It just occurred to me today that I have so many comments/questions to answer that I could actually make a whole post out of them!
And so I shall.
Before I proceed though, I want to thank you all for rejoicing with us over Sarah’s birthday celebration and the miracle that she is. We are so incredibly grateful for her sweet, zippy presence in our lives and in our home.
For her actual birthday, her Grandma and Grandpa Smith will be driving over from Charlotte--a mere 750 miles, round trip. Since they’re the only family members we have that are less than 900 miles away, we’re especially thankful that they so cheerily put forth the effort to be here on this special occasion.
And speaking of special occasions, I have pretty much run out of pictures of Nathan and Meagan’s wedding. However! In a week or two, we will have in our hands a disk containing the bazillion pictures that the professional photographers took; I promise that I will work very hard at narrowing down the thousand (or more) pictures to just a few dozen (or so) and will post them in the weeks to come. So for those of you who love wedding stuff, there is more to come!
Which actually leads me right into the comment/question section of this post because the very first question is about Nathan and Meagan.
Mary H. said, “How are the newlyweds?”
Well, Mary, to answer that question, let me share a recent Facebook post from Meagan,
Going for a swim, playing two games of ping-pong, eating a homemade dinner for two, and watching a movie in our pj’s--a PERFECT evening with my husband at home!! :)
Reading that made me smile and get kind of choked up all at the same time, just thinking about the fact that “the husband” mentioned in that post was my very own (previously) little boy! It’s wonderful to see them so happy together.
Jenna said, “I am curious- what is a salt marsh?”
Jenna, this link about a salt marsh explains it a lot better than I could; in fact, I wasn’t really sure of the answer until I looked it up. What I do know is that we have a lot of them around here and they are truly lovely.
Here’s a shot I took of one on a recent bike ride with Sarah.
Caroline said, “Happy early birthday Sarah! Is she going to start learning to drive?”
Sarah was eligible to take Driver’s Ed last year as a ninth grader but opted not to. And may I just say that I was not horribly disappointed by that decision; isn’t it true that no parent thinks her child is ready to drive?
Her plan right now is to take Driver’s Ed the second half of her sophomore year; then she’ll get her permit and will need to have that for at least a year before getting her license. My mommy heart is very happy that it will still be almost two years before she drives by herself.
What’s sort of funny is that I waited until I was eighteen to get my license and Nathan did, as well. I guess we’re just a family of late blooming drivers.
Dana said, “The Birthday Hat???? They all look so pretty and grown! I can't believe 16 already. When I read the earlier post and realized Sarah was about to be 16 I really think I got 4 more gray hairs right then. Time is flying! I mean really, I was floored when Nathan graduated college! I really do believe he must have done an accelerated College Study because it didn't seem as he had been gone that long. I'm trying to wrap my mind around next Wednesday my baby boys will be turning 18yrs. is there a way to slow any of this down?”
Dana, you are one of several readers who was observant and noticed the absence of the famous hat. She will be wearing it on her actual birthday.
As for your question about, “Is there a way to slow any of this down?” I think I have some bad news for you. And for me. And all of us moms. Because the answer seems to be no.
Which just means we will be all the more grateful for each precious chapter along the way.
Janet said, “Becky: I am a long-time follower and some-time poster. I absolutely love your hair--especially the "shortened" version that you had at Nathan's wedding. Is there any way you could send me a picture of you (front and back) that I could take to my hairstylist? I would have no idea how to explain it to her. I know there is a way I could just "take" the pictures from your blog--but I wouldn't do that without asking permission first--if I even knew how to do such a thing. Thanks for your help.”
Janet, thanks for the hair compliment; I appreciate it so much! You are more than welcome to use a picture from the blog to show to your stylist; just right click on the photo you want, choose “save image as” and choose somewhere on your computer to save it to. (I usually choose the desk top because it’s easy to find there.)
Lisa said “How tall is Nathan? He does not look that tall when he stands with his wife but in some other pics he looks really tall.”
Nathan is right at six feet tall and Meagan is about 5’6” or so. On their wedding day, she had 4 inch heels on, so that was probably the reason he didn’t look quite as tall standing beside her.
Trine (from Denmark) wrote, “I have a very weird request, but you would make my day .... can you re-post a old picture with Sarah? the one I am thinking of is from 2006, you were on holiday and in the background there was a elephant made out of a towel . I have been having that picture in my head for a few days I would love to see it again :)
Trine, I emailed the photos to you but thought it would be fun to post them here as well, just to give us a little peek backwards down memory lane and see what our soon-to-be-sixteen year old looked like six years ago. These were taken at a hotel in Cancun where we went on a sponsored trip similar to Make- A- Wish. Sarah was so delighted with the towel animals and I’m sure was thinking to herself, “I bet Mom can fold our towels at home just like this!” (ha)
And since I have a few miscellaneous pictures of Sarah that don’t fit anywhere else, I’ll stick ‘em right here before moving along.
This is outside the restaurant where we had Sarah’s birthday dinner. We had gone there a few days early to check it out and noticed this really cool old camera welded to a piece of metal. I was enthralled.
And I just want to make a pronouncement that we really do go to the beach every once in a (great) while. Well, actually, Steve and I just go to walk but Sarah goes along with Taylor’s family occasionally and enjoys hanging out near the waves for an afternoon.
Catherine asked, “ How many were at this wedding, Becky? I think there was a lot more than "a little creativity" going on here. Everyone did such a wonderful job. Were the flowers real or silk or a mix of both? I really like the colors Meagan chose.”
I believe there were around 150 there. The flowers were a mixture of silk and latex. I had never heard of latex flowers, but I found out that they are incredibly realistic.
Sharon said, “I absolutely love the dress but having trouble figuring out from the pictures what the true color is. Some of the pictures the dress looks purple and yet in other pictures it looks more of deep pink or fuchsia color. I'm just amazed that you actually went to a real store instead of your usual consignment store shopping. I know how you like to save.” Yes, I agree that that was a hard color to pin down. On the web, the color was called “pretty in pink” but to me it looked like lavender.
I actually did look at a couple consignment/thrift stores for a dress because I would have been so pumped if I had found one. Unfortunately, the ones I found that I liked weren’t in my size. (One of the few drawbacks of thrift store shopping is that there is only one size to choose from.)
I’ll close with a comment Sue G left several posts ago because it is just so dear and it made me all happy-hearted to read it. Thanks Sue, for so beautifully expressing your heart through words.
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You know, it has occurred to me that there is not one person in your family about whom I don't feel warm and fuzzies, about whom I don't like to read, about whom I don't look forward to learning more about them. You have shared so much over the years that no matter what is going on in their lives, I want to hear more about it. Thank you for sharing your heart with us.
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I originally thought you started a blog because you wanted write. I now know that you started a blog because you wanted to write about these special people. I am confident that they are wonderful examples of all that God wants for us, and it warms my heart to call them "family" in all the wonderful layers of that word.
Thanks, Becky. It takes a special person to open up her heart, her home, and her family with us. I can't tell you what it means to me that you do that.
And may I just mention that Sue (whom many of us recognize from her poignant comments here and on other blogs) has been through quite a lot of cancer-related challenges lately. Stop by her website to read her amazing writing about incredible hardship and even more incredible faith.