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The Survivors Club: The Secrets and Science that Could Save Your Life by Ben Sherwood

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was an enjoyable book for two reasons. 1. The author interviews survivors of all types of situations, from the extreme (cougar taking a woman’s face off, ejecting from a place at mach speed, etc), to the more common (surviving cancer, etc.) 2. He uses these interviews to name the qualities survivors posses.



It wasn’t the greatest book I’ve ever read, but I would still recommend it, since its premise is so different. Its not a “survivor book” in that it only rarely gives tips on survival techniques (though I did learn not to take off my shoes while on an airplane- that will make it extremely difficult to get out if a fire breaks out). Instead it explores personalities, which can be a very interesting topic.


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Back in the room there were just a couple more things to take care of before the ceremony.  Our minister, Rev. Christie Olsen, arrived.   We decided to go ahead and take care of the marriage certificate before the ceremony (is that even legal!! haha).

So- Seph’s brother Mark came up and signed as a witness as well as my sister.

Then, both the girls and the guys prayed together with Christie.  It was a really nice moment to quiet ourselves and remember why we were there.  My sister added a prayer as well.  I was lucky I didn’t cry!  Instead, as you can see, I had a huge smile.  I was excited!

So, I was feeling pretty relaxed at this point and ready to go.  The nerves I had experienced earlier in the hotel parking lot and in the car with my sister were gone.  As we stood talking, Kayte caught one of my favorite pictures:

Teresa came up to say it was time.  She took the girls down the stairs to get ready.  I stayed up with my dad.  Now- I DID feel the nerves kicking in.  I was seconds away from getting married!

You can see my hands going wild up there at the top of the stairs (the girls are below).  I think we might have been talking about our honeymoon plans.  My dad was clearly trying to distract me- but I think he jus made me more nervous!  At my sister’s wedding I heard him say “there’s still time to back out” to her.  I think he thought better of this the second time around.  It might have made me laugh though!

I wasn’t the only one that was nervous.  Here is Seph waiting to come out for the ceremony:

I like to tease him about how nervous he looks in this photo, but to be fair- he is all smiles in the photo before this one.  This was taken the moment his brother slapped him on the bag.  So maybe instead of “nervous groom” we should label this one “annoyed older brother.”

Allright- here we go!

The guys went first- I love this shot:

Then my amazing bridesmaids:

And finally- my dad and me!

One small annoyance I had with the site layout was that I couldn’t walk straight down the aisle.  I love weddings in churches where they open the big doors and there is the bride – straight down the aisle from her fiance, who is staring lovingly at her.  I couldn’t do that at the Beach Club.  I had to enter from a door to the side of the aisle and do a 90 degree turn before I was facing Seph.  So…the picture above is me trying to see him and see if he can see me.  I was desperate to have that “first look” experience.

Once we did turn down the aisle, we locked eyes.  Guests have told me I had a “determined” look coming down the aisle.

I think the expression was a result of wanting to keep my eyes on my soon-to-be husband (he was so handsome in his tux!), not wanting to look around at everyone (that is a personal pet peeve, those brides that start looking around at their guests and even saying hi to them), and that dilemma of wanting to smile but wanting to be solemn as well.   Whatever it was- that was my coming down the aisle look.

(I like this photo because you can see Tony taking it in the professional shot I posted above it!)

Up next- the ceremony!  (Finally, right?)

The boys arrived at the Beach Club and were waiting around in the bar/reception area, enjoying the beer in beer coozies that Seph had given as groomsman gifts and watching something on the tv.

The girls played a joke at me and looked down into where the guys were and told me that Seph looked so nervous they thought he might throw up.

On a previous visit to the site,  I had fallen in love with a group of rocking chairs that were in another area.  I wanted to catch a shot or two of my bridemaids and I in the chairs.  In order to get there, however, I would have to walk right by where Seph was.  Luckily, Teresa, our site coordinator, found a place to stash the guys….in a hallway by the kitchen.

Their sacrifice was worth it, because while they guys had those hillarious pictures, we got these cute ones.

So, while the girls and I were getting dolled up, the men were down the road putting on the James Bond get-up.

Our little nephew patiently let his dad put him in a tiny tux – something no little kid enjoys.  (Allright, flower girls love it, but the ring bearers hate it).

Once they were dressed the groom and his men paused to pose for some pictures on the dock.

They then piled into the car to head to the beach club, where we managed to somehow avoid seeing one another for the next half hour as the time until the wedding counted down…

I wanted to do something to remind me that my mom was there in spirit on my wedding day, so I decided to create a bouquet locket.  My aunt gave me my “something borrowed” in the form of a beautiful locket from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.  Inside, the following Shakespeare Sonnet:

Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken

The perfect sentiment, not only of my vow to love Seph no matter what- but also of my eternal love for my best friend- my mom.

I put my mom’s wedding portrait inside the locket- and this was the final product.

We arrived at the beach club to find everything running smoothly.  They already had my guest book out- which was fun to see.  They rushed me up into the bridal suite where we hung up our dresses and started getting ready!

I was anxious to put on my dress, but I let the girls get ready first.  Erica and I had time to blow off some nerves and practice for our “Thriller” dance.

The story behind our “Thriller” dance:  when I started to loose it during the rehearsal, Erica attempted to lighten the mood by quoting a line from “13 going on 30“where Jennifer Garner’s character attemps to liven up an office party by dancing the famous Michael Jackson video.  In the movie she whisper shouts “Mattie” to her friend and does the little head twitch.  We decided it’d be fun to learn a few moves for the wedding.  The night before I got married we found it on the internet and practiced.  Great memories!

