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

just FYI...

i have a job!

more info to come soon, but it is with an agency in town and it's a THERAPIST position--not QP or case management. dream come true. i start tuesday, and though i'll be giving up the rest of my summer, i have a feeling it's going to be totally worth it.

yay! many praises for answered prayers!

turning in the bridesmaid shoes

so we've reached the end of my bridesmaid duties for the season. justin does have another wedding in august where he will be a groomsman, but i'm convinced that's 10 times easier than doing the bridesmaid thing.

my brother alan is now married to his wonderful wife rachel. they are off somewhere in jamaica at a sandals resort and should be back by the weekend. at that point, he will commence his search for a band director job and rachel will finish her masters in accounting in december. overall, it was a beautiful wedding and i was so happy to be a part of it. i also enjoyed seeing all of our family members that came in, and with all of us staying at the same hotel, it was like a family reunion every morning and evening!

i like this photo alot, particularly because it reminds me of....

this one. i always interpret this expression as, "look what your brother did to me."they had crazy mad bubbles on the way out. must've been really good bubbles or just the fact that it was a lot of music majors (ha!)
and these young men made the weekend incredible. the brothers of phi mu alpha were so polite, helpful, courteous to our family members and friends, and extremely talented. they were a part of the ceremony by singing the benediction, a gorgeous version of "the Lord bless you and keep you" complete with the 7 fold dresden amen. and then they serenaded us at the reception as well. so awesome to have them support alan and rachel throughout the weekend.

as for the rest of the past couple of weeks...

oh yeah, the pearl jam concert in virginia beach! one of justin's favorite bands of all times, and close to our friends kenny, stephanie, kaleb and (only a couple of months old) kendra, as well as linda and brandon (our lovely hosts for the evening). though i can't say that i knew more than a couple of songs, justin and the rest of the crowd enjoyed a great evening of music.

and we had some great seats this time rather than fighting for space on the lawn.

also, justin and i had the pleasure of attending a cook-out at one of my former co-workers house. it was great to see lots of friends and their family members, especially some people who worked at oakwood when i first started that i haven't seen in a while. it's great to know that we will still be able to continue these friendships even though we won't be working together anymore. the evening ended with s'mores and sparklers for the kids and lots of great conversation with old friends.

i've got a couple more interviews lined up. fingers crossed!

photo jobs have been fun--a trip to the farmers market was my favorite. i did go out and take pics at one of the church league games a couple of weeks ago. as soon as i pulled into the parking lot, my heart rate immediately went up and i felt slightly stressed out and anxious. i don't think i've recovered from playing softball quite yet, but i enjoyed being a spectator again!

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

sorry for the delay...

but things are finally starting to calm down around here. or at least, until the next wedding related event comes around :)

so we had an awesome time at ashley and mark's wedding over memorial day weekend. justin actually got his post up before mine, and we're still getting pictures from friends online to document to day. nothing beats a wedding in duke chapel, and it was such a beautiful day with some amazing friends. i can't wait to see the photos that the wedding photographer took, and we also wish mark and ashley happy "house closing" as they bought their first home together this weekend. we can relate--we are celebrating one year (today!) in our home and know how stressful, yet wonderful, it can be all at the same time.

so from the wedding, justin and me infront of duke chapel

and the ec scholars reunite! mateo, linda, the beautiful bride ashley and myself at the reception. so great to see matthew as always :)


on the way home we stopped at billy and maryanne's house to meet my new cousin william for the first time. he was adorable, quite happy to be held by a couple of new people, and at only a week old, was already starting to show some personality.this was the first time in a while that justin had held a baby, so we reviewed proper "newborn-holding" directions :)
the long weekend led into the last week of school with the kids, which was spent proctoring exams, packing up my office and lining up interviews. we went to fayetteville for the weekend to visit family and to celebrate with alan and rachel as they had another wedding shower. this one focused on the boys--tools, to be precise--and alan now has enough hardware and power tools that he can stop borrowing ours and begin loaning out his own to all the fraternity brothers and probably his brother-in-law :) it was great to see everyone, and it's hard to believe that in a little less than two weeks, they will be married!

i had my last few work-related events this past week and also had three interviews for some promising job opportunities. there is one in particular that i am very excited about and i hope to have a second interview for this week to talk with the people who own the agency. i am also quite content not to work for a while, especially with alan and rachel's wedding, my yearly appointments that i schedule in the summer for this very reason, and spending time with all of my public school teacher friends who just got out of work. interviews are good, though. very good :)

and yesterday, i had the joy of photographing a wedding for the first time in a while. i was afraid i would be a little rusty, but all of the weddings we have attended/been a part of have given me some new ideas, plus this was a wonderful couple and family to work with. i had never met the bride before (they attend the early service at our church) but jarahnee was beautiful, radiant and one of the genuinely nicest people i've ever met. she and shane will be very happy together with her two boys, and in the meantime, i've got over 700 photos to go through and edit. here's just a taste of what i was able to capture yesterday...

