My Girls

I wasn't planning on doing a blog tonight, but then I was sitting watching Mike interact with his little brother from Big Brothers Big Sisters and I decided tonight might be a nice night to write a little. Mike constantly amazes me. First off, he puts up with me on a daily basis and those of you who know me well, know that is pretty much a giant amazing miracle for anyone to do. He's smart, talented, funny, caring, can build and fix things, and has incredibly patient. Watching him spend time with his little, more specifically spending time doing math homework, reminds me how lucky I am to be marrying him in under a month. And it also reminded me of family, but not our traditional family, but our family who go beyond blood. Darren, Mike's little brother, isn't blood related but he is a part of our family. Tonight he asked if he and his family could move into our house because he likes it so much, it was super cute. I'm really lucky, because I have non-blood related sisters who agreed to be my bridesmaids for the wedding. Lauren is super cool too because she is my actual sister, but tonight I wanted to chat about the special ladies who are family to me.

I'm pretty sure that I hit the jackpot with these ladies. They are all different and special in their own way but there is no one else that I would want to call a bridesmaid beside them. They've been there for me through all kinds of things. They've been my shoulder to cry on and they've made me laugh uncontrollably. And they are the only ones who will know how to handle me on the big day and each of them will have their own roles that day....Tara will make sure Mike is in line, Jen will make sure there is alcohol nearby, Emily will keep me grounded and bring me back to reality when I start getting a little crazy, and Laura will make me burst into a million tears when I see her on facetime.

Out of all my bridesmaids, I've known Emily the longest. We went to grad school together and somehow survived those two years together. A few years ago Emily posted something on my wall about how research showed that if you were friends with someone for 7 years that you would remain friends for your lifetime. So far, that rings true with Emily and I. We do a terrible job keeping up with each other because of our crazy busy lives, but the moment we text, email, talk on the phone, or see each other in person, it is as if no time has passed at all. We just pick up, catch up, and keep our friendship going. Emily was there for me at probably my lowest point in my life and professional career. Instead of letting me sit and be depressed, she motivated me, lit the fire under me, and provided me with the harsh kind of love that you need from time to time. I'll never be able to repay her for how she helped me. She's an incredible person, amazing professional, and an even better friend. We will ignore the number of boy problems of mine that she has had to deal with, but I'm so glad that after dealing with all those frogs, she will be standing next to me when I get to marry my Prince Charming.

Jen I've known almost as long as Emily, but not quite. I met Jen at George Mason where I worked my first professional job after grad school and she was a student. I fought so hard to get Jen on my staff during staff selection and after a lot of ups, downs, and battles with one of my favorite all time bosses, I finally got Jen on my staff. She worked for me for a semester and we had an instant connection. Jen is honestly one of the few staff members from my early staffs that I kept in regular contact with and as fate would have it, we got to work together again when she decided to come to UWF for grad school. During that time both our professional and personal relationship grew and I got to see Jen develop into an amazing person. I'm pretty sure there were days when Jen wanted to throw things at me when I was her supervisor in grad school, but despite all of that our friendship grew, and especially near the end, so did out adventures. From our first adventure in Pensacola at Seville to one of our lasts getting stuck in a torrential downpour #sorrycharlie Jen is one of my favorite people and I know she will keep me smiling during the wedding.

Tara I have known for the shortest amount of time but in reality, I think we are kind of kindred spirits. We are both Hokies, she has a little SEC blood in her, we are both introverts, and we both get grumpy when we've been out too late or people start annoying us. She was also witness to the two fights that nearly ended my relationship with Mike. One involved boomerang and the other involved the Tennessee/Florida football game. Mike likes to refer to Tara as his other girlfriend because they are actually super close too. She deals with his crazy antics, and sometimes encourages them. She is also the kind of friend that you can pick up the phone and drag out to dinner or happy hour at a moments notice when you've had a bad day because she is an incredible friend. She was also the first bridesmaid to find out she would be one because I mayyyy have told her at the Mardi Gras parade before Mike and I were even engaged that I was going to ask her to be a bridesmaid. Tara abandoned me this summer so Pensacola is not the same, but we do have quite the little group text message going between her, myself, and Jen. #ketchupbottle I won't even lie, I miss Tara a lot. Like every day.

