Feeling Artsy Fartsy

My dad always said that about me. That I was artsy fartsy.

These prints have been bopping around in my brain for the past four months. They are for the youth room. I just finally got it together enough today to get it done. They are huge - four foot by two and half foot. Super cute though, I think I'm in love.

Now I'm working on a smaller set for me. Yay house!

Hey everybody.

I'm toying with the idea of a trip to Iowa. It's been a long time since I've seen my family and my friends up north. If you would be interested in booking a photo shoot in Iowa, that could probably sway me. I'm thinking my fun little photo hobby will be turning into a business this year anyway.

On my mind.

Lots bumping around my mind these past few weeks. I've been kind of a poor blogger, but it just seems like life is taking over lately, but all good. And I promise, I will never abandon my blog. It's been a couple years now and we've got a good thing going. :)

I see some major life changes occuring here. Like moving to TX wasn't enough! :) I've watched myself slowly slip away from the life of a stay at home mom these past 8 months, and I'm ok with that. I love all that I'm doing, and I'm really excited about these new directions we are moving in.

I do miss my friends and family. It's crazy to me that Lori had a baby back in November, and I haven't even seen her yet! And Kimmie, don't even get me started on Kimmie. I can't believe she's all the way in Nashville. I think this is the longest Kim-less stretch we've gone since we went back to school. Not cool, Kim is awesome! My kids really miss her.

I think I'm about used to Texas. Except for the food. I'm managing seafood, barbeque, and (gulp) Tex-Mex alright, but I'm really missing corn on the cob and really good Italian food, both of which are unheard of down here - despite local opinion. I do miss the snow, which I'm sure makes you Northerners laugh with all the white stuff you've been living with for months now. I miss the fast talking and fast moving of the North. We get stuff done up there! In a hurry! Maybe it's the four seasons, makes time appear to move faster?

Anyway, I'm really adjusting to here though. I love our house, for the most part. I can't wait to start putting my fingerprints on it. Lori and I wrote our budget again this week, the first time since we moved. I know that sounds terrible, but things were pretty topsy turvy those first six months. So there is freedom in that, being back on the Dave Ramsey swing of things, establishing a savings again and being debt-free except for student loans (wah) and house payment. I am truly excited for our financial future and being back in control of things.

Oh, and I've been meaning to say, we got a cat. Yep, about a week ago actually. I hadn't posted a picture or anything yet because I wasn't sure how well it was going to work out. He's absolutely terrified and literally lives under our beds all day every day. About 9pm he wanders out for a good rubbing from Rob or I, and he seems to prowl a bit at night, but he's super skittish. He reminds us of Toby from the cartoon Robin Hood - just terrified of his own shadow, so that's what we named him. So far he's a very good cat, just scared stiff.

I think we are going to head to the mall tonight to spend a Build-A-Bear gift card that Eli got for his birthday from my cousin and her family. He'll be pretty thrilled. He also needs jeans uber-bad, so that will probaby happen too, which will lighten my laundry burden. Yay!

It's so nice to be home today and tomorrow. I'm exhausted. :)

Today's Haul

Today I schooled my hairstylist and friend, Jennifer, in the art of grocerygaming. We met at CVS at 9:15 and spent 2 hours tracking down the deals. Then we ran across the street to Kroger and spent another 2 hours beating Kroger into submission. It was awesome. I accidently spent my whole first two weeks grocery budget, but it was totally worth it - lots of amazing deals and I have about $47 worth of ECB's. My big ticket items were new toothbrush heads (retailing 3 heads for $23.99- I bought 6) and rechargable batteries, I bought 8. Overall, a huge success, and now Jennifer sees why I *heart* CVS.

More Katy and Kyle

too many photos for one post, so here's some more. It's hard to choose the very best, because a lot of them are awesome! so humble, I know, we just had really good luck today. yay!

Katy and Kyle

So I ventured in to Houston by myself. I've done that a couple times before, but usually at least with Rob or the kids. But today I was heading to Hermann Park for Kyle and Katy's photo shoot. This couple was soooo cute. They were super easy to work with and the weather was beautiful. I had never been to Hermann Park before (it was a little tricky to find our meeting spot and a parking spot) but it was a perfect spot for a big huge photo session. I think we worked for about an hour and a half. The park was busy, so that posed some challenges. It reminded me a lot of Forest Park in St Louis - and made me home sick for a moment. :) But I'm really starting to feel like a missionary without a country in that sense - I miss certain things from everywhere we've been.

Anyway, these two are getting married in May. They were so cute together, and they were way into it. I love shooting engaged couples, they don't have to 'fake' being happy, kwim? I can't believe how many photos we took, and how many turned out. I took full advantage of macro mode today (thanks Leah!) and it shows.

So I took 573 photos, and a lot of them are amazing. Can't wait to share them here, and I'm so excited for these guys to see them. Sorry for the delay, it took a long time to sort throught 573 photos. :)

Checking In and Checking

Ok, so I am finally sharing some of my photos from the Power Force hanging out at our church. Rob got some brick-busting lessons from Josh, that was pretty cool. And I look like a dwarf with this group - it's funny. They did an amazing job with the students in the schools, it was really cool to be a part of that. I'm exhausted though, of course. Today we finally took off. I ran the kids to school this morning and then ran to the bank and Target. Came home and messed around with our budget for a while, talked to Kim, talked to Lori. Before I knew it, it was time to pick up Sare already.
When I got home from that I called Lori again, for real this time and we got down to the business of the budget. I love that things make sense again now that we sold the white car. Whew. It's exciting, getting back to the Dave Ramsey way of life, working on an emergency fund and pre-designating every dollar. I know that there will be so much more freedom in our budget. Doesn't probably make sense, but it really works for us. Just glad we can finally be back to that.
So tonight one of Eli's little friends from school called. Cutest thing ever, those two boys talking on the phone. :) We were getting ready to take Eli and Sare to the mall for a belated birthday dinner (his actual birthday was crazy) so I asked if Israel wanted to come with. We had a great time, CFA, the mall play place and a cookie. yum. Eli was surprised and pleased.
Lot's of things spinning through my brain tonight. I've got a skit to script (the plot is sketched out) for next Sunday's am service. We are working on a new major project to present during our support staff on Monday night. Tomorrow at noon I've got an engagement photo shoot. (yay!) I desperately need to clean my house - man it's bad. And tackle laundry. But I've been really fighting a cold, Rob too, so we tried to lay low today. We are both sniffling and hacking right now. The Superbowl is this weekend, so I've got a few things to pick up for our party at the Canno's on Sunday night. I'm also working on the planning of our "I Love the 90's" night for 20's and 30's in a few weeks. And of course, the youth room hallway still needs touching up - hopefully before Wednesday night. I'm anxious to get started on making our house ours too, that's another of my big resolutions. Which, I am checking in on. Doing ok, definitely making progress in most areas, except Dr Pepper, totally fell off the wagon there. Not a good time to quit an addiction, with all the stress we've been under lately. :)
So I've talked your ear off tonight. Details. It's my blog, remember??