practice makes perfect.

Our rehearsal was your typical wedding rehearsal... we ran through the order of the wedding, with the church's wedding coordinator and my pastor telling us where to stand, when to hand over my bouquet, etc.  Here's a few snapshots.

so much love.

I was overwhelmed by the people who traveled from near and far to celebrate with us.  We had guests come from all over the country and we were so honored that they would be willing to go to such lengths to watch Cori and I get married.

The definite winner of the travel award would go to my best friend and maid of honor, Katherine.  We became friends at JMU and were inseperable our last two years of college.  Since then, despite my move to New Orleans after graduation, we've grown even closer as friends through phone calls, visits, and vacations together.  If any picture characterizes our friendship, it would have to be this one from a visit Katherine took to New Orleans.

Katherine flew all the way from AUSTRALIA to be a part of our wedding.  I hadn't seen her since before she left in December, so not only was I thrilled to have her at the wedding, I was so excited to get quality time with my BFF.  She got in late Monday night, spent Tuesday with her family, and then she was all mine for the rest of the week.  :)  We had long talks, at lunch at our favorite restaurant, the Galaxy Diner- hello trailer trash pancakes and fried oreos!, ran wedding-related errands, and soaked up the time together.

On Thursday, two more precious friends flew in.

Katherine, Laura, and Amy

Laura was one of my bridesmaids and has been one of my two roommates for the last two years.  She flew into Richmond from New Orleans.  Amy was also a roommate of mine in New Orleans, but got married two years ago and now lives in Texas with her hubby.  I hadn't seen her since right before Cori and I got engaged and was so happy she came in a couple days before the wedding so we could get a little time together. 

Friday morning, Katherine, Laura, my mom, her best friend from childhood Carole, headed to Vy-Vy's salon to get mani/pedis.  We were stylishly late to the bridal luncheon (and by stylishly, I mean our mani/pedis took longer than we thought and we were 45 minutes late) that Katherine and her mom threw for me.  A few pictures:

The luncheon was great- yummy food and wonderful girlfriends.  It was so sweet of Katherine and her mom to throw for me, and I was so thankful for the chance to be with some of my best girls before the craziness of the rest of the weekend started.

Next up: rehearsal and rehearsal dinner!

the weeks before the wedding...

I know, I know... I have so much to update on!  I'm going to start in chronological order, so be patient- it may take a couple posts to get to the actual wedding.

The beginning of June, Cori and I headed back to Virginia for a crazy wedding month.  Seriously, everything about June was weddings for us, and I don't just mean our wedding.

On June 11, we traveled to Virginia Beach for Mike and Brittany's wedding.  Mike was one of Cori's close friends at Virginia Tech, so we loved the chance to celebrate with them and get quality time with some of Cori's best friends- who are also becoming some of my good friends as well, which is fun.

Then, on June 18th, we traveled back to Virginia Beach for another wedding.  Danny was one of Cori's college roommates and also one of my teammates during my first year in New Orleans, doing relief work with Campus Crusade for Christ. 



When we weren't attending other people's weddings, we were busy working on our own.  We went to every craft store in Richmond, searching for the supplies needed for our programs.  We went to Party City to look for cake toppers and champagne glasses for our toasts.  We met with our fabulous photographer (http://www.rebekahgoldman.com/).  We listened to potential songs for our father/daughter and mother/son dance.  I looked everywhere for the perfect earrings to wear on the wedding day, and shopped for a rehearsal dinner dress and bikinis for our honeymoon. 

Our programs!  Much thanks to Caitlyn, Rachel Bishop, Katie Howe, my mom, and her friend Nancy for helping Cori and I put them together!

I was also so blessed by a surprise bachellorette party from my best girlfriends.

  

   

Next up: bridal luncheon and rehearsal dinner!  Stay tuned :)

showered.

I know, I know.  I am such a delinquet blogger.  Between wedding plans, school wrapping up, and enjoying life in New Orleans, things have been busy.  Busy, but wonderful.

As for wedding updates... I have been thoroughly showered by both Virginian friends and New Orleanians. 

I have to say, I have some of the most amazing girlfriends in the world!  My BFF and Maid of Honor is currently living in Australia and won't be back in the U.S. until she flies in for the wedding, so my Richmond girls immediately stepped up and told me they wanted to throw me a shower.  Wonderfully sweet!  I'll have to post pictures later- I'm at school and don't have access to pictures here- but let me just say, they went all out!  Beautiful invitations and decorations, delicious snacks (Ukrops cake, anyone?), hysterical games (including one where I ended with over 10 pieces of bubble gum crammed in my mouth), and the sweetest of friends who came to celebrate.  It was wonderful!

