My first Studio Shoot

So here's my efforts. You'll be able to tell that I got better as I went along. :)

Happy Grandmas (continued)

Wow, this morning was so much fun! Ryan and Jody brought the lights and backdrops and we set up in the children's church and just worked it. Awesome. We did our family photos first, then Rob went off to work and we started playing with the kids. I did all my shots except the ones with me in them, naturally. I had a ton of fun playing with the real equipment, it was definitely a confidence builder for me. I don't know when I would have built up the guts to buy lights and backdrops before today, but after using them I can see why it would be really beneficial and open up my possibilities. Wow, I'm so excited. I kept saying that over and over today, Ryan and Jody just kept laughing at me and my excitement!
Anyway, it was a learning curve. Sarah was pretty uncooperative, so I could have done better with a little more time, but I didn't think it was bad for my first studio session ever. It was very different than outdoor photography! VERY! but I loved it and I can't wait to do it again!
Plus, Ryan loaned me a light and umbrella to play with on my own, so the future is wide open now! I'm so excited for Sister Ray's shoot now, this will help a lot! I need to practice a ton between now and next week!

(These first pictures were taken by Ryan and Jodi)

Happy Grandmas

Today I will please both grandmas on both sides. Not every day a gal can say that! We are finally doing pro photography of the kiddos. We haven't done a pro picture as a family since we added Sarah (almost four years ago) except for one horrible Olan Mills tragedy that was too bad to even put in a frame! We are trading favors with Ryan and Jodi this morning, so give me 8 hours maybe and I'll be sharing them here!

Before and After

So we got all the crown molding up. It only took from 10am till 5pm to do 46 linear feet, but that's ok, we are amateurs. Man, I'd know how to do it next time though! Which, to our credit, this was a difficult room because there are some funky funky angles around that fireplace and that made it tough. My dad would be so proud though, I was handling that miter saw like a pro by the end of the day!

This is a fun camera comparison too, the old camera took the before and the new took the after.

Lori's Going To Kill Me

So, I said before that Ryan and Jodi and Rob and I went to to Houston today with the kids. We had a purpose. Ryan wanted to talk me out of a Canon and into a Nikon.



He was successful.


I am the proud owner of Nikon d40x with a 18-55mm lens. It's amazing, and I'm pretty stinking excited, so don't rain on my parade too terribly badly. Besides, I had half the money set aside, so that's a really good start for me. :) And of course, I got a really good deal.


Oh, and when we got home we noticed that the casing on my Canon IS3 is loose. So it was probably not a bad time to upgrade. I figure I've take over 15,000 photos on that camera in the last year and a half. It's no where near done with it's life, but maybe relying on it as my #1 camera wasn't such a good idea anymore.

More, more and more pictures to come.

Isaiah's birthday party.

Had a great time on Saturday evening at the Cano's. Isaiah turned 8. Danielle always throws a great party, she's truly gifted. The kids had a great time. We've had a wonderful past five days or so. Super busy, too busy to blog, but wonderful.

Houston

We spent the day in Houston with Ryan and Jodi and kids tromping through the camera store and ULTA and Guitar Center. It was pretty amazing. We also went to Macaroni Grill for supper, it was cute because we all split meals, even the kids. Definitely will go down as one of my best days ever because truly, everyone got along, the kids were awesome, the weather was perfect and it was just relaxing and fun, not being on a schedule. Here are some fun photo highlights - all taken on my poopy old Kodak with it's last breath. Oh, and that one with the manikin cracks me up. We walked in the photo store and he was there and I was helping Sarah, so I smiled at him, just being friendly and it took me a second to realize he wasn't real. I almost said 'hi'. Wow, then I would have felt really dumb!!

There are also two photos from Saturday's leaders conference. It was awesome. I was so challenged. I also found a few really good books to work with, so that's exciting! Always excited, you know me!

Family Fun Night

It's been a while since we've truly had a family fun night, so tonight we made it happen. It started out with an almost amazing meatloaf made by me. (I got the recipe from Danielle). So we just had a really fun dinner and then we went to Eli's school for library night. They had an easter egg hunt with books as prizes, the kids were pretty in to that! After about 15 minutes we were done there so we headed to the mall to look at easter outfits and find some ice cream for the kiddos. I found a super adorably mint green dress for Sarah and a green on green tie/shirt/vest/pants for Eli (perfectly coordinating, of course) and then we found a fun shirt and tie for Rob, keeping with the green theme. But I thought I had a coupon here at home for JC Penney's, but it's not good until Sunday. So everything is on hold in the men's dept. I'm debating whether or not to do it, we don't dress up a ton at our church, but I really like to go all out for Easter, it's just one of those things my mom always did and I like to keep up some traditions. So if you see any good JC Penney deals, let me know, ok? The dress is on sale 40% off and I think Eli's little snazzy outfit was too. I of course tried to find you a linkie to the dress, but it's not online for some reason.
Anyway, we had a really fun evening. But now both of my kids are being insane and I'm thinking I'm really dumb for letting them do something special on a Tuesday night, they'll head in to Wednesday all tired out and cranky and I'll get to deal with hauling them to church by myself.

uh. Early to bed for me tonight.

A Thousand Things To Do Today.

