Just Telling Our Story

Three Things

My husband recently initiated what has quickly become a favorite (albeit short-term) tradition around here: Three Things. Every night, when we tuck the kids into bed, we share three things we liked about each of them. Then after they're in bed, Chad and I share three things we appreciate about each other. Sometimes they're specific to the day's events, and sometimes they're just general things we like or appreciate for the day.

In the past week or so, both my son (age 8) and daughter (age 5) have started adding their own "Three Things" to the nighttime ritual, sharing things they like about us, too. (We share these things privately - just one kid and one parent at a time.)

The kids have really liked this. They look forward to our nightly Three Things. Our daughter has even gotten teary-eyed when she had to go to bed when I wasn't home recently. The next morning, she needed her Three Things bright and early.

Anyway, tonight, after I shared my Three Things with my sweet little girl, she shared her Three Things about me:

1. "I like that you love me."
2. "That you fill my heart in." (She made a little heart with her hands. Melt my heart.)
3. "That you fill my bucket." (Something the guidance counselor at her school has been teaching the kids this week -- to be "bucket-fillers" instead of dipping people's buckets.)

I gave her a huge hug. She made my day.

And then there's my all-boy son. After giving him his Three Things for the day, he took my hand and pulled my face close to his. I thought he was going to kiss me on the cheek, although that would admittedly have been a rare occurrence on its own. Nope. He pulled me in, put his face next to mine...and belched in my ear.

Through the eyes of a child

(Gasp! I'm actually posting something to my long-lost blog!)

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Last night, as the evening was winding down, our daughter set off to get creating, one of her favorite things to do. She absolutely loves drawing cards for us, and her little creations are some of my favorite treasures right now.

After a while, she brought two cards into our bedroom to show me.

Here's the first.

That would be her daddy, my husband, stretched out on the living room floor, in his black running shorts and a green shirt, his glasses on, a little facial hair growing in, with a pillow tucked under his head, his right arm stretched out before him holding a remote control and our remaining remote controls placed side-by-side within reach.

It's a pretty darn accurate drawing, I must say. She doesn't miss any details.

And then, several minutes later, she brought me a second drawing. This time, it was of me.

And that would be me standing by our black, metal, short-post bed in our bedroom, with a huge pile of laundry in a laundry basket to my left, the TV perched atop our dresser in the top left corner, my nightstand with lamp and alarm clock and weather radio at top right and me folding my bluish-purple pajamas in the center.

Dead on.

I love her artwork.

But what's extra funny about these pictures is how Chad and I are portrayed: Daddy watching TV while Mommy does the housework. Honestly, it's not always the way it is around here. Chad definitely pulls his weight, and we share housework and most responsibilities, besides cooking. But he wins in that corner; he cooks dinner almost every night. Still, it's funny to me just the same.

Grounded.

Our son said something bad on Tuesday. Really bad. In fact, it was so bad it landed him in the principal's office, and later it landed him in his room – for a week.

Just saying bad words wouldn't normally warrant a strict punishment, I will admit, but in this particular case, exactly what he said was pretty shocking. In fact, when the principal called me, she put him on the phone to tell me what he had done, and I was so shocked when he told me (a little too matter-of-factly), I had him repeat it –– probably not my wisest move, since the principal was in the background.

The thing is, he doesn't even know what he said. He doesn't understand what his words meant, thankfully, and I know he didn't hear those words –– phrases, actually –– at home. He told me from whom he had heard them, and I am not completely surprised. But I am surprised he repeated them...and got caught. He knows better. And I wasn't happy.

(He's in third grade; I would have hoped he would have been much older before he heard language like that, but that's a topic for another day.)

Chad and I decided he would have three punishments, hoping something would sink in:

1. He would write a sentence, "I will not say bad words," 50 times. He had that done in less than 30 minutes, I'd say.
2. He would spend a week in his room during what would normally otherwise be "free" time. He would not play outside, watch TV or movies or play video games. We honestly thought this would be the biggest punishment for him, but it turns out #3 was much more painful for him.
3. He would not be allowed to go to Chuck E. Cheese today, when our daughter was invited to a birthday party. (He is about the same age as our daughter's friend's brother, so he was really looking forward to this.)

