what I love, my ode to weddings

Throughout my break I've been looking throughout different wedding websites and such because deep down within me it's one of my passions in life, not only the photography aspect of weddings but just seeing two people in love and making that beautiful commitment.  I discovered all sorts of beautiful pictures that I just think is so artistic and inspiring and helps me as maybe a "potential" artist get inspiration. don't worry i'm far from getting married... but This is my ode to weddings... love love love...

lighting is the essence of weddings! 

Invitations and such!

simplicity

I thought this was super clever, the bride made her groom a picture of all the things that she loved about her groom in words.

Love the hair!

love the colors!

loveee the shoes! 

I know this is simple but how can you not love the romantic and rustic feel it has! 

The grand finale... the dress I just absolutely love!! 

watching...

Do you ever feel like you are just stuck in one phase of your life and watching others get to experience the joys of the next phases of their lives?  I feel that way often, and lately I feel like I am just stuck watching and not being able to truly grasp the stage of life I'm in.   I need God to really guide my heart sometimes in being content where I am at and really seeing all the blessings I have in my life.   I find myself wishing to be at a different stage and I know that is not the best thing to do by wishing my life away. I feel like I just want to keep my heart busy so I won't feel disappointed.  It's a hard concept to fully grasp on my own and I felt like pouring these words out.

 I need to pray these things and make God the focus more than me.  Sometimes I want to be superwoman and just do it all on my own,  but lately God is showing me that alone I can't be happy and people can never fully satisfy love, it's God that fills the aches of humans and God who fills the wishes.  I just "wish" I could take that advice more often than I do...

Maybe it's the end of an intense stage in my life as far as volleyball or being in a low key setting right now, but I find myself a little sad at night and pondering what I should do to make things light up again for me.  It seems a new adventure is in need for my life... or maybe I need to embrace the stillness of life and maybe, just maybe, I'll hear the whisper of a powerful God trying to speak to me.

Photo I took in Albuquerque, NM  finding God's stillness 

Free time pictures...

I've been looking over some of my old pictures and picked some of my favorite from my very attractive boyfriend.. I keep wanting to get more photo shoots under my belt and  I might ask him to pose again  :-)

Colorado Time

I've been thoroughly enjoying my time in Colorado and Christmas has come and gone once again. I still have another Christmas to celebrate with my sister and brother n law coming up on New Years eve so it's not quite time to wish away the Christmas holiday quite yet. I had a mini Christmas with my wonderful parents and got some amazing new things for my camera, a new blender, and some other fun things. It was fun feeling like a kid again! Christmas eve church service was equally wonderful and so awe inspiring to believe in the real reason for Christmas, which was indeed JESUS!

It's been quite a different Christmas having a quiet time with just me mom dad and grandma, and I've spent many hours catching my body up on rest and relaxation as well as reading! I can't wait to have it busy again with my sister though, and I miss Lloyd immensely and the sad thing is he lost his phone and there is no way to communicate consistently.  I'm one for constant communication so this might be a longer Christmas break for me in that sense. Missing my I love you and good night messages by the day.

Well in my free time I have taken a few pictures around my house and quite enjoy the new equipment I have. This is a random assortment of pictures.

Not the white Christmas I had expected for Colorado 

The bench on our front porch 

Christmas decor, if you look closely you might see me...

Gotta love being at home sweet home

View outside my window

the Sun was just blazing

yes rocks... but they might be deemed beautiful rocks! :-)

More pictures....

So I think I've finally come to believe that I LOVE taking pictures of people.  I just wanted to share some more pictures of my future nephew.... I secretly love saying that. So here are some more of my gorgeous subjects and their baby.  These ones I created just in black and white and I like how they turned out!

Back in Colorado!

Well it's been a lovely Christmas break so far. It started back in New Mexico where I stayed with the Merino family for a couple days before heading off to Colorado. I had a nice time and enjoyed game nights, Christmas gifts, good food, and of course just being with Lloyd.  Lloyd and I did our own exchanging of gifts and I got him some nice stretchy bike pants so he can look like a professional riding his bike. And he got me something I just absolutely love~ a diamond heart necklace.  He is so sweet to me and I loved it! So Christmas definitely got started off right seeing how I already got what I wanted.


Well then the festivities included Jades graduation party and I could hardly hold back tears saying good bye to Jade.  She has been in every one of my classes this semester, on my volleyball team, senior and captain with me, as well as just being one of my best friends.  I will miss her dearly and just love her! She is headed off to Tuscon to join the real world as they call it.  But I love my Jade!

