Author / Bethe

by Bethe

World Series

I forgot to mention that I went to this little thing called the WORLD SERIES last week. When someone gave me the tickets behind home plate, I almost peed in my pants. But I’m classy so I refrained.

It was the greatest sporting event I’ve ever attended, and after 24 years as a Rangers fan, I cherished every minute. It doesn’t matter that we suffered a heart breaking loss. It was still amazing.
by Bethe

The Latest

Here’s the latest:

Two years ago I saved up for a new dining room table, and right before I was set to buy it, one of my best girlfriends asked me to go with her on a 3-week Mediterranean cruise. Plans for that dining room table were quickly abandoned in favor of one of the best adventures of my life. Fast forward two years, and I’m now inheriting a gorgeous, hand-made dining room table that belongs to Mr. Wright. I promise I’m not marrying him for the table, but it was certainly a nice perk. Last night Mr. Wright moved his beloved dining room table into my our dining room. Now all I want to do is throw a dinner party. It may kill me. (ignore the mess on the table… those are wedding invitations that are going in the mail next week.)
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My tornado-riddled fence has been repaired. Praise Jesus!
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I have a new obsession: Cuppies & Joe cupcakes. Someone served them at our first wedding shower, and now it takes every ounce of restraint I have left in my body not to hop in the car and drive 3.5 hours to Oklahoma City just to get their carrot cupcake with cream cheese icing. I should add that I don’t like carrot cake OR cream cheese icing, but these cupcakes are change-your-life good. Oh. My. Goodness.
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I turn (cough cough) 30 in about a week. I’ll admit that I’ve been dreading this birthday since I turned 26, and I’m not overly thrilled to be entering a new decade. But I’m working on getting my mind right and I’m determined to rock any age. But it still sounds so much older than I feel.
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We took our engagement pictures this week with McGowan Images. These photographers are amazing–some of their photos are going to be published in People magazine! They shot 750 pictures of us in less than two hours, so I figure they’ll have at least a handful where my eyes are open and I’m not acting like a total dork. Here’s a sneak preview of one of our pics (the rest are posted on their blog on Tuesday). It helps that Mr. Wright is total arm candy. (sigh)
by Bethe

Tornado

My house got hit by a tornado today. No, that’s not a euphemism for how messy my house looks after a crazy wedding week. My house actually got hit by a TORNADO. No kidding!

Thankfully it was just a small tornado, but some old ladies in the neighborhood really saw it skip throughout our neighborhood, and one of the places it touched down was in my backyard. My house is fine, but my fence died a quick and dramatic death. I heard a neighbor’s trampoline ended up on someone else’s fence, and a few others lost their chimneys. My neighbor’s tree snapped in half and two others suffered fence damage, but my yard seems to have fared the worst.
This tornado hit the day after my sister’s wedding, so I hadn’t slept in a week. It was the most amazing wedding in the history of weddings, but as with any big event, exhaustion plus emotion plus constant activity for days in a row makes for a delicate emotional state. So you can probably imagine my reaction when my house got hit by a tornado. Let’s just say that it was terribly scary for two minutes, and after the wind died down and I saw the damage, I did the only thing I knew to do.
I called Mr. Right. And started crying.
And he did the sweetest thing ever. He dropped everything and drove across town to take care of me. Even though I told him not to, even though I told him I was fine and there wasn’t anything he could do to fix the damage, he still came. He brought me lunch, rubbed my shoulders, and then left me to a much-needed nap while he did other things around my house.
Now the rain has stopped. The house is quiet. He’s in his study, working on homework and I’m sipping on a big cup of comfort coffee and enjoying the stillness of the early evening. I’m thanking God that he spared my house, kept me safe, and gave me a man who is so wonderfully fantastic. I am blessed.
And I am going to bed early.
by Bethe

Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

I like to think of myself as an upbeat people person who has a fabulous sense of humor and rarely gets cranky.

…most of the time.
But then there are times like last week, when every person I encountered over a 24-hour-period had lost their mind. Crazy. Dumb. They had all gone nuts, and I was the poor, helpless victim. None of the disasters were my fault, of course. I was simply the lone victim in a crowd of craziness, holding on for dear life.
Okay, maybe I exaggerate a little.
There’s a small chance that I was a bit cranky myself. And hormonal. And tired. And maybe, just maybe, all those crazy people weren’t 100 percent in the wrong. Maybe I made a few mistakes that day too. Maybe I was a little too quick to judge and a little too stingy with my mercy.
Maybe, just maybe, I lost my sense of humor and decided to react by wallowing in some self pity.
It’s exactly for those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days that God wrote this to me:
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues, put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
-Colossians 3:12-14
On that bad day, I chose to clothe myself in cute heels and a headband instead of in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Did I have extra grace and mercy in my heart for the folks who caused me grief? Not really. Was my love obvious to those around me? Probably not.
Luckily that’s not the end of the story. After a good bit of repenting on my part, I choose a new attitude:
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
-Colossians 2:6
I’m a work in progress, and I will keep on trying to live a life worthy of the Lord and to please him in every way, praying that he strengthens me with great endurance and patience (Colossians 1:10-13).
He is good.
by Bethe

