Hello World!

Between packing up our house, going on vacation for a week and half, working on the in-laws house, and moving accross the mid-west, its needless to say we've been a little busy and thus absent from the world for a while! But no worries, we are here and well. The move was great, we couldnt have asked for better weather for the drive, and I somehow got by without needing any of the energy drinks we bought for the 21 hour drive! Were now moved in and loving our townhouse. Were 2 minutes away from Walmart and Im 5 minutes away from my new job. I start my job tomorrow as a receptionist for an international company that makes food processing equipment. James is still on the hunt for a job and is still waiting on his school application status, so heres hoping!
I think that will have to be it for now, Im pretty tired and dont know how much longer I will make it this evening without passing out on my lap-top!
I will make sure to update more on our wonderful vaca in Utah and post some much needed pictures. Love to all!

The Truth

Ok ok, Ive been guilt tripped by my husband into telling you all the truth. He scolded me this morning for my previous post about the studio, because it is a lie. Yes, thats right, I LIED! Why you ask? I guess because Im both embarrased and stressed about the whole situation. I wasnt ready to get bombarded with all the questions..."Why?" "What are you going to do now?" "What happened?" Im stressed out enough as it is, this is just one more thing to add to the list. Not to mention my earlier post about how things were going "so well" for us, how could I say such a thing! God is surely punishing me for thinking He was blessing us, He was merely just testing us!! Ok, Im sure your ready to know exactly what the heck I am talking about...we are not buying the studio anymore. Everything has gone to put. As it turns out, we got ahead of ourselves, as the phrase says, "put the cart before the horse." The numbers shown us from the business, the profit/loss statement, was different from what they had first shown us. Pretty much they fudged the numbers to make it look like they made more than they really did. And then on top of that, going to get the SBA loan, since the loan would be under $100,000 it would have to be on a 5 year term which would make our monthly payments $1600. Between that payment and not making as much as we thought, we would barely be making it by, making us have to live in the studio for 5 years if not more. Which would not allow us to have kids in that frame of time. So you see where we stand, its just not possible.

As far as what we do now, were working on some prospects. We will let you know as soon as something comes about. I apologize for my deceiving post yesterday, at the time it just seemed best till we got things figured out. Im grateful though for a husband who reminds me its more important to be honest. Thank you love:)

Studio

As far as anyone is concerned, James and I are still planning on going ahead with the studio. If you have any questions, please contact me personally either by phone or email.

Does the Journey Seem Long?

In church yesterday for our opening hymn we sang hymn no. 127, "Does the Journey Seem Long?" I had never heard of it before, neither James and I had and I dont think the majority of the congregation had either considering no one was really singing it at first. But once we got use to the melody and stopped paying so much attention to not messing up the song, I realized what a beautiful song it is. The words just really captivated me. I love it when hymns do that for me. So, HERE it is if you havent heard it.

Does the journey seem long,

The path rugged and steep?

Are there briars and thorns on the way?

Do sharp stones cut your feet

As you struggle to rise

To the heights thru the heat of the day?
Is your heart faint and sad,

Your soul weary within,

As you toil ‘neath your burden of care?

Does the load heavy seem

You are forced now to lift?

Is there no one your burden to share?
Let your heart be not faint

Now the journey’s begun;

There is One who still beckons to you.

So look upward in joy

And take hold of his hand;

He will lead you to heights that are new—
A land holy and pure,

Where all trouble doth end,

And your life shall be free from all sin,

Where no tears shall be shed,

For no sorrows remain.

Take his hand and with him enter in

Q & A

Lets clear up some unanswered questions with some answers. Im horrible about following up with questions you all ask, sorry!

Now how did I miss not sharing what my puppys name is! How silly of me...His name is Doc "Rivers" Cooper...yup, thats right Tina! It just fit so well when you were out here when you added in Rivers, I decided it needs to be his official middle name:) He is half maltese, half yorkie. An official Yorktese!

