Lots of pictures from Quincy, IL

I still have more to share! Can you believe it? These first two just remind me of any small midwest town.there are tons of Christian signs like this all over. I love it! THese next ones are just my capturing everyone around the house. They are some of my very very favorites.

two brothers, two best friends.
oh I miss this boy and his big brown green eyes, and sweet sweet smile.

gloria's yummy bedroom. I wish I took more of it. Down below I come upon 14 yr. old Brady in his room. This picture screams teenager!


this was his favorite one.

isn't he a handsome young man?


my sister's birthday and her husband making dinner for her. What a man!

something my family loves to do, squeeze bunnies. A definite sign of endearment.
Glor on the phone talking to all our siblings who were calling to wish her a happy birthday!
One of my favorite pairs of shoes that I bought on this trip.I did buy a few. I know a ridiculous amount. 16 pairs to be exact. But, in my defense (as Leah would say) they were all too good of deals to pass up. It was crazy all of these $75 shoes and up I got for 3-7 dollars. Gloria was so mad because they all seemed to be in my size. Ok they weren't all that cheap but 90% of them were.

Gloria likes to go waterskiing on her birthday every year. It is her favorite thing to do. I finally at the last minute gave in and waterskiied too.


Gloria and her daughter Kennedy. We went on a walk before going out to dinner at the yummiest Italian restaurant. Thank you for a most fabulous trip. These are the last of my pictures I am going to share except for their official family photo shoot pictures I'll put on the photography website. Miss you rodenbergs!!!!

Family going ons, quotes "N" such (as they say in the midwest)

Was reading my email tonight before bed, and I got one from Jacob (my son). How special is this! (It did have a smiley face by it).

How is it going mom thank you for all that you do. Even if I dont show my appresiation right away allways know that I am greatfull.

I think Jacob is just very very happy today as he was "asked out" by the girl he likes. The whole school was abuzz with the news when I picked the kids up. It was hysterical. Can you tell they go to a small school? My little boy is growing up. It's a happy sad thing. When we move I am so tempted to put all of my kids in the same grade so that I have them at home longer. They are growing up so fast.

Leah is the queen of phrases and big words that she says slightly wrong. It keeps us laughing. She is really liking to say, "In my defense...."

DAve called as the kids and I were driving home from school. Rachel had to talk to him and explained that she needed to do a biography of someone for school and since she thinks that he has had a fascinating( or did she say intriguing-i can't remember) life she wanted to do the biography on him. She set up interviews with him for Saturday and Sunday.

I think I will dream about photoshop tonight because I worked on it all morning and went to class tonight. You have no idea how huge this is for me! I am so not a computer person. I could never even play, or wanted to play video games growing up. I still have no idea how to work my cell phone, just because I don't care. So don't expect a text message from me anytime soon. I am clueless I tell you. So anyway, I am very proud of myself for stretching myself to learn computer programs "n" such. I make Dave tell me how proud he is of me all the time. Ha. All this to say..... I am sooo sooo grateful for all of your positive, and motivating compliments about my photography. It has taken me 20 years to get up the confidence to do this. It has been a life long dream for me. I took photography in highschool and started out majoring in photography in college and got A's- I just looked around my class and thought,"I'm not artsy fartsy like these people, I must not have what it takes." Lame, I know. It feels so good to finally go after this dream, and to see the response. I am on cloud nine. WHat exactly does that phrase mean? Does anyone know?

My "hopes to accomplish for tomorrow include... cleaning my house because Dave is finally coming home and editing the Kobel's pictures, do the Baron's photo shoot, and then hang with family, and cozy cozy all night. I really need to start driving around to find some new and interesting places to take pictures around here. Feel free to give me some suggestions.

