Keon Poindexter.

Finally Keon. I'd say, from the outside, we'd look like unlikely best friends. We were brought up in very different ways. I was raised a Bama fan and used to winning, and he was a State fan… 

We met at school, I'm sure, but the first distinct memory I have of Keon was him coming up to me during a summer workout at football, summer before junior year, and he was completely amused by the fact that I always had a Gatorade and a water with me everyday. He's been laughing at my peculiarities ever since. Junior year we had Ag together and on Gamedays me, Keon, and Trent Kelly would leave Big Larry's class and go visit Mrs. Tabbie, then go to the field house. We remained friends that year and during summer football workouts, I invited him to Youth Camp. The rest is history so they say. He got addicted to camp and started coming regular to our church in September of that year.

Keon and I connect on all four of the four most important things in life:  football, music, church and food. We obsessed about football, me probably more than him. Even at that first Youth Camp together in 2005 we talked about football and playoffs in every spare moment. Football, to us, meant a way of life more than a pass time. We understood in high school what most people don't realize until they are grown- football is two things- magical and temporary. To describe the magic, we bonded through music, and as our senior season wore on, music also began to describe the temporariness of it, and music has continued to describe every stage of life. As a matter of fact, there hasn't been a situation yet in our friendship that we could not relate to music and football. Those two would be our closest bond if it weren't for church. It was actually music and football that brought Keon to church. We'd spend Wednesdays before practice in my truck listening to music and he'd just ride with me after practice to church. He kept coming and got saved in February of our senior year after the Valentine banquet. That's when we truly became brothers. From Bible studies at ICC to being roommates, Keon has seen me at my highest spiritual highs and my lowest spiritual lows, and has been involved in both. "Word of God Speak," said for us what we wanted to say, and is still the only thing some people know us for. Finally, food. I still remember the first time we invented and tried "Bill Gates Pie." Changed my life. And our true genius showed up the way all genius does. It was like an itch we couldn't scratch or a craving we couldn't satisfy until we invented fluxuous. Fluxuous is probably something similar to what the fruit tasted like on the tree that Adam and Eve ate. It has two things in common- irresistible temptation and if you eat it you will surely die. But it is like Fourth of July to your tongue.

Keon is my bestman because he is the only person I can have a full conversation with using only music, movie, and ESPN quotes. He's the only friend I have who truly appreciates Big and Rich, Kanye West, John Mayer, The Rochesters, and The Erwins all at the same time. He's the only person I know that when I mention Panama City Beach, the first thing that comes to mind is sausage balls. He's the only person that can start singing the same random song as me at the same time without prior discussion and it be in perfect harmony… and it's happened several times. We are the only two people in the world who have tied on a coin toss, which defeats the purpose of a coin toss. Mallory and I can finish each other's sentences. Keon and I can't but we can start each others' sentences which is way weirder. And he's the person I'm most likely to die with because if we ever eat sausage balls and fluxuous together I'm pretty sure it would stop our hearts. Both of our email addresses end in "356."

Justin Haynes.

The closest thing I have to an older brother… actually he is my older brother. Justin has known me since I was born, and that's about the time he started teaching me the ways of the world. I probably got on his nerve a lot and in his way a lot, but I think the enjoyment he got out of always having an audience and a pupil outweighed his annoyance. From our grand adventures in the woods, to our many unfinished building projects, we spent many grand days together. Justin is full of endless projects. We built many bow and arrows, attempted a brick wall, and even tried to dig a tunnel like the concentration camp guys on the "Great Escape." Our best times were playing "tennis-ball-baseball" with our array of rules, and our NBA and NCAA basketball careers we had on the concrete slab at our house. Justin also taught me about girls. He gave me some words to live by once as only Justin can. He told me to always be nice to girls, even if they are fat and ugly because fat and ugly girls have pretty friends! Of my ten brothers on this list, Justin is my brotherest brother. He knows me for what and who I am and that's how I know him. He's one of the few people that can tell me something I haven't already thought of, and that's almost enough to qualify him for a groomsman by itself.

Seth Cayson.

