A few pics from the wedding. (my girls are so lovely.)

I don't even know my last name!

Today, I woke up

thinkin' about Elvis somewhere in Vegas

I'm not sure how I got here

Or how this ring on my left hand just appeared

out of nowhere

I gotta go

I take the chips and the Pinto and hit the road

They say what happens here stays here

All of this will disappear

There's just one little problem...

I don't even know my last name!

Thanks, Carrie Underwood. I don't even know my last name...LOL. Mrs. Boyd, wait that's Mr. Chad's mom...No, that's probably Mr.Chad's dad's dad's MOM...LOL...so who am I?...LOL. I know I'm Christy Buettner Boyd now, but it still hasn't kicked in, yet. You know what I'm saying? I mean, come on...how many times have you written the old year on checks for the first month of the new year?

I LOVE my new last name and have had such an internal, mental war with myself over the whole changing it thing...LOL. The positive is that everyone can pronounce it...the negative is that it's different than my girls. So, I will keep them both, but use Buettner as my middle name. Easy enough, right?

Not so much...LOL...LOL!

I'll keep trying, though...and before long, I'll have it down...

Christy Buettner Boyd
Christy Buettner Boyd
Christy Buettner Boyd
Christy Buettner Boyd

Another Wedding...and so soon?...LOL

Well, it happened...one week to the day, Mary and JD were married in Winchester. It was a very...let's see how do i say it...very....uuhhmmm...very, SHORT ceremony...LOL. Lovely, but short...LOL. I must confess I knew this going into their blissful day, but thought Mary was kidding when she said that it was 8 minutes long...SHE DIDN'T LIE. In fact, Catarina recorded it and it took 8 minutes and 57 seconds...start to finish...LOL.

They were both so beautiful, ( I would have said handsome for JD, but , he probably prefers to be called beautiful...LOL) but Mary looked way more nervous. The best part of the whole ceremony was the first time the preacher called them by their full names...Mary and Joseph. Yes, it's been funny for months b/c of the invitations, but when he said it...the girls looked over at me and grinned from ear to ear. Mr. Chad even piped in and said, "Someone should have had a donkey with cans tied on it's tail out front waiting for them"...LOL.

The reception was loads of fun, but we tried staying out of their way. I think we were suppose to dance before we left, but left before we had a chance...Darn it...LOL. It was great to see a lot of their family there. Mary seemed very happy about it all. JD's sister and husband were very good about hostessing everything. They make a really, cute couple and stayed very involved all day...ie. passing out the toast glasses, bubbles, etc. Mr. Chad said that JD's sister, Sarah, looked like Pam from the Office...wish he hadn't said that b/c then I starting trying to find Michael, Dwayne, and Jim. However, found no one else from Dunder-Mifflin...and that was a good thing...LOL.

Anyway, I think the 2 of them make a great couple and they are truly some of the most wonderful people that I have ever met...friends for life.

Congrats, Mary and Joseph.

Thanks for sharing your day with me and my family.

Signing out from the Hundred Acre Woods,

Mrs.Christy Buettner Boyd

...all that's left is a band of (white) gold

PWD...post-wedding depression...LOL. Yeah, I got it. I woke up Sunday not knowing what to do with myself. There was nothing to plan, nothing to write in my handy-dandy notebook, absolutely nothing to do!!! I mean, Monday was another story...linens to return, cake stand to take back, final payment on the reception...LOL, but the "day after" the wedding...truly, felt like the day after...

I don't want to weird people out about marriage, but I did NOT feel any different. As we were going to sleep, Mr. Chad said, "goodnight, wife", but my heart did not leap out of my throat or anything like that...I guess those could have been butterflies in my stomach...I thought I was just nauseated...LOL. I have felt like his wife for so long that marriage to me was simply "legal" paperwork, or the day I would became eligible for medical insurance...LOL.

Don't get me wrong, either...I'm not unhappy or regretting my decision. I just thought--maybe--there would be a tad more mental fanfare...LOL. I thought--maybe--he would look more "googly-eyed" at me. I thought--maybe--a jazz band would play in my head every time he came around me. Nope. It was just another day in the life of Christy and Mr. Chad...LOL, and isn't that what marriage is?...just another day of living, breathing and being for someone else, yet not forgetting who you are and inviting them to share the experience with you.