(love this idea with the respective rings around "man" and "wife", but now wish i had chosen a verse that didn't include "naked"--might edit this one to blur out everything except man and wife, but we'll see)


love this one, though i might edit it closer to the couple in photoshop when i get the chance.

alright, that's it for now. grace and i are both looking forward to relaxing over the next couple of weeks :) (i don't know why she likes my shoes, she just does.) later, y'all!

quick post

i've been trying to post more regularly, but it's (obviously) been quite hectic and i occasionally forget how long it's been since the last post. since i'm edging on two weeks, i thought i would write very quickly before we head into the holiday and wedding-filled weekend.

at school, we have successfully accomplished standardized tests, four talent show performances, spring concerts and planning for the last full week of school. we have field day (tomorrow), exams and end of year assemblies to go. it's hard to believe how quickly it's coming up, and i'm just trying to tie up all the loose ends.

one of those loose ends was my auction photo package that a family won this year. i talked with the mom about what she had in mind, and she left it totally up to me--just something casual and fun. she has a four year old and a nine year old, so we needed something that would keep the four year old entertained as well. we headed on out to briley's farm for some strawberry picking and had a fabulous time. the mom was thrilled with the results and has promised to spread the word with many of her friends. i hope the "word of mouth" business will keep me busy through out the summer. i have also lined up an engagement shoot for next week and have the prospect of another wedding shoot in july. exciting and great for building up the portfolio.
www.laurenthornphotography.com if you want to check them out under children's portraits.

also had the oakwood athletic banquet, which i was able to use for a scene around slideshow (great publicity for the school) and a couple of other quick jobs for a benefit wine tasting and a softball tournament. it's amazing how many cool things you find out about once you start regularly attending these community events.

and this weekend is ashley and mark's wedding in durham at duke chapel, and we'll also get to visit with fellow bridesmaid linda and her husband brandon. we plan on heading back home by way of youngsville, where my uncle and aunt welcomed new cousin william to the world last week. i'm definitely looking forward to that (and will of course get some pictures!)

that's it for now. time for bed :)

may is flying by...

so i finally have a few minutes to write about my last two weekends. it's been crazy busy lately, as usual, but we've hit a much needed quiet evening and i'm thrilled just to have a moment to catch my breath.

i took a half day last friday and headed down to charleston, sc, with linda for ashley's bridesmaid weekend. it was a gorgeous day, we drove on down to kiawah island where we were staying and met the rest of the girls for dinner at the king street grill, a local place. we had thought about doing a haunted ghost tour of downtown charleston, but time was not on our side and we were unable to make it. instead, we spent friday evening hanging out at the condo and catching up.

saturday, we headed down to the beach for a couple of hours in the morning and after lunch, linda and i set off to the downtown area to do a little sight-seeing. being fair-skinned ladies, we knew we couldn't handle a whole day in the sun, so we were up for doing the touristy thing at the old market, rainbow row and the battery. it was the best way to spend the afternoon and i took a ton of pictures. see the rest on flickr!


we got back in time to get cleaned up for dinner in downtown charleston and taking a few group pictures. we HAD to show off our matching "bride and bridesmaid" tanks that ashley made for us--rhinestones and all.

we went out to tbonz downtown for dinner where linda and i split an awesome shrimp and chicken dish and geared up for the rest of the night. there were definitely a couple dozen bachelorette parties in charleston that weekend, so it seemed like we were running into another group every place we went. we all had a great time, though, and i was so happy to be a part of that special night with ashley. just two weeks until her wedding!

so after another wild week of testing, planning for the end of the year and field trips, i took this friday off for alan's graduation. his departmental graduation for the school of music was friday at noon, and then the main ceremony for the whole university was today at 10 in the football stadium. we had family coming in for the ceremony on friday, and it was a much smaller production that what we attended today. it was definitely cool to see alan walk across the stage, and i also got to use it for a reflector slideshow, so you can check out the photos here. we had a reception at the school of music afterwards, and then we got ready for a family cookout at our house with rachel's family.



and today was the big ceremony, where i got to flash the press pass and get some great pictures from the field. those haven't been posted on reflector yet, but i had an awesome time and felt like quite the "professional" out there with the other big guys. and in all, i got paid to attend and take pictures at two events that i would have attended otherwise. i'll go outside the plan for pitt community college's graduation tomorrow night.
so congratulations to all of the spring 2008 graduates and here's to the future!

