Exhale

This morning, I'm taking a breath of reflection. The past 'crazy' week ended up being anything but crazy. Amidst all of the chaos it seems the only thing we forgot was to take Stephanie to driver's ed on Saturday. Not bad...all things considered ;D We got through the wedding, which was more like the Chicago Marathon (for me at least). Even though my nieces wedding dress would not have been my first choice (that was my original opinion) when coupled with the tuxes and the bride maids' dresses, everything was beautiful...simply beautiful. We had many glitches along the way, misplaced tux bags, missing bridal slippers, missing boutonnieres, (Debra saved the day on that one!) late bridesmaids, altered picture schedule, and believe it or not...the wedding was flawless, everything came together, and not one detail was overlooked. Simply Gorgeous! Those of you that know me well, also know that I took about 100 pictures...(mostly of Aubrey...just kidding!) When I catch my breath tomorrow, I'll have a slide show up on the blog for your viewing pleasure. Last night when I went to bed, I had to put chap stick on my eye....(chap stick, the magic cure for everything) because my eye was so chapped from crying. (My niece in her innocence said to me, "Did you cry auntie?" It was such a bittersweet time, without Gramma Bee, Aunt Ruth, and Poppy...yet a joyous time as Shana and Ryan start their new life together. There were a lot of happy tears, sad tears, and tears from explosive laughter of course! Shana and Ryan are in Jamaica today, the baby is with Danae; Larry, Cassie and Gabe have all caught their respective flights home and today, everyone gets a chance to exhale...