Today was Day 3 of his punishment, and it's the first time he seems to really realize what being "grounded" means (or at least really feel the effect of being grounded). He was a total wreck not being allowed to go to CEC. So much so, that he was trying to "make me a deal" before our daughter and I left for the party. He offered to add a day onto the end of his grounding if we let him go tonight. When I said no, he bawled his eyes out. He cried later, too, apparently, when we were gone.

When our daughter and I got home from the party, he gave me this note:

Chad thought I would be mad, but I wasn't at all. I am just glad he's talking to me, even if it's through frustrated words on a note like this. In fact, I love it.

I do communications for a business, but I'll be the first to admit I'm not always great about communication with the kids. I get frustrated. I get tired of repeating myself 85 times before they hear me, much less do what I ask them to do. And I am amazed at how our son can make some bad choices sometimes in the interest of being seen as "cool" with his friends, despite what we teach him at home. But every night, when I tuck him in, we talk about his day. Sometimes he doesn't say much. Other times, he opens up to me. I am incredibly thankful for those little talks every night, even when they only last a minute or two. Communication...it's a good thing.

And I guess in some way, he feels like he can be honest with me. So when the words are hard to say out loud, I'll take a hand-written note from my 8-year-old any day.

(And for that matter, I'll take a little hand-drawn sad face from our younger daughter, too. I'll have to share one of those in another post.)

Love you, Bud.

Lost motivation...found.

(A little of what we've been up to lately.)

Well, it doesn't take the most alert person in the world to discover I've been missing from the blogging scene in a while. Yes, it's been far too long since my last post. Yes, I am aware that a blog is only interesting if one updates it on occasion. Yeah, I know. But for many, many weeks now, I just haven't been feeling it. I haven't felt like blogging. I haven't felt like scapbooking. I haven't felt like doing much of anything but taking a break when I found some free time on my hands. And free time? It's a luxury around here.

Life has been busy. Like it is for everyone else I know, life is always busy. The kids are both in soccer. My son is in baseball, too. They're both in school all day, every day. I'm working a new schedule that is taking some getting used to. I don't have Fridays off anymore, and that's throwing me for a loop. I also stop working a couple of hours earlier than I'm used to, when the kids come home from school, which means I'm working more evenings after they go to bed to make up the time. We're lucky to get laundry done, get to the grocery, clean the toilets on occasion, clear (or just move) the mail and newspapers and kids' schoolwork and random toys off the kitchen table long enough to eat a meal or two, get the kids to school on time, get our work done, get showers every day, etc. There just hasn't been a lot of time for doing the fun stuff, the creative stuff I need in order to keep my sanity.

Add to that the fact that my weekly routine of planned, scheduled scrapbook time with friends, which has been on my personal calendar since shortly after I got married 11 years ago (albeit with an ever-changing group of friends!), came to an abrupt halt recently, and the fact that my regular source of inspiration (my scrapbook magazines) have suddenly dropped from 10 and 12 to six and eight issues a year, and my creative juices have been suddenly sitting idle, longing for a little stir now and then.

I've been feeling the effects. I know I need a little creative time nearly every day to keep myself feeling square with the world. Not scrapbooking or making time to learn more about photography or take photos of my kids or organize my ever-expanding photo library has left me feeling blah.

But just in the last week or two, that little creative spark has returned. I can't put my finger on why. Maybe I just needed a little break after all of these years of scrapping. Maybe I just needed to settle into our new school-year routine. Maybe my brain finally got in synch with my body again. Who knows? But you know what? It feels good. I hope to be back to scrappin' and back to bloggin' with some sort of regularity again soon. Just not this week - or next. Work duties call, and I'm on deadlines! But I have a feeling the passion has returned...and will be sticking around for a while. So I'll find a way to squeeze 'em in.

*****

Scrapbook page sources:

• Chalkboard paper and pencil: Old School kit, Marcee Duggar, The Digital Scrapbook Place.
• Pink papers: Katie Pertiet, Catch a Rainbow, DesignerDigitals.com.
• Fonts: Marker Felt (headline and date line), unknown body font (I accidentally flattened my PSD and can't go back to find out!)

PS All of those odd white spaces in the journaling are where I've blocked out my daughter's friend's names and some other personal identifying stuff. Can't be too careful about privacy these days, right?

A week in our life

Well, once again, life has trumped blogging in my little corner of the world. I can't complain; I've been blessedly busy -- mostly with work, but also with sports, the end of the school year and 100 other things. It got me thinking, actually, that my scrapbooks only really document the leisurely things we do as a family and with our friends -- but have never addressed how busy our lives really are with all of the other stuff we do.

