Happy Mama's Day!

Well first off, Happy Mother's Day!! :-)

Mine has been awesome! We started off Mother's Day at church this morning and it was TERRIFIC! Mom invited Memaw to come to BBC with us! Much to my surprise, we sang many of my favorite praise songs, "This is How We Overcome", "You Said", "Jesus, Lover of my Soul", etc, etc, etc (If you know anything about me, you know I lerrrve me some praise!! anywho...) all the Mama's received a pink carnation and Pastor Lon had a great sermon about the many women that accompanied Jesus to the cross... it was a great mornin' at th' church house! :-)

After going by Mom & Dad's to change clothes, we headed to the cemetery to put new flowers on my Grandaddy's grave for "Decoration"... (maybe you're wondering what Decoration is... well, basically it's tradition... deep tradition... many cemeteries hold it on Mother's Day, others just hold it on any ordinary Sunday... for us, it's on Mother's Day... I suppose it's because that's when folks used to come home to visit and it was stamped in time forever to be on that day...)

Well, then we headed to Red Lobster for lunch!! It was me, Steve, Trey, Blake, Mom, Dad, Memaw, my aunt Phylliss, uncle Frankie and cousin Jr... we were missing 8 of our crew. :-( I hate they couldn't make it... Even though we had to wait for about 45 minutes, it was soooo good! The talapia was YUMMY!! Let's back up a minute though... while we were waiting, there were other people outside sitting around chatting and all of a sudden, we hear a guitar and a voice singing... yep, right there on the grass outside the Red Lobster! That kid was really good! I don't know what songs he was singing, but since they were "PG", I let Blake go over to watch and listen... I wanted soooo bad to take a picture, but I was one of only a few chickens at the seafood restaurant... I was definitely the only live one. Believe me, I won't let that happen again. I had my camera in my purse and was too chicken to get it out! I don't know what was wrong with me... lesson learned.

*This is where a picture of a kid playing guitar outside Red Lobster should be. When that happens again, I'll post a picture for you. I know, I know...

Steve & the boys gave me a gift card for Kohl's!! Steve put on the card that it was only $10... but I know him better than that! I told him with only $10 I'd have to stay in the earring section 'til I picked out a pair!! :-) Turns out it's a $200 card!! WOOO HOOO! Looks like I'll be goin' shoppin' this week!!

We gave Mom a food chopper... that's what she asked for, I promise!! Her 'old faithful' broke, so she needed a replacement... I had no idea of what else to get her, so instead of getting another little cheap one like she had, I went to Williams Sanoma and got a good'en...
So after lunch, we (me, Steve, Trey, Blake, Mom, Dad & Memaw) went to a movie... "Letters to God"... it was a fantastic movie, but so sad! I don't want to ruin it for you, but let me warn you... TAKE A BOX OF TISSUE!! I looked terrible when I came out of there!! The kids love to watch me cry during a movie and believe me, they got an eye-full today! Sheesh!! It was so good, though... I highly recommend it!!



On the way home, we stopped by Arby's for a milkshake... Life is good today...

So here's my Letter to God for you...
God, Thank you for the person reading this post... there's no reason that they should want to take time to read something that's written by me... but maybe they need to know You. Maybe they're reading this to see what I'm up to, but I pray that they only see You." Love, Karen

Slacker!!

Hi everybody!
Oh I know, I know... it's been FOREVER!!!! And it's been eating at me that I haven't paid you any attention what.so.ever. There have been many times that I've visited my own blog and thought, 'wow, that girl needs to update her blog...' yea, I talk to myself like that... don't hate.

So here goes... blog posts are always better with pictures, so I thought I'd just SHOW you a few of the things I've been doing since I glanced over at you last... it's really been like an elementary school relationship, huh? 'I only know you on the playground when my friends are around'... I'm really sorry, but thanks for always getting on the merry-go-round with me anyway. :-)

So, there was Steve's 48th birthday, Jamarri's 7th birthday and Braden's 2nd birthday...

(it was a spa gift card!)

Jamarri was so excited about all of his gifts!

Braden had a ton of fun opening his presents all by himself!

