My First Big Gig

As mentioned two previous posts ago, I took photo's for my friends Val & Will's wedding. I thought I would post some of the better ones for you to enjoy/critique/sigh over/and or any other purpose that you see fit. I will also be hopefully posting an update soon on this last weekend which happened to be Andy's and My first anniversary as "we" not "me" (we got married a year ago June 10) We went away for the weekend and had lots of fun. Anyway, here aresome of the photos.

Aren't they cute?
This is one of my favorites, a perfect love moment.


How's that go, Two hearts, two hands, one love? Something like that...
Elegant is the only word to describe Valerie on her wedding day.

Pretty flowers!
And of course, fancy girl shoes. :-)

I had a lot of fun doing this wedding and hopefully it will lead to more. But I don't think many others could top the joy of being apart of your close friends' wedding. I loved being there for Will and Val and sharing all their moments. Now if I could just get Val to call me...

A Huge Loss

Many of you in Minnesota know about the storms that we've been having and will have. Last night in my hometown of Ray they had a huge thunderstorm. Lightening then hit my parents church (Northwoods Bible Church) The church started on fire and continued to burn to the ground. I found out this morning from my husband and mom. I feel as though someone has died. It was just a building, but it was the building where I learned to love God and to serve Him. My grandparents helped build it on my uncle's land. I was married in that church. I can't describe my grief but yet I know God is sovereign. He knew that this church would burn, and he protected all human life. He has a plan for this human tragedy. Here are a few pictures, before, during, and after.

This picture was taken almost a year ago on the day of our wedding (June 10, 2006).
Lloyd Steen took this picture of the church engulfed in flames.
These are after shots taken today.

A Perfect Match

As previously mention my closest friend from College, Valerie R. became Valerie M. last weekend. I had the privilege of taking their wedding pictures which was a first for me. And yes, the wedding really only went off with only one Hitch, the marriage of Will to Val. It was a beautiful wedding and we had a good time. I worked hard and didn't get much sleep but it was super fun!

Below is Will and Vil enjoying the perks of married life. Next to that is a picture of one of Val's sister's Trisha with her husband Ethan. They were a lot of fun and we really enjoyed getting to know them.


This turkey was on the road to where we stayed for the night. I had to honk the horn to get him to move!



The following are some pictures Andy took of me taking pictures. He thought he was funny. :-P

A New Home!

So after about 1 month in our first apartment and then moving accross the hall for 10 months to our next current apartment we decided to move again. This time a whole block and a half away. Aparently big moves are hard for us so we're gradually moving farther away. Very Gradually. Okay not really but it seems that way. Anyway, our church purchased the house next door to it last fall/winter mainly for the land so some day when they expand they own the property. This spring they asked us if we would be interested in living in the bottom floor apartment of the house and acting sort of us "property managers" of the place. We said yes and moved in 2 weeks ago today. But first we (and Nicole) did a ton of painting in the place. The people who owned it before smoked ALOT so there was a lot of work that needed to be done. Including taking down some horrendous flowery used to be white but now it's brown wallpaper which the first layer of came down in small pieces we had to peel off. Then the bottom layer came down in bigger strips, then we washed the walls, spackled the walls where it need it, primed the walls, and painted 2-3 coats of paint on the walls. And that was just the small bedroom/office and living/dining rooms. The big bedroom only had a border up and we didn't prime those walls so that was a bit easier. All in all we had 5 weeks to get it done and move. But now that we're in it's so nice to have colors we want and a much cleaner space. The kitchen has tons of cabinets which I love and there's a basement and garage for us to use which is something we haven't had. Also, one of my biggest joys was the purchase of a used washer and used dryer. So now we don't have to schedule in time to go to the laundromaut. I love that! Plus I've planted lots of flowers and we can sit outside on nice evenings. And no more using the top of the fridge and any other open spot for storage! YAY! There is an apartment upstairs that might be rented out in the future but for now, it's just us. We don't use the upstairs at all and we still have so much more room! It's soooo wonderful. So for your enjoyment we'll give you a guided tour of some of our new house.

This is our church and neighbor building. And we thought we lived close to church before! We went for a bike ride this evening so I took pictures of the house and Andy as he went pass.

These are pictures of the outside of our house from the church parking lot and the street. It's a wonderful new home for us with lots of character.




These are pictures of my back flower beds and the side of the house. The fence is all that seperates us from the church parking lot. But that's a good thing sometimes. I loved planting flowers and am enjoying them immensly. The cement patio really is nice for various things.


This is our patio/side yard/clothesline. I bought a bright yellow garden hose to water my flowers with.



Andy found a used t.v. to have in the garage. Sadly, it gets better reception than the house one. So he works on bikes and I watch the news. :-)

These ducks, specifically one of them seems to think he belongs in our yard or the neighbors. Then frequently they use them as a shortcut. This is one of the ducks in the neighbors yard.
Andy was being a handyman for me tonight. The kitchen window looks directly over to the church so he put up a shade for us so we have some amount of privacy.
Here is our kitchen with all of the wonderful cupboards that even I haven't filled yet.
This is a random picture of me in our new hallway. Andy seems to enjoy taking sudden pictures of me. I like the delete key for this purpose. :-)

Above is a view of our dining room from the living room. These pictures were taken right after we moved in so stuff was everywhere. Below is our living room wall. And yes, we did paint them different shades of green and then red. And it looks so fun and it's bright and cheery.
This is our living room from the dining area. The red wall runs all the way from the dining area into the living room then the living room is 2 shades of green and the dining room/kitchen wall is a darker green.

Catch-Up

I just looked at my blog today and realized I hadn't posted in almost 4 months! Wow! So if there is anybody left you have my apologies and I'll try to catch you up on life rather quickly. In no random order here are several pictures from the last few months.

These 2 pictures are from sometime in March when we went to visit my parents. Jenn brought her 2 girls, Emma and Alina, over and Christi and Brent came out with Ryan and Quianna to see us. Emma and Ryan just loved the kitty cats and only tormented them a little.
This is our fully decked out Christmas tree. It was definitely full even though it was huge. We loved it though and had a lot of fun decorating it and sharing memories of ornaments as well as creating some new memories.

Sad to say but the tree had to go sometime! It was a big pain to get out of the apartment but we managed. Only about 1000 needles revolted and stayed behind with us.

Here is Sioux Falls Park at Christmas time with all the lights on and the Falls lit up. Andy agreed to smile for a picture, not that he had much choice! He's pretty cute illuminated by all those Christmas lights!

Here is Andy cutting down our Christmas tree and me holding it up. It took forever to find and it was dark outside and I was crabby but it was definitely worth all the work!

These pictures are from Christmas with my family. To the left is Andy opening his gift from my parents (Car stands for changing oil). below is a picture of my dad, nephew Alex and Grandmother. That's probably one of the last pictures I have of my dad weighing what I remember. Now he weighs at least 60-70 pounds less.

So from way back in October here are pictures from the Pillsbury visit. To the left is Valerie R. and I who is now Valerie M. but we'll get to those pictures later. Below is Val, here now cousin Anna who was my roommate once upon a time and our friend Gianni who is indeed Italian and the life of the party.
Obviously we went bowling and had a great time even if I do stink. Andy was with us but he was maning the camera.