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...

Sorry blog readers...

I know, I'm not keeping up like I should but things are pretty busy here. Kids are out of school so even though there's no more homework and schedules...they are here...ALL DAY LONG! (Actually I love it!)

I don't even remember where I've left off but one exciting thing is that one of my new backdrops is complete. My awesome husband even built a floor for it and I can just about guarantee that it is perfectly level (he's a little bit of a perfectionist:). I've not had a chance to use it yet but will soon.

Another exciting thing is that we have a new little member of our family temporarily. We are raising a baby racoon that was abandoned on the front steps of an apt building in Peoria. Because of where we live we've taken care of all kinds of baby animals until they're old enough to go on their own. Did you know that you can get a permit to raise a racoon at Walmart of all places...they really do carry just about everything! I am looking into officially becoming a wildlife rehabilitator. I'm just waiting for a call back at this point to find out what I need to do. I think it's a really neat opportunity for our family & hope that it works out.

Here's a few shots from the last couple of weeks. I'll try to do better, but summer's here and the last thing I want to do is spend any more time in front of the computer than I have to.

Today is Shauntel & Chris' wedding in downtown Peoria so David and I will be packing up our equipment and heading there this afternoon....I'm excited!

4 teenagers!

It is official...we are now the parents of FOUR teenagers. On Sunday Logan turned the big 13! He requested an oreo cream pie for the occasion. Of course turning 13 also means he got a bb gun...yeah, we're kind of old fashioned and made him wait till he was 13 to get one. Of course I'm thinking that we may not have waited long enough because right after he was done opening it I had to go down by the lake and I hear something hit the water about 5 feet from me...yep, a bb.

I don't know if I'm ready for this.

Nothing happening on my new backdrops so far. They are just laying in a pile in the yard. My husband got called back to work and did 10 hour days all week last week. However, it's supposed to be for only a week and then back off so hopefully sometime this next week?

New backdrops on the way & mom's day

I started the week taking the Pence family pics (the sitting I had forgotten about). Luckily they are our neighbors so it wasn't a big deal and she gave me plenty of warning:) It was a warm sunny day and they have 5 kids so it was a lively shoot. Jack is only a couple of months old and wasn't too thrilled about the session so we'll have to try again for his individual pics. The rest of the kids did great though!

Then on Monday I ran out to Elmwood to take pics of a master bedroom/bath that Noah Herman Sons built. It was really cool w/all kinds of neat angles on the ceiling.

On Tuesday I got to take pics of little Santana who is 7 months old. I took pics of her older sister in this same white dress a couple of years ago and they look SO much alike! Such beatiful blue eyes!

Wednesday it was off to Canton to drop off the LAST Headstart order...YAY! I've been running to Canton 2 solid months now w/preschool sessions & orders.

Thursday it was out to Washington to take pics of another beautiful Herman house. These homes are truly amazing!

And on Friday I cleaned my house for a solid 6 hours...SO did NOT want to but needed to be done.

Then today was my mom's work day at her house. About 6 years ago we realized that mom didn't need more "stuff" for Mother's Day...she needed "stuff done" instead so whoever is free the day before Mother's Day comes over to her house and she has a list of things that need done. We did some landscaping, carpentry, pressure washing, gutter cleaning, deck weatherproofing, and lots of flower planting. We had about 25 family members show up and in about 2.5 hours had her whole list done. She bought us all pizza for lunch. For those of you who don't know...my family consists of about 80 some people...so we can fill a small town, and I love all of them..they are awesome:)

Now for the big news. My husband was able to locate some old barn siding and old rusted metal sheeting. Now normally a wife would not be happy about her husband bringing home a whole pickup truck load of junky old wood and metal but I was thrilled with it! He's planning on making some cool backdrops on our property by the lake and in our backyard. I'm thinking seniors especially will like it but it would also work for kids and small families. I'm hoping he can get it all up this week. I'm ready for some new cool backdrops out here!

Happy Mom's Day to all you mother's out there...may you have a blessed one, and someday when we're old...hopefully our kids will come and get "stuff done" at our houses...hint, hint:)

comments

There's a little box that i can check on this blog to prevent anyone from commenting and lately, i've sure been tempted to check it...LOL!

I've got some family members that are on their computers waaaaay too much!

Anyway, to all of you who were so concerned...I survived agapefest. Lot's of interesting people, loud music, rain, and my most favorite to watch and UNfavorite to play....football. Okay, my sister, Karin doesn't know the meaning of 2 hand touch...this girl was out for blood! Ouch.

On the way home we had our own "church". We were driving an rv so the kids had their own little service since we couldn't get back in time for real church. David led us in a few songs, then Sarah, my niece read one of my favorite chapters Phillipians 4, and Caleb talked about the chapter, then we sang a little more and Aaron, a friend of my boys had a prayer. These kids were just awesome the whole weekend! So much fun to be around! It's really cool to see Jesus working in each one of them. All of the problems you'd expect to have w/a bunch of teenagers, we just didn't have. All except feeding them....now that was just about what I expected it would be:)

We got home about noon and at about 1:30 my neighbor called me to ask if we were still on for her family pics at 2:00 (yep, I had totally forgotten). So after pics and some hamburgers we had some intense vball games at the playground....ouch again!

Whoops, my youngest just walked in from school and asked me why he's so attractive and told me that girls keep asking him out (he's 9yrs old) oh, and he just tracked mud across the carpet...time for me to go.