MR. AND MRS. CASEY

Weddings....you all know you dread them but can't wait for them either. I dreaded watching my niece Mikala get married for the simple fact I thought I would be a blubbering idiot. She was my baby doll. She was the first grand baby born when I was only 10. I never feel old except when I watch her life....I thought wow I am old when she graduated then went off to college and now I had to watch her join the married world. Hopefully she will put off having children for the mere fact of making me a Great- "great" Aunt! lol That could cause a breakdown! Just kidding secretly I can't wait to see if we could finally have another girl! I had seen Mikala's dress but had yet to see her IN the dress b/c of scheduling conflicts in the beginning then I decided I didn't want to see her in it until her wedding day. Wow my eyes are welling up just thinking of my first sight of her in her dress!

My little baby doll was a picture of beauty standing there just looking like a princess even more beautiful than the day she was born. I have to tell you besides my two children - my brothers three girls were the prettiest newborns I've ever seen. Of course my boys and his girls were all c-section babies so they had the advantage of no cone heads and stress of the vaginal birth but they were some cuties!! Every thing about her was beautiful...her smile, her hair, her complexion and her dress! Isaiah thought so too! She was sitting on the floor and he just walked over, laid down in her lap and said, "you so pwetty!" while playing with her necklace. A very cute unplanned moment and of course if you know me you know I took a picture.......

I have stressed about her getting married b/c I feel more protective of the girls and she is so young but I have now accepted the fact that she has to live her own life no matter what her worry wart aunt thinks. Although I haven't expressed any of my concerns over her marriage to HER since one it really isn't my business but I also didn't want to ruin her excitement and I knew I just had to deal with it on my own. I didn't cry and I was proud! I think I was more nervous about Isaiah being in the wedding and praying he wouldn't flip out! I did so good! I almost cried when she first walked in but I didn't. My favorite part of weddings is watching the groom's reaction when he first sees his bride and her reaction shortly afterwards.

They were both crying and it was so cute! I did manage to keep a dry eye until she read her vows then I just couldn't help but cry with her!

Pretty good looking crew!

Wedding all over now onto the reception.

The First Dance

I am so glad she got to have dancing! Isaiah was happy too! He started dancing at the beginning of the reception and I am not sure if he ever stopped! It was so freaking cute! He was cutting a rug and then there was Logan my nephew who dances like Elaine off of Seinfeld which is hil-ar-i-ous!

The reception was fun and now they are on their honeymoon both virgins until marriage that could be a tricky one! Oh I really shouldn't have added that.....but I did! LOL

WHAT A DAY!

Wow is the only word I can think of to describe my day and the disbelief that I did it all! Let's see I started the day with taking three boys to three different schools and arranging pick up for one since his normal pick up routine would not work today. Then I went to have my brows done and my neck shaved. Wait let me clarify that one..;.haha....my hair is really short now so the back part is shaved and I wanted it shaped up before the wedding tomorrow. Then I got gas in the truck, went to pick up Tez's contacts and have my glasses fitted, talked to my uncle and agreed to find him some neck extender deals (in my free time - goo d thing the tux place had them!), went to pick up the tuxes where I spent 45 minutes just waiting ... I was about to flip out and leave but I had no one else to pick them up in time! This is the embarrassing part I was on the phone with my sister ranting about Men's Wearhouse when I pulled into the mall, parked and walked in. I then realized I had NO reason to even be at the mall so I started laughing walked straight back out to my car and left! Way too much going on! I then went to two stores b/c I had to pick up pants for lil Tez and buy me some spanx. Then I drove to Bixby to help set up for the reception. I know if you read the Bixby BBQ and Blues Festival blog you heard me say I would hopefully never revisit the land of the pokes but alas I really had no choice! Let me add I got to Bixby at 1pm so everything I just told you was before 1 o'clock! After decorating I went to three more stores then got home around 4:15pm where I changed clothes and made the boys presentable very quickly so I could drive in rush hour to the church across town for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Afterwards I came home and wanted to just pass out! But had to do the whole nighttime routine.....baths.....you know the drill.....I am beat! I should really get a personal assistant!

TUX CAPRIS?

