bye bye laptop!

My new computer came in today. I actually have numbers that work! Pretty exciting!! Caleb helped to get me all set up although I still have some programs to re-install. I'm looking forward to some super fast editing on this one.

This past Saturday I was out in my studio to take Seth's 3 month pics. This was my first time meeting Seth! I took his big brother, Trip's 3 month pics 2 years ago. Time does fly doesn't it? This is one of the things I love about this job is to watch my client's families expand and meet each new member. Seth was all smiles, even if his big bro wasn't to excited to hold him:)


Last week, while it was still in the 90's my sister and I made a run out to Middle Grove to photograph some of the Horsemeister's horses. These horses look like a wild herd except that some of them would run right up to us and check out our cameras! I gotta admit I was a little nervous to take 2 cameras and 2 very expensive lenses into this huge herd of horses but thankfully everything is still in one piece. The horses were really beautiful, and even though it was HOT, a few of them still put on a show for us.




Tomorrow I'm doing yet another fabulous Herman House in East Peoria and the on Friday morning we are heading out to Norris to camp for the 4th of July weekend!!!!! I can't wait! Of course in the middle of all of this on Saturday morning I need to run into Dunlap to take the Kieser's Family pic and then back out to Norris because, get this, my family of 96 wants to try to get everyone together at 2:00 for a family pic on my brother's vintage fire truck (he says he bought it just for me to use as a backdrop:). Yikes! 96!!!! Should be interesting:)

chicago

Just a few pics from our weekend. I brought my daughters point n shoot.....ugh. I don't care how what kind you buy, they will never compare to an EOS...EVER. So frustrating to try to take pics w/a camera that can't figure out a focus point, however, it doesn't weigh a ton and I didn't have to carry around a huge camera bag downtown so I guess that's the trade off.

I wanted to post a pic of our VBS fourth grade class but forgot it's not on my laptop. Speaking of my laptop, for some reason about half of my number buttons have stopped working. I pretty sure it's time for a new computer, (PS... Phil, I may need some help here:).


Also got Addison's pics posted on my website and Shauntel's wedding pics are now posted, (I would hit the explanation mark, however, it's on the number one button and that's one of them that doesn't work). I love computers....NOT.

The big "REVEAL"!

I know you've all just been waiting and waiting to see our bathroom remodel. After much blood, sweat, & tears...(drum roll) HERE IT IS!






I'm actually pretty embarrassed to post the before pics...so awful! However, you can't see all the work we did w/out posting what it used to look like.

We are thrilled w/how it turned out and Jess and I have deemed it the "GIRLS" bathroom at our house. After pulling up the toilet and seeing the state of the subfloor I've decided that any boy who wants to use it can SIT DOWN!!!! (I've never understood who told them they should be standing up to begin with)

I was trying really hard to stay under $1000 but it came down to knowing that I will NOT be remodeling this room anytime soon so I did go a tiny bit over budget and got what I really wanted. I think we are in the $1200 range but if my tile goes on sale in the next 30 days I can get the sale price at Home Depot so I may end up w/in the budget after all.

So besides killing ourselves getting this remodel done we've been teaching fourth grade VBS at our church every night and I've had a few sittings here and there.

Trying to stay on top of it all has been a challenge and I'm ready to have my house back together. (I've been living w/a toilet laying on it's side in my bedroom for over a week and that was getting pretty old)

For Father's Day I'm taking my hubby to the windy city for a much needed break...w/out the kids....best Father's Day ever:)

random happenings

Last week I got to photograph another fabulous Herman House. I'm in the process of training Jess to do some simple editing for me because she loves to mess around w/photoshop and she started those for me but then had to leave for Tennessee for a week so maybe when she get's back she'll be able to finish them. She already has a pretty good eye for what looks good and I've seen some of the stuff she's done when she's just playing around w/some of her pics so I'm confident that she will be great at it!

I've got Shauntel's wedding pics sorted and shipped off to Jen to edit...that's a relief to get those going. Our goal is to get the pics all edited w/in 30 days of the wedding so sometimes we have to really hussle.

On Friday Logan had 3 friends over for an all day, and all night, and all the next day party. Between paintball wars, swimming, rope swinging, & video games they had to be worn out by Saturday night... I know I was! As the last boy was leaving Logan looks up at me and says "mom, they want to do it all again in July!"

Saturday's shoot got rained out so we've had to reschedule for this next Saturday...hoping for NO RAIN....I know it's a lot to ask!

On Sunday Caleb & Jess had to leave for Tennesse on a mission trip and had to be up EARLY...they went to bed so late that they overslept and their team leader had to call them to wake them up. I know a good mom would have gotten them up and fed them a nice breakfast but 3:30 a.m. is too early...even for a good mom right?

In the mean time my husband and I got really ambitious and decided to remodel our upstairs bathroom. Everything in it was 15 years old including the paint and the ugly picture on the wall (that I didn't even like back then:). The shopping was done yesterday and the gutting began today. I took some "before" pics and when it's all done I'll post them along w/the "after" pics. Most husbands have problems w/their wives going over budget w/stuff but I'm just the opposite. I love a challenge, so I told David I will NOT spend over $1000 to do this job (I know, I'm cheap!) and so far we're right on track...providing nothing unforseen happens...