The closest thing I have to a younger brother. I met him whenever his mom brought him home from the hospital. Our friendship started at youth camp in probably 2002 or 2003. We all had our little group of cool people and even though he was a good bit younger than us, he was cool enough to be in our group. Youth camp friendships are unique because even if you don't regularly see or chat with someone, you still have that special bond. So that's the bond me and Seth had. Even though we saw each other at church pretty regularly, we didn't really hang out except for at camp. As us older "cool" ones got too old to be campers and had to be counselors, we all tried to live vicariously through Seth. He became one of the original members of the "Sleep All Day Then Go Out To Eat" club that we have made a tradition on the Saturday youth camp ends. As time went on and he got into high school, the gap between our ages became less significant, and he became more of a peer than a younger brother. Youth camp a couple years ago brought us closer than we'd ever been. Seth and I are similar in ways we can't even tell other people about and we connect deep in ways it's hard to explain. Even though that sounds real gay… #nohomo. It's not that we can't tell you, it's just none of your dang business. Still sounds gay. Seth is one of the few people I've laughed and cried with, and boy do we ever laugh!

Rob Chittom.

ICC BSU was a mosh posh of neutrality. There were a few really liberal active folks, a few really conservative, and a lot more that were somewhere in the middle. Rob and I met because one of the leftwingers was one of the BSU directors, and Rob told him that he was looking for a Bible study group that was King James only. Of course he sent Rob right to me. Rob and I met in the BSU hallway in a heavy crowd of people because he both believed in the KJV. He joined my Bible study and down the road I went to his. Little did Rob know , the 1987 Southern Baptist Convention conservative vs. liberal debate was about to take place in the 2007-2008 ICC BSU, and somehow Lance and I got shoved to the front line. Rob soon joined us and that's what truly made us friends. Rob had actually already known or met me earlier in 2007 at Youth Camp, but since he only came for the services, we didn't really get to know each other. In 2008, Rob did come to camp and that deepened our friendship. You don't have to come to GMBC church camp to be my friend, but it goes a long way to helping you understand me. My third year at ICC, I lived off campus in a house with two guys that Rob introduced me to. We all spent way way way too many hours playing ping-pong at that house, and that's when we discovered Rob's smirk. If Rob has ever beaten you at anything, you know the smirk. It's probably my favorite thing in the world to hate. He was the brains behind our house situation in Starkville. He found the roommates and Hutch, I think, found the house. Of us four housemates, Rob and I were actual roommates, and like Lance at ICC, Rob and I grew at depth because of late night conversations about God, girls, and life. He's been my most consistent accountability partner and faithful Christian example I've had through my college years. Grumpy's Tuesdays, Western Wednesdays, Hearts Thursdays, Sling Pong Friday nights and Football Saturdays marked two great years we spent in Starkville. Rob is the only friend I have that even comes close to staying up as late as I do, and that bond has deepened our friendship as much as anything because of the countless times one of us needed to talk and the other was awake to talk. Rob is my convicted friend. Rob has convictions. And if push came to shove, Rob would die for his convictions. I admire that about him. P.S. I'm writing this at 1:45 am on a Sunday morning and Rob and I are texting.

Tyler Cayson.

Tyler, like Justin, is one of the originals. Me and TC were friends before we were old enough to know we were friends. Grew up together. Both middle children with older and younger siblings close to the same age. Ty was involved in some of mine and Justin's escapades through the woods and the NBA as well as a few of our own. TC was one of the founding members of the previously mentioned "cool groups" that we let Seth be in. Eventually, we kicked the girls out and the group became known as the Batman Squad at youth camp. Tyler was my original fishing buddy, and when I got my driver's license it became a pretty regular deal. We also share a good bit of pyromania, which along with fishing, seems to be a theme with my friends. Tyler and I share one of the deepest non-church related connections I have-football. Tyler and I bled, sweated, and cried together in that Trooper uniform. We even got in a couple fights on the field because of our loyal friendships to each other. Not fights with each other, fights for each other. And I won't spend anymore time talking about us and Trooper football because you wouldn't understand anyway if you weren't there. Tyler is my most loyal friend, and probably the most loyal person I know. He's been my boy through thick and thin (see Josh Ramsey at Youth Camp 2005). And though I hope I never have to, I'd go to war with 77. Anyday.

Lance Pickens.

