The Most Beautiful Wedding

ND Friend did it.  She and Tiny Dancer had the most beautiful wedding that could ever be a month ago in Chicago.

I've tried several times to sit down and write this blog.  But words just don't do it justice.  Even the pictures--and there are some stunningly beautiful ones--don't do it justice.  Seeing their two sweet families celebrate with them.  Hearing their cousins sing Ave Maria from the balcony.  Watching these two smiling non-stop for hours (seriously....their faces must have been sore the next day). There was something there, in that Cathedral, that you could just feel.  Love.  Faith.  Joy.  Happiness.  It was palpable.  As it should have been for two of the absolute best people I know.

So instead of making an inadequate attempt at describing it, I am going to let the photos do the talking.  And I am going to hope that one day you are able to experience something like this. Because it really was just remarkable.

Congratulations to the happy couple!

Me meeting Fr. Robert Barron

Photo by Jolene Broad Photography

Photo by Jolene Broad Photography

 

 

Oh, one more thing.  You have to see the Matron of Honor speech by sweet Super Mom.  It was the best I've ever heard.  Click here (to read the words she spoke) and here to see the video that followed.  Both are at the bottom of the respective blog links.  Oh, and pretend to be surprised when you hear that same amazing song played during communion at our wedding in October.

These Two....

This evening I am headed for the Windy City to help celebrate the marriage of these two...

Perhaps I shall wear my party hat again.

I have to admit that I've been to a lot of weddings and I've always been super excited for the bride and groom, but these two are just extra special.  They are two of the sweetest, kindest, most fun, most faithful, most amazing people I know.  They have taught me more about love and relationships and faith and trust than they will ever know.  The fact that they will be Mr. and Mrs. tomorrow just makes my heart happy. 

Plus, I was kinda there in the beginning when I had to explain to ND Friend that Tiny Dancer hanging around with us the entire St. Patrick's Day weekend had nothing to do with his love for all things Irish (or my charming personality) but had everything to do with him being completely into HER!  I have been Team Tiny Dancer from the beginning.

Chicago, here we come!  Let the celebration begin!

The Ranch Party

Y'all.  Let me just tell you.  ND Friend and her family know how to throw a party.  Holy smokes!

Because ND Friend and Tiny Dancer will be getting married in Chicago, her parents wanted to host a party back home in New Mexico for all of her friends and family out here that might not be able to make it to the big city.  So over Memorial Day weekend, we all headed to her parents' ranch for the festivities.

First off, let me brag on Super Mom for a minute.  This lady is 37 weeks pregnant, chasing around three boys under the age of 4, and still found time to get her bunk house situated for The Boy from Texas and I to stay in, provide us with snacks, and make us a homemade pancake breakfast fit for a king the day after the party.  Seriously, TBFT is still raving about her pancakes.  She is just the absolute best.  And we did not get one single picture together.  Fail!

Super Mom and her precious little family.

Oh, the boys' shirts.  They refer to ND Friend (their aunt) as RoRo.  Tiny Dancer's real name may be Sean.  Now check out the adorable shirts they wore to the party.

Okay, back to the party.  My favorite thing was the fact that Tiny Dancer's family came from Chicago.  Mind you, he's got a huge family. 7 brothers and sisters, his parents, two aunts and uncles, at least 8 cousins, there may have been more, I'm not sure.  They didn't have to haul off to the boondocks for this.  But they are so awesome and fun and supportive that they did....and I mean they REALLY did.  All of them got cowboy boots for Christmas last year to prepare.  When they got to New Mexico, they hit up the western wear store and the report I got was that they LITERALLY bought every single hat for sale in the whole town.  They were so enthusiastic and fun and up for anything.  I could not have been any more impressed with the in laws that are soon to belong to my sweet friend.

The party consisted of great bbq, four kinds of homemade cookies (family recipes), a well-stocked bar, a washer tournament (at which the priest who had never played before was my favorite participant!), dancing, and tons of fun.

The decor.

I kinda love this picture of The Boy from Texas and I at the dance.

Fr. Joe taking his turn.

Hiding out under the barn during a brief rain storm

Me and the lovely bride!

The Boy from Texas looking quite handsome pitching washers.

If there is anyone in the world who deserves a perfect engagement party, it is ND Friend.  And I think she got it that night.  Now the countdown in on for the big wedding in Chicago.  I can't wait!!

The happy couple!

