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!

11 Months

Can’t believe it has been 11 months since our wedding. It is also the day of the Royal Wedding. (Wasn’t she beautiful!!!)

Now’s the big question, and it’s not when to start a family but what should we do to celebrate! We don’t have time for a weekend away but I feel like we need to make it special. The first anniversary sets the precedent for all the other anniversaries to come. Please send your suggestions our way. I can’t wait to celebrate our first year as husband and wife. Plus we get to sample our cake. But we’ve decided we are going to order a small replica just in case it is freezer burned.

After watching all this footage of the Royal Wedding, I want to get married all over again.

Happy Easter Everyone!!!

I should be climbing into bed right now but instead I am washing and ironing clothes for tomorrow and just finished putting together a breakfast casserole and baking some muffins. I can’t imagine the stress of getting an entire family ready for Easter morning. I am thankful I only have myself and G to get out in the door in the morning.

With our jobs we no longer have a “traditional Easter”. We are both working tomorrow. My hotel is hosting a brunch and we have a record number of over 300 people registered. Tomorrow is also a big day at the county club for G as well. Thankfully he doesn’t have to go into work until late tomorrow afternoon and THANKFULLY he is going to help hide the Easter eggs for the two egg hunts we are having at the brunch. Also, his parents are coming to the hotel to eat and my precious mother-in-law is bringing a homemade coconut cake shaped like an entire body of a bunny. Her mother use to make one every year and Nancy does not want us to miss out on the tradition even if we do have to work. To be 100% honest I have dreaded tomorrow for a while. I struggle with guilt about having to work on Easter. But it is not my choice so early last week I started praying that my focus would be on Christ’s sacrifice and not the brunch. And it has been just that. Each night I have spent a great deal of time reading about Jesus’ last days on earth. Also today it hit me like a ton of bricks that I have the opportunity to serve and shine for Christ and my plan is to do just that… with HIS help of course. Otherwise, I would be my normal complaining self tomorrow. I have the opportunity to provide 300+ people with a great holiday experience and that is how I am determined to look at it. So please say a prayer for me tomorrow that my focus will remain on Christ and not on having to “work”. Also we both still have the opportunity to go and worship tomorrow and I am so thankful for that. Besides He paid the ultimate sacrifice so what am I complaining about?

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter wherever and however you choose to worship.

Crucified
Laid behind a stone
You lived to die
Rejected and alone
Like a rose
Trampled on the ground
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above All

Hear You Loud and Clear

After writing my last post, I had a little pity party the rest of the night. It continued even after G got home from work. Poor thing! I know I made him feel terrible. And again, I do NOT want him to change his career path. I was just feeling overwhelmed and lonely on Friday.

Well wouldn’t you know it, our preacher’s sermon was titled, “Never Alone”. He had us read aloud Psalms 93 and then say, “God is with ME. I am never alone”. Then to stress the point of how we are never alone, he then provided us with examples to remind us that whatever situation we are in that we are not in it alone. His first point was, “God is with me. I am never alone even when I am bored to death with my mundane life.” DING, DING, DING. I am hearing you, God. That was where all my frustration was coming from Friday night. I had worked hard all week and I wanted to enjoy life but instead I was home alone and bored.

I know our preacher’s message was so simple but it was so true. And just those few sentences were all that I needed to hear to change my attitude. He continued his sermon with different circumstances I know others could relate to but this was the one that struck my cord. I am never alone and even though my problem does seem insignificant, it isn’t insignificant to God because I am His child. He cares about every single problem I have and He is with me every step of the way. WOW!!! No other love compares. I think I was nodding my head so hard as our preacher was saying this that he knew it was just what I needed to hear. We even made direct eye contact in that moment. I am so thankful for God to have used him to speak directly to me on Sunday. No, my problem isn’t as great as natural disasters or people who are sick but God still cares and I am never alone. I am also thankful that the Spirit was there not only during that moment but throughout the service.


Thank you, God. I hear you loud and clear and I am so thankful for that.