Favorite Friday

This was taken this morning. Aidan is 6 wks old & his dad served in Iraq with my nephew (who coincidently had his baby this past Tuesday).

Introducing. . .

Justin Ray Braulik

and my most favorite picture of Justin & Trinity:
My sister hasn't been able to see him yet as she lives 5 hours away and they don't have much freedom in flexible scheduling, so she is very jealous that I've seen her grandson first. I'm going to see him again tomorrow, so I'll get more pictures. Hopefully with my nephew & his wife in them. I have some awesome ideas I want to try. He's so perfect.

WOOOOHOOOOO!

I'M A GREAT AUNT! I'm so excited, my nephew & his wife had their baby yesterday. Justin Ray weighed in at 7 lbs 3.3 oz and was 21 3/4" long. Trinity & I are headed over to the hospital today to see everyone & of course take pictures. I can't wait! Life is good.

Sorry I've been neglecting the blog, but wedding season has me so freaking busy I barely have time to pee. It should slow down a little over the next couple weeks. So, I'll be back. Make sure you check in tomorrow to see pictures of my new great-nephew.

I can't believe my sister is a grandmother. Life is awesome.

50 Things About Me

50 Things about me

1. I am child #6 of 7 (but only 6 of us are still alive).
2. I am the only one without a common name (Gary, Lucy, John, Brian, Neda & Paul).
3. My Dad named me (My name means "Sunday's Child" & I was born on a Sunday).
4. My favorite color is purple.
5. I'm addicted to Mob Wars on Facebook. It is the only reason I'm on there.
6. I love my job.
7. I have my Bachelor's degree in Economics w/a minor in Sociology.
8. Until after college I was never interested in photography.
9. Trinity is named after The Matrix.
10. I have two cats named Misha and Ralph.
11. My oldest nephew is 4 years younger than me and expecting his first child any day.
12. I hate cleaning & I am bad at it, too, therefore my house is usually not clean
13. My mom & my sister were pregnant at the same time w/my sister delivering first.
14. I love picking paint colors & I'm really good at it.
15. My husband banned me from buying black clothes once, because that is all I wore.
16. I hated, hated, hated being pregnant.
17. Sometimes I think I want another child.
18. Most of the time I think I don't want another child.
19. Occasionally I don't want the child that I have.
20. My husband & I met because he was my college professor.
21. We were both dating other people when we started dating.
22. We didn't start dating until 3 years after I was his student.
23. I like to blog, but rarely have anything interesting to say.
24. I dislike the majority of my family.
25. I have size 6 1/2 feet.
26. I cannot sleep without blankets no matter how hot it is.
27. I'm convinced I'm going to die from my car driving into a lake.
28. I live right next to a lake.
29. I cannot eat yogurt with a metal spoon. It makes me gag.
30. I freak out if anyone puts their hand around the front of my neck.
31. My ex-boyfriend used to measure my hair before and after a haircut to make sure I didn't get too much cut off.
32. I love my house. It was built in 1896.
33. I love planning remodel projects, but I don't actually want to do the work.
34. I'm not very fashionable.
35. I love formal dresses and own 5 formal black dresses that have only been worn once.
36. I rarely drink water.
37. I mostly drink white chocolate caramel cappaccino.
38. My favorite fruit is watermelon.
39. I dislike all cooked vegetables except corn.
40. I love raw, fresh from the garden vegetables.
41. In the winter I only shave my legs when I have to wear a dress.
42. I would make a horrible stay-at-home-mom.
43. I hate taking baths.
44. I wear long sleeves even in the summer.
45. I'm very unorganized.
46. I like watching TV.
47. My favorite movies are Diggstown, Eddie & 10 Things I Hate About You.
48. My go-to comfort food is barbeque potato chips & Top the Tater dip.
49. I've never been on my honeymoon.
50. I've never taken a vacation that didn't involve seeing family.

The only bad thing about weddings.

Is that they take up an entire week of time afterwards to edit the photos. Considering that I've been doing one wedding a weekend, I just don't have time for much else, including my blog. I have so much I want to talk about, but I feel guilty blogging when I should be editing pictures.

I will tell you a little story about this past weekends wedding, though. Then I really need to get back to work.

The wedding was beautiful and everything was going exactly as planned. Everyone was happy, the families were wonderful, the best men cooperative. The weather was threatening rain, and we were scheduled to go to the golf course after the wedding to take some pictures, but to insure some outside pictures we snuck some in posed in front of the church. These turned out very nice even though the guys almost melted. After the ceremony it still wasn't raining, so we headed to the golf course. As we were taking the last photo the tornado sirens sound. We all hop in our vehicles and race to the reception one town over. We arrive at the reception and start getting the important pictures taken when the power to the entire town goes out. After about 10 minutes the reception site gets onto generator power. We finish pictures and my assistant and I are debating whether to wait out the storm or make a mad dash home (we are 45 minutes south of home). We decide to make a mad dash and take off. We drive west and almost drive into the path of 5 tornadoes on the ground. We decide to head south (opposite direction we need to go) to try to skirt around the storm cell. It works and soon we are cruising along until we hit another tornado on the ground that passes within a mile of us. We never stopped, because I just wanted to get home. We managed to stay safe and after we returned to normal weather closer to home we kicked ourselves for not taking pictures of the storm. Oh well, we were mostly concerned about staying alive. Anyway, that is the excitement of last weeks wedding. Oh, and it ended up being a good thing we left, because the town we were in flooded and no one could leave about 3 hours after we left.

