Keep Calm and Take the Shot

I don’t know why they do it, but people often ask this question:

If your house was burning, what items would you save?

First of all, why the morbid question? Second of all, I don’t want the insurance you’re selling. And third of all, my hard drive. (Because I can’t help but answer a good, morbid question.)I would choose to grab my hard drive because there are few material things more important to me than photos. We currently have 44,799 on this particular hard drive.

I’m not a very good photographer (because I fall asleep when people try to explain aperture to me), but I LOVE photos – especially photos of our kids. Brian knows this about me and does his best to capture the little moments with our kids while mommy goes away to decompress (at Starbucks).

A couple of weeks ago, Brian pulled out his iPhone and said,

“Hey, look at this photo I took of Averi today!”

A smile crept across my face, and I could just picture my little daredevil as she pushed that basket from the other side of the room over to the cabinets. I imagined how she crawled up on top of it and reached on her tippy toes to whatever it is she was determined to find on that counter top.

And then I envisioned her father out of arm’s reach just snapping photos while she set herself up for an inevitable fall onto the hard, tile floor.

And in my most respectful tone I asked,

Hey, idiot, did you seriously take the time to snap a photo while Evil Knievel over here set up this dangerous stunt?

(Oh my! Does she really talk to her husband that way?)

Of course I didn’t really say that. (Can’t guarantee I didn’t think it, though.)

I’m sure I said it more this way:

Sweetheart, did you really just stand there and snap photos while our baby decided to build her own Tower of Babel?

(Sorry, but I just can’t do it without the sarcasm.)

And, in his calm, assured manner Brian said,

Yeah. She didn’t get hurt, though.

And THIS is why I firmly believe that I will look 70 by the time I’m 40.