Earth Day

Let's take today to live a little cleaner, and make at least one "green" effort as we pass through our day. Think of the little things you can do, and carry those thoughts with you! If we all made one "green" change, then made that a habit and did it every day, think what a difference we could make!

An Outing.

Today I'm gonna break out the horse trailer, get Harley tacked up, and go for a trail ride with Dorothy. We're going to try one of the local parks here that has horse trails, additionally, it'll be Vincent's first experience with riding on back and not complaining!

I'll post back to let you know how it goes! Yay!

Sadie...

Please pray for this angel, the daughter of an acquaintance of mine and a friend of a good friend. Faryl and Nick, it was great to see you a few weeks ago, and please know that my deepest thoughts are of you and your family. Your story makes us all take a step back, and appreciate the blessings we have in our lives every day...

Work Pays Off!

This is the view from my front porch of my project from yesterday, and what is soon to be my new outdoor riding arena! We've been on the John Deere for several days non stop, bush hogging, grading, picking up stumps and logs and junk...

The property is starting to shape up, and I'm quickly realizing just how SANDY the soil is out here! There's actually a section on the south side of my lot that I am having a hard time getting the tractor through, it's almost like trying to grade the Dunes State Park or something. Good thing is, it's where the prospective barn is going to go, so that'll be good for drainage and everything else that goes along with horses and barns...

I'm really excited to get this project kicked off, because when May, June, and July hit, it's going to be wedding extraordinaire. Today we're having the Schnicks over for corned beef and cabbage... which I cook every year but didn't get around to on actual St.Patrick's day. Therefore, we're having a delayed celebration and are gonna let the kids play and stuff. I imagine Lee and I will get into the wine, at least a little :)

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! Stand by for some B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L weather next week! Yay! So stoked for spring!!!

Saturday Morning

I love lazy Saturdays. I have a few picture orders to organize and get done, an album to edit, but essentially nothing else to do today! I made the kids some french toast this morning with that yummy "Texas Toast" bread that you can't always find, we laid around a little, I'm cleaning in bits and pieces, and other than that, we're chillin! It's little Lauren's birthday party today, so we'll head to Valpo later to celebrate with them... yay!

Anyway. I think I'm gonna get busy checking my internets, sipping my coffee, and enjoying this relaxing day!

SUN!

We (I) have been waiting patiently around here for some gosh darn sunshine, and this morning it's here! I think I'm officially feeling the winter blahs so the weather today is a welcome break from the gray. Not only that but in my yearly mini celebration whereupon I hit "e-file taxes now" on my Turbo Tax program, I was boldly informed by the same that my taxes are not e-fileable. I guess it's worth it though to qualify for that homebuyer credit. Crap.

In other news, I think there needs to be a committee somewhere to tell the people who schedule the superbowl that a 5:30 kick off time is going to hurt viewership. Not only do some people have to work the next day - which is fine if you're NOT going to a party, or if you're not going to enjoy/celebrate... but a lot of us have these things called kids? Yeah, and their schools don't consider the day after the big game a holiday. Therefore, parties that would otherwise assemble will not. Not only that, but it'll be right about the middle to the early end of the game when it's time for supper (away from the tv), snack (away from the tv), bath (away from the tv), and other bedtime ritual stuff (away from the tv). And who likes to watch a DVR'd football game! Good thing the commercials are entertaining...

Well that's my mini rant for the day. Time to prepare my LAST wedding album from last season and start my planning for fast all the approaching weddings this year!

I finally got off my lazy butt...

Well, I think I'm *mostly* done getting the house together, finally. Yesterday I replaced my hideous plastic faucets in the bathrooms with ones I could tolerate. I've been working on photo stuff all weekend, but took some time to snap a couple of shots of the ol' casa in the midst of my busyness. Sorry about the poor quality. I reserve my best work for my customers :)

Here's a teaser, more can be seen on my facebook page!

 

 

 

 

Another Week Another Dollar

My friends from Dayton made a somewhat planned, somewhat surprise visit the the new crib this past weekend. Wendy called me up one day during the week and asked what I was doing on MLK weekend. I had remembered thinking that I didn't have anything to do on MLK weekend so I advised her accordingly. Little did I realize that MLK weekend was in a couple days! It all worked out, though, and it was a great visit, as always. We decided to meet halfway in Indianapolis for the day with the kids on Saturday. Figured we could indulge in a little "no so cheap" entertainment at the Children's Museum before journeying home.

We killed that... and the kids got throughly worn out. Of course, mine don't sleep in the car EVER so instead of sleeping away their exhaustion they just decided to fight the whole way home instead. Oh well. I'm used to that. By the way... where did these kids come from that won't sleep in the car? I don't get it.

We got home, had a super pizza, let the kids play, put the kids down (thank god) and then enjoyed a little adult conversation and adult beverage. They brought along their new baby, too, and it was great to see the youngest Young. So cute, and I've never seen such a non-crying baby.

We had a good visit and filled the weekend with fun stuff for all. Hope everyone else had a good weekend too!

Progress!

So, pics of the new house are forthcoming. I finally got my microwave installed and the television wires are run behind the wall (Thanks, Les!). Tonight I got some of the final pictures put up on the wall. I have a boat load of cleaning to do, and a few more trips to the crawl space, and I think I'm d.o.n.e. At least with the inside of the house, till spring hits. Then I will definitely have my work cut out for me out doors...

Until then, though, things are starting to look like a real actual house around here! I have guests coming from far away lands this weekend (Dayton, OH) so I figure I'll do a good cleaning after that's over, and get some decent pics taken.

