God Goes to Hill Country Camp

Just in case you were wondering...


Wow, what an awesome week.

Rob and I really enjoyed being head counselors. Yes, it had it's ups and downs. Ups being - getting to share a golf cart all week, lots of responsibility, fun perks like Starbucks in the am, and being the 'hands' of our guest speaker during the healing service on Thursday night. Very awesome. Downs being - policing the dress code with the girls, being the last person to go to bed and the first person to get up each day = major lack of sleep, and having to yell at Cabin 5 on the last night. But seriously, I would totally do it again and have some fun ideas on how to do it better, just knowing expectations helps me tremendously! I need to write down my post-processing thoughts so that if they ask me next year, I can rock it! :)


Our trip really began on Saturday, when we drove our own children to McKinney, TX to meet Rob's mom and stepdad. They kept the kiddos for a week, wow, that was an awesome blessing! Sare and E had a great time!! I think Sarah wore them out though, Mom now understands what I mean when I say that Sarah is a hurricane!! (speaking of hurricanes, the first name on the list for 2009 Named Storms is Anna, isn't that random??) Sarah took these first two pictures, thus the blur.


We took 12 of our own students to camp, leaving at 6:30am on our 5-6 hour drive over to Kerrville, TX. Even the drive over was fun, but ironically, the drive home was more fun!!



At camp, neither of us got to work 'with' our kids, but we stayed in the same room as them and saw them throughout the week. God really did a work in their lives, and Rob and I were both at the altar each night, praying with them. Worship was fantastic, a fellow youth pastor and his team lead and it was amazing.

Right before we left, I had an urge to get a pedicure. Turns out, that was a really great idea! And Jennifer gave me these shoes that afternoon, I'm in love! I wore them two different days this week, aren't they cute??



Pastor's Royce and Jason were hilarious this week. I couldn't even keep up, finally got to the point where I'd just smile and laugh cause a comeback was just too slow on the little sleep I was getting. They definitely made the week interesting!



I have ALWAYS wanted a golf cart. I'm not exagerating a tiny bit. Definitely when we worked at Sonrise, but even back before then! Probably dating all the way back to Okoboji in jr. high. And it was totally worth the wait. I told Rob I wanted one for Mother's Day next week, just for getting the mail and jetting around our subdivision. Plus I learned how to peel out to a stop, approach going fast and jerk the wheel hard to skid to a stop. Very fun, arriving in a cloud of dust. The other guys on our team said I reminded them of Tokyo Drift. :) We also had walkies, and that definitely kept it interesting. Let's just say the other staff is confident that our marriage is secure! Also, on Thursday Rob and I started using our iPods to dj music over the radio, that got interesting fast! You'd be surprised what youth pastors listen too!

Came out one morning to find this site on our golf cart. Love these kiddos!!

The last night was our trek to Prayer Mountain, immediately following the healing services. Wow, the weather was beautiful, you could see the stars, but it was lightening simultaneously. The breeze was great too. Very memorable evening!

These are our friends and camp manager for week 1, Matt and his lovely wife Heather. Just to be fair, this picture was taken at midnight or maybe even after on Thursday, so it was late and we were all exhausted. They did a great job this week, and were super fun and encouraging (you can't even know!) to work with.Heather and I really hit it off! She's a Nikon girl too!

These guys, Derek and Clint, (also youth pastors) were our Sherrif and Assistant Manager for the week. They kept us in stitches! Total hams! Also, extremely encouraging. You get the idea that Head Counselor is a tough job and encouragement is needed?? :) Also note the sodas in their hands, camp requires VAST amounts of caffeine. And yes, I was a good girl and the only Dr. Pepper that passed my lips was diet. And lots and lots of Spark.

These are my girls, we took 8 chickas and 4 boys. Every one of them had a good time!!

This is Tammy Burroughs, our DYD's wife. She's amazing. She took 3 of us lady youth pastor/wives out for dinner on Wednesday night and that was so nice! The best part was the prayer that we had when we went back to her house. Very cool! We are blessed to work with people like them.

This is the view I had for 12 hours in the past week. :)


Last time in Buc-ee's (one of four trips this past 8 days!) I noticed this sign and it totally cracked me up!!





