In Case You're Wondering...

My Dream...

What is it that Jesse is referring to in the previous post?

I got my undergrad degree in fine art, with a concentration in photography. A lot of people are surprised by this because for the past 6 years I've worked at a bank and now in accounting at a non-profit.

However, when I was probably 10 or 11, I saved UPC codes to get a 110mm camera from Kellogg's Frosted Flakes. I was so excited when it finally came in the mail! I took pictures of everything, squirrels running up the tree, our creek, my face, whatever. In high school, I always enjoyed the art classes I took, they weren't just a "blow off" class like they were for most people. I loved creating collages for gifts, homemade greeting cards, and doodling on everything.

When I got to college, I thought I wanted to be a teacher. I even worked at a Montessori school for a year but soon realized elementary was not where I wanted to be. Then I switched my major to business. I was working at a bank and they would help pay for it, so why not?! While loaded down with coursework I despised, micro-economics, business law, macro-economics, yuck, yuck, yuck... I took a beginning photography course for fun. It was then I realized I was actually pretty good at it! My professor encouraged me to take another course, and Jesse (we were just dating at the time) was very encouraging as well for me to pursue art, buying me a drawing pad and pencil set for either Valentine's Day or my birthday... Anyway, I soon decided to switch majors again - to Fine Art this time. Surprisingly, my parents even let me do it!

Almost 7 years later, I haven't done much with it - a few paintings for friends and family, some photographs for graduating seniors and friends bands, a wedding, stuff for church and work - but I've been feeling the desire to do something more the past year.

I've finally decided to pursue my dream once again... I want to go back to school to get my MFA with the intentions of one day being an art professor. It may take me years to do it, and I'm not sure where I'll go (there aren't any local schools down here that offer an MFA), but I will do it!

For now, I'm taking a painting course at the Lynchburg Academy of Fine Art to get back into the swing of things and I'm being more intentional about painting and drawing in my spare time.

I was nervous to tell Jesse about this because he wanted me to stick with accounting, the practical career. But it's not one I want to do forever, and I felt like I was living his dream - not mine. He's been very encouraging ever since then and wants to see me pursue it. "Your dream is my dream" is what he said to me. What an awesome thing to hear from the one you love!

Here are some of my older drawings, paintings, and photography. I don't have any photographs of my newer stuff yet.

Snow Day!!

Wow! This snow sure took us by surprise! Sure, they'd been calling for it all day and the previous day, but how many times have we actually had the snow that's expected?

As the snow began to fall Friday night, we invited our community group over for some pizza, snacks and games. We all watched in amazement as the snow kept coming, and coming... Two of the couples left together and called us about 20 minutes later - they only made it halfway down the street and were stuck! They started walking back with plans to crash with us for the night, but some friendly stranger with 4-wheel drive stopped and took them home. It's nice to hear good samaritans like that still exist today.

Jesse and I stayed up until the wee hours of the night, enjoying the fire and watching the snow fall....

Saturday morning arrived and it was STILL SNOWING!! Jesse measured and estimates we got about 15 inches. Unbelievable!! I haven't seen that much snow in a really long time.

It really is a Winter Wonderland. Madi loves the snow and jumped right in, whereas Rummy stood on the porch shivering. I didn't want to embarrass him by posting a picture, he tries to come across as a manly dog.

So, what do you do when you're snowed in?? Jesse and Scott played Xbox 360 pretty much all day long and then went to the neighbor's and played pool for awhile. I, on the hand, painted part of our living room. It took me pretty much all day long. The color is Smoky Blue and it covers 3 walls. I'll be finishing the rest over New Year vacation (hopefully). The other color is called Prelude and is a lighter shade of blue. I'll post more pictures when everything is complete and the house is put back together!

Home Improvement

One major project we've had in the back of our minds since we moved into our house over 2 years ago is to paint the windows. We have a lot of windows, so this has stayed in the VERY back of our minds!

Just look at the shape of these windows though... it has to be done!

Gross

We found a solution to our aversion: have someone else do it for us!

An old co-worker of mine and ex-employee of Jesse's (not in that order) does odd jobs, so we hired him to do all the work. :) He's doing a great job.

Here is the progress so far... Old paint scraped off and one coat of Behr Premium Plus Exterior paint in semi-gloss. It's a primer and paint in one. Looking better already!

Hi!

We'll keep you updated on the progress!

Carrie paints the bedroom...

So this holiday weekend Carrie tackled the bedroom. Previously it was gray... kind of dark and boring. Now it is nice and yellow. Carrie did an excellent job. She primed the walls and put two coats of paint. She painted the ceiling and also did all of the trim. She has got far more patience than I have and frankly she is good at painting. I like the color she choose - she asked me if I liked it and I do. So far she has done all of the painting and choose good colors.









What did I do this long weekend you might ask... I cut the grass and got stung twice by an army of bees that built a nest in the ground in our front yard. I wouldn't bother it but it is right in the middle of our yard. So, I poured gas in it and then struck a match. I was trying to think of ways to get rid of them without destroying them as bees are severely in decline. But I couldn't think of a realistic way to do so without being mauled by an angry mob of bees. I had a memorial service for them with Rummy. He cried.