Oh yeah. And I ordered my blinds, which is a good thing. Whomever said something about living in a glass house was right. I'm actually getting used to the thought that I'm exposing my home life to any interested party traveling down the street here. Scary. I hope those babies come in soon. By the way... blinds are expensive! Sheesh! Not only that, but it took over an hour to get them ordered and squared away at Lowes. And I thought I was making it easy by only ordereing one style, one brand, two different colors.

So that's my progress. I'm super excited about the microwave and my jump back into modern living. I can't even tell the number of times I actually prepared an entire plate of food and turned to put it in the microwave that wasn't there... lol...

Anyway. I'm gonna catch up on the internet that I've so been neglecting, listen to a little music, and enjoy this glass of wine I just poured... night all!

Too Funny!

I know I've spoken many times about my friend Amy, and how brilliant of a writer she is. Her blog always makes me laugh whether she's ranting or being funny... her words always seem to have something somewhat "magical" about them...
She directed me to a poem she wrote about post-holiday family life that I just HAD to link to. Check it out, it's worth a good chuckle.

Happy New Year!

Welcome 2010! We had a small (very small) get together here at the house last night. All 4 kids stayed up past midnight and celebrated with us. Their treat was some *amazing* Meijer Birthday Cake ice cream in a wine glass. They digged it and secretly so did I. Yum.

We made some appetizers and had beef sandwiches - talked and watched the official Chicago countdown. By the time we got cleaned up and everyone was organized it was nearly 1:00. Got the kids teeth brushed and they disappeared off to bed on their own while I was saying the goodbyes. By the time I found them (LOL) they were all tucked in and nearly asleep already! Nothing like a late night for bedtime cooperation!

So here's wishing everyone a happy and prosperous 2010! I know I'm looking forward to the changes to come...

Some Changes...

If there's anyone still interested in what I have to say here, if you're here and have been before you probably notice that there have been a few changes to the ol' blog. A few changes to the blog and a LOT of changes in my life.

Brian and I are getting divorced.

It came as a shock to a lot of people, including me, really, but it's happening. I'm not going to go into a huge dissertation about why the bottom fell out, I'm not going to erase old posts that show us as a family, I'm just going to carry on as this is just another challenge, another chapter in my life and in the lives of the kids that is now part of who we are and who we will become.

My friend Amy brought up a good point that I'd like to reiterate here... in that a lot of folks will call a divorce a "failure" of sorts, because the expectation of a "successful" marriage is till one of the two involved people dies. After all, it is "till death do us part.." isn't it? She brought up a good point, however, as we were talking the other day in that a marriage doesn't have to last until eternity to be successful. We had our success for sure without a doubt. And for a long time, we did have what I would consider a "successful" marriage. But those success began to fall apart and what was successful and fulfilling turned otherwise.

So, I guess the moral of the story, and probably one of the driving forces to cause me to rekindle this blog - and only make minor changes to it - is the thought that even though it has become unsuccessful, for a time (a long time) is was a success, and that I and we are not failures for this outcome.

This, too, shall pass and life will go on. I've been busy rebuilding my home, my life, my family, and myself. I'm fine (because I know that's the next question), and I will be fine. It's just gonna take some time getting used to this...

The End!!

My wedding season is officially over until at least March (as of now with my current bookings). I have a TON of pictures to process and post, a ton of albums to do, a ton of prints to order... but as far as generating more pictures - I'm pretty much done. I had a infant session scheduled tonight which went amazingly well, and have a family shoot scheduled for next week weather permitting. Then it's crunch time.

I plan on locking myself in my office for at least a week. Maybe more.

Hopefully now that the chaos is subsiding, I'll be able to get back to blogging and posting a little more frequently. So far next year, it looks like mid-year (May/June) is setting up to be my busy time *sigh*... at least I'm as busy as I want to be!!!

Well, I'm off do download some pics... and so it begins...

Happy Birthday, Little Miss!

We celebrated Jade's birthday early, and I'm posting this late, so I figured I'd even it all out that way! Actually, I have no excuse for posting this late... other than I've been crazy busy finishing up the last of my weddings and engagement sessions for the year.

Anyway, we had Jade's birthday party here at the house. Had a good time eating and visiting with our families, and Jade had a good time with her brother and her closest friends eating cake and enjoying her presents. She decided she wanted a "My Little Pony" birthday this year, after what seemed like hours of sitting online looking at different possibilities. It made it easy though, because My Little Pony stuff is pretty plentiful round here...

Here are a few pictures of the day - despite the little sty or whatever she had on her eye that week... I think they turned out pretty cute!!

Well, At Least I Won Something

I didn't win Powerball. Not the first time, or the 2nd go round either. Oh well. As my last post clarified, I'm really not all that bummed. But it would have helped...
I had my last (probably - unless I get really motivated in 2 weeks to do a show and pictures on the same day) horse show of the season on Sunday. It went well. I used the new Crosby, which apparently was the secret ingredient. I showed in a few hunt seat classes (Harley doesn't do hunt seat - it requires work...) and did great! We got a 4th in our first class out of 19 and a 2nd in our 2nd class out of 21 horses! After the break I switched to Western, and ended up getting a 1st in Western Pleasure out of only 7, but 7 of some of the most recognized names in the area. In fact, I won against a guy whose entire family trains horses and shows horses on the big Quarter Horse circuits... yay Harley! In all, I won about $100 dollars to boot. Minus the $37 I spent to enter, I actually came out ahead! And thanks to Brian for the snazzy new western show shirt. The one that was supposed to be my Christmas present :).
Here are a few pics of my new all-arounder!