New Babies in Life

I haven't posted anything lately because of how crazy my life has been.  After the funeral and all my family went back to work, I concentrated on finishing my remodels and moving myself and my son into our new home!!!!  We have officially been here now for 19 days and it's wonderful.  I'm still not all the way unpacked and that's why I haven't posted any pictures yet, but that is coming very soon.

These pictures were taken a few weeks back of a very special little baby girl.  As a gift to her mother I volunteered to take a few newborn pictures of them.  Our day went very well and I'm really happy with the way they turned out.  She is a beautiful baby and one of the sweetest little ones I've been around in a long time. 

All dressed up and nowhere to go.

Snoozing in the sun is one of my favorite things to do as well.

We forget just how precious new life is until we are in the presence of it.

There is nothing sweeter in the world than the love of a new mother to her child.

And these two beautiful ladies were a match made in Heaven.

Thank you girls for a very precious afternoon!

Ok, now, catching up with the latest.  Remodels on the house are all complete except the master bath and for now I'm just going to keep the door shut and not go in that room.  My father is not available at this time to finish it so me and my Lil Man are sharing a bathroom until Dad is home again and I have more money! 
Everything with the boyfriend couldn't be better... he has actually taken a new job which requires him to travel and at the moment he is in Oklahoma and about 430 miles away. :(  This doesn't exactly thrill me, but we will have to make the best of it for the time being because it's a great opportunity and something he really wanted. 
Work is totally NOT the same ol' same ol' right now..... It's anything but that!!  My boss has recently sustained an injury to his shoulder and will be out recovering for another 4-6 weeks!  Life at the office has drastically changed, but with the grace of his wonderful wife, and the patience and understanding of our patients, we are going to be just fine until he can return and go back to work.  We are still working on switching everything over to electronic health records, which is very exciting, but with the change in schedule it has definitely added it's own amount of stress.  I am so thankful for our summer holiday time coming up next week.
Which brings me to my last bit of news, me and my Lil Man will be going on a week long vacation with my best friend and her daughter to Lake Michigan!  YIPEEEEE!  I've been excited about this since Christmas when we planned it and it's almost here.  We will leave Saturday morning for the 12 hour drive to Lakeside, Michigan and then stay 5 nights at a relative of hers' cabin.  Almost six days of nothing but swimming, fishing, sun bathing, cooking, and relaxing while the kiddos play.  I'm in desperate need of this break.
Pictures will be coming when we are back home!     

Moving Fast Life

I feel so overwhelmed.  Why is it that for a fairly simple woman with a fairly simple job in a fairly simple life, I can get to this point where I'm so exhausted and overwhelmed with everything left to do in a day's or week's time that I'm about to just lose it and shut down?????  I guess I'm putting too much on myself but... pheeewwww! 

For starters, it's been an emotional month.  So much has happened with work and my secretary being gone a lot due to her own personal chaos, then closing on my house and renovations beginning, and then everything that has happened with our close friends and them losing their son.  Just one thing after another happening in my world and I'll admit it... I'm a little bit of a control freak and all of those things happening within a few weeks of one another has left me feeling a little out of control and so what can I say.... my panties are a little twisted because of it.  Not to mention the emotional strain all that puts on a person. 

Tomorrow will officially mark 8 days until I have to be out of my apartment and there is just sooooo much I still want to do to the house before all of our stuff is put into it.  I have the help of my wonderful boyfriend and will have my parents this weekend, but it's almost more than we can accomplish in 8 days plus make time for the actual move.  YIKES!!!!! 

But tonight I'm in the apartment letting my Lil Man stay up a little longer watching his cartoons and underneath all this overwhelmed anxiety plus exhaustion, I'm really excited and becoming more proud everyday of what I'm moving towards.  The house couldn't be more perfect for what we need right now in our lives and once I'm finished with a few touch ups, it'll look brand new and be worth more than I paid for it.  And that's what it's all about.  I know I'll feel better soon!

