Hey everybody!
What started out as one year of bloggin somehow grew into five. I made a new year's resolution on December 31st, 2008 (Ellie's Dollhouse post started it right here) to blog every day for the next 365 days, but once I finished those, I couldn't quit. Year two went by. Then year three. Here we are now at the end of the year as I approach FIVE straight years without taking a day off from the blog. That's 1826 days in a row, friends!
Some crazy statistics about this:
*I've blogged more than 1/2 of Ellie's entire life, and obviously every day of Cece's life so far (even the rough ones).
*When I started daily blogging, the price of gasoline was $1.65 per gallon.
*I've received more 3.2 million hits - that's more than the population of Chicago.
There have been some really major events in the last five years that I've been able to share with you all. Some are heartwarming; some are heartbreaking. Here are my top five posts, as chosen by me (of course!)...
5) I proposed to Meredith (click that link if you wanna see her in various stages of the ugly cry). Ellie was there, and I'll never forget what she and I discussed that night.
4) We bought a house!
3) We got married! Click the link to see some pretties from our Italian Wedding!
2) We got pregnant! It was probably this baby's fault, but can you blame her?
1) Cece was born!
Some runner-ups:
Rest in peace, grandma
One person can make a difference
Ellie's tornado benefit
Every year I do a year-in-review, in case you've come along during the middle (as most of you have) and want to catch up on some highlights (and lowlights) over the past few years...
I'm not sure when I'm going to stop this streak of consecutive days of blogging. I'm busier than I've ever been:
*wedding season no longer is just a "season" as we're shooting more in 2014 than ever before
*I've got a home full of girls
*I'm launching a 2nd business (passion project!) in 2014 that I've been working secretly during this last year
*We're continuing to produce Benfield Weddings magazine twice a year
*I'm still a consultant for the best photo lab in the country (4 years now!)
*We're traveling more for weddings than we ever have before
However, as much as it is tough for me to sit down every day and pump out a new blog post, it's therapeutic. It let's me organize my thoughts; it allows me to spend time thinking about each and every Benny bride, and how to tell her story (I love storytelling!); it allows me to decompress, give back, share, and be myself. Why would I want to stop doing that?
Will you see another post like this in five years? Probably not. But then again, if you asked me if I'd be writing this post five years ago, I would've laughed in your face (on the inside, of course).
The main reason I blog... above all else... is because I want you to know me. I want to share my life with you, and share my heart with you. It's not always pretty pictures, or a pretty picture. Even so, you continue to come back, subscribe to, and share my posts. I'm grateful for you.
Talk to you soon,
Dale