House on the Hill

So, now it's summer at our house! Swimming, sleeping in (8am) and staying up late...

We've got more things coming our way including packing for the move and my event.
Yesterday I ordered all our marketing materials and I've got to get a timeline going so I can build up to our fall event. The kids and I are working through some Bible Study work books this summer and I love doing them with them. They are reading, answering questions and we're having good discussion. I also thought we could pack a few boxes a day to get ready for the move. I don't mind packing...until the very end when you can't decide what you're going to use in the next 24 hours, etc. And then there's all the loose stuff...that doesn't fit in boxes. OK, maybe packing isn't fun, but I'm hoping to get some done every day now that we're done hosting major events like bridal brunches and life groups in our home.

The stone layers have finally arrived on the Hill. The stone and brick have been on the property long enough that we'll probably always have marks where they were stacked! I'm thankful they are there and I won't say one word about their work because I just want it up! Richard will probably be the liaison with those guys.

Today they are starting to lay flooring, most of the painting has been done, and the cabinet doors are on their way. The island in the kitchen is going to be huge and the cabinet maker is on his way over now so I can "OK" the stain. I've got one paint color I'm questioning, it's pretty, but it's blue. I thought it was more green. So many decisions, none of them life-changing!

Wedding post #3 - Maid of Honor's speech

This is why I told my kids everyday..."You're best friends. Treat each other like it. Every other friend is temporary, but you will always be sisters." #thankful

When Lauren was almost two years old, she was blessed with a sweet, loving little sister… me. Almost two years ago, we were blessed with another addition to the family, although we didn’t know it at the time.

Lauren and I have been making memories together pretty much since I was born and we became automatic roommates for the next sixteen years of our lives. Whether it was talking late into the night on Mockingbird Lane or passing notes through the cracks in our bunk beds… or putting on concerts for our parents in the living room or fighting over the front seat (which I always let her have because I was afraid of her). These memories will always hold a special place in my heart.

One of my greatest memories, however, didn’t happen in our old house on Mockingbird Lane or even in Arkansas for that matter, but in Oklahoma last summer when we both got the opportunity to work for the summer at Falls Creek. Lauren had worked there the summer before and played a significant role in getting me hired.

When we started that summer I was only known as “Lauren’s little sister” or for a few very confused people “Lauren’s twin sister” (although I still don’t see it). At first that identification was very challenging for me. But then I realized that there is no one else I would rather be compared to than Lauren.

LAUREN IS loyal, works harder than anyone I know, and dedicated to whatever she puts her mind to, and in the end, she will probably be the best at whatever it is. She is feisty, fun, yet selfless. She leads by example, and is the first to pitch in when she sees a need. She sees potential in everyone, and she’s not afraid to stand up for what she believes in.

THANK YOU, LAUREN for being my best friend when I had none and for letting me tag along with your friends all the way through high school. Thanks for being my shoulder to cry on when I felt alone and for letting me rant to you when nothing seemed to be going right. Thank you for telling me when my outfit didn’t match and still claiming me when I wore it in public anyway. Thank you for being a big sister to my friends who don’t have one, and for setting the bar high for me on the soccer field and the classroom. Thank you for defending me in the locker room in P.E. and for always picking me to be on your team, even though we all know I didn’t get the same athletic gene you got.

IAN, I knew you were someone special when she got absolutely giddy when you sent me a friend request on Facebook two years ago. Lauren simply does not get giddy. Thank you for pursuing my sister and loving her relentlessly. I have loved third wheeling with you two.

TO LAUREN AND IAN, thank you for setting a Christ-like example for me in your relationship. Thank you for putting the Lord first in your relationship with each other and the decisions you make. Thank you for honoring each other and may the Lord honor your marriage in the many years to come. Congratulations, Lauren. And Ian.. welcome to the greatest family in the world.

Wedding post #2

Until we get our OFFICIAL FABULOUS professional photos in...these are my favorite of the ceremony. Burgundy dresses, grey vests, and falling lights set the stage for Lauren and Ian's BEST DAY EVER. So very thankful that they could demonstrate a CHRIST-centered, fun wedding for every guest in the room.

Yes, the best man acted like he forgot the ring. A red ring pop was passed forward...until the real ring was found.

Yes, the pastor said there was much more written to the men in the Bible about how they needed to treat their wife...because men were a little slow, or they needed more instruction.

Yes, they danced off the stage...including twirls for the bridal party.

Yes, Richard helped me figure out yet another crazy plan to hang lights from the industrial ceiling in our church and did it without complaint!

SO much to say...wedding post #1

Whoa! It's Sunday afternoon and I've just gotten up from yet another deep-sleep nap from the chair in the living room. The kids were watching a movie but they've gone on to other things now. I'm thankful they know not to wake a sleeping Mama of the Bride!

