bumps

You don't know something till you try (Mostly. Somethings you do know without having to try, such as smoking kills and eating an entire gallon of ice cream isn't worth the gym time to make it up). I am continuing to try different types of photography and I've had the chance to do some maternity photos recently! I have two friends who got married at around the same time about a year ago, and both are going to be delivering their first babies around the same time too (soon!).

Try #1, Katherine and Mike!

Katherine and I were hired around the same time at our workplace, and I'm so thankful for that! She is great! She and her husband recently purchased a home (new job, marriage, new house, baby all in a year...one of her strengths is adaptability, to say the least) and I did some photos of them at their home to send a family. They are precious!

Try #2, Ashley and Tate!

Attempt #2 at photos came with my friends Ashley and Tate, who I worked with at the UGA Wesley Foundation. We met mid-afternoon at one of my favorite places in Athens (farm!) and I had SO much fun with them. I was looking at the photos again to select photos for this post and started laughing again.

These sweet new babies definitely have some great parents!

125 biscuits

I woke up at 5:38 this morning. On my own. No alarm. And it made my heart so happy. And my equilibrium at the gym happy too, having had 40 minutes to adjust to being awake before exercising, instead of the usual 10 or so. It's now 8:59 and I'm wiped out. But since I don't want to wake up at 4 (which would not make my heart happy), blogging is a clear answer. :)

Today at work we had the monthly staff birthday lunch. While in line I noticed a co-workers skirt and in my head I said, "Oh, Courtney's skirt is from Gap." What came out of my mouth was "Oh, Skirtney's court is from Gap." I heard it come out. I paused. Received a strange look or two. Said it again, thinking still "Courtney's skirt is from Gap" and again what came out was "Skirtney's court is from Gap" still not computing what was wrong. Yeah, blaming THAT on that 5:38 a.m. magic.

Last week (per mentioned, maybe?) was a 4-day work-week, and how thankful I was for it. I did a lot of work at work on Sunday, and Saturday was filled with a project of sorts (more below), and Friday was really a great day of just fun. My friend Katie came to town for a bit--hooray! There was a multi-church Good Friday service--HOORAY! And pizza with excellent ladies afterwards--hooray!

Saturday was a quiet morning. Run, errands (including a trip to the bookstore; more on my selection below) time with a friend. Then, my Saturday project. I got to make breakfast for church on Sunday morning, and I choose recipes that I could do the day beforehand. The menu was biscuits and breakfast casserole. I have an awesome (and easy) homemade buiscuit recipe I used, and the casseroles were easy, just labor-heavy. Zakiya came over and helped me; thank God-I think she grated cheese for an hour and a half. When all was said and done, 125 biscuits were made and 5 casseroles were constructed. At one point I was worried there wasn't enough. Let's just say I sent half a casserole home with someone on Sunday. I took an ENTIRE casserole to work. And took an ENTIRE casserole home. Yes, that's almost 3 too many. I've been having it for dinner since Sunday. At least it tastes fantastic. If you live in Athens and want leftovers or some biscuits, call me. Seriously.

Sunday was Easter Sunday...happy, happy day. Excellent, excellent church service and fellowshipping. Quiet afternoon. Happy-happy.

Oh! Per mentioned, I got a new book. I was given a giftcard to Barnes and Noble, that I went to use it on Saturday. I was going to grab a couple of novels, but it put me in too bad of a mood to buy "beach books" with no scheduled beach time in my future, so I moved on. And a cookbook would be a far more practical choice (and I love practical uses for giftcards). So I spent almost an hour looking at books. I was going to get one by the founders of Baked, but I just wasn't in the mood for a sweets only cookbook (practical, remember)? I saw a few Food Network cookbooks, but I just wasn't impressed. I was thumbing a Rachel Ray when I saw it. The one I was missing. The Joy of Cooking. I'm in love. I used it for the breakfast casseroles. I read a chapter or two when I got home.

