Oh hi. It's me. Y'all still there?

Sorry for all the silence lately, y'all.
There's just been SO MUCH going on in my life right now. Most of it overwhelming. Some sad. Sprinkled with a little good. The last couple of weeks, I felt like I had a million deadlines, my house was a wreck, Noah's sleep is a constant battle, and I had no plans for my 30th birthday. One of those milestone birthdays, right? Yeah, I was blank on what to do.

Frankly, it all just left me in a funk. I had lost all motivation and inspiration. But I took a break and am feeling a tad better now.

***

I feel bad leaving everyone hanging with the whole OT debacle. I did finally speak to her, and she was super receptive. In fact, she was almost appreciative that I brought some of Noah's own toys for her to use. And I realized how little these therapists are actually informed about their kids (at least in this area). I also think she's fairly new to this role, and to have a non-verbal, sensory-seeking toddler just threw her off.

Anyways, it's better now.

***

I've also been hired to photograph my very first wedding. It's in less than two weeks, and I'm teetering on the line between total excitement... and fall-on-the-floor fear. I was completely up front with her about my experience (or lack thereof), so she's been fully informed. It's an amazing opportunity for me, and I'm so so honored she insisted I do her wedding. Had she wanted me because she thought I'd be cheap? Then no way. But she saw my work before she ever talked to me or looked at prices, so according to her, she was sold before she ever contacted me. Do you have any idea how awesome that made me feel?? Biggest. Compliment. EVER.

The good news is that Brad will be going with me, so I won't be totally alone. I've been spending every free moment studying and practicing. And praying. Lots and lots of praying. haha.

So while this is GREAT stuff, it's still totally overwhelming me and stressing me out. I go to bed and dream about photography and weddings. It's ridiculous.

***

I'm not sure if y'all watch much news, at least the national news. But last week, the grandson of a family friend went missing. The family is from Charlotte, but he's a grad student in Boston. His grandfather used to be our worship leader at church (and ironically, when I started going to a church closer to home, that worship leader studied music under Dr Dailey... small world, huh?).

 via

After days of searching, they finally found him in a river. The whole thing is still shrouded in mystery. It's been so heartbreaking, and although I didn't know Jonathan Dailey personally, it's such a tragic scenario, and I've just been so sad for his family. They're taking solace in the fact that he's a believer, so the promise of being with him again is there. But it's still just so awful. To read more about the case, go here.

There are a few other bits of sad news that I won't go into (nothing that personally affects me or my family though, so no worries, we're fine). But there just seems to be a lot of heartbreak going on lately.

***

Combine all of this with regular life stuff, and basically, I was in an all around funk. Anything I attempted to write (and did write) came out as whiney and blah.
So I've been keeping quiet.

However, we did manage to get ourselves to the beach for the last half of the week last week. And somehow, the funk followed us there. It wasn't ALL bad, obviously. And most of it is pretty comical, now that we look back on it. But in the moment? Yeah, it pretty much sucked there for a while. More later.

See? I'm doing it again. Just talking about being in a funk brings out the funk in my writing.

So we'll end this on a positive note.

It's finally cool enough to wear jeans!

And we're pretty excited about it.

I love my baby in Fall clothes.

Here's to a much better week.

Last week in my 20's? Think I'll spend it being happy, thankyouverymuch.

Happy Monday!