My other two bridesmaids are my roommates, Kim and Laura.  They went all out for my N.O. shower, cooking shrimp roban, which is one of my very favorite dishes, a Whole Foods cake (seriously, if I could just eat Ukrops and Whole Foods cakes the rest of my life... well, I'd weigh 800 pounds, but I'd be a happy girl!), a word scramble about Cori and I (and it's sad to say, but I lost!), a surprise appearance by my handsome fiance, a question game, and again, more fabulous, fabulous friends.

I can't tell you how blessed I feel to be celebrated by such wonderful women.  Love love love them.

Other than that, we're in details stage... hair appointments, shoe ordering, dress fittings (I go today!), rehearsal dinner invitations, working on our favors, etc.  31 days away and it can't come soon enough!  I am so very ready to have Cori be my husband!

an absence

No excuses for the long time in between updates; I was gone and now I'm back. :)

Life updates, part 1.

School.  I'm currently on spring break and loving the life of a teacher when we get week-long vacations.  It came at a much-needed time; I think every teacher and student was desperate for the time off.  In early April, our 3rd through 8th graders had state testing.  What does that mean for first graders?  Well, we were effectively banished from the school building and went on field trips every day.  The park, the zoo, the insectarium, the Rural Life Museum in Baton Rouge, and the movies to see Hop.  If that sounds like an easy week to you, you clearly don't work with children.  ;)  It was a fun week and soooo nice to have a break from the typical week of planning lessons and saying things like, "Sit down," "Pay attention," "I'm up here!" and "Seriously, your pencil broke again?"  Buuuuut it was definitely thoroughly exhausting- constantly counting children to make sure no one jumped in with the lions, trying to maintain the reputation that McDonogh 32 does have decently behaved children, being in the sun, and convincing children that is only 9:30, and while yes, they brought their lunch, that no, it is not yet lunch time.

My amusing story of the week centers around a little girl we'll just call M.  M absolutely cracks me up; she's the youngest in her family and also the only girl, and she's adorable... and knows it.  Earlier in the week, she heard Cori on the phone with his mom, telling her he loved her, and she was ready to pick a fight with him, thinking he was talking to another girl.  She's got Miss Taylor's back. ;)  So here we are, Thursday morning, over halfway through our week of field trips.  I'm rushing around before school starts, making sure lunches and buses and money are all ready for the hour drive to Baton Rouge, when I see M... with a rabbit.  She insists that it is a fake rabbit... and that the poop coming out of it is 'fake poo.'  I almost believe her- because really, what child, even at age 6, brings a bunny to school?  I pick it up, and discover that it is, indeed, a live bunny.  I carry it out into the breezeway, absolutely befuddled over the fact that a student actually brought an animal to school, and wondering what the heck we do with it while the rest of the school is taking their most important tests of the year and we prepare to go on a bus trip.  M spends a few minutes denying that it's her bunny, but finally gives in, insisting that it 'accidently hopped into her lunchbox' and that she 'didn't know' until she got to school.  Please note that this lunchbox is a small tin box with a latch... so M evidently has a very talented bunny.

I know this should have been the moment for a stern lecture, but really, the situation was just too comical.  We arranged for the bunny to stay in a teacher's classroom for the day, and I called M's mom so that she wouldn't worry if she noticed that the family bunny was missing.  Mom picked up the bunny later that day, I don't believe M will be bringing any more pets to school anytime soon.

just like Spongebob

Yesterday, I went to the beach with some of my favorite New Orleans friends.  We had a great time and it was everything a beach day should be- napping, reading, playing in the ocean, and of course... getting burnt.


Ladies and gentlemen, I am red.  Painfully, awkwardly, awfully sunburt.  The kind of burnt where it hurts to walk and where you live for the moments that you slather aloe on yourself. In retrospect, 15 SPF wasn't quite strong enough.


It will be amusing to see my kids' reaction to my sunburn.  Since most of my kids have minimal interactions with white people, sunburn is a new phenomenon for them.  My favorite story was an interaction between one of my kids and a co-worker last year.  This was right after I'd run the Mardi Gras Half Marathon, so I came to school with a burnt face.


Waynetrell: Ms. Holmes, what happened to Ms. Taylor's face?
Ms. Holmes: She was out in the sun, so she got red.  It's called sunburn.
Waynetrell:  Oh.... that happened to Spongebob once!


This cracks me up beyond belief... Waynetrell's only context for sunburn was an episode of Spongebob.  That's right, Waynetrell.  I am just like Spongebob.

note to self.

For anyone that has a glass door:

Do not press hard on the wood frame of your door, even if it is just so that you can get the door to stop sticking so you can deadbolt it.  Your hand just might slip and might go through the glass.  If you are fortunate, you'll just get minor cuts, but you'll still have to pay the maintenance guy to fix it, and you'll be scared for 2 nights that someone is going to realize that they can easily cut through the bag you placed over the window, unlock the door, and rob you.  They won't, but you'll be scared that they will.

I may or may not be speaking from personal experience...