So I decided to document our real life - from the perspective of time on the calendar. This two-page spread will need a one-pager to introduce it and explain what I just said above (and include a few photos from the week), but that's for another day.

 

(The above image doesn't get much larger when you click on it. Try clicking on the individual pages below for legible journaling.)

 

For the scrapbookers out there, if you haven't documented a week in your life, I'd highly recommend it! Documenting our life in this way made me realize why I feel so worn out and somehow validated my feeling that way! Plus, I know our lives are constantly changing, and next year, our routine will be vastly different! (In fact, with this being the first week of summer vacation, our morning routine has actually changed this week over last week.) And some day, when I'm retired and wondering what to do with my time, I can look back on this layout and realize I should just be thankful for the gift of time.

If you're interested in how other scrappers have approached this topic, check out a couple of my favorites:

• Ali Edwards: Week in the Life (explanation and finished project)
• Cathy Zielske: The Monthly (buy it!)

Enjoy!

A page to pass the time

Things aren't looking to quiet down soon enough around here, so I thought I'd post a recent layout to pass the time.

 

These photos were taken back in December 2007. (I've been revisiting some old photos lately.) G & E used to love getting buried in a mound of stuffed animals. I love the way the pictures turned out. Reminds me of a shot in "ET" when he was camouflaged in a closet full of stuffed animals. Anyway, I kind of like this very simple layout.

(Paper and elements from Out of This World Friday Freebie Add-on - Creations by Karen.)

Things are crazy as ever around here. I'm starting to feel the effects of... (bear with me...I love bullets!)

• spending five days a week at the soccer fields (this week it's only four...woo hoo!)
• preparing for a major purchase that will change the way we live our lives (more on that when it's official)
• a couple of health issues for E and me (lots of doctor appointments lately)
• vet appointments seemingly every week (Molly's thyroid, arthritis and weight; Maddie's incessant chewing/licking)
• a bully on G's school bus (who unfortunately lives on our street)
• work deadlines
• unusual preparations to start working with a new client
• my lifelong priest retiring
• getting back into the school-year schedule (especially the after-school schedule, which often cuts my work day by 2.5 hours and forces me back to a working-nearly-every-night-too schedule)
• a strong desire and no time to do lots more scrapbooking
• a strong desire and no time to do another installment of my digital scrapbooking how-tos on my good ol' blog
• a strong desire and no time to update my blog with lots of pictures of our recent trip to Colorado
• a strong desire and no time to get in shape (wish I had time to work out!)
• a strong desire and no time to learn more about photography, especially photo editing, as I'm getting ready to weed through thousands of pictures from summer (I am, though, getting ready to start a 9-week class I'm very excited about!)
• a strong desire and no time to get together with friends more often, some of whom I haven't hung out with in weeks or months
• a mild desire and no time to clean my house, which is way out of control lately.

Anyway, I'm also starting to get worried about the H1N1 flu, which has hit an elementary school in a neighboring town and resulted in 54 absences in one day. It also has been confirmed at a good friend of mine's daughters' preschool in another neighboring town. Hitting too close to home. Making me worry. I'm good at that. :o)

So anyway, it feels good to make lists when I'm stressed, so getting this down is actually therapeutic for me. I also love to look back on things like this and remember what my life was like in this little snippet of time. So someday I'll hopefully be able to look at this list of things on my mind and know that I made it through just like any other old time. Hopefully I'll be looking at it from the beach or somewhere else where I'm doing nothing but relaxing! :o)

Pumpkin pickin'

Just a layout share before I hit the hay. Photos from a few weekends ago.

Here's the journaling:

Beasley’s Orchard is one of our favorite fall destinations. We wait for AppleFest in October and then head to the orchard for a hayride, apple cider and, of course, pumpkin pickin’. This year, the pumpkins were absolutely enormous, so it took us quite a while trekking down many aisles before we found pumpkins you both could lift on your own. The three pumpkins in the picture at left are the ones we finally ended up with. You both surprised us by picking small pumpkins, and I got the other one, just so we’d be sure to have something to carve at your nana’s pumpkin-carving party. • This is one of my favorite photo opportunities of fall. I love these pictures. I especially love the shot of you, G***, that shows your personality so clearly and the sweet one of you, E***, crouching by your pumpkin. You’re both at such cute ages! I love you! • 10.12.08

Hope you're all enjoying fall! We are loving the warm weather in Indy. We'll enjoy 70s for one or two more days, and then the storms will come Thursday and the cold will set back in. I heard the high is something like 48 on Saturday. Ugh. So we're enjoying the fresh air and open windows for a couple of days. Hope you're all enjoying yourselves, too.

