Saturday, October 31st, 2009
Happy Halloween!!! We had a wonderful evening, and of course I spent it following Faithers around snapping away. She was sooo cute! This year she was a little police girl.
Friday, October 30th, 2009
Another busy, busy week...
1.) Grandma and Pap sent us a Happy Halloween card. Even at 26 it's just nice to get little suprises from your grandparents. :)
2.) Happy Anniversary to Justin and Heather! My brother and SIL celebrated their 3rd Anniversary on Wednesday. We love having Heather as part of the family, and the two of them just make such a nice couple. If you see them this week, make sure you wish them a Happy Anniversary.
3.) House for Sale. So far the response to the house for sale is going really well. We have had about a half dozen phone calls, we showed it to someone yesterday, and already have a couple of appointments to show it this weekend. We are certainly still a long way from having it sold, but it feels good to know we at least have some interest in this economy.
4.) Avail. Our small group officially has a name - "Avail". Melanie did some research and looked up a bunch of words relating to helping other and service, and all of the things our small group is hoping to stand for. Several times in her search, she came across the word avail and decided it would be the perfect name for our small group, and I have to agree. Plus it sounds better than, "The Young Adults group." Besides it's basic definition, we are using AVAIL to stand for A Volunteer Act in Love. And just since Melanie loves them so much, here is a Thesaurus web bubble with the definition of avail.
1.) Grandma and Pap sent us a Happy Halloween card. Even at 26 it's just nice to get little suprises from your grandparents. :)
2.) Happy Anniversary to Justin and Heather! My brother and SIL celebrated their 3rd Anniversary on Wednesday. We love having Heather as part of the family, and the two of them just make such a nice couple. If you see them this week, make sure you wish them a Happy Anniversary.
3.) House for Sale. So far the response to the house for sale is going really well. We have had about a half dozen phone calls, we showed it to someone yesterday, and already have a couple of appointments to show it this weekend. We are certainly still a long way from having it sold, but it feels good to know we at least have some interest in this economy.
4.) Avail. Our small group officially has a name - "Avail". Melanie did some research and looked up a bunch of words relating to helping other and service, and all of the things our small group is hoping to stand for. Several times in her search, she came across the word avail and decided it would be the perfect name for our small group, and I have to agree. Plus it sounds better than, "The Young Adults group." Besides it's basic definition, we are using AVAIL to stand for A Volunteer Act in Love. And just since Melanie loves them so much, here is a Thesaurus web bubble with the definition of avail.
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
I've been getting several questions about the new house ever since I posted this blog entry and mentioned that the colors were a little wonky, so I thought I would come back and add a few more details about what we have picked out for the house.
This is the picture online with the closest representation of the colors we are going to have:
This is the picture online with the closest representation of the colors we are going to have:
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
We are officially trying to sell our current house. We just feel like it might give us an extra feeling of security if our house sells before we are too far along in the process of building our new house. My parents have graciously offered to let us stay with them for a few months once our house is sold and the new house is finished, so we already have arrangements made for the interim. So, if you know anyone looking for a nice, little house in South Parkersburg, please pass our contact information along to them. A virtual tour of the house can be found here:
http://www.echoparkdesigns.com/house, along with the price and details about the house.
http://www.echoparkdesigns.com/house, along with the price and details about the house.
Monday, October 26th, 2009
Here are some of the things bugging me right now...
