a long time...

wow, it's been a long time since I updated this thing, as many of you experience, you want to, but there's just something that feels to overwhelming for some reason...weird.

Anyway, life is pretty much the same. We had a wonderful time in Wisconsin for Christmas, (you can see pictures on facebook). It was so fun to see my nephew Abe, who is such a cutie, and my sister's pregnant!

Josh is really enjoying teaching and he's getting more classes which is such a blessing. We are still managing the building which is another huge blessing.

I have been doing more photo stuff and will be doing a wedding in two days, and then maybe one in April and then possibly two this summer. To be honest it's super overwhelming and I get a lot of anxiety before...I just want to do the best I can and have the people love them.

to check out my stuff you can go to www.halflightimages.com

In the back of mind I still think about working for a non-profit that deals with human trafficking. There's a great one in LA called CastLA and they are fantastic and I really would like to volunteer for them when I get a more regular schedule..

I wish all my homies lived in LA so I could take pictures of you all for my assignments...

Love you all!

My life as a photo student

So I have been so busy lately and so full of anxiety about all the work that I have to do, that I just lay awake at night for hours, forget things, have bags under my eyes, and have piles everywhere in my house....good times.

I have been taking three classes, one only 8 weeks so I am down to 2 classes, Photoshop and advanced commercial photography (the other one was InDesign). The advanced commercial class is kicking my butt, as I knew it would, it's an 8 unit class...which is a lot! We have so many assignments: to give you an idea of what I've been working on this semester so far: fashion, food, gels, tabletop, nudes, more fashion, cars, reflections, splash, still life, flatware, brochure ads, soap and beverage, catalog, an ad book, perfume, painting with light., interiors..and I can't remember what else...well let me just say..that's a lot!!!! Right now I am working on the nude and big fashion shoots. Each assignment calls for different lighting, set ups, some going on location. It's been hard to find people to do the nudes, as you can imagine. Even though I think that nudes are beautiful, I think it's just hard for people to be naked, and also there is a stigma in your mind about what that might look like. Anyway, all that to say, that I lie awake at night with my heart pounding thinking about all that I have to do in such a short amount of time, and I dream of Christmas when this will all be over.....

Not that I don't enjoy it, because I do enjoy shooting, but the time constraint, and getting everything to school ( i use the bus) can be overwhelming...I am learning a lot though and am grateful for such a good school. I have made friends in my classes and since we are in the same program we have been in the same classes for the past few semesters..

Other things in the photo world: I have been assisting this couple that does weddings here in LA, running around setting up lights and such. That's been good to see how other people do it, and hopefully will open up to being a second shooter.

Other exciting news, non photo related: I got a ring! Many people will remember that Josh lost my engagement ring before we were married, so we got a beautiful ring at an antique store, but he has always felt bad about it. I love surprises, but Josh is still learning how to do them, but this anniversary he completely surprised me! He got a fake ring and gave it to me telling me that my diamond was on it's way (he bought the diamond seperate) and then he took me downtown to the jewelry district and we picked out a setting and then had dinner in the old part of town. It was great! So I have my ring now. You can't quite see how beautiful it is...but it's lovely and so thoughtful of him!
It was also Josh's birthday last week, we just celebrated this last weekend with some friends at our place..I made pizza, candied apples, a carrot cake..yum yum...we carved pumpkins and hung out...it was lowkey and fun!

So that's my life right now....

4 year anniversary...

I have been married to a wonderful husband 4 years today. He's kind, he makes me laugh every day. We have become better friends these past four years and I have become a better person because of him. Love you Josh!

Quick brief update

Check out pics from Jacqui and Stu's wedding at:

www.sendtoprint.net
Gallery id: bishop08

Been super busy, going through the wedding pics, shooting in the studio...tons of homework...

josh and I are hosting a home group, really excited about that. Nice to be a part of that.

Excited for Mario (sis in law) and Jessi to have babies...they are due at the same time.

started assisting for a couple doing weddings. Good to see how others due it.

will have a website of my own up soon...

love to all!

