Emily Spence's Salon

Emily and I walk about 3 miles every morning.  The other day I admired how she always looked 'put together' and asked her to do my hair and makeup for my wedding (in 78 days BTW) :)

She said to come on over.

I brought a picture of how I'd like it to look.  She did better than the picture.

 Emily!!  Her expertise is free, but it does take a while :)

 How could it take 45 minutes to look this natural?  Hmm

 An hour curling...

 Oh my goodness!!!

Wow, lets see what it looks like with the veil and tiara shall we?

She done good

My sister is so neat :)

I saw this on Susie's bulletin board a few days ago, and she just today put it up on her blog, Susie's Story, so I can now steal it for my blog. :)

Want to be free?

 John 8:31-32.

Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

 

So many times I have heard verse 32 by itself.  But today when I read it in context I was surprised.  Freedom always comes from knowing truth.  But the only way to know truth, Jesus says, is to continue in his word.  So don't get discouraged when your daily devotions seem to grow boring, or stale.  Just read God's Word every day and with the help of the Holy Spirit you will be continuing in his word. 

And you will grow in your knowledge of God's truth, and that truth will set you FREE.

Moody?

 I'm not sure what the attraction is for mood rings...but I saw some with Rachel when we were out today.  We tried them on and I like the way it felt so we each got one, and I got one for Susanna, too.

It's funny how people will look at their ring and go, "I'm nervous, I'm thinking, I'm happy" and never realize that it's the heat of your hand that changes the ring's color :)

It's just a flat strip of liquid crystals with a protective coating. The crystals respond to changes in temperature by twisting and reflecting different wavelengths of light. When the temperature of the liquid crystals changes, so does their color. 

According to the rings here, Susie is passionate about something, I am happy, and Rachel is an interesting mix of calm and nervous!

So even though it's a bunch of bologna to think that a ring can draw your body's energy and display your emotion in a color, I still think they look neat...

Hiking Crowder's Mountain

Since I don't work a Chick-fil-A today, I wanted to go hiking.  Susie and I ended up taking Pepper to Crowder's Mountain with us.  We all enjoyed the hike and the beautiful scenery!!

 Susie and Pepper

 Adorable!

 

 

I love the mountainside :)

100 days!!!

One hundred days until what?

I'll give you three guesses :)

Wedding programs and Audacity

I want the day of my wedding to be easy on everyone, so the other day I typed up the entire ceremony schedule, complete with script for everyone, cues, everything...it took forever and filled +2 pages.

Then, today I designed the programs.

It's disappointing that all the guests will see is this half sheet of paper...I like the design, though.

I took the same tree that is on the invitations and made it the backdrop.

Front

Back

Now, excluding the prelude, Steve wrote all the music for our wedding.  Yes, he writes music too.  But several of the songs he sent were either too long, too short, louder than I wanted...you know.  So Ryan Griffin told me to download this program:

 It worked perfectly!

 Just a little editing...

And all our music is on one cd now :) 

All the songs are the correct time, the correct softness, everything.

Thanks Steve and Ryan!

Wedding flowers

Who here is thankful for their Mom???  Well, I sure am.

She took a whole evening to show me the basics to arranging silk flowers.

We went to Hobby Lobby, where I picked out the flowers I want to have at my wedding.  Then Thursday night she and I made one of each of the arrangements I need.

 Here we are with all the materials

 We made a practice boutonniere together...

 ...then I made the rest, plus a nicer one for Steve

 We made the corsages for the helpers...

 ...and for the mothers and grandmothers

 The bridesmaid bouquet...

 ...then I designed my own bouquet.

It's a purple hydrangea with roses and the tiny purple flowers from the bridesmaid bouquets.

The flowergirl's wreath

(Susie's head is not as tiny as the 3-year-old's)

Why do these pebbles keep coming up? Maybe cuz I love them! 

 Mom and I decided that the 5 bouquets would make nice decorations at the reception, so I got 5 vases and put some pebbles in the bottom.

-Voila-

(The bouquet handles will be wrapped with the same silver material as the bridesmaid's dresses)

And yes, these are all the flowers you'll see at my wedding.  I'm not a "girly" girl. :)

April 30th birthday party

For Uncle Eddie's 50th birthday Aunt Mandy invited all the family to Atlanta, GA for a birthday party. 

Steve drove up from FL with James...I think this is the first time all of the Wes Parker family has been together in a very long time!

 Uncle Eddie and my "Fun Aunt" (Dad's sister) Cathy

 After lunch everyone played games or sat around visiting with family

 A little Wii in the basement

50 candles!!!

Aaaaall the Parker cousins (and Steve)

All the Wes Parker kids...wow, when did everyone grow up?

The Wes Parker family

Mom got some  pictures of the "Lovebirds"

Awe...Steve has the greatest smile!!!