Illinois summer weather is officially here. And it arrived overnight.

This Spring had it backwards: April flowers brought May showers. We had beautiful April weather with blooming all around, and then May was a series of thunderstorms and cloudy days. As this month comes to a close and with June just around the corner, the hot, sticky, hard-to-breathe air has arrived in everyone's backyard.

Great weekend! My life has stayed consistently busy, just the way I like it. If I don't have enough to do, I get bored and stagnant, and if I have too much I become overwhelmed. Somehow, I am currently living the balance between both.

For anyone that cares, I took care of my eye situation and saw the doctor on Friday. I'm on a 5-day trial with daily contacts; we are going to see if this clears up the problem. So far, so good. I was just happy to learn I would be able to wear my contact lenses. The eye doctor also asked me if I wanted my eyes dilated. I never recall having a choice in the past; usually, they just do it. But after confirming that this would help him out, I was a good sport and let him put the dreaded drops in my eyes. Then I sat and waited for 20 minutes while every light in the office become 100x brighter.

So I drove home with glasses & dilated eyes; it's a miracle I made it home, but I did. I even sported some super-cool shades they make to slip behind your eyeglasses. I was squinting behind the shades; there's no way I could have made it home without them. Kristi promptly pointed and laughed the minute I walked back into the office. I think she was just jealous.

Anyway, enough on eyes. Saturday brought about a hot, humid day and wedding photography. We had the pleasure of shooting the wedding of an adorable and amazing Christian couple. They were so sweet, and so fun to capture. Very natural and photogenic. In fact, we told the groom he could come teach all of our future grooms how to be charming and wonderful; he was perfect behind the camera! Most guys are not comfortable or thrilled to have a hired paparazzi follow you around on your wedding day, but every time we looked at him he was doing something worthy of a precious picture. We had a blast using a black couch on a beautiful property, and the bridal party was also a fun group of energy.

Today was a great day in church. Two awesome messages. Psalm 101:3 stuck out to me this morning; and our youngest preacher had this afternoon's service. I love how he can break apart any verses in Scripture and make it applicable to daily living. He was telling us how he talked to a man who was telling him all about his religion and different meditations that he does.

"Do you know how ashamed he was to tell me about all of that?" he asked. "Zero."

He then went on to make the point that we, as Christians, need to get over any "silence" we allow because of shame.

Ever since I started working at the CILAs, I've had the opportunity to meet and get to know a lot of individuals with developmental disabilities and handicaps. They are all precious and unique, and I love every single one of them. Our church in Morton is blessed to welcome a lot of them each Sunday, so I often talk to those that are milling around. There is one man in particular who ALWAYS comes up to my friends and I and talks to us. He has taken a special interest to Kristi and I, and our photography business.

Every Sunday, without fail, he will walk up and look at me, and then Kristi. He will then look at anyone we happen to be talked to and point to us.

"Do you know they have a photography business?" He'll ask. "They take pictures."

Nods and smiles.

He will then target one of our female friends and say, "You know, I think you should go work for them. Work up front at their shop, and be their secretary."

I always tell him this is a great idea.

He always has something up his sleeve; a new idea, or an insight. His most characteristic feature is the way he exits. He always abruptly finishes his sentence, turns around, and walks away.

I appreciate this in him, because it's often the way I wish I could handle conversation. Sometimes, it's easier to just walk away than try to tie together all loose ends, draw a useful conclusion to whatever was said, or think of an eloquent way to end the conversation. He doesn't worry about such things; he's just done. I love it.

Anyway, today he walked up to me and looked at my outfit.

"Did you knit and crochet that yourself?" he asked me, pointing to my dress.

"No, I didn't," I said. "I wish I could do that. Maybe I could knit you a tie, then."

He pondered this. "Well, yeah, you could," he said. "That would be a little different, but I would wear it."

I always appreciate his honesty, curiosity, and questions.

Tonight, we had my brother and sister-in-law and their family over for dinner to welcome little Milo in. We ate an amazing meal of steak/chicken/veggie kabobs and the works. I made a couple of chocolate pies for dessert, and we enjoyed that with coffee, of course. I played hopscotch with Lola on the driveway, and then a game of bags with my brother. It was actually borderline competitive. I was surprised. But Tate still won in the end.

I then headed to Peoria with a couple of friends for coffee. On the way, I saw THIS (pictured below) on the interstate. I took a picture with my cell phone and posted it on Facebook and received a lot of comments. It got a lot of male feedback, not surprisingly, and a lot of girls who said, "That is so unsafe and stupid!"

But really, how does this even happen?

Love you all!

T