Most of you have probably heard me talking about my obsession with Slimfast Optima Cookie Dough bars. I don't care if they are made by Slimfast, they are awesome, and I am addicted. Occasionally Kroger's would sell out of them which was inconvenient, but they would eventually restock, and I typically had a stockpile to get me through the rough patches. Well, the other day my mom went to the Slimfast section at Kroger's and saw a "Closeout Sale" sign under my beloved bars. Not knowing exactly what this meant - she bought all they had. And God bless her for it! Since then we have found out that it was in fact a closeout sale, and they are no longer carrying them. Kroger's is probably the place I shop most often because it is so close to our house, but is by no means the only grocery store around. So for now, I didn't panic and just planned my next trip to Walmart. Standing in the Walmart aisle I was saddened to find that they no longer had a Slimfast Optima section at all! I called the CVS close to our house and asked if they had them, "We no longer carry those," was the response I got. There are a few other places in town that I want to check, but at this point I'm not holding my breath. I got online to do some searches just to see what my options were. When I searched on Walmart's site, this is the message I received: We found no stores within 100 miles of 26101 that carry this product. Do you know how many Walmart's there must be within 100 miles of here! And none of them have them!!! I have found some random stores online that appear to still have them in stock, and I'm beginning to think this may be my only choice. If you are one of my local friends or family, and happen to see them in a store, please call me immediately, or better yet buy them and I will pay you back! This is what they look like:
Most of you have probably heard me talking about my obsession with Slimfast Optima Cookie Dough bars. I don't care if they are made by Slimfast, they are awesome, and I am addicted. Occasionally Kroger's would sell out of them which was inconvenient, but they would eventually restock, and I typically had a stockpile to get me through the rough patches. Well, the other day my mom went to the Slimfast section at Kroger's and saw a "Closeout Sale" sign under my beloved bars. Not knowing exactly what this meant - she bought all they had. And God bless her for it! Since then we have found out that it was in fact a closeout sale, and they are no longer carrying them. Kroger's is probably the place I shop most often because it is so close to our house, but is by no means the only grocery store around. So for now, I didn't panic and just planned my next trip to Walmart. Standing in the Walmart aisle I was saddened to find that they no longer had a Slimfast Optima section at all! I called the CVS close to our house and asked if they had them, "We no longer carry those," was the response I got. There are a few other places in town that I want to check, but at this point I'm not holding my breath. I got online to do some searches just to see what my options were. When I searched on Walmart's site, this is the message I received: We found no stores within 100 miles of 26101 that carry this product. Do you know how many Walmart's there must be within 100 miles of here! And none of them have them!!! I have found some random stores online that appear to still have them in stock, and I'm beginning to think this may be my only choice. If you are one of my local friends or family, and happen to see them in a store, please call me immediately, or better yet buy them and I will pay you back! This is what they look like:
Sunday, October 25th, 2009
Despite being super busy, we have been trying some new recipes lately.
Garlic Chicken Farfalle
I found this recipe online, and I loved it! If you have ever eaten at a Brio (we frequent the one at Easton Town Center in Columbus, then you know they have some amazing pasta dishes. This recipe was the closest that I have ever come to making something similar at home. It was really good! Nathan wasn't quite as big of a fan, but then again he doesn't really care for cheese sauces, so that doesn't surprise me. You can check out the recipe: here.
Garlic Chicken Farfalle
I found this recipe online, and I loved it! If you have ever eaten at a Brio (we frequent the one at Easton Town Center in Columbus, then you know they have some amazing pasta dishes. This recipe was the closest that I have ever come to making something similar at home. It was really good! Nathan wasn't quite as big of a fan, but then again he doesn't really care for cheese sauces, so that doesn't surprise me. You can check out the recipe: here.
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
1.) Busy, busy! It has been another crazy, busy week for us. Every night this week we had something scheduled. We even had a few appointments on lunch breaks, because our evenings were all booked up. I'm fairly exhausted, but I do feel like we are making progress with this whole building a new house thing.
2.) Swine flu. This thing is just getting ridiculous. It seems like everyone has it or knows someone very close that has it; definitely seems like the schools have an awful lot of it. Good news is that it people 25 and younger are the most susceptible to it. I've never been so happy to be 26, until I heard that. I'm really counting on that extra month of immunity to pull through for me :)
3.) Scrapbooking. It may seem like this week has been a lull in sharing my digital scrapbooking. Although we are super busy with house stuff, I have managed to find some time to scrap here and there. I haven't shared any of my pages yet though, because we are having another digital morph challenge at 2Peas, and we have to keep all of our layouts a secret until the big reveal. You can read about the last digital morph here: Digital Morph v.3, if you are curious and have no idea what I'm talking about. Hopefully I'll be able to share my layouts soon though.
