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- I guess we’re actually getting some snow finally, eh?
Earlier this week we were forecasted to get this BIG snowstorm. And then just hours before it was supposed to start, it was downgraded to just a few inches. And in the end, we got ZIP. I’m not sure if a single snowflake fell.
So, obviously we were all a little skeptical about the forecast for another snowstorm showing up this weekend. But, it turns out – they were right about this one – go figure! - With Valentine’s Day falling on a Wednesday – I feel like we’ve been celebrating all week long.
Derrick took me out to an impromptu lunch date after church on Sunday. Literally, he asked my parents if they would just take our kids home with them for lunch so we could go out – and that’s what we did! I love going out to eat for Valentine’s Day (it’s literally only one of two occasions I can count on Derrick and I getting a dinner date away from our kids every year – the second occasion being my birthday) but I hate the crowds and the prices. So, lunch the Sunday before Valentine’s Day ended up being the perfect “solution”!
Wednesday was the actual holiday, so we celebrated by giving the kids little gifts and making special waffles and whipped cream for breakfast.
We had our official Valentine’s dinner with the kids last night – we made steak, shrimp, mashed potatoes, and broccoli, and the kids set our table full of candles so we could eat by candlelight. No holiday is complete without dessert, so I made a cherry pie (Derrick’s favorite). - Tuesday night was my favorite day of the month: our monthly Rising Tide Society Meeting! We ended up canceling our January meeting due to nasty weather, so after skipping a month, I was feeling VERY stir-crazy to get out from behind my computer and talk to other adults in person about business ideas! I told them all that I literally felt like Pam from that episode of The Office, where she’s on maternity leave, but she has the opportunity to go out with everyone after work one night and she gets super excited – that was me on Tuesday! SO MANY amazing business ideas were flying around the room – we truly have the best group of entrepreneurs!
- Last weekend, I was contacted by an old friend who’s wedding I photographed 12 years ago. I wasn’t the primary photographer for her wedding – a girl I worked at the bank with was – but it was one of her first weddings ever to photograph, so she brought me along as a second shooter (and to back her up). I met the bride and groom for the first time on that day and we became fast friends. I went on to photograph a bunch of stuff for them: maternity photos, newborn photos, and lots of family photos! We’ve kept in touch over the years (even though we moved away) and so getting a message from her wasn’t “strange”.
She sent me a screenshot of a photo I took on her wedding day (that I had probably posted on Facebook) and she asked if there was any way I could remove my watermark so she could print it. A few years back, they had a tragic fire and they lost absolutely everything – including her wedding photos. The images that were posted online were the only photos she had left.
I immediately set to work digging through old hard drives – and (because I’m a digital hoarder) I found their wedding. I had never done anything with the images (other than the handful I posted online) because I was just the second shooter. I had given all of the images I took to the primary photographer and left it up to her to deliver them – but I still had everything I shot.
I quickly culled the wedding and edited my images – and then uploaded 600+ photos to their family gallery. I was SO excited to send them to her! Sure, they aren’t the “main” perspective of the day, but I did shoot the day as a very close second shooter, because I knew the primary photographer was so new.
Obviously, she was beside herself with excitement to have some of her wedding photos returned back to her. And all I could think was: and that is why A. you hire a professional and B. digital galleries are so amazing. - This week kicked off my February Favorites series! Every year, I wait until February to post my favorite images from the previous year. I tried to do it in January a few times, but it just was too much with coming right off the holidays and Braelynn’s birthday – February is a much better fit. (Plus, nothing is happening in February, so it helps fill an empty spot on my blog!)
Since it was Valentine’s week, I flipped my normal posting schedule and started with my favorite wedding images and then also posted my favorite engagement images. This coming week, I’ll share my favorite portraits and roller coaster images – with the following week wrapping things up with my favorite personal images from the year. - This week I checked off a HUGE goal that I had written down for myself for the month of February – I FINALLY finished going through all of my personal images from 2023. That task is always so daunting! But I have to do it in order to have the images together to create our family yearbook for the year! My goal was to have that task done by the end of the month and I was SO happy to check it off early this week!
My next steps are going through and doing a very quick edit on the images (I never used to edit my iPhone images at all, but I really want to do a light edit this year) and then I can officially begin designing our family yearbook for the year 2023!! I typically have it done and ordered by mid-March, so I’m right on track!
