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...

spring break is almost over...

but i plan on squeezing every last minute of relaxation out of it that i can...

our easter ended up being quite nice, with a great church service, a yummy lunch at k&w (we just couldn't bear to cook anything) and a relaxing afternoon of basketball and egg dyeing.

this year we went for the less traditional "tie-dye" egg kit. this involved a little eye dropper, two pieces of material and an egg press that surrounded the cloth wrapped egg. it did produce some pretty cool effects, and we're still enjoying the eggs.

on monday morning, i began my trek across NC with a stop in durham during the day. i have been wanting to do some fun photography on my own (not for oakwood or the reflector) and a couple of the places i really wanted to photograph were duke chapel and duke gardens. so...i planned the beginning of my trip with a stop at both of these places. i will get to see duke chapel again soon when ashley and mark get married there in may, but it was awesome to have the opportunity to photograph the chapel while it was relatively empty.
after meeting my aunt for lunch at elmo's diner (yum!) i headed on over to duke gardens. i was able to spend nearly two hours in the gardens and had such a good time wandering around and stopping to photograph the landscape and some individual flowers. i've only chosen my favorites to put here, so please go to my flickr page to check out the rest.

after meeting ashley for a delicious dinner at cafe carolina, i headed on west to winston-salem where i would stay with matt and patrice for a couple of nights. patrice is in her seventh month and had not really taken any pictures since she got pregnant. i insisted that we take some, so after spending tuesday morning shopping for spring maternity clothes (no easy task, i learned) we went on out to tanglewood park (where baxter and maggie got married last may) and took some beautiful "belly" pictures. i have to say that these are some of my favorite pictures i've taken--ever--and i'm so happy with how they turned out. patrice was thrilled with them as well, and the rest of our evening was spent going through the pictures and including matt in a few.
so wednesday, we took it easy in the morning and i met maggie for lunch before i headed back to greenville. today, the majority of my morning and afternoon was spent out at ecu shooting for founder's day. i ran into several other photographers and reporters, did some networking and got some compliments on my goat shoot (linked on the last post if you missed it.) it felt great to be back on campus, even if it took forever to find a parking spot :) i'll add a link to the founder's day shoot when it's up on reflector.com
and tomorrow... it's yard work day. we're still desperately trying to grow grass in the bare patches, and we have two cubic yards of mulch in the driveway waiting to be spread on our front flower beds. fun times for us tomorrow.

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

easter in greenville

it's our first easter in greenville, since we were in fayetteville last weekend for the simmons' dessert drop-in. we've been extremely productive, getting a lot of yard work done (justin) and doing another fun photo shoot (me). i had a great time enhancing some of the photos with an antique finish that played up the light and the colors. be sure to notice those :)

spring break is finally here and i am so relieved to be able to relax for the next few days. i plan on heading over to winston-salem to visit patrice and maggie, and though i had talked about going to boone, i think i'm going to wait for the summer and some warmer weather. (we're going to kentucky for a wedding in august and the route will take us right near boone, so i'd rather try going then).

towards the end of the week, i'm scheduled to shoot founder's day over at ecu (one of my favorite school events!) and a mexican culture festival over the weekend. i like shooting these different events around greenville--and i'm liking the checks, too.

we have plans for easter lunch tomorrow after church and then...our annual dyeing of the eggs. should be a good time :)

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

auction is past, spring break is almost here...

so after weeks of preparation, we finally had our annual auction on friday night. pictures are up on reflector.com under their "scene around" button, but i added a few of my personal ones on flickr. the oakwoodettes were a huge hit again this year, and the marilyn monroe costumes, complete with blond wigs and feather boas, made our performance quite popular. though it was not a... broadway performance (many likened it to a drag show) it was terribly entertaining.


justin and i both enjoyed getting dressed up for the occasion. he had gotten a new suit last week in preparation for the three weddings we already have lined up for this summer, and this was his first chance to wear it. i had a little black dress that was just right for the "hollywood" themed event :)
and my photo package proved to be a big hit among the parents, too. i got a lot of questions about the work that i do and got to hand out a ton of business cards. in creating my display for the auction, i wanted to add in some baby portraits, so elizabeth (my intern) brought her 3 month old daughter by so i could take some quick shots. we only had about 5 good minutes to take photos, but they turned out well! i'm getting some great ideas for other baby portraits from browsing photos on flickr, and i can't wait to have some time to take more pictures soon!
in the meantime, we've got oakwood's family science night this thursday (i've been asked to take pics for the school) and a diabetes walk on saturday (job for the reflector). after that, we're heading to fayetteville for a baby shower, the always-fabulous simmons' dessert drop-in, and palm sunday at hay street. we're only two weeks away from spring break (woohoo!) and i've already made plans to head over to winston-salem for a couple of days to visit the very pregnant patrice (and matt, too, but he still has to work).

other than that... i'm just hanging on. i've got spring fever and honestly, summer can't get here fast enough. is that bad? that's just where i am right now...