I've hosted many events in the last years, I know how to plan, be flexible and take care of people. However, I've NEVER hosted a wedding, nor had to make plans with the main goal of making two people SMILE ALL NIGHT! I'm so thankful I can call our wedding a SUCCESS on all fronts! We knew at the end of the night they would be legally wed, but all the other details made the night super fun!

This afternoon I asked the 3 littles to tell me their favorite things in the wedding. They wrote and wrote and then we shared. It's so funny to see how they ranked their favorites, there were SO MANY wonderful parts it's hard to choose!

CAMERON:

Dancing with our cousins

Cake: baseball cake

Whip n Nay Nay

The funness/funner

The dancing

The watermelon and pineapple

The ring pop

The preacher

The people

The fireworks

JORDAN:

Food

The smooch

Lauren’s Dress – she’d like to wear someday

The rehearsal (dinner)

The colors

The father/daughter dance

The signing of the book (guest book)

The cupcakes

The wedding shower

The Jenga blocks

The Bs - she also might want to use these someday if she marries someone with a B last name!

SHERIDAN:

Ian & Lauren getting married

Vows

Getting to greet everyone and hand out programs

Chocolate Chip Dip

Getting to see old Clarksville friends (Suede, Lindsey & Lexi)

How pretty it was at Bona Dea for pictures

The wrap (sandwich) in the bridal party room, it was very good

Getting to pray over Lauren and Ian during the wedding

Seeing Lauren’s Falls Creek friends

Erin and Dad’s speeches

The leftovers we got to bring home

The special painted wedding signs

Getting to walk down the aisle with Jordan and Cameron

From a MOM or MOB's perspective:

~ALL my kids being home...Ryan found out on Tuesday he could get a flight home from Ft Benning

~When her flowers and our cupcakes came in and were EXACTLY like she wanted

~The smile Lauren had when she put on her dress and veil

~Praying over Lauren with her bridal party and her new mother in law

~Seeing people come to the wedding from all over who love Lauren (including band director from high school, friends from Falls Creek staff, friends from FBC Clarksville, new friends from their LIFE groups, friends from my Life Group, high school friends, former neighbors, and family from as far away as California!)

~The moment when Richard gave Lauren to Ian and gave him a huge manly hug

~The maid of honor speech by Erin and the father toast by Richard

~The father/daughter dance (choreographed by a friend and NAILED on the dancefloor!)

~The family who smiled, hugged and loved Lauren just by being there

~The smile on Lauren's face as she left with Ian for her HAPPILY EVER AFTER

RL Owners Conference 2016

Our company has gotten big. Over 90 RL owners and their spouses and managers were at our 2016 conference at Big Cypress Lodge in the Pyramid in Memphis. This was one of the best venues, minus the taxidermy animal theme all around the lodge. I always have fun spending time with my friends in the business, but several of these ladies are friends that I count among my favorite people in the world.

I also got the chance to speak twice at our event. One was a comedic look at our business that started with "You know you're a Rhea Lana's owner when..." The room was very receptive to my words because we all experience the same humorous things at our events year after year. Dealing with the masses, especially women, can be a funny thing. I also got to share "My Journey." Instead of telling the history of Rhea Lana's of Russellville, I told how I started with Rhea Lana while she was building her business in Conway. She gave me a lot of experience that at the time I thought was all the "small things" but every one of them helped me become an expert in our business. It was a lot of fun for me, I'm one of those crazy people who LIKE to talk in front of people. I enjoyed sharing about how Rhea Lana's huge Central Arkansas events began very small and with a lot of hard work.

It's an amazing business that Rhea Lana has grown. She's actually an introvert who has 80 franchises all over the country and just fought the Federal Government to not be bullied by the labor department! I'm thankful to be a part of this company and I'm thankful to have a sweet spot where I can use my gifts to help families.

Rhea Lana's of Russellville received the top award this year...Franchise of the Year. I was not expecting it and it was huge for me personally. I couldn't wait to tell my leadership team and family. Richard had been in New York for some training and took a flight to Memphis to be with me. He surprised me because he knew the award was coming. He then drove his rental car to Little Rock and picked up his own car and headed home to teach our Connect Class at church at 8am on Sunday!

House on the Hill

This weekend closets are being trimmed and baseboard is being layed. The walls have been primed and the painters are prepping for painting on Monday. The backsplash, paint, the flooring have all been ordered. The kids and I even packed away our winter things this last week in anticipation for July.

The stone and brick pretty much look like they did 4 weeks ago. They are sitting spread around the house and our stone and brick layer is on a 2 week vacation out of the country. So, other than that delay, we're rolling.

