Jingle Bells

Since we live with my mom and dad right now and are unable to decorate our own house I wanted to decorate our blog for Christmas!!! I LOVE this time of year, and the icing on the cake would only be to trade out our Texas Christmas for a Massachusetts' Christmas!

The perfect picture of my Christmas

Hot Chocolate...mmm!



Cookies and goodies for family and friends...

The season of GIVING and wrapping
Starbucks Specials...

The cutest Christmas movie of all time!

LET IT SNOW! The wonderful music of Michael Buble


Decorating the house for Christmas

May you have a wonderful Christmas with all that you love!

Tis the Season Special...

Several have asked for a look at our work. Below is some preview of what we can do! Enjoy and please contact me if you are interested.

The Dowdy Family:Dallas/Fort Worth area

The Merritt Family: Dallas/Forth Worth area

Graduation Pictures are around the corner...

Kaci had the greatest personality ever. You can see it through all of her shots.

John was a lot of fun to be around. He has a great family and best of luck at San Angelo!

COMING SOON...Dphotography's blog with our New LOGO!

Currently My Top List

Here are a few things I have either been doing or thinking...

1.Missing my girlfriends (and now their husbands) from High School/youth group/College
2. Enjoyed a relaxing weekend with our dearest friends at Lake Nocona.
3.Working with some amazing teens from our youth group. Go Reagan! Go Johnson! Go SVH!
4. Loving on my new class of ESLers, Refugees, and LEPers. Love them all.
5. Stretching myself to teach all levels of reading and math skills.
6. Checking on our house progress....slooooowwww like a turtle.
7. Excited to meet our new neighbors to be.
8. Learning and focusing to be a better disciple of Christ..."Bigger Than You"
9. Promoting our photography to my campus
10. STARTING the AMERICANS GIRLS CLUB for third graders!!!!
11. Involved in Student Council, Mentor teacher for UTSA teachers, new club leader,
ESL teacher, and youth group leader!

Dreamy

Summer is almost over. This is my last Friday of PEACE, STRESS FREE, DEADLINES, and DEMANDS.

What did I do...Talked on the phone to Tabby for an hour (still in my pj's), ate lunch, read some school material, fell asleep, watched a movie, and here I am. Now don't be jealous and think I have the life made. I did some days, but this week I was up at school pulling everything out of my closet, drawers, and cubbies. Thanks to Colby and Courtney, I was able to get a lot of time consuming stuff done. It looks good...even better than last year.

Anyhow, people alllllllll around me are having little babies. About 10 people that I know of! I am glad it is there time so I can watch and learn. I know my time will come. However, I can't wait till I have a baby that I will love more than words can express. In the meantime I wanted to see how I would look with a pregnant belly. In this picture I have nice body, cute belly, tan skin, long, wavy, brown hair...I look just like Hallie Berry!

Preview!

I Can't Believe It!

In just about 3 weeks I will have little shinning faces at my classroom door at 7:35 in the morning! My summer has just been great and full of relaxation, too good that I don't want them to come.
Last year was my first year in my OWN classroom, and I had nightmare about the first seconds and day of school. I would wake myself up to just get away from the stress and anxiety. I kept telling myself after this year it will be nothing and no more nightmares! WRONG!!! They are back. This time it is about my new class not comparing to my "other" kids. Even though they were trying so hard by going above and beyond at looking busy, following directions, completing their task, and being respectful...it was a disaster! I was so frustrated that I just wanted to ring their necks! I even had two dreams back-to-back, or you can call it a sequel to dream #1. I was not prepared for the first day of school. I just showed up that Aug 24 with nothing...Unlike me!
I guess every year will be like this. Teachers get nerves like the kids do, well this teacher does, maybe I am the only one.

The teacher stores have been hit up, the books have be cracked to better my instruction this year, and my plans are on their way for yet another successful year. Now, I can't say how long my excitement will last ,and if/when the new books will get pushed aside. Nor how long it will be when I am tredding waters some days/weeks just to get by. Even when the mounds of paper work will fill my desk yet another year.

Pray for my little new 4th graders. May they work well together, respect each other, always work hard to their potential, love to learn, a be a good group of kids that mesh well together behavior wise...May I be what they need from me, may I be their comfort, may I speak the words that Christ would to them (that they would see Christ in me.)

Here is to another year!

More Photography

Alison's Bridals

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Photography

Here is some of our work from this summer:

The Sauls Wedding

I will add more of our work such as babies, families, bridals, engagements, and wedding later...this just took too long.