Tomorrow is my birthday. Im at the point in my life that it has just become another day. So dont fret about wishing a "happy birthday", I promise I wont be dissapointed if I dont hear one:) Ive mentioned before that I work with a Jehovahs Witness. We tend to butt heads a lot regarding our religious differences, but there have been a couple things that have actually affected me in a good way. If you didnt know, they dont celebrate any holidays or birthdays. Now where I wouldnt rule out completely celebrating these eventful occasions, Ive come to the realization on "how" to celebrate these occasions. We focus so much on the insignificant nature of these commercialized holidays/celebrations, we forget the true meaning of the reason we are celebrating. Birthdays for instace, they are fun to celebrate when you are young, you have a reason to be excited when you turn 5, 10, 16 and 20. But when you get older, your birthday should maybe be less about you, and more about the person who brought you into this world, and maybe your Creator. Of course we should celebrate our accomplishments weve made through our life, each year weve been through, but you can do that everyday and why spend all that money just because your one year older? Christmas is pretty obvious of how we could celebrate that a little better. And Valentines day? Shouldnt we show our love for eachother every day? Shes just made me realize how superficial we all can be. And as much as I dont agree with her beliefs, she at least lives true to what she believes and doesnt waiver. How many of us can honestly say that for ourselves? I know there are days that I cant.

Ok, I think this is the last question needed to be answered. That little boy in the video above is just someone Tina and I found on youtube.com. She was showing me some other funny videos and stumbled upon this one and let me tell you, we were laughing so hard Im suprised our eyeballs didnt pop out of our heads!! Oh my golly gee he is adorably funny.

Well that should cover all my basis. If not let me know.

Love!!

Christmas 2008 & Update

January 12,2009

2008 was an interesting year for us! All in all though, we have been blessed and couldnt ask for more. The greatest gift we recieved this Christmas was the gift of a strengthened testimony, nothing greater. Its amazing the blessings the Lord has in store for you when you make the choices in your life that bring you closer to Him. We are so very greatful for the Gospel and to be a part of this magnificent work!

Well, I guess I should share some specifics as to what has been going on with us. Christmas was fun, we got to spend it with Tina and made some fun memories off roading in James beast of a truck!

We found a cave during our off road adventures, how cool is that!

The next greatest gift I got this year for Christmas was my own little puppy!! He is just the cutest little thing I ever saw. James couldnt wait till Christmas to give him to me, so the Sunday before Christmas he surprised me, and boy was I surprised! I couldnt be happier, he is my little baby:)

See what I mean about baby? We like to snuggle:)

Hes been groomed since Christmas so his hair is shorter and just that much cuter!! Were working on being house trained, so far so good. Hes at the point he knows to go the door when he needs to go, its just the whole waiting part. But were getting there.

So we have a lot going on right now! We finally got our house leased, which is the next best thing to having it sold, so we will take what we can get. The people that are leasing it would buy it but they would like to have some debt payed off before they get themselves into another mortgage. They sold their house and have to be out by the 31st, so we are busting out behinds trying to get everything together to move and buy the photography business! We are working on the SBA loan right now, so far so good. It actually worked out great as far as finding the bank to do it. Were going with Regions bank, which there is one in the town that James is working construction right now, so that is helping a lot to work with them here and be able to work with them locally when we move. It just seems that everything is working out so well for us, its amazing really! We got our settlement yesterday from James car accident, so we are so grateful to be able to have that help out with the business and to have something to fall back on. I will tell you exactly why everything has been working out so nicely for us...the big Guy!! Like I said before, when you are making the choices in your life that bring you closer to Him, He will bless you ten fold, and that is what happened for us.

On the 30th, we are flying out to Utah to visit Ben and family and Tina, and to go snowboarding...I am so stoked! Not only have I not seen these people I love in forever, I havent been on my board and mountain that I love either in forever! I miss it! James is going to try and pick up snow boarding, but if he doesnt in the first couple days, he will go back to his skiis. When he lived in New York growing up he went skiing all the time having lived next to a ski resort. Either way, we will have fun. It is a much needed vacation, we have been through so much our first 2 1/2 years of marriage, we need some time to just be "us." Especially before we start this whole business thing.

Well, I guess thats it for now! I know Im forgetting a whole bunch of stuff, but I suppose this will do for now. I will be updating on the move, business and what-not for sure. Till then, LOVE YOU!!!

Im here!

Dont worry, Im still here...just slackin is all. I get caught up in life and before you know it, I forget all about this wonderful world of blogging! I wont being saying too much right now, just putting it out there that I still exist and all is well. I will however being updating SOON. There is a LOT to update on, so I need to make sure I have the time to do so. Just know I love, Love, LOVE you all!!!!

Who do you run to?

This is one of my new found favorite songs. Its by Lady Antebellum, an awesome new country group. They are amazing. Well lately Ive been listening to this song a lot, and found just how significant these words are. I thought to myself, "Who do I run to?" At the end of the day, I am so grateful I have a husband, family and God who loves and cares for me. They are who I run to.

