finally posting

though i certainly didn't intend to get a couple of weeks behind in posting, the sheer number of photos and events that i've been working with made it so. i wanted to use justin's macbook for the wedding pictures, but needed some of my pics that weren't up on flickr--so here we are. finally have moved them all to the right places.

last week flew by with a crazy busy schedule that almost did me in. after a fabulous cook-out with my new co-workers and a great kick-off for vbs on sunday (covered on reflector.com of course) i learned that i was in charge of one of the pre-k groups. not that i minded, but it was just somewhat of a surprise to find out on monday night that i would have a group of three and four years olds relying on me for the remainder of the week. it ended up being a fabulous fit--more than one mom told me that i missed my calling of working with preschoolers, and i got mistaken for being the mom of one of the kids because of how well i handled him. my only complaint was the 6-8:30 schedule that left no time for dinner with justin, little time to do stuff around the house, and was way past the bedtime of many of my kids. BUT it was only for a week, and for a week, it was fun!

combo of the regular church band and the youth group band--my buddy will there in the front!


i like this one not just because it looks like little miss jordan is in fish bowl (it's a playground window) but also because you can see me in it :)
ahh, angelina. cutie pie to the max.
and i could definitely identify with this little one (and wanted to take her home with me.)
all their cute little shoes in a row.so once we finished with that, then it was time to fix up the house. we got some great new couches from our friends jeremy and lindsey for a bargain price--and it was time to close in the shed that our neighbor john has been building for the past few weeks. justin was recruited to help on friday since it was his day off, and they made quite a headway on it, putting up all of the walls and trusses with the roof going up on saturday.

my artsy shot of the not quite finished shed.
saturday brought my second wedding photography job of the summer. this one was lined up with my hair stylist, and it was absolutely beautiful. i just loaded several pics up to flickr, so check them out there, and then there are more on my business site (www.laurenthornphotography.com) so sunday was church, "mamma mia!" with justin's mom and sister (where i got to see jennifer macneill-yay!), and hosting the small group at our house since we had jeremy and lindsey's furniture :) the weekend felt like it went by very quickly, but hopefully the week will go by just as fast! we have plans to go down to the beach on saturday and stay down east saturday night, so i'm thrilled to get a beach trip in before summer is totally gone.

and i leave you with a cow that i spotted on my way to farmville (another reflector shoot) who looked just about as comfortable as a cow could be in the middle of july.

later, y'all.

kicking off the weekend

it's been a busy week with lots going on, and the weekend promises to be just as event-filled.

i'm still learning a lot at work and preparing to start with my first client family. yay! in the meantime, i'm having a great time getting to know people and finding my way around the office. i also joined the gym across the street and have made plans to meet a couple of my co-workers there in the morning. also good :)

on tuesday, i got to do a relaxed engagement shoot. this is a couple that has several connections to us--johnny is one of justin's longtime friends here in town, and heather is one of my new co-workers. they'll be getting married in october and though they'd already had their "official" engagement shoots, they wanted some candids and more artistic shots. we had a great time out at johnny's house, and they were so pleased with the results. i've put just a few up on flickr, so free to check them out.


i've been helping put up decorations for VBS at church, and i'll be volunteering there next week. they're going with an original theme--"Bible school musical"--that's modeled after "high school musical" of course, and i also got asked to cover it one evening for the paper. that'll keep us busy sunday night and most evenings next week.

and tonight, we began our task of shopping for a new bed and watched "the dark knight," which i watched through partially shut eyes a good portion of the time. great movie, but definitely a dark theme and some scary villains. i'm up for a movie with lighter content next time--anyone wanna go see "mamma mia"?

we're still making preparations for jon and carrie's wedding in august and have a few more pieces of information in place. we'll be staying at the cumberland inn, where they're getting married, and will have the opportunity to visit.... the kentucky fried chicken museum! no joke. i also hope we can check out one of the local state parks, cumberland falls. looks gorgeous from what we can tell by the websites...
and we'll be stopping in to visit with matt and patrice on our way up, and my great-aunt and uncle pete and mary on the way back. i'm excited to spend even one night in boone, since it's been....six years?...since i spent my summer up there with duke tip. i love the mountains in the summertime, and i can't wait to get a sandwich at "our daily bread" or maybe stop in at the real mast general store. should make for a great extended weekend and will break up the eight hour drive to kentucky quite nicely.

alright, that's it for now. later, y'all :)

wedding weekend in fayetteville

after finishing my first full week of work (yay!) justin and i spent the afternoon watching our wedding videos (also yay!) and then ran out to do some errands and enjoy the beautiful weather during dinner on the back patio at ham's.

saturday morning, we headed down to fayetteville for my second cousin katie's wedding. i helped katie and brandon find an apartment in greenville a couple of months ago in preparation for their move to ecu this coming fall. they are a sweet couple who have a bright future ahead of them, and we were glad we could be there for the special day.