Speaking of great  memories, I was so blessed to have my college roommate Carla as a bridesmaid.  Her and I have been through everything together.  Here we are getting emotional before I got dressed.

But time was running out- time to get my dress on!  Megan and Sarah expertly lifted and prepared it for me.

Apparently I was very excited to be in my dress.  (Or as Seph thought, perhaps I’m yawning?)

Lacing the dress took awhile (thank god for the lacing though, as the dress was two sizes too big!)  The lacing was also a really nice moment to relax and enjoy a moment with my sister and bridesmaids.

Seph’s mom and cousin Gwen popped in to say hi.

One final look in the mirror….

Looks good- time to get the flowers!

The Known World by Edward P. Jones

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I feel like I should be giving this book 5 stars, but I just can’t. While I found the premise and historical period to be fascinating (free black slaveowners in antebellum backcountry Virginia), the writing did not captivate me the way it should have. Jones is a phenomenal write and worthy of the Pulitzer, but the device he uses in this particular novel left me feeling completley disconnected to the characters. He moves about time and place in a single paragraph and the character focus changes every page or two. In the book discussion section, the author explains that he felt he knew the characters entire lives and wanted to bring up details from the past and present. For example, one little girl says “my daddy made this doll,” and in the novel, after this is said, the author adds “she would say this in 1905 on her deathbed. Sometimes this device REALLY helped the novel and gave it a feeling of historical realness, as if it was anchored in real time and history. Other times it detracted from the story at hand and left the plot feeling subpar to all of these other unimportant details of the characters lives. All in all there were too many characters, particularly Counsel Skiffington.

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Well, it’s time to start doing wedding recaps!  I’ve decided to skip the rehearsal and the dinner for now and go straight to the wedding day.

The day started early, unfortunatley.  I hadn’t slept as well as possible- but not because of nerves!  Our room overlooked the Jetty bar and there several parties going on (perhaps from THAT day’s weddings).  Despite the hour, it quickly brightened up when I had a delicious breakfast with my bridesmaids.

Next, we went to the Annapolis salon for our hair!  We surprised our wonderful stylist with lots of down-do requests- but she handled them gracefully.  I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

My hair-do, pre-flowers and veil.

Our amazing stylist putting flowers in my hair.

Elle’s beautiful do.

Carla and I getting excited!  I had to jet before I could see her and Erica finish.  We went to scavenge lunch.   There wasn’t much around so we picked up sandwich fixings at Safeway.  I’ll admit, wandering around Safeway I started to get really nervous about the coming events.  I even dropped a whole box of olives on the floor.  Luckily, when we got back to the hotel, my beautiful aunt and cousins were there to eat lunch with me and calm me down.

After lunch, time started running short for makeup.  We quickly had to leave my room and head to my aunt’s room.  (It was checkout time, though Erica had extended it as much as she could- bridesmaid points!).  There the girls went into action mode.

Carla helped Sarah out with her makeup.

The one picture of me doing my makeup.  Why is no one paying attention to me?  Oh yeah, they are all doing their own makeup too!

I was happy with how my makeup turned out.  The nerves were still there, but everyone was very helpful with getting me to the car.  On the way out I had to duck and cover to avoid seeing some MUSTU friends checking in to the hotel (for my wedding!)

Up next- getting dressed and ready at the Bay Beach Club!

We woke up VERY early the morning after our wedding to catch a plane that ended up being an hour late once we arrived.  We had to RUN through the Dallas airport in order to make our connection.  We made it and we landed in Cancun safe and sound.  Despite not have reserved a van, we got on one headed south, for Puerto Aventuras and the Aventura Spa Palace.

We were greeted with champagne and a friendly welcome.  Our room was far off from the center of the resort, which worked great since it was nice and quiet.  We had a view of the ocean from the bed and in-room jacuzzi- PERFECT!

Seph got some pesos and took a few neat shots of our rings, Mexican style.

The next day we got side by side massages and spent some time in their fabulous spa.

And of course, we spent LOTS of time reading and relaxing at their GORGEOUS POOL!

Seph did a little “light” reading by the pool, including “The War Within” “Wikinomics” and “Crowdsourcing”

The other main activity at the resort was eating.  It was an all-inclusive, and although the food was somewhat average, there was lots of it and the service was out of this world.

Here we are having lunch:

One of the fun parts of going to dinner was dressing up.  We had Mexican, Asian and Italian for dinner.  We liked the Italian the best, it was a smaller restaurant and therefore more intimate.

The best decision we made at the Spa Palace was to buy the robes they use in the Spa.   Here Seph caught me reading in my robe after we ordered champagne up to the room (I love the all-inclusive!)

We returned from our honeymoon last night at about 1 AM.  We’re exhausted and happy.  The honeymoon was like a dream.  Seph’s quote from the week was “life is rough” only second to “I could get used to this.”  I couldn’t help but think of the cheesy Sandals commercials “Some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this.”

The place is a mess and I’m overwhelmed by the thought of it all, but at the same time we’re excited to start arranging things in our new life.  Changing my name officially, joint checking, decorating decisions- these are all things we’re looking forward to.

Please keep checking this blog- it’s not just a wedding website.  We’ll be posting recaps fairly soon and other news and notes.

We are so thankful to all our friends and family- those who were there with us and those who were with us in spirit.  We love you all.

With that here is a parting shot and a sneak peek at our amazing photographers, Joe and Katye’s work: