This picture is so special, I felt it deserved its own blog post. What it represents is weeks of hard work. I spent countless hours searching for clothes that fit each of my family members style and personality. Plus I wanted us to look good as a "five family," matching, but not so much that our own styles didn't show. We tricked Teale into thinking our preparation for a party was for her cousin, Karla. We also told Teale the party was on Sunday, (8/3/14) when in reality our renewal of vow's ceremony was at 4:30pm on 8/2/14. The celebration party to immediately follow the ceremony. Teale is an enigma to live with and we are often guessing at how to stay one step ahead of her. When Mark's Mom passed in December, Mark and I almost did not make it to her memorial service because of Teale. I learned from that experience, realizing that Teale's anxiety is most high on the day of a big event. She completely fell apart, raging, just minutes before we needed to leave for the church. It was overwhelming and incredibly frazzeling on a day all I wanted for my sweet Mark, was peace, so he could greive for his Mother. So when we started the preparation thoughts for this event, I suggested to Mark that we tell Teale the party was on Sunday, so she would not be so geared up. I also arranged Teale going directly from her favorite Saturday morning activity, grocery shopping with her Daddy, to an outing with her cousin Karla. Karla met Teale at Wegmans (our local, grocery store) and then Mark came home to help prepare for our event. We still had much to do and without Teale underfoot, we could accomplish it. She was ok with her cousin, still believing the party was the next day. IT ALL WORKED OUT PERFECTLY! Teale came home just in time for me to help get her dressed and for Karla to do her hair. There wasn't too much time for her anxiety to work itself way up and she was THRILLED when we surprised her with the whole truth! This picture is my PROOF! It show's months of hard work payed off and even some careful trickery for our Miss Enigma was the best thing we could have done! She EVEN let me put my arm around her, now that is PROGRESS!
Photo cred to Karen Scibetta who took our original Wedding pics & our 25th Anniversary celebration ones too.
Also a HUGE thank you to Karla, our niece, who helped so much to make our day work!
