Yay! Victims *Ahem* Volunteers, rather.

So I've been trying to get better at taking pictures of people.  I've never been that great at it because they don't just stay still and let you take a picture.  People require work, and boy that is definitely a life lesson there!

Well just before my most recent visit to Ohio, my friends Rebbie and Choji got all engaged and stuff!  (Congrats, kids!)  Well, I offered to take some pictures of them and if they liked the photos, they could feel free to call them the official engagement photos.  I figure this is a win-win since they would get engagement photos and I would get practice and possibly some additions to my portfolio.

Well, sadly Choji wasn't feeling well during the time I was there, so we didn't go out.  But my sister found another victi- *ahem* volunteer!  Her coworker Kara would be interested in sacrificing her family to my photographic lack-of-practice.  Well, I know that kids are a challenge in real life, but to photograph them and make them look like the angels their mommy knows they are is way more than a challenge.  I'm totally psyched (and a bit scared) to attack this challenge.

And this "morning" (I use the term loosely) Rebbie texted me to see if I would be interested in maybe taking some shots for her senior pictures!  I'm so excited to have all of these offers to help me out.  Sure, it's helping them, too, but if I'm already going to be down there, the shoot will only cost my time since I have no props.  Sure, prints will cost, but that would be a direct pass-through for these ladies.  

I'm ready to start practicing!  Oh, my models are 200 miles away!  Bummer....

Almost Christmas!

It's officially Christmas Eve eve!  I'm totally ready for the Christmas part of Christmas, I'm just not ready for the work part.  I have it all planned out, I just have to make sure I sleep!

Starting Christmas Eve...  I'll be enjoying Christmas Eve at Dale's mom's house.  After dinner and our ONE present, I'll head to work.  After locking up at work, I'll head back to Dale's mom's house for Christmas morning.  After seeing what Santa brought, we will have breakfast and have birthday cake! 

After all of these shenanigans, I'll head off to my parents' house for Christmas brunch.  Santa stops there too, so there are more presents!  All sorts of family will be there, so it is wonderfully loud and obnoxious.  After this we get a nap, then we head to grandma's.  When we are done at grandma's, Christmas is pretty much over, so we head home for some well-deserved sleep.

Other than work, this is pretty much every Christmas for me for the past few years.  It is a lot of activity and a bit more driving than I'd like, but it is worth it to spend some extra time with my family that I don't see enough.

I hope everyone has a great holiday season.  Drive safe and enjoy your friends, family, and loved ones.  Keep in mind that not everyone can be home for the holidays.  I am thankful for these people as they keep us safe while we are celebrating.  Peace and love, everyone! 

3 days!!

In 3 days, mommy, Bridget and Rebbie will be here!  We have some shopping and baking tentatively planned.  If we make an actual plan it won't work, so we have some ideas at this point.

We have permission to invade Dale's mom's house for the baking.  She has two full kitchens, so we can get through this a little faster.  Her only requirements were that we cleaned up after ourselves and that we leave her some cookies when we leave.  We can do that!

We are also planning on some shopping at Great Lakes Outlets.  They have a Victoria's Secret outlet, so that should be a blast!  We hope to get some Christmas shopping done while they are up here.  It's just so much more fun to go shopping with friends, than all by yourself.

When we go shopping, I'll only be taking a list of people who I would like to get gifts for and when something strikes me as awesome for that person, I'll pick it up.  I'm curious if this is how most people shop or do they plan things out before they head to the store?

I also ordered some postcards from Zazzle with a wintery flair to them.  I'm all excited because I designed these from photos that I've taken!  And with my postcard project I hope to reach a bunch of people.  They should be here next Tuesday, so I can't wait to see how they came out.