Favorite Friday

Here is my favorite Friday post (on time even!). This is from last Saturday's wedding. I really want to clone this bride's mother, because she was AWESOME to work with, and the bride's Dad had me laughing all day. This couple is so wonderful to work with.
This photo is from the first time he saw her that day.
Can't you just feel the love he has for her. It was such an emotional day. Everyone cried at least once. I hope this weekend is as much fun.
I have a feeling Favorite Friday is going to be a bit wedding heavy these next few weeks, because I'm shooting a lot of weddings right now. I hope you don't mind. Have a great weekend everyone.

What am I missing here?

A little over a year ago I needed to write a business plan. I had no idea what the heck I was doing so I started my research. I read books, scoured the internet and asked every business owner I came into contact with what they did. At the end of a month I still had no idea what the heck I was doing. Enter the Small Business Economic Development Center, a non-profit organization that has volunteers who know what they are doing to help small business owners in all stages. I was very fortunate to be paired with a retired bank president who had seen & written numerous business plans in his career (score me!).
Since it has been a year since I've written the plan, I thought a little review was in order, so I called to make an appointment to review said business plan & financial statements. Here is a snippet of our meeting:

Retired Bank President: "I see here you didn't take a salary last year & you haven't taken one to date this year."

Me: "I didn't make enough money last year to take a salary. And this year I'm still trying to play catch up from last year, so there is still no money to take."

RBP: "You know you need to take a salary or the banks won't take you seriously."

Me: "Because the fact that I've been working my tail off for the last year isn't serious enough?"

RBP: "The banks won't take your figures seriously during a loan review if you don't show a salary."

Me: "Wouldn't they rather I give them the money or pay my rent than put it back in my pocket."

RBP: "They will not think you are a serious business if you don't pay yourself. I mean no one works for free."

Me: "Granted, but if I'm barely breaking even & last year showed a loss, how do I justify my salary & where does it come from?"

RBP: "Pay yourself from your profits."

Me: "Uh, there are no profits yet. We would be thrilled if we break even this year. Can I start taking a salary once I'm making money, like hopefully next year?"

RBP: "You still need to show that you want to take a salary on your projections."

Me: "So you want me to lie."

RBP: "It isn't a lie, you want a salary don't you?"

Me: "No, I like being poor."

RBP: just stares at me

Me: "I mean yes, that is my goal, the one I've been striving for and the whole reason I'm here."

So, I'm supposed to be taking a salary from a business that hasn't even broken even yet. I can't wait to explain this to my husband. I may need to video tape, because I'm pretty sure his head will literally explode.

Trinity Tuesday

Trinity is tall for her age and also has a very extensive vocabulary. She is articulate and most people can understand everything she says. The only time she is really misunderstood is when she is talking to people she doesn't know, because she whispers. I mention this because I'm so used to her looking and behaving older than she is that I forget she is only 4 1/2.
Trinity has peculiar eating habits. She won't eat bread, but loves garlic toast. She won't eat any type of pasta, including mac & cheese. She will however eat copious amounts of fruit & veggies. Her favorite snack (besides pretzels) is plain saltine crackers dipped in apple juice. And if it comes in gravy poured over mashed potatoes she is guaranteed to eat at least 3 helpings.
She would prefer to be outside over just about anything. She has a new Barbie bike that she wants to "give to another girl who might need it." Because "I'm big enough for a motorcycle." She has brought out a love of gardening in me.
She says "camelope" instead of cantaloupe. She says "gradulation" instead of graduation. And no matter how many times you correct her she always puts the state before the city. We live in "Minnesota, Albert Lea". Cousin Lunden lives in "Nevada, Henderson".
Her hugs are fierce and tight and I never want her to let go. She is always running out of kisses and has to "save the last one for Daddy or he'll be sad." She laughs with her whole body and is completely fearless. She hates to disappoint us and feels that deeper than any punishment we could ever dole out. She has empathy oozing from her every fiber. It amazes me daily how she puts the needs of others before herself, while still being a strong leader and bossing anyone who comes within hearing range around.
I was gone a lot of the weekend taking pictures. Trinity was feeling left out, so she asked if we could take pictures of her. Here is some of what we did:

Favorite Friday on Tuesday

Sorry this wasn't up yesterday. Something was up because I couldn't upload a photo to my blog. I'm not sure if I was taxing my computer by downloading 600+ pictures off my camera or if my computer just hated me yesterday.
Anyway, here is one from over the weekend. Sophie just turned 1 and here is what we did: