Maroon and White!

I was asked to sing at Mississippi State University- Meridian's graduation tomorrow...

held in the Riley Center...

My very first time to ever sing on that stage...

and this will be my view (packed with people, of course!)

Can you say EXCITED??

Abby H gets HITCHED!

Even though Saturday was a nasty, nasty day with TONS of bad weather all over the south, the night had a beautiful ending! My friend, Abby, got married and everyone had a great time. I love the picture above. That's Christina, Sara, Abby D., Abby H., Hallie and Jessica. We were all friends in high school. The whole night was nothing but a big reunion for a lot of people that haven't seen each other since High School graduation.

Abby and I have been friends for a long time... like 1st grade I think. I remember spending the night at her house and playing with Lucy and L.J. (her dogs), and having her dad draw us breakfast menus on Saturday mornings. If they had cereal in their house, he'd draw a bowl of cereal, or a piece of toast, or an egg, or milk, etc. Whatever they had to offer, her dad would draw it perfectly on paper. We would wake up and choose what we wanted, then we were off on our bikes to ride the ins and outs of West Hills Elementary and Northwest Jr. High School. We always had so much fun together.

There were several things that I loved about Abby's wedding.

1. She looked so fabulous and so fun!! She's a fun person and her dress suited her perfectly!

2. She asked me to sing in her wedding, and as I was sitting behind the piano during the prelude, I saw that they had their pianist and guitarist play "Heavenly Day!" One of my absolute favorites!

3. I'm a music lover. She had four songs in her wedding. I sang one, there was a duet, and then she had two other soloists sing. I was introduced to two knew songs and I loved them.

4. Their first dance was to Cory Smith... oh I love him, too!
5. Everything about her wedding was fun. Her dress. The table cloths. The food. The Lanterns. The band. So fun, so Abby & Robert!

(look at those awesome centerpieces)

Abby's Cake...Robert's Cake

6. THE PHOTO BOOTH... enough said!!
Congratulations Abby and Robert! Your wedding night was so much fun... just like the two of you!! I wish you the very best!

Jennifer and Frank tie the knot!!

March, April, May & June are always busy wedding months. A friend of mine got married in March, two of them in April, two in May and then another in June. I was asked to sing in two of these weddings and had the best time. Jennifer and I met in Middle School I'm pretty sure. We've been friends for a long time. We got really close in Jr. High and the beginning of High School because we also attended the same church. Jennifer was always really sweet. She lived with her dad growing up and had a set of twin siblings (brother and sister) and then a younger sister. They were always really close and so funny to be around!

Skip a few years and enter the 9th grade!! Jennifer meets Frank. A sweet, country boy that goes to a different school but they fit perfectly together!! Frank likes to hunt and fish, and Jennifer, even though she was a girly girl, would spend her weekends with Frank everywhere he went!! The summer after we graduated from high school, everyone went their separate ways. I stayed in Meridian and Jennifer went to Ole Miss because that's where Frank was and that's where she wanted to go to school. I'm pretty sure that Jennifer and I ran into each other, um, maybe once, through our college years in Meridian.

**Side note: Everything was held outside at the Marascalco home; the rehearsal dinner, wedding and reception. The picture above is the back of the home. It was beautiful! Sorry, the picture just doesn't do it justice! They also have a big barn close to the orchard where the rehearsal dinner was and Jennifer had some of her bridal portraits made there. The picture below is her sitting in the loft of the barn... how beautiful is this?!

After nine years of Frank and Jennifer being together, they are looking forward to the rest of their lives together! Jenn & Frank, everything about your special day was PERFECT. Thank you for asking me to be a part of your wedding celebration. Happy beginnings!!

Leadership Lauderdale

Hey Ya'll!!

Long time, no blog!! I know... I'm going to get better at this. Things just need to slow down for a bit first!

A few weeks ago, I was honored to be asked to be a guest at the Leadership Lauderdale Youth Banquet. Leadership Lauderdale Youth is a program for 11th grade students to learn about the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens.

Several of my youth participated in this program this year and I was so proud of them. They each had to bring a guest and they had to stand up (in front of probably 200 people) and tell who their guest was and what habit best described their guest.

I was Shelby's guest and she said some really sweet things about me and why I fit into the "Put First Things First" category. We had a great time learning about the service projects they worked on all year and just watching them be "leaders" that night made me smile!!

(we even wore matching shoes, hee hee!)

Thanks for a great night friends!! I'm proud of ya'll!

Ready to Follow??

...Because we've got a lot of ground to cover in this post!

First things first: I'M BACK!! It's been forever since I blogged about something that was worth reading. I'm glad that things have fallen into place for today so that I can have a few extra seconds to share with you.

With that being said, here we go...

How incredible was your Easter weekend? Oh, mine was phenomenal!! Please let me explain this picture. One of my youth had a little happy for me whenever I came to church on Easter morning! I have mentioned to them several times that I don't like to eat fried chicken with my hands. I just prefer to use a fork. Well, one of them was looking out for me when they found this great find of "Wing Tongs" so that I don't ever have to get messy!! How cute :)

I also got to see my sweet friend Mary Kathryn from Washington, D.C. She was in Meridian seeing her family over the Easter weekend and she stopped by our church Easter Egg Hunt!

Spending time with my family was the highlight of my weekend, for sure. We had such a great time chatting and eating great food, and of course, hiding easter eggs. It's been YEARS since we've had an egg hunt in our family because we haven't really had any younger children in town... but this year, the egg hunt was back on and the little hunters came out in full force!!
and these just happen to be 3 of my very favorite people: my sweet cousins...If you're my friend on Facebook, you saw that I mentioned in a status update about a pair of shoes. Well, these are the ones! They were lucky enough to be the Easter shoe choice for 2010 and i thought they complimented my outfit perfectly! Plus, I can wear them with a lot of other things, too!!

Oh, and since Spring is here, it was high time that I set aside a night to clean out my closet and transfer the spring and summer stuff in. I'm pretty sure I just cleaned out my closet a few months ago. It's amazing how much stuff you can accumulate!I told you that I had a lot of cathing ya'll up to do on this thing, so here's my favorite thing for the week. This candle is AMAZING!! A friend of mine in Jackson has a huge candle like this and it burns all of the time. Because I wasn't sure if I wanted a really big candle, I was in Francesca's one day and picked up a little 4 scent sampler pack. This scent is by far the best!! You can get them at Francesca's or Anthropolgie I'm pretty sure. LOVE!!! I'll be at a Leadership Banquet tonight and will be missing Idol and GLEE!!!!!! So, I'm pretty sure that I'll be up until the wee hours of the morning trying to watch both of these shows. We'll talk about our opinions tomorrow!! Until then...

Technology

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm a new when it comes to Skype!! I never EVER imagined that I'd be using it. I'ver heard a lot of people say that they use it to talk to people that are out of town, or out of the country, but I'm using it for a totally different reason.



One of my friends in class recently moved, and our professor has given her permission to have "skype dates" with us through my computer so that she can listen in class. WHAT?? I couldn't believe it. So, as I'm blogging about this, she's looking at me on her laptop in Tupelo and listening to our professor in New Orleans.



I recently imported all of my facebook friends on skype and you can't imagine how many of them are using skype. It's crazy!! How many of you skype??



Also, I've had an incredible Easter weekend and can't wait to post pictures for ya'll!! I hope you had a great weekend and that you're Monday is off to a fantastic start!!