So my boys are in my niece's wedding this Saturday. I am excited to see how handsome they will be but not so excited about paying for two tuxes!! A couple of weeks ago we went to Men's Wearhouse to get them sized and I must add that the store has poor customer service!! We went tonight to try-on and pick up the tuxes but they didn't fit! I mean they seriously didn't fit!! Elijah's wasn't quite as bad but his jacket sleeves were two different lengths. One sleeve was an inch and a half shorter than the other but the rest was okay. Isaiah's tux on the other hand was a miniature disaster. What exactly is the point of measuring to order the tux if it comes in no where close to the measurements? I have not heard about a wedding yet that the tuxes arrived correctly in fact when my husband went to pick up his tux for our wedding they didn't even have it. Imagine my surprise with that phone call! How can you forget the GROOM'S tux? Anyhow Isaiah's jacket sleeves were an inch and a half to short, his vest was too big, and the pants oh the pants. I posted a picture of the tux "capris" - a new style I am assuming.





In the picture see how short they are then let me tell you that is WITH THEM PULLED DOWN AN INCH BELOW HIS WAIST!!! So they were actually an inch shorter than what the picture shows!!! The lady says to me "well where do you want them?" like I am being unreasonable! I said, "Well that is your problem. I know he will be wearing black socks the day of the wedding but you shouldn't be able to see his socks at all let alone the 2 inches of skin. MY boy doesn't wear capri pants and I doubt that is what Mikala requested!" Don't be snotty with me over YOUR mistake! Again I ask you what exactly is the point of measuring!! Guess we'll see about that when the alterations are fixed. Till next time America......

MY PENGUINS

My boys are in my niece Mikala's wedding next month and we had to go get fitted for tuxes. I tried to talk her out of having Zay in it mainly because of his hatred to all group or professional pictures and the total chaos that happens after his meltdown to them. Just the thought of him having one of his meltdowns in the wedding makes my stomach hurt! Well the people at the tux place were not the friendliest. First of all I waited forever completely ignored after watching a salesman flip out on a customer that had already left. I finally find someone and she says, "I don't think I have anything that will fit him we only go down to a 3T!" in a really snotty voice. I knew it was my niece's wish and I was kind of ticked off at the lady's attitude so I said, "Well that will work out perfectly since he wears a 3T or a 4T." She then says, "Well I have no way of knowing if it will fit or which one to order." My response was, "then that is your problem but I would try on one of those 10 suits hanging on the wall behind you!" They tried it on and it was a perfect fit!!! She then thought he was too handsome and had to crack a smile! Elijah just stayed cool and calm since he only had to get measured but I can't wait to see him in a tux. My handsome little men!

WOW I FEEL OLD! THANKS MIKALA!

I officially feel old! My oldest neice Mikala turns 21 on November 4th and she got engaged this past weekend. I never feel old until I think about her being a junior in college and now she is getting married?!?!?!? Granted my brothers and sister are much older than me and I was only ten when she was born but SHE makes me feel old. Mikala's fiance Josh planned a romantic proposal that just made me cry and wish I had a proposal like that. Mikala was coming home this past weekend for her family birthday party and when she arrived everyone had left the house and the only one there was Josh waiting for her in his bedroom. The house was dark with only candlelight and rose petals to guide her way up to the bedroom. He decorated the bedroom with rose petals all over the floor and candles everywhere in heart designs. Josh is a music major with plans to be a minister of music. He had written her a song which he then sang to her, then said his little speech, got down on one knee and proposed. How incredibly sweet is that? Of course she said yes who wouldn't after all of that!! Anyway they will be getting married on May 17 of next year which was a big shock to me. She is quitting school after this semester and moving home to work full time and plan the wedding. Although I am so excited that she will finally be home and I can help her, I wish she would finish college first. She plans to go back when he graduates in 2009. I don't plan on letting her know how much it really bothers me that she is quitting since it is mainly b/c of my own guilt for quitting and never going back. Even the best laid out plans don't always happen when life takes its little turns. It isn't even like a money making deal though in my case I think I just miss that sense of accomplishment. Ok enough about MY guilt over not finishing college and onto my niece. I won't stress her with my views since she is going to have to make her own decisions and she is an adult. When she called me to tell me the news, I was so moved by the proposal that I started to cry then I said "Ok but promise me two things - you won't have children for at least ten years because I can't be a great aunt in my thirties and when you do have children you have to live here so I can spoil them rotten!!" She said, "You are already a "great" aunt!" I said, "Yes but I don't want to be a "great" great aunt yet!" She then answered with "It will probably only be a couple of years!" I am excited for her just a little in shock. She still seems sooooo young to me but I guess she will always be my little girl! I was only ten when she was born and she was my little doll. Still to this day Mikala is the prettiest baby GIRL I have ever seen even right after her birth and she has grown to be a beautiful, determined, intelligent, mature young woman. I wish her all the best the world and her new life have to offer!

