COMING HOME: Weddings! I love weddings!

And it's a good thing I love weddings because I have 2 happening within the next 3 weeks. I am blessed beyond measure as my children have chosen some fantastic people to love forever. And understand that when I say I'm feeling a bit, umm, short of breath, it's not that I don't recognize these events as wonderful, it's just that I'm a bit of a freaker outer. I definitely should not be the main whiner here because I am the mother of the grooms and have really done nothing, and the mother of the brides have done everything. I just like to worry. I like to play the what ifs through my mind until they interrupt my sleep with "The ties are too short!, I'm lost and it's past time to be there and I keep driving around and around and around, the caterer is not in Provo, UT, they're in Provo, NM!" nightmares.

This state of high alert has prompted me to share as I talk myself down and remind myself of what's real and what's important. No worries! There are details that will be forgotten, because it's me and my relatives and that's how we roll. We smile a lot, but details leak out of our brain like water. But the important things will happen beautifully, because it's about love and family and eternity, and angels always attend this combination.

The planning makes weddings beautiful, but the forgetting makes them fun to tell about, eventually. Like how I forgot to bring white shoes to my own wedding. What's not adorable about my brown leather sandals peeking out under my wedding dress on my special day?

And look at Brandon's sweet little bare ankles on his getaway. Clearly his mother's son.

When Eliza got married, Rebecca needed some hose to protect her from the winter chill. There was a wedding day morning Wal-Mart run, but the only size available was queensize. She's a queen, but not queensize so she had to spend the day hosily challenged, but she did it with a smile.

Here is a list I've made for myself that has evolved through experience. Don't ask questions. Just trust me.

1. Spend a lot of time thinking about shoes and socks. They aren't going to bring themselves.

2. Turn off your cell phone.

3. Know where your purse is at all times. Do not leave it 2 hrs. away at the last event.

4. Ask yourself, "Do I have everyone's pants?" If the answer is "no" plan enough time for a JCPenney run.

5. Think ahead like my daughter-in-law Erica. She had an emergency kit with Tylenol, needle and thread, granola bar, band-aid, safety pins, duct tape, (I added that in) just in case.

6. Don't miss the beauty of the day by stressing and obsessing. My hair stylist observed that at all the weddings she's been to have had that stressed-out mother/mother-in-law running around in perfectionist mode making sure no one has thread on their clothes, etc. That's totally me. But maybe this time it won't be. Maybe this time I'll just notice how beautiful everyone is and how happy I am to be with so many people I love, and think about how I'm the most blessed mother on earth to have such wonderful children and in-laws, because that's what I always think about when it's over. I just need to start a little earlier.