MUCH NEEDED UPDATE!!! I KNOW! lol =)

Well...I have only JUST a few hours ago gotten back into the country and it feels GREAT to be home..It would be better if my husband were here right now, but he is hard at work for us now and I am eagerly waiting his return home, so I can hug him forever and never let go! =)
What a LONG trip home it WAS!!!! I have been in Cancun since leaving this last Sunday. Jen and I went to photograph a beautiful wedding on the beach for a client! They had a wedding of just under 50 people at a resort that was all exclusive (everything meals at fancy restaurants and drinks whenever where ever, were all covered in our stay). We dined the first night we got there at a classy Oriental restraint...It was gorgeous and dim, with deep red napkins and amazing service. The food was covered, so jen and I ordered whatever was on the menu that we "had" to try! The wine was on the house, so I had to keep my eye out because they would just fill it like water without you hardly noticing until you went to take a sip and found that you had only just began AGAIN...lol... It was funny, I learned quickly to sip small and pay attention... The table and decore were wood and the menu's were bamboo things... Each dish came in portion and the presentation was amazing! I felt like I was in some OTHER world...we of course HAD to get desert too! lol That was JUST as incredible as all the other things we savored... When we were threw, we didn't know what to do with ourselves...NO BILL...people just get up and walk out when they are threw...it is SUCH a strange feeling!!! Enough about the first dinner...if I fill you in like this, we will bw here for some time... The room was great...ours was Central (this is VERY nice for photographers by the way!) On our porch I could see the night life/day life, off to the right...the glow of restraints and patio bars overlooking the sea...The Ocean was to my right and EVER SOOO BLUE!!! the sand was very light and the palm trees looked very cool at sunset with not much more then an outline against the waves soft crashing. We stayed pretty busy when we were not sleeping in and ordering breakfast to our room so that we didn't have to get up right away and so I am sure that there was much more to be done or do or see, that I just did not...I really Missed my Nick... BEAUTY is not half as sweet without YOUR perfect someone to share it all with.. I wanted to do and see it all with him. It was still nice, very nice, but I opted out or didn't feel like doing as much without my Nick...Not to mention I was tired and so resting on the hammock on our patio was one of my favorite things to do...until I started getting bit up!! grr.. The wedding was the day after we got their.... The spa was going to do the brides hair and makeup, but they were behind on time, and the bride did not feel like waiting and being late with everything else, understandable... Jen told her that I do hair and also make up and she said she remembered hearing that and was trying to decide what to do... I agreed to doing it for her if she would rather not have to wait (what an awesome spa too...lol...any way) we went back to her room where I did her hair and make up...The spa called a few times apologizing for the time problem and offered to come to her room to do it...she said no thanks she trusted me and had some one good to do it for her already...lol...NO PRESSER RIGHT!!!! It is only right before her wedding and I have never touched her hair! She knows JUST what look and style she wants and I have no practise time to make sure it is what she is looking for...ONE SHOT and she is really wanting a combo of two looks she likes but is like me...has got to have the look just so...lol... Oh boy...I love hair and make up, was happy to do it for her, but there would be no time to fix it if it was not just what she envisioned!!! I acted like I was not worried for her sake and HOPED that I could give her what she described...for mine!! lol It was awesome when she loved it and I even heard from someone later talking to some one else that her hair was something she wanted done a certain way and was a big deal to her...and that she had told them it was JUST what she had in her head.....OH THANK YOU LORD for that!!! It was GREAT to hear that form someone else not just her, so I knew for SURE she was excited about it. She looked stunning...she is sooo beautiful any way, so everything was just extra to her beauty! IT WAS SOOO HUMID...I always thought I knew what that meant...I will now tell you...I HAD NO IDEA!!! lol When we first walked out of the air port...my glasses fogged up THAT MOMENT...and I was sweaty and sticky all at once!!! My sweat shirt came off and I still dripped!!! lol
