Camping with the Guys

Had a fun weekend out camping with the guys Friday night through last night. I was outside of cell phone coverage, though, and when I got back in coverage, I had no messages, so it made me wonder if callers were getting an error message rather than my normal outgoing voice mail message. If you got a strange message, let me know!

I'm sore today from riding dirt bikes and 4-wheelers. It's quite a workout! I didn't bring my own, but as people got hurt, they would let me ride their bikes. I got to take turns riding four or five different bikes and it was actually a lot of fun. I didn't get half the reading done I thought I would since we were camping right in the middle of the park and bikes and 4-wheelers were constantly whizzing by us, so it wasn't really restful at all. Oh well, it was an experience and fun to be hanging out with all the guys. It really was a great group and a lot of them I hadn't seen in several years since back before we got married.

Welp, it's time to get caught up on everything, so I gotta scoot. Hope everyone's doing well...

New Website for Prints Charming Photography

Well, we've finally done it! Our old, yet functional website has been retired and a slick new one is here! We're so excited!! We'd love to hear what you think of it. Check it out and drop us a comment whenever you have time.

Here's a screenshot of the welcome page as it looks now:

From this page, you can select either to go to our blog, the flash site or an html version for users with slower internet speeds.

Here's a screenshot of the main page in the flash site. It's a slideshow, so you can just sit there and watch it flip through a dozen or so pictures from recent sessions while listening to several great tunes.


There are a few more things that we need to do on it, like updating the galleries with more photos, etc. We need to create a few new galleries, too, with bridal portraits, weddings and commercial photography. It would be easier to get this done if we weren't so busy with senior photography right now, but it's too exciting to ignore altogether. =) Besides, we may be this busy for months and we just can't put it off indefinitely. We figured as it is, it's already better than our old site, so we might as well go live with it and continue to update and improve it as we go along.

As we add new pictures from our newest photo sessions, we'll replace the older photos, so the site will be kept up to date and be constantly changing and improving. That's the plan, at least!

We've been as busy as ever with photography and plans to make that our full-time business. It's been an overwhelming stage of life for me with so many responsibilities and really huge decisions at ever bend and I've been struggling through it for a couple of months, now. After a really encouraging talk with my Dad yesterday, he shared how he dealt with the same feelings after marrying Mom and inheriting three little kiddos (Sean, Dana and me). I'm all about living without regrets and something he said really struck me. He said that he regretted letting the anxieties and worries of the day steal his joy during those first difficult months or years after getting saddled with so much. Wow... Yeah, I can totally see that just for the past couple of months in my life. I've been so overwhelmed and anxious that it's weighed me down and I've been frustrated and burdened to the point that I haven't enjoyed life.

No more! Dad said that if he could do it over, he'd remind himself every day and as often as necessary that we have a loving heavenly Father who is out to bless us however He can and that things will work out! What a huge blessing and relief!! I can feel a really major difference already in my life and I'm sure those around me can feel it, too. One of the biggest bummers about being anxious, worried and overwhelmed is that it affects those we love the most. And that only serves to make us feel even worse about the entire thing. What a vicious cycle.

I'm really thanking God for His love today and for the many blessings we do have. I'll just do what I can and leave off the worrying. God is in control and if I, being a selfish, earthly father want the best for my kids, I can only begin to imagine how God loves us as His children and wants the best for us.

Dry Cleaning

Did you know you shouldn't leave your dry-cleaning in the plastic they come draped in? Yep... if you leave that plastic on your clothes for any length of time, they will yellow. Something in the plastic causes it.

With Storie being born not too long ago, I hadn't been by the dry cleaners to pick up several shirts I had there. They called over the weekend to let us know it had been a month and Holly was concerned that they'd give away my shirts if I didn't pick them up soon. Yep, they do that, but only after 6 months, so the shirts were safe.