And oh the basketball games... wow did that taken up a LOT of time!! But it was so great... the boys love basketball, especially Blake... as you may have come to know, Blake has a LOT of energy, and I mean a LOT of energy... he's very aggressive and fouled out of a bunch of games! Trey's a great 'bottom guy', he can box out and "put a butt on 'em" to get those rebounds and back up for his 'signature shot'!

He made it!!

This kid is over 6' tall... seriously. He wears a size 13 shoe!

Then came Thanksgiving...

Anna Kate decided she was hungry...

Then Christmas!


However, this was no ordinary Christmas! Gilly came to visit again! "Who's Gilly?", you ask? Well, he's our mischievous little Elf that visits every Christmas!! He gets into trouble, but thankfully, it's the kids' job to clean up!! If they don't do it themselves, then Santa comes to pick up Gilly the next night. Yep, that fast! Santa don't play.


Before Gilly went back with Santa, he left the boys a little message... out of marshmallows. Then Beau (our doggie) ate the message and had a tummy ache. Not pretty.


Awwww!! Look at my sweet new pajama'd boys!!
But this is the real truth!!

The BBC Choir went caroling to shut-in's and then to Bridge Street in Huntsville! Sooo much fun!!


I had a few photo sessions for children, engagements, and my first wedding in December too! (Well, not my first wedding... it was Amy & Josh's wedding, just my first wedding to shoot!!!)

Amy & Josh are such a darling couple!! They are very grounded in their faith in the Lord and share a precious love for each other. There's always something that happens (or in this case doesn't happen) at every wedding that isn't planned... at Amy & Josh's wedding, it was the kiss... yeah, the KISS!! You got it... Pastor Lon forgot to tell them to KISS!!! Josh & Amy knew it, and did a little 'half-peck' but some of us didn't realize it until it was time to go to the reception!

I heard someone mention something about the kiss and I looked back through my images and thought, "What?! I didn't get the kiss?! Have I lost my mind?! Why didn't I get the kiss?!" I was seriously about to have a heart-attack... I really thought I had missed it!! Then Josh told Pastor Lon that he didn't tell them to kiss... WHEW! I was really freaking out! but then Pastor Lon had some 'splainin' to do!! He announced them at the reception and made up for his little boo-boo...

Here's a few shots from those photo shoots:

These are the adorable Burke children... aren't they sooooo cute?!

Here's a quick pic of how much 'energy' little Mr. Burke had... yes, I chased him... a LOT! :-)
And these two were so much fun!! Their grandmother wanted some photos of them in their jammies at Christmas... they thought I was crazy when I laid on the floor to get some cool angles! :-)

And then Kristen & Andrew!!! We had SOOOOO much fun shooting their engagement session!
Poor Andrew was so hungry! They used 3 outfits and 3 locations and he was about to pass out!
He was a trooper, even though he was starving, he didn't mind the 5 hour make-out session! :-)

AND, because K&A were such fantabulous models, I submitted a few of their photos to CreativeMYK, a Christian website that helps graphic designers and photographers alike... we share images and clipart to make our presentations and advertisements really fabulous! Here are the ones they accepted!

I did a little traveling in January!!

First I went to Lewisburg, TN to the 5th annual Grove ladies retreat with my step-daughter-in-law and daughter! It was a wonderful weekend, filled with worship and learning more about God's grace and mercy...

My other trip was to Stone Mountain, GA with a bunch of pre-teens from BBC and Flint River to the SuperStart Conference! This trip was for 4th-6th graders ONLY! Katy bar the door!! No little kids allowed!
While there, we learned about doing Good Works for God... we heard about some amazing kids that are doing some amazing things for an amazing God!!

Not to brag or anything... ok, well maybe I am... but I was #2 of #26 on my first time to ever play Laser tag!!
This is one of the cool pix I got in the laser tag place!
This just proves you can get cool pix just about anywhere! :-)

Fast forward to this month:

Daddy turned 60!! He thought we were just taking him out for his birthday,
but much to his surprise, some of his brothers and sisters (and their spouses) were at the party!

