My girls

I couldn't resist posting these pictures of Riley and Sammy :) Enjoy!

I don't think she has enough blankets...do you?

And finally, a preview of the Christmas photos to come!

Christmas, Part One

I really want to post all my Christmas photos, but there are too many to put in at once! Here are all of the decorations at our apartment (plus a few of Riley thrown in for cuteness sake). I'll post ones from Kansas sometime this weekend. I really wish I had a great photo editing software (like Lightroom), but since I don't, I'll make do with what I have :)

I made tons of sugar cookies (and gingerbread men too...but I got lazy and didn't take pictures of them, even though they were SO cute!)


I loved these little toy soldiers!


Of course you have to have snowmen!


This is Riley's "perch." She sat here for ALL the baking staring out the window at the non-winter weather.


Big yawn.


I love this silhouette...so neat! I really like how you can see her little brown eyebrows.


Probably one of my all time favorite pictures.


Our first Christmas tree! Unfortunately, I never got a picture of Greg and I in front of OUR tree...but that's another story entirely ;)


Favorite ornament.


And this one too.


Tons of pretty presents!




Grandma gave us this gorgeous Willowtree nativity scene for our wedding present. I love it SO much. This shot (though not very good artistically!) shows everything pretty well although I love...


...this one much better. Dark and moody ;)


Mary with baby Jesus...Joseph looking on in the background.


Shepherd with a lamb.


One of the three wisemen.

I think that's enough pictures for one post. Have a great evening!

This is why I love photography...

...because you can capture priceless moments like this! I love my family. So. So. Much.

It's that time again...finals!

Oh, thank heavens...I only have to take finals ONE MORE SEMESTER...ever! I am so thankful for that. I have been so incredibly busy lately - I had a final on Monday night, a final today, and two this coming Monday. I will be glad when they are finished. My 50 book evaluations, original book, and thematic unit were also all due in the past two weeks, so I've been crazy trying to get all that stuff finished...thank God I didn't procrastinate and put those things off to the last minute...I don't think I ever could've finished them all on time! In other school related news...I made a 100 on my Unit!! This is fantastic news because making a 100 on the Unit for Curriculum is pretty unheard of. I worked my tail off getting that thing perfect and I'm so glad I did. Now if I just was able to do well on the final today, I could scrape by with an A! But I'll settle for a B if the final didn't go too well (which I'm not thinking it did...which is okay with me).

God has been stretching me to trust Him so much lately. I think I have trust issues and I'm not really sure where those came from. I really don't think I have a reason to be leery of trusting people and God, but for some reason I really am...He keeps showing me that the only way to do things is with Him in the lead and SO many times I try to rush in front of him and do things myself...and then I end up in tears crying out to Him to get me out of the mess I've made, and he always does. So why do I find it so hard to trust Him? Money is tight right now, which is difficult no matter what time of the year it is, but especially when it's Christmas time. God and I had a little heart-to-heart the other night and even though I know logically that I shouldn't, my heart won't stop feeling failure for continually running to Him about the same things. I feel like He must be tired of me not learning from mistakes and repeating them...gosh, I know I'm tired of it!

Our COM group went down to feed the homeless again on Tuesday night and I kept thinking that I feel like Greg and I don't have money, but in the grand scheme of things we are kings compared to them. We are so lucky...we have a home (even if it isn't where I want to be, it sure is better than the shelter on Trinity), we have enough money to buy groceries, we have money for electricity, running water, we have two awesome cars, and we even some left over every month to do some fun stuff like rent movies or go out to eat. I just need to keep some perspective the next time I'm feeling crummy because I haven't been able to go shopping for myself in awhile.

Photography is going so well! I had my last wedding last Saturday and it was really fun. I feel like I'm understanding things a little bit better and am starting to get a little more creative with my shots. Allen even posted one of my pictures on his blog - http://doberenz.blogspot.com - it's like the second post down. It made me smile! Working in his office is going really well too, although I miss my kids like crazy! I never thought I would feel that way because I hated my managers at the daycare so much...but I really do miss seeing babies every day. I think that's how I know that I'm meant to teach. Yes, photography is fun and I really love it and would love to pursue it as a hobby in the future that I could even make some money on the side with...but my heart is really into teaching. I love being in the classroom and I love seeing kids learn and discover new things. That is what God created me to do and I know I could never be happy not spending my weekdays teaching children in some form or fashion.

