This morning Dan and I made a list on a paper towel of the blessings that we're most thankful for from the past year:

*our new house & all the work that has been done on it
*our new neighborhood
(and new friends here)
*Dan's gardening
*Dan's job at Whetstone
*my job at Midwest Photo
*health insurance
*business doubled-book sales and weddings
*we started shooting weddings together
*Dan's Billy Martin book released and well received
*fabulous trade show (percussion) in Columbus
*Dan's band- Nova Madrugada
*Dan got to read poetry at the Columbus Arts Festival
*Dan's summer job with the Community Center Kids & my Dad's helping him
teach them baseball
*deeper friendships
*Baby girl on the way
*our families being so excited and blessing her even before she's born

These are the things that we're looking forward to in 2008:

*Solea's (or Solié's) arrival
*learning to be a stay at home mom
*Dan's distribution deal
*photography business taking off (with God's work on that)
*Dan getting to coach baseball at Whetstone

I'm not even sure when I posted last. It's been quite a while, so here's the update.

I am no longer at the job I had been working for the past 4 years. I liked that job enough. The job itself wasn't great, but I liked my co workers. However, there was a situation going on for about 2 years that finally blew up and it was a good thing to just be done. On June 11th I will start a much better job (and better paying) at Midwest Photo which is 2 blocks from our new house and it just so happens to be one of the top 5 places Dan and I spend $$ so making $$ there will be kind of rewarding.

I interviewed for a job at an art wholesale company and was offered a position as "manager in training." I asked what exactly my job would be before the interview and during the interview only to get fairly vague answers. That seemed strange but I learned why the vagueness on my shadow day. My job would consist of driving up to Powell for a meeting every morning at 8 then loading my car up with artwork, driving to who knows where (the girl I was shadowing works in Johnstown every day) working "in the field"until I had to drive back to Powell for reporting and payment at 6pm. The hours and the driving alone made me go no way, but the kicker was the fact that while I was "in the field" I would be selling artwork out of my car door to door. HECK NO!! The pay would've actually been quite fanatastic, but door to door art sales?!? No thank you.

It's wedding season so I have no free time ever. I shot two weddings at the beginning of the month, two last weekend and one in Akron tomorrow. Next weekend is free though. Thank God! I've have been editing wedding pictures non stop. We got another camera so that Dan can shoot with me. It's been so nice! It takes all the pressure off because now I have a back up, and it's just fun to work with my husband. How great is he that he'd give up his weekend to help me out. He has great plans to grow our business too. He's so supportive and creative. Tomorrow we're going to stay in Akron after the wedding. Not exactly a fantasy destination, but it will be nice to relax without a gutted bathroom glaring at us and with air conditioning. The drive will be good too. We haven't had much time together at all lately. I'm looking forward to it.

So that's the update...

It's been so long since I posted... things have been busy, but really good.

Dan and I have been able to connect with some friends in the last couple of weeks and it's been so good. We got to spend time with my friend Jen and her husband, Shawn, last weekend. Jen was one of my bridesmaids in our wedding and a room-mate before that. The past year was a little crazy though and we hardly got to see each other at all, so it was so so good to catch up with them. The best part is that they live 5 blocks from our new house and they have a new lab puppy so we'll get to walk our dogs and talk regularly. I'm super excited about that. Gus and I went over there last night.
This weekend I got to help out my friend, Kirsten, at the CCAD art sale. (She did the beautiful painting that everyone comments on when they walk in the front door of our new house.) Dan and I got to have lunch with her last month, but that seems like so long ago. We didn't get to talk a lot at the sale, but we're going out for sushi tonight so we'll get all caught up. I'm looking forward to it!
We've also been able to spend time with Michael and Helen, who are fabulous. They've been married for 20 years and they've blessed us so much in sharing what they've learned with us. That's been super helpful because Dan and I are still getting used to being married in some ways. Michael and Helen are super fun too, so we get laugh a lot and that's great! Helen came over and checked out the new house on Saturday. She was able to identify the stange plants by our porch as peonies, which is good because I love peonies, but I almost pulled them out when I didn't know what they were.

The house is stating to come together. The kitchen floors are in and we've started moving things back into it. I'm super happy because it doesn't seem as crowded as I was thinking it would. We picked out our bathroom tile and I love it. We happened to run into an old friend at a wedding a few months ago who does tile work (which I didn't know) and she's charging us half of what the other contractors quoted. We're super happy about that! She's even available to do it long before the others would have been. Yea! I need to figure out how to re-finish the wood floors and then we'll have all of the major things taken care of. I actually think it's realistic to plan to move in about a month. I can hardly believe it! Dan has even been working in the yard so it will feel complete when we do move. He planted 12 rose bushes (after he attacked the rest of the ivy). Right now they just look like sticks poking up out of the dirt, but I can tell you what color each of them will be. We've enjoyed sitting on the front porch in the evenings this week. It will be even better when we don't have to leave afterwards.

