My dad.
I think Shelby actually looks like him in this pic. Her goofy little faces and the way her eyes squint up just like his are (I know his glasses are dark).
One thing I REALLY regret is that I don't take enough pictures of my kids. I was reading this post from Ashley Ann and it made me feel like the hugest, lamest lump of a photographer mom I could possibly be. I'm totally inspired by her to just SHOOT and not worry about quality, just get quantity or I will regret it even more in a few years. So that's my goal from this point on. To just take pics of my kids anytime. And to make an album a year of them. I think it's a fantastic idea and there's no reason I shouldn't do it!
Seriously, read her post. It'll make you feel like crap but it'll also make you want to take more pictures. Even if you're not a photographer, just do it!
Oh, and did you know Costoco members automatically get 20% off MyPublisher albums? I've never bought one there before, but I just might!
This may sound totally cheesy, but I'm looking forward to WEDDINGS this year! We have 3 more planned this year so far. My niece, Julie, is getting married in a month! Then we have two other weddings, one in April and one in July. In thinking about my business and where we want to go with it, I really think that shooting weddings is going to become the primary type of photography that we do. And then we will fit in portraits and families as we have room.
Here's my niece, Julie, and her fiancee, Tenok, from their engagement session in December.
We want to buy a house this year. That's probably no secret. Whether or not that happens is still up in the air, dependent on us selling our condo, and the state of our 2010 tax return. So we're not going to get our hopes up just in case. BUT we are still constantly looking at schools and neighborhoods and working on getting our place ready to sell (which is slow due to John's long work hours due to the increase in commercial pool repairs their company is doing).
So one afternoon I was looking at houses for sale in Colorado Springs. John's always said he wants to retire in Colorado and running a fly fishing shop. I'm all for it if we can live in THIS HOUSE.
I mean, even putting aside the fact that it was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright's understudy, just look at it! I love everything about it. It has a gorgeous porch, views that are amazing and that reflect off the windows, huge windows, and the listing says all kinds of things I didn't have the patience to read or understand. But scroll all the way down on the LISTING for more pictures!
I just love it. At 1.7 million it is probably a steal! I mean seriously, how'd you like to stare at that view all day?
I'm pretty sure Book of Mormon verses apply here. I really love this scripture.
Ether 12:4
Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.
I posted on Facebook yesterday about Ben and how he is getting so good at reading. He gets shy when we read books together and usually wants me to finish them. But most of the Level 1 reader books (the kind like you can buy at Target that are Thomas or Star Wars or Disney ones) are easy enough for him to read on his own. Part of it is his familiarity with them but he's also getting really good at sounding out words. I'm SO proud of him! I was really trying to have him reading before he went to Kindergarten and he is well on his way!
So last night while we were reading scriptures (John wasn't home yet so we usually only read a few verses) Ben told me he wanted to read one, too. I was really happy he wanted to join in since most of the time we get aggravated because he won't sit still. So I helped him read one verse and he did great, especially since we were using my phone and it's hard to follow because it's so small!
I posted about this one before, too. There are a few repeats in this 30-day thing. So instead of going that route I'll post about photography instead.
This picture is a recent favorite from a wedding we shot in January. John took it with his 80-200 f/2.8L lens. We bought this lens on eBay last year and it's a gem. It's over 20 years old and works like it's brand new. It's the predecessor to the newer 70-100 f/2.8L lenses (there have been two upgrades). I'm picturing this picture on a gallery wrap canvas in our new house sometime in the near future. Doesn't it just make you happy? Okay well it makes me happy!
I blogged about this before (sorta). Our immediate goal is to get our condo in sellable shape. That entails tiling, recarpeting, hanging new blinds, doing something about our kitchen counter tops (previous owner burned some holes in them), finishing the guest bath, painting and clearing out all our clutter and putting it in storage. Not an easy task with two kids and a husband who works long hours, especially since we actually like to spend time together on the weekends!
Another goal of ours is to lose weight! We're doing a Biggest Loser competition with my family and we've done pretty well so far! John's down about 14, me around 9. I'm afraid that our valentine's dinner is going to impede any progress for me this week, but working out is on my list of goals to do at least 4 times a week!
What I believe can be found HERE.
I'm trying to catch up so I'll post a few today!!
ROACHES.
There is nothing in the world that scares the bejeezus out of me more than a roach. Or, heaven forbid, more than one roach!!
After my family moved out of the house I grew up in, it didn't sell. So my mom ended up renting it a few times and finally sold it. One of the renters happened to be filing through Section 8 but the lady was sweet and her kids were so charming my mom went for it anyway.
Long story short, it didn't end well. And the clean-up was from HELL. There I said it. Because MY hell is full of roaches and that's what this was!
John and I walked into the house one morning to help my mom with the clean up. She'd warned us there were lots of roaches. What she didn't tell us was that the walls were covered in tiny little baby roaches. Hundreds of thousands of tiny baby roaches. And you know when they say when you see one roach there are a hundred more you can't see? I don't even know if that was possible because I swear every single inch of the beautiful, wonderful two story home I spent my childhood in was invaded by those creepy, crawly, disgusting things.
