gathering my thoughts

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream." -C.S. Lewis

One thing I have learned in recent years and really take to heart is that planning encourages living intentionally, in turn adding quality to your (my) life. I plan a lot more these days than I used to. I plan meals for the week, budgets for the month, traveling for the year, the list goes on. I even plan in days off, and I let Tommy lead the way on those days. He is much more of a spontaneous soul. Sometimes this poses a challenge when I am booking weddings a year in advance - but I think we do a pretty decent job balancing each other out. :)

I have been thinking about this week ahead and I simply wanted to gather my thoughts. The Sunday after a wedding often feels like my brain is sleeping. I know I have a lot of work to do, but I cannot think straight long enough to sit down and make a to-do list. I kind of won't let myself. Sundays are my day to rest - so I tell myself probably 5 times every Sunday "Stop thinking about work. Sit here and do nothing." Hah.

So here we are on Monday... and I need to gather my thoughts for the week ahead. My blog shall be my notebook.

Goals for this week:

• Have new tires put on my car (by Wednesday AM)
• Make a trip to ikea (for a new bookshelf for the office!)
• Cull/sort two weddings
• Edit and deliver one wedding
• Prepare and schedule 2-3 weddings for the blog
• Prepare and schedule 2-3 portrait sneak-peeks for the blog
• Collect and sort images for submission to the local bridal guide
• Design and order marketing cards for wedding venues

I think I can... I think I can!

a little bit of nesting...

So... we finally got the nursery cleared out, the walls painted, and the furniture assembled. What makes me giggle a little is that it all totally happened in one week. :) What can I say? The nesting bug has bit me! I love this little room! I even sat on the floor in it yesterday with my laptop to do a little work... it just makes me so happy!

I am grateful to have this bit of nesting motivation because my goal was to do all of this during the months of August-September, knowing I have a crazy-busy October ahead of me. So now I just feel ahead of the game! I am more confident that come November 1st I can be d.o.n.e. All work completed, nursery totally ready, Christmas shopping done (for real), and completely ready for baby. At least... that is the plan. (All you mom's of 2-10 kids can go ahead and laugh at me now... I know, I know.)

This is a very early sneak peek of the little bit of nesting we've done in the nursery. We obviously have to fill it with baby stuff, but I am also holding off on accessorizing the room too much until after we know what we are having.

So I plan on waiting on a few final details until after baby is here, but in the meantime I have been playing a bit on pinterest. There are a few things I know for certain I'll get up before November... here's a peek at some of my inspiration:

gratituesday: a good birthday

With a new blog, comes the return of Gratituesdays. :) Ohhh this makes my heart smile so much!

This week has been AWESOME. So many blessings have been poured upon us and I cannot stop smiling. It has been a few years since I've had a good birthday, for many reasons. Mostly because my husband was either deployed, on travel, or at drill during my birthday so I have spent the days alone. And thats okay (especially when I knew to expect it)! It just made this year that much better.

Tommy did have drill this weekend on my birthday (Sunday), but he did everything he could to still help me have a great day. I received a vase of sunflowers and the sweetest card from him... he threw together a last minute gathering with some of our closest friends (I call them our pajama friends - the ones I don't clean the house for ;))... and he let me behave like a spoiled child all day long. He knows just what I love. ;)

However... there were a also few unexpected blessings this week that I am excited about! First of all, I woke up the morning of my birthday and for the first time ever, felt our little growing baby kick from the outside! Eeeeek! This means we are just one step closer to Tommy finally feeling the baby move... and that makes us both super happy. Second... I also found out around lunchtime (on my birthday) that the August issue of The O Magazine finally hit the shelves... and if you haven't heard my super exciting news about that, then head over to my business blog for more info. :D

Altogether... it was a really great birthday... gearing us up for a wonderful week. I feel like it has been so long since I have had a good birthday, so I am on cloud nine this week and overall just really thankful!

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

our babymoon | 101 in 1001

It seems as though I have quite a bit of catching up to do with status updates of my 101 in 1001 list. First up, #37: take a cruise with Tommy. I knew I wanted to take a cruise sometime in my life. When my pregnancy adventure came around I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to cruise. We wanted to go on a last little trip together before we became a family of three. With that, I knew I didn't want to fly anywhere. Nor did I want to go to a foreign country where any emergency care may not be covered by insurance and/or wouldn't have many doctors available who spoke English (although I do think that's difficult to come by these days).  Plus, we had never been on a cruise and I have always wanted to go!

So... we went. To the Bahamas, specifically.

I didn't take very many pictures of our trip (story of my life lately), but I did make Tommy take a belly picture of me with the pretty blue water behind me. :) I knew I was way overdue for a belly picture (truth be told I am not totally loving the pregnant me) and I wanted to capture this time in our lives together. We met some great people on the cruise and one of the couples we shared a dinner table with took a few pictures of us while we were in Nassau together. Here are a few of my favorites: (the first pics of me are taken by Tommy :))

The best part of the trip was, hands down, our short time in Nassau. We aren't much into touristy activities so Tommy asked a few locals for some ideas of what to do.We ended up hopping on the local city bus and taking an unplanned tour through the entire island (we took the bus in the wrong direction - so touristy of us!) and hopped off at the local beach. It was hands down the quietest place on the island and we loved it. We waded in the water and watched as locals played with their pets and completed their daily workouts. The water and scenery was just as I imagined it would be. So heavenly!

We also enjoyed our time on the cruise ship, though we heard a few different times that previous cruisers preferred the Royal Carribean cruise line vs. the Carnival cruise line (which we were on). Note taken! :)

Overall, we had a great time and enjoyed our escape from real life (and all things technology related!)... but now that we have seen the Bahamas I think next time we'll spend our money on another all-inclusive resort. :)

wanna buy 5 copies for my mother! | published

I have been waiting SO LONG to write this blog post! I teased a little bit on facebook here and there... not to be mean, but because I was SQUEALING on the inside and I really couldn't SAY what was going on......... until now! Friends... this may be one of my biggest accomplishments to date. I am extremely proud and excited to share with you that I had some of my work published in O Magazine. As in, The Oprah Magazine. Yes. I am still trying to process the whole thing myself... so, so surreal.

As I mentioned previously, I had the lovely opportunity to photograph Kim Sorenson from the Omniterrum located in downtown Lynchburg. She was a treat to photograph and her globes... oh the globes! Amazing collectibles... I am already intrigued enough by historical maps, but putting them on globes just makes the experience of traveling with your fingers so much more gratifying!

I posted about some of my pictures of Kim being published in the June issue of Bella Magazine. That was super exciting for me! But, when O magazine contacted me about using some of Kim's recent head shots for a feature they were doing on her, I was beyond thrilled and a little bit in shock. :) Not to mention SO excited for Kim as well!

Okay, so enough about my shock and awe... check out the evidence for yourself... and go find a copy to read the article about Kim!