Turning the Big 3-0

"A birthday is just the first day of another 365-day journey around the sun.  Enjoy the trip."  ~Author Unknown

Thank you all so much for your sweet birthday wishes last Friday!  I can officially report that I survived turning the Big 3-0! 

I was actually at an ag law conference in Madison, Wisconsin on the big day.  So my birthday consisted mostly of listening to presentations about ag law issues.  But then one of my law school buddies decided it would be a good idea to have the whole room full of people sing to me.  If you know me, you know I despise singing on birthdays.  Seriously, despise.  Somehow, however, it always seems to happen.  One year, my friend Leon had the whole law school Halloween party sing to me on stage.  Another, the same friend (note to self...no more spending birthdays with him!) had a Mexican food restaurant sing to me whilst making me wear a sombrero.  Anyway, this year was no exception and a room of about 250 ag lawyers sang me happy birthday.  And I almost died.  So yea, there was that.

Me and my friend NYC Ag Lawyer (yep, she has her own firm in NYC!)

Then, my dear, sweet, amazing friends ND Friend and Tiny Dancer came over from Chicago in order to take me out to dinner for my birthday.  For those of you who don't know Midwestern geography, that's a 3 hour drive.  One way.  Yep.  Friendship.  Right there.  And they showed up in style...party hats, horns, confetti being thrown in the streets.....seriously, it was like a parade!

 

 

First things first, however.  The night before my birthday, those two had some exciting news in the form of a big shiny diamond ring on a very important finger!  Yes, that's right, folks, ND Friend and Tiny Dancer are getting married!  I'm not sure I have ever seen two people more excited to be engaged and it was so much fun to get to share that with them.  I, suspecting that this was coming, had put together a little engagement gift basket and brought it with me from Texas for the happy couple.

Engagement basket:  magazine, journal, fun pens, coffee mug, ring pops

The happy couple!

For dinner, we went to this great little bar/restaurant on the square in Madison.  While there, I opened my present from ND Friend and her sister, Super Mom, and found this little baby.....

Once again, best friends in the world, I have.  I got seriously the most beautiful ring from Tiffany's.  Silver band with the Tiffany's blue in the middle.  It's amazing and I absolutely love it!  It came along with a bottle of wine and some of ND Friend's best in the world homemade chocolate chip cookies.  I kinda died and went to heaven.

Oh, one more thing.  No, two.  First, my parents sent me some birthday money to go shopping, so I bought a birthday outfit.  Check it out.  It's a emerald green shirt from Maurices, brown boots from Sears, and black skinny jeans from Stitch Fix.  Trendy, right?  (Connie J, excuse the bathroom picture....I forgot to have someone else take one and had to improvise!)

And the second thing.....The Boy from Texas has been harassing me with talk of a birthday present for months.  Well since I didn't get to see him on my birthday, I didn't get said present yet.  He has, however, given me a few clues about what were looking at.  I know the following:  (1) it is not an engagement ring (don't want anyone getting overly excited here); (2) it is not from Academy; (3) it is shiny; (4) someone else knows about it; (5) he bought it at the nicest store in Amarillo; and (6) it will make up for us having to be apart so much.  My guess?  Private jet.  Apparently that's not the right answer.  I will have to wait a couple more weeks to see what he's got up his sleeve....

The rest of the weekend was pretty low key....went to a bar in Evanston to watch my Pokes beat up on the Texas Tech Red Raiders (at which time I won two bets...one is a friend from Tech making a photo of him in an OSU shirt his profile on Facebook for a week, another lets me breed one of my ewes to my friend's ram....yep, country girls make these kind of bets!).  On Sunday we went to Mass at the most beautiful church in Old Town Chicago....and ND Friend and Tiny Dancer loved it so much that they are getting married there in July!  AHHHH!

I returned home to a homemade banana pie from New Roomie along with my very first Texas A&M shirt (which I have agreed to wear this Friday since the Pokes don't have a big game this week....I still feel a bit like Benedict Arnold!)

So there ya go.  That's what turning 30 looked like for me.  Pretty sure that it's going to be a good year, kids!

Notre Dame Through Uncle Buddy's Eyes

"Whenever I go to Notre Dame, it gives me a warm feeling of faith in humankind. Everything that's good and decent and fair is right there on that campus--I can feel it in the air."  ~Regis Philbin

Back in September, Uncle Buddy (known to you all as Uncle Black Belt) and I went on a little adventure to South Bend, Indiana, to watch a Notre Dame football game.  This was my third trip to Notre Dame and I've got to tell you, there's just nothing like it.  But since you've heard about these trips from me before (here and here), I wanted you to get to hear about the trip from Uncle Buddy's perspective.  So here's a look at Notre Dame through his eyes.

