can you see Him here?

i wish i had pictures for this post.

because i don't think you'd get the best picture if even a decent writer (above my skill) was writing this post. sometimes, you just need a picture (and that's not just the business woman in me talking..). but if you've been anywhere in oklahoma these past few days, you most likely encountered snow. as you saw from my 'white Christmas eve' post, we had a very white Christmas (14.1 inches to be exact, which is at least a 10 year record in oklahoma!). so what that meant for my drive to work Christmas morning was double the travel time, 2 changes in route each way, and a guardian angel. i say an angel because i got stuck in the snow on my way to work friday morning. there were 3 cars and a semi, all abandoned, in the middle of an intersection i needed to make a right turn at. i decided to try to take the inside path to make the turn, but as soon as i started that way, i realized there was no way i'd make it. i didn't think at that time to have my brights on, so it wasn't until it was too late that i realized it was the wrong path. i panicked and tried to bail, which landed me straight into a pile of deep snow (granted, i was still in the middle of the road..). there was a car behind me that i tried to wave on so that i would have more room to try to get myself out of the mess i got myself into. i was curious as to why he sat there for a moment, and then surprised when he got out to help me. his first words, "i knew that wasn't going to work", he had the foresight i didn't. but instead of just using his muscle to get me out, he gave me guiding words in how to work my car to properly get me un-stuck. "don't let the wheels spin!" he said, knowing that would only get me deeper. as he pushed my car, and i pushed the gas, we safely got my car on the road again, and i knew i could stop for anything at that moment, even the red light. i can relate this whole experience with God as follows:

1. i didn't see the path ahead me, mostly because i wasn't utilizing my equipment to it's best ability (say, brights). God knows what's down any path and he has well equiped me for the journey, as long as i put my resources to use (the bible, church, Holy Spirit...).

2. when i did figure out it was wrong, i made a quick decision and tried to get out of the path as soon as possible, but a rash decision will sometimes take us from a bad situation to a worse situation.

3. when i was in trouble, i tried to wave by my help, instead of seeking it. this is done many of times when we think we can take God's work into our own hands.

4. just as the man gave me hands-on help, he also helped me with his guiding words. we can sometimes see God's physical intervention in our problem, but let us not forget to listen to His guiding words.

5. my own efforts of spinning the wheels would only have got me deeper and deeper into the snow. sometimes, we spin our wheels trying to fix a problem on our own, when a helping hand is really what we need.

6. with the man's efforts, and mine working together, we easily got the car moving. the combined power of God and God's will in us can make even a difficult task possible.

7. just like i didn't stop at the stoplight.. when your on the right path, don't let anything in this world stop you!

you may not agree with the way i interpreted the above scenario. but for me, it's comforting to know God's ability to help the feeble. it was only on my way home from work today that i really started thinking about God's presence in our "winter blizzard '09". all over facebook, people were hatin' on those who wished for a white Christmas (as if they had any control). but yet, all over town, there were stories of good Samaritans picking up stranded strangers. my boss told us today that she spent a lot of her 5 hour wait while stranded in the car, praying. plans to go and go, see and see, were halted as families were stranded inside and forced to slow down. you can't tell me that God didn't enjoy this. to see the good come out of His children, to hear their voices, and spend time with them as we celebrate His son, His sacrifice's, birth.

so that's my take on our white Christmas. i hope that this finds you all safe, happy, and praising our good Lord. as i finish this post, i'm listing to the new nora jones cd that my husband got me for christmas, and i am all of the above.. safe, happy, and praising our good Lord!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all!

