More Roof Photos

Here's a little photo to give you an idea of the pitch of the roof. And yes, it's even steeper when you are up there than it looks from the ground. I seriously cannot believe I've been up there. Many times at this point. I never successfully made it to the peak though, I've discovered I just don't transition well - moving from one toe hold (fancy term for a tiny little board strip nailed in with three nails) to another, climbing up and down or across, and most of all transitioning from the roof to the extension ladder. I about biffed it getting down for lunch this morning and that was pretty terrifying. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm super clutzy and am probably about the last person you would want to put on a roof. But I've survived. And now we are getting really close to done. There's about 10 square feet left on one side at the peak, with a bunch of pipes and vents (boo) to cut around, and then the front side of the house, which already has a good chunk laid in. It's very exciting! Unfortunately, I have a shoot in the morning, not unfortunate because I love shooting, but sad because I'm really enjoying being a help up there and on the ground as well.

Here's our crew before we went up this morning. I've got to tell you, we have such a comradery going, it's way fun. Who knew that roofing could be fun? But seriously, I cannot think of four people I'd rather risk life and limb with! And actually, our little crew expanded quite a bit this afternoon, adding in Matt and Ryan, and man, we started to click when we could keep a person on the ground (yay me!) and two on the roof throwing shingles and 3 guns going and another guy nailing ridgecaps and schlepping shingles.
Kim's looking pretty buff here. She blew me away today! She stayed on the roof literally all day, perched up there like a bird on a branch.
Bev has been equally amazing, helping with the kids and dinner! We could not have been up there without her!
Me and Kimmie. Love this shot.
Bart and Ricky were amazing, along with Rob, just crawling around like spider monkeys. It was so cool! They didn't even use ropes most of the time.
This guy just totally has my heart. I believe that with him, I could do anything. Definitely a keeper.


Oh, and today I lifted shingles up the ladder for everyone, up over my head. I have asphalt in places ladies should never have shingles. wow.

Photographer, Secretary, Mom, Pastor's Wife...

and apparently roofer.


So these pictures pretty much sum it up. Don't have a lot of time this morning, gotta make a Lowe's run and we are burning daylight. But we are getting it done! Kim and I decided that we definitely make the roof 'prettier' than if the boys had done it themselves!!






oh, and this is the pair of pants I burned through yesterday. And yes, I have asphalt burn on my buns this morning.

But I'm Too Exited To Sleep!!!

(anybody remember that Disney World commercial from a few years back?)

Oooh, today! I'm so glad it's here! First off, I have two shoots today, which always makes me nervous/excited/thrilled all in a sick kind of twisty way. I love what I do, and I always want to do it to my very best ability. This morning we are shooting in a kind of tricky location that has owned me previously, but today, well today I am more prepared (I studied up) and I am conquering it!! :)

It's early and chilly though, so I'm praying that the kiddos cooperate. 43 is downright icy to Texans, remember?

Then I get to start (yes I said START) on my Turkey day prep. I know how sad that is, that it's Wed already and I haven't so much as made a pie, but today's the day. I also need to scrub my kitchen floor... I'm pretty sure it's been sliding from to-do list to-do list for about 3 weeks now. It's pretty nasty. And I wouldn't want to gross Kim out. Oh my goodness, did I just say KIM??? That brings me to point #3....

KIMMIE'S COMING!!!! yee-haw!! (a Texas welcome for her!) She and Ricky (her super sweet hubby, you may remember from previous shoots) are hopping on a plane after supper and they'll be touching down at 10pm. I CAN'T WAIT!! You can tell how excited I am because I'm talking in asides. (I always overuse asides when I don't take the time to think my sentences through properly.)

So, I was getting ready to dry my hair this morning and I realized all of this and decided to drop everything and come post about how insanely excited I really am.

(aren't you glad I did???)

YC08 - I Will Fight For the Heart Of My King

Wow.

I've been to lots of youth conventions and lots of camps over the years and they are always good, but this one blew me out of the water. It was awesome.

I really took advantage of the worship time. Lately I feel like there is so much on my plate that if God doesn't give me the strength, I can't do it on my own. This coming week in particular, He just has to be more than enough for me. The thing is, during worship the last 36 hours, it was compounding - got better and better. Planetshakers lead, so I'm sure that had a lot to do with the overall awesomeness, but honestly they aren't my most favorite band of all time or anything. But God really showed up and lives were changed, including mine.