A Visit to Notre Dame

What a ride.  In September, my niece and I attended a college football game at the University of Notre Dame.  What an experience and a fulfillment of a life-long dream.  We both flew into Chicago, arriving about the same time, went to get our motel and get ready for the next day's activities.  It was a wasted night as very little sleep came due to the excitement of what lay ahead.

The next morning we went to this little café in Chicago where they served pancakes with all kinds of stuff in them....fruit, chocolate, etc.  (Bongo Room, for those of you visiting Chicago in the future.)  Mine tasted very good, but had I known what was in it, I probably wouldn't have ordered it.  The best thing about our breakfast was that I got to meet my  new niece, Rozann (aka ND Friend on this blog), and welcome her to my family.

The nieces at breakfast.

Best pancakes ever.  Bongo Room.  On Wabash.  Go.  Trust me.

After breakfast, Tiffany and I headed to South Bend and the University of Notre Dame.  (We made a quick detour so I could check Michigan off my list of states I've been to.....these pictures combined with Uncle Buddy's facebook post of "How did we end up in Michigan?  Tiffany was driving!" caused some concern amongst family members back home.) 

First stop was the Hammes Notre Dame Bookstore.  I entered thinking about buying a couple of t-shirts for my children and grandchildren.  A couple hundred collars later, I was able to leave that bookstore, but I tell you, it was an amazing place.  (In my experience you might as well just open your wallet and fork over $200 bucks if you set foot in that building!)  The people I had met so far in my visit made me feel that I was part of this fine University. 

The Golden Dome

Tiffany and I put our purchases in the car and then took a walk around the campus.  First excitement was that I ran into the Notre Dame cheerleaders and Leprechaun, and of course, had my picture taken with them. 

He posted this on FB to let my aunt know he had found the cheerleaders!

Along our walk, we were stopped by one of the Alumni driving a golf cart around giving rides to whose who looked like they needed one.  Along the way, we got to talking and he served in Vietnam with the U.S. Navy.  (Uncle Buddy served in Vietnam as well and the reason we were offered the ride was that the guy saw his purple heart jacket.)

Trumpets Under the Dome

Touchdown Jesus

On Saturday, we met up with my new niece, Rozann, and her friend and walked over the campus while we waited for the football game to begin.  What a dream come true.  We had excellent seats, right up from where the team comes at the end of the game to sing their Alma Mater.

Pre-game group photo

Bagpipers on campus

Uncle Buddy and Rozann with First Down Moses



Game Time!

Uncle Buddy in the stadium.

Push ups after a TD

Uncle Buddy recording the Alma Mater

(But wait, kids, the fun wasn't over yet!)  Long story short, we were fortunate to be offered to take a tour of Notre Dame stadium on Sunday morning.  When this came about, Tiffany told me that I would probably have to pull her off the benches in the locker room if we got in there.  (I think what I said was that I might get so excited that I'd pass out...)  On Sunday morning, we met up with the head man for a stadium tour.  What excitement!  And, of course, Tiffany was standing on a stool giving the "Rudy" speech.

"We're gonna get 'em on the run, and we're gonna keep 'em on the run..."

Uncle Buddy in the locker room.

Win one for the Gipper plaque.

We then went to the field to through the tunnel where the players enter and got to slap the sign at the bottom of the stairs that reads, "Play Like a Champion Today." 

 

The field was magical.  To stand on that turf, closing your eyes, you could actually hear the greats.  Coaches like Knute Rockne, Frank Leahy, Ara Parseghian, Dan Devine, and Lou Holtz.  Players like The Four Horsemen (Stuhldreher, Crowley, Miller and Layden), Angleo Bertelli, George Gipp, Dave Casper, Joe Montana, Joe Theismann, Tim Brown, and Paul Hornung.  And if you listened very closely, you could hear the chant, "Rudy, Rudy, Rudy...."

Our tour guide.

A dream fulfilled thanks to my niece, Tiffany.  (There is nothing like taking someone to visit Notre Dame for the first time, especially when they have been a life-long fan like Uncle Buddy!)

On the field at ND Stadium