03 January 2011

Signing Off

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Another year has come and gone and a new one is in its place. It's always a sad and yet exciting time. The organization is in "full steam ahead" mode for this week on our side of the house. Time to clear out and refresh a multitude of things.

For awhile now I've been contemplating officially ending this blog. As I'm sure you've noticed, I have lacked blogging energies for quite some time. I've gone back and forth about putting this blog out of its misery and have finally decided to do it. For the time being all the old posts will remain, but I will not be planning to post any new posts.

Mark and I both are on Facebook and email regularly so feel free to contact us there if you are wondering what we are up to!

Thanks for journeying with us to Scotland and back. It's been a wild ride at times, but a truly fantastic one as well.

So long from MO and RO (who are incidentally still somewhat) on the GO.

25 December 2010

Merry Christmas Island Style!

We got to enjoy this island special last week and I thought it would be fun to share with you today. The video isn't the best. It was really low lights and I'm new at filming on my photography camera.

Merry Christmas to all! May Christ indeed bring JOY to you this day and New Year.

14 November 2010

5 Months Later

It's hard to believe tomorrow we are at the 5 month "mile marker" of our time back in the U.S. Most of the time it just feels longer than that. I know things have been incredibly quiet around here so I figured it was time for a recap of the past 6 weeks or so. Here are the highlights in no particular order:

-- Mark's been workin' like a beast researching, reading, writing, revising. Progress is slower than anticipated, but to Mark's credit, he's been both writing the 6th and final chapter while also editing and polishing several previous chapters.

-- My photography business has finally taken off. It's all those families looking for Christmas photos/presents. Best place to see some of that work is here.

-- I've also been working a temp job off and on as needed at Baptist Press (BP). It started with me working as the fill-in Event Coordinator for the 2010 Collegiate Journalism Conference in early October that BP puts on every year. The Event Planner was due with her firstborn the day after the conference ended, so they brought me in as a "just in case" person hoping she would still be able to work. There was another BP staff member who was going to still take charge and help me along. But then the Event Planner had her baby 2 days before the conference started and the other staff's grandfather passed away 3 days before the event, so she was out for most of the conference at the out of town funeral. That left ME in charge of a conference hosting around 15 universities from around the nation, including 80+ college students and 30+ faculty/staff/speakers! But, the Lord gave me strength through the long days (two of them being 14 hour days!), as well as wisdom to learn quickly and manage situations well. All in all it went smoothly and I was grateful for the opportunity to work and make money. As a bonus, I got to rub shoulders with some great Christian photographers and journalists. It was personally a very inspiring weekend.

-- Mark's been enjoying the blessing of being able to watch SEC football every Saturday again, and in particular, his Bulldogs. Too bad they haven't had as strong of a season as he first hoped.

-- Fall in TN has been everything I hoped it would be -- colorful and warm. I am still not ready for winter! Go here and here to see more TN fall goodness!


-- The last day of Sept we took a quick trip up to Louisville, KY for Mark to do some research at Southern Seminary. My cousin and his family live there (and he's a student at Southern), so it was fun to see them again after 6 years! I went with my cousin's wife and 3 kiddos (see the two oldest below) to the Louisville Zoo where they have a membership. I could have spent all day there with my camera :)






-- Mark's taken up running since we've been back. He's enjoyed talking to my dad about all things running. Currently, though, Mark's laying low to let his leg injury (shin splints? stress fracture?) heal up.

-- Speaking of running, in mid-Oct. we got to see my dad run in a half marathon. It think it was his 4th, but he ran the first 3 when we were in Scotland.  He did a great job and we enjoyed the chance to cheer him on. He's currently training for a marathon in about a month, though has also had a couple of injuries this month that are hindering his training. We're all praying his body can heal enough to still run it.

(My dad is in the blue shirt with black cap.)

-- The past couple of weeks I've spent more time at Baptist Press filling in for the lady who posts the daily stories/photos on the Baptist Press website. It has been a crash course in some parts of journalism and working in a "press room" (though a very, very quiet one!).  I feel like it's been a valuable experience for me as a photographer. You just never know when I might need some of the experience I've gained.

