sorrow and joy

It has been such a strange week/end. Wednesday was such a terrible day. The sadness and enormity of that situation continues to overwhelm me (if I have a minute to think about it). However, since Thursday afternoon, we've been somewhat removed from that whole situation, as we've been in Augusta preparing for and celebrating my brother's wedding. It feels like in alternate moments I can be filled with sorrow or joy, depending on who I'm with and what I'm currently thinking about. I feel like I have a split personality or something.

Their obituary is in the paper today. It's simple and beautiful. If I think about it or talk about it, I will start crying, so I'm going to stop. I can't mess up my wedding makeup. We will leave town tomorrow morning to head back to Athens to join our family for the funeral.


Yesterday, however, was filled with wedding and rehearsal dinner preparation. We had a bridesmaids' luncheon in the afternoon. After that, my sister and I made a quick shoe-shopping run (amazing how easy it is to make shoe-decisions the day before the wedding!) and got our nails done. And then paused for a photo shoot. We wanted to try to capture every wardrobe change of the weekend (excluding boring things like shorts and tees and pajamas, of course). Here's our "bridesmaid lunch" wear.

And here we are after the luncheon, with our almost-sister Emily! Please note that Sarah and I are not THAT minuscule (nor is Emily an Amazon woman). However, Emily is about 5'10 and she's wearing HIGH heels. Sarah is 5'4 and I'm 5'7 and we're both wearing flats. Hence the following picture...

We finished off the night with a rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. Unfortunately, I don't have any pics from that yet...a friend of ours was the photographer for the night, so I will get them from her shortly. It was a wonderful night and it was SO nice to see all of my family. We had a TON of people come in from Texas/Mexico/Tennessee and that means SO much to me (and Jake, I'm sure). I loved sitting with my aunts (who I hardly ever see, as you can imagine) and hearing all their ridiculous stories about us when we were little. I even heard a REALLY good one that is apparently a Top Family Secret that no one can know until they are at least 21 and then you are sworn to secrecy. I know. It would be the best Way Back When-sday story ever, but I'm pretty sure publishing it on my blog would disqualify me from learning future Family Secrets, so I probably won't. Unless I change some names (so this kid named....let's call him Lake....)...

I was up and getting my hair did at 5:45 this morning, and now I have awhile to sit around before I need to do makeup and head towards the venue. The wedding is at noon, and it's outdoors (in a pavilion) at the river. It's going to be beautiful.

Have a happy Saturday. Please continue to keep Tom and Amy in your prayers. I can't wait to see them tomorrow.