Just checkin’ in for a few minutes down here in North Carolina, y’all.

It has been a bit of a whirlwind week but I think we are all ready to get this show on the road tomorrow, despite a few little speedbumps. The first being a trip to the ER for Em yesterday afternoon. Hey, it isn’t a good vacation if someone doesn’t end up at the ER, right? She was having some girl issues and they put her on an antibiotic, which in turn made her feel pretty rotten tonight, I think.

We went to rehearsal, all was good. Came back to get prettied up, took our medicine, all was good. Got to rehearsal dinner, Mama was all psyched up to do her little toast for Uncle Jeff, all was good. Emmy ate, and suddenly all was not good. So we had to cut our party time a little short and headed back for some rest.

While we were sitting on the bed together, all fresh from her bath and looking a little less pale, Em looked up at me with her serious, sweet little face and said, “I’m sorry we had to come home Mama and you didn’t get to tell Uncle Jeff how much you wanted him to get married.”

I told her it was fine, and Uncle Jeff already knew and JB knows how happy I am for them. And then she said, “why don’t you just do the speech for me, Mama?” So I did, and when I finished she clasped her hands together and said, “Oh, I’m glad you at least got one person to hear your wish! But it was kinda long.” (Nice. Even the 7-year old is a critic.)

And then she suggested that maybe I just write it in a card for them. “Or I got an idea, Mama. You can write it in your blog and then they can see it whenever they want.”

And that I thought was a very good idea from my smart little girl.

So here is my “cheers” to Jeff and JB….

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Carrie, Jeff’s sister-in-law, married to the guy over there who looks vaguely like Jeff. I met Jeff (& Jamie) many years ago when my family moved to Leslie in the middle of my freshman year. It was my very first day of school, in the new town, I didn’t know anyone and I met a girl who invited me to sit at the “cool kids” table for lunch. I was sitting across the table from Jeff and Jamie and I only remember three things from that day. I can’t tell you what we talked about but I just remember I laughed at the two of them the entire lunch hour. I remember laughing so hard at one point that I spit chocolate milk out of my nose. And then I remember being so incredibly horrified that I would never, ever get asked to sit with the “cool kids” again.

Luckily for me they overlooked my nerdiness (and drinking problem) and kept me around for all these years. I feel like we have kind of grown up together and I don’t even see Jeff as a brother-in-law. He is just my brother. A fantastic brother. He is also a great uncle and an amazing friend. My only wish has ever been for him to find someone who would make him truly happy. And so it makes me insanely happy to see him with Jessica because I can see that she does just that.

So to JB, I’d just like to say – “Welcome to the cool kids table, baby.” And I wish you both a lifetime filled with nothing but happiness and much, much laughter.

Love you two!

Hey…and Happy Wedding Day (I just looked at the clock!) – today is it!