a white Christmas eve

iii'm dreaming of a whiiiite Christmas! wait, this is no dream. this is a blizzard!we woke up to a sleeting rain this morning, which then turned into snow, and has not stopped since. we tried to drive to church (3 miles away), but had to turn around when we were less than a mile away due to cars stuck on the road. so now we're barricaded in our home, nice and cozy for the time being. deaconess called to see if i could come in tonight, they are short on nurses and in an emergency situation. in years past i've made it to work in terrible conditions because i know my job as a nurse can't stop, but on the advice of my husband and stepdad, i will be staying home tonight and i'll try to make it there in the morning. if your reading this, please take a moment and pray for the hospitals, medical staff, emts, and patients. not only is working during the holidays tough, near blizzard conditions make it stinkin' difficult. i pulled out my camera (had to dust it off a little, it's been a couple weeks..) to capture ray and i's Christmas eve day.honey loves water, therefore, she loves snow.

and just like a kid, she tried to catch snowflakes on her tongue

she's beautiful :c)

the scene out our front door, captured by my hubby

i think honey's starting to feel the cold..

(ps. the rest of the pics were captured through a glass, as we were too big of wimps to be outside)

my roomie's dog, nekko, looks at home in the snow!

just don't eat the yellow snow~

haha.. out of focus, but man how she enjoyed it out there!

i've only seen the fake, spray-on snow ever look like this

today i made my first attempt at cinnamon rolls, they don't compare to aunt lisa's, but they'll fill a belly on a cold day

i also wrapped presents this morning for my roommate. since ray and i decided not to do presents this year, it was nice to have something to put under the tree!

this is what the snow looks like when i open the door

nothing like real snow on a fake Christmas tree

i hope you all are safe and warm. Merry Christmas

joseph is not Jesus's father

i love watching my hubby interact with children.

as bad as he thinks he is at it, he's actually very good (except for the babies.. but he's improving in that area)

tonight ray and i had planned on attending the 7:00 Christmas service at lifechurch. but instead of attending, we ended up serving in the 5-year-old room. there were about 20+ kids with 5 adults, so we definitely had our hands full. it was interesting to see the personality of the kids come out in such a short time. i'm especially amused by the outgoing kids, because that was soooo not me. i was timid and shy, scared to ask a stranger what time it is or dance at a wedding reception. tonight i had 2 kids sit in my lap, a few want to dance with me, and half a dozen tell me all about them, their Christmas plans, and their missing teeth. right from the get-go ray sat down and started interacting with the kids. he talked to them and tried to help them make friends with each other. i encouraged them to run (until another adult came by and told them to slow down...). ray comforted the lonley, i had a kid correct me when i called joseph Jesus's dad..

so, the morale of the story, i can change a diaper, and ray can do the rest :c)

we did find out that we missed a pretty awesome experience tonight, but now worries, there will be 4 more experiences at lifechruch.tv okc campus tomorrow. service times are

Thursday
12/24
1:00pm, 2:30pm, 4:00pm, 5:30pm

there are about 10 other locations, so check the link to see if there is a church near you. if not you can also watch online.

Merry Christmas!

Emery's Christmas Pics

my last session of 2009 was with another set of green's, tim and abbra. we met downtown for a quick session (if you can't tell, it was cold!). then we went to tim's parents house (the location of mai's shoot) to finish the session out. even though our time outside was short, i enjoyed the pics that we got (i can't wait for spring time and more outdoor photos!!)a nice family shot

i loved the ice here along with abbra's winter boots

precious

this red wall seemed perfect for Christmas time!

this shot was used on their Christmas card above the word 'joy'- perfect!

back at the green's house

and this is how our session ended.. the torture we put these kids through :c)

Mai's Christmas Pics

as promised, here's the green's! you can see mai's previous pics here, and here.for this session, we were grateful to have micah's parents let us use their beautifully decorated house as our last minute location. we were hoping to shot outside, but decided it was too cold for little mia, so here' some of the Christmas shots we got indoors.. the family

beautiful mai

mom and dad (aka. xuan and micah)

and here's some faces that i adored :c)

this one has an innocence to it that i just love

catching up

hello strangers! sorry for the delay.. i know it's annoying to click to my site only to see the same picture day after day, but i appreciate you coming back! have you ever had one of those times where you say 'when i get done with a, then i'll finally have time for b'.. but then c jumps in there and consumes all the time you used for a? well i officially finished my semester with rose last week, and i thought i'd have more time, but between finishing up my photography, and going back to full time at deaconess, not to mention in being Christmas time, i've been busy! but here's a little bit of whats been going on..this was a my final session of 2009! this cute little girl is emery, and there will be more of her soon

this is mai, emery's cousin, who was my second to last client.