Rob and Sarah were playing around in the car on the way home from McKinney today while I was driving. Found this cute picture on my camera when I uploaded. Lucky girl, aren't I??

Hello Blogsophere!

I've missed you!

Man, life has been unreal lately. No time to blog, that's not right! And I hate to tell you, but there will be blog silence again next week, I'll be at South Texas Youth Camp. Can't say I'm sorry, either, cause I'm super excited for it! Rob and I are (gasp!) Head Counselors and you guessed it, we get our own GOLF CARTS! Good thing I was promised that before my little run-in earlier this week. Oh, maybe I forgot to mention that...

So I'm sporting a minivan right now. Missing my Vue. I was headed to a shoot on Tuesday night and went to make a wide right turn (actually that's illegal in TX unless you are an 18 wheeler) when the lady behind me tried to pass on the right. Long story short ($2400 damage to my car later), it is in the shop for the week. I'm most bummed about my 13 year accident-free streak being interrupted. Yes, I bumped a gate at the dealership a year ago, but that did not count, no claim was filed. The good news is that I talked the repair shop into fixing that little blemish for free along with my Allstate repair. You know how much I enjoy a bargain! Plus, it will make my husband very happy and happy husbands are always good!


Sarah graduated pre-k this week. That was hard. And exciting. And funny. She, quite literally, sashayed down the aisle like the little 'princess' she is. It was hysterical! Eli was promoted to 3rd grade with all A's, the little genius! Both of my kids are growing like weeds, it's crazy. We are headed North of Dallas tomorrow to meet Grammy Ginny for a week of fun in the sun in Arkansas while Daddy and I do the camp thing. They are super ridiculous excited!

Oh, and I got a new shirt about a week ago, it's my new favorite, I paid $5 for it. Gotta love that! Old Navy had their famous 50% off their clearance merchandise sale and I cleaned up!The big yellow and black bird makes me so happy! Also, the little gold accent birds. It goes perfectly with my bird bracelet that my mom gave me for my birthday. I need to break down and buy the earrings that match, I'm really into wearing earrings lately!

Also found this one at Target for $4.98, pretty cute!

In other news: I'm in love with my camera. It's going to be hard to leave my baby for a week and view the world from my point and shoot. :( But I'm a big girl and I'll manage. But the d90 was a brilliant choice for me, any heavier and I'm going to have work my way up into it! My bag weighs like a million pounds now. We aren't going to talk about how much $ it weighs! :)

I am, however, looking forward to a weekend with Rob, even if it means spending 10 hours in the car. It's going to be a great week!

Scrapbook Pages

Most of these are from when Lori was here a few weeks back. But I did do two pages today, trying to pull myself out of a frump, unsuccessfully, I might add. I guess I can attribute my bad attitude today to 3 cancellations this weekend, but even mor that that, my kids are being Crab Apples. Rob's gone all day and it's like they are out to get me. I normally don't post when I'm in a bad mood, but I guess I'm just being real today.
We are leaving for kid haircuts in just a bit. Maybe I'll get a Sonic to cheer me up.

PS - notice the '30' on my tape runner. Just found that one today.

Supposed to be Working..

I'm having a hard time getting motivated this morning. It's kind of ironic, because it's only 10am and I've already gotten everyone out the door and dropped off, ran two errands and met with a client. But now it's time to edit and I'm just dragging a bit. Editing is probably my least favorite part of photography, a necessary evil. I've learned a lot in the past few months about how to make the process better, faster, with more quality results, but I'd still rather not. :) Definitely worth the final outcome.

Anyway. I've wanted to share about a little miracle in our lives that took place yesterday. As many of you know, we roofed our house ourselves (with the help of Kimmie and Ricky and a few other awesome people!) last November. Ike had blown off some of our shingles and Blu-Roof had tarped it up in a way that required a replacement. Our first adjuster was a gift from God, he was super nice and easy to work with.

