Kelly's Family Photoshoot!

Kelly from Teach and Tickle asked me to take some pictures of her family. I was honored, thrilled, humbled, and....reeeeally nervous! For one thing, I'd never been commissioned to do a photo shoot before. They've always just kind of involved me with my camera and friends or family around. For another thing, the forecast called for nothing but storms, storms, storms all throughout the week.

However, when Ryan and I met up with the family of four on Friday evening, everything went....great. Thank you, God. The weather was mild, the sun was...if not shining, at least glowing...and we happened upon tons of great places to shoot in downtown Tulsa!

I have literally over one hundred awesome pics of this family - and that's not me tooting my own horn; that's me telling you how fun and photogenic they all are - so it is incredibly difficult for me to choose which ones to share with you. I haven't even done it yet. I'm stalling even as I type.

But without further ado...

Kelly, thank you SO MUCH for probably the hundredth time for thinking of ME to do your photos! I am beyond thrilled that it was such a success.

iMactually speechless.

Yesterday, while I was at work, Ryan texted me that he was going to be going down to Mexico for a few days in a couple of weeks (his dad's company has a branch down there so it wasn't COMPLETELY outrageous, but it still left me confused). I texted back for details and he didn't respond, so I did the typical, lovely "Hello?!" thing. His response: "Something very cool happening. Will call soon."

The possibilities flew wildly through my mind. Ryan got laid off with some others a few weeks ago...had he just landed a new job? Had Caspian learned Fantasie Impromptu on the piano? Was a Hanson TOTALLY in front of Ryan in the check-out at Wal-Mart?! Who knew?

I don't remember how I passed the time while waiting for him to call, but he did. And he told me.

His dad had bought us both Macs.

I was FLOORED! I didn't even know what to say. I think I just kept quietly saying things like, "What? Whyyyyy? How? Oh my gosh....are you serious? Tell him...'thank you'..." (I felt rather lame with that last one. How can "thank you" ever be enough for what he did? I got to say it to him myself, too, of course, but still...)

Ryan and I have a company. It's for his films and other prod

uction stuff. Someday I might shoot photography under it. Who knows. But basically, this was his dad's way of investing in our company. He wanted us to have better machines on which to edit, run the business, etc. Our PCs just weren't cutting it anymore. I can't tell you how many times I have made a "going to choke someone/pull my own hair out" motion with my hands while I waited for a program to start after clicking four times (with about two minutes of wait time between each click). Or how many times Ryan would text me, "Please pray. (The editing program) crashed again."

Suffice it to say, we've wanted Macs for a rather long time. Plus, we have countless creative friends who do similar things to what we do - all of them BEGGING us to get Macs. To be frank, the idea got rather laughable after I took a large pay cut and Ryan lost his job. This generous gift has meant a TON to us.

A few pics from my phone follow.

My new computer! I can't believe I actually have one!

Seriously. I've waited a LONG time.

See how much denial I was in with my laptop?

In its lovely place. (My desk is in need of a makeover, which I hope to get to soon....)

My in-laws even took us out to a FABULOUS dinner at Copeland's. Can I give them a quick shout-out? They seriously have the BEST food. The BEST. Anyway, overall it was the best evening ever.

No, iMac. Thank you.

Yemma's 50th!

As I mentioned in my last post, my mom turned fifty last Sunday! Her friends from her small group threw her a great party and Ryan and I were blessed to be able to be there.We had yummy picnic food!


Two of my favorite people :)



Pi is such a celeb.

Yemma's friends chipped in for the bookshelves she's been wanting. She was floored!

My grandparents, my Aunt Lisa, my cousin Jordan, Ryan, and I had so much fun celebrating Yemma's birthday with her. Happy birthday, Yemma!

Ryan at the Museum of Transportation

Sorry sorry sorry! It's been FOREVER since I've posted. (I actually hope that I still have followers to whom to apologize...helloooo?)

Last weekend, Ryan and I went up to St. Louis to be with my family. My mom turned the big 5-0 on August 30th - more on that later!

I took Ryan to the Museum of Transportation. I hadn't been there since I was a kid, and he WAS like a kid around all of the trains - it was cute. :) Our time there somehow turned into a photoshoot, which was a blast for us both!

Here are some of my favorites of my rockin' hot husband.
I hope this has been a worthy comeback! Leave me some love!

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for my district. It was pretty busy - my mentor nurse and I took five trips between schools in order to get everything accomplished. I was able to get a decent idea of the kinds of things school nurses deal with, and though I see that it will be very busy, I don't feel overwhelmed. Each school has a skilled and experienced health aide. I'm told they will be my lifeline, and I don't doubt it at all. The people in the school system work very well together and frequently call each other to ask questions, so I know that my questions will be welcome and everyone will be patient.

I am so incredibly humbled to have this job. I hope that I will never take it for granted. It was such a sweet feeling to see my name outside the health office door at one school today. I wanted to take a picture, but my better judgment told me I'd better wait awhile before I expose my freakishly picture-obsessed self to them ;)

I know that there will probably be days when I will want to cry (or probably actually cry) and pull all of my hair out. But I love my job so far and my mentor nurse randomly told me that she loves this job as well. Yay!

In other good news, Yemma is responding very well to her treatment. When she was diagnosed, her tumor marker was around 360. It is now all the way down to 58. What a blessing! And she's only had half of her chemo treatments! She is in the hospital right now for round number four. We're all looking forward to when this is all behind us. Thanks so much for thinking of, supporting, and praying for us.

The Past Few Days...

...have been awesome!! Honestly, being out of work and broke for a few weeks was starting to take its toll on my spirits. I don't like feeling like I'm not contributing to the world at all, and frankly - besides laundry and other housework - there's just not much to do that doesn't somehow require money (even if it's gas money to drive somewhere). However, within the last week, I have:

1) Started my new job - I've met the other elementary school nurses and spent some time with them. They are all nice and incredibly helpful. I got to meet a few of the people I'll work with at my three elementary schools, and everyone was overwhelmingly gracious and excited to have me aboard. I found out that for the first couple of weeks of school, I'll be shadowing another school nurse to learn the ropes. I'm very grateful for this time, as I've been told that it used to be that the new nurses got no orientation! The lady I'll be shadowing told me that her mom, who had been a school nurse, had to come help her organize files and show her what to do! Anyway, I am SO happy about my new job.

2) Spent some time with good friends - David and K came to town from Georgia and stayed with us for a few days. We ate out, got sno cones three times, shopped, saw a steel drum band in concert, and relaxed. It was so, so great.

3) Made THIS!

Isn't it fun? Of course, it's not to scale....I'm afraid my cats would be scary mutants if their heads were half the size of ours. And now my mantle is starting to reflect the "fresh yellow and green" theme I'm hoping to have throughout the living room!(Kindly ignore the wire dangling from the ceiling. We had the house wired for surround sound but haven't actually installed a system yet.)

Anyway, with school starting on Wednesday, I'm going to be very busy during the days from here on out, but hopefully I won't be so tired in the evenings that I won't be able to bring myself to blog ;) Thanks for hanging in there!

Vintage Indie!

The Vintage Indie feature on Kristena with my pictures is up! Please click here to see it! Thanks!