{Hey Mama}

Once again- that title has nothing to do with this post.  It’s just my current favorite song :-)  I heard it when I was out by the pool the other day and I’m now officially addicted to Mat Kearney’s new album Young Love.   I LOVE LOVE LOVE just about every song on it….but the Hey Mama one just makes me happy.   It’s a total “dance in the kitchen while making dinner” song.   01 Hey Mama  Click on the blue link, turn it up loud and go make your husband dance in the kitchen with you :-)  Tell him I said so!

So…… 

If anyone finds a round, ugly green looking bag/disc like thing laying around Kirksville, please let me know.  I’m pretty sure my smart self left it at one of my shoot locations, I just haven’t been able to find it.  The bag contains my diffusers and reflectors.  Not a huge deal, but I would just prefer to find them if I can.  If you find them, I’ll love you forever!  I promise :-) 

ANYWAY- this weekend was a bit crazy. 

I don’t think I’ve been that tired since Sara & Ryan’s wedding week/weekend.  You should probably note that most of us spent that time frame with a drink in our hands.  When it comes to weddings and drinking-  big Catholic families like ours don’t freaking mess around :-)  

 Not that I even drank very much this weekend.  It was just go, go, go, go, go……..go, go………..go, go, etc.   You get the idea. 

I got into Kirksville Wednesday evening, did a shoot Thursday morning and started a senior shoot for 3 boys on Thursday evening.    Any of you see some girl attempting to run down Elson in wet flip flops (ever tried running in wet flip flops??  Flippin’ hard!) in the pouring down rain with a giant camera shoved up her shirt??  Oh yeah- that might have been me.  More to come on that later. 

Then I did an AWESOME newborn shoot Friday morning/afternoon, finished up the rained out senior shoot from the night before, started another senior shoot Friday evening and then headed up to T.P’s for a class reunion get together.  I show up and everyone is ADORABLE.  Cute new hair, cute new dresses, cute-fresh make up, just cute.   Don’t get me wrong-  I attempted to get ready before my shoots.  I had on a dress, I did my hair, I threw some heels in my car to put on after my shoots, but………….my hair got tossed in a pony tail during the shoots, my dress got dirty from crawling around and I forgot to put on my heels before I went in.  AWESOMENESS.    I show up and my only excuse was, “I was just laying in the middle Boundary 5 minutes ago doing a photo shoot.”   My hair is flat because even the ponytail I threw it up in couldn’t save it from the heat, my make up is gone because the August heat sweat it off, my dress is dirty because I like to sit in the middle of highways and I’m wearing flip flops because my brain is fried during my busy season and I can’t remember to simply switch my shoes.   

Long story short-  SO much fun seeing my friends I haven’t seen in so long.  I miss them.  We end up staying at Dukum till close and then headed over to Pancake City.  

LUCKILY I showered after Pancake City because this chica didn’t wake up till 9:48 and I had a shoot at 10:00.  Obviously no time for a shower :-)    Great start to my Saturday, right?   Here is a fun fact about Saturday- I never brushed my hair on Saturday.  Not even once.   I went to bed at 3:00 AM with a towel on my head, woke up the next morning, threw it in a ponytail and kept it there the whole day.   I finished my shoot around 11:00ish and had to race back to my parents house to get everything rounded up for the wedding.   I slapped one of Molly’s cute flower/lace headbands on my unbrushed/still slightly wet hair it in an attempt to make it look fancy….I don’t think it worked.   

So I shot a gorgeous wedding all day Saturday with the help of the ever so talented Chrissie Neely.  Then we began the drive back to Kirksville in which Chrissie learned I can do just about anything while driving with my knees.  Deodorant, lip gloss, mascara, etc.  You name it- I can do it!   I don’t think she’ll ever get in the car with me again :-) 

Once again I busted into the reunion looking fan-flippin-tastic.  Everyone was even MORE dressed up this time.   Luckily my friends husband just so happens to be one of my favorite people in the world and he got me a Blue Moon and a shot.  I could have cared less how I looked after that.  Terry’s the best :-)   

Then it was a 3:00 AM type of night again. 

After my friends dropped me off at my house,  I woke my dad up because I couldn’t get the garage door to stay shut.  The sensor thingy kept going off so it just kept opening and closing.   He was all sleepy eyed, jogging down the stairs, “what the hell is going on.”   I just laughed :-)   Which I’m sure didn’t annoy him in any way whatsoever.  I’m sure it also didn’t annoy him when I informed him that I would need him to take me to my car the next morning.  Actually, it probably didn’t bother him at all.  My dad is thee SWEETEST man on the face of the earth :-)  

Then my alarm went off and I had to drag myself out of bed to get to my 8:30 shoot.  

Then I almost got eaten alive by a GIANT bird.  More to come on that later. 

Then I finally finished the shoot at 10:45 and all I wanted to do was go home and go back to bed for a bit. 