The last guy who spoke was Rick Lorimer, director of student missions at the National Youth Office. That's AG speak for a guy in the big office in Springfield who works with teenagers and manages missions programs; ie Speed the Light, AIM trips, etc.

Anyway, he spoke about the lost, and really having a heart for hurting people. He told a story about a guy fighting for Scotland, who carried his dead kings heart's ashes in a locket around his neck, that he had aligned his life with his dying king's wishes. Apparently this warrior died in battle, fighting for his king's cause. Of course, Rick told the story much more eloquently than that, with really cool 'Braveheart' type music playing throughout the story and then altar call. His point of action was to stand up (when you felt lead) and to yell out "I will fight for the heart of my king!". The idea is that God's value, especially on lost people, would be your value.

I can't even describe how amazing it was when he turned us loose. It started a little slow at first. You'd hear one guy, on the other side of this huge sanctuary (almost stadium sized), scream out "I will fight for the heart of my king!!" in a war cry type manner. A ripple effect began, as all over the stadium people would begin to stand and cry out for their God. It was never in unison, as one would begin, another would be ending, like popcorn in a pan on the stove. All kinds of voices, young and old, strong and soft, passionate and bold. It was so amazing. And yet, it took real courage on each person's part, to yell out in the middle of this service.

Especially for me. I don't know why I have no trouble talking to anybody about anything else, but sharing my faith and witnessing in an unsafe environment is always difficult for me. I'm such a loud person, and I always have wanted to change that, but yesterday I discovered that it's who I am, and as long as I'm loud for Jesus, that's ok. :) So I took a deep breath, stood up and yelled at the top of my lungs that I too, would fight for the heart of my King. What better cause is there?

It was so amazing, I wish I could show you a video of how cool it was in my mind. I imagined we were all in a battlefield, and God was calling us to war. He knows it's going to be a long and tough fight and sometimes it may very well look and feel like we are outnumbered. And living conditions may be substandard, they often are in times of war. And we will get discouraged, and downtrodden, but will we fight anyway?? I raise my fists and say YES, He can count on me to give my heart to fight for His cause.

After we each declared our battlecry, we ran to the altars, I'm talking thousands of students and leaders on their knees, weeping and worshiping, without any music, only the song of students voices as they too declared their loyalties to the King of Kings.

The moments that took place on our knees at the altar were some of the sweetest of my life. God is so good. I got so convicted about my complacency with my jobs at church and my nice little world and not stepping out in faith. I know that my life needs to SHOUT Jesus to people. I live in a lost and dying world, and keeping this life preserver around my neck only to save myself is not cutting it.

So after convention, with no makeup - cause it all slid off my face during worship - we went to Chili's with our kids. I did my very best to build relationship with the waitress throughout our lunch. When we were done, I sucked it up and asked if we could pray with her over anything in her life. She was delighted and asked that we would pray for a career for her. And we stopped and did it right there, and I could tell by the shine in her eyes that it meant a lot to her.


And you know what?



it didn't even hurt.

Oh My New Dress

So this morning I bummed around with Jennifer. I wanted to take her to lunch to thank her for all the help with the wedding last month. We decided to kick around locally and started out at Target - where we proceeded to wander around for 2 hours. I'm pretty sure we touched everything in the store. :) It was so nice though - sans kids, to just enjoy all the wonders that Target has to offer.

In and amongst our kicking, I stumbled across this dress on sale for $19.99. It was a perfect fit and I fell in love immediately! I originally thought it would be great for the holidays (we have a lot of special events coming up) but then decided that it really would be ideal for Rob's ordination in April. Now I'll be continuing my hunt for the perfect black pumps (to replace my fading 5 year old suede ones) with renewed fervor! The scandalous girl in me thinks a bright red pair with a big red flower in my hair would really punk it out too, but would I have the guts??

Recovery Update

We had a small victory in our Ike recovery this evening. After almost 2 and half months, I just paid our final bill from our evacuation/loss of groceries/disaster expenses. We are officially caught up and we did it all on our own steam, since our insurance company has all but failed us at this point. You can't know what a relief it is to have 'survived' this storm and all the anxiety that has accompanied it.