Don't you love days like this? It's that one day of the week that you get to spend at home and my to-do list is overwhelming.
But that's ok, I'm kicking back. Priority number one today (after blogging) is finishing my book for book club tonight. Cause I don't want to hear all the ladies talking about it when I'm not done and I'm way into it, kwim? I'm sure you are wondering why it's tonight and I'm just now finishing it, but I didn't start until late last week. It's a good read, just took a little bit to get into it.
Oh, and I think I'm cool this morning, because yesterday Pastor was talking about homemade bread in his sermon and it inspired me. So I made my great grandmothers Overnight Buns first thing this morning. Now normally, I start them the night before, but I figure I've got all day and the buns don't know the difference between night and day. I can't tell you how much easier it was to make them in my Kitchenaid then doing it by hand like I always have before. I'm so loving this mixer, probably one of my smartest purchases ever.
I'm also washing sheets today, and probably just generally cleaning house. I've got a big week this week, so anything I can do to prepare today for the rest of the week is a good thing. Tomorrow we have staff, and painting in the children's chapel, hopefully we can finish it up! Also, I am photographing one of our dear saints of the church tomorrow afternoon, I'm so excited!!
I've got a few things to work with for Expo too, trying to stay on top of all of that.
Mostly, I'm counting down to Thursday. You see, I've got this major urge to start working on our house. I'm thinking I can talk Rob into starting to paint the living room on Thursday. I'm thinking a blue color might be really fun. And we are discussing putting in crown molding. I think it would be a relatively inexpensive install that would increase our home's value for the long run. I'm pretty excited about the possibility.
Well, off to read my book and be with Sarah. Happy Monday to you all!

1000th POST!!!!

And yep, it's something earthshattering.


I found this last week at the Baybrook Mall on our 'Valentine's date'. I thought it was pretty cute, and on clearance, so it came home with me. Loving the chunkiness! :)

Please pray for this sweetie.

I got to go see a tiny newborn baby, Dominick Joseph, this morning. He's having some trouble with an infection, so please be praying for him. He is so sweet. Glad I'm immune to that baby bug, or I might have come down with something this morning!

Loving My Job

So maybe I was secretly born to be a church secretary and just never knew it till now. :) Seriously, I'm so cut out for it. I get to hang out with the other secretaries, who are awesome, take direction from Linda - who's amazing, answer the phone and talk to wonderful church people, pray over lists of people who have made a decision for Jesus as I'm typing them up, and just generally be a ray of sunshine in my fun little office. Oh, and I've discovered that it's totally cool to have my iPod playing softly in the background, so that makes me happy. There's a big window in my office too, so I get to enjoy the weather while I work. Plus, my sweet hubby is my IT guy and occasionally my boss, and we get to have lunch together every time I'm there. So awesome. It's just been really fulfilling. I wish it was more than one day a week!

But it's probably good that it's not because my house is falling apart. oops. And tomorrow I'll be at work for a staff meeting, so it's only going to get worse before it gets better.

New Pages

A little birdie told me that I needed scrapbook last night, so I succumbed, and it was pretty fun.

Rodeo Sunday

New Art

I got to steal a few moments this afternoon to create. That was fun. I hadn't scrapbooked in quite a while and I miss it when I don't. If I have a photo shoot, that helps the creative urges, but I still really love scrapbooking. I'm noticing my work take a shift toward chaos lately, it seems telling of my life since Texas; busy, happy, fulfilled but a bit behind schedule.
The house page is all about Sarah's made up friend, Grandma Sally. Grandma Sally is a regular visitor at our house, she apparently allows Sarah to do everything that we won't let her. Such as; drinking soda, wearing tank tops and calling them 'bras', riding without her seatbelt, taking library books out of the house, wearing skirts when it's 40 degrees without tights, etc. You get the point. She basically is telling us that Grandma Sally is cooler than us. And you know what? I'm ok with that. Grandma Sally is Sarah's friend. I am her mother. It's my job to set the rules, to keep order, to set her on the path to being a well-rounded upstanding contributing citizen of this country, and more importantly, that she gets her life right with God. Sarah is really trying us right now, and I can tell if I give up the fight and let her win that we will forever regret it with her, so I am trying hard to be as consistent as I possibly can. It's a new battle every minute of the day with her, but we will win. Anyway, I did this page to immortalize Grandma Sally, since she's been a fixture in our home for almost a year now, isn't that funny?
The other page is about me. And how I'm always excited. It's a bright fun happy page, but behind it is a sad truth. I was talking to my dad a few weeks ago and we had been hosting the Power Force and I said I was excited about what God was doing. And he said "You always are." I was taken aback and asked if he meant always excited about church and he said no, he meant I'm always excited about everything. And that I've always been that way, even since I was a very little girl. My first thought was that that's a pretty cool personality trait. Then I realized the tone in which he said it and I suddenly put together that he didn't see it as a happy thing. My dad has historically not been the happiest guy on the earth, only recently (past five years) has he at all come out of that. Anyway, I realized that all these years (almost 29) my dad has hated that about my personality. I probably rubbed him the wrong way every day of my 17 years at home with him. My dad's struggled with depression, so I would guess having someone in the house that was so happy and so excitable was just generally very annoying. Poor dad. And on the flip side of that, it's amazing that I'm that way anyway! Anyhoo, just interesting thoughts I've been meaning to post.
Funny, how these two layouts seem so carefree but there were really some deep emotions behind both of them. guess I'm just that person today. :)