4.) Fall is definitely here. It's been kind of cold this week, and Nathan and I finally broke down and turned on the heater the other day. Despite disliking the cold weather, fall also brings Candy Corn. I love Candy Corn!
5.) And since a post isn't any good without a photo, here is photo I took of Faithers after church on Sunday. Doesn't she look like she is growing up so fast? I can't believe how long her hair looks there. Any time your week needs a little pick-me-up, I recommend a dose of Faithers.
2.) Swine flu. This thing is just getting ridiculous. It seems like everyone has it or knows someone very close that has it; definitely seems like the schools have an awful lot of it. Good news is that it people 25 and younger are the most susceptible to it. I've never been so happy to be 26, until I heard that. I'm really counting on that extra month of immunity to pull through for me :)
3.) Scrapbooking. It may seem like this week has been a lull in sharing my digital scrapbooking. Although we are super busy with house stuff, I have managed to find some time to scrap here and there. I haven't shared any of my pages yet though, because we are having another digital morph challenge at 2Peas, and we have to keep all of our layouts a secret until the big reveal. You can read about the last digital morph here: Digital Morph v.3, if you are curious and have no idea what I'm talking about. Hopefully I'll be able to share my layouts soon though.
4.) Fall is definitely here. It's been kind of cold this week, and Nathan and I finally broke down and turned on the heater the other day. Despite disliking the cold weather, fall also brings Candy Corn. I love Candy Corn!
5.) And since a post isn't any good without a photo, here is photo I took of Faithers after church on Sunday. Doesn't she look like she is growing up so fast? I can't believe how long her hair looks there. Any time your week needs a little pick-me-up, I recommend a dose of Faithers.
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
I have finished editing all of Josh and Kyla's pictures - at least the ones I took. You can find their entire gallery here. But since a post isn't really any good with out some pictures, here are a few more of my favorites.
Isn't this field just gorgeous! Mr. Crookshanks kept saying that we needed to look for color. Well, I'm thinking we found it. :)
Isn't this field just gorgeous! Mr. Crookshanks kept saying that we needed to look for color. Well, I'm thinking we found it. :)
Monday, October 19th, 2009
I am just about done with all of the pictures that I took of Josh and Kyla. I love how the pictures turned out. Josh and Kyla are so stinkin' cute together, and Kyla has some amazing fashion sense. Josh will tell you that he picked out his own clothes, but I'm pretty sure he was given pretty specific instructions. Either way, they looked amazing together. Here are a few more of my favs to share.
I LOVE this one! The background was actually red, but I changed it to green, so it matched Kyla's wedding colors better.
I LOVE this one! The background was actually red, but I changed it to green, so it matched Kyla's wedding colors better.
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
One of my very favorite activities at our church is Baby Dedications. I just think it is so neat to see the baby's family come and promise to raise their child in a Christian home and make sure that the baby grows up knowing Jesus. I also love that part of the baby dedication is the church promising to nurture the baby and support it in it's Christian walk. The whole idea of it just makes me feel like we are one big church family, and we are celebrating this new addition to it.
Saturday, October 17th, 2009
I had such an amazing day! Today, Josh and Kyla were having their first-round of engagement pictures taken, and their photographer, Mr. Crookshanks, said he would be happy for me to tag along.
I should probably explain that Mr. Crookshanks was the assistant principal at our high school, and thus why I keep referring to him as "Mr." Crookshanks. For the record, his first name is Chuck, but I doubt you will ever hear me refer to him that way. Just force of habit, I guess.
Anyways, we had so much fun. Kyla has become one of my closest friends over the last year, so combining the fun we have together with my love of photography and you can see why it was such an awesome day. We started at Kyla's grandparent's farm house and took pictures there, the pumpkin patch, Fort Boreman hill, and a random alley behind some storage buildings. The storage building place was Mr. Crookshank's idea, and it actually turned out to have some cool backdrops. Although Mr. Crookshanks was their "real" photographer, he let me take turns setting up a shot and actually shooting several of the pictures. It was so much fun to bounce lighting ideas off of one another and figure out what we needed for the shot. I learned a lot from the day, and I am so grateful that he gave me the opportunity. I'm still sorting through all the pictures I took with my camera, but here are some of my early favorites.