with the wedding being in fayetteville, katie's mom had contacted us after our wedding to ask for referrals. we loved all of the businesses we used, so we gave them positive recommendations and encouraged them to contact them. they ended up going with our caterer, florist and photographer, so it was cool to see our photographers again and to enjoy the delicious food (and cake!) from the caterer.

so a few photos... me and justin after the wedding brandon and katie at the reception
doing the cake thing--they were very nice to each other!
there are some more pics up on flickr, so feel free to check them out!

we had another great dinner of crab legs over at grandma's and a nice visit to hay st. where we met the new preacher and listened to alan play during the offertory. complete the visit with a lunch at micasita's and a trip to edward mckay, and before we knew it, it was time to head back to greenville.

so now we're getting ready for another week of work and making plans for our big trip up to kentucky in august. i'm actually excited about the drive and the opportunity to spend some time in the mountains, so we're trying to make a mini-vacation out of it like we did with the weekend in charlotte. should be a good time :)

that's all for now. later, y'all.

a couple of fun photos for a mid-week post

we had a great time at the mudcats game--awesome fireworks, a mudcats win, and an enjoyable evening (even with the threat of rain!)

milo and our new wii fit--he doesn't quite grasp the concept yet.
and a fun night with the young adults small group at jeremy and lindsay's, where we cooked out, watched jake crawl for one of the first times, and taught him to play aerosmith guitar hero :)now it's back to trainings, photo sessions and getting ready for our... third wedding?--yes, third-- this weekend (fourth if you count the one where i was a photographer)

hasta luego!

celebrating the 4th

it's been a busy couple of weeks since i last posted, and justin and i were happy to see the holiday weekend approaching so we could relax and spend time with some friends and family.

i accepted a job offer last week to begin working at an agency here in town as an intensive in home family therapist. though it will be a couple of weeks before i start actually going out to see clients, i had trainings this past week and several more lined up for next week. this is a great agency that has a positive reputation in the community and is looking to grow over the next few years. the program that i will be leading involves a team approach where we help families and at-risk youth stabilize their environment so the youth can remain in the home. i am really excited about this and can't wait to get started after all my training are complete.

in the meantime, we've been enjoying the summer and some of the new "toys" that are out on the market. we searched for a wii fit all last weekend--with no success. we eventually ended up borrowing one from heather and wylie and were immediately hooked. after calling around during the week, we gave it one more shot yesterday and lucked out--toys 'r us finally had some in. so now we are proud owners of the balance board. what a cool accessory and awesome game to add on to our wii library.

we also went to see "wall-e" last weekend and loved it. pixar never dissapoints! (though they didn't do outakes or bloopers after the credits again :(--we waited around just in case, but maybe they've gotten out of the habit of doing that in the theater releases.)

and finally, we've spent some lovely evenings in little washington. i still haven't made it down to the beach this summer, but perhaps it's because we keep darting over to washington for dinner and really enjoying ourselves on the waterfront. last week, it was to celebrate my new job and get out of greenville due to the water contamination that had all of the restaurants closed in town. we headed on over to backwater jack's, a great waterside restaurant with a tiki bar atmosphere, complete with a double-decker outdoor porch and awesome views of the river. after delicious shrimp burgers and the best sweet potato fries i've ever had, we walked along the waterfront and got some ice cream. after such a nice evening, we considered going that way again yesterday for the 4th of july. i knew i was scheduled to take pictures for the paper at the greenville town commons, but i had already planned on going down there early before it got too crowded or dark. we thought about going over to kinston for the baseball game and fireworks, but once we looked into it, the tickets were already sold out. new bern was just a little too far to drive, and they have the main bridge closed so we'd have to drive through town to get to the point park. so... it was decided we would head on east to washington to catch some waterfront fireworks. we packed my tripod and camera, picked up some bojangles and got an excellent parking spot for the evening. i had to share some of the pictures from our evening out there, and after hearing that it downpoured in greenville just as the fireworks began, we're really glad we ended up going.

(since justin still wants to do a baseball game and fireworks, we're going to go see the mudcats play this evening and enjoy their second fireworks show after the game)

the docks were full and there were tons of boats coming up and down the river yesterday evening.

a candid of justin as we walked along the waterfront.
the lights of the boats reflecting off the water--that was one of the most popular spots to view the fireworks!
i was so happy with how these turned out--there are more up on flickr, but these are just a couple of my favorites.
part of the "grand finale"--they had said a couple of weeks ago that washington wouldn't be able to do their fireworks because of the burn ban and the huge wildfire that started last month, but they changed their minds earlier this week and i'm so glad they did!alright, that's it for now. we've got a couple of things to take care of around the house before we head to zebulon. check out the pictures on flickr and reflector