Last week I got my hair cut …

I have tried and tried and TRIED to grow my hair out – but I think I just have to accept that God gave me a short-haired scalp.

I haven’t had much time to work on my blog lately. The past two weeks at work I have been training my replacement at work – helping Amy and Jim move – shooting a wedding and corporate photos – editing photos – it never ends!

Tuesday night we helped Amy and Jim with their new house – I painted the bathroom with Amy while Jared and Kurtis pulled up carpeting downstairs. Wednesday night the youth group helped Amy and Jim move their basement and garage and kitchen – in 50 minutes! Thursday night we went back down and Jared worked more on the flooring while I put a second coat on the bathroom.

Ella – Amy and Jim’s daughter – hung out with me while I painted the bathroom. She is one of my favorite kids on the planet. She will be 5 in July and is one of the smartest kids I know.

We had the following conversation –

D: Ella – what do you want to be when you grow up?

E: I want to be a PT like Mommy and work at the Phoenix. But my Phoenix is going to be in Wellsboro. If I have a Phoenix in Wellsboro and Mommy has a Phoenix in Mansfield – whose would you go to?

D: Seeing as how you are one of my favorite kids – I would probably have to go to your Phoenix.

E: Why don’t you come to my Phoenix one day and Mommy’s Phoenix the next day so that we can share?

That sounded like a good – fair solution to me. I was telling Amy about the conversation with Ella – how cute it was – and Ella comes running in the room saying – I wanted to have Danielle come to both our clinics so that you can see her too – since you have cancelled her from her job. I laughed and laughed and laughed.

Amy ordered Chinese food for dinner – we all sat down at the table while Amy and Jim met with the carpet guy – Ella provided the dinner entertainment with the following …

E:  (looking around the table and saying in a low voice) Daddy isn’t going to eat any of this.

D: Really – why is that?

E: Well – don’t tell him I told you this – but Daddy only eats peanut butter and mustard sandwiches. When I come home from school – I say – Daddy – let’s get your mind off mustard and talk about something else. But all he says to me is – Ella – I can’t help it – I just love mustard. I want mustard for breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner. I love mustard! Sometimes when we go to restaurants – he orders mustard and PB sandwiches and Mommy tells him that it is bad manners in a restaurant to do that – but he can’t help it – he loves mustard!

D: Can I ask him about this?

E: Oh no, you can’t – he gets so embarrassed about his love for mustard!

I don’t know how she comes up with this stuff!

I promised I would post a picture of my new office space …

Jared stealing my computer!

The general public likes to make us afraid of mother-in-laws – whether we are the man or the woman in the relationship!

By the grace of God – I have great in-laws!

My mother-in-law is an amazingly sweet woman.

Jared is an only child – and I still have an amazing MIL.

We live right next door to his parents – and I still have an amazing MIL.

I am pregnant with her first grandbaby – and I still have an amazing MIL.

Jared’s mom has been ready for a grandbaby 9 months after our wedding – she has waited patiently – not without some sighing comments of … when I have a grandchild.

When we told his parents that we were expecting – they were shocked – a little more shocked than we expected them to be – excited but so shocked. I think they still might be a little bit in shock – I know that she has wanted this for so long – and it seems too good to be true!

She has been so helpful! From the moment we got Schrute she has been involved with helping us out – the first few days she kept him at their house and would go over and check on him when he was at our house. Those first few weeks when he was messing all over – she tried her best to deal with my outbursts and frustrations – helping all the way.

Earlier this week I went home to find that his mess at lunch – that I cannot clean up anymore – was all cleaned up and our dishes were done! OUR DISHES! What kind of woman does that? She does. She wants to bless us in any way that she can – even when it is something as simple as doing your dishes.

We had to live with them for a few months when Jared lost his job – and it worked out great! We have gone on vacation with them for the past two summers and it has been a blast!

We can talk about anything – and I know that I can come to her for advice or help anytime.

Living right next door to them is great. We have dinner with them on Thursday nights, they watch Schrute on Wednesday nights while we are at church, and usually sit near them in church on Sundays.