All I can say, is that I have struggled to find happiness and inner peace for soooo long that I have failed to enjoy my life's ride, at times, and that from this day forward...I plan to be just as happy being in the passenger seat as I am at hogging the wheel.

Sincerely,
Christy Buettner Boyd...
****Not sure how to end my posts now??? Any suggestions??? I'm certainly not going to do Sincerely...LOL...and the count down is over...LOL. What do y'all think?

ONE Little Church

A Morning Prayer in a Little Church, by Helen Hayes



"And then, much later, I discovered that it had happened, right there in the church. I could recall, vividly, one by one, the people I had seen there—the solemn laborers with tired looks, the old women with gnarled hands. Life had knocked them around, but for a brief moment they were being refreshed by an ennobling experience. It seemed as they prayed, their worn faces lighted up and they became the very vessels of God. Here was my revelation. Suddenly I realized I was one of them. In my need I gained strength from the knowledge that they too had needs, and I felt an interdependence with them. I experienced a flood of compassion for people."

It takes 2 to make a thing go right...?

Are those even the lyrics to that Rob Base song? Regardless, wasn't sure what I wanted to blog about today...

I could take the Aristotle approach...2 souls in one body...or the biblical approach...2 by 2...my marital experience...marriage, part II...the literary approach...Tale of 2 Cities...a career approach...2 weeks notice... a sports approach...2 strikes...or the mechanical approach...2-stroke engines...LOL.

OK, now I'm grasping...LOL, but with everything down to the wire...my mind is stirring with anticipation beyond measure. In fact, I've limited my speech b/c my train of thought is going so fast...get this...my mouth can't keep up. Go ahead, I hear y'all laughing right now.

The problem is...I am scared. There, I said it. I am scared about making this commitment. I am not scared about the mate I've picked. I am scared at failing him, or me for that matter. I ALWAYS said that if my first marriage failed (and we all know it did...LOL), I would NEVER...NEVER...NEVER do it again...Yet, here I am.

Although, Mr. Chad and I have been together for many years...I can't help but worry that I will one day forget his "kind" of food at the grocery, or that he does not like scary, squeamish films, or that he loved to play Yahtzee with his Mamaw V. I have never been so nervous in all my life. I am here at that place in my life that I have yearned for in my dreams and now...now, I want to run. Is that normal?

Nah, it's not normal, but neither am I...LOL. Due to unforeseen genetic make-up,...I have always been a runner. Let it go or get going--whichever is easier, but now I will make a conscious choice to not run...to plant my feet firmly on the ground and say, "Mr. Chad, I'm ready to stick this out and I'll stand by you--FOREVER." That's all I can do. I hope it's enough for him...for me...for us.

2,1...and so on. I hope you will stick with me.

The Triple Crown

Over the years, Mr. Chad and I have placed many bets, mainly on the ponies...LOL, but now here we are, taking the biggest gamble of our lives...marriage! Stats are not good on the probability of marital success...not to mention actual marital bliss...LOL. Nevertheless, the race is on...LOL.

Over the past few months, I've tried to cover everything in my blog, about wedding plans, marital worries, and the best laid plans for a successful marriage, but in 3 days will any of it matter? In 3 days, I will pledge my undying and everlasting love to Mr. Chad and no one will care if the pew bows came out with 8 loops or 10...LOL.

I would like to think of our marriage as maybe, a horse race...off with a bang, pushing ahead, trotting a bit, and then beating the odds and coming out a winner. We all know life is not a horse race, though. When you love someone...sometimes you gamble, but you have to know what the stakes are in the beginning and know that there are sacrifices that may lie ahead. It took me years to figure out how to bet, but I am very cautious with my "betting" money(...knocked me out of 8k, once...but I survived. You can't lose what you don't have, you can only lose what you do...LOL.)

In 3 days, I will marry the man of my dreams, start a beautiful new chapter in my life with my girls and Mr. Chad, and continue to build a home for those that I love most in this world...I may not be great at betting...or winning...LOL, but I would say that sounds like a Triple Crown win to me.

3,2,1...and so on. I hope you will stick with me.