Glorious Reunion

I realize that I have been MIA around my blog lately.  I've been so busy and I've barely been home.  Our family attended a wedding this past weekend in Grapevine (I have so many pictures to post).  The bride was the flower girl in our wedding.  Yes, we are getting that old!  Oiy!  It was a special celebration.

After the weekend wedding, the girls and I traveled home, quickly unpacked, did laundry, and in less than 12 hours later were on our way to Glorious Glorieta for Youth Camp.

It was a wonderful week.  We enjoyed the cool, crisp 50 degree mornings and all that God had planned for us.  This morning we left Glorieta on the church bus and received word from my mother that my precious Grandmother went home to be with the Lord this morning. 

It was a long bus ride home, bittersweet as my mind reflected on lots of memories from childhood and even adulthood of memories with my Grandmother.  I know that I am a blessed granddaughter to have had my Grandmother with me for so long...she had the blessing of getting to know her Great-Granddaughters and I will always be so thankful for that.

My heart is full and happy, and sad at the same time.  She was my last living grandparent and I will miss her.  But, my heart is also joyful at the thought of all that she is experiencing in Heaven.  She is getting to see her Saviour face to face, and reunited with my Grandpa, the love of her life, who she has not seen for the last almost 19 years.  I can just imagine the smile on his face!  I know my Grandmother is telling my precious Granny and Pappaw, and my dear Aunt Faye all about what we have been doing and all about the girls...there is so much to tell. 

What a glorious reunion is taking place today!  I am thankful for the life she led, for her absolute faith and love for the Lord and her family~I have a wonderful heritage of faith and so much to be thankful for.

Here are some pictures from this past Christmas that I will forever cherish.  If you are a follower of my blog, you probably remember them from this past post:

We are home unpacking from camp, doing laundry, and getting ready to pack again. Please, remember our family as we travel back to Wichita, Kansas and as we celebrate my Grandmother's life.

Rachel's Last Check Up

I am completely overwhelmed with absolute gratitude and thankfulness to the Faithful One and for the great work He has done in Rachel's life.  We just left Cook Childrens Hospital where her neurosurgeon checked her progress for the last time!  He marveled right along with us at the great things God has done.  What a mighty God we serve!  To Him always be the glory for the absolute miracle He so graciously blessed us with! 

I am Not Bat Man!

But, if I'm Batman, where is Robin????

During Tuesday night's photo shoot at the Old Convent, I braved it once again to take pictures. No, I didn't let nearly falling to my death in the hole in the floor that goes down to the locked, dark basement, keep my from trying again. The Convent is so cool to take pictures in...and I will take every opportunity I'm given to be there. It is amazing....except for the "dumb-waiter" hole in the floor that I nearly missed (thank you Rachel) and a new friend waiting for us.

We all went upstairs to take pictures of Sarah in the "green room." Rachel sweetly said, "Oh, there's a bird!" And then the bird swooped down at us.

But....it wasn't a bird. Holy cow, batman, it's a BAT! EEkkk!!!! And then I ran downstairs and jumped in the dumb waiter hole to my death in the basement. Just kidding! But, we did scream a little bit. And then the bat flew to the ceiling and posed for this picture:

I can now say, I will brave wind, weather, holes in the floor, and even bats to get photos of my clients. I really do love my job....bats or not bats, it is never boring!

Sarah: Class of 2012 {A Sneak Peek}

Last night I had the blessing of taking Sarah's Senior Pictures.  Sarah is a Class of 2012 Senior and a Kiki's Corner Rep this year...and I am so glad to have her.  She is beautiful inside and out.  She and my Rachel are friends.  I asked her how it felt to be a senior and she sweetly replied, "It should still be Rachel."  Love that! 

Sweet Sarah, it is your time, your year...have an absolute blast making lots of amazing senior memories!

Sarah and I have been planning her session for weeks.  When I mentioned that it might be fun to start at the local laundry mat, she didn't hesitate.  I thought it would be a unique and fun place to take some pics...it had air conditioning (the temperature outside was a hot 105 degrees) and we were the only ones there~woo hoo!

She even agreed to sit in the laundry cart.  Do I have the best clients, or what?!  I wish doing the laundry at my house was this much fun! Ha!

After a quick change, we headed to several other locations around town.

Isn't she gorgeous?!

We even dared to go back to the Convent.  Remember the bridal photo shoot where I nearly fell to my death?  I braved shooting here again, but carefully watched my step.  There was another surprise waiting for us here, but I'll tell you about that tomorrow. 

Do you northerners know what a pump jack is?  It's black gold in our part of Texas, oil wells.  I hadn't been this close to one ever and it was so much fun! If it hadn't been for the wind, we would have stayed longer.  It was so fun!

Sarah, I hope you enjoyed your sneak peek.  More pictures to follow in your gallery soon.  Thanks for the blessing of taking your senior pictures!

Playing with Texture

If you are a follower of my blog, you might recognize my daughter Hannah wearing my vintage prom dress. These pictures still make me smile everytime that I look at them. The theme for I Heart Faces this week is "From a Distance." I instantly thought of this photo, but decided to play with it a little bit by running a fun new action, tweaking it a bit, and adding a little texture too:

I like how it gives more drama to the photo and adds a bit more nostalgia to the image.  Here is my orignal post with other images from our fun photo shoot.  What do you think? 

http://www.iheartfaces.com/

Singing with Hannah

Yesterday, God gave me an unexpected and most precious gift!  It was my Sunday to sing and I had wrestled with what to sing for weeks.  I didn't have a clear answer so I kept praying.  I finally had decided that I was going to sing, "God Speaking" by Mandisa.  I love this song but it still didn't feel right in my spirit. 

Saturday morning, I purchased and downloaded the track for Christy Nockles, "Waiting Here for You."  The track was released recently and this song can be heard almost daily around our house.  I asked Hannah if she thought she might like to sing it with me in church one day.  She tried it, I nearly cried, and we sang it yesterday morning together.

Hannah told me that she was nervous, but you couldn't tell.  She was absolute grace under pressure, I should say covered in grace under pressure.  She sang beautifully...way beyond her years. She chose to sing the first verse of the song and I marvelled at this beautifully young lady standing beside me.  Joy filled my heart to overflowing as she sang to her Saviour, not only with her mouth, but with her heart too...that is my favorite kind of singing any day. 

I treasured every second of singing with her.  What a precious gift from the Lord.  If you haven't heard this beautiful song, please listen to this video of Christy Nockles singing it at this year's Passion conference:

Summer League Basketball

Summer is here...and so is Summer Basketball!  Yesterday, my baby girl and her teammates played 5 games.  Five games!  Wow!  Our thirteen and fourteen year old girls played a lot of varsity teams (17 and 18 year olds).  And our normally undefeated team won one, almost two there was a last second 3 pointer at the buzzer, game out of five but they fought hard.  

It was fun to watch Hannah on the court again.  She adores basketball and I adore watching her play; naturally, I was there all day long...and I'm going back again today.  She will play 4 games today.  I crawled into bed last night exhausted, as if I had played 5 games that day too.  Ha!  Ya'll have a blessed day! 

Go Hannah!!!