I am related to every single person in the world who shares my last name.

That is rather cool!

I had 3 weddings. Each with lots of people. All were great fun for me. There were things I would have done differently, but mostly I just enjoyed getting married to the person I loved, and being surrounded by friends and family while eating, drinking, and being merry!

I used to think I'd never change my name because it was my father's name, and he died when I was so young that I wanted to hold on to his name. Now I think I would be open to keeping it as my middle name if the name I'd be taking were a name I liked a lot. Which sounds kind of shallow, but I'm pretty sure is true. I'd never give up my current last name, but it doesn't have to be last anymore. Of course, who knows how I'd actually feel if it were to come up. This is just my best guess.

A friend took her husband's name, but she changed the spelling of it (added an "m") so it would look like it was pronounced and had him change his name officially, too. His parents were annoyed, but he has said over the years that it actually ended up being nice not having people mispronounce his name anymore.

I am related to every single person in the world who shares my last name.

That's true for my last name as well. We all spring from a common ancestor who came to America from Germany in the 1700s and anglicized his name. I'm sure there are people with the original German name ("Schmeh") who are not related, but all of the actual Smays are from the same Johann that landed in Delaware.

I can say with near certainty that I am related to every single person in the world who shares my last name.

If you go with my married name, that's true for me too. Then again, there's only the 4 of us.

the original German name ("Schmeh")

I just pictured a German version of Grumpy Cat saying that name.

Latest entries in the Ryan Files:

Yesterday, when we were getting him ready for his nap, he looked at me and asked, "Daddy, why do you have such a big tummy?" Biyi told him, "It's because his tummy is full of knowledge."

Ryan thought a moment and replied, "No, because it's full of porridge!" I think we've hit another milestone. His first pun.

Also yesterday, at church, he was joining in with the prayers. Specifically, after the prayers, when everyone says "Amen". More specifically, just after that too, when he takes advantage of the silence to put out there his own loud "AMEN!"

His church does a children's lesson during the service. All the kids sit just in front of the altar and have a discussion with the pastor. Ryan went up with the other children. They close with a prayer. Ryan looked up and saw Biyi with her head bowed and eyes closed, got up, trotted over to her, patted her on the knee and said, "Wake up Mummy!"

They're probably fortunate that he didn't start singing "Give Me A Home Among The Gum Trees" during the sermon.

so I did not change my name, but I have know Matt for most of my life. To him, my name changine didn't make sense - muy name was my name. I'm not sure where it would have ended up if he did care.

I think that because Tim's family seems to see you as family - even before you were getting married it adds a different force behind the choice.

I love Ryan stories

Ditto re: Ryan highlights.

Comic book art, Native American style. I love all of these.