Operating Normally

Just getting ready for Star Wars to come out with a little cosplay, and rewatching all 6 films. Obviously.

In the past few weeks and months I have been making an effort to be more mindful of my own actions. To do this I take the time to review old blog posts, Facebook posts, Twitter, etc., and look for patterns and repeat behavior and emotions. (After all, blogging is the new journaling, or at least it was 10 years ago, right?)
If there is one thing I have caught on to it is my tendency to write out my busy-ness lists. I'm frequently a busy person, with 500 priorities at once, (followed by long dry spells), and tend to blog/share my list of current crazies.
I can't decide if this is good or bad. Should I keep doing it? I can't decide. I know why I do it. it's because that is what is on my mind- my 500 things to do that are outside the realm of normal, every day to-do. I rarely mention when life is average and normal. Or at least, I haven't done that in about 5 years.
Is the problem that I get into crazy states? Or is it a needed mental release to write it all out for my own sanity? I'm sure there is someone out there who thinks when I write it all out I'm bragging or something. I assure you, that's never it. If anything, I'm looking for commiseration.
This week I don't need commiseration. Things are completely crazy, but I'm loving every minute of it. I'm planning a wedding reception for a dear friend on Saturday. I haven't had a budget and time to plan an awesome party like this in a long time. This really is going to be a beautiful, memorable event. I can't wait!
My parents are leaving on their mission to Samoa in less than 2 weeks. Our family and household are in full mission prepping mode right now. It's an interesting mix of excitement, reluctance, urgency, and organization.
I'm the young women's organization president at our church/ward. That keeps me hopping right along. There's no end to all of the time, work, and effort that job requires.
I'm incredibly blessed to have some freelance work on my plate right now. It's all social media related, which has been a nice change of pace for me. Lately all I've done is writing/editing work, so it has been nice to re-submerge myself into social media. And it's just nice to have some work to do at all.
I'm still writing and working on various projects. I still have high hopes of starting a new business here in Roanoke sooner or later. (I just need about $20,000 more to make it happen.)
In other words, my life is in a constant change of flux and crazy, which is to say, all is operating normally.

Madi and Scott Tie the Knot Wedding Video

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Madi and Scott Tie the Knot

Last week I traveled to Utah for the wedding of my brother Scott to his new bride Madi. We just adore Madi and are thrilled to have her in the family!
It was a great trip full of friends and family. It was hard to come back home!

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Who's the crazy girl now?

Just when I think my life is dull and boring, the Universe likes to prove me horribly wrong. What craziness am I to today?
-Proofing my book, "Sharing the Gospel through Social Media," that comes out February 10th. (Published by Cedar Fort Books.)
- Planning a dear friend's wedding- WITH LESS THAN 2 WEEKS' NOTICE! The crazy girl will have a less than 3 week engagement. But then maybe I'm the crazy one for taking on her reception with just 2 weeks and no money to pull it off!
- Christmas, because you know, it's Christmastime and all
- Working part-time
- Writing another book that I'd really like to have finished by Dec 31
- Working for 2 different clients on book editing, formatting, and marketing stuff
- All that other life stuff!

Pro-Marriage, Anti-Marriage

First, let me make this one point clear- I support the traditional family movement. I have read the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' statement on marriage, and choose to endorse it. I want to make that clear, because everything else I am about to say, may lead you to think otherwise.

A little bit about me. I am in my late thirties, a product of the 1980’s and the Mtv generation. I grew up in the suburbs, in a family with a mother and a father who have been married over forty years now. I am the oldest of four children.
Most importantly, I know that my “traditional” upbringing makes me unique. I can think of few friends who grew up in similar environments, with a stay-at-home mom, a dad in the picture, and siblings. Most of my friends, by far the majority, did not have this same arrangement.
To the best of my knowledge, most of my friends were raised by a divorced mother. They knew their fathers, but his presence in their lives varied from person to person. Some had dads that lived in his own house in the same neighborhood, others had dads in far off places.
Single mothers who had never married, and yet “kept the child,” were still unusual, and mostly unheard of. It is my generation that would grow up to change that.
Each time I read another pro-family, pro- “traditional” marriage article, I want to argue with it, in spite of the fact that I try to be on their side. I often want to punch holes through weak, biased, straw man arguments.
If anything, I feel far more sympathy for the gay marriage supporters. But, I have made the decision to follow the prophet, keep the commandments, and in this case, that means I must accept the Church’s position on this issue. It may very well be the ultimate trial of my faith for years to come. I expect that it might be. But nonetheless, I choose it anyway.
Traditional marriage supporters often seem delusional to the opposing side. The arguments that a “child needs both a father and a mother” fall on very experienced, very deaf ears. I wonder if the traditionalists understand that? My generation- the generation with the political money, voting power, and the ones who have brought about much reform in the last 15-20 years, we don’t understand that way of thinking. We (the general we) were not raised in two parent homes, and we turned out just fine. The argument that in order to be smart, healthy, well-fed, loved, and cared for requires a father and a mother is inane to a generation that was not raised that way. Life experiences will always trump statistics.
If traditionalists want to convert or sway the other side, they have to understand that not only does the other side disagree with them, they have life experiences that prove the arguments invalid. All the “research” studies done by biased organizations (who knows how long ago), will never convince a college graduate raised by a single parent that they need both parents.

