Dress shopping!

When I last left you, Hurricane Florence was threatening the coast of North Carolina and forecasters were promising that she was heading our way.

We had been hearing about the heavy winds and rains all of last week and everyone around here was freaking out.  Please note, we are four hours from the coast but they were predicting that it was coming and we needed to be ready.

So everyone headed to the store to buy water, milk, bread and from the looks of the grocery store shelves -  all the canned meat.  And we waited and nothing happened but they kept saying it was coming. Schools were cancelled and every one was hunkered down waiting for the storm. And we continued to wait.

I was worried about Dan making it home from Switzerland based on all the earlier forecasts but he made it home on time with no problems.  In fact, thanks to everyone cancelling and changing their plans, the plane only had 8 people on it.  

The coast got hit hard and then Florence decided to turn south and our predictions for high winds and rains lessened but we were still waiting.  All this to say, it started raining with high winds on Saturday and continued to rain all day on Sunday.  Thankfully, in the area around our house, there was some flooding near rivers and streams but nothing horrible.  We never lost power and other than a few branches down in my parents yard, no trees around us were lost. 

As a precaution, the kids are on a two hour delay today but hopefully we will be back to our regularly scheduled life by this afternoon.  The sky is starting to clear this morning and I'm actually hoping we get a little sun.

I am very, very thankful that our area was spared from what they were calling for. I am continuing to pray for all of those on the coast who lost loved ones and whose homes and towns were flooded.

The kids were out of school on Friday because they were predicting the rain would be pummeling us at that point.  It was overcast and windy but there was very little rain so Sarah and I headed to Greensboro to shop for her dress.  We had already been to the mall in Winston-Salem and tried on at least 20 or more dresses but for one reason or another, none of them was THE ONE!

We  went to the same department stores in Greensboro but they had some different styles and also they had sizes in dresses she had seen in Winston but didn't have her size in.  Round two went much better!  At one point we had three dresses in the dressing room that we both loved and she could actually see herself wearing.

THREE!!!

It was a miracle.

She was having trouble deciding so I told her which one I liked best (although I really liked all three of them and would have been happy with them all) and she agreed.  And we bought that dress and went to the food court to celebrate with some lunch!

Then we realized that the dress we chose needed new shoes so that started another round of shopping. We eventually ended back up in Winston, hit several shoe stores and then headed back to the mall there and finally found a pair that worked with the dress, wasn't too expensive, and didn't have a heel that was too high.

We left the house at 9:30 on Friday morning.  We arrived back home at 4:45.  But I'm not complaining because we got a dress AND shoes AND the hurricane had not come through as expected.  It was a good day.

I would show you a picture of her dress but I'm going to wait until next Monday.when I post pictures from the dance.  In the meantime, here are the two that did not make the cut...

 Sarah loved the high/low part of this dress and I really did too.  But what I did not love was the fact that the top "pulled" a little where the flowers were sewn in.  It might be hard to see in this picture but it didn't lay flat.  That annoyed me so for that reason, we nixed it.

I absolutely LOVED this dress on her.  In fact, this was one we found in Winston but they didn't have her size and we were specifically looking for it in Greensboro.  We were so happy to find it BUT - this dress did not have any padding in the top which meant she was going to have to wear a bra with it.  It dipped low in the back and we were worried that we wouldn't be able to find the right bra to wear with it and she definitely didn't want to go without one and she hates a strapless bra - and let's be honest, don't we all??  So, for that reason alone, I told here we should say no to this dress and that led us to her final choice. 

It's got a little bling and it fits her nicely and she looks so pretty in it!  And she's so excited about homecoming this weekend and according to the weather forecasters, it should be sunny and warm....although, they have been wrong before! :)