My current cookbook collection. Joy fits right in. (The Grit cookbook was absent for this photo-shoot, but definitely an important part).

I took this picture last night from my front door, thinking it was cool (it was at the top of the porch).

This morning at 6:30 I walked into the web.

Not cool.

super-weekend #1

I started this blog on Sunday night. And fell asleep while writing it. It's Thursday.

I'm glad for the automatic saves. Here we go...

Why that sort of title for the blog? Because I see a lot of awesome weekends in my future, and I'm calling them out for what they'll be--super.

P.S. Get ready. This post is picture heavy.

The weekend started early for me. I have been working a lot of overtime and I was given a day off. Friday started with gym time, quiet time, and then a zealous attack on my to-do list. For quite some time I've had a to-do list called "things I have to do that I don't want to do." It met its demise on Friday. I now have a new driver's license, car-tag, renters insurance, et cetera. I was eager to get out the door on Friday, so after I blow-dried my hair I didn't bother to straighten it, nor put on make-up. When the thought ran through my head of, "I may need a new picture on my drivers license" I thought no, surely not. I was wrong. New picture. It's bad. Real bad. I was going to take a picture of the crossed off list, but I'll just be satisfied with knowing its demolished. Friday finished with a great dinner with excellent company.

Oh. And then baking 107 cookies.

And then making Lorien's birthday present!

And making icing. (This picture will hopefully be framed in my kitchen. I love it.)

Saturday rolled around with a one-year old birthday party. I made the cookies for the party,

(fun!) and I was asked to take pictures during the party. LOVED IT. And the quality time with that sweet fam!

After the party I crafted with my friend Erika. She's awesome. And our paintings are awesome! Thanks, handy tutorial.

Success!

Sunday was Confirmation Sunday, (nearly) wrapping up a pretty sweet mentoring experience. I say nearly because we have a couple of meetings left to go.

And then post-Confirmation was one of my very favorite times of the week, church at Athens Link!

I also got some (a lot of) pics of my fave flowers on Sunday...

Looking forward to round two.

weeds.

This weekend my church had an awesome fundraising BBQ on Saturday and then church on Sunday at the same beautiful location-Ms. Penny's. (P.S. Pics from the weekend are on my FB. They would be on the FB ALF page but it won't let me put them on their. Funny, FB...funny). We (church) also have a weekly prayer meeting at Ms. Penny's on Wednesday. I love taking photos out at the farm and today I had my camera with me and spied some dandelions.

I went to take some pics but I had a few challenges. One, I was not in shooting clothes--a white-eyelet trench and dress. Two, a friendly welcoming committee (aka the dogs). I got a few...

This was my first attempt.

It didn't work out so well (I think one hand was being used to move a dog over),

but I still really like the texture in this photo.

from the hard places. try II.

This is still one of my faves...

life from the hard places.

Yes.

and the flowers...try II.

I posted these yesterday.

And the pictures didn't go up. Trying again...

So on Tuesday before the storm came I met up with my friend Daynes to take some flower photos at the Botanical Gardens.

Sweet bluebells. Bells...such a happy word to say!

Lovely-lovely.

I'm always glad when the photos I make myself uncomfortable for

come out well.

One of my faves!

The buds look like beads.

Rosemary. Happy sigh.

These pictures uploaded backwards in order.

And I'm okay with that.

scrapbook.

chunky. bad enough to be called a rodent. but a chunky rodent. ouch.

...a fun saturday at the farm...

"are you smiling for the picture?" ...yep.

spider-web. it's maker was not be found.

peace cobbler.

it's successful completion elicited the "cobbler happy dance."

like most tasty food endeavors do.

Fluffy horses.

I didn't take pictures for a few weeks. And it showed.

When I got my camera back in hand I think I had momentarily forgotten how to take pictures. So many were AWFUL. Pressing through my off-period, I think I'm back on track. Sorta. I have more practice time in my future.

Here are a few of some fluffy horses...