tonight i can barely contain the sheer giddy-ness that is welling up inside me to get on that big ol’ jet airliner and land my happy lil’ hiney in st.louis tomorrow.

over 12 years ago 8 young senior girls sat in Denny’s (yes i said Denny’s people….just about the only open all night restaurant in my lil’ bitty hometown of Rolla, Mo….that and the waffel house but i didn’t dare set foot in there since i actually had a short stint as a lousy waitress there that summer trying to save money for beer before i went off to college) but i digress….

where was i..???

oh, yea, 8 girls in denny’s.  we contemplated the ways of the world…important things like how many of us had kissed one particular hottie soccer boy and how much $ we had saved for beer and which frat had the best parties.  you know, things that really matter when you are about to go off to college.  soon the conversation veered course and we began to get deep.  we started talking about the "future". who would get married first, how many kids we’d have and how when we finally did get married how it would be so cool that we would have twice the amount of money to buy beer.    i think carrie was pegged to get married 2nd or 3rd since she was one of the only ones seriously dating someone at the time…..we were a little off…..

carrie is getting married tomorrow night in st. louis…..she’s number 7 out of 8.   

so tomorrow morning i fly into st. louis and amy & brenda and picking me up at the airport.  we’re spending the weekend in st. louis. we’ll head to the wedding tomorrow night. carrie wanted us to get there early so we can hang with her beforehand and get some pictures with just the 4 of us.  we decided to stay saturday as well and make a girls weekend out of it.  we’re going to hang out and shop and probably head down to the landing saturday night. we’ll head out and back down to rolla on sunday where i’ll swing in for a maid-rite ( quite possibly the best hamburgers ever ) and then pick up my mom and start our drive back to the great state of tx hoping to arrive late sunday.  we’re hoping to make the entire 12 hour drive on sunday but of course that all depends on….

how much money i take to st. louis for beer.

soo, i’m off.  it’s fast approaching midnight and i’ve yet to pack a thing……

stay tuned for fun pics!

it feels like the month is flying by and i know i’ll wake up tomorrow and it will be the middle of december and i’ll still be sitting around procratinating about all the stuff i need to get done.  i leave for st. louis in a week but i have soooo much to do before i leave i haven’t the slightest idea how i’m even going to get it all done.  i’m such a crappy mom i tried to talk brooklyn into letting me off the hook for her field trip tomorrow because i seriously have so much to get done. i don’t know why i always do this to myself….just let things pile up and then FREAK OUT because it all should’ve been done like, yesterday.  i guess it’s not that bad but i lost today completely because i was at the school 1/2 the day for the book fair. then hudson decided he was too sick to stay at school (suffering from asthma and allergies) so i took him home w/ me only to turn around and take him back an hour and a half later because he was driving me up the wall. i explained to him several times if he was coming home he wasn’t playing and all he was doing was laying around and resting…which of course he was cool with until i actually made him do it.  then he was "bored" and so i took him back to to school.  i’m sure his teacher was completely boggled by the whole thing.  i got on some freaky organizational thing this afternoon and felt the need to purge and reorganize the butler’s pantry so i could set up a temporary office in there.  feeling much better now that things are semi-organized around here.

so i hope to get some work done tomorrow. i have 2 sessions to edit pretty much by saturday because i have 4 sessions this weekend and i can’t get behind before i leave to st.louie…..brooklyn is granting me a pass to leave early from the field trip so i hope to get some hard core work done the rest of the day!

enjoy!~

i had two senior sessions last weekend that rocked. the girls were friends so we scheduled them both together and played flip flop.  while one was off doing a wardrobe change the other would be up in front of the camera.  i had a ton of fun with these girls. not only were they confidant and gorgeous….smiles to die for but they came with ideas and a great attitude which we all know is imperative in photography!  they were such troopers as i made them scale fences and lay on a bed of rocks and walk through tall weeds with burs in their high heels and rockin’ outfits!  ya gotta love that!  seriously, good fun!