(don't forget mother's day tomorrow!)

*p.s. i just got the link for commencement photos that are up here

and... seriously, i had nothing to do with this. the one picture of alan that i did throw in was not identified in any manner... but who did they put up on the "graduation galleries" front page? my little brother getting his own screen time :)

no time to post....

but pictures from charleston are up.

enjoy!

one month to go...

a month from today will be the last day of school and my last day at oakwood. it is amazing how quickly time has gone by, and though a month seems like such a short time, i know it will be filled with lots of the end-of-year activities. we have another round of standardized testing, spring concerts, talent shows, spring semi-formals and exams--and all that is on top of my wedding-related events and wedding itself! i almost hope that i get to enjoy a little bit of summer before i start a new job, simply because i will need a break before i head to work.

after our amazing weekend in ocracoke, we decided to celebrate our anniversary on monday, the actual day. justin surprised me by coming home early and setting a beautiful table, complete with customized menus and our new dishes. we had received a bottle of the wine that was served at our reception as a gift from alan and rachel over the weekend.


he also took the "life is good" shirts that we wore to leave the reception and made an important change--under "just married" he added "one year ago!" how creative.
and finally, we thawed out the top layer of our wedding cake and tried a slice. it had held on to the cake taste, but had the oddest texture--combination of moist from the defrosting and dry from the fact that it had been frozen for a year.
the rest of the week was a blur, and we received some of the hardest news i've ever had to deal with. we heard monday night that patrice had not felt her baby move in a day or so, and when they went to the doctor, they couldn't find the heartbeat. she and matt delivered gabriel matthew on tuesday morning and had his service on friday morning. i had just been in winston-salem to see them a few weeks ago and had taken some pictures of patrice individually and her and matt together. i was afraid that these would become painful for patrice and matt to look at, but they posted pictures from the service and i am so honored that they used one of the photos as part of the display. as they said, if they had to choose between spending time with him on earth and spending time with him in heaven, they would choose heaven, hands down.
they are an amazing couple and i love them dearly.

this past weekend was another full one, with relay for life on friday night. i stayed out at the event until 2 a.m., supporting our school team while also taking pictures for the paper. below is our team photo with everyone who was there to support lida's family, along with a couple of my favorite photos. if you'd like to see all of the ones that i took that evening, check them out at reflector.com



alan's sr. recital was saturday evening at ECU. justin recorded the entire performance and has posted it for our friends and family to view. the recording is about a half hour long, but it shows the amazing talent alan has and the amount of work that he has done in the school of music. we spent time with everyone who came in to see the recital, and also hosted a bridal shower for rachel and her friends on sunday afternoon. between weddings, graduation in a couple of weeks, and finding jobs, alan and rachel have a busy summer ahead of them!



that's all for now. bridesmaids' weekend in charleston with ashley and the girls this coming weekend!

busy time of year...

so since i last posted, it's been busy busy busy.

i had the pleasure of going to charlotte last weekend for ashley's bridal shower. all of her bridesmaids were there, and we had a great time meeting everyone and doing the silly shower games that are oh-so-entertaining. i will be seeing all these ladies again weekend after next when we head down to charleston, sc, for the bridesmaids' weekend.

linda and i stayed the night in charlotte and had a great time catching up with ashley and enjoying some quality time with her family. we had an awesome dinner at the bonefish grill and got some krispy kreme doughnuts a la our pirate pack days back in jones dorm. so great to see my girls and talk the night away like we used to.

this weekend, justin and i headed off friday afternoon and caught a ferry over to ocracoke to celebrate our first anniversary. we had been planning this trip for several months and had reservations for the ferry and for a new place (to us) on the island, edwards of ocracoke. the trip was fabulous and we had the most relaxing, restful anniversary weekend possible. we hit all of our favorite eating spots on the island--howard's pub, the flying melon (amazing crab cakes and parmasean encrusted salmon--wow!), ocracoke coffee company (best coffee ever) and more. we rode bikes around to all of the cute shops and art galleries, visited the lighthouse and spent some time on the beach. all in all, a fabulous weekend and i was sad to leave. if i could figure out a way to live there and make a living, i'd consider it...