-- In early Sept. Mark started co-teaching a new Sunday School class for singles. We've both enjoyed the opportunity to serve and reach out to other young adults in our church. Mark's also been teaching a discipleship class on Sunday night on how to study the Bible. He's done an excellent job teaching in both classes and I've taken much pleasure in seeing him do what I know God has gifted him to do.

-- We are still being daily barked into shape by the spoiled prince of the house, Yafo. We love him dearly, but he's very needy - some might even say co-dependent. Especially this week since the fleas were feasting on his poor body. Thankfully a little pill and much cleaning later and he's doing better.

How can I say no to this little face?!

-- Mark's eagerly anticipating a few days at the yearly Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) conference next week in Atlanta. It's so wonderful that we are so close this year!

-- We are looking forward to our two week trip to see Mark's family in just one month! Vacation is calling our name so the official countdown is on!

Thanks for stopping by again despite my irregularity of posting.

21 October 2010

I'm Published!

It seems only appropriate that for my 301st post (since I didn't realize when I posted Mark's b-day post 2 weeks ago (!) that it was my 300th post we missed that celebration - but we'll do it now), that I share with you the very happy news that I am published! It was here on this blog that I first started my photographic journey and you all encouraged me on to keep pursuing this form of creativity. So thank you.

My first published work is in The University of Aberdeen's new Chinese prospectus!
(link is on the right of the page)

 Love this shield!

 Here it is!

Credit given in English in the back of the booklet.

And credit in Chinese (I think the "9" means my photo is on page 9.)

My former colleague in Student Recruitment and Admissions who is the International Officer for China (meaning her "market" includes China) asked me to go with her to the on-campus Chinese New Year celebration this past February to take photos so that she could use some of them for this publication as well as on-line. It's fun to see this project come to fruition.

Let's hope there'll be more in the years to come :)

05 October 2010

Happy 35th Birthday, Mark!

Just a quick shout out to my hubby who is celebrating his 35th year of life today!  I'm so blessed to get to journey through this life together with him.

Love you, Mark!

25 September 2010

Satisfaction

In the time that I have been pursuing photography, I have printed out very few of my photos. Partially due to cost, partially due to knowing I'd just have to move them.

So this birthday I thought I'd splurge a little and took some birthday money from my generous mother-in-law (thanks Darlene!) and purchased one of my favorite Scotland photos on canvas board. I really want to go all out and get a larger size, but I decided on 11x16 because it is small enough to move around until the day we finally settle and it didn't require any cropping.

Remember this day?

I went back and forth about which print to have made, but finally settled on this one (though, this photo hardly does it justice!):



Can I just say I'm in love!!


It looks just like a painting (if you click on the picture, you can see the canvas detail) and makes me smile every time I see it. We just need to get it matted, framed, and then hung one of these days. I love the vibrant colors and reminder of dear Dunnottar and the memories of spending time there with Mark and others who came to visit.


I also got a print of this dahlia I took in front of the house this summer and framed it.  I was planning to sell it but am pretty much in love with this one too so might have to keep it for myself :)

It has truly been satisfying to finally see some of my work printed in a way that I envisioned as I took the photos.  I look forward to seeing more printed!

08 September 2010

Wedding Photos

For those of you who want to see 376 worth of wedding photos that I took in July, click on the photo below and it should take you to see the gallery. You can then use the arrow keys to scroll through. Or, close the pop up window and start from the beginning and watch the slideshow. All are good options if you have time :) However, for those of you wanting just one more photo, the below was one of my top favorites for artistic/photojournalistic quality. Not sure exactly what it is, but I love it!


I should make one disclaimer and give credit to my second shooter, Bob Yang. Bob knew the bride from church and was an excellent help that day. I so appreciate his willingness to photograph with me! You will see some of his lovely photos too, though, I'd like to think you won't necessarily know which ones.