Brittany and Andrew's Wedding Weekend

Brittany and Andrew's wedding weekend was one for the records! We all had an absolutely wonderful time and I'm extremely depressed that it's over!! Casey, Bailey, Allison, and I loaded up on Thursday afternoon and headed over to ATL to spend the night with Bess and Jason. On the way over, we had a blast telling our favorite Brittany memories while working on our speech for the rehearsal dinner....Britt is the best poem writer, so we were a bit nervous we wouldn't be able to pull it off without her, but I think we did ok!

Despite the storms, the weekend went off without a hitch! Brittany was a beautiful bride and Andrew was an equally handsome groom. The two were literally beaming all weekend. As I like to say, "My cup runeth over" for the two of them and the new life they have begun togeher. It is a blessing they got married when they did, because if not, my parents might have been home when the tornado hit. Gotta look for the silver lining somewhere! Enough with the words about the weekend...I'll tell about the weekend through pictures!

Getting into town on Thursday night

Bridesmaid's Luncheon at Swann's Coach House

Bess, Melanie, Casey, "The Bride", Bailey, and Allison

Britt and me

We got the cutest aprons for BM presents! I was thrilled that she gave me a PINK one!! haha

All of the Bridesmaids

We had a little "indoor" pool time before checking in at the hotel

Bess and Bails

The Sisters at the Rehearsal....I LOOOVE that they're wearing orange and blue!

Britt and me at the Rehearsal Dinner at the Atlanta Athletic Club

Allison, Sally, Casey, JJ, and me

All the girls with the Bride to Be!!!

Casey and I are ready to head to the church!

Bess always keeps us cracked up!!!

The beautiful Bride taking a peek out at all the people walking in the church!

All the Focker Bridesmaids

Bails and Porter at the reception

Singing "Shades"

I think this was our best performance of "Rugged But Right!"

All the Chi-O girls

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Cyganiewicz!!!! I hope y'all are having a blast in St. Lucia right now and we can't wait to see y'all next weekend!!!!

Tornado

Not sure where to start...On Saturday night, a tornado hit my hometown of Albertville. Specifically, my street, East Main St. was hit particularly hard. Thankfully, my parents were out of town when the storm hit. Our street has pretty much been destroyed. We live in the historic district of town which is full of beautiful, extremely old trees and houses. If you walked down my street (and you can't drive down it now) right now, you would not recognize it. I am so thankful I had lots of pics of how it looked before. (view Easter post) It's really hard to even put the damage into words...Sister had preffed me on the damages, but it didn't hit home with me until I actually saw it for myself. When I initially arrived on Sunday afternoon, I literally did not recognize my house or my street and I of course cried for a long time. It seems surreal right now...like I'm in a nightmare, but am going to wake up and it will all be back to normal.

My family is particularly blessed because our house did not fair quite as bad as many others on our street. There are lots of houses left completely without roofs and windows, TONS of fallen trees and other damages. We had a few trees fall through our attic which has caused water damage upstairs and countless tress fell. Also, there was a lot of damage to our garage. But the thankful thing is that there were no fatalities in the tornado. Unfortunately, we're still without power at this time. A HUGE shoutout to our amazing family and friends who have all pitched in to help...Aunt Jenn and Uncle D, the Sprouses, the Ross', and the Casey's. We couldn't have made as much progress thus far without y'all. You know it's a pretty bad scenario when you see Governor Riley out in front of your house surveying all the damage.

East Main St..this view is standing right in front of my house, looking towards the highway

Uncle D, Dad, and Mr. Rusty patching up the roof

A view from our 2nd floor porch...looks like a bomb has been dropped.

We have to park at CVS and then walk up the street...this is Day 2 of disaster relief/clean-up

Looking up towards our house

These lights somehow ended up turned in the exact position....kind of creepy!

Back driveway/yard

I thought I'd pose with a few of the fallen trees. :(

This view shows directly across the street from our house...yes, one of those houses completely lost their roof.

Our beautiful cherry trees are no more!

Our family appreciates all the prayers and thoughts sent our way! Please continue to pray for the whole city of Albertville and all the people affected by the storm. Houses can be rebuilt, but lives cannot...that is the important thing to remember!!!!!!

Bye Bye Britt-a!

As I type this, I'm literally fighting back the tears. Last night, we had Brittany's going away get together. We spent hours on the patio at Jackson's and then went to Oak Hill for late-night fun. We had a wonderful time eating, drinking, and telling our favorite Brittany memories. There were LOTS of tears shed all night...once one of us would stop crying, someone else would start up. Britt and I lived together for our first two years in B'ham...feel like we became adults together! I can't imagine her not being here all the time! Thankfully, she will only be a short 2-hour drive away! I am extremely sad that she is leaving, but I am overjoyed for her and Andrew. This time next week, they will be married!!!!!!!!

Jessica, Casey, Caroline, Allison, and Britt at Jackson's

They're getting married in 7 days!!!!!

Casey, Allison, and Britt

Casey and Caroline at Oak Hill

These two lovebirds are getting married in July!!!!

Group shot!

Britt saying bye to Casey

This should just be called "Tears"!!

Brittany, we miss you already!!! "The Magic City" won't be the same without you!!!

"The Reb" Heads to Sand Mtn

I headed up to A'ville this weekend with "The Reb" in tow, for a jam-packed weekend. By the time I made it home, I was exhausted...and I must admit I fell asleep at 8:30...working with kids all day sucks the life out of you! haha Saturday was a beautiful day for a wedding! Sara and Brad's wedding was a gorgeous event. I can say hands down, she was the happiest/most excited bride I have ever seen! After the wedding, I got to spend some quality time with my high schools friends..for awhile it was just the boys (A.K.A. "my brothers"-Matthew, Chris, Chase) and me. It felt just like old times! We go for months on end without seeing each other, but when we get together, it's as if we're back in school. We spent a little too much time out on Saturday night, but it was great to see everyone.

Sunday was DB Day. Sister and Blake went to the Indy races at Barber Motor Sports, so we "Doodle-sat". We ran, we laughed, we jumped, we played hide-and-seek, and we watched some golf. If you know my Dad at all, you know he is a HUGE golf fan. For the majority of my life, we lived about 50 feet from the golf course. I grew up riding in/driving golf carts and hearing about the joys of golf. So you can bet when it's Masters' weekend, all TVs in the Decker household are tuned in to Augusta. YAYYYYYYY for Phil!! We are big Phil fans (my dad is also a "lefty") and we couldn't be happier with his 3rd win!! I have to admit I even shed a few tears at the end! Below are pics from my weekend in A'ville...enjoy the cheers, chalk, and championship shots!

I LOOOOVE this can!

Black Russian Cake.....mmmmm!

Sara was an absolutely beautiful bride....She literally looked like a Barbie bride right out of the box!

Kinzi, Chris, and me at Boondocks in G'ville

DB liked to spin the pinwheel!

This is her new trick...she's trying to climb on everything!!

Time for bubbles!!!

She got tired of the bubbles, but we didn't!

A perfect day for sidewalk chalk!

No...she didn't write her name! :)

Who doesn't love a "Nilla" wafer???

This picture just "quacks" me up!!!!

I heart the Masters!

Of course we had to drink out of our Masters Tervis Tumblers all weekend!

By the way, I'd like to note that I have 36 days of school left....can you tell I'm ready for summer??!! BOO-YAH!!!!