BUT I just had to get a text that said, “come to church- mom.”   I was going to be my usual smart a#$ self and text her back saying, “ummmmm-  this girl shot a Catholic wedding yesterday.  I’m good to go.  See you at home sucka!!!”    But they didn’t do communion at the ceremony, so I was out of luck!   Soooooooooooooo I drag my sleepy, no make-up self into Mary Immaculate for 11:00 mass.   I normally love 11:00 Mass because it’s not 9:00 Mass, but I could barely keep my eyes open.  If it weren’t for the cute baby girl two rows up from me- I probably would have fallen asleep.   

Anyway- now that you have the minute by minute break down of my past weekend, do you wanna see the pictures that had me running all over Kirksville??   I just keep telling myself that people enjoy the humor in my day to day life :-)  I’ll move on now…………

First up!  The Heerens.  I love the Heerens :-)  I’ve been taking pictures of Mr. Benson since he was born and now he’s TWO and his baby brother/sister is due in less than a month!!!!!  I’m SO excited to meet Baby Heeren #2 :-) 

So later that evening I met up with these three boys for their senior pictures.  Conner, Ian & Cecil have been friends since they were little, so their mom’s thought it would be fun to do their senior pictures together.  We started at a super secret spot and got some of my favorite pictures EVER….but i can’t show you too much because then you’ll know what this secret spot is and it turns out I could have gotten in some trouble (who doesn’t love a little trouble, right?) for being there.  I could totally see some one reading this blog, figuring it out and then getting into a tizzy about it.   Oh Kirksville can have such silly small town drama sometimes….but no worries, I still love it :-)   So anyway, I can’t show you my super awesome pictures because you’ll figure it out.  Even if you do figure out- keep your lips zipped!   The other spots we went to were totally legit, but the first one….not so much.   The best spots always involve ignoring No Trespassing signs….ask any photographer :-)

 Then this happened and that’s when the whole, “running up Elson with a camera shoved up my shirt” scenario occured.  We waited it out for a bit, but then we looked at the radar and decided to call it a night and finish up the following evening. 

 

On Friday morning I got to meet the newest member of my Time Flies When You’re Having Fun program.  Miss Emma :-)  Ummmmmmmm EASIEST baby I’ve ever photographed.  Cried ONCE for like .5 seconds.  Her mom, Becca, did get pooped on a few times, but other than that it was pretty smooth.   Someone’s has to get pooped on during a newborn shoot, right?  I’m just happy it wasn’t me this time :-)  Miss Emma- you are a very sweet baby girl and I’m so excited to watch you grow throughout your first year!!!

So later on that evening I finished up my rained out shoot and then started my shoot with Brier.   Brier is a Senior at Kirksville High School and man oh man did this girl do her homework.  She showed up with page after page of ideas and a pile of clothes :-)  If I’m being real honest- some of it wasn’t my usual style- but I like trying new things, so we went with it!   Miss Brier is GORGEOUS and is total America’s Next Top Model material :-)  She totally rocked her shoot (both times….we had to break it into two days) and was super easy to work with.  I think we did a pretty good job of meshing our styles and coming up with something in the middle.   Get ready for some pretty pictures :-)

This would be when the whole, “A giant bird tried to eat me” scenario played out.  Truth be told- it didn’t really try to eat me, but it scared the you-know-what out of me.  I was walking around this old, abandoned, falling apart, over-grown house and as I rounded the corner I just see this massive black thing up in the corner of my eye.  GIANT BIRD sitting on the corner of the house and it decided to show it’s massive wing span and fly away right as I walked past.   A l m o s t    p e e d   m y   p a n t s.    Usually when I’m running around in tall grasses for pictures- I’m all sorts of nervous about snakes….now I have to start factoring FREAKING BIRDS!    But it’s okay because these next pictures turned out pretty cool :-)  Yes- Brier went into the house, but I totally let her make the decision. 

Then Saturday came along and that’s when I woke up late and raced up to The Square to meet up with this little guy for some pictures.    This was a first for me.   This was the first kid that I couldn’t get to like me :-(   Conor wasn’t the biggest fan of me.   He was a tricky one :-)   Totally not normal for me.  Kids tend to love me because I’m a flippin’ blast (I’m totally being a smart alec…if you can’t tell), but I couldn’t crack this one.  I think his poor mom was SO SAD that he wasn’t into the whole photo shoot thing and wasn’t falling for any of my tricks, but belive it or not…………we got some good ones!!!!!   I tricked Conor after all, HA!    Conor- I’m very confident you’ll like me next time around.  I’ve just got to up my game :-)

Sunday morning was when I finished up my shoot with Brier- so after that, I was done for the weekend.  

 *Deep breath of relief/accomplishment*

Now i just need to get a sneak peek together for that BEAUTIFUL wedding I shot on Saturday.  Oh- and I need to edit about 100 session.  Maybe I’ll be caught up by January before those Farwell Twin’s arrive :-)

I’ll be back on Thursday with more sneak peeks!!!  I had a shoot this afternoon and I have a shoot tomorrow morning.

P.S.- I ate at one of the yummiest places with a friend tonight.  It’s called Twin Oak and it was AWESOME!  Just thought all you St. Louis people would like to know about it.  It’s off Hanley by Houlihans.    Katie’s Pizzaria is still my favorite, but this one could come in close for 2nd :-)