Cutie Pie!

I got to babysit this cutie pie tonight! She smiled at me the second I walked in the door. My heart melted!

Mmm... baby gates taste so good!

I've Been Tagged!!

My friend, Amanda, has the most adorable blog (http://nowiknowmyebcs.blogspot.com/) and she tagged me to answer these questions! FUN!! Here it goes...

I am….....a wife, sister, daughter, friend, co-worker, listener, whiner, crier, wannabe marathoner, wannabe cycler, soccer player, wannabe professional photographer, the list goes on...

I want..... everyday to be sunny and 75 for the rest of my life.

I wish..... I could turn my hobbies into my career and get rid of my day job.

I hate...... when the shower curtain touches my leg. I have to rinse my leg off with water every time it happens. Okay, so it can happen with my arms, hands, any body part. I hate the shower curtain and we have to have TWO since there is a window in our shower. Its a rough life.

I miss..... my sister living in Seattle and my sister-in-law and brother-in-law living in Phoenix. Family should always stay near each other!

I fear......being kidnapped or abandoned.

I feel........ really tired, but happy since my husband and I cleaned our apartment tonight.

I hear......... Brian relaxing after our cleaning extravaganza by playing video games and the airplanes outside.

I smell....... nothing really. Maybe just the smell of spring since we finally have the windows open.

I crave........ dinner. Yes, its almost 9 pm. Same thing happened last night.

I search......for jobs... a lot (not always for me...).

I wonder..... what my life will be like in a year. Will I still live in this apartment? Will we own a house? Will my hair be short or long? Will I still have this job?

I regret....... getting the college degree that I never wanted in the first place.

I love........... my husband, dinners at my parents' house in the porch or on the deck, McDonald's vanilla iced coffee, playing tennis on HOT summer days, pushing girls around on the soccer field (and not getting penalized) and comments on my blog!! ha ha.

I ache......... in my jaw most days. I have to constantly think to myself, "Relax.... relax.... relax..." or else just suck it up and take tons of Ibuprofen.

I care........ about doing something purposeful with my life.

I always...... look for an excuse not to clean or cook dinner (even though I love cooking! weird).

I am not….. confrontational.

I believe......... I am loved.

I dance......... never! I am so bad at dancing and I really don't like it that much. I slow dance, but that about does it for me. I've never been able to "move" and have done quite well resisting the pressure from my work girls to try out the hip-hop class at Lifetime. Uh... you don't want to see this doing hip-hop... trust me!

I sing............ in the car and secretly have always wanted to be a rock star. I wish I could play guitar and sing at the same time, but I'd have to learn how to do both well first! I'd love to write songs and record (thanks to dad's impression, probably), but I don't see that happening.

I cry........... fairly often, but mostly when I'm stressed or feeling like I'm failing.

I don’t always........ floss, take my vitamins, calcium, or fish oil pills, change my oil when its time, or put my clothes away (but that would be an "I never...").

I fight........ less with my husband than I used to. I think we understand each other more and more and we discuss more than fight. We were never big fighters before, but we both believe its healthy to disagree/argue/etc. We just are better at picking battles and fighting fairly now. Its good.

I write....... a lot of emails at work. Is that bad? I used to write in a journal throughout high school and college. I stopped when I got married. In fact, the last journal entry I ever did was about 4 days before my wedding. I practiced signing what my name would become after it was official! Ha...

I never....... thought I'd own a DSLR, understand how to use it and go on a photo shoot with one of my favorites!

I listen......... to co-workers' conversations sometimes. You really can't help it when you work in a cube farm! Sometimes I laugh to myself or email my cube neighbor/work buddy to see if she heard the same thing. She always does and we have a good laugh over email or IM.

I need.......... stability and great friends. I have both and I'm so happy.

I am happy...... that I snuggled up and took a short nap with my husband after work. Cozy.

Wow, that was fun! Took a while, but it was fun... nice way to relax after cleaning and putting away my entire wardrobe... not lying! I don't think many people read my blog, so I'm going to tag Nealy since I just checked hers and she hasn't answered the questions yet! ;)

G*night!

Lake Minnetonka Half-Marathon

No, it was not me who ran the half-marathon... let's be real! It was my sister, Lauren, and two of her friends. I tagged along with my parents and snapped some pics as they blew past us! They did a great job... started and finished together!

Kara, Lauren, Kelsey

They are just a few feet from the finish line in this picture and I think they are just a bit excited... can you tell? :)

First Family Shoot!

Beth is a friend I met on my first day of college back in 2000! We lived right across the hall from each other in the Getsch dorm at Bethel. We've changed so much since then... careers, husbands, baby (her, not me)! She emailed me Monday asking if I'd take some photos of her family (husband, John and brand new daughter, Meghan). I couldn't turn her down! What a great way to get experience and its just fun being around Beth and John because they make you laugh the entire time! Despite Meghan crying a bit at first, the day turned out pretty good. Here are a few from our time together at Minnehaha Park in Mpls in no particular order. I wanted to post these right away, so I haven't taken the time to edit them at all. I'll save that for later! The most difficult task for me today was dealing with the sunshine. The forecast said cloudy, so I wasn't quite sure how to adjust for bright sunshine. I guess its all part of the learning process...

(I must give credit to John for this "peek-a-boo" picture. It was his idea and I think its pretty cute!)

Second Shoot!

I am so lucky that I get to try my hand at doing a family shoot tomorrow! Check back for the pics! Not so sure how it'll turn out, but a baby is involved and babies are always cute, right? :)

Also, I attended my first official photography class last night at mncp (www.mncp.org) and it was... well... overwhelming. Let's hope that the next 4 weeks go a bit better and that the info sinks in!

