Words of Wisdom (Part III)

I’ve decided that these “Words of Wisdom” posts are my favorite. Why? Because I get to share pretty pictures and knowledge with my fine readers. Plus, my brain is pretty much fried right now and I really doubt I could think of anything much to say otherwise.

But oh, do I have pictures. Last Saturday, I had an awesome session with beautiful Tiffany. Have I mentioned lately how much I love Senior Sessions?! Because I absolutely love them.

And I absolutely love that I can tell my pictures are improving. With each session, my skill is blossoming and I am growing more confident.

Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same. ~Francesca Reigler

Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon. ~Doug Larson

 

The most important things are the hardest to say, because words diminish them. ~Stephen King

Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance. ~Dave Barry

More later, I promise. These just keep getting better and better.

Eight things

1.) School is really starting to starting to take off. My first paper was due yesterday and I have my first test today. Needless to say, I’m starting to feel the heat.

2.) My sister’s apartment (where I’m staying Monday-Thursday) doesn’t have internet, yet. Something about the company changing, blah, blah, blah. I don’t like it.

Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night gasping for air. I need to feed my internet addiction, y’all.

3.) Refer to #’s one and two for proof that I’ve been a little absent lately. I hope you forgive me, dear internet friends.

4.) My nephew is just too cute.

Really, it’s just about too much for me, especially when he cries and his little teeth stick out.

And when you add in my darling little sister, I feel my ovaries soar. But then I remember that my dog is usually the only thing waking me up in the morning… and he likes to sleep. Babies can wait.

5.) I can never spell ovaries.

Actually, I can’t spell a lot of things.

6.) Oh, football. I really don’t understand football, at all. Instead, I spend $5 to sit in the cold with my family for the social interaction. Really, I just talk the entire time.

And then my brother scores and I have to pretend that I watched the entire thing. It’s a hard life.

7.) I took some ridiculously amazing pictures of my future-cousin-in-law.

Isn’t she just too cute?

8.) In the last couple months, I really got down on my photography. No one wanted a session. And now, when my life exploding into a world of crazyness… Everyone wants a session.

You know what they say, when it rain it pours.

College Girls

Remember Ashley & Lacey?? Well, they are back and sassier then ever.

Because they are college girls now… And college girls are much more mature than high school seniors (just ask them.)

I think they might be starting to realize that my advice about university was smack on.

Of course, I could have told them that months ago…

They have learned that the book’s are insanely overpriced.

Seriously. My books average $200 a class this semester. And not one of them even has a hard cover. They are like workbooks.

I did what the logical human being would do- I refused to buy them.

We are two weeks in and neither Ashley or Lacey has skipped class yet. I think they are on the right track.

Lacey has learned a valuable lesson from her 7:30 AM class.

Don’t take 7:30 (or 8 AM) classes.

My years of complaining about parking at universities has been confirmed… much more than I would have liked. Our school closed down a giant parking area and added about a thousands students.

It isn’t pretty. In fact, I must arrive thirty minutes early to my 9 AM class and hike in from about a mile away.

(And I pay to do that too.)

Actually, I’m pretty sure I pay for air when I step on that campus. I graduated from high school in May of 2007. Since, my college tuition has increased more $1,200. How is this allowed, really? The rest of our costs aren’t going up ten percent a year (THANK GOODNESS)! How can universities justify that cost? Really?

I must stop now. Believe me, I could go on and on.

I love my “job.”

Even if it barely brings in any pay. Even if I do most of my work for free. Even if it makes me incredibly nervous.

Photography completes me. It makes me feel creative, like I’m capturing something oh so special that needs to be held on to and treasured.

Meet baby Eli… He was one month old on the day of this photo shoot.

Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ~Elizabeth Stone

Always kiss your children goodnight – even if they’re already asleep. ~H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on. ~Carl Sandburg

Babies are always more trouble than you thought – and more wonderful. ~Charles Osgood

What is your favorite part of your job? Is it monetary?

Goodbye, sweet summer

We’ve had a good run, summer of 2010. Good times. Memories made. Work done. But all good things have to end sometime. And tomorrow is my sometime.

I will be waking up before the sun to start my last semester of undergrad. Honestly, I’m not looking forward to it, one bit. Well, not the beginning anyway. I’ll take the end, though. Graduation will be my sweet reward.

Here are my favorite memories of this summer:

Jamey’s gameboy obsession.

I might have shared this same obsession in 1999. It was quite entertaining to watch her play Pokemon like a 90’s child.

Weekends spent at the lake.

Swimming, boating, taking sunsets walks in the evening. It was perfection and so much dang fun. (And we will be back at least once more this weekend. For sure.)

Grilling out.

There is just something so perfect about summer food.

The rain.

After ten (or twenty?) years of drought, we have been blessed with lots of rain this year. The grass is green and lush. Our crops are making record yields and the weather is beautiful.

Watching my puppy grow.

At six months, he now weighs 67 pounds. Hello, elephant-dog.

Wheat Harvest.

I cooked, I rode, I made sure everyone was well taken care of. It’s nice being the food lady. Everyone gets excited when you show up with a pick-up full of warm food.

Yes, I will miss summer. But I’m looking forward to the crisp weather of fall, for the first snowfall, for my Christmas wedding, and joy of being newlyweds.

Of course, I will be spending a week in Hawaii in January. I think I can deal with some cool weather for a while.

What is your favorite season?

Miss Mandy

Here are some pictures I snapped of my younger cousin, Mandy.