We did a photo shoot with the bride and groom the next day on the beach...They were in there full wedding attire and we did shots as planned in the ocean and laying on the beach in the sand and with the waves crashing gently against them.... They ran and splashed in the water and we got the best photo's that anyone could dream of taking! I was in the Ocean up to my waist to take some of them! lol WOW...That was a day...I think I had sand down my pants most of the time there because I always have to drop to the ground for a shot here or there of course! The lighting was amazing...We looked at some of the pictures when we got back to our room and not one of them COULD POSSIBLY need any editing or correcting or any touch up AT ALL!!! They were JUST beautiful natural light that we opted to use over our flash when ever we could!!!
The trip back!!!!....!!!... LONG..... We had three different flights to catch on our way home...and turbulence on at least one or two even of those flights...It was exhasting and after one of the flights I thought I might throw up. We were sooo tired. We left at what would have been 5:30 here in the morning, it was 8ish for us I think, although we had to get up earlier and finish packing and getting ready to leave ect.... catch our ride to the airport that was a couple hours long... We got into Sac at 11 at night, and threw customs ect and home by about 2am or so... I slept a couple hours, said good by to the only person I was dying to get home to early and then slept a little more until my alarm went off to remind me to call work and see if I worked...lol...I had thought i would be home earlier and that working the next day would be no big deal...lol...so I told them I could work but had never found out if I did or not...and I was not able to call or tex out the whole time I was in Cancun....so I had to call this morning and find out...I worked in 45 min....! BUT they told me that if I wanted to take the day off, they would be covered and it would be fine with them...I was like...YEAH!!!! Thanks! Sleep! =) Now I am writing this and then I am going to GET some of that sleep! =) Nick leaves for Promise Keepers tomorrow morning! I am soooo glad for him to have a little brake from his INSANE HARD WORKING SCHEDULE!!! I will MISS him more then EVER...but I am so glad for him too, I really hope that it is nothing short of a blessing and relaxing time for him...ANY TIME this weekend Britt could have their little boy...Nick and I are soooo excited!!! I hope the baby comes when Nick gets home, I know Nick wants to be there and I know Shawn would love to have him there too. My Dearest Brittany is going to be a Mommy sooo soon!!!! AAAAAaaaaaah!!! I can not wait!!!! We are soo close to them, it will be amazing to know this little boy alaAaas!!! On our trip a couple of past clients of ours were guests and shared some exciting news with Jen and i over lunch...They are 4 months along themselves!!! Soooo cool! I am so happy for them.. =) They are some of the greatest people I have ever met and gotten to know so quickly...her smile is soo contagious and beautiful!
any way... LONG WEEK... Looking forward to my dearest Britts big day, Shawns too. Thankful to be home! Looking forward to say the LEAST to seeing my Man tonight....WHO BY THE WAY....Left a DARLING COZY NIGHTY HE PICKED OUT HIMSELF FOR ME (THAT I LOOOOVE) and a beautiful bottle of PERFUME that is SUUUUUUUCH A TREAT AND SMELLS SOOOO A M A Z I N G!!!!! (something I have been wanting for such a long time secretly) and a wonderful smelling candle all layed out on the couch (a CLEAN COUCH THAT HE CLEANED ON HIS ONLY NIGHT OFF) for MEEEE!!!! The Lord blessed me with my husband in a way that nothing else in life can be or do! I am sooo grateful right now, to be loved and cherished as I am and to love someone sooo deeply, so richly, so truly myself! I think he is the greatest guy that there ever was, has or will be! Thank you LORD!!! I AM SOOO GLAD TO BE HOME!!!!
I will try to post a picture or two that I took when I can. =)