Loss in Life Again

Less than a year ago I posted a letter of sympathy to a family in my hometown because their son had been killed unexpectedly in a car accident.  I didn’t really know that boy personally but he graduated high school two years ahead of me and his father owns a local drive-thru restaurant that is well known.  My heart ached and my prayers went out to these people that I had only seen in passing because the thought of the same thing happening to me or my family was just unthinkable.  But, as everything does, it very quickly became a memory and everything was normal again in my thoughts.  Very unexpectedly and devastatingly this has happened again, and so, this post is another heartfelt letter to a family that is grieving unimaginably right now for a loved one that has been called home to be with our Lord a little earlier than us down here on Earth would’ve liked.    

As painful as this is for me to write, I feel an even bigger  need to express my heart broken condolences because the young man who has passed is the youngest son of my parent’s best friends and my father’s right hand man on the pipeline job they’ve been on for the past two months.  This past Saturday, in the early hours of the morning, he was killed in a tragic car accident in Pennsylvania.  My weekend and so far, week, has been in an upheaval ever since we all heard this news Saturday morning.  My mother immediately drove home from Oklahoma, and my father drove home on Sunday after taking care of the business that he could, so that they could both offer all their support to this young man’s parents.  It’s not like it’s our family but it’s the next closest thing.  My father has brought the personal things that he had home with him to give to the parents of this young man and we are planning a funeral for tomorrow morning.  This is going to be very hard to overcome.  Especially when life must go on and everyone will have to go back to where they need to be and continue whatever they are obligated to… work….children…or life in general.  For me that is always the hardest thing to do because it doesn’t seem right without this person being there to go back to normal with.  It just doesn’t seem fair. 

As far as my immediate family is concerned, this is one of the closest incidents to us where we have experienced a devastating loss.  We are so truly blessed in this aspect, but when faced with having to witness this level of grieving among people that we love and treasure, the stress and heartbroken pain is just almost unbearable.  Our thoughts and prayers for strength and guidance are with this entire family.   

To BKG: Your presence here on Earth is going to be so greatly missed that we may never fully recover.  A part of our hearts will always feel a void where you were in our lives.  Why this happened we do not know, but as you sit at the feet of Jesus Christ and  spend all of eternity singing and rejoicing in the holiness of our maker, our Heavenly Father, our Savior, we will be missing you,… but only with an anxious awaiting because one day soon we will again see your beautiful face and join you with the Angels in exquisite reverence of our Lord for all the rest of our days.  Until then, we will honor your life and the memories you left behind in our hearts.            

House Hunting Life

Hello on this beautiful Sunday morning!  Church services were awesome today, I am so blessed to have a great place to go to and worship and praise my Lord. 

I have another small bit of news that I haven't shared yet because I've been a little wishy washy about it... For about the past two months I've been house hunting and as of last Tuesday I finally found the house that I want, located in the place that I wanted, and I put an offer in on it and the seller accepted!!!!  We are now under contract and scheduled to close in about two weeks!  I'm so excited and anxious all at the same time.  My mind is just reeling 24/7 with all these ideas and plans that I have for this little house.  Pictures will be coming soon.  It's going to be perfect for myself and my Lil Man and hopefully for my future family when we make that decision.  I definitely have lots of work to do within the next month of painting, and cleaning, and then packing, and moving that it's going to be a ruff one but I'm ready.  And hopefully, if all continues well, I'll be having a house warming party shortly after Memorial weekend!!! :) Yeah! 

As for everything else in life, things are going pretty much the same.  As much as I love Spring and the upcoming Summer I hate that I have allergies and battling them everyday is never any fun.  Thanks to the holistic lifestyle I lead and the whole food supplements I take I'm able to combat my runny nose and itchy eyes without doing any shots or serious prescription medication. But I still have mornings like today where I sneezed and sniffled all through church. 

I think this is one of my favorite roses that my secretary brings from her garden.  I love the peachy color and the ruffled petals!  So beautiful!

