Sunday, October 17, 2010

Shellyon's First Wedding Anniversary

Rewind through graduate school enrollments, a job promotion, buying a house, and a job change... and we're back in time, one year ago, to our wedding weekend on Captiva Island. It's been an eventful year for Shellyon.

I had a blast planning our wedding, and I love reliving that weekend - thanks to our amazing wedding photographer, Sara Kauss, and my many friends and family memebers who shared their photos with us. And our original wedding website is still intact as well.

But more important, I've loved the past year with my husband. We'ved lived, laughed, and loved just as we vowed on that windy day on the beach. Happy first anniversary, Jolyon!

































































Michelle, in the presence of our family and friends, I pledge to be true to you, to respect you, and to grow with you through the years. Time may pass, fortune may smile, trials may come; no matter what we may encounter together, I promise here to love only you. I will make my home in your heart from this day forward. With laughter and love, these are my vows to you.

Jolyon, I take you to be my husband and my best friend for life. Together our lives are truly enhanced. I will communicate with you open and honestly. I will navigate the changing tides with you in all seasons of our life together. Through the pressures of the present and the uncertainties of the future, I promise to be faithful to you, to challenge you, to comfort you, and to laugh with you. These are my solemn vows.

All photos by Sara Kauss Photography.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

The Original Blog

I was reading through some old IM conversations today (you know, that time-wasting tool once known as AOL Instant Messanger?), and I came across a link to my very first blog.

http://shellystick.diaryland.com/older.html

It was like finding an old friend. I can't remember everything that's written in it, only that is starts in 2004 and ends in February of 2008, when I merged to what you're reading now via blogger.com.

I love looking into the past. Join me, won't you? :)

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Upon Seeing My Cat Draped Over My Graduate School Textbooks

My husband asks, before bedtime, if I'm done for the night, with studying,
and I say that I haven't started,
but the cat is getting more use out of this rigid instruction than I, in her sleep-filled state,
her stress-free dreams, her to-do list done by her master,
no Gagne yanking her frayed leash, no Bloom neglecting her empty water dish,
just the perception of a calming surface of a textbook
serving no other purpose than a hard pillow on a cold night.