Tuesday, May 22, 2012

[Sam Day] - Extraordinaire


   My husband moved us to Alabama in July of 2005 as he was transferred for his job. Shortly after our move we were invited by our neighbors to go to their church. This is where we met Sam. I actually met his sweet wife at a ladies bible study before visiting the church. Sam and Kim (and another of our great neighbors) came to our house to visit, and Jim and I accepted Christ that night. Sam pastored our church. There is a scripture in Esther that talks about being placed in a particular place "for such a time as this" (and every time I hear that scripture I can hear it in Veggie Tales voices lol). I certainly believe that God put us here, and Sam's family here for such a time as this. Jim and I were failing miserably at our marriage. And that fact that we are here, after 15 years shows without a doubt in my mind, that God is in control. It is far easier to LET him, than try to do it yourself. Our marriage has been renewed. Another phrase that comes to mind is "It takes a village". Yeah, it does. Without so many great marriages being modeled for us and friends lifting us up I couldn't tell you where we would be. Is it peaches and cream? HA! NO! But we're here, and strong. Only by God's grace.
    After a few years of living here and developing these great friendships with people, Sam and Kim have always been so dear to our hearts. Always a smile when we think about them. Genuinely super precious people. When we found out that we were expecting baby number five and that she wasn't well, we had more support than we could count or imagine, more prayers than we know throughout the whole pregnancy. The night I went into labor at 7 months, the first hospital I was taken to asked what kind of pastor I wanted (I am assuming they meant baptist, catholic, etc...). I said " I want MY pastor". And he was there in a flash. He stayed with us the whole time we were at the first hospital, through the news that Vivian didn't make it. We were then sent by ambulance to another hospital to deliver. As soon as she was born, Sam was there the rest of the day, holding her and just being more than he realizes. If you recall, we were transferred here, meaning, no family lives here. And she was born at 7 months - earlier than any of us anticipated, so no one was here. Sam was our family. He stood in that gap and was what we needed. Forever and ever that will be one of the most precious things someone has done for our family. Sam has also baptized me, Jim, Biggest, Middle and my dad. He is ALWAYS going to be OUR pastor - and it's going to be a strange deal for me to call him Sam (equally as weird to type it out) instead of Pastor Sam. Funny note - everyone calls him Brother Sam. We've always called him Pastor, and my dad calls him Preacher. Potato, Potahto :)
    God has had his hands on our family - and for the past seven years he has been using Sam as those hands. Now The Day's are moving to Tuscaloosa, Alabama so that Sam can be a pastor to the pastors in the Tuscaloosa Baptist Association. He has a title, lol, and I will get it wrong so I'm going to leave it at that. He has also written a book because he is awesome like that. The absolute least I could do for a send off is get some head shots for his back cover. And, ahem, I have been trying to get Kim in front of the camera with her man for quite awhile. I've been wearing her down successfully, because yesterday she relented. Love you Kimmy! One day we will get your kids in there too :)
   Prayers for rest after working overtime on my family Sam! Whoever else God puts in your path is in for a treat - they don't realize what they are in store for! Love you, Love you, LOVE YOU GUYS!






                               We were cracking up about lizards, and my lack of liking them.










Sunday, May 13, 2012

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

|Newsletter|

I have been wanting to do a newsletter for a long time now. It just never seemed like a good time. Things are finally falling into a groove and the timing feels right. Hopefully, those who subscribe will find it amusing, educational, and real. I will warn you, I have a tendency to "chase rabbits"...a lot. But it will definitely be REAL. Real about my personal and professional life. Real about the triumphs and the struggles of being a professional photographer - not just a photographer - the whole business side too.

Subscribers will get a first look at new projects, deals, tips, news, and tid bits. Lets see what we got!!


You can sign up in this post, or as always, at the bottom of the page!















Tuesday, May 1, 2012

O.M.D!!!

You read that right! Oh My DELICIOUS!!! Honey and I were up and gardening early this morning! Poor guy, re-tilled the empty part of the garden. We commiserated over the wilty ones :( Talked to our local pros about it at the garden store and they looked at us like we were dumb. I am surprised that they didn't give some sort of Gardens for Dummies book. Well I will just tell you, by no means am I pro gardener, I am amateur for sure...but I have HAD gardens before. And they did great. So I suppose it is just a wait and see, touch and go marathon with our little veggie plants. Hopefully they will rally and pull out of their funk. After talking to my mamma last night, she gave me all sorts of tips and hope. Mammas are good for letting you vent. My aunt also had gardening tips, and said that sometimes they will wilt and usually come out of it. Fingers crossed!

We went to the garden store and bought some more plants to fill out our garden. I cannot WAIT for everything to be ready! The girls are loving the garden already (typical kids - carefree, yada yada, while I am trying to keep everyone alive!) After that job was taken care of, I made honey some lunch before he had to get going to work... Here is where the Delicious part comes in. He wanted steak - so I did some onions and mushrooms to go with it. Wow! They were SO good!

~Onions and Mushrooms~

1/2 can of beer your choice
1 large sweet onion
1 styrofoam container of mushrooms (whole)
Montreal Steak seasoning (McCormicks)
Salt
Pepper
1 T butter

I sliced the onion, and separated all the rings into individuals. I halved and quartered the mushrooms. put them in a bowl, poured half a beer on them, a little salt, a little pepper, and some Montreal Steak seasoning. I let them sit for probably about 30 minutes while I got the steak prepared and marinated. Put them in a pan, juice included and sauteed them with a tablespoon of butter, on high, until most of the liquid was evaporated. Then I turned the heat down until the steak was done and everything had the done-ness I was looking for.

Delicious, for real. I used a light beer (I don't like beer to drink, but cooking with it is incredible!) but a darker beer would have been even better. And I used regular white mushrooms, but I adore bellas...


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