Friends

Meet my friends here in LA. These are the friends that I spend most of my friend time with, and I thought it was about time that they be made known. I hope you enjoy getting to know them. They have all been good friends. We often get together all of us to have brunch, watch movies, talk, play games. Its been such a treasure to have them in my life.

This is Rachel, her and her husband John just had a baby boy, Isaiah Jackson Snowden. He's lovely. John and Rachel also work at the church, she is the missions pastor and he the youth leader. They are both rock stars and Rachel and I get a long really well. We understand the love of prayer and missions and are on a missions team at church together. We also have a deep love for Christmas and popcorn (the real kind, not the microwave kind).

This is Brenda and Ryan. This is a terrible picture of them, but oh well. We met them at a church picnic over a year ago and hit it off immedietly. The first time we got together we stayed up until 3am talking about God, life, etc. It was great. The cake is one that I made to celebrate our 1 year anniversary. Brenda and I also share a love of popcorn, and everything chocolate. She works at a place that some of the moms may have heard of, can't remember the name right now. But her boss writes books about babies and now is writing one about toddlers, he does seminars and has been on Larry King. Ryan makes video games at Sony. Brenda is also an amazing drummer. She played in the symphony's in Oregon and has started to get back into drumming in LA.

This is Adam and Jessica, one of the first couples we connected with at church. They are a blast to be around. Jessica is a "positive polly", and is always laughing and a great friend. We share a great love of food, as well as a great want to lose some weight! They are trying to have a baby, so send a prayer for an open womb! Jessica is an interior designer and Adam works on compositing for movies.

This is Liz, we are just newly friends. She is very straightforward, which is nice. This is not her baby, but she is pregnant and due in January. Her husband Jon is not pictured. Liz is currently getting ready for a baby boy, and Jon does editing as well as going to school for a masters of divinity.

This is Kate, her husband Dan is not pictured. Kate and Dan are also expecting in January. Kate is a nanny, and aspiring writer. Dan works with computers and is an aspiring musician. He just started playing at this little club, we went to his first show and it reminded me of the days when some of us in Vancouver used to go watch Ari play and then Jessi and Jamie play. Those were good times.

Visit to Tomahawk

Cutest nephew around...

I loved taking pics in T-hawk...capturing the light..the colors...nature..which I so lack in Los Angeles..

It was such fun to hang out with Abe...to read him stories..play games..chase him around..tickle him...hearing him say when I entered a room.."it's emmy!"

I loved all the blues and greens...we took many walks...canoed, kayaked, biked as a family, camping, fishing...talking..playing games...

This was so picture perfect, such lovely colors and the light was perfect!

We took Abe to a county fair and I saw this geese....

A local church in town..I liked the light hitting the windows....

Sunset....so pretty...

I dragged my dad around one evening to take some pics like the one above us....

I saw this on my way to my friends Andy and Sarah's house and thought it looked cool...

This was captured while I was canoeing with my mamma.

My mom and I went kayaking for 4 hours, snuck up on these ducks.

My parents have animals all around there house...dozens of hummingbirds, deer frolicking, chipmunks coming up to your feet...

Of course we had to get ice cream from the windmill...we biked from town out there and ate at schaffers on the water and then got ice cream..it was really fun and the ice cream there is so yummy and so cheap!

There she is, the best ice cream in town!

Sweetest face.....miss him all ready....

This taken when we went camping...again I loved the light. Fun to have camp fires, go swimming and play games.

My mom was floating around with a noodle, and abe grabbed one and was walking around in shallow part saying, "i imming" (I swimming). It was so cute..he was so proud of himself.

Canoeing with my mom.

I got to hang out with Jessi for a couple of days and see Kael and Mike as well. It was really nice. Really relaxed and we just talked and talked and talked and talked. It was lovely. Kael is a sweety!!! Can't wait to meet there next little guy at Christmas. I also got to hang out with my friend Shelley too...so fun to see my friends and sister with kids...they are all great mums...