I hope your holiday season is so blessed...I miss you guys so much. Dustin, I hope you are feeling loved and prayed for wherever you are because you are! We really miss seeing you and hearing your hilarious stories all the time - I think Greg misses you a ton! It will be so nice to have you back in Austin to hang out with from time to time. And Hannah, I miss you like crazy, beautiful cousin! Gosh, holidays just aren't ever the same without all you Brown girls running around Grandma's house. I'm so glad you're finished with everything though - what a blessing! We will have a phone date soon :) I love you so much!

I'll post pictures of all our Christmas decorations soon. It's really neat having a real tree for once...it smells so good! And our Willowtree Nativity Scene (a wedding present from grandma and grandad) is AWESOME...so gorgeous :) I'll try to take pictures to put up next time I'm on here.

I love you guys and I miss you more than words can say!

Sick

I had to miss the wedding today with Allen because I'm sick (with strep, of course!) :( I'm really upset that I missed it, but I know I need to get well...I can't miss any more classes and I definitely don't want to pass my sickness on to Allen (or the bride and groom!)

My mom's birthday was on Thursday and we went out to celebrate. We had so much fun! We went to this little, Italian restaurant called Mandola's. It had really yummy pizza. It was really nice to hang out with my parents and laugh with them :) We also went to Amy's Ice Cream afterwards (my parents had never been before...and we've lived in Austin for like 11 years!). I got Sweet Cream ice cream with junior mints mixed in and it was soo good. I had a ton of fun with my-I mean my dad's-camera! ;) Although someone (ahem, me!) forgot to check her ISO before she started taking pictures, so many of them are pretty grainy.

She's 47!

Hope everyone had a good week!

Three days!

Why do the weekends always have to go by so fast? I feel like it was just Monday...and now it's Monday all over again. Such is life, I suppose.

Riley made it through her surgery without too much trauma. She was not happy with me at all when the vet tech came to take her from me. She struggled and whined and then looked at me like I was a traitor. Gracie actually got spayed on the same day and the vets were very nice and let the girls stay together before their surgeries. They all kept telling my dad and me how cute they were together snuggling in their blankies. And they all wanted to know if they were related somehow! :) I'm glad that everything went well, but goodness gracious is it hard to keep a rambunctious 7 month old from jumping and running for 10 days. She acts like she didn't just have major surgery (I blame that partly on the pain medicine) and all she wants to do is play. She's gotten pretty good at listening to all the "No!" and "Down!" commands that are coming at her every two seconds ;) I have pictures of her all groggy and cute after the surgery but they're on my camera that is dead right now...so those will have to wait until later!

I had SO much fun at the wedding yesterday. You have no idea how happy I get when you put a camera in my hands and give me permission to stick my lens in peoples faces and flash away. I felt a little more at ease yesterday and not so nervous that I was going to have horrible pictures (even though that was still in the back of my mind). I think I'm even starting to understand how my speed light works (the external flash that you attach to the camera...the one that stands up real high). There is something strange that happens to me during weddings...I feel like I really get to know the wedding party (even though I'm not actually talking with them, just observing them)...and I almost always get near tears when they're leaving...except no where near as bad as I did at my own wedding!! The bride yesterday actually had a similar reaction as I did when Greg and I were leaving - you know, the whole bawling and hugging everyone reaction that is pretty funny to look back at in pictures. It made me feel better to know that I'm not the only girl who was sad to leave her family and her party. I think it's a mix of things...the fact that you're going on little to no sleep, the whole symbolism of leaving your mother and father, and knowing that one of the best days of your life is actually over. That will certainly push you over the edge ;)

Halloween is on Wednesday!! I am so excited! Greg, Riley, and I are going over to my parent's house to have dinner and hang out. My dad has to go to California because of all the fires (he's in insurance...definitely not fun to deal with all that!) so we're gonna have a nice dinner and I get to pass out candy to all the cute trick-or-treaters. Greg and I never actually carved pumpkins this year and I'm kind of sad about that. I had a lot of fun doing it last year (my first time to actually carve the pumpkin by myself!)...maybe next year we'll be less busy, but for some reason, I highly doubt that! To get in the Halloween mood we rented Vacancy on Friday night. I was so scared I almost peed my pants. We had to stop it on Friday (because it was dark and I was scared) and we finished it this morning...I definitely didn't like it. Apparently I was squeezing Greg's hand so hard that I made it numb...so there is my warning - don't watch Vacancy if you get scared easily!

I hope you guys have a safe week! I am praying for you!

Baby It's Cold Outside

So, I'm back with more details about my weekend! Friday night was fun. Uneventful, but fun. Greg and I watched Friday Night Lights (yet another t.v. show that I'm obsessed with. Although it's nowhere near as exciting as Lost or as drama-filled as Grey's Anatomy, it's still so good). And then we talked. And then we went to bed...How exciting, right?

