Trophies and Busted Limbs

Wow! What a weekend we had. It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times. I'm tellin' ya, this is the kind of stuff that only happens to us.

Let's ATLEAST start out with the positive events. A wedding. I love weddings. I love attending them. I loved having one (although I don't want to have another one. Ever.) I love reading about them, looking at pictures of them, weddings are great! However, when I decided to take up photography, I said... no actually I SWORE, that I would not EVER shoot a wedding. Why? Well, for one thing, there's a little bit of pressure. There are no do-overs. If you don't get it the first time, you just don't get it. And if you mess up? Well, I don't even want to think about it! I thought it would be WAY too stressful. However... last year, my wonderful hubby's boss said "My son is getting married. We need a photographer." And my wonderful hubby said "Oh. My wife could totally do it!" I was mad. Seriously, I was! But of course, how do you say "no" to your husband's boss? When I mentioned that I had never shot a wedding before, they reassured me that it was a small wedding, and it would be fine. Yeah. You say that NOW. We are talking about somebody's important memories, here. Well, I ended up doing their engagement pictures - and I LOVED it. Then I ended up doing her Bridals - and I LOVED it. I was still super nervous about the wedding, but guess what? I LOVED IT! I took Jared along to assist. He even took a few pictures with my sister's camera that I had taken as a backup. Fast forward a year. A girl who grew up in the ward we are in (and whose mama is the YW pres) called to ask what I would charge to do a wedding. I still didn't feel super experienced, and I still felt very nervous, but I said I would do it for her. I took along an "assistant:"

Don't you LOVE the look of concentration? He really took his job seriously ;)

I had my back-up camera all set up for him, and kinda told him what to shoot. He was great! He noticed little details that I was too busy to notice, helped me gather everyone for group shots, and caught a few really nice shots while I was changing lenses. I don't know if I could have done it without him, and as we drove away, he said "I can totally see myself doing this with you when I retire." I laughed a little bit. I may need him WAY before he retires, so I guess I better start teaching him to shoot manual! It was really fun to just have him there with me, lending his support, and reminding me that I CAN do this! And now I have another wedding under my belt. I've learned something each time, and I hope to have the opportunity again sometime :)

Friday ended on quite a nice high. Saturday started out that way...

Eryn's soccer team was playing in the 7th-8th Grade Recreation Championship (I don't know if they really call it that, but she IS in 7th grade, it IS rec. soccer, and it WAS the championship). They came into the tournament as the 2nd seed, and had won their previous game in mega overtime with shoot-outs and sudden death, finally pulling out the "W". We were feeling pretty good about the finals. They played their little hearts out, and then late in the 2nd half, Eryn goes down. Yes, DOWN. On the ground, landing right on her wrist! She sat out on the field crying, and all I could think was GET UP... GET UP!! When she did, she walked off the field holding her right arm and crying in pain. SHOOT! We've done this before, and it's not fun. Just a mere 2 years ago, she fell while ice skating and broke her LEFT wrist. There is even video of the fall (it's here on the blog, but you'll have to look for it. It was December of 2008. ;) ).  Only this time, it's her RIGHT wrist. She's right handed. Well, we just hoped it was only a sprain (please let it only be a sprain!) The "Heatwave" ended up losing (in a very similar ending to the other game - shootouts, sudden death) and it was heartbreaking... and apparently ARM breaking. This morning (Monday) the X-ray concluded that her Radius was in fact BROKEN!! Hey, atleast she got a trophy out of the deal. 2nd place really aint that bad!!

Notice the ice on her arm. But GO ERYN!! We were proud of her - she had a fantastic season. She gets better each year.

And I wasn't pushy enough (or patient enough) to get a picture without some other mom's arm in the way. But here's the whole team with their trophies!

I had to leave Eryn at the clinic to get her cast on alone, because Hayden would be getting off the bus at home at any moment. Can you just imagine him getting off and nobody there to meet him? Nobody home? It was giving me anxiety just thinking about it. Good thing Eryn's old enough to hang out by herself for a little bit. When I picked her up, there she was with a beautiful, bright green cast!

I told her I wanted to take a couple of pictures of her with her cast... and she tried to hide it. She is NOT happy (despite the cute smile) about having it. It's gonna be tough!

Ah, there it is!!

The next 4-6 weeks should be interesting, to say the least. She shares a similar trait with me, in the fact that our left hands are essentially USELESS! I don't honestly know how I can even play the piano, because really, my left hand can't do anything. Poor kid. Note-taking will have to be done with a voice recorder, hair will have to be done by me... and patience will have to be key!! Wish us luck ;)