Alright, we’re on the home stretch, people.  I promise there is an end in sight to all these #HBC posts.  Now, I COULD come up with about 4 more posts if you’d like but I might just squish some random things I noticed into one last post after this.  Anyway.  Let’s finally talk about the reason I went — to get a picture with BusyDad the shoot.

(Let me stop here to say BusyDad definitely lives up to his hot blogger name and I really do mean I have a little bloggy crush on him but I want to be clear–mostly for my mother’s sake because she worries about my little crushes, bless her heart–that I love my husband and think he is hot as well and I know BusyDad has a wife that is super-duper gorgeous and he has absolutely no reason to pay any attention to my blogging nonsense.  Just having a little fun.  Except I really do mean that he’s hot.  And I really did make Heather take our picture even though she didn’t want to.)

OK, so you’ve read about how long it took to get there.  Sarah was waiting for us downstairs and brought us up.  When we got there, BackpackingDad was getting his picture taken, his wife was sitting on the couch along with the makeup artist Jillian.  BusyDad was on his laptop, Bill and Meg were working on the photos and Jane’s parents Barry and Sharon were sitting on the sidelines watching everything.  Me?   I walk in and while I planted a smile on my face and was truly excited to be there, my hands were shaking.  I’d worked myself up into a tizzy even though I didn’t want to admit it and couldn’t really pinpoint one thing I was nervous about.  I’d given myself a headache for about 24 hours and I was feeling it.

First order of business was picking out my outfit though.  I laid out about half my clothes.  And by the way, I took more than three outfits really.  Here’s what I took:

• black dress pants
• white dress pants
• black shorts
• dark jeans
• both black shirts
• pink flowered shirt
• green shirt
• blue dress

That’s like a total of about 20 outfits if I mix and match.  Do you think *I* could have actually made a decision and picked 3 or less??  NO!!  I get only halfway through my selections and Bill says what’s that blue thing hanging in there?  As soon as I pull it out he (and maybe Jane/Sarah) says that’s it and while I’m sure Heather was saying, “See, told ya!”  Y’all, seriously.  And I mean, seriously, was *this close* to leaving that dress in the hotel room.  We even talked about it before I left.  Heather was like, just take it in case!!

So off I went to the ba throom to change.  I came back and got my hair ready with shaky hands.  I dropped the top to my hair paste on the floor, literally almost burned my face with my flat-iron and Dani looked at me and said, “OK, let’s calm down and get it together.”  And I think I did as soon as Jillian started doing my makeup.  She says either people hate it or love it.  I loved it.  I love when anybody ever does anything for me (service love language anyone?).  And having a makeup artist make my face look good? Well, that just takes the cake.  I relaxed and got to the point where I was getting sleepy.  I think the tension slowly went out right there in the makeup chair.

There are only a few times in your life that you know without a shadow of a doubt you look your best.  Maybe not THE best but YOUR best.

That was one of them.  I stuck on my silver high heels and said where do you want me?

I’m usually really, really nervous in front of people.  My neck and face turn red and my hands shake and when people notice, it gets worse.  But not then.  I stood or sat where they told me and looked at the camera with a confidence I wasn’t sure quite sure I knew I had.  I joked with Scott when I got home that all of our photo shoots at home had paid off LOL.  No, not every photo was perfect but I didn’t expect it to be.  I’m sure everyone’s supportive compliments helped put me at ease but I don’t know.  I’ve never been less nervous in my life and the worst thing I heard all day was Bill saying, “OK, I think we got it.”  I think I might have dropped the phrase, “I could try another outfit” one too many times.  I literally could do that every day of my life.  Yes, my knees hurt and my ankles hurt from standing like I was for 30 minutes but it was so worth it.

Going back to the bathroom and changing into corduroy pants and printed tee felt a lot like midnight for Cinderella.  I don’t mean to be overly dramatic for the sake of the post but honestly, those 45 minutes or so were really some of the best 45 minutes of my life.  I have never felt more confident, more free, more HOT than almost any other time that I can recall.  Seriously.

My blog isn’t very popular and I know I’m not the hottest person ever but you know what?  That calendar is going to have one of the best moments of my life captured in it.  And you know, I’m not going to apologize for it.

Thank, you Sarah and Jane for coming up with this crazy idea and no matter what people might think of this whole hot blogger calendar or how many sell, you helped make a little Southern girl feel like a princess for a day.  And that, my friends, is hot.  (Who knew I could channel John McCain AND Paris Hilton in one sentence??)