Well, about a month ago we got our fence replaced and it was time to send in all our receipts for our depreciation check. A week ago I got a call from our second adjuster, wanting to come by and see the work, which he did last Friday. Yesterday he called me to ask how come we didn't have any labor receipts. :) Long story short, he was super impressed that we did the work ourselves, and that it looks good! He was very gracious and figured out how to send us that last depreciation check. Awesome, huh?

So once we receive that check, Ike is a thing of the past. Good thing too, Hurricane Season officially begins in 3 days. :)

Memorial Day

Well, 3 day weekends don't generally mean much in our household. :) We mostly laid low today. Sarah and I ran a couple errands about noon or so. I kicked around the house in my jammies before that. Made a couple phone calls. Nothing drastic though. It was great!! I was supposed to have a senior session this evening, but she had to reschedule, so we decided to hit the park. The kids were itching for a picnic. It was absolutely beautiful out. Hot, but lovely. The kids played hard. Rob too! And I played with my new camera, which Rob picked up for me on Saturday. Oh my, I love it. It is going to make a tremendous difference in my business, I can tell already. And I was very thankful to have this afternoon to get to know it. :) I've got another two shoots Wednesday, and I wanted to be confident with it before I put it to hard use. Man, this camera can do so much. I'm super pleased!!

The above shot is just a tiny sample, you can see more on my ATP blog and even more on FB in my photo albums. This is the beginning of a beautiful relationship. :)

Ready for a Wedding Consultation

As you probably know, I just created my wedding packages and as a result of that, I was tweaking some paperwork for my consult this morning. Sarah asked me to play with her. She's wearing a beautiful flower girl type dress that someone gave to us, it's severely stained, but will be a lovely plaything for her. (I forsee her living in it, I just gave it to her this am). She had already told me that she looked like a bride. :) Anyway, she asked me to play with her and I said that I couldn't just now, I was preparing for a bridal consultation and she said "Oh, Momma, that's perfect! I'm all ready!!"

I just love how she thinks. :) And I know, this post is useless without pictures. I'll work on it.

as promised.

These are my smokin' new shoes from Lori!

(in no particular order)

I found this sofa in Ikea and fell in love. Good news? Rob loves it too! You can't probably tell, but it's red corduroy and washable. *love*
.I think Rob and Lori were telling me that I was being a whiner at this point, so I pouted. :) I quickly got over it, and for the record? Lori, you were right.
Jennifer sent me a voice text of her and the family singing Happy Birthday. Super cute!!
Me and Rob at Carraba's - I think I was getting a little tired at this point! :)
mmm... free birthday dessert!
Ike waterline in the Strand... so sad. We have so many fun memories down there!
Lori after her hair appointment, she and Jennifer made fast friends. Everybody loves Jennifer cause she's amazing!
um, I guess I was hungry? and Lori only gave me half... :)
This is Lori putting her luggage in my car!!
and this was when she first got to the airport! yay!
I am finding these random 30's all over my house. seriously, found one on my washing machine this afternoon!
aww, balloons! The colors were hot pink and lime green - so cute!
This is the amazing cake that Jennifer made. Recognize it? The journaling spots are from a scrapbook page I did a week ago! I seriously almost cried. (wiped a tear or two for sure!)
Silly girl thought it was cool that she was here! ;)
The candle from my cake!
peek-a-boo!
This is the clan that was at my house when I walked in the door! I nearly wet myself.
love these girls. Missed Kimmie though. :)
beach crawling, we picked up shells for our house decor.
and Rob photographed the whole thing...
I love this one!!
We took a few pics in Rob's office too!
We color coordinated - I'm wearing a black skirt...
and these killer heels. Which I kicked off to shoot the water baptism.
This hat Sarah made me with Rob's help for my birthday dinner on Saturday night.
Lori and I have the same phone, so we thought it was pretty cute when they were charging. :)
And yep, Heidi signed the wall at my scrapbook store! wow!
beautiful self-taken photo of Lori and I. Everyone always asks us if we are sisters. We are in our hearts, that's for sure!
shopping!!
And we love this giant mirror and had to play with it!!


These are my smokin' new shoes from Lori!

so that's a bit of the 300+ photos we took this weekend. It was super fun and I'm exhausted. Time for a movie with Robbie!!