[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.

[50th Anniversary] gallery

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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.

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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...

Such a mixed bag!

Oh my goodness. I haven't blogged in what seems like an eternity. We have a ton of things going on here in both our day to day family life, to happenings in regards to photography. And all of that leaves me utterly crunched for time. An evening of down time is like a slice of heaven these days!

For years (seriously) I have been convinced that we as a family could live "off the grid". Oh yeah baby. Totally could. But alas, since we never make those critical first steps, we have settled on a garden. Let me tell you. This has been an undertaking! Should it be this way? Probably not. In my head, it should be pretty cut and dry - I mean, not to take it lightly because I know there is more to it than just sticking plants in the ground. However, after prepping our purchased ground ( yeah, that is correct. We had to buy dirt to plant stuff in...just like we had to buy grass because honey had to have a new mower...yet we had insufficient grass, so we had to buy some) we agonized over which plants to put in it. That is a bit dramatic, but almost completely true, at least on my part. Now as it is - 4 tomato plants, 3 pepper plants and an eggplant plant later, one of our tomato plants is wilty :(  I am beside myself. Tomatoes are supposed to be EASY! We have tried them in pots every year we have been here. Every year we get maybe 5...if we are lucky...little tomatoes. Right now, there is an umbrella shading this particular plant. And from the looks of it, the eggplant is going to need one as well. Why?! This honestly shouldn't be so difficult lol. Or upsetting! I will come to grips with it I am sure. But right now I just want to pull my hair out. Everyone else is doing superb. Hopefully those two will pull out of their wilty behavior soon.

Here is an image of my fella prepping our ground lol - I think both of us had grander images in our heads as to what our little patch will look like...

Last night Middle and Little were playing with sidewalk chalk. Middle practically begged me to come and look at how pretty the chalk was all crushed up. And said that I must give her credit for doing if it went online - so MIDDLE did it! I just love the feeling of summer in the air. It is SO refreshing.

And earlier in the month if you recall my last post, CharACTers put on the 100th anniversary show of Titanic the Musical. Now, some of the moms from Dreamcatchers and I decided that we would dress up themed with the show, in hopes that we would sell more raffle tickets. This of course is to raise money to offset the expense of the Disney trip our girls will take in June. The Dreamcatchers have been asked to perform at Disney World. The kids are all tickled. This photo was from the night we dressed up, taken by Biggest. She helped with my hair. Good news is we sold a LOT of tickets! Yay for super cool moms - right Holly and Michelle? ;) Love you ladies!

We are almost ready for Winnie the Pooh to open on May 10th. Set was painted - mostly - at a work day we had with the cast on Saturday. That will be a short show, and a short run, just one weekend. And super cute! We have been busy with rehearsals and whatnot for that.

Last but not least of course, is contemplation of homeschooling my three chickens. I have been praying about it, pounding all the negatives in my head, just so I won't be surprised. I know the positives will outweigh the negatives. But no doubt about the negatives...it will requires a LOT of sacrifice on my end.

We are almost to the end of school. Summer is upon us. Vacations are creeping around the corner. Senior portrait season is so close I can almost touch it. So what have YOU been up to?

P.S. Spellcheck picked up "wilty" as an error. It appears as though it is not a real word. But you get what I am saying ;) They aren't "wiltED" - not completely, they are "wiltY" - it is almost a state of mind...Now, to put some shade over eggplant!

[Titanic the Musical] 100 year anniversary!

   It amazes me that even 100 years later, a persons story can move you to tears. Multiply that by over 2200 people and it is overwhelming. That is what every person involved in this production of Titanic the Musical has been feeling. It is one of those stories that is a tragedy of course, and it is sad, absolutely. But that is just the "tip of the iceberg" until you delve into their individual stories. I am honored to photogragh this portrayal of the maiden voyage and tragedy of this floating city...especially on the 100th anniversary of it sinking. This is a great cast - as always. Not to mention the lovely costumes and the heartwrenching music. All of that said - what an INCREDIBLE show! It runs one more weekend. So if you are in the area, you won't be disappointed! Come see it!

[Buddha] & My 100th blog post!

   If you read my blog at all, you will know that I volunteer for the Humane Society of Etowah County, from time to time, photographing adoptable pets for their website. I donated a session to their St. Patty's Day fundraiser and Buddha's mom Deborah won the auction for it! It was a great night for the humane society and they raised a lot of money for the animals. Spending a good part of the morning with Deborah, Buddha and Tootsie (the precious rescue Pei) I got to know some really great individuals. It was so nice to meet all of them!

   So meet Buddha, a handsome, hunky fellow - a year old SharPei... He was quite fetching :)