Can't believe it

We have our plane tickets for our trip to Europe this summer. :) We are flying into Paris, spending 3 nights, taking an overnight train to Florence, Italy for 3 nights, and then going to Rome for 3 nights and coming home from there. Even though we've been talking about this since we met practically, it doesn't seem real. I'm so excited!! We are going in late July for 10 days. My boss approved my extended vacation, we've marked those days off of our business calendar and are making the rest of the plans for the trip now. It's a lot harder planning a trip to a different country but I know everything will turn out great.

We had a sweet wedding yesterday in Knoxville. The couple met in PT school and were reffered to us by another PT couple we shot last year. We found we really like this group of people. They are a lot of fun and all seem to have their priorites in order. I loved the fact the bride put on her garter and said "I don't like how this feels, I'm not wearing this" and she took it off, that was it. So many brides would freak out and make someone go try to find her a new garter last minute or something.... They had some of the sweetest vows I"ve heard (they wrote their own) and they both had most of the congregation crying with them during the ceremony. It was the type of couple and day that really makes us feel lucky to do what we do. To share a day with people when love, family and friends surround them and get to document those emotions for them feels like such a previledge and more meaningful than sitting behind a desk all day. Even if we did get home at 1 in the morning this morning. :)

That's all for now folks.

Happy Easter!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter. We've had a nice relaxing day taking a nap after church. I have yummy food in the crock pot for dinner and am enjoying the beautiful weather.

We found out friday that G's sister is having a GIRL!! We are all excited. Now we just have to wait for Lauren's announcement and we'll know what's on their way in August.

Yesterday I felt like making cookies and doing something different so I spent a while flipping through my books. I remember making pinwheel cookies with mom one time and I wanting to make those, but the only pinwheel recipies I could find included dates or nuts that couldn't be excluded so I decided I would come up with my own recipie. I used a pinwheel date recipie for the cookie part but for the topping I combined brown sugar, cinnamon, and a little nutmeg and ground cloves. I spread it over the cookies and rolled, then put in the fridge just like I had put down a date topping. Well a couple hours later when i got them out to cut them up something dawned on me. All of the recipies that involved pinwheels had a wet topping and I had created a dry one, so when I was cutting them everything was falling apart. I did my best to salvage them and my second log was not quite as bad. They actually did better after I cooked them - they stuck together more, although barely. They taste good though, kind of like shortbread with cinnamon. Anyway, that was my adventure for the weekend.

Talk to you all later!

Some new favorite lyrics from my new Nicole Nordeman CD.

Someday all that's crazy
All that's unexplained
Will fall into place

And someday all that's hazy
Through a clouded glass
Will be clear at last

And sometimes we're just waiting
For someday

We are born with a lingering hunger
We are born to be unsatisfied
We are strangers who can't help but wander
And dream about the other side

Every puzzle's missing piece
Every unsolved mystery
More than half of every whole
Rests in the Hands that hold you for someday.

Someday...

A funny book, A new space, Recycled books, and being on tape

I haven't had an update to anything in a while so I'm combining all my latest events into 1 email.

I'll start with the recent book I finished. "Julie and Julia" which is this funny book about a woman who is 29, married but no kids, working a temp job as a secretary and feels like she's in a slump in her life. So she decides to cook every recipie in Julia Child's "mastering the art of french cooking" in a year and starts a blog about it. It was pretty funny and by the end of the year she was becomming famous and ended up with a book deal. A lady at work handed it to me one day and told me I needed it to read it. Language is not that great in it so I wouldn't recommend it necessarily - but it was amusing.

We rearranged our living room! We decided we wanted a change so we rotated our couch and rug so that when you walk in the door the little chair is in that corner and our couch now separates the living room from the dinning. It's nice to face the front window now that it's getting prettier outside and we have more light. It's a nice change. I'll get some pictures and post them.

Las weekend we also cleaned out mt. boxalot in our garage. We were barely able to get all of the boxes (broken down) and the stack of books that we were taking to the trading book store into both of our cars. We made it to the recycling place in time before they closed and filled up their cardboard container with all of ours! Then we went to McKay's book store which is fabulous! We took in the equivalent of 2 boxes of books we didn't want and got 80 bucks! If we just wanted store credit we could have had 140 bucks in credit, but we'd rather have cash. We also bought the second and third Pirates of the Carribean - both under 10 bucks. Used, but in good condition. I also got Nicole Nordeman's new CD which I've been wanting for a while for only 8 bucks. A very sucessful trip!!

Being on tape. Okay, today I was suppose to drive to NC for a meeting but my boss went instead so I was sent to have a video shot about some of our new products. My boss wrote the script which was about a minute (although felt like 5) and I got to this fancy studio where I had someone do my makeup, help me pick out which shirt looked best and then ran through like 15 takes before I did it with no mistakes. I was soooo nervous. I had a hard time calming down and getting into what I was reading, but over time I got better and I think it turned out alright. It was my first time in front of video so hopefully if I have to do it again I won't get so nervous. Once it's done I'll send the clip to you all.

That's about it. We are busy with photo shoots, and spring cleaning/organizing but looking forward to nicer weather. We are also enjoying all of the rain. I may be able to keep my flowers alive this summer. :)
Hope all is well with you all.

Got Shoes!

Saturday I took Lauren's advice and headed to the store, which you all know I love so much. I figured I can research online all I want, but I want a shoe that feels good on my foot so on I went.

I ended up buying a pair of Clarks. These were candidates a number of times, but it wasn't until I tried them on did I fall in love with them. Sooo comfortable.

Then I headed to the clearance rack and ended up with 3 more pairs!! They all were under 20 bucks (except for the clarks). I think this will take care of my shoe needs for quite a while! Maybe this is why I don't go shopping much... I have no self control. :)

pulled the trigger

I ordered 5 &  6 and will try them on and keep the one I like the best.  I ordered them on Zappos which has free shipping and free returns... makes it easy to try them on and send them back!

Thanks for all of the input!!  Even though I didn't pick them, I do like bows on shoes.  :)

looks alone

What do you think?

not much

going on here...

We shot a wedding yesterday - it was very pretty. The ceremony was at Berry college at the Frost chapel which is like 100 years old and all stone. It was very pretty however we didn't have much time for photography, but we did the best we could. The reception was downtown and reminded us a lot of our reception. It was all done by 6 so we went and had Japanese there in Rome before we came home. Today we've been recovering and I did laundry - nothing exciting. Oh, I did fix one of those "just dump it in your crock-pot and it's done 8 hours later" and it was pretty good - chicken and noodles. I made biscuits to go with them and the combination was really good.
I've spent a couple hours researching comfortable dress shoes today. I need something with a heel, but not too big of one, and dressy for weddings. I also don't want thoses that look old-looking, some of those comfy one's look like grandma shoes. I found some Clarks, naturalizers, and some new one's called Fitzwell, Ecco, and Born. If anyone has any experience with any of these I'd love to know. I'm willing to spend a little more on these because I'm on my feet sometimes 10-12 hours shooting weddings, but need to look nice so they are a work investment for me.
That's about it for now!!