Irene's A-Comin'

She's coming down the track and heading straight for the Bahamas and East Coast!

photo credit

After today's recent shakes due to a 5.9 Earthquake on the East Coast, I don't know if they are ready for Irene to make her appearance. According to the latest maps, Irene is going to pound onto the Bahamas and East Coast at a CAT 3 Hurricane.

Thank goodness both the weddings we attended in Charleston were the last 2 weekends rather than this upcoming weekend. Also, our upcoming cruise is set to port out of Miami, FL. We're heading out on the Royal Caribbean 'Majesty of the Seas' to Atlantis, Cococay and Key West. Thankfully, we're heading out on September 5 rather than on the cruise right now. Sadly the cruise that is out now has to do a diverted path and will miss out on Cococay ... talk about right timing!

Hunker down folks ... she's a-comin'!

Heartbreaking

Parts of my beloved college town, Tuscaloosa, AL, were leveled yesterday by twisters. What seemed like almost a mile in diameter tornado ripped through the gorgeous college town. While it spared Bryant-Denny Stadium and the main campus itself, it tore up and demolished other parts of the town including the new construction that was just built a year or two ago.

The Taco Casa I used to frequent, gone. McAlisters suffered damage, the Wendys...demolished. The mall, gas stations, Krispy Kreme and Milos, totally unrecognizable. I can't imagine what it really looks like in person but it's gut wrenching to see the images, coverage on TV and facebook posts. The death tolls are rising in both Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and beyond. I pray peace on all that have to deal with this royal mess!

The images are so saddening, especially if you have a tie to the town. My heart breaks for those students and residents, business owners and lovers of Tuscaloosa in general. I know the surrounding towns and all over the southeast have been pounded with these storms over the last 48 hours and my heart breaks for each and everyone of you affected by these nasty storms.

Here are some shots and a link to a video of the madness that hit Tuscaloosa yesterday.

holy funnel cloud

McFarland and 15th ... what used to be Milo's

Tuscaloosa's Bryant-Denny Stadium Survives Alabama Tornado Outbreak - SB Nation Atlanta

IT'S WEDDING WEEK!!

It's FINALLY here! It's officially WEDDING WEEK!!!! Commence freak out ... NOW! Thank goodness I'm 99.9% done. All that's lacking is a few little minor things that I'll get wrapped up by Thursday! As we're heading into this week, we've had 2 small hiccups, okay 3 but one of them is me being silly.

1) My mom has developed a kidney stone as of late last week. She's in a lot of pain but seems to think that it's making its way out of her system. Currently, she's on her way to another doctor to see what's going on. Please keep her in your thoughts so that she can pass this quickly and not be in too much pain this week and that she'll get to enjoy the weekend!

2) One of my MOH's, Kerri, has bronchitis, again. She's been under the weather and is trying to get better. Thankfully, she is already on medicine so hopefully it's taking its course and she'll be good to go this weekend

3) The selfish not really an issue problem. I no longer like or feel cute in my Rehearsal dinner dress. I'm probably being a nut job and looking at myself with critical eyes, but I'm not happy with it at this point so off to the mall I go this week. I hope I find something not astronomically expensive and that will make me feel happy!

The bright side, I tried on my wedding dress this past Saturday and couldn't have been happier! It looked phenomenal and probably the best it has to date. Can't wait to see it all pressed and pretty waiting for me to wear!

photo credit

If this is the worst of what is to come, I think we're gonna be okay! I just have to keep telling myself the following and to relax and enjoy this week and time. I'll be surrounded by 140ish people that Mike and I love dearly and that all traveled near and far to share in our joy with us. None of the small stuff that I keep fretting about will matter and at the end of the day, Mike and I will be married and on our way to HAWAII for 2 weeks!!

As far as the weather forecast, it's totally improving! A few weeks ago it was looking rough, but now that we're in the week of, I have a bit more confidence in their forecasting!

Accuweather.com
Friday: 76/55 and Sunny!
Saturday: 82/58 and Sunny!
Weather.com
Friday: 73/52 Sunny
Saturday: 80/56 Partly Cloudy with Sun

All in all, I'm keeping it together. Just trying to keep chugging through today and looking forward to all my appointments this week and getting some time to myself. We have our final call with our director sometime early this week. Hopefully this will be painless like everything else has been with our venue!

So Happy Wedding Week to Me and Happy Wedding Week to my date twin also!

Weather Nerves

I've been stalking again. This time, it's the extended weather forecast. In a mere week (and a few days) the extended forecast will be available for our wedding date.

If all goes as planned, our wedding ceremony will be taking place outside with our reception moving inside/outside (for a few tables) for the rest of the night. So far, the average highs for our wedding day are in the mid/upper 70's with a low in the mid 50's and with historically no real rainfall on our day.

photo via here

If this stays true for our day, that'd be perfect. However, I get sick to my stomach every time I even think about it pouring/storming/hailing/tornadoing whatever on our wedding day. I really really hope that Mother Nature is on our side come April 30th. They do say that a little rain on your wedding day is good luck...so I'd be okay with that, BUT a torrential downpour, I find that to be not so much 'luck' as I do bad timing.

If for some reason Mother Nature decides to change my outdoor wedding to an indoor wedding, I think I'd be okay with it (just okay, not happy or elated). Flint Hill is notorious for weddings and special events so I know they'd have it covered, I'd just like for this to not happen as I think it'll lose a lot of the design I have planned.

So I'll be continuing to say little prayers to Mother Nature, doing no-rain dances and hoping for the best. In the end, all will be okay and regardless of if it's inside our outside, it'll be beautiful and I'll be married to my best friend at the end of the day.

the next 10 days are looking so bright ... i might need my sunglasses

Just checked the 10-day weather report for Atlanta. My day has officially been brightened with the results of what I saw.

I can't wait to get outside this weekend and next weekend as well! Looking good Atlanta! Can't wait for girls dinner tonight and Crawfish Boil tomorrow at Kramers! Sunday is family lunch day and hanging out with some friends after they whoop up on the Publix Half Marathon!

Happy Friday everyone! Hope you all have a wonderful day and even better weekend!

Snowed In : Day 4

Do drive to the office or not. This is the question of the day. While I'm assuming I can make it to the office, it will take me over an hour to go 11 miles and lets be honest, I don't need to wreck my Acura...again!

It amazes me how paralyzed Atlanta is by all this ice/snow. Thank goodness Mike and I live in Buckhead where we can walk to most restaurants, bars, gyms, grocery stores. Thank goodness even more for friends who live close to us who can meet us out! If it wasn't for this ... I'd have gone bat crazy by now.

So while all this is at hand and I'm debating what to do about getting to the office or working from home... what I do know is that I need an outfit for my shower on the 22nd and to get to the dentist at 2pm!

Now, how to do that....