Then there is Laura. Who I'm going to make cry because she literally just had a baby which means she is postpartum and cries at everything and I, being the evil one that I am, enjoy making her cry. I call Laura "little one" because that is what she is. If I didn't have a sister, Laura would have been my Matron of Honor. The first time we met, I didn't like her. I thought she was going to be super rude and stuck up and I wasn't looking forward to working with her at Framingham. I don't know if I ever told her that is how I felt about her. I'm pretty sure she didn't like me either though because I technically got hired over her. Boy was I wrong. Laura is my rock. And she lives too far away. She is one of the hardest working people I know and probably my best co-worker of all time. She is blunt and incredibly feisty. She puts me in my place when I need it and talks me down off the ledge when I'm having a Lynsey moment. I'm also a terrible influence on her because I encouraged her to drink an entire bottle of wine one Thanksgiving and the very next day she found out she was pregnant. Oops. Laura is my "grown up" friend who talks to me about marriage, family, buying houses, and most importantly, the weird crazy things that your body does when you are pregnant. I've already warned her she will be getting a million messages a day from me when I decide to have kids. She is one of a kind and I know that if I needed her, she would do everything in her power to be there for me, just like she hopefully knows I would do for her too. Laura won't actually be at the wedding....she had to go and have a baby. There is going to be a big gap that is missing, but I'll facetime her and ruin my makeup and have her oldest son Connor tell me how beautiful I am before I walk down the aisle. Laura, whether she knows it or not, is my person.

I'm incredibly blessed to have these amazing women by my side for the wedding for multiple reasons. They are all so special to me and I can't wait to celebrate with them and have our friends and family see how much they mean to me because they are part of our special day. I'm also lucky to have two "real" family members with me that day too, Lauren my incredible sister and Kaelie, Mike's amazing and talented niece. I really am the luckiest girl in the world to have 6 amazing women who loved me enough to say yes when I asked them to be beside me on the most important day of my life :) Family goes beyond blood. 

Love At First Sight?

As of today, we are officially one month away from the wedding. To be exact, we are 29 days 13 hours and 33 minutes away from the ceremony starting. And no, I didn’t just calculate that, our wedding wire app has the countdown as soon as it opens. Also, as I write this blog post my sister, Mike, and myself are all sending gifs via imessage in a group message to explain our excitement (Lauren and Mike) and our anxiety (me) about the wedding being a month away. The funny thing is that at this point it really feels like Mike and I are already an old married couple because we’ve been together for a while and have a house together. Even with that, we are both still looking forward to the wedding, being officially married, and gathering with some of our friends and family to celebrate. I haven’t blogged in a while so I figured today was the perfect day to write something and start a little series leading up to the wedding. So today, I give you the story of our first date J Mike might get embarrassed, but he needs to get used to that if he isn’t already since he is marrying me.

For the record, I asked Mike out first. I let him pick the place, time, and date, but I initiated the date. He decided we should meet on a Friday night downtown and the Wine Bar on Palafox. It was the night before I had to run a 5K very early in the morning, but I figured the date wouldn’t last that long and I would be fine to get home and get plenty of sleep before the race. As all girls do, I stressed about what I was going to wear and eventually settled on a pair of jeans, pink tank top, black cardigan and some boots. I looked cute if I must say so :) This was also my first official date in two years, so I was clearly a little nervous.

When I got to the Wine Bar, Mike was waiting outside for me. It was cold because it was January, but I remember thinking Mike’s jacket was a little extreme for the Florida cold (it was a puffy winter coat). He shook my hand when we met. It was really weird and I’ve told him that a thousand times. I don’t think anyone has shook my hand on a first date before Mike. That should have been my sign that he was a winner. We went inside, got seated, and started our date. The conversation was easy, I laughed, and we got to know each other. We had both eaten so we just ordered a glass of wine each. When we finished the first glass we were still talking and enjoying the date, so when the waitress asked if we wanted another drink, I assumed we would get one. Mike said no, so being courteous, I also said no. Then we sat there talking. For another two hours. With no more wine. The waitress probably thought we were crazy and hated that by the end of the night we had taken up a table for three hours and had only had two glasses of wine total. I thought we were nuts.

So when the check came I really wasn’t sure what to do. It just kind of sat at the table (we had to pay at the bar) and Mike didn’t acknowledge the check and I didn’t really either. I would have been totally fine to pay for our super expensive two glasses of wine, or to split it, but there was for sure an awkward little while of me wondering if he was going to pick up the check and pay for it. Good news, eventually he did.

We had parked near each other so we walked together back to our cars. When we were close to our cars but not actually at them, Mike stopped right in front of the door to one of my favorite bars in town, Seville Quarter. There was a bouncer right at the door who we stopped in front of so he got to hear Mike’s whole awkward goodbye, this was fun, we should do it again sometime speech. Then we said goodbye with no hug and luckily no awkward handshake again, we just parted ways and headed back to our cars.

For the record, the next day I talked with my mum and specifically told her that he was nice but a little quirky and I wasn’t sure if I liked him, but I would go on a second date with him to give him another chance. She likes to remind me of this conversation on a regular basis, but I guess it was a good thing I gave him a second chance, huh? And now that I’ve finally finished this we are 29 days, 12 hours and 40 minutes away from the ceremony.