04/17/07

The past day or so with everything that happened at Virginia Tech causes one to think. I am saddened by what continues to go on in the world around me, yet I know it is all because of sin. I thank the Lord that He IS in control and I am safe within His arms. He will never leave me nor forsake me.

I have thought about and prayed for the students and faculty left to deal with the horror of yesterday. I can only imagine what they are feeling. I prayed this morning that God would cause good to come out of this and people would be brought to Christ. Thoughts of what happened yesterday could lead someone to want to shut the doors and never go outside. However, God doesn't want us to live our lives in fear. He said that to His disciples after He rose from the grave and visited them as they were in hiding... scared for their lives. One of His first words to them was"Peace".. These are times when faith continues to be put into action. The verse I am teaching my students this week is II Timothy 1:7 - For God hath not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

On another note, we found out this past weekend that our Youth Pastor, Mike, has had his brain tumor double from what it was in the last MRI at the beginning of March. This was a surprise tothe family (as well as all of us!) as the doctors had said he should make a complete recovery. I have often wondered if we got too comfortable with that diagnosis then and slacked off in praying? I don't know, but I know God knows and, again, IS in control. The doctors are going to start him on a different type of medication that was just released this past February. Apparently, it cuts off the blood supply to the tumor. Throughout all of this we knew Mike was in God's hands and he still is. God doesn't want us to give up just because of this new news. I keep remembering "BUT GOD"... the statement Mike repeated over and over the last time he preached right before they found out he had the tumor. He told me last week that he loves red roses so I am posting the photo of the red roses I photographed in Hershey Gardens last summer. Keep praying for Mike, Lora and his parents... and little Gracie. My hearts desire is for her to be able to grow up knowing her Daddy.

It has been a good week back from Spring Break so far. I know I can make it to the end with the break I had. :)

Hold on tight to those you love and thank the Lord for what He has blessed you with. Always remember that we are nothing without Him. Off to grade papers and work on journaling in scrapbooks for the kids birthday party this weekend....

04/13/07

Spring Break..... aaaaahhhhhhhh..... I realize I have been off for a week now and haven't done anything with the blog but I just had other things to do that I haven't been able to do in a long time.

Let's see... since I blogged last a lot has happened. The kids celebrated their 7th birthday on April 1. I cannot believe how quickly time is flying. It is when I see babies or kids younger than they are do I realize just how fast they are growing up. They had a good birthday. We are having their "big" birthday next Saturday, the 21st. We all are looking forward to a fun time. The theme this year is Cinderella/Cars and should be a lot of fun. Speaking of that, I need to call and order their cake!!

I have now lost around 15 pounds...give or take a few ounces. I am finding I am becoming paranoid about what I eat and I need to stop that. lol I just don't want to be what I was anymore. I have to be careful because it surely does come back on you faster than it does to take it off!!

This week has been so wonderful.

Last Thursday I took photos of my best friends daughter for her Junior/Senior banquet. I thought they turned out beautiful and they did too. :) I was happy I could do that for them. I also took those photos of her daughter to give to her for her birthday. I gave them to her on Monday when they came over for her birthday supper and she LOVED them. (in fact, she teared up a bit) That made me SO happy because I was nervous and wondered if she would like them.

Wesley got sick last Thursday with a fever and kept it all day Friday and into Saturday. I took him to the doctor on Saturday and he had double ear infections. It seems he has seasonal allergies and the gunk stays in his head and leads to this mess. That seems to be the reason he has had such a sick winter. We are now starting him on some preventitive allergy medication. I hope it makes things better for him.

This past Monday we went with my Daddy to Siler City to the Stockyard. He took some cows to sell for someone and then we got to eat cheeseburgers. They make THE BEST cheeseburgers. We all had one and then Daddy went and got another one for us to split. I figured I could cut my calories elsewhere that day... this was a treat. It was great to be with Daddy and Mom and the kids loved it, too.

On Tuesday I went to our Youth Pastor's house (the one that was diagnosed with the brain tumor but the Lord is healing) and took photos of his almost 9 month old daughter. I have been wanting to do that for some time for them, but between his radiation treatments and other medical needs and then school and my kids being sick, I didn't want to interfere. Since I was on break I was able to go and it was wonderful. That baby is the sweetest thing and I had a blast taking photos of her. She is just precious. I took over 200 and liked about 40. Many were repeats of the same thing but you have to do that because you may think one looks great and get it back home and it is actually blurry. The one I am showing is one of my favorites of her. I also turned this one to a black and white. I am learning... I am also learning how to work things in PhotoShop. I ran all of her pictures through PS to make sure they looked like I wanted. I sent them an email with a few of my favorites in them. They were tickled and couldn't wait to get the CD with all of them on it. I gave that to them on Wednesday night at church and I am also going to help them order the ones they want. It made me feel good to know they loved them.

