We all had a lovely time, thank you.

A very lovely time indeed.

Guess who finally got a BIG trophy at the Five Star Races? Hmm? Hmm? Betcha can't!



YESSSS!

She won first place in her age group, and she couldn't be happier. Well, I suppose she could, if she'd won the quarter-mile overall. But, whatever.

I did not race again this year, because 1. I kept hearing the scanner go off, with the EMS getting called out for people PASSING OUT because of the heat; 2. My knees were bothering me again, and 3. Having to take pictures of all the racers, and be prepared to race myself, is just too taxing. Within a 20-minute time span, I have to be in about four different places, getting photos and names of winners, and that doesn't leave me much time to psych myself out.

Saturday was very, very relaxing, since a miracle happened and the cleaning we did last weekend was kept up on a daily basis! I KNOW! Who would have ever thought that the "pick up after yourself" thing would actually work?

And yesterday, I did another sugar overload, as Amanda came to have lunch with us and my parents and brought not one, but TWO cakes from her job. One, called a Frankly Scarlett, was a miniature red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. "Happy Father's Day" was written on top, and they couldn't get a hold of the person who'd ordered it, (and they would be closed for the next two days) so she brought it home.

(Yes, apparently REPEATED attempts at contact were made. I'm pretty sure they aren't in the habit of taking paid baking goods home without their due diligence.)

The other cake was a MASSIVE, three-layer number called the Cindy Lou Who. Each layer was a different color - pink, yellow, or purple - and it had pink frosting with coordinating "polka dots."It was a birthday cake, but the patron who'd ordered it insisted she had canceled the order the next day. It was vanilla flavored cake with vanilla buttercream, and it was sinful.

I'm "detoxing" today, because I need to be on my Ps and Qs in anticipation of our Press Association convention this weekend. Wohoo! It isn't at the coast, but at a casino about half an hour from here - which I guess was fortuitous, since none of us know what the condition of the beaches will be from one day to the next.

Fortunately, there don't seem to be any family functions on the horizon, so Amanda shouldn't be bringing $40 cakes to tempt me with!

You're gonna need a bigger birthday cake.

This weekend, Jason's probable pick for all-time favorite movie is having a birthday.

Jaws is turning 35!



I did not know when we got married just how obsessed he was with this movie. Or, should I say, movies. He has shown over the years to be a fan of those cheesy SyFy made-for-TV-movies with ridiculously unlikely plots. I guess Jaws is where it all started.

Last summer, we went to The Orpheum in Memphis to watch Jaws as part of their Summer Movie Series, on the big screen. I had never watched it in its entirety before, and I jumped out of my seat a couple of times!

Jason is the proud owner of Jaws I-IV on DVD, and has just about memorized the commentary. Do you know how much he enjoys telling people trivia tidbits, like that the "You're gonna need a bigger boat" line was ad libbed?

Loves. It.

So, I suppose at some point this weekend, one (or all) of the Jaws installments will be playing on a television (or computer) screen at the Turner house. I shall have to find somewhere to be, so as not to pee my pants again at the sight of that dead body under that sunken boat.

(Which, by the way, they had to reshoot in someone's pool, because it didn't turn out right the first time?)

(Man, he's starting to rub of on me.)

I think I'm gonna need a bigger house.

I love a good wedding.

This weekend, I was a guest at three - count them, THREE - very distinct weddings. Two were held at my church and the third in the tiny chapel at a Baptist church here in town.

Thursday night, our church bookkeeper tied the knot. She and her intended had both done this before, and both have grown children and grandchildren. It was a sweet, simple ceremony with a sweet ending - a dessert and coffee reception! A table full of pies and cakes, and divinity shaped like hearts. How cool is that?

One of the best parts of the wedding was the new (to me, but I'm seeing it more often) tradition of having the couple pour grains of sand of different colors from separate containers into one larger vessel, symbolizing their new blended life. Since the bride and groom were also blending a larger family unit, each grandchild (five of them in all, ranging in age from about 3-10 years old) came, one by one, and dumped a bottle of sand into their respective grandparent's vase, and then gave the couple a hug before sitting back down. I don't know what it was about that moment, but I was truly touched!

Friday night, a young couple (and fellow LOST fanatics) were the bride and groom. Their love for each other and God was so sweet, and so pure, and everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) spent the whole service crying. The groom started boo-hooing as soon as he saw his lovely bride come in the door, and basically didn't stop for the rest of the evening. Both he and the bride had a hard time getting through their vows for their emotions, and even the pastor had to take a handkerchief break.

The bride comes from a large family, and they all played a part - from sisters as bridesmaids, to a brother and brother-in-law as ushers, to her VERY talented twin brothers serenading us with a couple of duets.