Last, but certainly not least, we upgraded to a bigger, better, beautiful new monitor! Looking at and editing images will now be SO much better!! Yay for new and improved technology (and for a husband who can't say no to new stuff like this)!

That about covers it!

Oh, I almost forgot! I added a song to the site, but I think you have to hit the "play" button. Check it out! My hubby found it and sent me the link at work one day... aw... love.

Pacific Northwest Travels... and my first photo shoot!!

I had the chance to fly out to Seattle Friday through Monday to visit Taylor at school at Seattle Pacific University. Let me just say that Seattle is absolutely gorgeous, but I'm not so sure I could relocate there. The drivers are insane and the roads are even more insane! All that aside, the grass, flowers, hills, houses, bays, float planes and ships/yachts/sailboats were all great sites to see coming from Minnesota in the never-ending winter month of April.

The day before I flew out to Seattle, I had the chance to follow around my friend and wedding photographer, Ali, at an outdoor shoot. We headed over to the Walker Art Center's conservatory and sculpture gardens. It was a gorgeous (one of the few so far) spring afternoon. Ali immediately told me to take out my camera and practice. She critiqued my shots along the way while the girls had wardrobe changes. It was great. I had the BEST time! Now this is the way to learn photography... shooting with a pro! I didn't do any adjustments to the pictures yet.

So, now, first are some pics from the photo shoot and second are some from Seattle!

So, onto photos from Seattle!! Some of these are dark, but I don't have the patience to mess around with them right now...

Pike Place Market... flying fish!

The very first Starbucks!! It looked old and definitely not like your typical neighborhood Starbucks.

Mom and I walked across the street from our hotel to one of the bays where a bunch of old boats were lying around. This one struck me kind of funny... it just looks like it wouldn't last in the ocean!

We headed to a lookout area with great views of downtown Seattle. It was SOOO windy and cold, so Taylor hid behind my dad for a while. Just beyond that high bridge is Taylor's dorm. And just to the left in this picture is downtown.

Our last night in Seattle happened to be pretty clear and it didn't rain, so it was a perfect chance to take a night shot. It was also very cold and windy where we were, so we only lasted about 3 minutes.

Our new fav Queen Anne restaurant, the 5 Spot. Every month or so, they change the theme of the restaurant... food, decor, etc. Right now, its Route 66. Yum! That about wraps up the trip!

Spring Fever!

It was a gorgeous 40 to 50-something degree day here in MN and everyone was out and about! After work, Brian and I went on a little walk down to Hidden Falls on the Mississippi River and enjoyed the warmer weather.

My cute hubby being oh-so-patient while I figure out my camera!

Us by the beach on the river.
Me in a tree!
Now, let's keep spring here!! No more cold days!

My New Toy!

Brian's aunt and uncle had an enormous sale today because they are moving and wanted to sell almost everything in their house. I snatched up what I believe was the best deal! Check out my brand new KitchenAid Professional 5 mixer in chrome grey complete with the food grinder attachment (no, I will not be using it to make my own ground meat... gross! Brian can do that.). Oh, its so pretty and his aunt had barely ever used it! Now... as for learning to bake... and as for where I'm going to put it in my tiny, tiny kitchen... hmmm...

FYI, I have had a heck of a time trying to upload these 2 pictures. It failed 3 times and then when it finally worked, I accidentally DELETED it off this post! Oh wow... I'm so annoyed!! I'll get over it...

New View

I'm beginning to understand my camera a little better. I've learned a bit about ISO and a bit more about aperture in recent weeks thanks to the mammarazzi school blog I found (http://www.mamarazzischool.com/)! Love it! She gives great tips and even has "homework" assignments that are actually contests! I have yet to enter anything, but I hope to someday! Anyways, I'm also trying out some retouching effects. Here are a couple pics from recent weeks... wait, I'm not sure the digital enhancements will show up, but oh well. So, here are just some recent shots. (Obviously, I still have no idea what I'm doing).

(It is confirmed that the enhancements did not show up...)

Our beautiful dining room radiator. A new view.

Another new view of our dining room radiator. Bored yet? :) It was really hard to position myself tightly against the wall for this picture.

Our doorway. This is one that I had enhanced, but it didn't work out. I need to buy Photoshop or something and ditch this software that came with the camera. So, this is one I hope to switch to black and white. It looked cool when I did it, but it didn't save. Oh well. You get the idea.

So, here is our stove, which we think is as old as our apartment. Brian told me he liked how the "R" showed up, so that's why I posted this picture.

Another view of our stove. Its quite obvious that I took this picture before we cleaned that weekend... oops!

And an entryway. These are all photos of Highland Village Apts because I want to keep a memory for Brian and I of the first place we lived as a married couple for our kids to look at someday. They'll really think we're old since the apartment looks ancient!!

Well, there are some pictures. I went out taking some more outside today around the place, so maybe I'll post those next. If the weather continues to warm up, the more likely I'll go outside and practice some more! And I think outside pictures would be much more interesting than these boring, inside ones!

I'm continuing to learn...slowly!

A few family Christmas photos...

Christmas celebrations!

Here's my husband's family.

From L to R:

Uncle Jim, Aunt Sherry, Brian, myself, brother-in-law Josh, Brian's sister Alison, Brian's brother David, Mom Sharon, Dad John.

Probably not the best choice of backgrounds, but the picture idea was quickly thrown together after gift-opening.

The "kids"!

My sister, Lauren, and my mom in the background, at Grandma June's making krumkake, a Norwegian cookie.

Other sister, Taylor, at Christmas at the Esau house. She was sporting her new hoodie from Brian and I and just being silly.

And here is baby Sam... as I like to call him. My cousin's 9-month old baby at Christmas on my aunt and uncle's turkey farm in SW Minnesota.
So, Merry Christmas... even though its January 13th :)