Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Pick-Me-Up


Sometimes I think life just gets wound a little too tight, and we need to all step back and look outside ourselves...
We need a Pick-Me-Up.

I once heard a pastor say that if you're down in the dumps and feeling discouraged, there is an instant remedy....encourage someone else.
Sounds backwards doesn't it? We start moping or we get knocked down and the last thing we want to do is to go around making other people feel better. What kind of crazy thinking is that?!
It actually works!
Try it next time. And I say 'next time' as opposed to 'some time', because no matter how hard we try, we all find ourselves in that boat of despair.
Discouragement is not like some pot-hole that we just fall into. It falls on us.
If you want to rebuild your self, be self-less in your day, not self-ish. If it doesn't work, feel free to write in and complain :)

Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, "How can I help?"
That's exactly what Jesus did. He didn't make it easy for himself by avoiding people's troubles, but waded right in and helped out.
"I took on the troubles of the troubled," is the way Scripture puts it.
(Rom 15:2-3)

Thursday, January 25, 2007

The New Site is Officially Live!



Well, here it is, our new site.
We decided to add a little more color and get away from tired old black for awhile. You'll notice things are a little more casual, and slightly skewed, because as some of you can easily attest, that's just my personality. Always just a little against the grain, and just a clutz when it comes to neat orgenizayshen :). I don't have that word in my vocabulary. :)
See how easily the site just integrates into my real world desktop??:

It's seemless!! Like some kind of techy camoflauge. :)
Really though, things should flow a bit more now that we're up and running.
Soon we'll be hosting all of our client proofing online, and we'll change the packages accordingly. That little feature should make things very convenient for you when you place your orders or when you want to show your family the proofs.
Please let us know your thoughts. Likes, Dislikes, Yay's, Nay's, Up, Down. We'd love to hear from you all. After all, it's there for you.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Notice Anything Different?

We're switching to a new website that we think will be a little more fun and refreshing, so you'll start to notice a few changes with the blog as we prepare for the move. This new site will really make uploading and proofing images a snap, which was one poor aspect with the old site. Long story short, we think you'll enjoy the new look and feel. Besides, it'll be full of pictures of you and yours, how could you NOT like it? ;)

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Angel



I first met our newest addition to the family on a blistery winter morning. She was a stray, and nearly frozen when I found her. All balled up and crying as loud as a kitten could, she ran straight to me and jumped into my arms as I came closer to her.
Then she buried her head down into my jacket and sat there, shivering uncontrollably in my arms...
Well, I'm no softy, but there was no chance of turning her away after that. I brought her home to the kids, and right away she made her place in our hearts, even got along with the other pesks, I mean, pets. :) She's now twice her size and fit as a fiddle.
The kids named her Angel, although she's anything but. I think a more fitting name would be Menace, but she's still a part of the family now.

Monday, January 15, 2007

Funk

Okay, yeah... It's been about a month since I've posted.
I'm sorry. I've just been in a little bit of a funk over the past month.
The last post was about the new studio, coming along, but it's been just about that long since I've seen any great progress with it. Like most things, Hurry Up and Wait applies here also. We were hoping to be in by January, and that is not going to happen.
We're in the process of getting our house ready for the market to sell, dealing with the City of Brandon, and there's just alot of things going on in a very short amount of time that are frustrating.

Anyway, my real point of this post was to say thank you to this girl...



Her name is Cory Ann, and she's a great photographer up in Brookings. She is AC Ellis Photography. She came down to visit during our wedding show this weekend, and realized I was in a funk, so she took off her coat and started helping out, and that really meant alot, to both Kari and I.
She helped to knock some much needed sense into me, and when the snow started falling hard we talked her into staying over. We all agreed, adult sleepovers are really cool and should take place much more often.
Today she took even more of her time and shot some of my family's pictures, outside, in temperatures that make a polar bear shiver, until her hands were so cold and numb she couldn't push down the shutter any longer.



Then she hopped in her car and away she went with a smile.

Thanks, Cory Ann. :) I really needed that.