nine years in the making (plus a special behind the video bonus)

First let me apologize profously for the sappiness and poor poor quality of this video. I could write an entire blog post (and I think I will) on the making of this video even though it may appear to have taken a 2 year old 10 minutes. It took me the better part of the day. Come to think of it, maybeI should have asked my kids for help. They can work my cell phone and the DVD player better than me (ages 5 and 1). More importantly is the why behind it, and then I will continue with the apologies. First, today is my anniversary. 9 years. Almost a decade of being married. and I looked through a lot of pictures today for the making of this horrible video. And sobbed almost every time I shot it. Even though it took at least two dozen shoots. We look like babies in the pictures. Because maybe at 23 we kind of were. But somehow in all of our immaturity and wrinkle free skin we seemed to make a pretty great decision. And a great pair. A few days ago one of my friends posted a blog about the things she would change about her wedding. And i'm gonna be honest, there aren't too many things I'd change about mine. Particuarly not the groom. I loved my wedding day. And I won't pretend that it has been 365X9 days of bliss, but it has been pretty great. And i'm still a little shocked he picked me.

One thing I do regret is that I don't have a video of the day or even a fancy wedding album. And although my parents did spring for an amazing photographer, all we have to show for it are a big box of proofs.

I'm not sure you can hear it ( if you decided to suffer through the video), but the song playing in the background is actually my brother playing a song he wrote and sung at our wedding (and my sister's). I love it and it makes me weepy every time i hear it. And no, he isn't some famous singer or songwriter....just a cpa in Houston. But feel free to make him an offer (or have him do your taxes).

Behind the video.
I really wanted to do this as a surprise for my husband. Today. Mainly because the 10dollar tackle box in the back of my car is a pretty crappy gift. And because he did so good for my birthday. And again, because I'm still sometimes surprised that he picked me.
But I am so technically challenged. Really it is amazing i know how to post a blog at all. And I realize that scanning these photos in and playing the song in the background may have been much easier on the eyes....but i don't actually know how to work the scanner and who has that kind of time.
I do know how to work the flip video (barely) and figured I could just old school it.
But first I had to find the cd of my brother.......which was up in the attic. Which is another blog post all in itself. I can spend days going through my old cds.
Next I had to sort through all my photos, and I am pretty easily distracted and got a little carried away looking at pictures, meaning when I realized it was time to get the kids ready for swim lesson both my kids were covered in marker. And not the washable kind that just wipes off either.
So I scrubbed as much of the marker off as I could, hit the pool and ran some errands and came home to edit my masterpiece.
And the flip video was too fuzzy to even make out the pictures.

On to plan B.
So I find the old sony handycam and went at it. The images were much crisper. And it had a zoom which was kind of fun to play with. My third take through I ran out of disc space. I wasn't sure they even made these little DVDs anymore but thought I'd see if I could find some anyways.
Which only means one thing: Target. So after buying icees and popcorn for everyone we eventually we found the mini DVDs.
Which means they do still make them, and are proud of them price wise, although I can't figure out why because I now know that they are pretty useless (more on this later). It took me a few times to get the pictures facing the right way and the timing down....and have a shoot that didn't include a screaming kid (ok this one might). But I finally had it.
Or at least what I deemed good enough. (and I use that phrase loosley). All I needed to do was upload it.
Apparently there is ZERO way to get the video from that little dvd onto the computer.
I'm sure there really is and that it is totally simple but my dvd drive didn't recognize it and google wasn't much help. Neither were the 2 techincal savvy friends I called nor my husband who is now starting to wonder what the hell I am up too. So if you know how please do not tell me in the comment section. Really. I don't want to know the simple easy solution. I absolutely do not want to know that I wasted the better portion of my afternoon in vain.

So, plan C (or D) and take 27 -- I used the flip video to record the actual video off the TV. Sadly even this took multiple shoots.
Horrible I know.
And the house is trashed because my sweet children ran crazy while I made this really crappy video. Or video of a video of me flipping through some pictures, if you want to be technical.

It's the thought that counts right? I sure hope so. And happy anniversary, Shaun. I love you the best.