I should probably explain that Mr. Crookshanks was the assistant principal at our high school, and thus why I keep referring to him as "Mr." Crookshanks. For the record, his first name is Chuck, but I doubt you will ever hear me refer to him that way. Just force of habit, I guess.
Anyways, we had so much fun. Kyla has become one of my closest friends over the last year, so combining the fun we have together with my love of photography and you can see why it was such an awesome day. We started at Kyla's grandparent's farm house and took pictures there, the pumpkin patch, Fort Boreman hill, and a random alley behind some storage buildings. The storage building place was Mr. Crookshank's idea, and it actually turned out to have some cool backdrops. Although Mr. Crookshanks was their "real" photographer, he let me take turns setting up a shot and actually shooting several of the pictures. It was so much fun to bounce lighting ideas off of one another and figure out what we needed for the shot. I learned a lot from the day, and I am so grateful that he gave me the opportunity. I'm still sorting through all the pictures I took with my camera, but here are some of my early favorites.
Friday, October 16th, 2009
Well another week has come and gone. Every time I have posted a blog entry this month I still enter the date with 2009-09-, apparently I still haven't adjusted to it being October already. I really need to start writing my Five on Friday ideas down, because all week something will happen and I think to myself, "That would be a good Five on Friday entry." And then Friday gets here, and I sit at my keyboard going, "Now what happened this week???" All goes by too fast! Anyways, here's what I do remember...
1.) Justin and Heather have been in Florida all week. They fly home tomorrow. It sounds like they both had a good time, and I know Pap is lovin' his fancy new drive-way and big flat screen TV - both courtesy of J.D. that's what Pap calls Justin, just in case you didn't know
2.) Hornor and Harrison was hosting some kind of WVU ultimate fan competition, and apparently Bryce won! Someone sent in a picture of him all dressed up, face paint and all, and they selected him as the ultimate Mountaineer fan. He won tickets to tomorrow's WVU vs Marshall Game and a whole bunch of goodies from their WVU shop. I haven't seen the actual winning photo, but I had this one in my archives. I think you can see the Mountaineer intensity in his eyes.
1.) Justin and Heather have been in Florida all week. They fly home tomorrow. It sounds like they both had a good time, and I know Pap is lovin' his fancy new drive-way and big flat screen TV - both courtesy of J.D. that's what Pap calls Justin, just in case you didn't know
2.) Hornor and Harrison was hosting some kind of WVU ultimate fan competition, and apparently Bryce won! Someone sent in a picture of him all dressed up, face paint and all, and they selected him as the ultimate Mountaineer fan. He won tickets to tomorrow's WVU vs Marshall Game and a whole bunch of goodies from their WVU shop. I haven't seen the actual winning photo, but I had this one in my archives. I think you can see the Mountaineer intensity in his eyes.
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
Tara entered this sweet photo of Faith in the Baby Gap contest. You can vote for her here.
It only takes a minute or two to register, and then you're good to go. You can vote once a day, every day until November 17th. So like people always say vote early and vote often! Thanks!!!
It only takes a minute or two to register, and then you're good to go. You can vote once a day, every day until November 17th. So like people always say vote early and vote often! Thanks!!!
Sunday, October 11th, 2009
It has been quite awhile since I have done a Supper on Sunday post. You may think that means that I'm not cooking, which is partly true, but mostly it just means that I haven't made anything new or exciting to share with you. This week I managed to find some new recipes to try and share though.
First, we have Baked Flounder. We had some frozen flounder in our freezer that needed to be eaten, so I went online and found this recipe. I'm not much of a fish person. Nathan can eat whole sardines by themselves, gag, but I'm going to need something to distract me from the actual fish taste. The cracker breading and a little bit of parmesan cheese seemed to do the trick. I also like to make them with some kind of noodle (I like those quick and easy Pasta Sides, so I have something else to help disguise the fish taste. Overall, this was a pretty good recipe.
