Hey friends! I've been wanting to write an updated post for such a long time but things have just been so crazy. Tonight I decided to buckle down and do it! :)
SO, since I've last written I've had a big change in the business! I've recently found a new location for my studio and have already renovated and moved! What a big decision this was. There are so many reasons we decided to do this but we were being patient and waiting for God's timing and the door that He had to open. Well after calling around to a few places and realizing rental prices in Kirksville are INSANE for a small business to still make any profit after paying rent, we found one place that was perfect. One with large windows and a large open front room and back room for storage. We didn't get a call back for about a week from them so we wondered if it wasn't going to be a possibility, but we were just being patient and waiting until God told us what step to take. When the landlords called the next week, they told us they were on vacation in Mexico. After we talked to them and negotiated a price, the ball rolled quickly. I got the keys on my birthday (the 1st of April) and started doing what we could right away. The place needed some help. We put a fresh coat of paint on the scuffed up walls, shampooed, sprayed, scrubbed and shampooed again the set in stains on the carpet (which unfortunately are still there for the most part after trying so hard), hung the curtains, hung the pictures, purchased and moved in new furniture and with the help of Tim Owen, my dad and mom, Morgan and Kyle and Justin's dad, we moved pretty much our entire basement (studio and props which took up our whole basement) into a box trailer and transported it to the new location in one trip! It went pretty quick with all of that help! Also a huge thank you again to my parents, husband, my sister (we painted the whole place!), Matt, and Justin's mom Becky for helping so much on the studio! It was such a blessing having you all help clean and set the place up along with moving things so easily. Also, HUGE thank you to my cousin Rachel for making and putting up my official door sign/sticker! It looks so amazing! I have before and after pictures of everything to share.
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| Choosing the paint color... |
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| Dad teaching the girls how to "mud" |
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| Before the paint! |
It looks even better now that it's all finished! You just have to see it in person :)
So, the main reason we moved the studio were number one: I needed more space. My basement studio was such a blessing and worked out so well for me. But it was getting a little small when large groups or kids would come in. Also when we had our daughter we were just hoping to make our home just a home. To separate the business and home life somewhat. Lots of people coming in and out all of the time made it hard for us to just "be" sometimes. Always had to make sure everything was clean, which days people were going to be there so I could do my laundry (studio bathroom and laundry room were the same room), and I just wanted to upgrade the place to look a little more professional. I also wanted a place where I could start doing more natural light photos. So nice for newborns especially and their skin tones. With being in business coming up on 6 years, I was just ready to make the change. A little nerve wracking taking on the extra expense. I had/have so many worries about "what if the business doesn't make it" etc., etc. But I know God brought me to this for a reason and He has a plan for it. All I can do is walk through and trust :)
Last time I wrote I didn't write much on what happened with Justin's job at US Cellular because we were waiting for some things to pan out, and although I still don't want to get into it, I just have to say how proud of my husband I am. He seriously put up with the worst of the worst. Whether it be the management, the angry customers or the brutal hours I have no idea how he survived and stayed positive. He left with dignity and I'm so proud of him. He truly worked for the Lord and stuck by his morals and values and because he stuck to those things and didn't sell people things they didn't need or could afford, the door closed. But that's okay because God had other plans. Sometimes we just have to trust through our circumstances and know that God knows best and even without a job for 3 weeks and no income, God allowed Justin to have rest during that time and for us to start having family time for the first time since Quinn was born. We didn't really know what we were going to do at the time, but with some patience and a TON of prayer God opened up a clear door for us. Justin now works for Pro-tech as a salesman in his hometown area Monday through Friday 8-5. No constant calls and texts from customers or bosses. No random meetings. No late hours. He can come home and immediately shut off from work. No stress every month whether he's going to sell enough to have a job at the end of the month. It seriously was a rough road but God knows best and He always does.