Tuesday night the kiddos spent the night with Mom and Dad and stayed most of the day Wednesday. That enabled me to get their scrapbooks "caught up" and ready for the party. I worked on them most of the day. I haven't gotten the family scrapbook caught up to right now, but it is at the first of this year which I feel is good. I am now in the process of journaling. I worked on that most of the day yesterday and got about halfway done. I am now on Christmas which is a lot. I feel much better about it.

Today we have been cleaning. I cleaned up the dining room some....vacuumed it and mopped it, too!! It looks the best it has in a year!! Of course, my scrapping stuff is still all over the table, but I can't let that bother me. I have to leave it out in order to get it done. I just feel better knowing this house is cleaner.

It is amazing how much less stress I have felt this week. It has been nice to take things slowly and not be on the "go" so much. We have slept in late, but not too late, and I have enjoyed just being around home. I have papers to grade but haven't touched them yet. I have just gotten so burnt out that I didn't want to even think about using a red pen...

Well, I am off to fix some lunch for us. My house is cleaner and I am needing to take a shower and wash some clothes, too. Enjoy this day the Lord has given!!

03/27/07

Our first tulips have begun to bloom!! I took these today. Miss Mikayla saw them as we were coming up the driveway from school. I told her she had good eyes!! This was the only one blooming but there are a couple that will probably be blooming tomorrow. We (actually, STEVE) planted our daffodils and tulips last fall. We have both wanted more color up around the house. He also planted some iris and I am looking forward to seeing them bloom. I wasn't as pleased with the first one but the second one had nice color. :) I find that intense colors of red, pink and yellow can be very hard to capture correctly. They do not give much contrast. I love me some contrast with whatever I am photographing. lol To me the petals on the first one are so drab. I couldn't get them to look right in Photoshop, either. Of course, I know they aren't an intense green anyway. Oh well... continuing to learn.

Steve has to have some minor surgery tomorrow so I won't be at school after 10:00. I want to go be with him. It isn't anything serious but I didn't want him being without me. I would definitely want HIM with me if the shoe were on the other foot. I'll be a nurse for a day tomorrow. Of course, knowing my record with nursing he may not want me doing that. hee hee I am not the best when it comes to thinking quickly on your feet in medical situations. lol

I am off to hang up clothing. Laundry is never done is it? Have a great one!

03/26/07

I actually did go out and take some photos yesterday. I wasn't fully pleased with a lot of what I took but got a few good shots. Here are some of the daffodils since I talked about those in my post yesterday. I tweeked a couple of them in photoshop because they needed some "pop" help. LOL The up close ones didn't get any help but the first one did. I am enjoying working with Photoshop... learning lots but still have lots to learn!!!

Today was back to work. It was a good day but busy. Of course, what day isn't!!? I am about to go watch Dancing with the Stars. I got started watching that last week so I guess I'll see how they do tonight. I can't dance worth anything so I really have no right to say who can and can't dance. ha!

Enjoy the pictures of the daffodils! Have a great day!

3/25/07

My word...I have taken entirely too long to post once again. Geesh. This is a picture from last year of our Hawaiian bush in the back yard.

Life has been one big blur but we are getting closer and closer to Spring Break!! I am SO glad of that. I am looking forward to some down time and catching the scrapbooks up for the kids birthday party in less than a month now. I sent out the invitations this week and am hoping everyone got them. I know how the mail can be sometimes!!

I weighed myself on Thursday.... I have now lost 12 pounds!!! I was SO excited and did the happy dance when I told Steve. I can definitely tell a difference in my clothes and people have started asking me if I have lost any. It is nice to finally say I have. My problem now is that most of my capris and such are getting too big. Good problem but an expensive one. lol

I have been working on taking photographs of more children. This time I have done an 8 month old. I have forgotten just how much they move. ha! I knew it would be busy and hard to capture but it really was a challenge. It was good to work with him, though, because it continues to teach me. I have so much more to learn. Especially of keeping my camera still yet being able to move about and capture the expressions of the children. That is why I hate a tripod. I know I need to start using one, but I am still resisting. Especially when it comes to taking photos of people.

You know how last year I was absorbed in taking photographs of God's creation? I am finding that I am not doing that as much this spring. I am truly enjoying the beauty but not flying outdoors with camera in hand to take another photo. I guess I feel that everything around my house has already been taken before and I don't want to be stale. We have some daffodils springing up but since it is the first year for them they are still spread apart. When I see areas that have groups of them I will probably take photos again. I just didn't feel like my photos of those last year were all that great. Of course, now that I am writing about it I am feeling the need to at least go and try taking photos of them. LOL It would definitely be a stress reliever. I am finding I am extremely happy when I have my camera in hand. Not that I am stressed when doing other things I love (scrapping, teaching) but there is something therapeutic to me about taking a photograph.