Just thought you might like to know. =)

I think I'm going to try switching to decaf slowly. I started today with 1/2 regular-1/2 decaf vente house blend coffee. I'm hoping maybe the switch will help me to deal with pressure and stress a bit better. I know regular coffee can rob you of vitamin B which helps deal with stress, and I need every bit of B I can get. =) So, that's the plan. We can still do coffee, but I'm sipping decaf, at least for a while.

Need to get cracking on taxes or I'm going to have to file for an extension... Just one more thing to do ASAP.

I got the front struts replaced on the Toyota today (after 140k miles, I guess they were ready) and it feels like a new car. Amazing how struts make a difference. It was getting noisier and rougher for the last several hundred miles and I didn't really notice until last week when a clunking noise developed. Now I have to get it aligned... Good thing we have the Firestone lifetime alignment deal!

Oh, and I had the oil changed yesterday and I put some Lucas fuel injector cleaner/upper engine cleaner in it. Man, that stuff really is amazing. I could tell a difference after just about 50 miles. Starts up quicker and just seems to run smoother. It's nice to find products that actually work as expected.

I've been really overwhelmed recently with all I had to do, but I've been looking at everything all at once instead of just one thing at a time. So, I'm trying to focus on what God would have me do just right now to get through the craziness of life at this stage. Today's already been a better day just because of that. I've always heard that God never gives you more than you can deal with, but when you're in the middle of it, sayings like that don't really help much. I've heard life is continually lived between three stages, like a vine: growing, fruit-bearing and pruning. I guess we're in a pruning stage right now and it kinda helps having that in mind as I continue to face challenges and frustrations during this stage of life.

Well, that's all for now. Catch you over coffee again soon, hopefully. Maybe after I catch up on about 30 or 40 more things...

Napping for Peak Performance

Having a newborn around the house (well, she's 10 weeks old now) has once again reminded me of the restorative power of a good nap. When I saw today's "Weekend Reading" article from David Schlosser on the subject (a reprint from the original Men's Journal article, Jan. '06) I was interested to read it.

Here's a link to the article, if you're interested. They give tips on why and how to nap, but I needed neither of those questions answered. =) I was most interested in the "How long?" for the most effective nap. Here's the summary from the article...

How Long Is A Good Nap?
THE NANO-NAP: 10 to 20 seconds Sleep studies haven't yet concluded whether there are benefits to these brief intervals, like when you nod off on someone's shoulder on the train.
THE MICRO-NAP: two to five minutes Shown to be surprisingly effective at shedding sleepiness.
THE MINI-NAP: five to 20 minutes Increases alertness, stamina, motor learning, and motor performance.
THE ORIGINAL POWER NAP: 20 minutesIncludes the benefits of the micro and the mini, but additionally improves muscle memory and clears the brain of useless built-up information, which helps with long-term memory (remembering facts, events, and names).
THE LAZY MAN'S NAP: 50 to 90 minutesIncludes slow-wave plus REM sleep; good for improving perceptual processing; also when the system is flooded with human growth hormone, great for repairing bones and muscles.

Pretty interesting... That gave me an idea. Someone should develop an eyeshade for napping that measures your eye movements to tell exactly how long you've been napping. You could set a timer on them and you'd be awaken after the proper amount of napping. Without something like that, you'd never really know when you'd fallen asleep and how long you'd been napping. Royalties accepted made payable to Christian Sangree... Thanks!

On a side note, it's snowing in Oklahoma as I type. Crazy weather. Gotta run cover all the plants that we planted 3 weeks ago and that are blooming nicely.

Google's Offering Free Internet

If you haven't noticed, Google's offering free internet on their classic web search page. It's hard to miss since there's usually nothing on the page but a field for entering search string data. As of right now, it says:

New! Get FREE breakthrough broadband with Google TiSP (BETA).

If they still have it up, check it out... It's a great article and amazing technology. Click on the "How TiSP Works" link and check out their great diagrams, etc.



If you don't have time to do all that, basically, they're offering free internet through city sewer systems. They provide you a model and a long cable to flush down your toilet to waiting technicians.

I wonder what those technicians did to get put on TiSP duty. Bummer of a job...

=)