It's spring now, which means wedding season. That means I'm super busy (shooting on the weekends and editing during the week) but it also means money for home decorating and other necessary things and I'm so thankful for that. I have a fun new lens to try out this weekend for a wedding at the art museum. I'm kind of excited about that.

So, that's my long winded catch up...

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not shouting "I'm clean livin'."
I'm whispering "I was lost,
Now I'm found and forgiven."

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I don't speak of this with pride.
I'm confessing that I stumble
and need Christ to be my guide.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not trying to be strong.
I'm professing that I'm weak
And need His strength to carry on.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not bragging of success.
I'm admitting I have failed
And need God to clean my mess.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not claiming to be perfect,
My flaws are far too visible
But, God believes I am worth it.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I still feel the sting of pain.
I have my share of heartaches
So I call upon His name.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not holier than thou,
I'm just a simple sinner
Who received God's good grace, somehow!

The question is who doesn't make a fool of themselves playing Dodgeball? Seriously, it's a 3d grade gym class activity, not a sport, so if you're not competitive you look silly on the playing field, and if you are competitive you look silly because it's dodgeball. The point is that I didn't look more stupid than anyone else. That's right, we have a work team, I played, I didn't totally embarrass myself and I had fun. I'm going to play again. Who'd have guessed?

Less than 30 seconds of your life, from your computer in your comfy home or office, can help save lives. We all dream about doing the big stuff, but not many of us ever will. Good news: the little stuff makes a difference too.

click here

And it doesn't involve giving your money...


Currently we're not on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals - the internationally agreed upon goals to halve extreme poverty by 2015 -

Senators Christopher Dodd (D-CT) and Gordon Smith (R-OR) are asking other Senators to join their letter to the Senate Budget Committee asking them to take decisive action against extreme poverty by setting a new bar for funding.

Here's what you can do (in one minute and 3 seconds):

Call your senator and ask them to sign the Dodd-Smith letter:
Dial 1-800-786-2ONE (1-800-786-2663) and they'll connect you to your senator based on the area code you're calling from. You'll talk to a staff person, ask them to support the letter and then you hang up. It took one minute and 3 seconds from start to finish.

click here for more info and/ or to read the Smith-Dodd letter

http://action.one.org/dia/organizationsONE/one/signUp.jsp?key=441&t=right-side-sign-up-2.dwt

From Dan:
Nova Madrugada Tonight at Dick's Den. 10PM. $3 cover. It will be good!

From me:
If all goes according to my perfect plan, I'll get off early enough this afternoon to take a nap, and then I will wake up, eat dinner and paint this evening (on canvas not walls). It might be a perfect day. Added Bonus: If Dan or Isabell the cat naps with me.

On a day when I had to ask our clients to please not touch any of the technical equiptment in our lab because they had messed up the sound settings and therefore messed up their recording, one of them came to me "innocently" hours later and said "you sent someone back here earlier to fix the wireless internet, but we messed with it and now it doesn't work. Could you fix it?" Really!? Oh yeah, it was one of those days.
Oddly, I prefer those days to slower ones.

My new favorite addiction is Dark Chocolate Covered Altoids. I know that sounds strange but wait until you taste them. I eat them more as a snack than as a breath mint. When they arrive at work we all fight over them. They're really that good.

Sometimes when you change your dog's food bad things can happen. Sometimes they happen on me. Not fun!

For those of you left a little off kilter by my husband's "things I like" post, I'm sorry.

I want to decorate our new house and have guests. I want to move in and be there. I do not, however, desire to work on it any more. I will and it will be good, but I'm enjoying my normal life's activities and the motivation to pick back up with the work is not so much there.

That's all I've got. Have a lovely day!

Oh, where to begin. I haven't posted for a while because it's been one of those times where you sit and think "I have nothing good to say and no one wants to be brought down by the details anyway" besides, what do you say when nothing makes sense? In a nutshell, sometimes life's just rotten and I am more convinced than ever that satan likes to pick on the weak because in the midst of one big heartbreak that was overwhelming on it's own, two more major attacks came unexpectedly that have left me feeling like the sick feeling in my stomach may never go away. The good news is the feeling is less and less everyday and though I don't know that there will ever be a time when the loss doesn't hurt and the memory of things that were said won't linger in the back of my mind, I do think life is beginning to return to normal and I have a lot of hope for the future.
Sometimes it takes all the energy I have to worship God. Sometimes it doesn't feel like His plans are good and no matter how hard I try to believe that he is good anyway, arguments to the contrary fly around in my mind and it's way easier to believe them. Lately I've been kind of fixated on the question of why everything seems much harder in my life than it does in others,' why do some people seem to have so many blessings just poured on them and I feel like I have to beg and plead and fight and then wait for the same things to come to me? This weekend our pastor said that most of our growth comes from pain and waiting, not from the steps that we choose in hopes of growing. That's a little comforting, but sometimes I just really feel I don't care about growing, I just want life to be easier.
But then when I look back, I see that after all the struggles, good things have come. I would like the good things to come without the hard stuff preceding them, but at least there's a history to tell me that the good stuff will come. Right now things are hard, but in the end it will be good.
And even when I can't tell God that I know for sure that He is good, I do somehow know that He is beautiful and His beauty brings healing. And even when I'm mad at Him, there's no where else to go to be healed. He doesn't seem at all phased by my anger. He just takes care of me, either by providing the right people to comfort me and help me sort it out, or by giving me peace in the midst of it all, even without answers. Sometimes He just gives me a break from all the other stuff by helping me look at Him so that I can forget the rest for a while. I prefer it when He gives me answers and restores whatever is lost, but that's such a small fraction of the time. In my better times when I think about that, I think that for some reason that I don't understand, it must be best that I don't get the answers or the restoration. Mostly what he gives me is hope, though sometimes it's not even hope for anything in particular so much as it's just a sense that all is not wrong with the world and there will be joy again.
Thank you to those of you who have been supportive in words and prayers and actions to both Dan and me in the past few weeks (thank you to those who will still be). We've felt so blessed an comforted. You have been used by God, whether or not you know it or believe it.