Now I type this, and we are still living in a tarp-covered home with a lost back fence. I'm so thankful that we have no water leaking in or any inside damage. I am completely disheartened and frustrated with our insurance company - the Texas Not-So-Fair Plan. I am also commiting to daily phone calls to them, hoping that just noting our account daily will annoy them to a point of paying. The adjuster turned in his report 19 days ago and now my claim is 'in review' but they cannot even give me an estimation (days, weeks or months) of how long that will be. I'm severely annoyed by the whole process. I stated very plainly to the lady on the phone that if I was two and half months late on my payment that they would no longer consider me a customer. She said she appreciated my patience and I explained that my patience was spent after 10 weeks since our little friend Ike. So I have a physical mailing address to which I can send my complaint where it will be reviewed. My policy states 5 days after a claim or 15 after a natural disaster. I think I have a soap box to stand on.

Anyway, we are marching forward with roof repairs because Kim and Ricky already purchased their tickets and winter is coming. We've had a couple really windy nights the past week where I just lay in bed and pray that our tarps hold since now our roof has lots of holes in it, thanks to the good people at FEMA.

Oh, well, what doesn't kill us only makes us stronger, right? If I get too much more buff I'm going to start to look like this chick.
but on the upside, I think that the insurance company might take me a little more seriously the next time I call. :)

A Couple More Card Options

Found a few more I had saved over the months.

Up Too Late

Definitely too late for a sickie. I feel a bit better and I get bold, don't you?

But tomorrow we have all day staff (the last of 4 all day meetings - whew) and I wanted to have our staff Christmas card previews ready. We need to get these puppies printed. I'd love a vote on your favorite...


Oh, and I can't take credit for them. I just found the templates online. I'm not that awesome at PS yet, but hopefully next year they'll be all me baby.

Monday AGAIN.

I've decided the hard thing about being a pastor's family is the complete and utter lack of weekend. It makes one week just run on into the next in a vicious cycle. This was magnified more than normal this weekend for me because of being so terribly sick on Saturday. I feel like I literally just 'lost' a day.
I'm feeling a lot better, though. God really did a work in my body, both physically and spiritually on Sunday morning. We had an amazing altar service and I was felt too sick to prayer for others (and pass all my germs along) but I really felt like I was supposed to go forward. Wow, it was awesome! I just got refreshed and sometimes that's what you really need.
Anyway, on to today. I have a huge to-do list, but I ignored it for an hour or so and played with Lori on the phone. I had started this page on Friday night at scrapbooking but had been too sick to stay and finish it. I'm really excited about the way it turned out. Ok, so off to make Expo videos, do laundry and hunt for that realtor's phone number.

Oh, and this is huge. After 10 weeks in Financial Peace, we've finally accomplished Baby Step #1!! Praise God!! On to our Debt Snowball!!

Unexpected Quiet Time.

So when I dropped off a cd to a client last night I noticed my voice sounded a little squeaky. By the end of the night I had lost it completely. I was in bed by 9:30 last night. I woke up feeling worse this morning. It's frustrating because I have such a big weekend coming up. grrr.

So, if you think of me today, please pray for me. I've been planning on going to this conference tomorrow since July or August. It's looking like I may need to send Rob in my place and stay home and rest instead.

Another New Page

So we enjoyed a quiet day off today with merely the hum of the washer and dryer while the kiddos were at school. I've been really wiped out lately, I'm fighting a cold or something, just feeling tired. I've got a really big weekend ahead of me, with work tomorrow and scrapbooking with the girls in the evening (yay!). Saturday I'm attending LeadNow - a young adult ministry conference simulcast in Houston. Sunday is church and lifegroup, and I've accepted a shoot, which I usually don't do, but it's unusual circumstances. Tonight we are heading off to spend time with Dave in about 15 minutes here.

But I did carve out some time to scrapbook with Lori today. At least I scrapbooked while she shopped. Two Peas was having an awesome sale, so that was pretty inspiring for both of us. Some products are up to 75% off.

New Pages - more details

This page is from the day we did the art for the kiddos rooms. I still haven't hung Eli's. I'm just reluctant to hang anything else since we are trying to sell. trying is the operative word there.
The dots were inspired from a Kelli Crowe page.
and I drew these letters myself since I couldn't find anything like what I was looking for.
This photo is from the beach last summer. wow, that sounds weird even coming out of my mouth, that we live close enough to visit the beach any old time.
The big letters are from Sassafrass Lass, I colored them in with a marker. The little words I just typed up in Word. I love the scallopy dot paper, it's really unique.

