15 years, 36 inches

I got this idea from Kristi, who doesn't read my blog (loser nerd), so I don't HAVE to give her credit, but I'm a good friend that way....

ANYWAY. I got this idea from Kristi who scrapped a double page timeline of her marriage. I don't know how she crammed 18 years onto 2 12x12 sheets of paper, because I had a VERY hard time cramming 15 years onto 3 sheets!

Our anniversary celebration this year was decidedly low-key. What'd we do, you ask? Well. You'll be jealous when I tell you! First, we went to the mall to have our portrait made at that place next to Build-a-Bear that specializes in children's portraiture because Darren and I have never EVER had a professional portrait done of just the two of us, not even at our wedding, and I had a coupon for a free 8x10 and was determined to USE it. So we showed up just in time to find - I am not making this up - that the group just ahead of us had ten kids! If you count the Build-A-Bears they all had in tow, there were 20 of 'em. It was mayhem. So we high-tailed it outta there to wait out our 35 minutes in the Food Court. WHEE!

For our fancy anniversary dinner, we shared a big honkin' slice of gooey, undercooked pizza from the Italian place, and ate it with a fork to avoid sloppage. It is widely known that I can't eat without glopping a big hunk of something right smack on my boob shelf. Happens every time. So to avoid any chance of that happening, I only ate two bites, and I ate them very carefully. It worked. No glops! :)

Back at the studio, our photographer asked, "Is there any certain pose you want?" Thinking she was the professional, I said, "Nothing in particular, but I don't want stiff, formal, boring portraits. I want our poses to be casual, relaxed and fun."

Okey doke. She didn't get it. Our portraits looked like really, really bad church directory pictures. You know... me sitting on a stool, Darren standing behind me with his hand on my shoulder. I knew something was amiss with the photographer when she said to me, "Look down. I'm getting a glare on your glasses."... and I said, "But now I'm looking out over the top of my frames. Won't that look silly?".... and she said, "No, you won't be able to tell."

Yah. You could tell. You could tell that I was looking down to avoid glasses glare and that I was staring over the top of my glasses. Not a good look. Plus, when one looks DOWN, one's double chin(s) (oooooh how I hate having to add that nasty S!) take center stage and sing at the tops of their lungs, OFF KEY. Hmpf.

The good news is, I got out of there for only $12, buying only a sheet of wallets of the single almost-decent pose and taking my free 8x10. Thank goodness for the coupon. Dani saw the photo and said, "I could've done better than that."

"Yes, and you will. Tomorrow afternoon," I answered.

"I wasn't offering," she retorted.

"Yes you were," I countered.

Darren and I stayed up til the wee hours that night shuffling through boxes and boxes of old photos, remembering silly things, laughing at funny stories, and having a grand ol' time. As we perused the photos, we also made a timeline of the big events in our 15+ years together, pulling photos as we came across them. Today, I assembled it all and framed it. I love, love, LOVE how it turned out! It will hang on our bedroom wall.


I'd thank Kristi for the inspiration, but since she's a loser nerd who doesn't read my blog, I won't bother. :)