Mikayla got to have a play date for most of the day yesterday and had a blast. Steve worked, I took pictures of the 8 month old and Wesley had to hang out with me. It was a beautiful day but I couldn't get over how HOT it has become. I am not ready for summer just yet!!

Last night was our school's auction and I had put in my photography for the Silent Auction. It got around $140 and I thought that was pretty good seeing as I am not a professional...as well as people have no clue that I do this. hee hee I am now anxious to find out who bought it and to set up a time. This is all happening in an amazing way and I am just allowing the Lord to direct my path. I want to do well. I don't think I mentioned before but I have been asked to photograph a small wedding in July!! It is for friends of ours from church/school and I was blown away when they asked me! I am nervous about it, but the Lord has been putting information about weddings in my path so I know He is helping me. I'll need to go practice in the church beforehand to see how the lighting will be. Boy, am I nervous.. Someone's special day isn't like a photograph you can re-take. This is a once in a lifetime event.

Well, the sun is beginning to go down so maybe I will go out and take some photos... I'll enjoy the rest of the day the Lord has made. I pray you are enjoying the day the Lord has given you, too.

03/09/07

I am posting pictures of Wesley's tractor I took a few weeks ago. This is when I was trying to think outside of the box. I find I am still in the box even when I am trying to be out of it. I am so linear. LOL

I weighed myself yesterday. I finally did it and found out I am now up to 9 pounds!!! I did the happy dance. :) It feels good to know I am shedding some of these I have acquired. ha! Steve was really tickled for me. I can tell it in some of my clothes. It is a nice feeling.

Mikayla Girl has a fever. We were going to go out tonight and do something as a family but when we got home Mikayla didn't feel well and had a 102.5 fever! I think she has a cold/viral thing going on. She perked up when she got medicine in her. I hope she sleeps well tonight.

We worked on cleaning the house some yesterday but tonight Wesley and I finished. I did Mikayla's part since she wasn't feeling well. It had been a couple of weeks since I was able to clean better so I was glad to do it. I haven't looked at the water in my Rainbow yet but I am sure it is horribly yucky. By the way... I love that vaccuum cleaner. I just love sucking up dirt now. ha!!

I don't have any papers to grade this weekend. I have actually tried to work hard at school this week and get them graded so I didn't have any at home this week. It has been like I am on vacation! It really is nice not having that hanging over my head and being able to enjoy my weekend a bit differently.

I plan on scrapbooking tomorrow. I think my brother is going to come down and work on his as well. I really have lots more pics to do so I have to get ready for the kids birthday party. It is in five weeks!

I am NOT looking forward to time change tomorrow night. I hate the spring forward. This really stinks knowing it is three weeks earlier. At least the kids will get used to it before their birthday and all. I think it is harder on MY body than it is theirs, though. ha!

Well, we are watching the ACC tournament so I guess I need to get back in there with Steve. We are cheering for State. I hope they win.

03/07/07

I am sure you all are singing "Oh where, Oh where has she gone this time? Oh where, oh where can she be....." I hear you loud and clear. Sorry, again, for the fifty millionth time. Life is just busy busy and not always time to stop and put my thoughts together.

I have been learning PhotoShop... and still have A LOT to learn, but did manage a few things this past weekend. I took some photos of the kids and then "tweeked" them a bit. I am still working on the eyes, but I felt they turned out pretty nicely. I will try to work on some more stuff this weekend. I bought black material to make a black background. I used it on these pictures with the kids. I liked it a lot. It gave me something to use to block out everything else.

Have I said that I have lost 6 pounds??? I am proud of myself and it is all through changing what I eat. Actually, I am not sure of how many I have lost up to date... this information is actually a couple of weeks old. Who knows, I could have gained it all back. ha!! I am chicken to get on the scale because I don't want to be disappointed in myself. Steve said he would go crazy if he didn't weigh all of the time. lol (Which, by the way, I am VERY proud of him because he has now lost 23 pounds!!!) Anyway, I can tell it in my clothing so that is nice. I really should weigh and get the "latest" but I will probably live in my 6 pound dream world a little longer. LOL You wanna know something crazy? I am actually getting to the point where I am craving carrots and celery... and right now I am looking forward to that apple dipped in some peanut butter!!! I still have to have my chocolate but am learning to ration it out and satisfy myself without overindulging.

Give me your thoughts on the pictures. I need to go eat that apple before it gets too late. :) Have a great day and I'll try to get back on here in the next couple of days.