MY BABY GRADUATED!!! YOU GO NICK!!! I LOVE YOU!!!! I AM SOOOO PROUD!!!! There are no words for the way I feel today love!!!!

Nothing like a girl chat! AND LAUGH! =)

A few of us..Hangin around after talkin!

The sisters chattin! here to the right! =)


My Nicholas WAY out in the dark field with the little ones, playing!

Well today has been one of those long days... Nick and I had our softball game tonight... WE DID GREAT!!!! We didn't win...but it was close and now I think all of us are feeling very excited that maybe our team CAN WIN!!! It was a great night of ball! The other team was unkind especially to one of our team. It was cool though, she really gave it to God and kept on through it all. They were out of line... My first instinct was to go over to them and give them a piece of my mind and tell them that they had no right to talk to this person or about this person that way! Who did they think they WERE any way?!!! It was hard but good...My thoughts changed after I thought of it a bit... i thought what i would want if the roles were switched with my friend and I...well, I thought, the best I could do was be kind back and ...then I thought well, I just won't go over there and kick there butt like I want to right now...then I thought... well that won't matter I am not around them and they are not being this way to me... then I THOUGHT...wow...my friend is the person tonight! It is ALL her! She is the one who must SHINE for Christ and be persecuted tonight for His NAMES SAKE...Our Team is a Church team in a league that is not...HOW ARE WE SET APART?... I will tell you how...When people like my friend decide to humble themselves and in Gods Strength show people who are pretty much being jerks (to not beat around the bush) Grace! Tonight I didn't have the chance to turn the other cheek...but my friend did... I went from wanting to talk her up and put them down right back to make her feel better, to encouraging her and I would want her to encourage me, and I know she would, to I guess turn the other cheek...She did, I was sooo proud of her. I was so grateful that God would let me be a part of watching things and learning something for my own heart tonight that was not even directly me. It was not easy to think this way, to think like we are called to, especially when it WAS NOT ME and was someone I love...But God is faithful...Thank you Lord for tonight and for a friend who gave you glory tonight and I pray was a light on our league! Keep giving us the chance to shine and not forget who we are in you first and for most! I am excited for this outlook, please continue to show us this way of thinking...ESPECIALLY...IN THE MOMENT! =)
After the game, I got to talk to my dear friend, Diane and it was sooo good! I didn't realize how long it feels like it has been since I got to have a GIRL TO GIRL talk. My husband is amazing, but there is just something about a girl talk that at times is JUST what one may need...After talking with my D, I realized just how much I needed a true Girl pal to talk to! I NEEDED THAT! Many of my friends have so very much going on in there lives and when we do see each other, there is so much else to talk about! Diane! I LOVE YOU, thank you so much for making me feel like ME AGAIN, and for listening to ME! I am so grateful. I don't always want to talk about what my heart is going through, and sometimes it just feels to confusing and hard to explain. I love how easy it is for us to share things...You were my gift from the Lord tonight. Thank you Lord and thank you for letting our God who is so GREAT use you tonight....IN MANY TIMES/WAYS love! I was soo proud of you today! I know you were and have been going through a lot and you played such a good game too!!! YOU GO GIRL!!! Love you!
MOST OF ALL....Thank you for some WONDERFUL laughs with you tonight!!! We really were silly and it was well....SO MUCH FUN!!! Here are a couple of our goofy shots... Since I had such a good time that I couldn't go to bed without posting a blog and a couple of these great shots! wow...It is after midnight too! Hope y'all enjoy since I am awake any way...lol By the way!.. It was a late game and dark, so the camera did not like us and these are the silly pics that we ended up with! We had a good laugh at least! lol But the game lights made wierd dashes across our faces and the settings that we tried, just made us have two or three faces in one pic...and blerrrrred! lol Oh I LOVE YOU D! That was fun! Just what I needed! =)

I like this pic of YOU to the left!


Gosh now that I am done...it's past
1 am! I should try for some sleep!


Yikes! lol We look sooo scary in some of these!!! lol Eeeek!

We got to see the Palms!!!

Yesterday Nick worked all day in Sac..he got home as soon as he could manage and we rushed back out the door to Forrest ranch. My friend Elise just Graduated from Shasta Bible college, and he parents and sisters were able to come from Brazil (where they have been serving as missionaries as long as I can remember) for this special occasion, as well as her brother graduating in another state. Something came up and Nick and I were not able to go to her graduation as planned. So as it was there last night here last night...We went up the hill to see them (I have not seen them more then very brief in such a long time! Nick has never even had a chance to meet them!!! That was very important to me!

Elise is a friend that goes back a long ways with me and as little girls we would always dream up what the next time would be like that we would get to see each other and how "OLD" we would then be! lol See, the Palm family would come to the states for a year and then leave for four years and come back for a year and leave again for four.

Any way. Nick enjoyed them immensely to say the least. In fact we were talking about how we would love to go and work with them for a couple months if ever God wanted us to and we could find a way. We LOVED seeing them, even though our time was brief. I am so proud to share the amazing husband that I have with people that I love and respect so much...and MISS dearly too. Please keep the Palm Family in your prayers! Also, Elise is leaving for Israel to whiteness there for a couple months. She is thrilled and would love your prayers to go with her! She is one of the most incredible women I have ever known. She is so rare and pure of heart in my eyes....I am so very excited to see what God calls Elise to. She is one who has never changed in her contentment and joy to serve Jesus, her humility and strength. The Palm family (all of them) are such a beautiful family! Please Pray for God to bless and continue to guide them! Here are a couple shots we grabbed before we left last night. =) Thank you Lord!

When un important things keep me awake! What is up with THAT?!

Just some more resent photo's randomly picked because I didn't know what pics would go with what I wrote and a blog without pics...sorry, it is almost impossible for me...how boring right?! =) Any way...here are just a couple random pics. I think I will post at least a couple current ones each time, no matter what I write about...lol K! =) Love you guys!