Don't forget to vote tomorrow if you haven't already! :o)

Missing my work buddies

(Sorry, no picture today. Don't have time to find and edit one. But I'll try to keep the text short so your eyes don't go crazy and get bored on me.)

Yesterday, as G was finishing his after-school snack and I was trying to squeeze in some more work time, he walked over to my desk, sat down on my pile of scrapbook travel gear next to my chair and asked me, out of the blue, "Mom, sometimes do you miss your friends at work?"

What a wise little comment to come out of my 6-year-old's mouth. I was kind of taken aback.

I told him I did (more on that later), but this was the perfect chance for me to explain why I work at home: to have more time with him and his sister, to be able to get him off the bus, help him with his homework and get him a snack. He recently told me, "You always have to work," and it was clear to me that, even though I'm at home more often than his daddy, in his eyes, I'm the one who's "always working." Of course it would seem that way. After all, the 2.5 hours after school that he's home before his daddy, I have to work. I take a break for an hour to get him off the bus, get him a snack and get through homework, but after that, it's to his room for quiet time while Mom works. Then I frequently make comments on the weekends about having to work during the kids' nap times, and I frequently say stuff about having to work after they go to bed at night. So of course that's not helping, either. It's made me wonder sometimes if this is the best arrangement for him. I know it is for me. But I don't want him growing up thinking Mom was always working. What to do?

Anyway, his comment yesterday has had me thinking today. I do miss my work friends. Many of them I still see occasionally or talk to on a regular basis, but working at home frequently gets lonely. There's only so much personal interaction you can get through e-mail and phone calls. I miss hearing my coworkers' idle chatter in the background while I work. I miss going to lunch with my work buddies. I miss being able to take a break and walk around the corner for a pick-me-up gab session. I miss talking with people who have the same frustrations and who get the same highs as I do with this job.

Still, I have to focus on the positives. I love my job. I love being able to avoid the gossip and politics (at least for the most part) that come with any office environment. I love being able to focus my energy and my time on the creative side of communications -- the design, photography and writing, especially -- that I love, without having to spend so much time in meetings and doing budgets and dealing with employees and interns. So there's plenty to enjoy. Sometimes, though, focusing on the positives is tough. And that's where I am today.

So that's all for today. Just jotting down my thoughts. Some day I'll look back on my blog like I do my scrapbooks, and I want to be sure it reflects more than just my kiddos (although I love them to pieces). I want it to be a real documentation of my life. Today, what feels oh-too-real is being lonely in a quiet house ... although Molly, Cole, Lucy and Jack (my animals) are welcome company.

Miscellaneous Monday

Here's a short update. There's more going on...but not much time to share all of the boring details!

• Sunday School teacher...me? I know, weird, right? I have to say I have never thought this would be something I would do. I mean, it's crossed my mind before, but the thought never stuck around long. I like to do things I'm good at, and Sunday School lessons don't fit that bill. Let's just say I'm not very smart when it comes to Bible stories. I'd fail any Bible quiz out there. I don't remember much at all from the many years I was in Sunday School as a student - other than memorizing the Lord's Prayer. (It's weird, but I can picture where I was sitting at a round table in the exact room at the Apple House when I learned that. The things that stick in my mind, I tell ya.) And even though I worked for a large church for a year and a half and heard stories about every day there—and now that church and another are two of my biggest clients—they just don't seem to stick with me in much detail. It's not for lack of interest, though.
  