if you didn't know, i took a trip to houston last week with my best friend summer to visit one of our friends, craig. he'd been in houston for over a month going through radiation therapy, so we thought it would be fun to keep him company. we had a great time with craig and wife, betsy, and andy and alicia spoon. this pic was taken in the middle of houston at a park right across from craig's apartment. i went for a run on saturday morning and the beauty of the trees astounded me :c)

here's summer and i with craig at his wedding just a couple of months ago

in other news, ray's mom has officially left the country. she made it safely home to ghana last thursday, a trip she has been waiting for pretty much since she arrived in the states. ray, his sister, and i took the early morning trip to the airport to send her off wednesday morning, and although we are sad to see her move so far away, we are excited that she's back where she wants to be. here's my hubby's family at the airport..

and because ray has a very generous mother, i now have a new car! it's amazing, because this car is an answer to an unverbalized prayer of mine (not sure about the word unverbalized, but i'm going with it :c). ever since college, my goal has been to obtain my next car without making payments. so my plan was to save up and pay cash. God's plan was for me to be patient and receive a car without making a single payment. what a blessing! so here's my new ride, a 2000 mazda 626 (funny, in the fact that my very first car was a mazda 626)

so it's goodbye to my saturn, which i've been driving since my senior year of highschool. but she will be going to bless a friend of mine who currently uses a van to commute to the south side of okc every day for work. this little saturn will save her on fuel, praise God!

oh, and this was a scene i saw on the way home from taking ray's mom to the airport. beautiful

that was all the past, now for some future news.

i have some motivation to do some winter running again this year. last spring my sister and i ran our first 10K, next spring we hope to run one of the nation's biggest 10Ks! most of my mom's family will be joining us to participate in the Austin Capitol 10K run this spring. my cousin lives in austin and we are giong to make a big trip out of it... can't wait! (note: this is not my photo)

another motivation for me to work out is the cruise i will be going on! my sister and i planned a cruise for my mom for her big 5-0 birthday this year. we hope for most of our family to make it.. it'll be a blast! (note: this is not my photo)

meet beckham miles

after i started working on this post, i debated whether i should be posting it or not. it is the newborn session of mr. beckham miles, son of my lifegroup buds boz and michelle. the only reason i debated showing you this handsome man is because i don't want to promote my newborn photography. i feel like this is not one of my strong areas for several reasons (which all manifested themselves at some point in this shoot). there are photographers out there who can work magic with babies, and i used this experience to determine if i had that magic. it's a negative. but i did have fun hanging out with my friend and her adorable son, and couldn't resist not showing her off.

loved these suitcases that she had at her house

sweet boy :c)

haha.. funny face!

back to sweet again

onto sleepy..

this pic was too show off this cute little boy on the couch reupholstered my michelle. she's been taking a class, and i wanted to show of her handiwork! if you need anything reupholstered, give me a shout!

of course, the uniting rings and the tiny feet~

it's gingerbread time!

last night i hosted the 'girls/loren night' of our life group at my house. we had a fun filled gingerbread decorating night. i really need to be in bed right now, but i just wanted to share, so i'll be quick..

hannah and jennifer's

michelle's

loren's

lindsey and mine

the local church :c)

and the colorful candyland house

lily lovin' all this candy!

hannah enjoyed it as well

the mess

oh, what a mess

but it was great family time!

speaking of family time. everyone who is living underneath our roof right now gathered for dinner tonight (including the 2 dogs). ray, art, my mother-in-lay, and i enjoyed a nice dinner around our new table, thanks to ray's mom for so generously giving it to us! thank you!