This is only 1 of 2 photos I have of me, my Mom and my Memaw!
(Yep, they're so cool... they totally rock Facebook!)

Ok, so I did a little more traveling...
My latest trip was to Nashville for the Sandy Puc Tour last week! I. LOVED. IT!! I would love to be able to attend more photography workshops... maybe when my rich uncle gets out of the poor house. (**This is a shameless plug for Hubby, Mommy and Daddy to take note of!**)

I really did learn alot and was VERY inspired to give back by using my camera... I never really thought about it, but I can stop time....... think about that for a second. Your camera stops time... you can remember that moment forever!! I'm trying to figure out exactly what to do, but it will definitely have something to do with Relay for Life coming up in May. If you have an idea, please let me know, I'd love to hear your ideas!! One thing I've thought about is having a drawing for a FREE photo session! I'm thinking each entry could be a dollar or two, or maybe do a strip of tickets for a certain amount, then draw for the winner on the night of Relay... hmmm... idk, tell me what you think! Another of my fabulous ideas is to do a photo session for our local Survivors... now my wheels are really turning!! I'm getting excited just thinking about it!!

This is Ms Brenda Baeder, she is one of our BBC Believers leaders...
we did this photo for an article that will appear in the Hsv Times in the next month or so...

To quote my friend Sharon McClure, "I don't think I can take much more of this Global Warming!" I'm with you, Sharon!! :-) Snow, Snow, go away, come again some other day!

So there ya go... I FINALLY posted something! I guess this one is long enough to last me another 6 months! :-) Just kiddin', I'm really gonna try harder... :-)

Hey!!

Wednesday nights are soooooo much fun!!!! We're practicing for our Christmas production and it's sooooo gooooood!!It's called "Rejoice, a Soulful Celebration of Christmas". It.is.great! But wait! There's more!! But I just can't tell you right now... so sorry... if you go to BBC, you'll find out soon!! You want a hint? Nope! But you'll like it, we're sure!! :-)

The Christmas production is on Dec 6th at 9:15 and 10:45... then the BBC choir will be caroling to our shut-in members on Dec 13th at 5pm, (we will do some traditional Christmas songs, so everyone's welcome!!) Then on the 20th, we're going to carol at Bridge Street! YES!! Bridge Street! How cool is that?! We've never done anything like that before, so we're super pumped!! :-)

Listen to this song, it's so pretty!!



And because a post is always better with a picture... here ya go!

Ain't they so cute?! :-)

Pierced...

I just wanted to take a minute to invite you to
“Pierced”

the Annual Easter Production at my church, Bethlehem Baptist Church in Hazel Green!

Admission is FREE! Also, sign language interpretation will be provided for the deaf!

Hope to see you there!!


Here are a few pics from last year's production...

I hope you get to come!!! Bring friends, family and neighbors to see the Real Story of Easter!

He is....

Mighty to Save... simple as that.

Oh, How He Loves Us...

So, it's definitely been a while since I've posted... its been SUPER BUSY lately, of course, I say that everytime it's been a while... but seriously, I know your house is probably the same this time of year!
I guess you're wondering why I'd post at 12:50AM when I have to get up and get kids to school and me to work tomorrow... and here's why... it started out as just 'wandering around' my email, which took me to my Facebook, which took me to Santa-ing myself, which took me to wonder why this won't let me send it to anyone right now?... which took me to wonder what Heather Bookout has on her photography site?, which took me to her blog instead, which took me to this video...

funny how the Lord worked this one out, huh? Keep in mind, I haven't wondered about HB's photography in a long time, but I saw one of her ads on my kitchen table this afternoon before leaving for a Christmas party, it musta been stuck up there in my 'check out this site' brain-file... and to be honest, this is nothing like what I expected... I just thought her blog would be about her recent photog adventures and that's it, but God knew exactly what she had posted there back in JULY, and HE knew that I would keep looking at her blog as if I were looking for some photography tip to jump out at me... the thing is I have a hard time sometimes picking up the Bible instead of my favorite photog magazine... yes, I still pick up the Bible and I read it, but it seems so much easier to read that magazine because well, I love photography and learn something new on every page... the thing is, God wants me to be more interested in Him than I am in photography(or anything else!) and sometimes HE has to remind me by jumping off the page at me... well, that's exactly what happened tonight.

