special

I just spent 5 glorious days with Dana & Co.
"Is this your sister Dana?"  Close.  My cousin, my friend.
"Are you Mommy's sister Auntie Anna?  Because you talk like my Mommy."  Close.  Mommy's cousin.  Mommy's friend.

We...

• Went to Cabela's, my first time ever!
• Stayed up waaaaaaay too late every night talking and watching movies.
• Laughed in the kitchen at 11:30 at night cooking for Easter Dinner.
• Drank 1-2 cups of coffee after 10:00 p.m. nightly and still managed to sleep soundly.
• Watched Audrey Hepburn.  Classy is the word.
• Plotted various ways to convince each other to move.
• Laughed.  A lot.
• Found out Dana is left handed. (well, she already knew)
• Found out Dana likes creamy peanut butter.
• Painted our nails.
• Played cameras, photoshop and blogworld.
• Played piano.  That girl can play.  Man!  I am all about the broken chords now.
• Discussed what is wrong with Channing.  As in Tatum.  Dana says his eyes are not the same size.  I think its his ears.  They're too small for his head.  But there is definitely something off. (discussion stemming from watching "The Eagle" with AJ)
• Remembered childhood.
• Did you know Dana is an ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhmazing cook?!  I gained 7ish pounds.
• Painted Easter eggs.
• Had Easter dinner with AJ's fam.  I love borrowing families.  Even though mine is terrific.
• Flew kites.  Sort of.
• Jumped on the trampoline.
• Picked flowers.
• Prayed.
• Discussed the Bible and God's goodness. (The depth of a friendship that has become acquainted with adversity is unmeasurable)
• Discussed my pitiful attempts at finding Mr. Right.  Stinkin' girliness, I need to learn to reign my heart in.  I seriously am defective at dating.
• Understand each other.  Childhood was a selfish time of friendship.  I liked her because it was convenient and she had cool Barbies.  She liked me because... well, I'm not sure why.  :-)  This season of life is so different.  Hymns make me cry.  She gets that.  Playing the piano stirs her soul as if God himself is gently tugging on it.  I get that.  Our family is really special.  We get that.  God is good in everything, has a beautiful plan in everything.  We get that. 
• Shopped.
• Discovered that our precious little Grandma made each of us a bonnet girl quilt (one of our favorite childhood possessions) when we were young.
• Hated to say goodbye.
• Made plans to meet again.  6 hours.  Pff.  I'll be back!

Pictures to come, I promise.

:-)

Little Cupcake

Here she is, our perfect little Cupcake. I shot these with my new 50mm f/1.8 lens, it was the first time I used it. They are all SOTC (straight out of the camera), aside from the watermark applied in InDesign. I have too many projects lately to spend much time editing photos. This picture. Man. I think it has to be one of the most beautiful photos I've ever taken in my life. Please click on it to enlarge, Blogger makes it look all choppy below. (14 extra-special photos linked here)

MT Photography Workshop

MT Photography Workshop, a set on Flickr.

My mom set up a photography workshop for my birthday. A very knowledgeable and brilliant guy from Bozeman came to work with us. What a great day!

All shot in manual mode on ISO 200, auto white balance. I adjusted only my aperture and shutter speed for each photo.

Manual was very scary for me at first. I started out with totally white-out pics, and advanced to beautiful clarity by the end of the day.

The understanding I now have of how my camera works is very exciting. Thanks Mama!

weakness

This is post #2 today.

Work is crazy.  I'm lovin' it!  I am a dental assistant now, but have been cross-training to run the front desk.  I will be running the front office for a couple months starting this week.  Its overwhelming, but a challenge that drives me.  I thrive in challenges.  I'm learning insurance, billing, accounting, scheduling, prescriptions, etc.
Anyways today there were about 4 people lined up to check out at once.  All ready to leave.  Some with crying kids, some to get back to work.  All needing to make payments and set up additional appointments, straighten out insurance, etc.  Phone was ringing.  Total chaos.  A kind retired gentleman with a sparkle in his eye was last in line.

When I got to said gentleman, I thanked him profusely for his patience and apologized for making him wait.  He said something that has the potential to change my life.
"Never apologize.  It's a sign of weakness."  "Know who said that?" he asked.  "John Wayne."
"Young lady, you are doing a great job.  Stop apologizing."

We visited a bit, and I found out that he's a Christian.  What he said has mulled over in my brain quite a bit.  It goes against every fibre in my being.  I am an apologizer.  Instantly I think to not apologize is to be arrogant.  But that's not true.  God rebuked Moses for apologizing about his stammer.  God called us to be strong.  Not to be jerks, but to be strong.  Leaders don't apologize all the time.  I've decided that if I'm doing the very best I can, not to apologize.  Not to apologize for my cooking if I did my best.  Not to apologize for my piano playing if I did my best.  Not to apologize for my photography if I did my best.  Its a nagging problem I've actually been trying to put my finger on the last few months.  It came quite clear today.  By God's grace, I want to break my habit of over-apologizing.  A very wise friend of mine gave me some advice about dating recently.  She said "Anna, you're the prize.  You have to believe it yourself first."  She didn't mean that I should be arrogant and stuck on myself.  Basically she meant Be the best Anna you can be and don't apologize for who that is. (How do you like my paraphrasing Dana?)

So... if I apologize to you, I take it back.  I didn't mean it.  (unless my apology is for something unkind or stupid that I said or did to you... those apologies are still totally valid and probably will remain frequent)

the tale of the cookies

My life is so fascinating.