October 1996

My beloved Texas Rangers are back in the playoffs after more than a decade of disappointment, and not only are we playing, but we are winning. That hasn’t happened since October 1, 1996. I remember because I was glued to my television when they took their first game against the Yankees in New York. I remember because a few days later I got to witness the first ever Rangers playoff game in Arlington… at home… in our stadium. It was one of the most electrifying games I’ve ever been to, and I’ll never forget sitting 20 rows behind home plate, cheering on Pudge and the rest of my boys as they fought a hard fight… and lost.

But October 1996 holds a special place in my heart for another reason. Because two weeks after that playoff game, I got to go on my first ever date. With a boy.
I was a month shy of turning 16, the magical dating age my parents had set years ago. I was like Cinderella, dreaming of the world outside as I was locked away in a far-off attic, unable to go to the ball. Okay… so maybe I wasn’t locked in an attic… actually I was quite busy cheering on the JV squad, competing on the debate team (I know… debate kids don’t usually get a lot of dates…) and hanging out with friends. But I was forbidden from going anywhere with a boy. Alone.
Despite these hard and fast rules, somehow I was able to convince my parents to bend their rules ever so slightly so that I could go to Homecoming with the heart throb from my church. I had a crush on Dustin since we met back in the elementary school. He had one of those super cute bowl cuts, and his sandy blonde hair made me melt even as a 10-year-old. Fast forward to 1996, and I somehow managed to score a homecoming date with this mysterious boy who happened to go to another school. I was in love.
Okay, so it wasn’t exactly love. It was more like giddy with 15-almost-16-year-old school girl excitement. I picked out a hot new outfit (brown cigarette pants with tapered legs, clogs, and a mock turtleneck… such high fashion), ordered him a garter with all my saved up babysitting money, and curled my bangs so that my amazing beauty would completely overwhelm this poor boy when he saw me and he would immediately drop to a knee and propose, right there in my doorway.
It didn’t exactly happen like I had imagined it. My overwhelming beauty was more like awkward teenage gawkiness, and he ended up buying me a rather ugly mum that I was almost too embarrassed to wear. Since we were 15, my parents had to drive us. I remember finding the whole evening to be horribly unromantic, and it didn’t nearly live up to the unrealistic expectations I had created in my head. That poor boy never had a chance.
But 14 years later, as the Rangers win their next playoff game, I find myself in a slightly better situation. I’m now with a boy who makes me giddy with 15-almost-16-year-old school girl excitement, even though I’m 29. I’ve dropped the bangs, replaced babysitting money with a full time job (and a car), and I learned that cigarette pants and clogs are a huge fashion no-no. If only my 15-almost-16-year-old self had only known that someday those dates WOULD live up to my expectations. That someday I would find a boy who would make me melt… again and again and again.
Go Rangers.
by Bethe

Back on the wagon

You know what’s funny? I kind of assumed that the minute I got engaged my metabolism would click into overdrive and I would burn thousands of calories a day simply by being excited. Then, as the big day drew near, the stress would make the pounds melt away and I’d have to eat large amounts of chocolate chip cookies just to maintain a healthy weight. And underneath all those pounds would be these super firm muscles that would make Jillian from The Biggest Loser jealous.

But somehow there was no magical change when Mr. Right proposed. I was too excited to eat for about a day, and then I was back to my normal self. And so now, three months from the big day, I’m suddenly feeling highly motivated to get my tushy in gear, even if it means setting my alarm for 5:45 in the morning. That, my friends, is true love. Or at least, I want my hiney to look great in those jeans for our engagement pics.
Thankfully, Mr. Right will gladly take me just the way I am, but my whole life I wanted to look smokin’ hot on my wedding day, and by golly, it’s going to happen. And so for now, my new best friend is the guy from the P90X videos.
by Bethe

All things wedding


Ahhh, the joys of wedding planning. I’m a professional event planner and have told myself for years that I won’t stress someday over planning my big day. In fact, all the little details really don’t excite me, because I realize that they’re just something to be enjoyed for a few moments, and I’m much more excited about enjoying Mr. Right for a few decades (63+ years).

