Top of the morning to you all!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I unfortunately came down with a nasty cold when I was out with the pastor’s wives this weekend. We went to IKEA on Friday morning and I started feeling sluggish. By late afternoon all I could think about what laying down in a dark cool room. Even though I hadn’t seen Eric in a week since he had been in South Carolina visiting friends, I just couldn’t wait to sleep. When I got home, Eric wasn’t home. I figured he was either out on a call (he’s a volunteer firefighter) or had run an errand. Just as I was about to hop in my comfy bed and lay my head down on a soft pillow, I got a call from my dad. He told me he and my mom were with Eric was in the Emergency Room. My dad let me know that Eric had gone to fight a fire and gotten heat exhaustion and was dehydrated. The medics had taken him on in to the hospital because of an elevated heart beat and wanted to give him some fluids, but he was doing just fine.

I have to admit that for a few minutes I felt very selfish. After all, I WAS feeling terrible and shouldn’t Eric know better than to not drink enough water? Didn’t he know his limits when he was fighting fires? It was JUST my luck to have just gotten home from driving through the worst TRAFFIC - in the POURING RAIN - with my nose dripping like the Niagra Falls & my head feeling like it could be somewhere in OUTER SPACE. Oh no… I couldn’t possibly just have ONE night for Eric to feel sorry for me, to take care of me, and to tuck me tightly into my bed before the sun went down. Poor me.

And then I realized that none of that brought glory to God. I had a decision to make. I could either: A.) Be mad at Eric for being at the hospital from his lack of hydrating his own body, which was making me stay out of bed when I’m ACTUALLY sick  - also from knowing that we will have a  HUGE bill from the emergency room - and also from the fact that I’d been looking forward to running into the house to his open arms for the first time in a week… and now he was laying on a rolly-bed hooked up to 3 different machines with a dress on (not romantic)

or

B.) I could choose to bring God glory in an non-ideal situation. I quickly chose B and repented for being so selfish. I thanked God for keeping my husband safe and the fact that the only thing that happened to him was dehydration and that he would be able to come home with me that night when many people around the world lost someone they loved that day. I then prayed for God to provide the finances that we needed to pay for the medical bills. I knew we did not have the money for it, so it would need to be supernatural provision from the Lord. Finally, I chose to be excited to see my husband despite the circumstances and stay positive throughout the evening all for the Glory of God.

After staying at the hospital until 12:30Am, eating Whataburger (sans my Diet Dr. Pepper Eric dropped while getting out of the car) around 1AM,  and finally getting into bed well into the wee hours of the morning, I looked back on the evening able to boast in the Lord. It was SO good to see all that God did because I allowed Him the room to move. During the 5 hours at the hospital, Eric and I had amazing conversation about all he learned on his trip and all that the Lord had been doing in his life last week. He also shared how the Fire Marshall came up to the ER and told him that the county would cover the medical bill (hello supernatural provision) and I felt closer to my husband than I had felt in weeks. What a neat time for God to bless us despite the circumstances.

I pray that I can give God more permission in my life by choosing B. more often!

Even though my illness escalated on Saturday and I ended up having to give over the Worship Leading for Sunday to my husband (who is amazing at planning on a whim and did a superb job in worship), I felt good enough to put together all the goodies I bought from IKEA! Eric and I spent yesterday afternoon pretty-ing up the house a bit. I always enjoy just being with him and it was double awesome to spiff up the house together!

I thought y’all might want to see some pictures. Am I right?

Here is the front room before (ish):

And now with a little redecorating…

I bought 3 new canvases to put on our walls. This one is a 20X30.

Close up! Pictures taken by the talented Erin Woolsey.

The other 20X30 canvas of our family!

Our living room before (ish):

And now:

A 30X30 Canvas! LOVE IT!

Our bedroom before (ish):

With the help of IKEA:

Love this lamp shade!

And here is the bedside table that Eric put together from IKEA. If you don’t know, IKEA uses pictures ONLY for instructions. Poor Eric had quite a time putting it together, but he did it! It looks awesome!

Here’s the upstairs guest room before we moved into the house:

And now it’s a full fledge guest room (or Micah’s room):

Got that little bench for $5 at a garage sale. So proud.

Don’t even pretend like this isn’t the cutest thing ever.

My office before we moved in:

Now:

Curtains from IKEA!

And the good ol’ college diploma. At least it’s good for decorations!

More pictures that I posted a while back of our house are here if you are bored.

Tanner & Morgan are so special to me. Their family has been on my blog NUMEROUS times… which is such a compliment because that means they keep coming back to me for their photography needs. They were actually one of the very first families I photographed when starting out and I’ve been able to watch their kids grow up! Tanner entered the army about a year ago and so their family has seen a lot of changes recently. One of the biggest changes is that they will be moving to Kentucky, where Tanner will be stationed! I know that their families will miss them incredibly (and me too!), but hopefully we will see them back here often.

For a special treat, Morgan scheduled a “Couples” session for just the two of them so we could get some really sweet pictures of them together. I SO enjoyed letting them love on each other in front of me and getting to capture that for them! We got so many awesome shots, I can’t wait to see which ones Morgan orders for her new home!

Morgan & Tanner, Eric & I love you both and are always here for you guys! Ya’ll are such an inspiration to so many couples and we pray the best for you two in the future! Thank you, Tanner, for serving our country and thank you, Morgan, for being such a strong army wife! I hope you LLOOOVVVEEE your pictures!

A few months ago, I got the pleasure of celebrating Kim’s graduation with a photoshoot. Her mom got to hang out with us and it was so fun to see them buddy together! A few weeks later Kim’s mom, Linda, contacted me to see if I could do a photoshoot of her other daughter, Rachel. Of course, I was more than delighted!

Rachel and Kim are polar opposites. Both incredibly sweet, kind, and fun, but SO different in lots of ways. It was so neat to hear the story from Kim’s mom about how they prayed for a little baby girl, finally got pregnant, went to to get an ultrasound, and it was a boy. Although excited, they were a little disappointed because they had been praying for a girl. When the day finally came for the baby to be born, they were incredibly surprised and delighted when the doctor told them they just had a baby GIRL! How cool that God did that for them? I don’t know what the ultrasound tech saw when she did the exam, but God heard their prayers and gave them a little girl. So awesome.

So anyway… here’s their baby… who is no longer a baby anymore! She’s going to be in the 8th grade next year! Rachel, thank you for letting me spend the evening with you taking pictures of your beautiful self! You are awesome, girl!

Marka graduated from Tarleton State University this past weekend (congrats Marka!) & she asked me to take a few pictures of her in honor of this time in her life! Yay! So, I drove out to a little town called Lipan and photographed her on her family’s land. They run an arena out there and hold ropings/contests and all that if you are interested in Rodeo stuff… you can find their information here.

Marka, it was a joy to meet you and I’m so glad I could come out and document your final days of college! Good luck with teaching! You are going to do so well!

This session marked my one and only “Bluebonnet Session” of the season! You gotta love those Texas bluebonnets! We woke up early for the shoot in order to get some soft light - lo-and-behold the light was BRIGHT! So much for soft light at 7:30 in the summer-time! Goodness! I think we made it work, though! These two kid are super precious and very well behaved… not to mention dressed to a T! I loved their little outfits that their mom picked out for them!

Jenni, I hope these are exactly what you were wanting! I enjoyed meeting you guys for an early morning shoot! Hope to do it again soon!