devon

and Brittany….

hate me tomorrow
hate me for all the things I didn’t do for you

Hate me in ways
yea, ways hard to swallow
hate me so you can finally see what’s good for you…

ahhhh, yes, blue october rocked!  totally rocked!  seriously ROCKED! loved the show. had a super time.  we got there a little late so we missed lovedrug completely and caught the end of shiny toy guns and then yellow card was up and then justin and the gang came on around 10.  i didn’t sleep worth a darn after i got home and kept waking up singing 18th floor balcony and hate me.  good stuff!

more good stuff. 

halloween pics!  yes, i’m posting a little late but it was such a crazy week so i’m playing catch up but wanted to share some of the pictures from the night.  we had a "block party" which was more of a driveway free for all at our house.  lots of neighbors and kids strolling around.  we had a great time.  mark and i dressed up this year which we seldom do but the kids loved it.  we borrowed some costumes from jana & steve and went as austin powers & felicity shagwell. twas fun.  the blonde wig didn’t go well w/ my nice brown eyebrows but the kids thought it was hysterical so whatever! here are a few of my faves from the night….

   brooklyn ditched the hannah montana outfit a couple weeks before hand and decided she wanted this get up when we were out getting a costume for hudson….her official title was "charm school witch" whatever makes ya happy girl.

here’s lil’ dude…hudson. he was….errrr…..umm….a character from star wars??? jenga? jinga? jumanji? jedi? heck i forget what it was called. but he was cute eh?

parker was the cutest stinkin’ lil cowboy ever! such a doll.  he was so good and totally diggin’ all the costumes and hoopla that was going on. 

here’s a shot of the whole gang. aren’t they adorable?

and here are some of the big boys!

and one last shot of the fam.

hope ya’ll had a great halloween!

omgosh. totally crazy busy week. i don’t have a ton of time to post because i’m on my way out to a blue october concert! woohoo! can’t wait! i’m meeting jana and a couple other friends and we ‘re heading downtown for the concert. i’m super tired and frazzled and exhausted from a crazy hectic week so i’m so looking forward to hanging out with the girls and listening to some great tunes! stay tuned for lots of pics this week.  i’ve had 2 grad sessions, a family session and an awesome 50th wedding anniversary celebration that i shot for some friend’s of mine whose parents reached this monumental celebration! totally fun week!  sooo many great photos and lots of fun memories to remember!  yay!

i’ll leave you with the lyrics to my FAVE Blue October song….

"18th Floor Balcony"

I close my eyes and I smile
Knowing that everything is alright
To the core
So close that door
Is this happening?

My breath is on your hair
I’m unaware
That you opened the blinds and let the city in
God, you held my hand
And we stand
Just taking in everything.

And I knew it from the start
So my arms are open wide
Your head is on my stomach
And we’re trying so hard not to fall asleep
Here we are
On this 18th floor balcony.
We’re both flying away.

So we talked about mom’s and dad’s
About family pasts
Just getting to know where we came from
Our hearts were on display
For all to see
I can’t believe this is happening to me

And I raised my hand as if to show you that I was yours
That I was so yours for the taking
I’m so yours for the taking
That’s when I felt the wind pick up
I grabbed the rail while choking up
These words to say and then you kissed me…

I knew it from the start
So my arms are open wide
Your head is on my stomach
And we’re trying so hard not to fall asleep
Here we are
On this 18th floor balcony…
We’re both flying away.

And I’ll try to sleep
To keep you in my dreams
’til I can bring you home with me
I’ll try to sleep
And when I do I’ll keep you in my… dreams

I knew it from the start
So my arms are open wide
Your head is on my stomach
And we’re trying so hard not to fall asleep
So here we are
On this 18th floor balcony, yeah

I knew it from the start
My arms are open wide
Your head is on my stomach
No, we’re not going to sleep

Here we are
On this 18th floor balcony… we’re both..
Flying away