Saturday Riley decided she needed to wake me up nice and early. Like 7:30am. Which is crappy no matter which way you look at it. I skipped running (more on that later...it's a long, long story that I don't even know how it will end), so I attempted to sleep in 'til 8. Then I got up and planned out a long grocery list and meals for our week. I'm so, so excited about yummy, warm dinners in this COLD fall weather! (Seriously...it's cold here! It's overcast, rainy, windy, and 52° outside!) Anyways...Greg and I went to the grocery store and hurried back home so I could speed to downtown Austin and end up at the wedding site 20 minutes early...(this is the point where Greg would make fun of me for hating to be late, but we'll skip that part).

I was nervous for the wedding but strangely excited too! Allen got there at 4 (the time I was supposed to be there) and then set to work familiarizing me with the new camera and then we started shooting. I've never had 8 hours of "work" pass so quickly - I really, really enjoyed the wedding. At first, it was hard for me to be super creative because I was kind of nervous...but I think I started to get better towards the end of the night. Or at least I hope I did ;) Allen gave me a new lens to practice with and hopefully I'll really start improving. I'm very excited.

Now...about that running stuff. I'm pretty sure it's going to be impossible for me to do everything I want to do right now. Or actually, not just what I want, but also what I need to do. See, I have classes, work, a husband, a dog, a house (that really needs to be cleaned), dinners to be made, homework to be done, weddings on Saturdays, church on Sundays, and running 25+ miles a week...and hopefully some relaxation time in there too. So as of right now, marathon training is on hold. It's not physically possible for me to get up at 5 am, run 10-15 miles, and then work a wedding for 8-10 hours. I was exhausted, worn-out, and sore on Saturday - I can't imagine what that would've been like if I'd run 12 miles that morning too. I still want to run a marathon (I think)...but it may not happen this year. It may not happen ever...I'm still trying to figure all that out. I'm NOT giving up running though - you should still expect to hear more stores like "Dear Car-Honker" and lots more complaining...I'm just not going to be marathon-training anymore...or at least not for the next 5 weeks. I'll re-evaluate at that point in time.

I hope you're all having a great FALL day! It's freezing outside, but it feels so good. It makes me want to go get hot chocolate with marshmallows and sit in front of a warm fire. Or get cozy under lots of blankets with some good movies and then sip apple cider and eat soup. Did I mention how much I like fall yet?



P.S: Dustin, I promise I'm reading your blog. I just have been a bad commenter lately. So write on. :)

Real quick

It's late, but I just wanted to post real quick and say that tonight was awesome! My feet are killing me and my back is achy, but I had so, so much fun! I don't even have a clue how my pictures turned out (hopefully well, but I probably won't know for awhile!)...Thanks for all your prayers :) I'll update more tomorrow.

House Hunters

Happy Saturday!

Greg and I looked at homes today...actual homes with real furniture, painted walls, more than one bedroom, bathroom, lots of counter space, a garage and a yard. I'm hooked. I've never been one to enjoy the whole apartment thing...I mean, we pay every month and what do we get? Well...yes, we do get a roof over our heads and everything, but we don't own anything. We have to deal with workers coming into our apartment whenever they want (which in reality isn't all that often...but still!) We have to deal with noisy neighbors and taking Riley down the stairs every time she needs to pee (which seems like it's every 10 minutes). I'm so ready to be in a house.

Granted it will probably be August before we're in one...but it just seems so much more real when you go look and can imagine yourself in one. We'll probably go to Leander or Cedar Park because the houses are significantly cheaper for the space than they are in Round Rock or Austin. I am in love with the Plantation homes. They're a bit more expensive than D.R. Horton...but so, so nice! This one is my favorite in pictures - they didn't have a model of it, but it seems like a nice fit!

I haven't run all week...That's not going to be fun tomorrow when I have to make up a 5 mile run that I intentionally missed this week. I just really haven't had any desire to go run at all. Like it's been the farthest thing from something I've wanted to do all week long...and that's really strange for me. I think part of it is because I was sore until Wednesday from my ten mile run (and my toenails STILL hurt if you push on them hard!)...I got fitted for new tennis shoes today and they have lots of room in the toes...So hopefully that means no more bruised toenails ;) I'm going to work really hard on getting my runs in this week. 13 miles on Saturday AND then a wedding from 3-11...yikes.

Pictures from Yesterday:

My pretty new car






The only hint of fall Texas will see this year

It's been a long, very fun, "last" Saturday for me :) And now it's time for bed!