My defacto ICC roommate, but don't tell the ICC housing director. The first time I ever met Lance was the first time I went anywhere with Mallory and her friends. It was ICC's first football game 2006. Mallory knew him and he asked us if we wanted to go for the BSU to Walmart to buy some clothes for a man in need. I thought Lance was like the assistant BSU director, seeing how he looked thirty years old with his full beard. My first several encounters with Lance, I didn't really like him much. My style and his style did not perfectly line up. Then there was the incident with the 56 and kickball at ICC, but I forgave him for that. Our friendship really began to grow because of our mutual convictions and beliefs about the Bible. My sophomore year at ICC, Lance and I really became close friends. He stayed in my dorm room two or three nights per week. We'd stay as a group at the BSU until two or three o'clock in the morning and then me and Lance would talk until four or five or until we just couldn't stay awake any longer. Girls, God, and life were our conversation topics. We talked about everything we knew about all three of those, and we learned about each of them every day. We fought the liberals at the BSU together like a poor man's Adrian Rogers and Jerry Vines. Few people I can say this about, but there are no secrets between me and Lance. There may be details or recent events I don't know about him and vice versa, but there's nothing too piercing we haven't asked or shameful or secret that we have held back. We know too much about each other to not be friends. Youth camp is also a common bond Lance and I share. He started coming a few years back and has come ever since, which only furthers the depth of our friendship. What I love about Lance is what everyone loves… never a dull moment. He defines "life of the party." But what makes him and me close is that he's not afraid to call me out in my sins to keep me accountable. That has been the most consistent tie that binds him and me. That is the kind of friend I hope everyone has. They are both hard to find and essential.

Russ Christian.

We met on Mooreville High School baseball field. I believe we were warming up and he offered to let me warm up with him. Ping pong, workouts, and summer baseball put me and Russ together a lot in high school. Not to mention our like-morals and passion for Rocky. At ICC we became even closer friends, as he basically lived on my couch in Fulton during the week. Deep conversations about physics, math, and the Bible kept us up late a lot of nights as well as the need for ping pong and occasional pyromania. This remained the same in Starkville. Somewhere along the way we discovered how much we both loved to fish, so I've spent probably more sunrises and sunsets with Russ than I have with Mallory. We have provided meat for friends and family many times. I believe if you gave us good weather conditions on a given Saturday in the spring, we could catch enough fish to feed my whole church. Russ is not only one of the deepest thinkers I know, he's probably the most thorough thinking person I know. Russ thinks everything all the way through. He can fix anything there is to fix and skin anything there is to skin. I like Russ because he's interesting. Rarely can you ask him a question that he hasn't either thought about or can figure out and give you a good answer. I'm a lot the same way. You should hear some of our fishing conversations. He is one f the purest hearted and good-est people I know. I want to be like Russ.

Josh Chism.

We met at Moooreville in like 2004, my tenth grade and his ninth grade year. He was already friends with Russ, and Russ was my first friend that I made at Mooreville. We were initially friends because we both tried to live Christian lives in a place where that was both rare and pretty unpopular. We played baseball together and even though my passion is football, our mutual passion for athletics kept us both in the fieldhouse after school and during the summer enough to become close. Summer baseball topped it off with all night Rocky marathons and guys nights. Josh is sarcastic and quick witted, as am I. I think I was the only person he knew that could dish it out and be a jerk as good as he could, so we had a mutual respect for each other. At ICC we served on the leadership team at the BSU together and he became friends with Chad. He's the kind of friend that the depth of our friendship makes up for the scarcity of the guys nights that we used to have.

Chris Hutchinson.

Our friendship materialized despite many early obstacles. Hutch was the "friend from Pontotoc" that took my spot as a roommate with all of my buddies during my third year at ICC and left me out on my own. It wasn't his fault, and it eventually worked out better, but soon after the year started he had a run-in with Keon on the intramural flag football field. OS I had neagtive feedback coming in about Hutch. Also, he was roommates with some people, who at the time, were not big friends with some other of my groomsmen. And to top all of that off, he was an Auburn fan and mouthy about it. We had a ping pong altercation where I smoked him with a ping pong ball in the neck when I was playing against someone else because he was blabbing about Auburn. We almost come to blows that day. So when Rob told me the he had founds us a fourth roommate, I was surprised to hear him say Hutch. Rob went on talking about how he was a real good guy, and I was like "Rob, I thought you were the reason we didn't like him!" Rob turned out to be right about Hutch. The reason I chose Hutch as a groomsman is because over the last two years we became great friends. From Pancake Fridays to Grumpy Tuesdays and Western Wednesday nights, most of our friendship centers around food. The other part of our friendship is competititon, usually in the form of ping-pong, hearts, or football smack talk. Hutch is one of my favorite people despite his questionable sports choices and his status as my only democrat friend. He's always game for talking sports, eating food, or having a deep conversation, and those are three of my favorite things.