Saying Farewell

It is hard to have such great people in your life that motivate, encourage, challenge, keep you accountable, and lead you in your walk, and in the end say good-bye/or see you again. Our life group leaders, Chad and Nicki, are moving to California and have been preparing to leave our group for sometime. Even though it seems like yesterday that they informed us of the possibilities, the day has come to say farewell.

They really do have a servant's heart and will do amazing things for the people in Vacaville. God has a new agenda for them to start work on in a new location. It's has if their job here is done and we as a group are ready to fly. We may not see it now, but I know there will come a day when the remaining members will say, "That is why Chad and Nicki were placed especially for us."

I will always remember our first dinner with them at Stone Werks, the hilarious games we played, the leadership, the friendship, and most importantly I will never forget their hearts to every single member in our life group.

Chad and Nicki, you will be fantastic parents to however many babies you will have! ( I really think we ALL need to do a couples baby shower for you two up in Cali!

Here is our final blessing to you:
"May the road rise up to meet you, May the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and the rain fall softly upon your fields. And until we meet again, may God hold you in the hallow of his hands." -Irish Blessing

NOLA

July has been very busy last two weeks. We have been on the boat almost every day the July 4th weekend and on a vacation to NOLA. Chris and I decided to invite our good friends, Christine and Brent. They have never been, so I jump on the opportunity to invite them to some good Cajun food and fun.

Friday was an eventful day on a swamp tour just 20 min. from my grandparents home. Bruits, the alligator, ate some marshmallows and a hot dog. He was the only gator that gave us some excitement on the swamp. That night some of the family ate dinner at the Eden Isle Marina during sunset, it was gorgeous. It was hard to think that my parents had a lot over there and were going to eventually build a home. I think we need to reconvenes my parents to not sell the lot and build a summer home, at least for me. Brent and Christine had a bite of every ones dish, soft shell crab, stuffed crab, eggplant something, crab au gratin, gumbo, crawfish and crab bisque, and a seafood platter. The eating sure didn't stop there!

Sally took us to Bourbon for a fun night at Pat O's dueling piano bar and Razoo's dance club. This sure was a late night for me since high school! Christine and I tried on Mardi Gras mask to take a picture...well it cost $5 to take a picture. We ended up buying them and wearing them around the streets. We got a lot of compliments and disturbing looks from guys of all ages. I guess it was the mysterious look that captured them.

Saturday we ate "breakfast" at Cafe du Monde and walked around the French Quarter. Brent wanted some delicious oysters at Acme Oyster Bar for lunch only about 1.5 hours later (this is what we do when we visit home...EAT and EAT). We walked what seemed like 20 blocks in the great NOLA heat and humidity! I think we could have challenged ourselves to the 15 dozen oyster eating contest, it was that good! About three hours later we ventured back to Nana and Paw's house for a huge shrimp boil with the entire family. This is one thing I love about my home... the food and the family boils. I was so excited to share my amazing family with some dear friends and I am glad they enjoyed their company as well that night.

Sunday we left for Lake Charles to play at the Casino L'Auberge du Lac to meet up with Chris' family. No luck on the slots for the Falls, but Chris did pull through at poker and at craps.

Officially Hate Ants

I know now what it is like to have ants in my pants...literally. We were at a bridal portrait session and I just had to get this angle of the bride. I laid down in the grass on my right side and before I knew it, I was attacked by red ants! I left the site and headed for the car to pour water down my back, stomach, feet, and pants. As soon as Dana and I left I went straight to the bathtub to soak in baking soda, dabbed myself with vinegar, placed anti-itch lotion on, and took a some medicine. I believe there are 40 bites on my feet, back, butt, hip, and leg. I would have taken a picture, but this is something I don't want to remember. Complaining is not allowed when you get bite by less than 10!
The sacrifice of a photographer for a perfect picture!

Another Stab...

Looking back at my post I see that I wrote about how horrible I am at keeping up with journaling....Yeppers I was right on the money. It looks like it has been exactly a year at blogging and creating a new post.

Chris and I have been jam packed with moving the past month and a half. We had our first home up for sale since March. The Monday after Memorial Day we got a call from our realtor that an offer was made on our house ( from the same previous buyer who made an offer but it didn't work out for us.) After that, everything started to spiral into packing up, cleaning up and out, and getting our home closed. After sixteen hands and about 5 hours of work, our home was empty and fitting into a single-car-garage storage unit. We really appreciate all who helped us. That night we moved into my parents house....for the next 6 MONTHS! Yes, it is true what they say, "they always seem to come back" (married or not).

Chris and I are super excited about our new home for the many years to come. This will be the home to pitter-patter feets! No babies yet, just preparing a place for them to grow up and into.

We will keep you posted on our home building process.

This is the floor plan of the home.

Second Floor

First Floor

Here is the outside drawing of our home elevation