  Anyway, this morning as I was dropping off G and E for Sunday School, the Christian formation director snagged me and asked if I'd be interested in teaching the preschool-kindergarten class. I hesitated. Noticeably. She said, "Just think about it." I said, "OK." And I walked my distracted little self over to the church, which was unusually packed today. Chad was painting the interior of his mom's house, so I was alone with my scattered thoughts. But I couldn't help but catch little fragments of things that were obviously meant to catch my attention. The first hymn had some verbiage in it that I don't remember specifically, but it was enough to make me think, OK, I get the hint. Then the congregation joined in the reading of a Psalm (#119: 33-48) that said something about not hesitating to do something for reasons of selfish gain. (I'm too tired lazy to go look it up right now.) Well, that's exactly why I've been hesitating. I am selfish with my time on the weekends. It just goes too fast, and I'm committed to so many other time-consuming things that I've been avoiding adding something along these lines. THEN, Father John, God love him, did his entire sermon on the fact that it's our job to tell the story of Jesus to the next generation. We're storytellers. That's our job. (Both literally and figuratively in my case.) Seriously, God. I get the hint. So I stopped that same director on her way out of the service and gave in. "I'll do it," I said. She hugged me. I was proud of myself for getting over my selfishness and going for it. Yet mad at myself for getting my already-stressed self signed up for something else. I need to focus on the positive, though, right? It's a good thing. And I should have fun, right? Bible stories, snacks, art projects, sweet little kiddos...what's not to like? Even better, it's E's class. And even better still, only two kids showed up for her class today! (Last year, the same class had more like 9 or so each week. So I'm not holding by breath.) Plus, there are three other teachers for the class, so we should be teaching just once a month. I can do that.
  
  I'm a little nervous about this. I'm hopeful, but nervous. It just doesn't seem like "me," you know? But it's a challenge that will hopefully be good for me. I loved working for a church (aside from all the politics), so this is a good way for me to get involved in my little church on a level that includes more than just attending on Sunday morning. Who knows? Maybe I'll even learn some people's names. (I've only been attending regularly again since 2004, and it's a small church...about time I learned some more names! I think we all just come for Father John and leave without interacting much. Kind of sad, really.)
  
  OK. I've babbled enough about that.
• Little Riley. I've been thinking about my friend Becky a lot lately. She just sent me a note about her little 4-year-old son, Riley, who has juvenile diabetes. He's the little guy on the far left of this picture of Becky's kiddos. (I apologize for the poor quality. My scanner is pooped.) The poor little guy has had to endure more than 3,500 finger-pricks and more than 2,100 insulin injections in just the year and a half since his diagnosis. Becky and Brian weigh and measure everything he eats, and they have to check his blood levels constantly, even when he sleeps. Riley often asks his mommy, "When is my diabetes going to go away?" or "When am I not going to have to deal with this any more?" Becky has to look into his hopeful eyes and give him bad news. It's a tiring process for such a little one and his family, and yet he is smiley and full of laughter. And Becky manages to see the brighter side of things, knowing there are many devastating diseases in the world, and this one is manageable. Still, it affects the family on an almost hourly basis.
  
  Becky and her family are going to walk for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation on Oct. 18 at Military Park. I am going to join her team. If you know Becky from any of our Saturday scrapbook adventures (for which, BTW, we are WAY overdue), please keep all of them in your thoughts and prayers. If you want to help their team, send me an e-mail at corie at corie communications dot com. (Yes, there's a reason I do it that way!)
  
  By the way, I met Becky through another unfortunate experience she and her family endured. Their third child, Abigail Hope, died just a few hours after birth due to a disease called anencephaly. They knew throughout most of their pregnancy that their daughter would not survive for long, and yet Becky carried her little miracle and savored every kick she felt, every hiccup, every nudge of the elbow inside her belly. When she was born, she wanted to make sure Abigail lived on. Abigail became one of the first infant organ donors at St. Francis. Their story touched me so deeply. Part of that was because of their powerful faith and hope, and part of it was the timing. I met Becky when I wrote a story about her for St. Francis' newsletter and worked with her to share her story with several television stations in Indianapolis a few years ago. (Her story was very public at the time, so I don't think she'll mind my sharing it here. It's actually quite inspiring.) During the time we were working on this, I found out I was pregnant with my first child. As any mom knows, stories of children dying or being injured are 1000 times worse when you have a child of your own. Suddenly you can imagine (although we'll hopefully never really know) what that mom is going through, and it breaks your heart into a million little pieces. You're never quite the same. That's how I feel about Becky's story. But man, she's a trooper. Despite all she has been through, she always has a positive attitude and can see the brighter side. I admire you for that, Becky. And I want to stand by you in this walk as you fight for Riley. Hang in there, girl. I know your daily life revolves around your children, and you are such an angel for that. You're a wonderful mother.

Well, I have other miscellaneous thoughts, but that should do for now. I need to go to bed! It'll be another round of early mornings for me this week (I hate seeing 5:00 on the alarm clock) as I am still working on three deadlines for tomorrow, one for Tuesday and one for Friday. I'm really looking forward to the weekend!

