Photography Class-Assignment #1

My SIL Amy is doing a Photography class on her blog and I'm going to do my best to participate! What that means after this crazy week is that I just spent 40 minutes taking pictures all around my house trying to get something to post because it's due tomorrow! Hopefully I'll have more time to get it done during the week next time and have more exciting (live) subjects!

This week's assignment is on using the rule of thirds. Here's the description from Amy's blog (and originally from Wikipedia)

The Rule of Thirds states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections.

So, here are a couple...

Photo Shoot...finally!

A few months ago we did a photo shoot with an old friend who now has her own photography business. She. Is. Amazing. I hadn't posted the pics before because enlargements were Christmas presents for lots of grandparents and I didn't want to ruin the surpise. So, now I'm free to share them and I hope you love them as much as we do! There are tons but here are some of my favorites! Check out Jessica's website if you're local and want her to take your pics!

www.jessicaalstonphotography.com

Update...

So, my life is insane right now so blog posts might be rare for a while. I have about 85 client contact hours to accumulate over the next few months in order to finish my 2nd (and final!) year of clinical work as a therapist. 85 hours is A LOT considering how many people with mental health issues don't show up or cancel appointments (not shocking, they are in crisis after all). So, in order to get all these hours I've had to add a 2nd clinical site, a 3rd day of work, and extend my hours at my original site. Add in 2 20 page papers and 2 2hour presentations over the next 6 weeks and I'm a tad overwhelmed. I'm trying to spend every other waking moment with Ella and Chris. So, if I seem MIA, that's why. Still here, just busier than normal.

God's been teaching me a lot that is really sustaining me through this time. For instance, He's been using the analogy of labor pains a lot to assure me that this challenging process is simply the "labor" before something amazing and new is "born" in me. There are things I'm learning and ways I'm growing and skills I'm acquiring through this process that could not be birthed in any other way. So the pain is worth it, as it always is with a baby.

Another thing God's been saying is through a verse Chris shared with me. It's in 2 Samuel 24:24 where David is talking to a guy named Araunah. Araunah offers to give King David some animals to sacrifice. But David insists that he "will not offer to the Lord something that cost [him] nothing." This really struck me. Do I want to offer God things that cost me nothing? Absolutely not. He is worthy of the best I can give. Counseling is a calling I feel He has clearly put on my life ("to preach good news to the poor...to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release the prisoners from darkness..." Isaiah 61:1). So as I offer this calling back to God as a ministry to hurting people, how much is that offering worth if it costs me nothing? If it was easy? If I could get it "cheap"? So, the sacrifices I'm making now are worth it if I'm able to offer God something with value in the end. When the cost feels great this verse reminds me that I would not want to offer anything less.

So, that's the update. Chris is uber-supportive and reminds me this is worth it when I forget :-) Thankfully my time away from Ella has only increased by one afternoon and she's spending that time with her cousins (thanks Amy!!) which she LOVES. This time will pass (by May God-willing!) but until then, trying to stay focused on truth and push through the "labor pains" and see what God has for us on the other side!

Williamsburg Part 2

Our lovely vacation involved lots of sitting around our timeshare playing games :-) Princess Yahtzee, Canasta, Sequence, and kids Monopoly were the favorites of the week.


One particularly freezing day we decided to venture down to Newport News and the Living Museum. It was part science center, part zoo, part aquarium. LOVED it.


These foul little creatures (mice) had JUST been born. Seriously minutes before. We weren't there for their big entrance but this was certainly enough to turn my stomach :-) Somehow my appreciation of God's creation is harder to muster on rodents.

We spent bunch of time in Colonial Williamsburg (CW) and on campus at W&M. It was too cold to spend too much time outside but we jumped from store to store and stocked up on 1/2 price christmas ornaments and W&M Tribe Pride attire.

Ella and I in front of my old dorm :-)


We made colonial Christmas ornaments at a museum in Colonial Williamsburg (CW). We're all quite crafty so it was fun :-)


Ella loved the candy store and picked a chocolate covered pretzel rod as her one treat among the mountains of candy.


One final shot of CW on our last night down there. We love you Williamsburg-we'll be back soon!

Christmas Day 2009

Christmas Day was also fun and we spent the whole day with Chris' family. Lots of people, lots of really good food, and lots of presents. By the time we left there were lots of people sleeping all over the house so clearly, a good time was had by all :-)

My adorable nephew Silas


Ping read the Christmas story in Chinese so her mom (who is visiting) could understand


All the kids got in on helping Mom-mom unwrap her Snuggie!

Somehow I lucked out in actually getting a seat on the couch before Brooklyn and Charlie took over



Jesus' Birthday Cake!

The 5 siblings together!

The sisters-in-law

the "married-ins" :-)

Nostalgia and Newness

The week after Christmas we took a trip to Williamsburg, the lovely home of my alma mater :-) I CANNOT believe I graduated TEN years ago. Insanity. But I digress. Even though I'm old and the college kids there look like middle schoolers to me, we love going back there. Chris and I dated for almost 2 years while I was there and have lots of great memories there. It's so sweet to have a place full of nostalgic, positive, fun memories that I can go visit and show to Ella!
Along with all the "old" things we do everytime we're there (Colonial Williamsburg, the campus at W&M, Cracker Barrel, Sal's etc.) we also tried some new things like an aquarium/zoo, Busch Gardens Christmas World, new shopping areas and the new, fancy movie theater :-)

Since we were having a really good, relaxing time we ended up being able to extend the trip and stay almost a full week instead of a few days. God really blessed the time with rest and fun renewed our spirits to start the new year.

Ella insisted on eating sherbert for her "treat" at Busch Gardens even though it was 40 degrees outside

We were all fascinate by this roller coaster and watched the whole time Ella ate her ice cream. Chris experimented with the camera and got some awesome, in-motion shots! That red blur is the coaster car with all the people in it!

We saw a Christmas Show with traditional Christmas music but freaky-monk-Darth Vader-like costumes

Once it got dark they turned on snow machines and thousands of Christmas lights!


The Sesame Street Christmas show was REALLY cute! (and we got to be warm inside for a whole 30 minutes!)

For some reason I really wanted my picture taken in this phone booth. Maybe my recent desire to go to Europe was aroused or something :-)

Ok, this is getting really long...more later!

Christmas Eve 2009!!

So, we are alive even though I haven't posted in weeks. The Holidays were a lot of fun and a much needed break from the challenging schedule we have during normal times. The festivities must be broken up into a few posts though so I'll start in chronological order with Christmas Eve with my family out at my Aunt and Uncle's river house. We had a GREAT time and even spent the night which Ella thought was super exciting :-)

Testing out the new game table

Even though she looks excited, Marissa actually lost at Texas Hold 'em big time (to me!!)

I had time for an artsy pic while we took a hiatus to clean up dog pee. Twice.

Ella had a good time getting Uncle Scott to read to her

This tequila bottle with a self-filling shot glass as a lid was quite the attraction when we started opening gifts!

Marissa may have liked the scooter more than Ella :-)

This is the look of getting a present you really wanted!

This is the look of getting a present that makes you tear up

This is the look of getting a present you didn't expect and don't totally understand but you know your cousins have it so it must be cool

And finally, New Pajama Joy!