Happy 1st Anniversary

The clock just struck midnight so that means we made it to our first anniversary… ha ha!

I cannot believe it has been one year already. I still haven’t done anything to preserve my wedding dress. I now understand how a couple can feel like they turn around and all of a sudden they have been married 30 years. I’ve been reminiscing all weekend about our wedding and what I was doing this time last year. Although being sick has thrown a little kink in our plans I refuse to let it get to me. I guess when you have the wedding of your dreams then you don’t get the perfect first anniversary as well, ha ha. But we do have some special things planned for tomorrow night (well tonight now) which includes eating a replica of the top tier of our wedding cake. Our top tier is in my mother-in-law’s deep freeze an hour away and I am going to get it on Monday so since it will be a day late I decided we should order a new one. Plus, I’ve heard way too many horror stories from people about their cake on their first anniversary. So yay for Publix for saving the day!

I titled this blog when I made it during wedding planning, “The Start of Our Journey”. And oh what a journey this first year has been. I remember right before I got married telling my boss I didn’t foresee many changes after we got married because we had been together for so long. She just smiled and said something along the lines of, “oh you just wait”. And boy was she right. From learning to pay bills and manage our finances together, to just learning more about each others’ personalities, to two promotions, it has been a challenging year.

I am not trying to paint a doom and gloom picture because that is not what it has been. It’s been a year of building a firm foundation in Christ and in one another. Just as much as our love and understanding has deepened for each other so has our love and understanding of Christ. That excites me! I know we are going to have more growing pains in this life and both of us had a lot of growing up to do this past year. (Neither one of us had ever paid for our own cell phone, people!) But if we continue with each phase to draw closer together and even more importantly closer to Christ than hopefully we can keep an eye on the prize.

Cheers to my G and our first year of marriage and to many, many more. I love you!

OOOOOPRAH!

Wednesday was a sad day for me and many around the world. It was the last day of the Oprah Winfrey Show. Go ahead laugh all you want to but I love Oprah. I love pretty much everything about her. My life and the Oprah show have always coexisted. The show has been on for 25 years. The same amount of years I’ve been alive. For my entire life if I was at home at 4 pm. Oprah was on.

Before you judge me for liking her so much, let me tell you why I love her.

1. She came from nothing! She grew up in rural Mississippi and no one but herself had hopes or dreams for her life. She is where she is today because of her own hard work. It wasn't something that was handed down to her.
2. She takes no credit for where she has come but rather gives God all the credit. I once heard her say, “Nothing about my life is lucky. Nothing. A lot of grace and a lot of divine order. I am the co-creator of my life with the ultimate creator”.
3. She has the ability to make even the biggest celebrity seem human. She is my favorite interviewer of all time. She can take the biggest star feel like your new best friend.
4. She has brought awareness to so many issues that were never talked about before.
5. She saw her role of television host more than that but brought it to an entire new level and encourages everyone else to do the same in their own lives.

So goodbye, Oprah. I will miss you.

May Recap

I am starting to see how complex the blogging world is for me and many others I know. When I have a lot going on and a lot to write about, then I don’t have time to blog but when I do have time that means I don’t have a lot going on and not much to say….

Anyways, once again it is the end of another month and I am wondering where it went. It has been extremely busy at work. Our 4th wedding reception is this Saturday. We also had a Mother’s Day Brunch. I was fortunate enough to have my mom, grandmother,my mother-in-law, and my best friend’s mom, Julie, attend. My best friend was unable to make it home for the weekend so her “adoptive daughters” (aka Trina and I) wanted to be with her on Mother’s Day.

My mom, me, and my gran

G, my mother-in-law, and me

Me, Julie, and Trina


We also celebrate my sweet great nephew’s 6th birthday last week with a bowling party. My mom and dad also came up and spent the night with us that evening. The older I get the more and more I enjoy my parents company. It was a short but very sweet time.

The birthday boy and his Mel

John and Papa Billy

Me and John


This month has also been a month of sickness for me. I’ve been home the past two days with high fever. My doctor had me panicked this morning thinking I had walking pneumonia because of the tightness in my chest and my annoying cough but thankfully my lungs checked out okay this morning. They are treating me for it because of my history but are thinking it is a bad viral infection. I am hoping and praying to be more of my normal self tomorrow and be able to put in a full day’s work. This is the second time I've been really sick this month. Plus, our first anniversary is this weekend and I cannot be sick!!! So prayers are appreciated. But it doesn't look like someone has minded that I've been home sick.

(Sorry for the poor quality. Camera phone.)

Happy Birthday to the one and only, John Keith Stokes!

I can’t believe my precious great-nephew is turning six tomorrow. It seems like yesterday I was holding him right after he was born. The past six years he has been an absolute blessing to my family. I’ve never known a child with a heart as big as John’s. He doesn’t know a stranger and everyone is his friend. Even at two years old he was yelling across a restaurant for a little boy to come sit with him. At my wedding he made new best friends with G’s nephew and first cousin’s children, who he told them “I am your new cousin now”, ha ha. He is also the little boy who brings together all the kids of the playgroup at the park in a city he doesn't know anyone in to play one big game of chase. I have so many more John Keith stories and so many sayings that I could go on for days… but I will spare you. So I will leave it with this, Happy Birthday John Keith Stokes, may you continue to bless people with your smile and big heart. I love you and am so proud to be your aunt!!!!

P.S. No matter how old you are you will always be my sweet little Elmer Fudd baby!