Having a baby with them right next door will be AWESOME! My family jokes that she will either A) build a tunnel underground connecting our houses so she can be there at a moment’s notice or B) have an insane 6th sense when it comes to the baby – she will be at the door the second before the baby cries – already knowing what is needed. I feel comfortable with her and have no doubt that she will be very involved with our child’s life. We moved in with my Gramma Trout when I was about 9 – now she lives in an addition off my parent’s house – I LOVE HAVING GRANDPARENTS NEARBY!

I want her there with me for that first appt. – Jared is going to wait and take the time off when it gets closer to ultrasounds and what not – and since we are going to Sayre – we can make an afternoon out of it. I want her there in the room when her grandchild is born – it is her grandchild just as much as it is my mom’s.

Brenda is a strong, admirable woman of God – and someone I am very honored to call mom.

When Jared and I were first married we lived in an apt. on Main Street in Mansfield – next to Crossroads Bed & Breakfast – see the nifty link on the R hand side of the page.

We only spent one winter in that apt. – Jared’s cousin Alyssa would come over and we would – excuse me – SHE would cook us dinner and hang out – when it snowed we would get in our ridiculous flannel pajamas and go out in the middle of the road and take pictures – thankfully I don’t know where those pictures are!

I do know where one of those winter pictures ended up – in the foyer of Crossroads – in the gym at Phoenix – and now in the homes of TWO barden photography patrons!

I entered the picture in the Troy Fair in 2005 and won a prize in the special category – Home for the Holidays – I then gave the photo to the Fitzgerald’s – who own the B & B – and they hung it in their foyer.

A few years later – a patron fell in love with the picture and asked to purchase it – AWESOME!

When I first started at Phoenix – my boss paid me for a few of the scenery prints and they still hang in the clinic – Amy asked if I would bring in a few more to put around the gym and treatment rooms – one of the pictures I brought in was the print of the B & B.

Yesterday a patient asked if she could buy the print – AWESOME AGAIN!

Unfortunately I don’t have a digital copy – was still working in film then – and I have no clue where the negative got to – prolly the same place as those pictures of Alyssa and I – and the scanner is seeming to have hiccups!

It seems that lately – things in our life – have happened one right after the other.

I knew a while ago that I would be quitting my job as a secretary to pursue photography full-time – I just didn’t know when that would happen. My first goal was Christmas – one that I didn’t announce to many people.

Then we made the almost spur of the moment decision to get a puppy. Jared met Chai one afternoon and fell in love with him – so starting the journey of getting a great dane. Within three days – we made a decision and a down payment.

I knew I had the BRIDAL EXPO coming in January and that I would make my decision of leaving based on the turnout – I came home discouraged – for some reason thinking I would get twelve bookings on the spot. I went to the EXPO with 12 weddings booked for the year – right now I have 21 – with my goal being 24 – almost there and I have 3 bookings for next year with interest in more! So coming back to work – I sent in my resignation for March 31st – giving 10 weeks notice – and making it official. It was scary writing that letter up and giving it to my boss and then sending it in to corporate – permanent – no going back – EEEEK!

Amongst the BRIDAL EXPO – officially quitting – and picking up our puppy – I managed to also get PREGNANT! TALK ABOUT TIMING! Here I am trying to not panic about quitting my job and starting a business – stressing about puppy training – something that is very hard when you are NOT home during the day – and then to find out that I need to CALM DOWN!

It was the best thing that could have happened – I have always known that I want to be a momma more than anything – and that I would quit my job once we have kids – but here it is – and I can do photography and have kids and stay home with them!

I struggle with – CAN I DO IT – WILL WE MAKE IT – IS THIS RIGHT – we have prayed about it and I tend to feel a peace about it overall – I worry way too much and I think that I have been able to keep it under control – and I know I can do it and will do it. I have great friends who support me and push me every step of the way! I have a wonderful family who supports me every step of the way!

LOOKING BACK

2008 – I cannot believe that it has come and gone already!