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

been a little busy...

so it's been a crazy few weeks, and i can hardly believe it's already march. where has the time gone?

one of the reasons february has flown by has been the shear amount of work i've been doing. i reached the point where i realized that, despite how difficult it may be, i occasionally have to say no :) school has been very busy, with family fun night last week, administering some standardized tests, student art show, and all of the preparations for auction (which is this friday.) i've also been making an effort to offer some workshops for parents at school, and i have my first session on monday. below is a picture from the family fun night, where justin and i created "wanted poster" pictures for students and their families.
balancing all this with my work at the daily reflector and volunteering with the youth group has tough, because i've also been traveling a lot. two weekends ago, justin and i headed up to west virginia for our annual "winter" trip to west virginia. this is always the trip that makes me nervous, because there's always the possibility of snow and poor road conditions. however, we took a different route that took us through the southern part of WV and by the new river gorge bridge, an awesome structure. we stopped for pictures (of course) and enjoyed a fairly calm trip to west virginia without any major traffic snarls.

we were also able to get some skiing in at wisp resort in maryland, where the conditions were pretty good and not so unbearably cold like they were two years ago. we spent quality time with all of the family and grandparents and managed to squeeze in a lot for what was essentially only a two day visit (since travel time takes us about 10 hours).

this past week, i headed up to washington, d.c. with my 8th graders as a chaperone on their annual trip. we had four days in the city, and i loved being in a metropolitan area even just for a few days. we stayed in a hotel right inside the georgetown area, which had some great shops and restaurants. i got to see a ton of stuff that i hadn't seen before in d.c., including a white house tour, a visit to the senate, and a tour of the library of congress.

of course, no trip to d.c. would be complete without tracking down the steven colbert portrait in the national portrait gallery.


i was big on the architecture, so you might notice that most of my pictures on flickr are of the buildings and features of the monuments. there were just so many amazing things to capture, and i loved turning a street corner and finding another awesome building in front of me.one of my favorite shots came from the vietnam memorial on the mall.
all in all, a fabulous trip. i do love chaperoning and as long as i'm involved in a school setting, i hope to do more :)


that's all for now. be sure to check out the rest of my photos at the flickr link to the right!

my favorite freelance job so far...

The annual Girl Scouts "Favorite Guy" dance.

Check it out here

So cute it'll make you go "awww....."


oh, and my new, more "professional" website is now live :)

www.laurenthornphotography.com

super bowls, birthdays and lots of traveling

so it's been a crazy past few weeks, though they have also been tons of fun :)

we had a superbowl party at our house, where my "birthday" cake looked suspiciously like a football...
and though the girls had a great time playing guitar hero in the game room, our house was one of the many that experienced crazy outages in the coverage from the local fox station.

as promised, some pictures up from the concert that i went to with mom back in fayetteville a couple of weeks ago.

we celebrated my birthday here in greenville on saturday night with a nice dinner out and some quality time together at home. we've continued home improvements by buying and putting up new curtains in the living room and bedroom, and i spent an evening last night painting our living room furniture a nice, simple black that looks awesome and MUCH better than the fake yellow wood grain that it was before.

monday night, we headed back to fayetteville for a birthday celebration with my dad. we met him after work for dinner and then headed out to see "the producers" with the touring broadway show. it was hilarious--such a great performance--and worth the drive back to work in the morning :)

to finish this up, i've posted some of my personal photos. i've had a couple of slide shows up at reflector.com now, with two more shoots lined up for this weekend. but i'm trying to remember to take some fun photos, too.


and.... go UNC! beat duke!

quick post from fayetteville...

we're in fayetteville this weekend, celebrating my birthday a few days early with my mom and grandma. notes from this trip so far:

-fourth fridays make me proud to be from fayetteville. everyone there enjoys the downtown area, there are so many new shops and restaurants popping up all over the place, and you can simply enjoy the atmosphere as you browse, wine-taste, listen to music and have little snacks.

-as much as i love my nikon d-slr, i quickly came to the realization that it is not practical for all situations. hence, i am now a new owner of a sony cybershot w80, a tiny little 7 mp camera that easily fits in a pocket and does the job that my big, honkin' camera cannot. like...

-going to a concert tonight! mom's co-workers gave her tickets to the biggest concert fayetteville has seen in a long time: reba and kelly clarkson. she figured i would most enjoy attending the concert with her, so that's the plan for this evening following my birthday dinner at grandma's.

and it's a bye week for football, which makes me happy. i see the light at the end of the tunnel (justin also sees the light, but has a totally different perspective on it. what can i say? i'm just footballed out.)

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