself thanks.
• Dance Company had our show on Friday and Saturday. Everything came together really well and it was definitely a success. We had an after party at Derrick’s which included the following: reenacting all of the dance pieces (Me and a Gun with Zach and Leslie was my favorite), Adam, Sophie and I creating a tooth whitening ad which basically means we stop and smile in every mirror in the house (probably the strangest conversation I have had in my entire life), Mindy singing me a lullaby which ends with me getting poked in the eye, scary pillow fights,   and lap dances from Emily and Derrick.
• I feel like I am getting closer to finding a teaching position but with so many unemployed teachers, it is nearly impossible to know for sure. There have been several openings but you never know if a principal already had another teacher in mind and if you are wasting your time by giving them your resume. It is incredibly frustrating!
• For my masters, I have to create a leadership project that I will continue to work on throughout my masters classes. I decided to do something for Gifted and Talented kids who complete their work before other students. I can not stand when a teacher just tells them to read a book because I think they will eventually get sick of it and hate reading. My idea is for them to work on different classroom projects like a classroom blog, scrapbook, etc. For my external project (on a larger scale), I thought about getting the specials teachers involved and having the kids work on a various projects once they have completed their work. We will see how it goes!

I want to feel the sand between my toes

I want to make a crappy sand castle with my dad

I want to smell the salty ocean water

And I want to gain 10 pounds from eating too much seafood!

I want, I want, I want!

Well, I believe we will be going this summer! Mom and I have been doing a lot of googling to find a cheapish beach. I remembered that when I went to visit Kacie and Aaron in Orlando a couple of years go, we went to a little beach called New Smyrna Beach. Unfortunately, we only got to spend 2 hours there because it started to rain. However, I loved the peacefulness of the beach so much, they have been dying to go back.

New Smyrna Beach is unlike any beach I’ve ever gone to. Usually, beaches are huge tourist attractions and overcrowded. New Smyrna Beach, however,is very calm and relaxed. It is also quite a bit cheaper than your average beach. Most of the condos that mom and I have looked at are about $500-$700 a week. Plus, it’s an hour from Disney. Mom has been wanting us to go to Universal Studios since we didn’t get to go the last time we went to Disney (I was 10, it’s been a while ). If we do decide to go, I need to start saving because I will probably have to buy my own ticket for Universal Studios and since we probably will drive, I want to chip in on gas money.

I really hope we get to go!

There is one negative thing I have to say about NSB. There are several shark attacks reported there. Yes, if I was 12, that would change my mind but I haven’t swam in the water since I was a little girl. I think the deepest I will go in (Get your head out of the gutter Emily) is about 2 feet. I should be fine

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Let’s recap how my dating life looked last year. I went on one date. For the whole year. That was as exciting as it got. Now, this is completely my fault because in the most humble way possible, I do have opportunities to go out with various guys. But I either over analyze everything and run away or I pull a Chandler (Friends character) and find anything wrong with that person. I don’t want to do this anymore! It is entirely too frustrating to be 24 and scared of relationships/dating. So here is to a more positive year! Let’s hope I can keep the walls down!

Now when I say I want to go on dates, I am not talking about dinner and a movie. BORING. When I go out on a first date and we go to dinner all I can think about is if I am getting food all over my face. Plus, it’s like we are interviewing each other. What’s your favorite kind of music? What do you like to do for fun? Tell me about your family. To tell you the truth, I could really care less about their interests. I want to know the personality and who he is as a person. You can’t find this out just by asking questions. Same thing with a movie. I don’t know about you, but I think it is really rude to talk during a movie. So how can I get to know someone where you aren’t supposed to talk?  And does anyone else feel uncomfortable sitting that close to someone you don’t even know that well for two hours? So I have come up with a list that are my ideal first dates that are comfortable enough where you don’t have to worry about being yourself and you can really figure out someone’s personality. Keep in mind that I had to be creative because Paducah doesn’t have a ton of things to do on dates other than dinner and a movie!

1. Scavenger Hunt- Yes this sounds crazy, but it could be a fun way to get to know someone. Maybe it could be a photo scavenger hunt or we could make the list for each other. Either way, you would have a great story to tell you friends.

2. Go to Books a Million and find five books that you would enjoy to read or describe your personality. Then we grab a cup of coffee and sit and look and each others choices. (Don’t hate on this one! I think it’s cute!)

3. Ice skating downtown. That way if you kinda like him, you can hold on to his arm to keep you up. Or if you aren’t comfortable skating with him, you can walk to the ice cream shop since it’s just a block away!

4. If it is a guy that you trust and have maybe known for a while, you could have a Iron Chef cook off at your house. You could go to the grocery store and get ingredients needed. Then, once you choose the secret ingredient battle to make the best dish!

5.  Go to Noble Park on a nice day and bring your favorite board games. Let the battle begin!

6. Maybe if you went to rival schools, you could go to a game where your old high school plays each other. Let the smack talking begin!

7. Bowling is always a great choice because it is really relaxed. Maybe not super creative but always a good time!

8. Play video games against each other. Boys are so competitive that it would drive them crazy if a girl beat them! If I don’t feel comfortable with a guy to go over to his house, Toys R Us always has ones you can play on. Which leads to…

9. Date at Toys R Us! You could go your separate ways to play in “your” section. You could leave each other notes on the etch a sketch or have a hula hoop contest.

10. A trip to Dawson Springs or Garden of the Gods for a few hours of hiking.

I’m ready to get back in the field! Bring on the boys!