A Few Good Books

Zac and I were convinced by the Sam's Club cashier to buy these photo albums during our very first mega-club store trip as a married couple. It was one of those throw-it-in-the-cart-and-see-if-it-makes-it-to-the-cash-register items that certainly wasn't on the grocery list but seemed like a good deal. As we stood there debating whether it was a responsible use of a twenty dollar bill, the cashier (who must have noticed our newlywed angst) ensured us it was a good buy and that we would surely fill them up. I wasn't so sure. I was (and still am) the penny-pincher in the family and I had serious doubt. Would we really be able to fill over 1000 slots?

Fast forward five years later.  This morning I climbed up the ladder into the attic (shhh...don't tell Zac!) and dragged these dusty, somewhat hideous-colored albums down from a box of books and such that just didn't seem to have room in our Kentucky home. After a computer crash and an email for free photos from Shutterfly, I decided it was time to print out all those digitals and memorialize them in a more tangible way. In they went, one slot at a time until the third and last photo album was filled.

Five years later and we have accumulated over 1000 memories. From the sunsets on our honeymoon (the wedding got its own album of course) to a car crash that I thought for sure doomed us to economic failure to weekend get-aways in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, North Carolina, Ohio, Kentucky, and Canada to multiple moving trucks to Marco eating, chewing, sleeping, dreaming, and smiling, they are all in these albums.

As I readied myself to climb back up that ladder and re-place them in the box, I couldn't help but tear up. Please tell me it is the hormones! But I really think it was the realization that we have had five. good. years. Five years that as we move onto a new era and new photo albums (which I still need to purchase...maybe there's a deal at Sam's?!), I know I can look back with joy knowing we spent five years investing in each other in a way that makes me feel confident in whatever comes our way--in bringing babies home to a loving, supportive, adventurous, flexible, tried and true family environment.

And so the albums found a place on a shelf that I will walk by every day, that our crawling little ones will pull off and hit his/her sibling with, that I will pull out when people come to visit. They deserve it.