Just Breathe

The number one rule of scuba diving is don't hold your breathe.

Rule number two, don't lose buddy.

9 days before getting married most people would probably be stressed making table cards and buying shoes and powdering their faces.

Chris and I went scuba diving.

Me doing my "hoover" with Aunt Nancy and Chris looking on


Time for a full mask flood


Frisky fish


Chris navigating away from the fish


Me navigating the open waters


Our fearless leader Aunt Nancy


All the wedding details are done and both the bride and groom are ready to go.

All we have to do now is not hold our breath, and not lose buddy.

Recipe for Bachelorette Party in the 'burbs

Ingredients:

Spa for pedicures and manicures


Handmade Bride to Be shirt


Mimosas


Music


Nicola's


Three loving moms


A Polaroid Camera circa 1982


Goodie Bags


Polaroid scrapbook


Bowls of candy


One high-heeled shoe pinata


Cookies and Cupcakes


One Pin the Bowtie on the Naked Man


Pool and floaties


3 Sisters


10 of your best girlfriends



Pineapple Panties


Pregnant Virgins


Dancers




One friend from Colorado


Random guy in yellow shirt


Drunk bride to be


One forty year old Asian guy


Mix all ingredients together.

Let vanity and self-consciousness evaporate.

Enjoy!

(Serves 10-12 Best Friends)

Greetings

We went to the courthouse today to apply to get hitched.





$37 and the ability to write your name is all you really need.





It didn't take long, the ladies were really nice, and Chris got his first flash of nerves.



The moment quickly changed to laughter though as on our way out we noticed this lovely display case.



I would love to meet the guy that made it necessary for the sign "not for sale" to have to be printed.



After we got into the car I started reading the license...

"GREETING:
You are hereby authorized to celebrate the rites of matrimony.
Christopher Allen Wehkamp
Sarah Renee Mathis"

And this of course begs the question, what are the rites of matrimony that we are now authorized to celebrate?
After the courthouse we went and got a bagel, surely that's not a rite of matrimony because we did that last Thursday without any licensing.

Do we get a discount at Pottery Barn now?

Do we have the rite to cut in line at the post office?

Do we get to preside over anything? I think we would be good presiders.

I'm going to go look into that...

7 Days Till Bulldozers Come

We are packing up the schoolhouse.





Next door a new schoolhouse is being built.





Lakeland has been around now for more than 40 years. It was the first elementary school built west of I-35; it's time for new walls and new desks.

I took this picture after school today as I was waiting for the light to change.



It is in fact a young mother pulling her two children in a shopping cart. She was sweating profusely but kept walking as she wiped the sweat from her brow.

I found out today, with 7 days of school remaining, that one of my students is on her 3rd stepmother.
She lost a baby brother this week. He died after only 2 weeks of life.
Her birth mom is in jail and she shares a 2 bedroom apartment with 11 other people, not all of whom she knows.

People have asked me how I can do this job.
How can I not?

Knowing that the need is there for these children, and that I can somehow fill that need, that's all that's required to get me to work.

I cry every year when I have to say goodbye to my students. I see them more than I see my family or my fiance...8 hours a day for 9 months is a long time. We've come a long way and I'm proud of them.



Allow me my remaining days of school sentimentalism.