Mixed thoughts

With the past couple of days being filled with images and videos of two major world events right now I can't help but feel that I'm being pulled in two different directions. I find myself getting sucked into pictures plastered all over the Internet of happiness and sadness at the same time. Sadness with the devastation in Alabama from the massive tornadoes and happiness from the images of the royal couple's nuptials. It's an emotional roller coaster!

My family in Alabama is safe and luckily, very luckily no one got attacked by this horrendous storm. It's hard to look at the flattened building and homes and not think of all the terror and devastation of those families. I cannot even fathom it all! I'm praying for the people affected by this storm, the lives lost and hope for a quickly recovery for the towns.

I hate to focus on the negative, so...on to the wedding madness! I really haven't been a fanatic about this whole thing, but a. who doesn't love weddings? b. they are so darn cute! and c. the media won me over with all the hype surrounding today. So, here are my comments and observations.

I love the whole "commoner" term that's been associated with Catherine (formerly known as Kate). I mean, really? Her parents might be "new money" and non-royalty but do we really consider millionaires to be "commoners" these days? I know the term is only because they are not from a royal status but I hate to call them common. This is anything but common. Millions of people watching and good Lord the details!

Another observation...what's with all the head gear? The hats and feathers and some things that I don't even know what to call are out of control! The Queen's hat wasn't so hot but I didn't know that it was a requirement to attend the wedding. Did they put an asterisk on the invitation so that the "commoners" would know to wear something adorning their heads? However, I have to say that I've been on a little bit of an accessory kick wanting to buy headbands and necklaces. Maybe I'll venture down the feather headpiece route. Could I pull it off? Hmm...I shall see.

Final thought for now (since I haven't actually watched the wedding...I cherish my sleep more and figured I'd take advantage of modern day technology-the DVR)....her dress was beautiful! We all have been wondering what it would look like and how elaborate it would be and I think she made the perfect choice! Traditional elegance. I love the lace details and the conservative nature of having the lace sleeves combined with the full skirt and oh so amazing train! It makes me want to put on my wedding dress and twirl around the house dreaming of a "commoners" wedding at the palace with my Prince. Haha...just kidding. She can keep her over the top, stuffy wedding. Mine was just perfect! However...I would love to kidnap her wardrobe.

A very (un)welcome Spring!

Right now I have a love-hate relationship with Spring and home ownership. I love the flowers in bloom and the mild temperatures but I hate the pollen and the running nose that I can't seem to escape. I love love love our house but hate feeling like no matter how much back breaking "clean-up" I do in the yard there's still more. That's probably the anal perfectionist in me however, there's nothing prettier than a well manicured yard. The house looks great and the yard looks great too but I'd love to do an overhaul and have someone come through, suck up all the old pine straw and lay more. Maybe I'll budget for that over the new couple of months. The oxymoron in all of this is that I'm really just talking about the natural areas. Who knew that a natural area required so much pruning and maintenance? I am learning a lot about gardening though and absolutely love it (with the exception on the pollen creeping into my eyes and nose). I made it my mission this weekend to clean up the flower beds and plant some flowers in our empty flower pots. Once I got started I noticed some real yucky looking "plants" which I ended up identifying as weeds using google images and some random weed sites. They were everywhere. They had yellow buds on them so I thought they might be flowers but they were ugly and I was secretly hoping they were weeds so that I could justify getting rid of them. Well, they were and now they're gone! The only thing really left are the azaleas, a dogwood tree and roses. Not a bad mix of plants! Someone spent some good money on making the landscaping at our house beautiful and it has been a very nice Springtime surprise for us! The azaleas cover the whole backyard and there are a few in the front with some roses and the lovely dogwood tree. A very quintessentially southern yard! That's one of the biggest things that I love about our neighborhood is all of the old, mature trees and mature landscaping. It's just so pretty right now spotting all the colors in the yards. I love it, but as I'm sitting here tying I'm sniffling and can't seem to muscle through this yucky pollen season! Here's to May! Spring temperatures, spring flowers and NO pollen!!