From Box to Albums

I and a few friends sorted photos today. We don't have photo albums we just have a box of photos. It's really important to me that Katelyn remember and the Yikes know how Jessica was before cancer. That urge is what lead me to sort pictures to be put in albums. It was actually pretty cool because it ended up reminding me of a lot of memories of Jess and the girls. I also got to spend a lot of time with my sister Sarah and her girls, Vanessa and Elizabeth. Elizabeth is just a baby and so she has been fine with me holding her; however, today was the first day that two year old Vanessa truly felt comfortable around me. I have really enjoyed getting to know her.

When Jess and I got married we moved into a two bedroom apartment in North Richland Hills. Jess had gotten a job teaching at Richland High School and it was only about an hour away from the University of North Texas where I had just enrolled to get a Masters in Secondary Education. The first thing I learned about married life is that my guy stuff was not going to have any part in the decoration of our apartment. The only thing Jess let me hang up was a drawing of a duck. It was a gift from one of the campers that I had a counselor at a camp during one of my summers off from college. His mom had drawn it herself and they had made a special trip out to the camp just to present it to me. The truth is though Jess only let me hang it up in the closet. The difference between a bachelor apartment and a married couple apartment is that the bachelor one is just a place to stay while the married one is a home. Jess had a knack for making our place a home.