It's [almost] my birthday!

Thought you all should know. :)

We are getting quite popular.

As photographers, that is. Got an impromptu shoot tomorrow with Chris' little cousins from Europe, as well as maternity shots next week for another member of Chris' extended family. Not to mention our pending family picture dates with the Aubreys, Holzes (Melody? Is that the plural of your last name?), and Bests. And then we're going to have to go on hiatus from taking and editing pictures to go take and edit our own on our Hawaii vacation.

Tonight we're working on pictures from Kayla and David's wedding on July 17th. We've been playing around with some softer effects, which is definitely new for me, as I tend to go very sharp and contrasty. But it's also super fun trying out some new stuff, even if trying to maintain the style all the way through is proving quite difficult.

I'm still working on my set (I take a lot of pictures), but Chris has finished his and is now setting up his most recent blog to showcase. His pictures are amazing. I really truly love that we share this passion together- it really makes spending hours and hours going through pictures so much better when there's someone next to you doing the same thing. And it never hurts when you look up to find him looking at your screen in admiration at whatever photo you're on. :)

Anyway, if you want to see some great wedding pictures (especially the first one- I pretty much fell in love with him all over again when I saw that first one), check out my almost-husband's latest blog. (And, yes, that is a new blog site he's using- read his previous post about breaking up with blogger to find out why he switched.)

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And that's all I'm telling you.

:)

Tuesday was an emotional roller coaster.

It really was. First my car broke down again. Chris had to come rescue me at the school's Old Town office. I started crying when he came to get me. I hate that my car just randomly dies on me. It makes me nervous to drive, and that's a sucky thing to be nervous about. I hate that Chris had to take time out of his work day to come get me, even though I know he didn't mind.

(I also hate the bill for fixing my car, which my wonderful pre-husband took care of without batting an eye. I love my pre-husband.)

Then there was family stuff that Chris and I talked about on the ride over to Goodyear. And I cried again.

Then we got the bill, and I told myself I would not cry.

Then on the way home, Chris said, "This'll cheer you up." And he pulled out our brand new, just printed, beautiful, wonderful guest book from the backseat of his car.

It was really beautiful and wonderful. Chris designed it, and while I at first gave him a hard time for all the extra work he was putting into it, I'm so glad he went with the inspiration. It looks amazing, and I know everyone's going to love answering the prompts we picked for the pages.

Then we got back to Chris' and made dinner together and talked about more family stuff and I was getting all emotional again, until Chris came downstairs and instructed me to close my eyes, that he had a surprise. I did. When I opened them, he was holding his phone in front of my face, with this picture on it.

And seriously, how can you be sad when you see this cutie in her flower girl dress? This is the first time we're even seeing it in real life, and it looks awesome, if we do say so ourselves.

After that was a great chat with Sarah. Let me tell you something: Sarah and Chris video chatting is the best thing ever. I generally try to catch it on my own webcam, sneakily facing my laptop screen toward Chris and his computer because he just gets so darn funny and animated when he's talking with Sarah.


In fact... I just went back through some of my funnier videos of "Chris Chats with Sarah," and I decided maybe I'd whip up this little piece for the general amusement of our viewers at home.

Mmmmm... that makes me feel better.

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We are packing up to wazoo over here. And over there. At both of our places. In the hopes we will have a place to move into by the end of this month.

We're still not sure if the whole house is going to work out for us, but we know God's going to work out something for us eventually. And if we have to live at Chris' condo with roommates for awhile, so be it! At least we'll already be packed when it's time to go to our own home!

Mail Call

Okay, so now that we're less than 50 days out, this whole wedding thing has started getting pretty exciting. For instance, we now have really fun mail on a regular basis. Yes, they are in the form of RSVPs, but you look at our awesome logo and tell me you wouldn't love seeing five or six of those postcards in your box everyday.

We (read: I) make a game out of it too. Either Chris grabs the mail on his way in or he hands me the key when he gets home and I throw some sandals on to go get it myself. Then we keep them upside down until Chris pulls up our guest ledger, and begin flipping them over one by one to see who's coming. So far, I feel I'm kicking Chris' butt in RSVPs from my side, but he points out that there are still a LOT more blank spaces on his to fill.

We've filled up about half our expected spots- now comes the point where we find out if we sent out way to many invites than we can comfortably seat!