Just Say Julie

Sunday was our last full day in Tennessee before we flew back to Austin Monday morning.  I definitely didn't want our trip to end but neither one of us had much time off work and we already taken care of the important part of the trip: getting married.  However, I realized that Sunday morning as I handed Chris his Father's day cards from Kiddo and Maverick that I was going to be faced with a dilemma in a year.  Indeed, our first anniversary would fall on Father's Day.  So I would have to share the day with a celebration for Chris.  Little did I realize at the time that Mother's Day would also fall on Chris's birthday.  I have been so cheated this year.  At least I get my birthday all to myself unless Jackson makes his appearance early but I digress. Since we finally had time to relax a bit now that the wedding was over and we had finished all the running around related to the festivities, we were finally able to take in the scenery around the lodge. ...

So the big day had finally arrived.  I can't say I was nervous or anxious because I was pretty comfortable with my decision to marry Chris.  I was just excited and ready for the ceremony.  As with the rest of our trip up to that point, we hit the ground running that morning.  First it was breakfast at the lodge and then it was time to start getting ready.  While I was getting my hair done and a pedicure, Chris was enjoy a massage at the salon.  We then had to swing by the dry cleaners to pick up my dress which had been dropped off the day before to be pressed before heading back to the lodge for the picnic lunch we had ordered.  Once again, I can't say enough great things about the staff at Berry Springs Lodge.  Lunch was waiting for us in our cabin when we got back along with the flowers my mother had ordered for us for the ceremony. I mentioned yesterday that my parents came to Pigeon Forge for the wedding.  What I didn't tell you is that...

It was a good thing Chris quickly recovered from his stomach virus because our second day in Tennessee was a busy one.  We started off the day with our first breakfast at the lodge and that is when I realized that the trip was well worth it.  We had a 3 course breakfast every morning that included some type of home made sweet bread, fresh fruit with yogurt, and a main course.  The main courses ranged from pancakes to eggs and bacon to stuffed french toast.  This was some of the best food I had ever tasted. Once we completed breakfast, it was time to head to town to take care of some very important business: getting our marriage license.  One of the great things about Sevier County is that, like Las Vegas, it is considered a tourist wedding location so getting a marriage license there is a simple and inexpensive task.  We had applied online about month in advance which meant we were only in the courthouse about fifteen minutes finishing up the paperwork. ...

Our first anniversary is this weekend.  Thinking about that has had me looking back on what we were doing this time last year as we prepared to head to Tennessee.  I realized that I hadn't shared a lot about the weekend we had so I thought I could take a little stroll down memory lane. Chris and I decided a couple of months after we got engaged that the "big" wedding wasn't going to work for us.  We had both been there, done that with our first marriages and neither one of us really wanted to kill ourselves over one day.  We were more concerned about what would come after that day.  Initially we thought about getting married in Austin since we lived here but couldn't get over the cost of trying to plan a small family and friends gathering here.  Mobile was our next option.  The cost would be less but we kept running into roadblocks with trying to schedule around everyone else's schedules.  One night I found a website called Let's Run Off , a reso...

I hit 34 weeks yesterday which means I have 6 weeks left in this pregnancy.  It is officially drawing to a close.  In 3 weeks, I will be considered full term so Jackson's arrival could happen at anytime from this point forward.  I have felt all along he will get here before his due date at the end of July.  And now my blood pressure is doing wacky things so I keep expecting the doctor to tell me it is time. And with that all I can think about everything I still need to do to get ready.  My intent is to leave detailed instructions behind at work so my coworkers can easily pick up behind me and carry on while I am out.  We also keep putting off moving the furniture out of the office to make room for the nursery furniture that we haven't yet purchased.  Somewhere around the beginning of May, our schedules imploded.  All the sudden we were a lot busier than we had been and free time was a minimum.  I thought the end of the school year would bri...