First, we have Baked Flounder. We had some frozen flounder in our freezer that needed to be eaten, so I went online and found this recipe. I'm not much of a fish person. Nathan can eat whole sardines by themselves, gag, but I'm going to need something to distract me from the actual fish taste. The cracker breading and a little bit of parmesan cheese seemed to do the trick. I also like to make them with some kind of noodle (I like those quick and easy Pasta Sides, so I have something else to help disguise the fish taste. Overall, this was a pretty good recipe.
Friday, October 9th, 2009
My week in review...
1.) This week has flown by! It felt like we were constantly on the go. So needless to say today, I'm pretty exhausted. A fact Nathan pointed out that I have told him about five times in the last hour. I can see with all the house planning stuff, I had better get used to weeks like this. Fun stuff... just lots of it!
2.) My Play is the exultation of the possible layout was selected as one of the digital weekly challenge winners. Woo hoo! Some free shopping coming my way! You can check out the full announcement here
3.) I got my flu shot this week. I'm hoping it helps. They sent out an email at work reminding us how to help prevent the spread of germs and what we can do to try and stay healthy. The email told us to assume that everyone is sick and to practice social distancing. So if someone sneezes in our office, we spray them with Lysol and tell them to go home. So far, I've had to spray myself twice.
4.) Go Team Go. This week my friend Gen "with a G" was hosting a challenge over at 2Peas. She challenged us to create a layout using a black and white background, only black, white or gray elements, but a color photo. At first the whole all black and white idea kind of worried me, but I actually really like how it turned out.
1.) This week has flown by! It felt like we were constantly on the go. So needless to say today, I'm pretty exhausted. A fact Nathan pointed out that I have told him about five times in the last hour. I can see with all the house planning stuff, I had better get used to weeks like this. Fun stuff... just lots of it!
2.) My Play is the exultation of the possible layout was selected as one of the digital weekly challenge winners. Woo hoo! Some free shopping coming my way! You can check out the full announcement here
3.) I got my flu shot this week. I'm hoping it helps. They sent out an email at work reminding us how to help prevent the spread of germs and what we can do to try and stay healthy. The email told us to assume that everyone is sick and to practice social distancing. So if someone sneezes in our office, we spray them with Lysol and tell them to go home. So far, I've had to spray myself twice.
4.) Go Team Go. This week my friend Gen "with a G" was hosting a challenge over at 2Peas. She challenged us to create a layout using a black and white background, only black, white or gray elements, but a color photo. At first the whole all black and white idea kind of worried me, but I actually really like how it turned out.
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
Here is a recent layout that I finished up for Faithers using several new items from my wonderful and talented designers. The word art says, "Play is the exultation of the possible."
For credits and more info, please check the scrapbooking section. I used about 27 different kits on this layout!!! For those of you that don't scrap - just take my word for it when I tell you that is a lot!
For credits and more info, please check the scrapbooking section. I used about 27 different kits on this layout!!! For those of you that don't scrap - just take my word for it when I tell you that is a lot!
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
I am completely done with Kiley's pictures. I just can't get over how many pictures we got in the short amount of time that Kiley was there. Clearly I had an extremely cooperative model. So the sad news is that this will be the last sneak peek of Kiley's pictures, but the good news is, that you can see all of the cutenss plus several others that I haven't shared on the blog, in Kiley's gallery
Here are the last few of my favs. It was seriously tough to narrow it down...
Here are the last few of my favs. It was seriously tough to narrow it down...
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
I am just about done with editing the pictures. I should definitely have them all finished up tomorrow evening. Until then, here are a few more of my favs...
Monday, October 5th, 2009
I love this one! It is a little less technically artistic maybe, but to me it is one of the ones that seems most like "Kiley". She is just a happy little thing, with a smile that lights up the room.
Sunday, October 4th, 2009
Still sorting through the hundreds of adorable Kiley pictures, so here is today's sneak peek. I warned you she was cute...
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009
I had the opportunity to photograph Baby Kiley again yesterday. Kiley is now a year old, a bundle of energy, and full of cuteness. She is such a talker - I seriously don't think there is anything she can't say. I am just getting the photos uploaded, but I wanted to go ahead and share one, so you can see just how much cuteness there is to come in the next few days.