I don't think I'll ever get over it.
The roaches fell in our hair. We cleaned up the dog crap all over the back yard. We painted over the filth on the walls that we did not even give thought to what it all could be. But we cleaned up the house. Because my childhood memories would be forever tainted if we hadn't.
A family from Africa lives there now. They are LDS and in my mom's ward. The father recently passed away from cancer.
I still hate roaches.
Okay so I'll try and continue with the 30 Days 2.0!
I honestly don't take a lot of pictures with my friends. Or of myself, frankly. So I'll post this one of me and my BFF in the snow on February 4, 2011. Aren't we cute?
Plus I got a new set of actions recently and I love this black and white conversion!
New shoes. Especially when they were only $6.49!
These are my parents, Bill and Shirley Fowkes at their wedding reception. Aren't they so cute? They were married on October 24 but I honestly can't remember the year. My dad was born in 1942 and my mom in 43. My dad grew up on a ranch in Evanston, Wyoming with two brothers and deaf parents. My mom grew up in East Texas and Fort Worth with a younger brother and sister. It was the church that brought them together. My mom played the piano and my dad sang, so, naturally my mom ended up accompanying him at some point and then my older two sisters (who have a different dad) told my mom he needed to come over more often. And that's how the story goes. The quiet, unassuming guy from Wyoming meets and marries the spunky, divorced blonde from Texas. It was quite the scandal, but I have to say the rest of us couldn't be happier.
I only had two real boyfriends before John (not including random guys in school) but I can't really say I loved either of them. Plus they were both jerks.
So I can honestly say that my first love was and will always be John.
Okay well my blog isn't named anything special. The Saunders Family. Woooooo.... Okay so I added the tag line "We live in a rainbow of chaos" because just using The Saunders Family seemed so boring. Anyway so this quote is by Paul Cezanne. I studied this artist extensively in college and I honestly can't remember much, but I am still really familiar with his paintings. In fact, I had one entire class where we painted gouache in his style. That was one of my favorite classes in college ever. Cezanne was a friend of Matisse and Picasso and you can see some similarities in their paintings. I always liked Cezanne because he had a strangely eerie sense to his paintings. All with a slightly dark side.
So a rainbow of chaos it is. I fee like our lives are constantly chaotic and I'd like to think that the rainbow at least mean there's a little bit of a bright side to all the crazy.
There you have it!
So here's a recent picture of me. It's the one on my Facebook, though it looks much cooler on my Facebook than on here. Especially since it is kind of an unflattering angle to my chin in it's full form. The Facebook hack I did (thanks to Kari) is much more flattering!
, So much for the 30 days. What, it's been almost a week since I posted one? I was almost done!!
Here's a little summarization of the last ones:
Day 29 — Testimony
I'm just going to share with you this year's mutual theme. I believe 100% in the YW program. It's been a huge blessing in my life for the past 2 years and I know it helps the girls of our church. I think we can all strive for the good found in this year's theme:
13th Article of Faith:
We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul-We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.
Day 30 — Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
We have a lot of hopes and dreams for this year. Hopes of buying a house. Getting on a strict budget and trying to make time to fix up our condo for listing. Dreams of building up our wedding business. I'll be spending lots of time concentration on client maintenance. I'm working on a new pricing structure and marketing and referral promotions. I also want to concentrate on Ben and Shelby as much as possible. Building their relationship since Ben starts school next year. Prepping Ben for Kindergarten and trying to get him transferred into the best school possible. I also want to take more pictures of my own kids!
It's a lot and the thought of everything we want to do this year overwhelms me! But I know if we want to be successful and if we want to grow our family then there are just things we have to do!
I'm also starting a new blog challenge. Won't you do this one with me, too? It's been so fun! There are some repeats and some new ones so let me know what you think!
Day 1 - Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts
Day 2 - Meaning behind your blog name
Day 3 - Your first love
Day 4 - Your parents
Day 5 - Your siblings
Day 6 - A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 7 - Favorite movies
Day 8 - A place you've traveled to
Day 9 - A picture of your friends
Day 10 - Something you're afraid of
Day 11 - Favorite TV shows
Day 12 - What you believe
Day 13 - Goals
Day 14 - A picture you love
Day 15 - Bible verse
Day 16 - Dream House
Day 17 - Something you're looking forward to
Day 18 - Something you regret
Day 19 - Something you miss
Day 20 - Nicknames
Day 21 - Picture of yourself
Day 22 - Favorite city
Day 23 - Favorite vacation
Day 24 - Something you've learned
Day 25 - Put your iPod on shuffle, first 10 songs
Day 26 - Picture of your family
Day 27 - Pets
Day 28 - Something that stresses you out
Day 29 - 3 wishes
Day 30 - A picture