Dear daughters

Dear daughters (all 4 of you),

I saw a post today written by a mom with this title...Dear daughters, what I want you to know about my wedding. I've decided there are some things you need to know about our wedding, so I'm copying her idea, but these memories are your heritage.

WEDDING PLANNING:
There was no pinterest.
No google.
No digital cameras.

I tore some pictures out of a bridal magazine of the bridesmaids dresses I wanted, a beautiful cranberry colored dress, and a cake design. My mom (Grandma) has always been in retail and we found my dress on a sale rack in under 2 hours. The puffy sleeves WERE in, and they went with my hair, even though I went with a french twist for the ceremony.

I remember ordering the cake from Harps bakery and they wouldn't agree to a non-traditional cake (Italian Cream Cake) because they said it would be too heavy. They did a great job imitating the picture I gave them of the design on the cake.

A lady who owned the only "tea room" in Mtn Home catered my reception. I didn't touch most of the high falutin' food she served but I trusted Mom and Mrs Ponder to choose things for the reception. I remember they were really excited about spinach dip. I didn't touch green veggies during this time in my life, but if it was going to go over well, it was OK with me.

WEDDING DAY:
Our wedding was at 6:00 but the Hogs played Tennessee at 1:30pm. We had our rehearsal the day of the wedding since Richard had to work the night before in Dardanelle. Unfortunately, the game went into overtime and Todd Wright kicked a field goal to win it right before 4 to win it. The unfortunate part was the entire wedding party was at my house watching the game on tv. I didn't take a shower before pictures or shave my legs, and I didn't take quite enough time to check my honeymoon bag for some things that were missing when we arrived across the country. Seems like not a big deal, but we got ready to go to pictures in about 10 minutes and well, I didn't feel quite prepared.

I didn't walk down the aisle to the Wedding March, we asked a friend to marry us because he was young. He didn't live near us so there was no pre-marital counseling. We were his first wedding and he used every word we wrote as our ceremony. We wrote our own vows and ended them with a pledge of I Corninthians 13.

What happened during the ceremony that wasn't planned: the unity candle I was holding came out of the cylinder and almost caught my dress on fire.

I had several sorority sisters serving during the reception. Unfortunately, I was seriously so happy to be leaving my home and marrying my prince, I didn't talk to my friends very much. I regret that now as I haven't spoken to some of them since that night. It wasn't that I wasn't glad they were there, but I was enamored and under the marriage spell.

My bridesmaids dresses turned out to be hot pink, but I didn't admit this until years after the wedding. This was the same year I pulled the pictures out of a sticky photo album that was an expensive gift from friends. Apparently the sticky part of the album wasn't acid free and as the pages turned yellow, I was afraid I'd lose those pictures too. They are now in a box.

Things we noticed right when we got the pictures: Dad's tie was crooked during the pictures and ceremony. He's still a little ticked about that, so don't bring it up or point it out when you see our wedding picture on the wall at Grandma's.

The videographer gave us a video that you cannot pick people out of. Seriously, it's complete "snow." Apparently even though the service at my home church was televised every week, and video was shot from 3 cameras, the cameras weren't in focus because they were set to transfer to the tv station or something and there is nothing but sound and gray lines for our video.

We left with bird seed flying, I had forgotten my shoes to go with my "going away" outfit and borrowed my mother's black flats (2 sizes too big) to run to the car. We drove to my house, 2 blocks away, emptied bird seed from Richard's pants, and were on our way.

AFTER THE WEDDING:
We had to stop at the carwash so Richard could see to drive to Little Rock (3 1/2 hours away) and while he was washing the windows off I looked in the take home box since we didn't eat anything at the reception. It was filled with spinach dip and some crackers.

The hotel in LR lost our keys sometime between midnight and 5:30am...when we had to go to the airport to catch our plane to Nantucket. Fortunately, my spare set was in the bottom of one of our suitcases. We might still be in the lobby there if they hadn't been found. What valet LOOSES YOUR KEYS?

SO, what's the point of this post?

Our life together started before the wedding. We were committed to one another even before we were engaged. We had the most important transformation in our lives when we got our hearts straight with God before we tied the knot. It made us able to battle the hardships that are bound to come when two strong personalities marry, have kids, and breath the same air.

Our wedding was a blip on the screen of the last 23 years married to your dad. It was a special day, but only one day and the wedding was really only a couple of hours. What my dress looked like, what was served at the reception and who put that bird seed down Dad's pants doesn't matter one bit now.

What is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING is that Dad chose to love me at that time and he hasn't changed his mind. How do I know? Well, I'm hard to live with and we've had 23 years of ups and downs, and sometimes I ask him how he still loves me and that's when he tells me he committed to me for forever.

That's the kind of person you want to marry. That's the most important thing about our wedding day, are the words we vowed and no matter what has happened or will happen in our lives, we're going to keep our covenant with God and with each other.