So cute!

I love turtles, if we had more rooms and we had kids, I would make it dedicated to turtles!

Shots while kayaking, loved the colors and reflections, it was so pretty...

I had such a lovely time at home. It was cool to hang out with my family and be there in the summer, instead of in the winter. Nice to be around nature, see good friends and connect.

Moments in time....

Everyone once in awhile you will be just watching a movie, walking down a street, or eating dinner and a memory will come to mind from your past. Good memories that make you feel like you've done things in your life, that you've touched people, and that other people touched you.

Here are some of the memories that I am often reminded of.

*seeing my nephew enter the world

*Sept 7th....and driving to each border of Uzbekistan praying, and knowing that my YWAM family was praying for me and God protecting us.

*STURGES!!! (heather and Ang know this one from going across to Ottawa)

*seeing my friends get married...ang & leigh, heather, jessi, jamie, shiloh & janalynn,...and wishing I could have been at others weddings: Rachel, and the soon to be married Ben!

*getting baptized in Morocco by Mary and jumping off the cliff..also taking a pledge to keep Morocco in my heart and to tell others about it.

*seeing 7 people get saved in Morocco...I still pray that they know the Lord and that others are teaching them and they others.

*speaking in the MA program in Vancouver...

*taking a year off of movies and tv to get to know God better...listening to music on the couch and praying (when I lived with Shawn, Mike and Joanne)

*playing games in the back kids house with the youth group in t-hawk

*eating fried doughnuts with lamb in the middle in Uzbek..and other treats

*pooping 15 times in 24 hours in Uzbek and Shiloh, Janalynn and Rach and I pooping before the bride in the line for the bathroom...poor innocent girl....

*having my nephew run up to me to give me a hug

*jessi and I writing letters to our dads and talking about our co-dependent issues all the time!!!

*living with jo and wade, watching sophia get bigger in Jo's tummy and eating Wades delicacies...talking with jo when I wanted girl talk, and watching simpsons with Wade when I wanted to zone out..

*40 day fast and prayer with YWAM Vancouver..having the whiteboard be full of requests and Gods blessings and connecting with a community of people in a way that I haven't experienced anywhere outside of it.

*40 days and prepare....being smacked by God and having my mind blown with Truth...all day long for two summers

*camping with my family, having my dad talk clay from the walls of a cave and putting it on our faces..

*my mom reading me stories like little house on the prairie, and the narnia series

*Marrying Josh, and being married to Josh..and the whole story of us coming together

*laughing with my family, baking with my mom and sister, canoing and fishing with my dad

*annie, from DTS singing songs with Korean hand gestures and her smile and her pronunciation of "peace of God"

*meeting Heather, not liking Heather, then having heather pee in front of me, and then loving heather all within about 1 hour.

*watching pride and prejudice with John, Mary and Jessi...drinking white zinfendal and eating a meal together...good ol johnny was good for that....

*making forts in Illinois, boys vs. girls and the boys would always win, cause they would stay behind a lump of snow, while we would make bricks and windows with our fort.

*block parties

*all the boys and the crushes in my life

*prince of peace and all the good times, the old school days

*going to the Merrill diner and making fun of the motleys and getting some sort of something

*cornerstone...yeah!!!!

There are so many things...I will be eating diner and think of going to a wedding in Uzbek and having to get up and sing and paying for the bill even though we didn't know we were supposed to...

Going to the beach and thinking of my honeymoon in Hawaii

Getting in the car and thinking of all the road trips with friends, family and church

Seeing a child and thinking of my friends who have children and my nephew and how I miss them all so much...

Seeing a map and thinking of all the places I've been and how I long to go again...

Going to church and wishing I was in Vancouver having a lovefeast, or a weekly meeting...

Meetings...being in a meeting and wishing that Randy was there to roll his eyes...and make a joke...

Anyway..I know this has gone on pretty long and there are so many more...I just wanted to share what I've been thinking about...memories that make me happy...