Within a week of getting engaged, I had booked the chapel, the reception venue, the DJ, the cake lady, the photographer, and my caterer/florist. A week after that I had found my dress, jewelry, bridesmaid dresses, and their jewelry. And now a month later I’ve done just about everything there is to do, minus finalizing the ever-growing invitation list and designing the invitations (but they’ve been written). Heck – I even cleaned out half my closet so I can get used to squeezing my clothes into a smaller space before I start sharing.
It was all relatively enjoyable and pain-free, and yet there were several moments last month that were so overwhelming that all I wanted to do was curl into a fetal position, shut my eyes tight, and disappear for a few hours. I’m not sure what it was – I think it might be the hundreds of wedding blogs I’ve been following that emphasize the great need for perfect table reservation cards, or wearing a pair of shoes that have some sort of great symbolic meaning. Carrying a handkerchief that your great grandma’s cousin’s neighbor wore in her wedding in the 1400s, right after she came over on the Mayflower. If I don’t have something nostalgic like that, will my wedding still count? Oh, and don’t forget the paper lanterns. If you don’t have paper lanterns at your outdoor wedding… well you might as well just go back home. That, and bunting that spells out something clever, like “Eat, drink, and be married.” It’s everywhere, people.
But during those silly, overwhelming moments, I am so thankful to have Mr. Right to reassure me that he doesn’t care about paper lanterns or the perfect handkerchief or any of those things for that matter… that like me, he just cares about the getting married part… the part where we get to spend the rest of our lives together. Instead of curling up in the fetal position, I curl up next to him on the couch and let him wrap his arms around me, and I thank God that I got a good one who can bring me back to reality, who loves me in my silly, stressed out moments.
I can’t wait to marry him.
by Bethe

Big, BIG News


Well, my friends, it’s official. I never in a million years thought this day would come, and yet it did, and it was 100 more times more fantastic than I ever expected it to be.

I. Got. Engaged.
Yep. I sealed the deal. Snagged Mr. Right. Found myself a keeper. And let me just tell you… he was worth the wait. God answered my prayers in a very specific and obvious way. Later I will share with you some of the crazy ways God has revealed himself during our relationship. But for now, let me just tell you that I am blessed. I have found a man who treats me better than I deserve to be treated. Who loves me in a sacrificial way. Who’s an absolute blast to be around. And who fascinates me like nobody else ever has.
Thank you, Jesus.
by Bethe

My life… the adventure

Woah nelly, it has been a crazy summer! Here are a few of the highlights:

-The fire department broke into my house. Someone in my neighborhood called 911, and the dispatcher got the address wrong and sent the fire department and ambulance to my house. Nobody answered when they knocked, so they assumed the person was REALLY sick, and forced their way into my house. Only after a team of firemen traipsed through my place, probably scaring Harley the Wonder Schnoodle to death, did they realize that it was the wrong house. Trust me, the police and fire departments were quite apologetic about the havoc they wreaked that day.
-Then, the ambulance company charged me $1400 for that little mishap. We’ve since gotten it straightened out… I hope.
-I made my first trip to Central America (Panama) and South America (Colombia). Okay, technically I only visited the airport in Panama, but I did enjoy some Empanadas and some fabulous foreign chocolates.
-I took roadtrips to far East Texas and far West Texas. I dipped my toe in the waters of both the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific Ocean. I used every trashy gas station restroom between Dallas and Destin, and I convinced my boyfriend to pee on the side of the road (with my eyes closed and covered) instead of leaving me in the car alone while he used a scary gas station bathroom after midnight.
-I was attacked by sand fleas in Destin, bed bugs in Colombia, and a gecko at my house in Texas.
-I hid in the bushes to secretly photograph my sister’s engagement. While I waited for the big moment, I kept having to explain to all the passersby that I wasn’t scary or weird, and that this was a good thing.
-I got my first airbrush spray tan. I’m hooked.
-I tried P90X for the first time, and could barely move my legs for the next three days.
-I won a Women’s Longest Drive contest at a golf tournament, and I wasn’t even the only woman there.
-I started the Dave Ramsey “envelope method” budget, and then immediately lost all my envelopes filled with money.
-I got my first traffic ticket in six years, and then had a tear-filled meltdown as soon as the policeman drove away.
by Bethe

So I don’t forget…

Because I like to keep a list, and because if I write it on a post-it note, it will somehow find its way to the bottom of a junk drawer, only to be thrown away in 2015 when I finally get around to cleaning it out, along with all the gum wrappers and dried-up pens…

Here’s what I’ve been reading this summer:
–The Help (loved it)
–Orange is the New Black (stumbled across it in a bookstore… it’s about a women’s prison – it’s awesome)
–The Kite Runner (incredibly good, but incredibly sad)
–Little Bee (still working on it)
–Key Principles of Biblical Fasting (I’m teaching this in a few weeks… learned a ton)
–The Missionary Call (you’re probably nodding your head knowingly with this one)
And in my Bible… I’ve been studying Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and now Ezekiel. Tough studying, but it’s really rocking my world.
And that, my friends, is what life looks like after grad school. I’m devouring those books and loving every minute of it!