Ten

I don't think I've gushed enough lately on how much I love my church. We had this thing tonight called "Dinner for Ten" where ten people gathered at our pastor's home and hung out, talked, and ate good food. I can't even begin to describe how connected I feel and how many prayers of mine are being answered by God. I have longed for community for the past year or so and I just have felt like it's no where to be found. I prayed and prayed and prayed that God would lead me to a group of friends that were like me (and liked me!)...and I had resigned myself to thinking that God's answer to that prayer was "later" and that I needed to draw closer to him and lean on him to fulfill my needs...and then something drastic happened, we switched churches, and I'm experiencing an abundance of blessing from the Lord. It is amazing and I am so thankful for each and every second of it! I had started thinking that Greg and I were the only young married couple out there...and come to find out, we're not! Not only are we not the only young married couple, there are four others in our COM group and we met two others tonight! God is SO good!

I ran ten miles on Saturday...TEN! 10! DIEZ! I'm still finding it hard to fathom that my body can run 10 stinkin' miles...that's like my apartment to my parents house...and that's just crazy! I'm not gonna lie, I spent the better portion of Saturday sacked out in bed and complaining because my toenails hurt (yes...I'm serious. My toenails hurt SO bad), but I did it - I ran/walked for 2 hours and 40 minutes. And if we're gonna get technical about it, it was actually 10.69 miles - not just 10. I've now reached a new place in my running where I'm discovering new things. Like my size 8 running shoes really needed to be a size 8 1/2, and even though I just bought them in August, they are getting replaced this weekend so my toenails don't get smashed in the bottom of them. Or that seams on sleeveless shirts can be the most painful things in the world and cause gaping sores on the insides of your arms from chafing. Or that Gu is super nasty and sport beans don't really work. Or that Accelerade may give you more energy, but it tastes like dirt. Or that my Galloway group is amazing. Or that God can give you strength to run 5 more miles when you fall in a hole and roll your ankle on mile 5. Lessons learned are great :)

Ten days until my first wedding with Allen! I'm so excited, so nervous...I feel like it's almost too good to be true. I was talking to my mom on the phone this afternoon about how I feel like I'm just waiting for something to go wrong with that whole thing. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because something has gone "wrong" in every single job I've ever had and I've come to realize that people don't really keep good on their promises. But I feel like God is stretching me to trust and to enjoy hard work. I trust Allen completely and I trust that he is going to teach me more than I can imagine. I trust that God has plans that are SO much bigger than me...and that he's given me talents that I can use in spiritual ways. A few weekends ago a passion that I didn't even know I had hit me in the middle of church...whenever I get good at photography, I want to find a way to help people with it. Before you say that sounds silly, it's not. I want to use my gift to go to NICU and take pictures of premies who may or may not live. I want to go to the children's cancer center and give the gift of memories in print to parents who may lose their children. I want to give people the gift of amazing pictures who otherwise can't afford it. And I'm not sure where this desire is coming from (well, I'm pretty sure it's from God) because I've never had this thought before. And it makes me get so excited thinking about it :)

Tenth of the month...we've been married for seven whole months! Seven glorious, challenging, beautiful, surprising, exciting, take-my-breath-away months. And I couldn't be happier with my husband :) It's still sometimes weird to think that we're actually married. I know it's been 7 months and 200-odd days of it, but it seems like we were engaged for SO long and all I wanted to do was be married that it still sometimes seems surreal and dreamlike. I remember after we checked out of our hotel the day after the wedding and were on our way to Galveston that everything seemed like this huge dream. I was still operating on about four hours of sleep in 72 hours, so everything was kind of fuzzy around the edges...but it literally took weeks for the reality of everything to hit me. We got rushed into this whirlwind cruise where it seemed like we were playing house (or maybe that's what the anti-dizziness drugs did to me! ;)) And sometimes I wake up and feel like we're still just playing house...and then I get to smile and realize "hey...I have a husband!" and it's exciting :)

I pray that God will be big in your life, that he will answer prayers and give you passions that you didn't even know you had. I am praying for you today!!
Faithfully His,

Baby Rabies

I have my longest run to date tomorrow...10 miles! I'm excited, but nervous for some reason. I guess part of it is that my group leader is running the Chicago marathon and she is so motivating...it will be weird to run without her! I've got my water, gatorade, and "sport beans" all ready to go. We're required to have some form of nutrition on this run...I was going to use Gu, but I tried some of my dad's and I thought I was going to throw up. It's so thick and...well...gooey (hence the name, right?). It's definitely not for me. We'll see how these jelly beans with electrolytes in them actually work on a long run.