Jade and I at her Graduation party. 

Now I am back in Colorado and missing my friends, but totally happy to be with my family for some time. I got to attend a dinner party at my aunt and uncles to celebrate my uncle and little cousin's birthday.  We ate Chicago style pizza and played the fun game of "Things"... and it was quite enjoyable.  Then we watched the Jim Carey version of the Christmas carol and while it was close to the book and a good movie, I just didn't like it as much and totally love my Muppet Christmas Carol WAY better.  My sister and brother in love are going to be leaving for Texas today so I am off to just have a nice quiet little Christmas till they get back and we can celebrate on New Years Eve.  They are officially enjoying their first Christmas were they had to adjust to both families. It will be quite the time when I have to adjust my schedule as well.  But for now I will enjoy my simplicity as it comes.

Yesterday my mom and I battled the huge wind of Colorado trying to do some last minute Christmas shopping for my dad.  We got him some cool little things I think he will enjoy.  But we enjoyed a nice Einsteins bagel and some coffee then got some presents for Lloyd and his mom (which they are going to love) and then raced around Colorado Springs searching for little things.  I do love mindless days of shopping with my mom, it's some of the greatest times.

Well now I must remove from my bed even though that's the last thing I would like to do today but the world of Colorado Springs awaits.

Christmas spirit

So recently Lloyd and I got the opportunity to go to WAKE which is a wonderful church group for college kids here in Albuquerque and it was awesome.  They spoke on worship and just really get me excited that I love God.  They are having a holiday party this Thursday, Merry Christmas!!!

Well the team party went really well and it was fun I was glad to see the girls from a long drought of nearly 3 or 4 days.  The costumes were great! Here Ashley is scrooge, Jade is her starbucks cup and I turned my costume into a Christmas Toy Soldier!
There was good food, a few laughs at the Secret Santa's then we all went back to study hard for our exams or just to relax. 

Lloyd and I worked out last night at a local YMCA.  We went there thinking that we could somehow get me on the guest pass list even though I had no form of identification because I forgot my wallet, Lloyd didn't know if he had guest passes, and we had no money... sooo we were going to try to pull all of the Christmas Spirit from the YMCA that they had.  WEll turns out Lloyd had no guest passes, but this lady who was just chatting with the receptionist said that she had extra guest passes and gave me one!! What a great Christmas gift for me! I love when random acts of kindness can just be a little miracle for the day! So we indeed worked out and now my body is wishing that I hadn't.... ow ow ow

Christmas Party's begin.. fa la la la la

Well the brunt of my finals week is coming down I'm just left with my roughly 15 page paper on leadership, then I'm crossing my fingers for my A's, and slowly but surely I am starting to feel alittle better.  I'm getting anxious to go home and I am ready to celebrate the holiday season with my family.  But tonight I get to be in the Christmas spirit with my UNM team and we get to celebrate at our Coach's house.  We always have a costume theme and the coaches never know about it until we arrive.  This year we are dressing up as a Christmas decor item or basically anything to do with Christmas.  One person is going as a luminaria lantern thing, then someon'es going as a starbucks cup, and I decided to go as a nutcracker! So some how I am going to look like this by the end of the evening... we will see how that goes.  We also do secret Santa gifts and basically they are gifts that make fun of our teammates and so we will have to choke down our pride and receive our gifts that can get pretty mean with a Christmas smile...   

Well one thing that I was able to do was to take pictures for my for my future nephew... hopefully... William.  This is Lloyd's sister's baby.  He was so cute during the whole photoshoot.  A little fussy and he definitely peed all over me luckily missing the camera, but it was quite an adventure all of it's own.  So here are some of the pictures we got throughout the day. They are becoming quite the good looking family!



Oh how it's hard being sick...

Well finals week for me is finally here and guess what?!?! I'm sick too... what are the odds that, that would be what happens to me!! haha oh man oh man I've been stressed and I've been alittle cranky just trying to finish up everything and make things work while my body is pulling me in the completely opposite direction.  But one more presentation tomorrow on market strategy and I will be good to go.  Then it's only a few short days till I can spend some quality time in Colorado and enjoy the Christmas spirit that is all around me, but I am too busy to even notice.  So it's time to suck it up, pound down the OJ and hot tea and keep trekking through the week!

