Uh, can you say GORGEOUS?

  I had the BEST time today with my senior girl, Lauren. Not only is she stunning, she is nice too and game for anything I threw at her. Her mom, my future assistant lol, is precious and it is obvious that she adores her daughter. We even got a bite to eat and did more photos! I could have shot her all day long. I have to say, I was so excited to see these photos on my screen that I came straight home and got editing - thanks to my computer guru, I sailed through these. No wonder, either, Lauren is flawless :) I have LOADS of photos for our proofing session, but here are a few to peek at. Oh, and The Coffee Well in Gadsden, has the BEST Strawberry Cream smoothie, evahhhh!

  Enjoy your sneak peek girly!

:( Stinkin' Hornworms...

   Ok, so I have been round and round with the "hornworms" for several seasons. I hate to use chemicals, and always tell myself that if I am diligent, I can keep them off of my tomato plants. WRONG. Those things are commandos! They are covert. And bottom line is they are GROSS. They are eating, nay, stripping my tomato and my pepper plants. I salvaged a couple fruits from my tomato plant. I had to hijack them before they ripened. So sad. We love garden fresh veggies. Could be worse I suppose.

This is pretty much all that I harvested. Pretty puny. Lol. Oh I will savor it. But officially I am hating on the hornworms.

Oh the wonderful things that make not so wonderful things...well, wonderful!

   I love taking photographs. LOVE IT. Love seeing it turn out right, turn out beautiful... I do NOT love doing that through a 12 year old computer. OH. MY. GOODNESS. On this side of this blog, often, is a hysterical maniac. Hating my computer. HATING IT. For months I couldn't justify getting a new one just because my old was doing the work. But it was certainly doing it slowly. Sputter sputter, break, crank, sputter sputter, break. BOOOOO. Who wants that sort of thing making you lose your creative mojo? I don't. On one of my typing hands is a realist. I know that in order for me to be joyful and profitable, the dinosaur HAD TO GO. On the other typing hand is a notorious tight wad. I was at an impass. I have a wedding coming up. Weddings equal loads of images. RAW images. Raw images equal hours to load on the dinosaur. Hours. Cooler heads (mine) prevailed, and not only a new computer ~ complete with HD monitor, came to live at my house, but a new program as well. A little thing called CS5. Some of you lucky dogs may know it, I certainly don't. But am I tickled to be learning it? Uh, yeah!

   Goodbye, sort of faithful dinosaur. You have been my constant companion these many years, and most often my constant complaint. However, you did the job, and got what needed to be done, done. The next office companion on the chopping block ~ the printer that gives me an error every time I use it. Or should I say, every third paper ~ JAM. Error. JAM.

What is that ONE thing?

   I was having this discussion with my husband (who is awesome and can do anything ~ there is his "plug" for being a manly man who can fix anything) a couple of days ago. What is that one thing that if you have it, you feel like everything is ok? It goes without saying, for our family, Jesus is a shoe in. So BESIDES the gift of salvation, what is it? Well, for me it is flavored liquid coffee creamer. And it can be generic (WalMart has a lovely chocolate raspberry). Thats it! We could have a week, and we HAVE, that there is no extra money, and you look at each other and say "Hey man, we can't spend a cent this week until Friday". And it is tight! NO wiggle room, you feel like your elbows are pinned to your sides. But, if I have a good cup of coffee with my fancy flavored liquid creamer, all is going to be just fine. I have flavored creamer! THAT IS A LUXURY! I take my coffee without sugar, and just the fancy pants creamer. I am staunch that it is best with liquid creamer. My honey likes it with powdered, and it doesn't have to be flavored, but he does love the hazelnut creamer. It is just one of our many differences :)   
   I asked Jim what his "one thing" was. And he said FOOD. lol. And being his wife, his partner in life, I know that means cheap junk snack foods. That is what 14 years together gets you lol.

The McIntyre Family

   Introducing my "Monday Family". I went through school with Ben, he was in my first grade class. It's worth mentioning here that my mom loved me so much that she didn't send me to kindergarten :) and obviously, I "did no" preschool. Whatever her reasons for not sending me, I enjoyed chillin' at home my "k" year. My first grade teacher was Mrs. Bilinski. She was super nice, and I think all the first grade girls were crushing on her husband. There is a point to my story. Have you ever had something just for no apparent reason stick out in your mind? Well, I do. And to the best of my recollection, Benji McIntyre wore brown boots, a green (and possibly yellow striped) turtle neck with khaki short overalls, I have a strong feeling that it was the first day of school. LOL. I was probably so SHOCKED at being in school at all that I picked up on his nice outfit. Go figure, that's weird isn't it?
   Ben is now all grown up and married to a lovely woman, with two sweet kids. He bravely serves his town as a police officer. And that means his wife and kids are brave too. It was very nice for me to briefly catch up with them, and photograph their family. Baby girl was a hoot, and no shrinking violet. And the kids got along so well ~ uh, no cat fights? We have 3 girls. Drama drama drama.

Some work, and lots of play...

   We are home again, after a week long (but never long enough) visit to Indiana. My gorgeous cousin graduated and we couldn't miss the open house! Time sure does fly. We had a few friends and family that needed family portraits done before we left, so I got to couple work with play. Loads of fun! Indiana has had a ton of rain, so my usual spots would be hard to get to. Lucky for me though, this family in particular ~ I'll call them my "Friday Family", has a cool house. Lots of baby energy in this house! I got my baby fix (a few times over, there were a LOT of babies on this trip).
   Angie is my cousin. Angie is the hot mama of this house! It had been such a long time since I had seen her last, and as life does, it has a way of getting away from you, meandering down the "long and winding road". Our birthdays are side by side (which we both just celebrated). And we have both encountered deep loss and immeasurable gain. We love our babies, and love God. So even though we haven't seen each other in a long while, we are traveling on that same road, where we meet up occasionally, and it is the same as it was, regardless of the journey. Love you, and your precious family :)