The young always have the same problem – how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have now solved this by defying their parents and copying one another. ~Quentin Crisp

When buying a used car, punch the buttons on the radio. If all the stations are rock and roll, there’s a good chance the transmission is shot. ~Larry Lujack

The best way to keep children at home is to make the home atmosphere pleasant, and let the air out of the tires. ~Dorothy Parker

The best substitute for experience is being sixteen. ~Raymond Duncan

Life’s not the breaths you take…

Twenty-four hours ago, a series of events took place that has left me feeling uneasy with the world. Suddenly, I feel like I don’t have it all figured out. Maybe the things that are important to me aren’t really what I should be worrying about.

I should start back at the beginning. On Tuesday afternoon, a clean-cut, normal looking man went on a rampage in our nearest “city.” It’s where I go to get groceries, where my college is located, where I bought my wedding dress. I have always imagined it to be a perfectly safe place and have never worried about being attack while visiting.

First, the man approached a women who had a flat tire. She was on the side of the road when he pulled out a pistol, demanding that she get into his white pick-up truck. The women fought back, escaping his grasp.

The man took off, stopping at a Love’s truck stop where he focused his attention on a new target. A sixty-three year old grandmother was leaving the store with her three grandchildren. The man decided to take the women’s twelve-year old granddaughter in broad daylight. The grandmother wasn’t having any of it and jumped in front of the children, telling them man to “leave them alone.” He coldly pulled out his pistol, shooting the women in the back. She would later die on the way to the hospital.

I knew that women. Her name was Sharrel and she lived three houses down from my high school. Every Halloween, she would make a huge batch of popcorn balls that she would hand out to the local youngsters. She was active in her church and a super nice lady.

She died defending her grandchildren.

The man didn’t stop there. Once again, he jumped into his pick-up searching for another target. This time, he spotted two eleven year old girls who were walking down a road. He stopped, forcing one of the girls into his vehicle. When the brave girl saw a policeman drive by, she jumped out of the moving pick-up.

The police chased after the man. He stopped, shooting at the officers from his vehicle. He was eventually shot and killed by law enforcement officials.

Things like this suddenly make me realize how quick I could lose everything. A women from my home town was murdered this week. People who live in a town of one hundred people aren’t supposed to be murdered.

Wear your best dress.

Get your toes done.

Smile. Laugh. Hug your loved ones.

Take time to smell the flowers.

Watch a sunset.

Treat every single day as if it could be your last.

Because
“Life’s not the breaths you take
The breathing in and out
That gets you through the day
Ain’t what it’s all about
Ya just might miss the point
If ya don’t slow down the pace
Life’s not the breaths you take
But the moments that take your breath away.”

(Credit goes to George Strait for the song lyrics. I lurve him.)

Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

You’re pretty

Yes, you may be without makeup. Your hair may be thrown up into a messy bun (like mine.) You may be wearing your dorky glasses (like me). Remember, make-up is always optional.

Maybe you feel like you look like a fright. But someone out there still thinks you are absolutely, and totally gorgeous.

So live it up. Work it, girl.

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.
— Judy Garland

Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so you shall become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.
— James Allen

It’s not what you do once in a while, it’s what you do day in and day out that makes the difference.
— Jenny Craig

Life is a big canvas, throw all the paint on it you can.
— Danny Kaye

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than
unsuccessful people with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve
the problems of the human race.
— Calvin Coolidge

The most beautiful things in the world are not seen nor touched. They are felt with the heart.
— Helen Keller

Yes, even boys can work it. Be sassy, Tyler.

And you too, dear reader. Go out an be confident and know that you’re pretty, too.

When it rains, it pours… And I post new pictures.

Well, life still hasn’t slowed down. Graduation happened without a hitch and both of my sisters are proud graduates. Thank goodness.

Unfortunately, life still hasn’t slowed down. My future-mother-in-law is in the hospital right now. Colby and I have been sitting with her all day. She’s not feeling too well and will be here until at least Monday. Apparently, they don’t run certain tests on the weekend. That’s annoying, but we’re trying to deal with it.

In the meantime, I feel like I should post at least a few new pictures from my last session. Hopefully, I’ll get a real blog entry up tomorrow or Monday.

I’ll be back real soon. I hope life is peaceful for all of you.

Focusing on the Sunshine

Right now, I’m absolutely and completely exhausted. I’ve been running around like a crazy lady since I got home on Thursday. I’ve been very productive, but haven’t been sleeping much. The part time job that I thought with be no big deal kept me away from home for eleven and a half hours today.

To make it even worse, the sun is nowhere to be found here today. It’s cloudy and cool, making me even more sleepy than I should be.

So I’m going to focus on the sunshine… the happiness… all the things that make me smile.

1.) I got my grades back on Monday and am proud to announce that I received all As again. That’s always my goal and I’ve been successful for the last two and a half years.  I don’t want to brag, but I totally feel like a bad ass right now. Hard work should be rewarded and I think I deserved all of those grades.

2.) I think I finally trained Colby to put his dirty clothes in the hamper. I’ve been working on this for months, so it makes me smile almost as much as the grades do. Now if I could just get Justice trained to walk on a lead.

3.) On Monday, I booked two separate photography sessions. Yes, those are paying customers. I am actually bringing a little bit of money in from my photography.

Here is another one from a session taken last week:

4.) Life is beautiful.

It really is amazing the life that I have been blessed with. I may be overwhelmed and sleepy, but I know that I have been given far more than I deserve. I just got to keep remembering that when I feel that I’ve got too much on my plate.

I hope you all appreciate your blessings, even when it’s hard.