THE ROCKY ROAD

We got back Monday afternoon from our trip to Nashville for my friend Chaitra's wedding and seeing my friend Genevieve for the first time in over 8 years. We had sooo much child free fun but the trip started out incredibly rocky. Our flight was supposed to leave at 11:30 am on Thursday and we were supposed to be at the airport by 10:30am. However, my dad called early Thursday morning to inform me a transformer blew or something and we needed to be at the airport by 9:30 am which messed with the arrangements for the boys and my sleep since I stayed up until 3am cleaning my house for my nieces. I didn't believe my dad and it took a lot of him convincing me to just turn on the TV and watch for myself. So my mom came to get the boys and my dad came to take us to the airport through the torrential downpour we were having. We got to the airport and there was no electricity which means besides no lights there was no air conditioning, no escalators, no elevators, and no computers. The only lights were emergency lights which basically lit the way to walk and that is it. A dark airport is a scary airport. I immediately thought we would be sitting there ALL day. Seriously I wondered how an airport could function without computers and correctly get everyone and their luggage to the correct destinations. Can you imagine how many years they've run completely by computers? They had to hand write our tickets and luggage claim tickets. Well we left only about ten minutes late but so did the rest of the airport flying Northwest on OUR flight. They decided they needed to get all their passengers out of Tulsa and to Memphis which is the Northwest hub then get them to their final destinations. I think they would've set people on our laps if they could. It was crazy. THEN we sat right next to the bathroom and I truly believe EVERYONE on the plane with the exception of me and Martez took a trip to the bathroom to crap! Every time the door opened a nasty wave of toxic waste remains came our way and I gagged and Martez just looked like he wanted to puke. I think some of them were dying inside. We could actually hear the nastiness going on in there. Why did we have to sit there why???? Well we had a layover in Memphis and walking through the airport Martez sees Young Buck who apparently is from Tennessee. I didn't really care but he was excited. He just kept saying he is really walking through the airport without security. Hmmm obviously there is a reason for that - he isn't that famous yet! Then on our connecting flight to Nashville Young Buck was on our plane. It was rather funny because he was in first class which I know he payed more for but first class was not the normal first class. Generally they go a different way from the other passengers to a posh area of the plane. Not this one baby! He was in a seat exactly like ours and first class consisted of about ten seats separated by a piece of plastic that went from the ceiling to the top of the last first class seat. I just laughed! Those suckers paid more for THAT! Ha! Well we made our connecting flight to Nashville and everything seemed fine. Notice I said seemed! We landed and met up with Chaitra and Larry since we were getting a rental car they were just going to ride with us. I got up to a counter to a gentlemen that barely spoke English period so me understanding him was quite a feat. Sometimes he repeated things about five times trying to sell me all the bells and whistles for the rental and didn't want to take no for an answer! His computer completely crashed three times always right at the end of everything so he had to start all over. Then his shift was over so someone else took the information on that same computer and it crashed again. While she was trying to start over I said I am not giving you anymore info until you switch computers. I explained that was the fourth time I had been through the entire process and I was tired of it! She switched computers and it crashed twice. I guess it would flash something at the end and then reboot. It was flashing not to rent to me for an invalid drivers license. WHAT? I just renewed my license a month ago. Only in my world! Then I remembered when I got my new license they had added a V in front of my license number but I didn't notice it for a couple of weeks. I explained this to the clerk and asked her to try it without the V because my license was valid and if it wouldn't work then we would use my husband's license. She tried it and it worked! Finally an hour and a half later we had our car they even upgraded to a durango for all the problems!! I don't know why the V is there and I intend to go back to the tag agency and ask. Chai said they were going to start to put A's and V's in front of people's license number but we don't know why. They really shouldn't do that if it makes the license invalid in out of state computers. That could cause a big mess. After Martez almost killed us on the highway we were insanely relieved to be at the hotel. Chaitra went to eat with her family and we stayed in the room! Hehe! Later we walked to go eat and afterwards decided to walk around. There were beggars everywhere we looked. I told Martez I wanted to go back to the room and leave off my purse because we were really uncomfortable. On our way a man stops us and asks us if he could wash our car windows for money to get food aka alcohol. He continued to ask three times! I wanted to say "Are you serious you big idiot we are walking how do you expect to wash our car windows!" BUT I didn't! We just walked to the hotel where we met up with them to go out. Next morning Martez took them to get their marriage license and I stayed back to get ready and told him to call on his way back and I would meet them downstairs. Long story short three hours later he calls to tell me they were told the wrong place to get their license then they got extremely lost and Chaitra was pissed and hungry! Uh oh! You don't mess with her especially if she is upset - I love her but she can be brutal! We were all starving and went to eat late breakfast when I got the call! In the middle of breakfast my dad calls to say there was an accident at my house that I am not even going to get into and my niece Monika was being rushed to the emergency room. I seriously thought it was a truly sick joke. It wasn't! She got 8 stitches in her bottom lip! I was soooooo upset, on the phone wanting to fly home and cried all day until 5pm before we went to the rehearsal dinner. Can we say red puffy eyes?!?! The only funny part of the day was when Chaitra's friend Chelle arrived and found out we rode in a plane with Young Buck! She LITERALLY fell to the ground crying in disbelief that I didn't give him her number. Seriously!!! That cracked me up and I needed that. So after the BBQ we went downtown with some friends and Larry's family. We had a good time and found out Larry's uncle Greg is actually Martez's cousin. It seems like everywhere we go he knows someone or is related to someone! I was determined to make Saturday a good day and calm Chaitra's jitters!