Their reception was off site at a community center, but we didn't stay long. We got caught in traffic coming up and had to drop Jason off at the church (to help with the video feed) so he didn't get dinner, and it was HOT and CROWDED up in there. Apparently, our pastor and his lovely wife cut quite a rug, so I'm a bit disappointed we missed that!

Oh, and before the ceremony, this happened:



That's the pastor's daughter, Anna Grace, with my own Anna Marie. Two Annas, two DSs, two church weddings in two days' time!

Saturday night, we attended the wedding of a girl I've known since she was in her mother's womb. Seriously. My mother's family has had a strong connection to a certain neighborhood in Memphis for years, where both the bride and her father grew up. My grandfather planted a church there in the early 1970's, and our family lived there at different time for several years. We were living there when Char was born.

She has ALWAYS loved horses, which I suppose she got from her mother (who had a horse in her backyard in that neighborhood. No joke.) She just graduated from vet school at Mississippi State University, and I'm extremely proud of her for getting through all that.

She had a very small wedding, where she wore cowboy boots under her dress and had wanted posters with a bride and groom silhouette on the ends of the pews.

(Good thing it was small, because the minister was slightly senile and messed the ceremony all up. He tried to pronounce them man and wife three times while she still had other things on the program.)



The reception was barbeque, prepared by her uncle, at the couple's new house. Anna Marie was super stoked, because their horses came up to the fence and she got to see them up close and personal.

(The bride's mother encouraged me to buy Anna Marie a horse. Easy for her to say!)

It was a very relaxed, laid back affair, just like the couple themselves. Thankfully, they also had the foresight to bring in a fan to conjure a breeze and keep the insects away!

Yes, I love a good wedding - but right now, I'm glad to have a break from nuptials for a few weeks!

What to do, what to do…

So, Anna Marie had her dance recital on Saturday. And she has declared it to be her very last one.

So now, I have to find something else to occupy her time once a week, preferably on Wednesday afternoons (while Jason is at work.)

It isn't anything against the dance studio. The teacher is lovely, and Anna Marie has learned some things about music, and dance, and rhythm in the past three years. Between the dance performances, and being involved with the childrens music program at First Baptist after school on Tuesdays, she has basically overcome her stage fright.

But, she isn't "into" dance. At least not the ballet and tap parts. I think if they offered some type of "TobyMac Hip Hop" lessons, that'd be right up her alley. However, her teacher is a classically trained ballerina, so I don't see that happening.

She has also taken tumbling lessons for the past two years after her dance lessons, and honestly, it's the tumbling that has kept her going all year. She has begged me not to make her go next year, and when we've been getting our costume pictures made and dressing up for the recital, she kept saying, "At least this is the last time I have to do this."

So now, she wants to concentrate on gymnastics. There are a couple of places here which offer classes: one which she went to when she was four (and I wasn't crazy about the instructor) and another, newer gym (where many of the girls who used to take dance with her now go.) I don't have a problem with that, and in fact, watching the older girls dance on Saturday, I had the distinct feeling that if she'd continued in that vein that as she got older we would be more and more uncomfortable with the outfits she was assigned and the moves she was learning. (If that makes any sense at all).

I can't find a listing for the other gymnastics teacher, but I know a couple of people who can get me the information.

We've also considered music lessons, since Jason plays piano and violin and I play, well, the radio (as my dad says.) We have a piano, but Jason's violin is too big for her and we'd have to rent or buy her a smaller model.

At any rate, I have a couple of criteria: it can't take up more than one day during the week (we have other obligations, like church and family, and she'll likely be playing Upward basketball again in the winter), it can't cost more than what we were paying for dance/tumbling, and it really, REALLY needs to be on Wednesdays, so I can justify the expense as "childcare."

Not too much to ask, is it?

Dear God,

Thank you that all it took to get me going this morning was a cup of coffee and some of your Word, and not a bucket full of pills.

Thank you that I'm ambulatory enough to take care of my home and that the work isn't overwhelming.

Thank you that while our cash flow might not have been ideal this week, You supplied all of our needs and gave us wisdom to use what resources we did have.

Thank you that I need to be two places at once today, but that they're joyous occasions like a dance recital and a wedding, and not two funerals.

Thank you that my family is healthy and well fed, and that we have more "stuff" than we actually even need.

And thank you for the realization that, as I cleaned up the nearly WHOLE BOTTLE of laundry detergent that I spilled this morning, that I probably won't need to add any to the next load of towels I do - so not all is lost.

Thank you for little reminders that you always have us held safely in the palm of your hand, and help me to see whatever I encounter today through your eyes.

Amen.