It feels good to be back! As most of you know Trent and I are beekeepers as well as photographers. This year we chose to give priority to beekeeping and markets February through mid-march so that once Wedding, Family Spring Sessions and Graduating Senior Session Season hit we could really concentrate on this!
I have also had really high cortisol levels- like extremely high so that forced me to cut back on the fast pace life I LOVE.
It was hard to step away and let go of so much that I love since I feel like I was really getting into the swing of things as photography picked up last fall and never really slowed down for me like it usually does in the very end of one year and into the begining of the following year. But I mean, I guess it was worth it since the affects of extremely high cortisol are heart problems and death and stuff. Haha.
I’ll continue a quick update on our family at the end of this post but right now I want to introduce you to Taylor!
Taylor is one of the most genuine people you will meet. She is also intimidatingly beautiful which makes for a fun combo (aka she intimidates a lot of people by her all-around amazingness).
When I was in 6th grade I switched to a Montessori school. If you don’t know a lot about Montessori schools they have all sorts of different ideas and methods on how kids learn and it is not at all a traditional classroom setting. A lot of learning is done with peers and there is very little formal teacher instruction time. Another thing that made this school unique (not sure if all Montessori schools are like this) is that 1st-3rd grades are together and 4th-6th grades are together. You have the same people in your class and same teachers for 3 years in a row. You have a mix of other kids in the other grades in your class if that makes sense. So because of this even if the class is a standard class size of like 20-25 students not all of them are in your grade. When I transferred to this school there was a group of 6 sixth graders who had pretty much been in the same class together their whole life and were all really close- and that’s it, no other 6th graders! The begining of that same year Taylor’s parents had her transferred from another class to the one I was in! I had only two friends in the school and one was in 4th grade, and the other in 5th grade, so when we would split up into grades for certain things I felt SO alone and awkward. I tried being friends with the other sixth graders and they weren’t mean or exclusive by any means but they just had their group of friends and they’re what? Eleven years old? Including the new kid wasn’t their priority and I wasn’t sure they were my type anyway, haha.
One day after Taylor joined the class she made me a card. Like she did it at home and brought it- not just during free time at class. It was purple and it had a hand cut out on it that was colored with colored pencil. In the card she told me that God loved me and that I was a good person. She told me I was nice and that she hoped we would become friends.
I was SUPER shy and if you were shy growing up you’ll understand this but when she gave the card to me I was completely overwhelmed and embarrassed! I didn’t know what to say!! I hid it and took it home. I’m not sure if I ever even thanked her-But I LOVED it and never forgot about it. Even though I don’t have it any more (I wish I did!), I can still remember the purple paper and the cut-out hand on the front.
After that Taylor and I ended up going to the same Middle School- Northland Preparatory Academy (which we had to write out completely on all our papers because the school wanted to make sure we knew how to spell it correctly haha). That’s when we became closer and I was crushed when she switched schools for high school since NPA (which was a middle school/high school combine) didn’t have the best sports programs. Through all of this we stayed in touch- which is a pretty big feat for two 13-18 year olds who lived on complete opposite sides of town and went to 2 different schools, in the days before cell phones and social media (ok until I was like 16 and she made my facebook account for me). I think this is partially thanks to my parents who have both always had a very high regard for Taylor. They encouraged me when I was lonely or having issues with people at school to reach out to Taylor and hang out with her because she was such a genuine friend, always without pretense. It’s hard to find people like that- but especially in high school!
Looking back I can see where she had my back and cared about me as a person where other ‘friends’ never did. She is not self-serving in her relationships, she is giving. She is supportive. She is strong, opinionated, she doesn’t back down and she is a friend for life.
Congratulations Taylor! I am so excited for your next adventure as a Dental Hygienist!
Also, thanks for saying I have really healthy looking gums- I’m never gonna forget that, haha :).
After all those sentimental thoughts (hope I embarrassed you at least a little Taylor) let’s check out a few of my favorites from her session.
As for our family we have been growing literally and figuratively day by day. Although I may have slightly over-anticipated (is that a word?) Brighten’s growth to 3T…all her shorts are falling off and way too big…and under-anticipated my growth in the 3rd Trimester…all my shorts are doing the opposite… we are doing pretty good. Thankfully Trent still currently fits all his clothes which may or may not be one of many reasons he is the one single handedly holding things together right now. I am just getting over morning sickness which lasted longer but wasn’t quite as violent as with Brighten (yay for no Zophran or IV’s!). I have 6 more weeks of shoots until I take maternity leave and I couldn’t think of a better way to finish off my time before becoming a mom of 2!!!!!! CRAZY, I can still. barely believe I have one child! I am so excited though and promise to do lots of personal blogs while on hiatus. :). Let me know if you have any questions about booking after Maternity Leave as I will be easing into things in August. (Ok, I’m kinda jumping in with MY SISTER’S WEDDING!!!- Which, for the record, I begged to do and told her I was totally fine to shoot! But then, after that, I’m easing in slowly haha).
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