the night before

So, 10 years ago tonight, I was wearing a funny headband with toulle attached to the back, trying not to laugh too much and irritate my mom as my dad propelled me up the aisle for the fourth run-through at our wedding rehearsal. After we completed that last trip, the BBQ was lit and we had a great big family barbeque of a rehearsal dinner. Sometime between inhaling the giant burgers and the gooey desserts, it dawned on Kev and me that even though we had an entire 13 months to plan this event, we still hadn't picked a song to walk out to after the ceremony. Ahhhh!! We frantically searched through my friend's CD collection from his car but nothing jumped out at us except Leaving on a Jet Plane mainly because we were doing just that to get to Hawaii for our honeymoon - but it's not that uplifting of a song. My girls were getting antsy and wanting to get on with the bachelorette-party festivities and the guys were ready to kidnap Kev and leave me to my own devices so we finally settled on If You Could Only See by Tonic. Again, not the best or most appropriate (having perused the lyrics a time or two since then) but it got the job done and no one really noticed. And every time we hear that song now we smile and say "Remember when we didn't have a song picked....."

Then, with a last kiss and a "see you in the morning - and you'd better be on time and able to stand at the alter unassisted!" (from me, not him), we went our separate ways for the evening. I still don't know for sure what all the guys did but he was indeed on time and able to stand upright so I'm content to leave it a mystery. We girls went out for drinks -- even though several of our number were underage, thank you Bayfair Mall Red Robin and your relaxed carding rules -- then back to the house for mani-pedi's and gossiping. I didn't get to sleep until well after 2am and was up nervous and sick at 5:30 so it's an amazing thing that I was able to keep my eyes open by the afternoon.

Tonight, 10 years later, I'm sitting at home waiting for Kev to return from a school conference trip to Las Vegas, trying to keep the kids entertained until bedtime so they don't notice he's not home yet. Eventually I'll get them into bed and then watch TV until he walks in the door. I love it when he walks in the door. I'm pretty sure I'll sleep just fine, especially with him back home, and if I'm up at 5:30 it'll probably be because Gennie had a scary bad dream or Josiah can hear the wind blowing outside his window.

And I'll probably end the evening with another last kiss -- and a "See you in the morning."

Then tomorrow we'll celebrate 10 years!