I run from hate

I run from prejudice

I run from pessimists

But I run too late

I run my life

Or is it running me

Run from my past

I run too fast

Or too slow it seems

When lies become the truth

That’s when I run to you

Chorus

This world keeps spinning faster

Into a new disaster so I run to you

I run to you baby

And when it all starts coming undone

Baby you’re the only one

I run to I run to you

We run on fumes

Your life and mine

Like the sands of time

Slippin’ right on through

And our love’s the only truth

That’s why I run to you

Note: you can listen to it on the top right. Its a beautiful song, I promise you wont be dissapointed.

Morning Sickness

Haha...got ya!! Now if you just take away the morning part, the sickness is true in and of itself...it is going around and it is miserable!! Ive had the nasty common cold for over a week now, courtesy of my dear husband:) Beginning as a head cold, its now traveled down to my chest and am now coughing up the grossest of gross umentionables. Its bringing back to when I quit smoking, there were mornings I coughed up stuff that should never be in any human person!! Hence why we dont smoke. Thanks Mom and Dad for scaring that into me, Ill never forget that confrontation:) I know I need to be drinking more water, I really have no excuse for not drinking more, we have a kitchen at work with a culligan water filter. Im getting on that as soon as Im done here, I PROMISE! Ill tell you what though, who ever invented Nyquil needs a Nobel Prize or something of that magnitude, that stuff works wonders!! I took it Saturday evening, with a warning from James that shortly after I do I will for sure be knocked out. I disregarded his warning and took it at about 8:30. At about 8:45, sure enough I was konked out on the living room couch, not to be heard from for a looong time. I slept so goooood that night, better than I have in a while. Needless to say I will be taking it again tonight, theres nothing like being able to get a full nights rest when your sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching.
Hope all your noses, heads and chests are unstuffed, free and clear of that nasty unmentionables!!

I am not perfect, I am so far from. I have many faults and many weaknessess. I do not pretend to be perfect. My sincerest apologies to those that wish I were. I strive EVERY DAY to be better. There are things behind closed doors we dont see. I have a lot of closed doors. Should I be punished for that? Should I be scorned and ridiculed for the things unknown in my life? I guess I should. So be it.

Drum Roll Please...

Some of you have been inquiring as to what it is that James and I are actually going to be doing in the next year, whether it be college or some other venture. Well, as it turns out, we have been offered to buy his aunt and uncles photography business down in southern El Dorado, Arkansas. And we have agreed to buy it! Of course after much thought and prayer, it wasnt a spur of the moment decision. James has been very nervous about spending all that money on college to not have a job when he got done, being as how the economy is the way it is and construction has gone way down. We went down to visit it a couple weeks ago and to talk numbers with his aunt and uncle. The studio is on a beautiful piece of property, it has a ton of potential. The studio itself needs a little bit of repair, but nothing too major. But it sure is plenty big, I can do sooo much with it! The beauty of this whole business propostion is that by buying the busniess, were pretty much just buying a paycheck. It does very well for itself, and they only work Tuesday through Thursday, with Friday and Saturday by appointment only. We would be able to start a family sooner and I would be able to work and have kids. James plans on being trained so that he will eventually be the main photographer so I can just to the editing and be able to take care of the kids. But of course, still do pictures if I wanted to, which I of course would, its my love and passion! And he has always wanted to learn, whenever I take him on shoots with me he always has an eye and helps a lot. I think he will do great. And if all else fails in four years time, we arent happy where we are, we'll either sell the business or close up shop, being they had it paid off in a year. So, we are feeling really good about it. Now its just a matter of getting financed to buy it, we bought a program on finding government grants, with a money back garauntee after 6 months, so we'll see where that takes us. We know its a lot easier for women to get grants, so we'll first try doing it in my name. If anyone has any suggestions or know where to start as far as grants go, I would love to hear!!

Well, thats the gist of it. Were both excited for this new path ahead of us. Granted were now farther away from you all, but we'll be more financially stable so we will be able to visit once a year, yep, thats right!! We made an agreement we will make a trip out east once a year, so that I am really excited about. Lets see, its been over 2 years now since Ive seen family, long over due if you ask me!!!

Thats it for now I guess...love you all.

Photography by Jeannette

Check out my work here! So far I only have my college photography up, but I will update soon with my most current work.