Abby & Brandon’s Blog

Brandon’s birthday is on Saturday and we will be in Alexandria celebrating with friends, so we had a little celebration by ourselves last night. It was one of the best nights we have had! We laughed so much and we were able to have a completely relaxing night.
We watched Julie and Julia, which we both liked! Brandon especially loved when Meryl Streep would exclaim “Oh Dear”. He said it all night long!!
I thought it was really fun to see Meryl Streep in such a sweet, funny role. I feel like so often she is uptight or plain old mean, but she was such a sweetheart and so lovable as Julia. I was sort of waiting for her to become a jerk!
I would be very interested to know how many people bought that cookbook after this movie, and how many people are doing the same kind of blog! It certainly would give you a topic to blog about…unlike this random blog I have never read the Julie & Julia book but I have the feeling that this movie followed the story line very well. Besides the one fight between Julie and her husband there wasn’t that normal story of “break up then have a dramatic get together, the end”. It seemed much more real.
The other thing that makes me think it followed the story line well is because towards the end of the movie Julie gets the call from a news reporter who had talked to Julia Childs who had said she felt the blog was disrespectful (or something like that, the movie wasn’t perfectly clear). The reporter had been looking for a comment which Julie chose not to give. In a normal story line I feel that they would have had Julie meet Julia and perhaps resolve this issue or something like that, but (most likely true to the story) she never meets Julia and there is never a resolution to this problem, you simply move on.
I hope you feel inspired after reading my obviously professional movie review… A few things I now feel like doing after watching the movie:
Read the book Julie & Julia
Possibly borrow or buy the Julia Childs cookbook
Try cooking something more complicated…or at least looks and tastes complicated.

This morning I decided one of my favorite things is Swisspers Cosmetic Wedges. They come in a package of 32 and cost about $2.00 from Walmart.
I was thinking about them this morning because I thought it was time to throw the one I had been using and get a new one. I grabbed my bag of them from the cupboard and was suddenly struck with the realization that I have had the same bag of Swisspers for at least 4 YEARS!! And in that time I haven’t even used 32 of them!!
So this proves 1 of 2 things:
#1-Swisspers Cosmetic Wedges are an AMAZING deal and last forever or…
#2-I use each wedge for WAY too long and have made them last longer than is good for me.

I am going with answer #1, that I found an unbelievable deal!!
So, if you use a liquid coverup and are looking for a good way to blend it…buy Swisspers Cosmetic Wedges from Walmart.

This blog now sounds like an infomercial…Cheers!

We did it, we finally did it! And, more importantly…I am HAPPY with it!
We chose a name for our Photography Studio. Yes, after months of deliberation and frustration, we found one that no one else has, that we love, and we think you’ll love it too!
Unfortunately, I won’t be sharing it quite yet! But I will gladly hand you a business card when we get it all figured out.
We are now heading into the exciting and very time consuming part of the business! Our lovely designer, Toni Edwards, will be assisting in designing a logo, and my wonderful husband will be giving her input as well. I, for one, will not deny that logos are NOT my area of expertise, so I will be staying out of the way (for the most part) with that project. I will, however, “ooo” and “ahh” over what they come up with.
I am excited to finally be able to move forward with this business, my mind has been whirling with ideas just waiting to be free!

Until next time!

I am sitting on the couch taking a little break before I continue to work on my “to do” list. Brandon is playing Halo ODST, one of his Christmas gifts, I look up every now and then to see how he is doing.

My job at Johnstone Photography is done now. I went back for one day last week to do some cleaning and help with a session, but I am now officially done. I have a mountain of job applications waiting for me and the endless possibilities for job search on the internet, but for now I am enjoying being a “housewife”.

My discoveries as a housewife:

I like “The Fox 9 Buzz” and “The Bonnie Hunt Show”

If I don’t get out of my pajamas in the morning I will not accomplish anything

The only thing I can have playing on TV and still accomplish things is “Friends”. It’s the one show I don’t have to watch to know what is happening (yes, I basically have it all memorized)

I should write out a list every morning so I have something to accomplish

Emailing Toni is a whole lot of fun!

I’m sure I will continue to discover good and bad things about being at home. For now, I really love it, but am happy to go back to work whenever a job opportunity arises.

We still haven’t come up with a name for a studio but we do seem to be narrowing things down and will hopefully be choosing one soon. We have a couple weddings booked for this year which is exciting and we are hoping to get more!

As I look back over this blog I realize that I write like a “Hojem”. Hojem is my mother’s maiden name and it is a long standing joke in our family that my mother, brother Tucker, and myself tell stories like a “Hojem” (I however, am by far the worst). To tell a story like a “Hojem” you must insert much detail, so much detail in fact, that by the time you get to the point of the story most people are no longer listening or have forgotten what you are talking about. You must also be a bit rambley, jumping randomly from topic to topic, filling people in on every little thing. And last, when you do write, you must write it in such a way that people have to read over it more than once to figure out what in the world you are talking about!

I must now go clean up the mess I made in the bedroom, which is my landing strip for everything that doesn’t belong in the rest of the house. It’s the one room where I can close the door and no one really needs to go in there.

Good luck deciphering my “Hojem” ramblings!

So, even though I am sure not many people, if any, read this blog, I happened to click on my tag for it and thought why not write a little something?
Brandon and I have been married for almost 6 months now and we are loving it!
The last few months we have been concentrating a lot on starting a photography studio. We are at somewhat of a standstill, though, because we CANNOT think of a name. We have been name hunting for a few months now, we have enlisted the help of friends and family, have poured over lists of words we find inspiring, have made lists of things we like, have talked endlessly about what message we want to send and still have not settled. We had a few good ones, but often find that these are already taken! It is definitely exhausting and we can’t get very many other things accomplished without our name, our inspiration.
My job at Johnstone Photography is nearly done and I will miss it! I have learned so much these last 8 months working in a somewhat high volume studio (at least in my opinion it sure seems high volume!!). I could hardly believe how much more learning is done after school. I had the tools given to me at school, but working at Johnstone’s has taught me how to start using those tools! I am sure there will be a lot more learning to come.
Well, I am out of interesting things to say (life doesn’t change too much, lately), but HOPEFULLY in a short time, I will be blogging as a photographer! (with a name for her studio…grr…)

Until next time!

Hey Everyone-

We noticed an issue with getting to Mount Carmel this past weekend.  Some one decided to start road construction on the main road out to the chapel.  Thus, we have to adapt and move on!

So we have some options for you. View a visual redirected map from Google or read/print the below directions.
(To get back to Holiday Inn, just reverse the directions.  The Holiday Inn is on the corner of Hwy 29/Broadway and I-94–where you will exit)

Directions to Mount Carmel Ministries During Summer 2009 Road Construction

• Take Exit 103 (Hwy 29/Broadway) and continue North through Alexandria
• Turn left on County Road 82 and follow for .7 mile.
• Turn right at the Douglas County Fairgrounds onto County Road 22 and follow for 2.3 miles.
• Turn right onto Arrowwood Drive/County Road 104 and follow for 2 miles until the road ends at County Road 34.
• Turn right on County Road 34 and continue for .5 mile.
• At bottom of the hill, turn left onto County Road 11. Continue 4.5 miles to Mt. Carmel Drive (just past the entrance to the Luther Crest Bible Camp)
• Turn right onto Mt. Carmel Drive. Continue for .5 mile to the large Mount Carmel entrance sign at the driveway into Mount Carmel. (the entrance will be on your right)

Again you can view visual directions and print a PDF from Google here.