More from my sister's wedding

If you know my dad, you know there were only a few song options for the traditional "father daughter dance" at my sister's wedding. Basically it had to be either a song by the Beatles or Frankie Vallie and the Four Seasons. We came up with this little cover ourselves, and loved it. (We told Dad it came from "Glee" after the fact.)

Sorry for the cruddy quality of the video. It was taken on my phone obviously.

And if you aren't totally tired of pictures from her wedding yet, check out the photos from the official photographer's sneak peak at Vantage Pictures.
Ooh! And he's posted even more pics here!

It was a nice day for a white wedding

A sneak peak from the wedding photos!
A few of my favorite pics found on my phone and camera from my sister's wedding.

Our brother is currently deployed and was unable to be at the wedding. We got to talk to him right before the ceremony, which was a lot of fun, and maybe made a few of us cry just a little bit. To "include" him in the festivities we enlarged the only photo we could find that was a high enough resolution and put him on foam core, and carried him around with us. He may kill me in the end for the not incredibly flattering picture, but he was a huge hit. When I pulled him out (I have to admit "pulling Scott out" and "putting Scott away" got to be very funny) and we explained to the groomsmen what was going on (note- all of them are the groom's fire crew- also standing in rank order-chief to yellow hat) they all cheered for him.

A much more traditional photo- the whole bridal party, minus the ring bearers. The flower girl was stinking adorable.
My favorite part of the rehearsal dinner was a conversation with the little flower girl (whom Steph (the bride) used to nanny for). Steph was wearing a casual white dress during the rehearsal. The flower girl was a little disappointed. We asked what was wrong and she explained she thought that was the REAL wedding dress. So we told her it was just a dress, and that the real wedding dress would be a bigger version of her own pretty ball gown for the wedding. She got all excited and said, "Really? She's going to wear a beautiful white ball gown!?!" We said yes. She got very excited and emotional, clasped her hands under her chin (in a swoony way seen in every Disney princess movie ever), and said, "And then she's going to marry the handsome prince!!" It was too cute for words.

The nephews and Aunt Steph. Doing their best manly poses, or something like that. Porter (littlest one) is actually doing his "very best look."

The back of my head. Just so you know, my hair rocked. And Rachel did it for me.

Looking forward to the photographer (our awesome cousin and award winning awesome photographer Jon) posting the real pics soon!

Wedding Crazies

Porter practicing to be the ring bearer at the wedding.

It is a crazy week around here, folks! My mother, sister, and nephews are all in town. My dad and other sister will arrive in a few days. I drove up to DC and back yesterday for Serena's funeral. And we have my great-aunt's funeral on Saturday. Then there is the bridal shower, rehearsal dinner, and a wedding! Somewhere in there my brother-in-law arrives in town as well. Plus there's all that fun wedding prep stuff, like haircuts, new shoes, fittings, etc. And trying to keep up with my 2 work-from-home jobs, while my home is full of wedding crazies, and gremlins posing as my nephews.
Confession- today I resorted to bribing my nephews with cash. It worked until I ran out of ones, and only had twenties left. I wasn't willing to pay with twenties, but they were more than willing to do the same "work" for me for higher pay. Yeah, not going to happen. ("Work" often includes, "Hey, Porter, will you run down to my room and bring me my ...")
I'm exhausted! (And I don't really know why.)

MB + AB

The last two days have been all about my darling cousin Merry Brooke's wedding. She is my 14th (I think?) cousin to get married on that side of the family. It is always fun to get together for big family weddings, spend time with cousins, and just celebrate together.

MB married Aaron. I have actually known of Aaron for at least 6 years. He and I grew up just a few minutes away from each other, and have many friends in common. However, we never really knew each other- just of each other. It is interesting how someone from your past can one day become a permanent part of your future like that! He was just a guy I knew in passing, and now he and I will share kin. Welcome to the family, Aaron.
(He also makes the second Aaron in the family. So now we have an Erin, Aaron, Aaron, and Arianna.)

It was a lovely wedding, and lots of fun to see everyone.

Congrats MB and AB!