Abby’s Saturday // One Hundred Thirty-Three

Highlight of the Week

Last Sunday afternoon – my cousin Zeb proposed to his sweeter-than-pie girlfriend Emilie and I was there to photograph the whole thing! (if you missed those photos somehow, I blogged them here!) Seriously: if things don’t begin to quiet down here in the Eichelberger Family – I’m not sure how we’re going to make it through 2017! January was an EPIC month, to say the least! I’m so excited to see what’s next!

Being a part of Zeb & Emilie’s engagement was truly a highlight of my life. It was so cold & we all were freezing our butts off, but as soon as we saw them coming & saw Zeb get down on one knee & heard Emilie saying over and over again: “Really?! Is this real? Right now? Really really? I’m so excited!” all of that melted away into an avalanche of warm fuzzies. I’d like to go back to being newly engaged and planning my wedding again – is that possible somehow?

Yes, This Happened

• The newlyweds arrived back from their honeymoon & I got to go over to visit and watch them open their gifts last Sunday evening. They got a TON of gifts! It’s kind of crazy – when Derrick & I got married, we got a total of 3 “wrapped” gifts – everyone else just brought us cards. Ellen & Jonathan also got a ton of cards, but they had 3 giant boxes of wrapped gifts! It’s so funny how that happens and how every wedding is totally different that way!
• I still haven’t “un-decorated” from Braelynn’s birthday party yet. Is that bad? I just feel like my house is going to feel so BLAH when I take all the streamers & lights & banners down and pop all of the balloons! We transitioned straight from festive Christmas decor to Braelynn’s birthday decorations and taking it all down is going to be depressing. So, it’s staying up for at least another few days.
• If you are bored in the least, there is this incredible contest going on called The Shoot & Share Photo Contest. This is my 4th year entering images & man, it simply gets bigger & better every year. It’s all completely free & fair, and if you’d like to participate, all you have to do is go to www.contest.shootandshare.com The instructions are super simple: you’ll see a series of 4 photos – simply click on the one you love the most & then it will give you 4 more! I’ll just warn you: it’s incredibly addicting and it’s really hard to get away once you get into it! (I’ve written about my experiences with the contest here!)

Feeling Blessed

Derrick has been promoted at work! It’s been such a crazy ride to get to this point – they literally have been dangling this promotion in front of him for 2 months! At one point, we were wondering if it was even true, but he officially starts his new job on Monday! I’m so excited for him. He has diligently worked for this company for over 2 years, and “unknowingly” his bosses have been watching him. Technically, the position he is taking wasn’t even posted for other people to apply for – they hand-picked him for the role. He truly is a fabulous fit with his background in administration and his experience as a driver for the past 2 years – but it’s so so exciting to know that his managers were watching & paying attention and that they were able to acknowledge his hard work. I’m so proud of him!