A Tale of Two Anniversary's

There's a couple of anniversary's happening lately in my life. One of them caught me completely by surprise, while the other is the reason I am here.

The first anniversary is my parents. 10-10-10 is my parents 39th wedding anniversary. I am so happy and proud to have them in my life and in Ella and Olivia's life. We built the addition on our house just over a year ago for them to move in, and it could not have worked out better. I love how much we are able to share and be there to help each other out when needed. Keith and my Dad play games online together many nights. We often used to joke about my Dad being upstairs while Keith is downstairs and they are fighting each other in a game. At the time we didnt know it would really happen. :0) My mom is retired so she is home all day, as are the girls and I. We often go out to lunch and make those 5 weekly trips to Target (Its an addiction, I swear)! Ella just adores them and when Olivia gets a little older, she'll be right on Ella's heels crawling up those stairs to see her Amoo and Eppay every day too. We are all so glad to have them here, and wish them a wonderful anniversary.


On the same note....I work from home for my company and my boss asked me if I could come into the office the other day to have a meeting. He told me it was about one of my duties that is probably my least favorite thing to do in my job. So whatever, thats fine. I was going in anyways to have lunch with my friend Stacy. I asked my mom to watch the girls and I was on my way in.

All was pretty normal. I get along with my boss really well so the normal joking around ensues. Also, Stacy was there working and waiting for me to get done with my meeting to go have lunch. I said hi to a few people along the way to the conference room and my boss and I took a seat while waiting for one more person to join the meeting.

Then the door opened and there wasnt just one more person walking in, there was about 7 or 8 people walking in. In the span of about 1/10th of a second as I saw all the people standing there, my mind went crazy and stupid all at the same time. Is it my birthday? No, its not my birthday....Was I getting fired and this was a going away party? No, thats not reasonable. Crap! There's the president of the company....but wait, there's Stacy too....What the heck is going on?!


Come to find out, they were surprising me with a gift for being with the company for 10 years. I was blown away. Rendered speechless. I absolutely thought I was in there to have a meeting. They presented me with a plaque and a fantastic gift. They handed me a bag, which itself was a new camera bag. Inside the bag was 3 lenses. I KNOW!! I am still freaking out when I think about it. They got me a Nikkor 70-300mm zoom lens, a fisheye and (brace yourself...) a 650-1300mm lens. A total paparazzi lens! Along with the bag and lenses were a set of 3 filters, lens cleaner and a lens cap keeper.

I must mention that about a week or so before, my friend Stacy told me that her aunt had a camera store that she had closed and she had a bunch of lenses that she thought she could get for really cheap. She wanted to know which lenses I was interested in as a combination present for my birthday and Christmas. I found it a little odd, as she had never told me before that she had a family member with a camera store....since I am into photography and all. But never the less, I gave her a list of a few lenses I would like, thinking that maybe if they were at a really good price, I would buy some for myself too. This was all a lie to get information from me. I was played the fool! They made a sign on the computer saying, "Stacy's Aunt's Camera Shop Closing Sale One Day Only 10/5/10." There was no aunt and there was no camera shop!


As they presented me with my gift, they pulled out 3 large pieces of paper and layed them on the table. Stacy and my boss had gone onto my blog and put together a few collages of my photography to show everyone. I think that was what got me the most. The time that they took to put them together and the thoughtfulness that went into it blew me away. In that surreal moment, it was as though I was suddenly having my first exhibit! LOL. All kidding aside, it was a fantastic surprise and I could not have been more thankful.

I havent even tried out any of the lenses yet, but as you can see from the pictures accompanying the post, I have been loving the weather and colors around here. Keith and I are going to take a nature walk tomorrow with the girls and I hope to get some good pictures. It is supposed to be close to 80 degrees tomorrow!