Edgewater: Blue

I've been taking the camera with me on almost every walk... collecting various colors throughout the neighborhood. And more than colors - patterns and objects and other repeated pieces of interest, too. It's fun -- it's a really cool way to both see and get to know our surroundings. Anyway, I have a lot of blue in my folder, so today I present our 'hood from the blue perspective. The challenge, of course, is to try not obsessing over just photographing the water repeatedly!

(but of course you have to START with the lake!)

Happy Anniversary to Our Parents!

You may or may not know that our parents (Dave's and mine) share a wedding anniversary! And it's today! It was really special to us to "share" a wedding weekend with both sets of parents... and it's equally special to be able to wish them both a big huge HAPPY ANNIVERSARY today. We love you all so much. Here's to many many more years together!

(Note: I did not request permission to publicly post these images... so enjoy them fast, in case I'm asked to pull them down!)

(The Parents Schwab)

(The Parents Heller)

 

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Two years ago today we got married!

Besides the obvious happiness around marrying your best friend, the best part of that whole weekend was how many of our most beloved friends and family were all in one place at the same time. I remember feeling like it went from zero to one thousand in seconds, and suddenly our whole lives were represented in one room! Amazing. Really, that's the only word to describe it. Literally, amazing.

And on top of that, it was pretty much the most fun party ever.

serious dance moves everywhere you turned...
 

 
my family can move!

My brother's awesome dance moves were on display all night...
 

A great tradition... celebrating that their third and last child is now married:
 

My parents pretty much had the time of their lives...

Friends and family from all points in our lives...
 

This is one of my very very favorite shots of the whole lot... we have it framed. I love all the little moments happening throughout...

My FIL in.his.element:
 

More friends and dancing fun...
 

Beautiful family...

Great friends...

What more could we ask for?

(all photographs by Danielle Aquiline)

Living in Limbo

As you already know, we had some damage to our floors thanks to a leaking hose, and that they had to be professionally dried out prior to the insurance being able to determine our next steps (while this was happening, we lived at the Marriott downtown). Well, today was the "next step" in the long list of next steps.

I am working from home today and was therefore able to meet our insurance adjuster and the flooring restoration folks who will help fix our mess. They came and took lots of photos and scribbled a billion notes and then gave me some papers to sign and we're on our way to recovery. I first want to say that both our insurance guy and the folks from Universal Restoration Services were incredibly kind, helpful, and utterly reassuring. While I am/we are still totally overwhelmed by everything going on, I genuinely feel a bit more hopeful after today's appointment. We'll know, likely within the next week, what the timeline for the project will be. We will cover our deductible and that's about it. Which is a huge relief. (That last sentence is a huge understatement.) They will need to replace *all* of the flooring - not just the damaged portions. And actually, we can change our mind on color/type/etc., if we want, and if it's within the priced-out retail cost they get for the replacement of what we had. So... what do you think? Should we go with the same? or make a change? When it all starts, they'll move our furniture and cover all our cabinets, shelves, walls, etc. so nothing gets dirty from the dust and work. If we need to, our insurance will send us back to a hotel while it's all going on. Suddenly, everything feels like it'll be fixed. It's still depressing and upsetting, but I think I can see just the hint of a glimmer of the light at the end of this long tunnel. It'll still probably be at least a month before it's all over and done with, but we're on our way. More updates when we know what happens next. This is why you pay for insurance!

In the meantime, here's our temporary state of affairs:

(storage room)

(suitcases - just unpacked, ready to be packed again if necessary)