Chad McCoy.

Chad and I met as a result of the BSU in Baltimore, Maryland of all places. Our friendship grew as a result of our both being on the ICC BSU leadership team in 2007-2008, but it especially grew in 2008-2009 when we bothed stayed at ICC for our third year. We made new friends, but to me, at lease, sometimes it felt like me and Chad were all that was left because all the others from our class moved on from the BSU. Our friendship also grew as he became better friends with my high school friend, Josh Chism. We all rode together to the Bartahatchie Grill for a BSU Christmas leadership team party. They seemed like unlikely friends to me, but as they became better friends we all hung out together more. Chad is my dependable friend. He's the one that's always got a couch to crash on and a minute to talk.

The Wedding Party.

Most of the time when you go to a wedding, you see the names of the wedding party in the pretty little programs that the pretty little girls at the front of the church give you. And you see the pile of young men and young women walk down the aisles of the church before the bride comes down. I always wonder, "Well just how does the bride and groom know all of the people?" Maybe I'm the only one. Those are going to be mine and Jeremy's best friends up there, though, and I want everyone to know what they mean to us. So over the next few weeks we're going to tell you a little bit about them. Bear with us, because there are ten of each. Jeremy wrote about the fellas and I wrote about the gals. Enjoy!

Where are we going to live.

We've wondered that ourselves since July.

 Shannon? Eggville? Pontotoc? Georgia?... 

Who are you going to ask for advice? Everyone that lives anywhere is bias to that place, obviously. 

So we got a real estate agent. 

Pat Pat has been with us since October. I swear we've looked at 75 houses with her. Some of the same ones about 4 times a piece. Okay, okay, exaggeration, but it sure feels like it. 

Old. New. 

Good. Bad. 

Really good. Really bad.

She's humored us with measuring master bedrooms for imaginary furniture, confirming the presence of decent crown molding in living rooms, measuring slants in concrete floors, and of course, what all good real estate agents do, defend us from big scary dogs in strange yards. 

Pat Pat knows that I like white kitchen cabinets and that Jeremy likes wooden kitchen cabinets, but has good things to say about both. She knows that I like "cozy" houses, and she knows that Jeremy thinks "cozy" is a girl word for a lot of home decor with very little testosterone in a very small space. Most of all, Pat Pat knows that no matter how intense Jeremy and my squabbles get over trivial matters such as these, that we don't mean much by it. She knows that when it comes right down to it, Jeremy will let me have my Better-Homes-and-Gardens way nine out of ten times. What I'm trying to say is that us and Pat are tight. We've been through thick and thin. 

Sun and snow.

Mud and rock.

Finally, right after the new year, Jeremy and I decided to build a house. 

The lucky place is Stonehenge subdivision in Mooreville. We'll be about 15 minutes from his parents. 20 minutes from mine. No more than 15 from each of our siblings. But best of all it's only 4 minutes from Comer's world famous salad bar. That's what really sold us. 

Lot 39.

There's not much there right now except for a bunch of mud and construction workers. With our fingers crossed and both set of parents in deep prayer, we're hoping it's up and ready by June 23rd. Pat Pat says she thinks it will be. 

We initialed the last bit of paperwork today, saying that we have every intention of having them build our first home. If you want to say a little prayer for us, pray that it's finished by the wedding. Or... we may be staying in the 78 Motel for a while.

We go Monday to pick out all of the details. 

Floor coverings.

Wall colors.

Brick color.

Jeremy and I have trouble sharing a Subway sandwich because of our clashing opinions.

Oh boy!

More stories and pictures to come.

Wedding Blog.

     It's a wedding blog. If you didn't know, Jeremy and I are getting hitched June twenty-third. This is dedicated to all of our friends and family who have a dozen pre-wedding questions, but either forget to ask them when they see us or are too afraid to ask because they think we'll put them to work addressing invitation envelopes or tying bird seed bags. Just so you know ahead of times, there will be no birdseed bags, and you still may be recruited for the envelopes. 

     Thank you ahead of time for all of the love and support y'all have given us thus far. I hope that you enjoy this!