Speaking of all of that. There is something I've wanted to blog about for quite awhile. Going through my "Jesus Calling" devotional I've learned a lot about trusting God and how He knows what's set before us and we don't. I was talking to Justin about what I thought of to visualize this and maybe it will help some of you to see it this way. Okay so bear with me. Imagine a maze. This maze is life. We are on ground level going through the maze. We come up on turns and sometimes don't know whether to go left or right. God can see from up above. He knows where every turn is and what the end looks like. He knows how to get us there because he can SEE all of it from where He is. He designed it. Why do we fight so hard sometimes for us to let Him guide us? He's the only one that knows what it looks like and what turn we need to make to get us to the end. Now if we trust Him and let Him lead us, we will always end up in a better place. Sometimes we may trust our own instincts and go the other way. Even after we take a wrong turn, God can still use that turn and get us back on the path another way. We just have to let Him lead us. And if I think of this scenario in my head, it all makes a lot more sense to me. Maybe it doesn't to you and I'm just crazy :) Thanks for reading it anyway, ha!
Well, onto our little pumpkin. She is growing like a weed, guys! Within the last two weeks she took off crawling, stands to EVERYTHING all the time, and talks all of the time. She says "dada", "hi", and "yay" (along with clapping with that). She LOVES to be outside and loves to watch cars go by. (grandpa's girl!). She's 9.5 months almost and at her last doctor appt. she was 20.4 lbs and 1ft. 8in. long. She's in 9-12 month clothes. She can always wear smaller shirts than pants. My girl has a booty and some chunky legs and I absolutely love it. Also at her doctor appt they had to poke her finger for a blood sample. I'm deathly afraid of needles but I had to hold her and I turned my head and they had already poked her and I didn't even know because she didn't even flinch or cry. This girl is one tough cookie. She bumps her head more times than I can count in a day and never cries about it. She loves the dog and he hates her. He's scared to death of her, poor guy.
She has 5 teeth now with a 6th on the way. She got her fifth one last week and boy that one was really rough for some reason! Thursday was a rough rough day on both of us. In the midst of trying to get my work done, Quinn kept pulling up to our coffee table and hitting her chin, or pulling up to the couch and falling and hitting the back of her head on the coffee table. Then all afternoon she screamed and cried and there was nothing I could do to help. I thought she was getting sick. I eventually got so distraught that I personally took the glass out of the coffee table and drug our HUGE and HEAVY coffee table down the stairs and sat it on the porch. My poor husband came home to seeing our table outside of the door and a baby screaming inside with me sitting on the couch bawling my eyes out. He took her for a walk, needless to say. Boy, that was one rough day. That night didn't get any better. She was up at midnight and I had to rock her back to sleep and then again at 3 for quite awhile. She kept us up almost all night. I think we only got a couple hours of sleep which is so unlike her because she's normally a 7-7 sleeper. The next day I had five sessions. It really is amazing how much sleep affects what you do. I got lost on my way to my first session. I got through the second one pretty well. But then came the third one. I had a chance to lay down on my couch in my storage area and took advantage of laying down for about 20 minutes. The alarm went off, I grabbed a couple of props and off I went to the lake to meet my clients. Met them, had them follow me to the spot I wanted to start. Stopped. Looked over into my passenger seat only to have my heart drop. No camera. NO CAMERA. This was a first. Oh my gosh I was so embarrassed. Even more so that it was a one year shoot so we were dependent on the baby's mood to get good pictures. I flew back to town having my husband grab my camera and meet me wherever he could and flew back to the lake. I remembered my camera for my last session at least. What a day that was. Saturday I noticed that Quinn had a tooth come through. That explained the Thursday meltdown madness. I was so glad she wasn't sick. She's never had a tooth bother her as badly as that one. Luckily that bad boy broke through and she's back to her happy self!
Thanks for checking in on our life lately. I'm sure there are many more things I could write about but I'll just end with some pictures for you :)
Have a blessed week!
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| She has my heart. |
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| New bright pink pedi! |
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| The faces this kid makes! |
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| First actual bow in her hair! |
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| Enjoying our evening at the lake |
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| Picnic with my loves |
