Wedding Pictures Tour

I thought it would be fun to post of my few wedding pictures from our big day. Hey, I figure my parents payed enough for our photographer that we want to get our use out of the pictures! In all seriousness, I just enjoy sharing photos from that day, so for those who care, enjoy. :)

On another note... I had a flip calendar that someone gave me as a gift earlier this year. Each day I flip the calendar and read a quote about everybody's favorite topic - love. Some of them are way too Shakespeare-y or mushy for my taste, but occasionally there's some really thought-provoking ones. Yesterday's that got me thinking was: "To love someone means to see them as God intended them" - Feodor Dostoyevski

I realized that was a very beautiful way of expressing how I want to see each person in my day- as the Lord would have me see them - fully created in His image and precious in His sight, in complete need of His truth and grace. How would that change how I treat them, talk about them, think about them?

Okay, enough contemplating. I'll leave you to enjoy pictures!

My handsome groom, the reason for the whole day!

Fun dessert table our caterer did for us. I had asked her to do some desserts and fruit, but I had no idea it would all turn out like this! I think the fruit bouquets were my favorite.

The view from the balcony during the ceremony.

Some people think it's strange we don't have heads in this photo, but I really like this focus on our hands.

Lovely bridesmaids. Each girl got to choose a slightly different variation on her dress, and I thought they turned out really cute.

Kissing daddy, I really like this one!

Hope ya'll are having a good weekend!

Stephanie

Infamous Motherhood Stories

Okay, Stephanie V. inspired me with her strange yet funny blog post, so I am posting a link to something along the same lines. The fun thing about blogs is that you can have some insight into the lives of people that you really don't know all that well, but who have great stories to tell. The daughter of my boss, Randy Alcorn, is one such person. I've been a faithful follower of her blog for a while now just because she is so FUNNY. This infamous story from a while back involves her two small children, the bathtub, and excess fruit consumption. Get my drift? (The small child in this particular picture is not one of hers; that happens to be my husband at age 1, and I posted it, well, because it's cute.)

Anyway, I read this story, and it made me cry with laughter and decide I'm not quite ready YET to be a mother. (Cindy, do you have any infamous motherhood stories yet???? So good to hear from you by the way. Miss you, and congrats on baby number 2!)

So if you have a minute, check out Angie's blog: http://dastump.blogspot.com/2007/01/finallya-new-post.html

Stephanie

First Post: Learnin' about Love and Respect

As if succumbing to the clutches of Facebook (which even my husband has joined-because it really is addicting and useful!) weren't enough, it seems time I should start my own blog. I can't guarantee that it will be updated regularly, let alone have anything interesting to read when I do post, or even that it will have any readers, but I hope it'll be an interesting journey, and that along the way, I might actually be able to post something worth reading and worth contemplating.

I thought I'd begin by sharing about a book Dan and I have been reading lately, Dr. Emmert Egglerich's Love and Respect. I think it's a great book for anyone who's married, soon will be married, or thinking about being married. We've been reading it together before we go to bed at night, so needless to say we get a "ton" of reading done each day, as in usually a grand total of two pages before one of us is already snoozing (don't worry, from exhaustion from the day, not boredom). I think it'll be a while before we get through it.

Great as it is though, I can't help but have a little fun at the book's expense. Dr. Emmert's whole point of the book - that in marriage, women most of all need love and men most of all need respect - is both biblical and logical. But a few of the analogies he has used to drive that point across often end in me giggling and Dan rolling his eyes (we've also enjoyed his frequent use of the phrase "Crazy Cycle.") There was one analogy in particular that we found especially comical.

I quote:

Picture, if you would, the wife having an air hose that goes to a love tank. When her husband bounds in and starts prancing around like a ten-point buck looking for someplace to graze, he steps on her air hose. This does not make for a happy camper. In fact, if she can find a baseball bat or some other weapon, she might just whack the big buck and tell him, "Get off my air hose; I can't breathe." Simply put, when her deepest need is being stepped on, you can expect her to react negatively.

...To keep the deer analogy going (oh goodness, no) suppose the wife, a lovely doe, starts tromping on his air hose with her sharp little hoofs. As we have seen... the wife may have had a good reason to prance all over her husband's air hose, but what's going to happen? As his air hose starts to leak because of all of the little cuts her hoofs have made in it, the husband is also going to react because his deepest need (respect) is not being met.

But all kidding aside, we do recommend the book and think it's provided some pretty useful insights into our own relationship and other relationships we've observed.

If you actually made it to the end of this post, congratulations for sticking it out. Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll be back!

Stephanie