I don't know what your hobbies, businesses, busy-ness-es, obsessions, addictions, etc are, but I know mine and I know that God sometimes has to stop me in my tracks to turn me around and make me realize that I didn't stop to take time with Him today... it's easy to do, we have so much to do and so many places to go and so many people to see, but don't fail to realize that being in His presence and seeing Him and doing His work is the most important thing we can do on any day of the week... not just Sunday.

Father, I am so sorry for not taking the time to be in Your presence today. Thank you for using my hobby to remind me....thank you for Your Love, Your Grace, Your Hope, Your Guidance and Your Holiness.

My favorite group... EVER!

Hey, so who loves Casting Crowns more than me? Yeah, that's what I thought... nobody. I was just listening to Mark Hall on Rick and Bubba a little bit ago and heard a snippet of their newest Christmas song, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day"... ok, so I LOVE IT! That CD is on my "Must Buy For Myself Before Christmas" List... I make that list every year, cuz I'm sort of an impatient kinda girl... But in this case, you HAVE to HAVE this BEFORE Christmas 'cuz you want to play it as Christmas gets closer... and closer... and closer! I've been telling the kiddies that its "not time to put up the tree yet, Thanksgiving isn't even over yet!" (I'm the one that HATES to see Valentine's candy on the shelves in December) But the more I hear this great Christmas music, the more it makes me want to climb up in the attic to get the tree down! Ok,
so go on over to the CC website and hear the song for yourself... it plays automatically... you'll love it, I promise.... Merry Christmas!... I mean, Happy Thanksgiving! ;-)

A week in the life...

Hey folks!
Well, this is probably my busiest week EVER! At least it feels like it anyway... we're having BYF Day (that means Bring Your Friend Day) at church this Sunday, and it is B.U.S.Y. around there! We've been doing a lot of construction over the last few months 'cuz we're bumpin' up the coolness factor in the youth & kids areas... well, since we have guests coming this weekend, we've been bustin' it to get our house 'in order' plus we started setting up tables, media and other stuff today to get ready... (hey! even Steve got in on it... on his OFF DAY!) I was so impressed... cha-ching on the brownie points!!
And since it was Daddy's day off, we had lunch at school with the boys and Abby... we took Happy Meals from MickyD's... cha-ching for us! (pun intended) We all had a good time, its so funny to watch the other kiddos when parents come to lunch... they get so excited that "outsiders" came inside with them! ;-)

Ok, bad mama on me... my T-baby celebrated his "first kill" (his words) on Sunday and I still haven't shared it with you... I'll post some pics tomorrow, I'm too tired to walk out to the car to get the camera... I'm tellin' ya, I'm pooped from all that manual labor today!

Here's a few more pics from the library... (they were already in the computer) these were from the Lincoln County Fair a few weeks ago... of course, I forgot to post them... I promise I have good intentions, just a bad mem

BTW, wanna come to BYF with me?!

Has it really been that long?!

Oh my goodness!!! It's been a really long time since I've posted! I didn't realize it until I was reading Natalie Norton's latest lesson about blogging on Digital Photography School just a little bit ago and realized how right she is about posting everyday. I soooooo look forward to her new posts, so it made me realize that you's guys might want to hear from me more often! So sorry if you've been checking back and I haven't been here... I'll do better... promise!

Ok, so I took some pics of the boys at their games this weekend... here ya go!
I'm headed out the door in a minute to meet with Doc at church to finish setting up our LIVE feed on the site! We're so excited that we'll be able to furnish this service for members that can't make it to church- like those that may have health problems, etc but also we'll be on the web for those all around the world! We have several guys serving in Iraq and other military bases, now they can be a part of our service each Sunday! The services will also be available for playback, so if someone can't be at church or on the web at 9:15, then they can catch the playback whenever they want! If you can't tell, I'm very excited!

See ya tomorrow!!