  

April Life

Just a few recent pics... easter/a family/flowers

My handsome Lil Man!!  Easter was spent up in Oklahoma, which is where my Mother and Grandmother are working right now, with our family.  We had a blast but the seven and a half hour drive was not the most pleasant of things.  I was thankful for the three day weekend. 

Now that picnik.com is officially closed down I have had lots of fun playing around on a new site that is similar called picmonkey.com. 

This precious family was an absolute joy to photograph.  They live in Oklahoma and just so happen to be in need of some up to date family pictures while I was there.  Thank you for allowing me the privilage to capture this time in your lives for you!  :)

Now that Spring is finally here my secretary and her garden are at work every morning to make me smile.  I'm so thankful for the beauty she brings with her everyday!  (Herself and her roses!!!)

My Busy/Love Life

There are no words to describe how busy I feel these days.  My blog posting history proves I've been lacking in the "free time" that I dedicate to myself.  So, let me take a few moments... on my lunch break... to go back and fill you in. 

My last post was seniors pics, before that was the beginning of spring, and before that was the announcement of my boyfriend!  :)  That's what I'm going to talk about.  Things are wonderful and within the past four months we have taken two major turns that have just about thrown me for a loop.  To be completely honest, and I guess I should be, we've been seeing each other since last August.  I'm the one who refused to admit to being in a relationship until Christmas.  And let me explain... I simply didn't want everyone up in my personal business when I wasn't sure how it was going to go.  We live in a small community where we've both been almost our entire lives and we know a lot of people.  I just wasn't ready to go through all of that blah stuff until I felt more secure and stable in my feelings for him. 
So, Christmas rolls around and he finally convinces me to announce that yes, it's official, we are in a committed relationship.  Doing this was a relief.  Our families were supportive and excited!  We've been having a blast since then.  He has a daughter and I have my son and up until this point we've sort of created this little distant family that spends time together and sees each other when we all can. 
Now, like within the last week, turn number 2 has happened and the big M word has finally surfaced.  Marriage.  Forever.  Long-term.  New house.  Babies!  These are all the things that have been discussed and decided on.  I'm very happy and almost giddy to be writing this but I have to get it out... I'm in love and it's time to start planning our future!  Hot Tamales!  Holy Cow!  I still haven't processed this all the way, but ready or not I can't keep letting my past scare me into doing nothing because I'm so afraid of failing again. 
My mother asked me the other day what more I needed my boyfriend to do in order for me to fall more in love with him?  What more did he need to do for me to find him more desirable?  What more could he do in order for me to trust him more?  How much more time did I need to go by before I feel that I can't be without him?  I don't have an answer to any of these questions because there's not one.  He's already done and proven everything that he had to.  I'm in love with him, for who he is as a man on the inside... the way he holds my face when he kisses me is just an added bonus!!!!! :)  Nothing but myself is holding me back.  I've really spent a lot of time praying for guidance and clarity as to whether or not this is who I'm meant to be with and so far everything has fell into place and looks to be moving towards forever.

No, he has not proposed yet, but I'm pretty sure he's made a visit to a certain local jewelry store!!!! Shhhhh, that's between us!  :)  I'm not 100% sure what my future holds, but I'm 99.9% sure.    

The End of a Life Phase

Senior Portraits 2012

~One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. 'Which road do I take?' she asked. 'Where do you want to go?' was his response. 'I don't know,' Alice answered. 'Then,' said the cat, 'it doesn't matter.'~            Lewis Carroll

"The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do" - Sarah Ban Breathnach

"Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground" - Theodore Roosevelt

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle" - Einstein

"I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul" - Ernest Henley

"If you haven't the strength to impose your own terms upon life, you must accept the terms it offers you" - T.S. Eliot

Thank you so much Senior of 2012 for the privilege of documenting the end of this phase in your life with these beautiful pictures.  I wish you all the best and hope you succeed in everything you do!