Monday night, I got home at 9, and then stayed up making the famous chocolate chip cookies for "Tommy." (name changed to protect the innocent)  Tommy is an old co-worker / good friend and I learned more from him about graphic design in 2 years then I will learn in the entire rest of my life.  I haven't talked to him in months since I switched jobs.  Anyways... Tommy's birthday was "today."  So Monday night I stayed up until midnight making his cookies.  I was so super extremely excited to anticipate the fun it would be for him to get a box delivered by the newspaper driver on his desk in the handwriting of an old friend who remembered his birthday.  I LOVE giving.  Tuesday I delivered said box to my old place of work, gave them cookies too, and set the box where the driver would pick it up in the middle of the night.  It clearly, boldly said "Please give to Tommy ............ (insert last name)."

About 5ish yesterday, I got a call on my cell from "Tammy."  She's a special friend that comes to church with me a lot.  She works at the newspaper.  She was very excited about something.  I had to ask a lot of questions to get to the bottom of her excitement.  It was a game for her, this guessing.  She got cookies from a certain someone.  That certain someone would be me.  For her birthday (which was over a month ago).  I said "ooooh, you took some out of the bag on the table at the newspaper?"   No!  The BOX!  That was so nice of you Anna!  I told everyone that you made me a box of cookies.  That's the nicest thing anyone's done for me in a long time!  My heart sank, kinda.  Late night, long day, anticipation crushed.  And yet my heart soared.  Laughter and tears as I drove away from work that day.  Tammy / Tommy.   His last name was just as prominent on the box as his first, but she was so zoned in that she never noticed the last name.

Today, about 5:10, Debbie, the lady I left my box with yesterday, stopped in to my new office.  "OOOOH you're still here.  Good!  Anna I'm so sorry.  I lost your box yesterday.  Couldn't find it anywhere.  I was going to call you this morning to tell you, but ran out of time.  This afternoon, Tammy came in and told me she found the box you'd left for her.  She was so excited that I didn't have the heart to tell her it wasn't for her.  I am so so so sorry!"  Oh man, what a funny end to a very long day.  Debbie and I had such a good belly laugh.  Tammy's happy, Tommy's gonna have a good laugh and he'll be happy that I tried so hard to send him cookies - really even just that I remembered his birthday.  Def. a win - win.

It cracks me up how I control and plan something down to the minutest detail, and then God says Okay, that's good.  But I can do better.  Watch this Anna. 

Friday

1. Lunch Date: Funny story.  Awhile ago I was at my brother's house babysitting the Little Turkey.  While I was in the bathroom I noticed their calendar had appointments written in all over the place for pregnancy check-ups and etc.  Markers were conveniently hung on the wall.  I did what any normal person would do and wrote in some appointments of my own.  I forgot all about them.  This morning, sister-in-law messaged me and said "What time are we meeting for lunch?"  Haha.   It was awesome.  So I took Dairy Queen out to her and the babies and we had an awesome lunch date.  I have no idea when the next one is.  I guess she'll call me.

2. I got to take pictures of Baby Sister today.  I found myself calling her Little Cupcake, so I think that's who she is from henceforth in blogland.  We have Little Turkey and Little Cupcake.  Ohhhh man.  I want one.  I was born to be a mom, I'm sure of it.  Or maybe I was born to be an aunt.  I guess since that's what I am I'll just have to be the best Aunt I can be.  She's so precious and perfect and even cries like a girl.  She peed all over her Mom.  She pooped all over my white bedspread (which reminds me... I need to soak that).  She got mad when we put things around her head.  She has a double chin. 
3. Little Turkey was my pal this afternoon.  We went lion hunting, and we sang Sunday School Songs. He showed me all his guns.  He sang me a song on his guitar. Every time I'd say "I have to go buddy" he'd say "No way.  Come play with me Aunt Anna.  Please.  Please."  And he'd always take my hand.  If I'd go with him he'd very sincerely say ..... ohhhh Thank you! Thank you!  How do you say no to that?
4. Little Turkey walked past me this afternoon all sassy, and said something really fast.  I said "What?"  He said it again.  I asked his mom, "Did he just ask me... Who's your baby?"  Yep.  That's what he said.  All sassy.  "Who's your babay?"  So I said, "You're my baby."  Noooooo!  I not a baby Aunt Anna.  I just ______ (insert name here).  And then he said the sweetest thing.
   Maybe you're MY baby Aunt Anna.
5. Tonight after Youth Group, we sang again.  Its been far too long.  It was so good for my soul, it brought me back where I needed to be.  So much happened in my life the first of the year that I've gotten away from the music that I love so much.  Tonight we were playing around with harmonies.  Man!  I love singing!  If anybody anytime anywhere wants to get together and sing... count me in.
6. I went to bed last night resolved to chop my hair off today.  Fortunately I ran out of time.    This morning, I fixed it really nicely because it was supposed to be the last day of my long locks... and it looked so good that I couldn't part with it.  Stupid girliness.  {sheepish grin} Its only a matter of time before I do it, I've been talking myself out of it for a couple years. One day though...

niche

Another engagement session last week.  This is my niche.  I love taking pictures of happy people, and who would be happier than two people in love?

We all laughed for the entire two hours.  Their happiness made me smile for two days after.
More of these to come eventually, I have too many projects going.  (click photo to enlarge)

Also, the coffee shots turned out TERRIFIC!  I'll try to upload an album soon.

pardon the dust

So I'm in the middle of a few design projects, and I got really sidetracked tonight.  I want to revamp the blog.  Watch for change.

:-)

p.s.  Baby Sister (my niece) is here, I'll take newborn pics on Friday.  We are so excited!!!!!!!