"... Beauty and affliction are the only things that can pierce our hearts. Because this is so, we must have a measure of beauty in our lives proportionate to our affliction. No, more. Much more. Is this not God's prescription for us? Just take a look around. the sights, the sounds, the aromas and sensations- the world is overflowing with beauty. God seems to be rather enamored with it. Gloriously wasteful. Apparently, He feels that there ought to be plenty of it in our lives... beauty is the closest thing we have to fullness without possessing on this side of eternity. It heralds the Great Restoration. Perhaps that is why it is so healing. Beauty is a pure gift. It helps in our letting go." John Eldridge

"Above all else, art is the remembrance that beauty will come through the Messenger who will will make all things right, the One who has made all things beautiful through the artistry of redemption. His beauty was fashioned not by the glory of Heaven but by the cross of this earth. His death ruined the tragedy of this world. And art helps us wait faithfully for the second resurrection by reminding us that darkness has not overcome the light, that death has not swallowed up life. "Beauty will save the world," says Father Zosma in the Brothers Karamazov. And so it will." Don Hudson

Sometimes I'll tell My Baby that I love him and he says "why?" Seriously, such a dumb question. I married him because of who he is, not because of any certain thing. I love him... but I also love things about him.

Here are a few:
* he's always learning and wanting to learn
* he has a fabulous culinary skills
* he's creative
* he loves the people in his life a lot
* he loves any kid he meets
* he can be silly
* he searchs for beauty
* he works hard
* he's really gentle
* he serves
* he's a good friend &
* he loves God a lot

not at all a complete list, but it's a start, so next time he asks I can refer him here.

So this morning I got up and Dan told me that our boy (Gus) had just posted a blog post, I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't believe him, but when I got to work this morning there it was. I guess I shouldn't be so quick to doubt because sometimes crazy things happen and Gus actually gets to type (sometimes I'll find him standing next to the coffee table with his chin on Dan's closed computer and I know he's thinking "I wish someone would open this thing for me because I have a lot to get out. For heaven's sake, what does a dog have to do to get to type?)

In other news, yesterday my brother-in-law, Andy, cleaned out the scary closet in our bathroom and has removed my biggest hurdle from believing that we'll ever actually move into the house. Andy, you are my hero! Unfortunetly, I don't have a picture of this momentous event because I wasn't there, which is a bummer from the photo standpoint, but it's a great day when you just go to work like you always do and go about your normal day, and then come home to the news that while you were entirely unaware, your greatest fear has been conquered. Thank you Andy!

I'm so tired, but today it feels more like the tired that comes from accomplishing something rather than the tired that comes from disappointment over not accomplishing much and this kind of tired isn't so bad. This weekend I got a lot done, but it didn't feel like much because nothing officially got crossed off the list. Today I spent hours at work, accomplishing the main points of what I was hired for, but not much else, but at least I'll get paid pretty well for it. I finished a pale of joint compound at the house though. I didn't use the whole thing. Dan and Shaun used most of it, but I got a whole first coat on the ceiling in the bathroom and it's now smoother than it was before. No more weird crackle paint pattern. Yea!

There is still so much to do and we are so ready to be done, so so ready, but there is an end in sight. I think we'd both like to skip ahead to the end, but it's coming. There's something that feels really good about work. It's weird. I mean, I know we're designed to work, so it makes sense, but it feels so good to get something done and see results, even if it's just a little paycheck. If it seems fair for the work you did, even if you wish it was more, if it seems fair, it feels great. Finishing the first coat feels great, it's like a little paycheck. Finishing the whole bathroom will be like a big paycheck. Having it only half done didn't feel like much, but being able to say it's done feels great. Tomorrow I'll buy another pale of joint compound and tackle the second coat and maybe even some of the walls. Then I'll be in the middle of the project again and that won't be great, but I'm going to keep thinking about the end and that will be motivation.