us with the lighthouse

our boardwalk to the beach--i love this picture!


me on the beach (courtesy of justin)

our wedding glasses that we brought to commemorate our anniversary weekend (we'll try out our cake on monday, the actual date)
enjoying our glasses and an awesome bottle of italian sparkling wine called tinturo (from the wine shop in downtown fayetteville--so good!)
and so it's back to the real world. we're doing standardized testing and finishing up my intern's last few days at school this week. one question mark that has been answered (or turned in to a period, so to speak)--i found out that i will not be at my school next year. i have already been on one interview and am waiting to hear back from several other applications that i put out earlier. this is a great opportunity for me and i see it as perfect timing in the grand scheme of things. it will be tough to leave the kids, families and faculty members that i have grown to love, but i will also get a greater opportunity to work with populations and programs that can use my experience. so i will try to keep everyone updated as that progresses.

in the meantime, i have had some unique photo shoots lately. pigskin pigout (with the parade of pigs) last friday night, carnival rides at the grifton shad festival on wednesday, and, bringing out my southern accent while i talked with the chefs, a wild game and seafood feast for the boy scouts on thursday night. check them out at www.reflector.com under the photos and videos section.

next weekend (get ready)--half day at work, ropes course with the faculty, relay for life friday night into saturday, family coming in, alan's senior recital and reception following, then on into sunday with family spending the night and a bridal shower for rachel that i'm hosting in the afternoon. wooo! it's gonna be a busy one.

so that's all i have for now--later, y'all.

tough week...

so since last thursday, it's been a long week. we spent all day last friday working on the yard. justin broke up the desert area in our back yard that stubbornly hadn't grown grass with a 5 lb. mattock (a pick/sledgehammer type tool.) he busted it up into huge chunks of concrete-hard dirt, and we finally got it to the point where we could spread topsoil on it and plant grass seed again. while he was doing this, i removed the pine straw from the front yard flower beds and replaced it with our brown mulch that we had delivered. below are pictures capturing the whole process...

justin with the mattock in his paul bunyan pose
a piece of the dirt that we dug up
our new front yard flower beds (and the flowers that have bloomed already)

the back deck with mulch and the plants grandma has given me from her yard
after all that very hard, back-breaking work on friday, we took it pretty easy on saturday. it turned cold and rainy (which made it difficult to do my latino spring festival shoot) so we spent plenty of time inside enjoying a new game together. it's called "zack and wiki: the quest for barbados' treasure" which is best described as a puzzle/adventure game. the puzzle part is what i really enjoy, and we easily spent several hours on saturday and sunday solving the puzzles together. you are basically placed in a game level with the goal of reaching the treasure chest or treasure map, and you can manipulate many different parts of the level, change animals into objects, use objects and basic physics to make actions occur, etc. great game and we are getting close to finishing it :)

monday was a tough day--we've had an employee--and friend of mine--at work who was diagnosed with liver cancer over a year and a half ago. she was receiving treatment for over a year and earlier in 2008, they told her that there wasn't anything else they could do for her. on sunday evening, after many months of treatment and battling cancer, she passed away. she has two wonderful daughters--one who is a 9th grader at oakwood--and many family members and friends who loved her very much. it was a diffcult way to start back after spring break, and as much as i had imagined that day to be, it was amazing how the teachers and faculty members pulled together at work. i had many tough conversations with the students and tried to support the other faculty members as much as i could, and i had also planned with other therapists and had them on call in case things got overwhelming. by the middle of the week, things had somewhat returned to normal, but we have big plans for relay for life and her memorial service before the end of the month.

the rest of the week should have been relaxing, but it wasn't--with many plans for next school year coming out and my attempt to make plans for the student government for the remainder of the school year. it's getting to the crazy time of year where i have wedding/bridesmaid/alan's graduation plans nearly every weekend, and i'm just preparing myself for things to be wild. there are still some major question marks for what will be happening over the next couple of months, and it's going to be tough waiting to find out how things will fall. i'm just asking for patience and understanding as i gear up for alan's senior recital and graduation, our anniversary, ashley's wedding, the end of the school year, and alan and rachel's wedding. whoo, it's going to be crazy!

and finally... go UNC! final four weekend, and i'm ready for the game. i'll be watching my heels tonight and (hopefully) monday night :)

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