Something to Say

There have been a few times I have posted on my blog in the past year and a half that I have considered tagging a post with Something to Smile About. But, unless it referred to the original "something to smile about," it never seemed appropriate. Sure, there were things that made me smile. But none of them were right. Nothing was special enough.

Until a week ago Sunday, that is.

After college group, Melody and I went to a corn maze with some friends. When we came home, they were doing the dishes and we talked about our day and asked where Deanna and Stephen were. They had gone somewhere to get something to eat. Pretty soon Eric and Ruthie came, and we talked with them.

Normal day. Nothing unusual.

Deanna and Stephen entered together, holding hands. That was normal--but I knew immediately something was different about them, though I didn't have time to think about it until I realized.

"She said yes," Stephen told Eric. Time passed surrealy. Melody thought he was joking until she realized he wouldn't be. The other kids grinned, having known already. In the kitchen Ruthie asked Mom if this was for real.

Suddenly we were looking at the pretty silver ring and giving them hugs.

It wasn't surprising, exactly, but it wasn't what we had expected when we came home that evening.

We made Eric move so they could sit center stage on the love seat and made both of them tell the story.

There was much smiling and laughing and jittering and teasing of Stephen, who was embarrassed and hid under his coat when we played the song he had sung for Deanna.

I think Stephen told Deanna she could ask the wedding party. "They already know," she said.

"You should ask anyway," I said.

"Jeannette, will you be my maid of honor?" she asked.

"Yep!" I smiled.

"Melody, will you be a bridesmaid?"

The ever-grinning Melody replied with an enthusiastic, "Yes!"

"Amy, will you be a bridesmaid?"

"Yes!" she replied.

"I'll be mother of the bride," Mom offered.

"Dad, will you walk me down the aisle?" Deanna asked.

"Yes," he said. "I would be honored."

"Stephen?" asked Timothy expectantly.

"Go to bed, Tim," we said.

"We'll ask you to be the flower girl later," Stephen informed him.

Naturally (in case you hadn't noticed) I took pictures. We had some fun with them:

Some of us stayed up quite late that night.

This is Stephen smiling because he knew Melody and I were conspiring to take their picture.

On Wednesday in ASL class, we learned signs about family. It made me happy to learn "dating," "going steady," "fiance," "husband," "wife," "married," "wedding," and especially "engaged" and "brother-in-law." And then to get to use them immediately!

The first few days, they needed to make calls and meet with people, so we had to keep our secret. Finally on Wednesday we were allowed to tell people freely. It was so much fun! I got to tell a lot of people, and their responses were so enjoyable. It was nice to have some friends that I could go up to and hug in order to get rid of excess energy.

That weekend I enjoyed being around people and talking about it. But sometimes, I would look around and everyone would be engaged in normal conversation and no one was talking about it. They seemed to be just fine with this, as if every day I had a sister who had gotten engaged last week. So sometimes I'd just have to say randomly, "My sister's engaged!"

Some people thought that was silly, saying they knew that. "I know," I said, "I just wanted to say it."

"I understand," my friend Merri said. "Sometimes it just needs to be said aloud."

Perhaps you wonder that I say little specifically about them. The day afterwards, Deanna, Melody, and I were riding in the car together, saying nothing.

Suddenly I said, "I want to talk about the engagement...but I can't think of anything to say!"

"I was just thinking that!" Melody said, and Deanna laughed.

"I guess," I concluded, "when something is good, you say it's good, congratulations, I'm happy about it, and then...there's not really much else to say. It's just good."

This Wednesday, I got to take engagement pictures, my first really-and-truly official engagement photos assignment. It was fun...but needless to say, way too many pictures to add to this post. Maybe I'll do one with them.

So, there it is. There's much more that could be said, but what else needs to be said?

Just that...

My sister's getting married!

And I've got the awesomest brother-in-law. (I know, not yet. Close enough.)

One teaser photo...aren't they adorable??