You Will Be Missed

Our morning has gotten off to a rough start.... this morning my dad found that our family cat, Durham, had been hit by a vehicle. We took him up to our fish pond and laid him to rest.

You were a funny ol' cat Durham, you gave us many laughs and left us all too soon. You will be missed.

A Few Photos....

.... from the Biltmore. We probably won't leave for PA as soon as we thought, as Mia still isn't completely well yet. However we're thinking that it may be over the weekend when we'll leave....

Just a little note to say that I will be away for a while.... Stephanie and I are heading to Asheville today to spend the night and go to the Biltmore tomorrow. Then probably on Thursday evening, we're heading up to PA for about a week or so. We're going to be staying to her sister's place while she's out of town, so I may or may not be posting pics and stuff from the trip while we're up there.

Also, I ask that you pray for our little Mia. You can't really tell from the picture, but she's been feeling a little under the weather the past couple days..... runny nose, sneezing, a little fever.... but she's getting better as the days go on I believe.... so just prayers that she'll get rid of this summer cold for good are much appreciated!

A Lil' Trip

So we've decided that next week, probably Monday, Stephanie and I are going to take a little day trip down to Asheville, NC and go to the Biltmore Estate. We decided we could save a little money if we didn't spend the night, so I promised her I'd do all the driving and we'd go down and come back in the same day. This means leaving here around 5am, to get there when they open so we can have the full day there to explore..... craziness I tell ya, but it'll be worth it I feel. If you've never been there, I would suggest checking it out. Words can't even describe this place in my opinion.... Anyways, here's one of my favorite shots from the first time we went there. This was back when I was first getting into photography, so I knew very little about my camera, but this one came out pretty good.... I hope now that I know a little more that I can capture some really awesome shots to come back and show you all! :-D

I Got Nothin'....

I'm really disappointed for a couple reasons....

1) because I don't really have any updates for yous guys.... nothing's really changed as far as my headaches and what not. I had my blood work done, but haven't heard anything from it yet....

b) I don't even have any new pictures to share with ya.... although I do have a roll of film that I need to pick up, but that'll probably be tomorrow... So I think I'll just share a few pics from our Safari Park visit a few weeks back.

Also, I've kinda been wanting to get away and go somewhere fun (my pick is the Biltmore House again)... but we really can't afford it, so we(Stephanie, Mia and myself) may go camping down at Philpott Lake for a couple days next week.... That should produce some interesting experiences to say the least!

D) I just thought of something else I'm disappointed about..... just using this space to vent some more. The place where I get my film developed also does prints, so I decided to have a few of my shots blown up.... well I get them back and they look like CRAP.... only one of them I was happy with.... the others were, overly saturated it looks like.... so instead of fine details in some of the flowers, the color just blends together, looking like a blob.... and they were also cropped... cutting off parts that needed to be there. I mean I figured a professional place would have adjusted the image so it all fit in the frame, but maybe I'm wrong.... Anyhoo.... sorry for the rant, I just needed to complain some more...

Eden

Emma

Selents Minus Three

Some pics of my good friends the Selents from Mia's party Sunday. For some reason I didn't get shots of Eric and Noah.... and I'm still waiting on that little brown girl to get here so I can get one of her too!

An Evening in PA.

One Year

It's hard to believe it's been a whole year since Mia was born.... seems like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital.... now look at her... all grown up and driving already!

A Few New Film Shots

Here are some of my latest shots that I just had developed.... all of these were taken with a Zeiss Ikoflex TLR 120 film camera.

I'm Baaaaack

Just a couple fun shots from the previous week....

We left Sunday and went up to Pennsylvania for most of the week. On our way we stopped at the Virginia Safari Park in Natural Bridge.... If you've never been, go... especially if you have kids. Mia loved it, although some of the animals freaked her out when they put their big animal heads completely inside the van window. It was a blast and I'll be sure to throw out some animal pics next week sometime.

Most of the week we spent hanging out with Stephanie's family, doing assorted things. A good time overall, and definitely nice to visit since we don't get to see them too often. I do think that it's very possible I lost about 10 pounds from sweating in their house however, since they don't have air conditioning. I guess I've been spoiled by having AC in our home, so when I go somewhere without it, I sometimes feel like I'm going to die.

Thursday was my appointment at Hershey Medical Center. I really must say that being able to get in there was truly an open door from God. The Physician's Assistant that I saw was really nice, and really knowledgable with the things I'm going through. She actually ended up taking me off of most of the medications that I was previously on, and is going a pretty different route with a totally different class of drug, and also a vitamin supplement. She also wants me to change my diet up a bit, eliminating certain foods(most of which I love argh!) for about a month and then reintroducing them one at a time to see if any of them trigger my headaches. I'm also having a few blood tests done to check some stuff out and OH.... greatest part of all.... she said she sees no reason for me to have a spinal tap done, as she doesn't really see what that will accomplish/narrow down. So that just proves to me that God is in complete control of this thing.... I wasn't supposed to hear back from UVA because I wasn't supposed to have the thing done. If I had just waited another day after my boss called me in to talk, instead of having Stephanie call them.... if I had just waited then it would have all been shown to me. This just proved to me how much God is in control, and how much I need to let Him have complete control of it, instead of trying to move things along myself.

Anyways.... after my appointment Thursday Stephanie and I went to Hershey Park.... first off I wanna say that this is indeed the hilliest park I've ever been too. Up and Down... Up and Down. Had a blast there... rode some wild scary coasters, brought home a bunch of chocolate... oh yeah, definitely a place to go again. On a final note, thinking about the candy made me remember this.... in the candy store there, they sell the "worlds laregest chocolate bar" a 5 flippin pound Hershy bar.... and these things sell like crazy. I just wanna know.... who in the heck can eat 5 pounds of chocolate????