The Craziness Continues...

Things have not slowed down for us Cunninghams. Back in May, we predicted a busy schedule throughout the summer, and so far that has been the case, especially with the planning for the wedding.

New stuff has happened wedding-wise. The different coordinators for flowers, food, decorations, etc... have gotten together and are starting to brainstorm. The ladies are getting excited, dealing with an outdoor wedding at night (which means plenty of experimentation with lights), and I look forward to seeing what they come up with. The bridesmaids dresses have finally been found, and some of the girls (including myself) have already got them. They are very flattering on all figures and cost less than $100, which is what Mandy was shooting for. Some girls are already buying their shoes, which will be lace Toms; Mandy did not want her bridesmaids to pick out and wear shoes that they would never wear again, so she opted for Toms, which have no heel and which will definitely be worn after the wedding. The save-the-dates have mostly all been sent out, and invitations will be following shortly. It's been a challenge to find good invitations for a good price, but we found a good deal and some pretty invitations at David's Bridal (and they've got a sale going on) so hopefully we'll get them taken care of next week... if Mandy would be home for longer than a few hours.

Mandy's life has become quite hectic. Even though she is no longer employed, she has still had plenty to do. Between jazzercise (an exercise program she's been attending for the past few months) and various social gatherings with friends (which includes spend-the-nights... after all, those things are going to be ending in September, so she's enjoying them as long as she can), there's rarely a day where she's home all day. Last week, she spent half the week in North Carolina with friends (her last visit there) and came home, only for the next day to spend most of the day away from home and then spend the night with friends and then the next morning drive up to Virginia for the annual family conference this week. So, yeah, her life's been rather crazy.

Life for the rest of us is largely normal... except for wedding planning. There's still some weeks where we're rushing around to get stuff done and then other weeks where it's very laid back. This week was fairly busy, as Mom and I had to do various shopping, clean the church, and then help out at a rehearsal dinner for some friends of ours; today we're going to said friend's wedding.

It looks like I will be going back to college in the fall, Lord willing to finish my major (I'm considered a junior, which is rather exciting). GGC is still the closest and cheapest option, but I will only be going part-time and taking one class; if I find a job (which I've been looking for the past few weeks with no success yet), then I may take more in future semesters. I went to orientation, which I found boring since it never really introduced me to anything new at the school, but walking around on the campus did make me a bit excited and ready to go back to school. Right now I'm messing around with financial aid, but I'm happy to report that I may be able to pay everything out of pocket; hopefully financial aid will lessen the burden and enable me to save for the winter semester.

Another thing that's going on is that I'm also considering publishing my novel "The Changelings' War." I started it last year and have been working on it ever since then. This is the first novel that I have felt genuinely happy with (i.e. doesn't need a gazillion rewrites to fix the story; the current drafts are more polishing than anything else), and I've been looking for feedback for it; so far it's been positive from folks. I'm thinking of publishing it via amazon's self-publishing program, namely their kindle one; I think it would be easier for me to get the word out through a cheap electronic book than a more expensive hard copy. And there's still plenty of potential for sequels, prequels, or stories set in the same universe, so this more than likely wouldn't be a one-time thing. But, we'll see. I'm still waiting on feedback from a few people. I'm hoping to publish it before the end of the year, but I'll keep you updated on whether or not I do.