I had an interesting experience cleaning out my volleyball locker of 4 years at UNM just the other day.  It is just weird how you just get kicked out of every aspect and people move on in and soon your name is just another name on the books.  It's going to be quite the adventure that is coming up, trying to figure out what I want to do next.  Half of me just wants to jet off to the middle of nowhere and just get away from everything for awhile and the other half just wants to stay where I am comfortable... but when does God ever seem to like the comfortable choice.. so we will see where we end up! I'm just glad He can hold my hand through anything. I think I can be very trusting in that way, but I'm sure there will be some testing along the way.

I have to start my Christmas shopping soon.  I am alittle behind this year and it seems that it always manages to get to the bottom of my to do list. Maybe once school is done I can focus alittle more on this task... maybe I'll drag Lloyd out for a Christmas shopping extravaganza and make him hold my shopping bags... just kidding dear, I love you! 

Well I'm off to get some sleep before presentation day.... hopefully my stuffy nose snoring and wheezy won't keep everyone in the world awake, oh boy do I sound attractive! So to all a good night....!

My own Eat Pray Love

     Well finally I can now say my college career in volleyball is now complete.  Was it a night to remember and everyone of my teammates was supportive and thankful... no, was it a perfect game and everything went right and I played amazing, not quite, but in the end I really got to learn who my true friends were that came out of this team and who I am so blessed to have met.  I got some amazing experiences along the way and some amazing volleyball highlights for the year.  I have pushed myself into a position where I was uncomfortable and where people were not always the nicest and out of that came a new strength and confidence that I can accomplish anything.  It's not the volleyball I will miss the most, because honestly I will probably still be playing it in another year or so its not that, but rather the atmosphere to play in and certain girls who just are amazing to be around. I also got a comfort out of this strange city called Albuquerque, and it completely feels like home, even though I'm soooooo ready to move out of my house and into a new life and new change.  It is time.  But all these things have just made for an amazing experience that I have been pursuing since I was 10. 

So what to do next.......

Well finishing out the semester with good strong finishes is certainly on my list, christmas shopping, and some quality celebration time for completing such an accomplishment.  Also I'm in some dire need of some cute dates with my man Lloyd and some nights just to catch up on our lives together.  So it's not grand scheme plans I have right now to go travel the world and drop everything but rather eat some good food on some sweet dates, pray and worship God at church and in life, and love my friends and family during the holiday season... i'd call it my own version of Eat, Pray, Love....

2010 Lobo Volleyball Seniors- video

It Has Arrived....

Now it is officially time to start being excited about the holidays.  I can't wait! Thanksgiving always just seems to fly by and Christmas will be right around the corner before we know it! I got to celebrate my thanksgiving with my boyfriends family and it was a very good time.  We had an amazing meal courtesy of Laura Merino and I instantly was put into a food coma and that was even before dessert! yum! It's been alittle while since I've had a homecooked thanksgiving due to our volleyball team being out of town everyother Thanksgiving! Last year was New Orleans, and two years ago it was Vegas.  Oh the travels a volleyball team will take you on. 

Well now that Thanksgiving is officially over I can 1. listen to Christmas music, but 2. It's my Senior Night Game! I can't believe the road I have been on and now it is almost finally over.  I came into UNM just hoping to play a few games in college and I have been so blessed with the amount God has given me.  I hope tonight is a special night and that I just remember to soak it all in.  It's hard when the end is so close and trying to hold onto those moments is where it gets difficult.  But my family is in town, my boyfriend and his family are all here, and the loyal fans that have just been an amazing group are going to be there as well.  So let's go lobos, one more time!

love love love

SENIOR NIGHT AND THANKSGIVING

Boy! Life is certainly getting quite busy with school, volleyball, and just life! I am getting ready for my last home match of the year at Johnson Center and I already had a little emotional time saying goodbye to my weights coach Joaquin! He is a very manly guy and he was in tears as we all said our goodbyes which was so touching.  I am so thankful for him and what he was able to do with my toothpick arms and legs when I came in as a freshman! :-) But personally now I am looking forward to not bulking up doing max squats and cleans but maybe slimming down haha!

Freshman year =tan legs
Senior year= white, pastey legs
oh the changes haha

But we have another day off on this wonderful Tuesday and I am spending it working on group projects, group projects, and oh group projects!!  But Recently I was able to give a photo shoot for my team mate and one of my best friends Jade Michaelsen Whom I love!!! She had me take her graduation pictures for her and I absolutely love photographing people and people in love :-) so weddings, engagments, portraits, etc! Here is some of the work I created in our little photoshoot:







































I love her and her gorgeous face was so fun to photograph! Soon I am going to photograph potentially my future nephew :-) and his cute face! :-) But I can't wait!

Well until some more updates!