Have a good week!

She's resting easy now...

...in Hawaii on her honeymoon! I can't say that I'm not jealous. Some sunshine and relaxation sounds pretty darn good right now. But I'm happy for her. She deserves it!

"She" of course is my sister, who, along with her new hubby, tied the knot this past Saturday at our childhood (and my current) church. It was a beautiful wedding, as expected.

I have just finished wading through about 400 photos from the big day (and the day prior) and have a few to post. I know some of you have been eager to see them! [At your service, Margo! :o) ]

I have some photos of the whole hairdressing and make-up experience, which I haven't decided if I'll show just yet! We took "before" pictures, and I for one looked AWFUL. I never go anywhere without my hair fixed (or at least attempted) and make-up. :o) The after pictures are OK, but you can see the result in the rest of the pics!

Note that I was in the wedding, so I didn't get the pleasure of taking many photos on this day! I didn't want to lug my big ol' camera and follow the real photographer around, let alone the fact that I was IN most of the professional photos. So there aren't any of the pretty portraits here. We'll get a CD of the images (or at least Erin will), so I'll hopefully share those later. Thanks to Chad, Margo (reception) and a couple of others who grabbed the camera and got some good shots of the evening for us!

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My family and sister enjoy a little celebratory (and nerve-calming) champagne before the big event! (I did take this one.)

Here we are waiting for Erin to come down the aisle. That's (from left) me, my sister Margo, Father John, his son Josh, Eric, Justin and Matt. In the front pew is (from left) my stepmom Anita, my grandma and my mom. The boy in the foreground is my sister Margo's (officially a half-sister) half-brother. (Don't ask!) We consider him related!

Dad looking handsome as he awaits Erin's entrance. My former stepdad David walked her in and half-way down the aisle. Dad finished and gave her away.

This one was a bit fuzzy (weird lighting + slow shutter speed + motion = fuzzy photo), and they were mostly in the shadows, but I wanted to include it anyway.

Erin and Eric exchange rings.

The guests had already left for the reception, and Eric and Erin came back to the church for more pics. After those pics is when this photo was taken - on their way to the reception for real this time.

I did manage to get this shot of the kiddos before we left the church. They looked soooo nice all dressed up! So did my hubby, as you'll see in a later picture. (The green barn behind them kind of clashed with their outfits, hence the b&w. Now that this is posted, I see that it could stand a little more contrast!)

E and E (or E-squared as one E calls them) gave it to each other...

...and they danced (I did get a few shots from the reception, I guess).

The sisters...a nice shot. A keeper, for sure. And there's G, waiting to give me bunny ears in the first shot he has a chance. He managed to get it done! (It was a HORRIBLE picture of me, though, so it went right into my Mac's trash can!) I tell ya, nothing like seeing 300 pictures of yourself in a sleeveless dress to make you want to lose some weight (especially when you're always standing next to skinny sisters)!

By the way, Margo and I even got over our serious dislike of public speaking and gave little speeches for Erin. That's the first time I have ever done that, since we were "co-matrons of honor." I have never been a maid (or matron) of honor before, so that was fun...albeit a little nerve-racking!

It's not too often I get to dance with my dad. Always a pleasure. Reminds me of that heart-breaking Steven Curtis Chapman song, "Cinderella." Makes me cry every time!

Our kids really came out of their shells at the reception! They were dancing -- and I mean really dancing -- the night away. Even E, who is normally extremely shy around any more than one person at a time, was breaking it up on the dance floor. She and my cousin's little girl had a grand old time together. G and E danced until the very last song (which was meant for Erin and Eric, but they were dying to join them).

G said he hated the slow songs and only wanted to dance to "rock and roll." I didn't even know he knew what "rock and roll" meant! He has got some serious moves, I tell ya! He was going crazy! (Wish I had grabbed a few pictures of his dancing. Someone else got this one on my camera...thank you! I wasn't thinking!)

Chad and I got a few dances together, too. We even got to dance to our first-dance song from our wedding nine years ago, which was really nice.

And a formal occasion wouldn't be complete without a family picture. This one will be one of my favorites of all of us for a long time, I think! (Thanks, Margo!)

Erin and Eric, you had a beautiful wedding, and I wish you both an equally fantastic marriage. May you enjoy many happy years together!