I started this blog in January of 2008 with the idea of an angel looking over my typing – my banner has changed once since then – not for lack of trying. The general public thought maybe it would be better to keep with Julie & Tyler since that is my signature image – and I love it just as much as when I snapped it.

Last year at this time I had a few wedding bookings and prospects – this year I have 11 bookings with some other inquiries. Senior pictures should take off a little more – along with families. SO EXCITING.

I have another camera and am looking at a computer to buy once the EXPO is done and I have some bookings from that (hopefully).

2008 started without any indication that my jaw would ever feel right and normal – would ever be healed. I sit here now and tell you that it is healed. God has healed me. I still have little twinges here and there – but I know that God has healed me and given me a quality of life that I didn’t think I would ever have again.

2009 is starting with the promise of complete healing and a family. I am now at the point where thinking about having a baby is a reality – not just something to dream about.

Last year Jared and I tried to read through the Bible together and we made it to the end of January – this year – my goal is to read through it together – NO MATTER WHAT – no excuses.

I have a few other goals –

watch less TV –

exercise more –

spend less –

trust more –

worry less –

love more –

fight less.

Spend more time seeking God’s wisdom and truth.

Spend less time dwelling on the past.

Spend more time looking toward the future.

God doesn’t have any resolutions – He keeps His promises.

I think that is amazing – God doesn’t forget to love us.

This new year – I want a renewed spirit – I want to feel God’s love all around me!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE –

Jared and I spent the night at his parents – right next door to us – last night after church. We woke up this morning and had the traditional sticky buns then opened our gifts.

Jared and I are giving each other Schrute this year – so no gifts opened from each other. But we did get a Christmas surprise in the form of a new video and new pictures posted of little Schrute. Jared’s parents also got us a book about great danes!

Next Christmas we are looking forward to spending it with Schrute and hopefully another new addition by that time or the anticipation of one!

MAY YOU KNOW THE JOY OF THE LORD THIS CHRISTMAS!

Here are the new pictures of “little” Schrute –

WHAT A GREAT CHRISTMAS PRESENT!

Last Friday I walked home after our snowstorm and took a few pictures on the way …

We drove to Athens Friday and spent the weekend with my parents – the pictures I posted earlier.

My dad and I took a walk around their property – some of it – and  I took some winter shots – to be posted later. After our walk my dad stopped to say hello to their dog Buddy.

Jared and I left on Monday to come back to Mansfield and happened to see Chuck hit 8000 miles!

This past Friday we had another snowstorm and the clinic closed early. Amy and I had planned on making cookies Sunday afternoon but decided to move it up to Friday afternoon since we weren’t going to be at work. *E* and I rolled and cut out the cookies while Amy manned the oven and the mixing. *A* and *M* ran around and tried to clean up flour off the floor and do the dishes for us.

We made about 8 dozen cookies – *E* had so much fun helping out. Then we cuddled up on the couch and watched Cinderella until Jared came to pick me up. The *E* family asked us to go sledding with them that night – but Jared didn’t have any snow clothes – looks like what they had didn’t fit either.

We bundled up and had a great time. Mara and Mary came over to play ROCK BAND with us and introduce us to Mary’s dog – Chai. Chai is a great dane and we wanted to see what it would be like to have a full grown dane in the house – it will be FUN!

Saturday morning I had a senior session – which I will post later – and then Jared and I ran to Wellsboro to get his license renewed.

Jared and I went to his company’s Christmas dinner at the Antler’s last night – and then today we went to church and Lamb’s Creek for brunch – a great end to good weekend!

I have so many posts to write – but that means time to edit and upload the pics that go with them.

With Christmas coming, I haven’t had time or access to Jared’s laptop enough to do any. My set up for the desktop computer isn’t the most comfortable so I try to avoid using it as much as possible.

I spent time with my family this past weekend (taking some much needed family shots), took some sweet landscape shots of the snow, went to an NCA basketball game, made cookies with *E*, and had a senior session this morning.

STAY TUNED.