What a Beautiful Belly!

This past weekend I had the wonderful pleasure of taking maternity pictures for my beautiful friends Courtney and Asher. What a joy! They were such troopers to meet up with me again, as this was the second time I had taken pictures for them, since I managed to delete the first set...UGH!

We had such a fun time enjoying the beautiful sunshine in the park. And little did they know, I had a small surprise waiting for them. I had two photo shoots Saturday morning and during the first, a little yellow duckling came out of nowhere and followed me and the family around for over an hour. Being the tender-hearted person I am, I couldn't leave it there by itself, so I took it with me to Courtney & Asher's shoot and planned to take it home. Fortunately, Asher is a duck hunter and was willing to provide a home for it until it was old enough to be released back into the wild. And can I just say...having a fluffy yellow duckling in your maternity pictures is priceless! Here are just a few pictures of the beautiful couple. They are going to be such amazing parents to their little girl.

You're how old???

I've had an interesting revelation lately...I'm getting older. It's not that I've been ignoring my birthdays for the past decade. Or the laugh lines and wrinkles that keep popping up all over my face. It's just that I'm still in the same stage of life and not much has changed so I forget that the rest of the world is moving on around me.

I've come to this staggering conclusion several times over the past few months. The first was when I ran into one of the children I was a nanny for when I first moved to Dallas. Sarah Catherine was only 11 years old when I first met her. She was this tiny little girl who had big innocent eyes and was trying to find her way in this big world and live up to her big name. When I ran into her at the restaurant I was working for a few months ago, I was speechless. She is now this grown woman who is a freshman at Vanderbilt and has all the confidence in the world. Where did the time go? Oh yeah, that was 10 years ago...

Then I had lunch with an old co-worker yesterday whose daughter I used to babysit. He was telling me she is about to graduate from high school and go off to Baylor. Sic'em Bears! But seriously...she's graduating? Even the kids I grew up babysitting back in East Texas are all married and having kids now. And my nephew is about to turn five. 5!!!!! That just doesn't seem possible. I still remember going to visit him in the NICU every day for the first month of his life. And look at him now...

All of this "growing up" around me has made me wonder if I need to grow up a little more. I am a firm believer in being a child at heart and knowing how to have fun (even as an adult). But perhaps now that I'm in my 30's, I may need to stop wearing my "Kiss Me I'm Irish" t-shirts and act my age. :) After all, I am starting to look it!

Shaking things up a bit...

One thing I have discovered about life is that CHANGE is inevitable. And I'm pretty sure I am one of the few people who actually like it. Whether it's moving to a new town, buying a new home, getting a new haircut, or starting a new job (which is the case for me), I always look forward to it. It's a chance to start over fresh, meet new people, and experience new things.

Just a month ago, I would have told you that my plans were to move to East Texas at the end of this year and try to buy a house so I could be closer to my family. Being in Dallas, even though it's only two hours away, has been so hard on me over the past few years. Not that I didn't miss my mom and dad and brother and sister-in-law before now, but I feel like I'm missing out on the precious childhood years of my nephew and niece. So, I had planned to move home. And then...

I found out about a position that opened up at the Hunt Oil Company here in Dallas. The pay was substantially more than I was currently making and the company is known to be one of the best around. So, I decided to take a chance and interview with them. Initially I went into it thinking that it would be a good change for me and that I could stay in Dallas another year or two and then move home. Which may still be the case. However, this change has been one for the books. I have never worked for a company that values their employees as much as Hunt. Not only do they stand for family values, honesty and integrity, but they encourage the employees to stay physically fit and volunteer on a regular basis. The two weeks I've worked so far have been incredibly refreshing! And I'm pretty sure they pump happy gas into this place. I wake up tired and grumpy, but as soon as I walk into this place, voila...life is good! :)

I still miss my family and find myself wanting to go home every weekend to see what I'm missing and just enjoy some down time. But for now, I'll be content to stay where God has placed me, enjoy meeting these fascinating new people, and enjoy the ride. Who knows? Maybe my Mr. Right is hiding somewhere in this 14-story building.