so this happens a lot...See, I have a bad memory...I am actually not kidding when I say that I have a bad memory... Most of my friends/people I know remember details about things, that I can not even imagine remembering! I remember strange things and often with many holes... For example, last night I lay in bed picturing a place I had been...I could remember the porch, that there was an event of some kind (maybe a wedding?) that I was probably a teen, that there were children there running about. It was beautiful and old fashion in a way...but I was out of place. I do not think I knew the people who's occasion it was very well, if at all. I think I was with someone, maybe even my older sister? I can not see one face!!! I remember punch and I think it may have been a wedding, a small one, ...I can picture this place but not figure out who I was with or where I was at. I can remember how I felt better then what it was for or when it was.. It drove me crazy last night, as I tried to forget about it, or remember enough to put my wondering at ease... WHAT IS UP WITH THAT!!! I very often feel that I have as many memory problems as any older person I have heard complain! It makes me wonder HOW I will cope if I also get older!? It really just rubbed me the wrong way last night to be bugged by this.. I believe that I started forgetting things when I was younger. I remember very little of some of my growing years if anything at all. I have to think and think... It has been a good thing in some ways in my life I am sure, but it also feels like a curse, that I must deal with. Any way...I guess since this morning I STILL can not figure this one out and feel no closer, I just HAD to vent a bit.
On another note. Church was as it always is. God moves there, He speaks to hearts and opens eyes and is always present to me there. He is always present to me in daily life, but sometimes at church although it is made for coming near to our Lord, I have felt distracted or too tired to remember things. I have not seen a day that is like that at Harvest. I have been nothing but blessed from my Savior, inspired, AND challenged! Nick and I both. Please pray for our church and that God would continue this great thing and that our hearts would remain open and ready to seek, to serve and to know His beauty! Pastor Joe said something simple that I really liked yesterday..."Let's not leave the same as when we got here. I am sure we all came in "good" people, maybe doing great, but let us not leave today unchanged. Let us not go out of this room the same people." He had been speaking on what God WILL do in us through the holy spirit and not doubting "the mind controlled by the spirit." in Romans 8:6... I don't know it is hard this week to really explain some of just what Joe did, but it was very eye opening... We read from Matthew 22:34-40 and John 14:25-28 Acts 2:38 and 39 and all of Romans 8 and how a couple verses in Romans 8 are happily used and left behind is sooo much more in the before parts of Romans 8. It is important to read the whole thing and not pick out parts we like and not look at the whole truth. This is just some of what "I" heard out of church yesterday, only SOME, and I am sure I am not even touching on the best parts, but one thing I also got out of it was this... In our own strength and through the mind of a sinful man, there is nothing but death. However God gave us His holy Spirit to be with us EVERYWHERE WE GO...He even says in John 16:5? I think it is, that "it is good for HIM to go. He will send the spirit of truth..." the holy spirit and instead of him being here on earth always and us going to him for healing and things, He said it was GOOD for HIM to GO!!! That He would give us the holy spirit! Gods ways are BEST...so any way...wow. I think I may have done the WORST job trying to explain this Sunday, but oh well. The point is there for you to read in His word and if you want to know what I am talking about, ask Him to show you and I know He will. Sorry I am not that clear. I just listened this Sunday, soaking it all up, as I had been having a hard start to my day and attitude ect... and usually I take notes, so maybe that is why I am having a hard time being more direct about what we learned. I am afraid of saying something wrong and twisting a beautiful truth, so I will pray that anyone who reads this will read what is only edifying and truth.
So yup, that hard start to my day sis...by the way...well since most of anyone that "I" know that would read this..are all girls.... let me explain for a laugh...
Nick and I have not been able to spend very much time together without all sorts of other things going on... it is really hard especially when his school or my work takes up our weekend and only real time to do things together not to mention all the people/family that you want to spend time with...something we are working on to be sure. ANY WAY.. I was not really that interested in what Nick was having to do for school yet again on our Saturday... but I DID know that I wanted to be with him! SO, I went out in upper park , out in the Field all day with him just giving he and our friend Griff water and watching them do a lot of things that I struggle to actually find interesting (I guess it was though if you wanted to know...lol) any way... It was a VERY LONG DAY, in the direct sun in a dry field...doing (for me) nothing, and not being able to have a clue or WANT to know what the boys and their classmates (although a small group) were doing.. I guess had Nick not shown up with some of the experience that he has then the whole project would have been stuck. He is really such a great teacher and so kind and patient with people, I love watching that, and watching him explain things to others, he just never seems prideful either, another thing I love about him! well...We thought we would only be out there all morning, but we were actually out there all day!!! I put sunscreen on and still got BURNED! go figure! lol
or should I say...good thing I DID, because I STILL am sooo burned (Nick won't stop teasing me about wearing my white tank top everywhere...Do you know what that means? MY WHITE SKIN THAT LOOKS LIKE A PERMANENT TANK TOP!!! well...any way...SO this was Sat. then on Sunday morning, I woke up very sore and hot around the neck...Started "THAT TIME OF THE MONTH!!" AND we had begun our fast!!! not to mention that my back has been bad for a while now and not feeling any better with this time of the month...It will usually just flair up worse for a few days...SOooo, being on the fast, I couldn't take pain killers!!! It was really more then I could handle, Nick knows how hard it can be for me when I DO have pain killers...so we finally decided (Nick decided for us) that it would not be worth it with me photographing later, to be in pain where I could not walk and hungry and sunburned without any pain killers. so he took us to eat so I could take some pain pills. Today we are back on our fast for good. I do not have any big things to photograph until next week and that I can think of right now, so I should be able to handle this pain without way more drama then it is worth today.