More beach photos with the cousins - a painfully easy page with probably too much houndstooth. oh well!

The Photographer In Me

This is a cool photo a client snapped the other day during our session. I was painting on Crystal's belly for our next series of shots. Dude, look how serious I look!

So Rob was asking me this evening, at what point does it become just another shoot to me. When do I get to the point that I just have a mental checklist for each session and does it all ever start to look the same?

My answer was simple. Every shoot is different. Every family is unique and special. Every couple has their own interpretation of their relationship. There is no cookie cutter session with me. I think if I get to that point, it's time to put the camera down, don't you?

We've all seen those photographers - you know the underpaid hourlys at Sears or the over-paid wedding photographer that you can tell is simply putting their time in to get the same images just different folks than they did at the last setting or event.

I pray before each shoot to be freshly inspired by the people in front of my lens, that I see what God sees in them. He loves each of us as His precious children and delights in our personalities and quirks. I feel like my calling is to witness that special something in you and capture it in an image. The day that I stop feeling that way about it is the day I need to close up shop.

Feeling super inspired this morning, I wonder what the day will bring??

Eli's Second Grade Photo

This amazing boy is blowing us away in school lately. I'm pretty sure he's smarter than the two of us combined, but don't tell him... It will go to his head.

Unexpected Down Time

Ok, so I'm sad this morning because my 10am booking postponed since 4 of their family of 6 are sick in bed. I was really looking forward to this family - they are amazing and you'll be able to see that as soon as I take their photo. Oh well though, we will reschedule. They actually bought my basic setting at a Missions Auction last summer, so I'm confident they want to get it done. :)

But I'm grateful for the extra down time. I've been running so hard lately, working every waking moment. I slept in (sort of) till about eight this morning, as much as I could ignore Sarah's obstinence. She seems sick this morning; runny nose and warm forehead, super stinking crabby.

So, I need to clean the house a bit for my 1pm appointment. I'm super excited, it's my very first maternity shoot and I'm ready to really try anything! I'm also thrilled because this Momma-to-be has already said she wants me to do newborn shots within the first two weeks! Yay!!! I love doing newborn work because they are so tiny and squishy and the momma in me knows that they only stay that way for about one second and then they are four and yelling at you from their bed for a kleenex at 7:12am on a sleepy Saturday! If I close my eyes and concentrate real hard I can remember my kiddos that way, smelling like new skin and still with corners in their botton from where they perched in my womb for 9+ months. Sometimes I think taking pictures is a way for me to hold on to those memories. I only wish I could have captured my own little ones the way I do for others, but they were certainly my practice!

I also need to get cracking on Thursdays shoot's post-processing, but I'm tempted to scrapbook a bit this morning, only because it's been forever and a day and the creative process might be really good for me going into this new genre.

Speaking of scrapbooking - this is a picture from last month's meeting. I'm really excited about our group, it's growing quite a bit and we are having a blast!
This is Sarah from her Missionettes Ceremony a few weeks ago. We were so proud of her, she got ELEVEN badges. But you have to understand, our kids are there every week, so they do the work. :)
And this photo is from Lifegroup last Sunday night. Tim and I were sparring.

hump*day

Today has been a rollercoaster.

I woke up tired.  And bummed as the radio announcer reminded me of last nights loss.  I can't help but wonder about the future.  The key to remember is that I know who holds the future, so it will be ok.

I had a productive morning and early afternoon.  I'm officially caught up on shoots for the day, but plugging in to a big weekend, so I'll be behind shortly.  :)  That's a great issue to have, so I'm thankful.

I took Sarah to the doctor this afternoon for her 4 year shots.  Not fun.  She was really mad that they hurt and she's been super-crabby ever since.  Endless picking at her brother.  Makes me wonder why I chose a Wednesday to punish myself.  She really needs to go to be on time tonight, but that is not going to happen.

Eli got another conduct mark at school - it's been a string of them for almost 5 days now.  It's so not like him.  We are trying (again) to meet with his teacher, but that hasn't happened yet.

Wednesday afternoons are just hard.  I need to just buck up and get through.  Wednesday evenings are always worth it.

A Robot and a Princess

In typical Sarah fashion, she changed her mind 20 minutes before we went out last night. Fine with me, we had all the stuff for Sleeping Beauty, so it worked out great. We went to Pastor's house and then came back to our neighborhood. They had a lot of fun until our neighbor's scared them, then it was time to go home.