Today was going to be all about her except for the next phone call. I talked to my dad yet again with bad news. My water got shut off! WHAT?!?!?!? He asked if I wanted him to go pay the bill but I informed him the bill was already paid and I would call to check on the problem. I pay most of our bills online but I called City of Tulsa and she couldn't find my payment so I went downstairs to use the hotel computer and saw that it had already come out of our account. I called the lady back to inform her of this but couldn't give her a confirmation number from the payment because I was in Tennessee and it was at home in a pile of papers. Long story short somewhere along the way the computer messed up and put the wrong balances on Choicepay so I underpaid a bill by $7.60 at sometime and they kept carrying it over as past due instead of applying money to the past due first. Beware of this if you use Choicepay to pay City of Tulsa utilites. Yes you read that right the messed up city of tulsa turned off my water for a past due amount of $7.60. Seriously only in my world!!!!!! I paid the $7.60 and the water was back on in a couple of hours! Why in the world would they shut it off? They should be able to look at my account history and see I must have just made a mistake worth $7.60 because I always pay my bill but no that would actually take effort or concern!!!! I then informed my amazing father that I would no longer be answering phone calls from him so he could either have my mom call or he could just call Martez's phone! Well the wedding went off without a hitch and Chaitra looked so happy and beautiful!

My feet however were a different story! I wore new heels that I should have worn in before the trip but I didn't realize everything would be so close so we would be walking almost everywhere! I thought I had just calluses in a weird spot but would find out Monday night after 2 1/2 painful days that they were dime size blisters. Now I am in desperate need of a pedicure!!! Genevieve showed up Saturday afternoon. I really needed her she just didn't know how much! We went out that night and had SOOOOOOOOOOO much fun! Then we tried to walk through 2 drive thrus! Don't even ask! Sunday we went to Hard Rock, the mall then back downtown where we took a horse drawn carriage ride and went out for a little bit. Sunday night though we were all about to crash. I called and got an earlier flight home and there it ends. I realized after getting home about in tears over my feet that they were blisters so I popped them and all is well. I have been soooo tired this week! I have fallen asleep at my computer all week at work. Shhhhh don't tell! Then crashed when I got home for a couple of hours. I have realized I am getting older and glad I grew out of the club lifestyle. At least to that extent! I like to go out don't get me wrong but I am too old for four nights in a row!! Those WERE the days! I think the best part of the trip besides the wedding was watching my babies run to us down the corridor of the airport. I didn't realize Elijah could run that fast and Isaiah trying to keep up was just hilarious! It felt great! They missed us and we missed them! They make my world go round and I can't imagine my life without them! I am very very happy to be home! So much for a stress free, child free vacation! I think we'll just take the kids next time and ignore the phone