I had my first photography class last night.  I am so excited that my best friend is taking it with me! 

This first week we are learning to shoot in manual mode.  So today was my very first day trying that!  I am excited about the possibilities once I get the hang of it!

By Tuesday, I have to have 4 photos, of people, to send in (two portrait – up and down and two landscape – sideways).  Two need to be taken inside (with natural light near a window) and two need to be taken outside.  We take them to the best of our ability in manual mode and then do minimal editing in Photoshop (we are only allowed to adjust brightness, contrast, and saturation).  Our teacher is going to print them in 5×7 for us and also put them into a PowerPoint presentation (with everyone else’s in the class) so we can all see each other’s work. 

So here are my top 3 of today.  Hopefully by Tuesday I will have something to turn in!

He calls her “Super Girl”, She calls him “D”.  He will literally do anything for her – they are the best of friends…

(and apparently he likes those pajamas a lot…)

- A friend is going to start watching Annika for me on Tue & Thur mornings so I can get some work done without feeling guilty – which will lead to better play time with Annika on the other days of the week! 

- A photography class I just signed up for.  A friend from school is also a professional photographer, and she is teaching a class starting March 24th for 6 weeks – can’t wait!

- Spring will be here soon!  Soccer, Track, Spring Flowers, Garden planning & planting – all coming super soon!

- A shopping trip to the outlet mall sometime soon!

And I leave you with this:  (happy memories from Disney!)

Annika is 28 months old.  Today she had her FIRST haircut.  Matt was not at all fond of the idea, but I snuck her out.  I actually was just going to make her an appointment when I stopped into the salon after having breakfast with some friends.  But things worked out… My hair lady was busy, but another lady had a few free moments.  So we decided to do it right then and there. 

Before:

During:

After:

The stylist thought maybe we should do a bob; but then I wouldn’t be able to put it up into a pony tail, and I most certainly would have been in the dog house.  Then they suggested that maybe if I brought her in each week and just took another inch off – he wouldn’t notice.  ha ha  We’ll just keep it like this for awhile, but I definitely think it looks much better!  It looks healthy instead of scraggly now!  We saved the curls in an envelope, and Matt took it better than I was expecting. 

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- 4 weeks of work with ONE Day off (cancelling my plans 3 Saturdays in a row – I am supposed to be able to make plans on Sat. it is SUPPOSED to be a day off)

- Out until 3:30 a.m. with a family that is experiencing a death (problem being that there was no cell service, so I had no idea if he was dead on the side of the road or WHERE he was… – he left at 6:30 p.m.) 

- A Council that has not been very supportive the last couple of months

- Taking Annika to the bathroom during church, only to find poop EVERYWHERE – entire floor, toilet, garbage can, sink…(from an elderly adult)  Clean-up left to me (& Annika – picture “no, no, no!!! don’t touch!)

- Trying to keep 4 kids quiet and seemingly behaved by myself in church each Sunday

- Lent approaching which means an even busier schedule

- When our family is having a crisis, if a call comes in, it is left in my hands so Matt can leave to help another family in crisis – leaving our family on the back burner. 

Ministry has just been a bit hard lately!  But no one said it would be easy!  We press on…

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I put all the Disney World pictures on Facebook.  You can see them here:  http://www.facebook.com/ChristineSteendahl#!/album.php?aid=274267&id=798527170 

If you’re not a friend of mine on FB yet, you will have to request that first.   I’ll try to put a few favorites on here eventually, but LOTS are on FB.  (it is just so fast and easy that way!)

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- I will have some pictures to share soon (I hope, they are hanging out on Matt’s computer and need to be transferred) of our trip

- Minimizing Christmas Gifts and going on a trip was the BEST decision

- FL was wonderful, I totally understand why retirees enjoying going there for the winter…not too many places it is in the upper 70’s and 80’s and just PERFECT in Dec/Jan

- When we returned the 8 inches or so of snow we left was completely gone…. seems kind of blah with it being so cold and no snow on the ground

- We went out to dinner tonight, (thanks to gift cards from Christmas) and left the remaining $40 worth of certificates on our table!  YIKES  Thankfully they found them and are saving them for us

- My suburban got professionally detailed today – I was amazed how much stuff they put in a box for us – we thought we had cleaned it out pretty good beforehand!

- I am absolutely amazed and thankful that no one else got the flu after both Ryan and Annika had it in our car on the way home from FL – being in such a small space together, I thought for sure we would all have it

- 20 hours is a LONG time to be in a car

- I still haven’t caught up on sleep from our trip I don’t think

- It’s tax time – we’re hiring a new accountant – the old one made huge mistakes every year that we had to catch… I’m hoping this one will be better! (and he’s local – the other one was in Chicago, but supposedly “specialized in clergy tax..”  Yeah – not so much

- I am very thankful to have made the final payment to my business partner and now I am the sole owner of Menu Planning Central

- God has blessed us in so many ways this past year, I stand in awe and in complete gratefulness

- Annika is growing like crazy and starting to talk more and more each day – she’s also sharing her 2 year old personality (read stubbornness) quite well.  I’m trying to decide if I should get her hair trimmed or not – it is getting pretty long, but I don’t think Matt wants me to get it cut.

- When will this house ever be organized again!?!  I have lots of painting ideas in my head…

- Elias (our sponsored Compassion Child) is on our minds daily.  Even Annika says his name in our prayers.  We sent his family a $200 special gift the other day (which is over a year’s wage for them) to hopefully improve their lives.  I can’t wait to hear how Compassion helped them decide how to spend it.  (you can send a couple special gifts each year if you would like) 

- I can’t believe the mega-millions ticket was sold in my in-laws town and they didn’t win.  (he-he)

- I lost 29 pounds in 2010 and am hoping for about the same this year. 

- Our Christmas tree is still up… I think that might be a record for us… guess that is what happens when you are out of town the week after Christmas.

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