My mom started really dating Mike. He seemed to be a real fun guy. We all went to church together and everything was great. Shortly, my mom and Mike were planning a wedding for May. All us children were ecstatic... mainly because we were to be a part of the wedding. My mom decided that I was old enough to be her "junior" bridesmaid and Valerie her flower girl. Vincent was to be a "junior" groomsman and Kevin and our to-be-step-brother, Mikey were to both be the ring bearers. I got this absolutely beautiful satin-y blue dress that slightly fell off my shoulders. Valerie had this adorable white dress and got to carry a parasol with flowers that my mom arranged in it. I was so jealous of the parasol.. and that she got to be the flower girl, but I also felt I was mature enough to let it go. I remember wearing my first pair of high heels (ahhh and my obsession with heels starts) and my mom constantly pulling the straps of the dress back up onto my shoulders. I also remember it pulling at my armpits when the straps were pulled up, and pulling them back down. Then as the dinner and dance started, all my female cousins and I were huddled together. There was a young boy who was about our age who was NOT related to us. He was, at that age, super cute. All my cousins were giggling and blushing about going and talking to him. Not me. No sir. I walked right up to him and asked him to dance. We were just about inseparable that night from then on. Somewhere in that time, my sister and I decided that we needed to sing... in front of everyone. And not a whole song... no. Just a little bit of a song was what we sung. "And I'm proud to be an American. At least I know I'm free.." Yep. That was the song. We also decided that was the year that we were going to go around the school to every class and sing that song. But there we were, microphone in hand, singing A Capella and way off key, but we felt every word. I don't remember what happened the rest of the evening, but I'm pretty sure we all had fun. What kid doesn't love dancing to their heart's content with a bunch of adults?
