Our Time Capsule!!

A few weeks ago, I came to y'all with a request for ideas of things to include in a time capsule. We planned to hide it under the stairway in the house before the new carpet was laid...to be discovered however many years down the road, either by us {when we're old and forgot things like time capsules hidden in the days of our newlywed bliss} or by new owners to Shafferland.

I had grand visions of a romantic date for two, collecting everything for the capsule...and hours spent compiling it in great detail, but as tends to happen around here, the busyness got the best of us, and the night before the carpet came, I was whirling around town, taking pictures and scribbling notes to the future capsule finders. Nevertheless, I'm so glad I pushed through and got it done, and today I want to share with you what went inside!

I wrote all my notes for the capsule in a little journal, and I began with an explanation of who we are and why we were making a time capsule in the first place.

Then I explained how much I love to journal and how someone suggested including one of my journals in the capsule, but how I couldn't bear to part with any of them. So instead, I wrote the notes in a blank journal I had and included that as the nod to my journaling love.

We both wanted to include a rock we'd signed, as an example of the rock altar we began at our wedding...our way of creating a tangible symbol of the times God speaks and moves mightily in our lives. It was also a great way to leave our testimony of our relationship with and love for the Lord. We always try to choose a rock from a location significant to the event, so Ryan picked this one out of our landscaping and we signed it:

{Pivotal, I think, that this rock is dated on our 8th month wedding anniversary!}

The thing that started the idea of a time capsule in the first place were the random treasures we found when the step pulled away from the wall and we found puzzle pieces and a 1949 newspaper clipping and kids' playing cards from a game and more. It only seemed right to return those things to the hiding place, so I tucked them inside a Ziplock bag and they went back in the capsule!

Of course we had to include a wedding picture!! I pulled this one from the leftovers of the prints we made for our wedding reception. It also happens to be the same one we have on a giant canvas in our living room, so I thought it was a good choice:

Someone said we couldn't forget to include a picture of our baby girl! She wasn't really in much of a photogenic mood this past week as she has mostly been angry with us for uprooting her palace, repeatedly moving her food dish, and we can't forget...all the pesky noise of hammers, saws, and drills. So this was about as good as I could capture of the little bit of sweetness that is our Braeya. {But this is one of her favorite activities: neighborhood watch cat #1.}

And since the home where we live used to be my grandparents' home, it seemed appropriate to include a picture of them. This one's my favorite.

Being the coffee junkies we are...we couldn't NOT acknowledge that. And since no one knows how we'll be making coffee in 50 years, I thought I'd throw in  a K-Cup in one of Ryan's favorite flavors.

 Here were some other things I photographed to include, though I won't put the pictures here {some are things I don't put online and some are self-explanatory.}

* The outside of our home
* Sign outside the gas station where we usually purchase gas - to show the current price
* Ryan's car
* My car
* The church we attend
* Our running path
* Our leisurely-walk-at-night path
* Meijer, where we visit frequently for groceries, ectc.
* Kohl's/Hobby Lobby - where we spend a lot of time as well
* Lowe's
* Starbucks
* Casa Brava, our favorite restaurant
* The park we love to visit
* The outside of my workplace
* The outside of Ryan's workplace

Then we finished it up with a copy of the newspaper from August 2

And...a printout of the blog posts that tell the story of our proposal:

There were a few more things I would have included if I'd had more time to work on it...but in the end, I had to remind myself the capsule was a snapshot of our lives, not a full autobiography.

About 20 minutes before the carpet guys arrived, we planted our capsule:

And then we left a note so the finder would check for it:

And that's a wrap! Thanks so much, everyone, for all your great suggestions!