I had a bad dream last night...well, it was actually a really really good dream. But bad that I was dreaming it. I dreamed that I had a daughter, like a two day old infant. And it was such a wonderful feeling! Greg wanted to name her SaraLee (like the bread!) but I kept telling him no - we'd already decided on girls names for the baby and we were going to name her Charlotte. But he wouldn't listen and was ready to put SaraLee Johnson on the birth certificate ;) It made me laugh when I woke up! But now, this darn dream has unleashed this feeling inside of me that says, "You're married now! Time to have babies!" And my logical side is going, "Uh. No it's not. You're only 22. The 'ten year plan' says you have to be 26 before it's time to have babies." Why do babies have to be so soft and cuddly? And they smell so good! (well, most of the time anyways). I have baby rabies.

I made bread today!! Like, old fashioned, kneading the dough, yummy, delicious bread! I think I ate half of it...lots of carbs...I need fuel for my run tomorrow though, right? I think I'm going to buy a lot of yeast and just start baking all my own bread. It's fun...and the smell of bread baking in the oven is sinful. And delightful. And it makes me happy.

I took a really cute picture of Riley a couple nights ago. I'm very proud of how my photography skills are coming along! I'm going to go to a horse show tomorrow and take some pictures - I'm so excited!



Have a happy weekend...Oh yeah, and Hook'em!!

Manual is a scary world!

I feel bad not blogging since Sunday...not for all you faithful readers (and friends/family!) but because I miss it! To catch you up since Sunday...

Monday: I took two hard tests and I'm pleased to announce that I think I did wonderfully on both of them! I also worked the book fair at UMHB and got two free books out of (and somehow came home with 7 books and 1 awesome cookbook)...That definitely fulfilled my "kid" side. I justified the picture books I bought by saying that I'd use them whenever we have kids. Which is like 5 years from now...but I will!!
Tuesday: Wonderful, wonderful COM group. I love my group. LOVE LOVE LOVE them. We talked about how we can be praying that God will be BIG in our lives and the lives of those around us...Be BIG God!
Wednesday: -drumroll please- I met with Allen and I'm going to start practicing to be a second shooter at his weddings! I'm so incredibly excited. So I rushed over to Barnes and Noble and bought a really neat book - Understanding Exposure. It's definitely made me understand manual on my camera...although it's still scary, it's less "What did I get myself into?" scary and more like, "Wow, this is a lot to learn but it's really cool" scary. I took a few pictures before reading where my exposure was pretty off.

This one is pretty good focus...a little dark though.

A little soft on Riley (she wiggles too much!) and it seems a tad overexposed to me.

VERY underexposed.

Thursday: Grey's came back on! I was very excited about that. And even more exciting - Greg came back home!! YAY!
Today: I sat down for about 4 hours this afternoon and really started to understand my [dad's] camera. I took lots of pictures (most of them are pretty boring because they're exercises in my book), but I got some really cute (and technically pretty good) pictures. Understanding manual is more of a "Hey, I think I can actually do this," thing for me now...and I'm really excited that my pictures look SO much better technically than they did in Auto.

Riley is one of my favorite subjects...I figure that if I can get her in focus, then I can get anything in focus because she's so wiggly!

And one more cute one of Riley.

Tomorrow is running. And my alarm is going off this time, gosh darn it! (I should be asleep right now though).

One last thing before I go. Dustin proposed a question - what do I think will abide in my pursuit for contentment. I thought about that for a long time tonight...and I still haven't really come up with a concrete answer. I think that taking my thoughts captive, like he mentioned, is a good idea, but in actuality it's so much easier said than done. I've been struggling for a long, long time with body image and I try so hard to take my thoughts captive. But sometimes I get discouraged and I forget about taking my thoughts captive and it spirals downward to me feeling absolutely awful about myself for a few days. Greg encourages me so much to be aware of what I'm thinking and I really, really fight and struggle with that.

I think one thing that might help me is listing (either mentally, on here, or in my actual journal) all the things that I'm thankful for or that happened in the previous 24 hours that were exciting and fun. Sometimes I get so caught up in the future that I forget how much fun I'm having in the present! What am I thankful for today?

- Health insurance.
- A wedding gift card to Target that we forgot about (and the hand-mixer, food processor, and board game that we got with it!)
- A wonderful dad who lets me borrow his camera whenever I want.
- Friday's off from work.
- A husband who lets me pick where we eat (Chick-fil-A!)
- A clean apartment.
- A king-size bed.
- My new non-gas guzzling car that is very pretty.
- Blessings from God.

I think that really will help me live in the present more :)

I need to go get in bed now so I can be bright-eyed (sort-of) and bushy-tailed in the morning...whoever thought up that saying? It's kind of silly and it makes me laugh.

I pray that God blesses you abundantly today!