I laughed, I cried, I got new boots. Mark and Crystal are cause for anything and everything. I know this because I know them. Close to my heart for so many reasons, this session proved to be my undoing. You see, I have known these two separately from the moment each came to Waco. On the first night, or there abouts, of Mark’s freshman year at Baylor (my sophmore) I remember driving him back to the dorms after a welcome dinner in my ’95 Ford Taurus. They were glamorous times. Back then my speech was still thick with long a’s and Mark may well have thought my name to be Kiaaathryn. Thank you Chicago. Mark was fresh from Minnesota and I remember he smelled like mountains. Crystal. Well, Crystal. She has the voice of an angel if you didn’t know and came to Waco from some far off place called Seattle. It was while engaged in a music program of sorts that we got to know one another and worked the harmonies of my violin in between and all around her lovely melodies. Of course we talked of guys and laughed about the days ahead and one anothers’ most certain wedding days. How wonderful it was when Crystal and Mark first started dating. We all knew it would work out. But then it didn’t. Things ended as quickly as they had begun and we all still wondered at the mystery of Crystal’s wedding day. Of course, the holidays managed to come about and with them came a change of heart for Crystal. With a smile on her lips and wonder in her eyes Crystal stood with me and other gasping, sighing girls around the kitchen island as she proclaimed, “I suddenly realized I could not live without this man.” It was all any of us could do to not faint out of simple romanticism. Then Crystal and Mark fell in love. This is them, in love. I knew each before and I know them both now. Truly, they are better together than apart. Ha! I laugh, because, who knew you could find your beloved in Waco? (female college readers – I make you no promises.) The love, joy, and freedom these two have pours out of them like a great river and every moment I have spent working on their pictures I have been affected by an incurable smile. Mark and Crystal: who knew? Who knew we would be here? What a great delight. I am so glad for all of our past years and overjoyed at the weeks and months ahead. Oh, and the new boots – they were just for safety in the tall grasses. :)