My "older" sister gloria

On her 41st birthday. Oh yah the male model we brought in for the shoot. ha ha. Actually her husband. I didn some more playing around for my class. I don't know exactly what I mean with the phrase on the picture. We just have to do that, and I thought it sounded cool. ha ha. Don't enlarge the photo (i told you not to. ha.) You can see some photoshopping that I need to redo but I am too tired right now. goodnight,.

Is it possible to teach an old dog new tricks?

I sure hope so. I started a photoshop class at estrella mountain community college. It has been a goal of mine to learn this program. I am not a wiz at figuring out anything on the computer and so this is a challenge for me. But here is a photo of my beautiful niece Kennedy with a delightful mat that I played around with in photoshop cs3 tonight. Kennedy, I hope you appreciate that I took off all of your acne. Aren't I the best Aunt EVER! There are so many different options of things that you can do on PS3 that literally you can spend hours on just one image playing around with it. Do you like it Gloria? Aren't you dying to see the rest?

Gloria's continued...

OK here it is! The walkout basement. I told you it was cool. Gloria has great stories about every piece and where she found it, and how she altered it, or didn't. For instance, the couch she had reupholstered, and the guy she took it to actually worked for the company that made it in the 70's and he actually designed it. What a coincidence. I forgot to take a picture of the TV stand that she refinished, dang.

this is my niece Kennedy that is 2 weeks older than Rachel. She plays piano really well, I love her long fingers that she inherited from her dad. Glor's kids are really talented musically. Gloria was always felt like everyone in our family had musical talent (of the girls) but her. We all played instruments, and she never really had the opportunity. How cool that all of her kids are so gifted with music. I think that Heavenly Father knew her desires and granted them through her children. I think he loves us like that, if you ask me. Austin who is 16 is amazing on the piano, and plays the drums and is in the band too. Brady at 14 is the star in every musical in town and is requested by the college to be in their productions too. Kennedy plays the piano beautifully, sings and dances. The youngest are just starting on the piano and loving it. None of my kids loved it! I am hoping one of mine will like an instrument enough to have the discipline to practice.
I still have lots to share on my trip back there. I didn't do all the church history stuff (she lives right by nauvoo, carthage etc.) I did that on past trips. But tjmax sure had a great sale. ha ha.

The Best B&B ever!

The hardest thing about visiting family is I miss them so bad when I come home. For awhile I dream of living by them, and wishing they were here for a birthday party, or to go play tennis with, or watch a cozy movie with a treat. But then I eventually get caught in the busy life that is my reality. So the reason for this rambling on family is I just had the most wonderful visit with my sister Gloria and her family in Quincy, Illinois. We had so much fun! I was treated so special. I did some serious shopping, and best of all really bonded with my nephews and nieces. Again, a happy sad thing. Happy cause I love them so much, sad because now I miss them even more! So to show you what I mean I will give you a glimpse of my trip.

FIRST... the accommodations. They couldn't be finer. My sister is a gifted interior decorator. She isn't officially trained or do it for a living, just naturally amazing. Let me show you what I mean. The guest room










The R is for Rodenberg, my sister's last name. Every detail of her house is amazing.

I love these curtains.






After getting settled in my luxurious guest room my sister brings me in homemade lemonade made with splenda. Such treatment. wow







my beautiful view down to the pond in back and these gorgeous white flowers that matched the room. too perfect.





My first morning I was awakened to the smell of bacon and led out to the walk around porch that covers the back of the house to this table with my delicious breakfast waiting.






I had delightful company with my breakfast. Don't you love that shirt? (and it speaks the truth, ha ha)



You wonder how I ever came home don't ya. Although my girls do bring me breakfast in bed quite often. I am so spoiled. Next post I will show you the basement that my sister decorated using 60's furniture that she got from thrift stores and had reupholstered. It is so awesome.

Clifford Family shoot

Fly on over to my photography website and check out this "SUPER" family!

How to have the AbunDant LIfe!

Read this today, and it gave me new energy to serve others!

Unless the way we live draws us closer to our Heavenly Father and to our fellowmen, there will be an enormous emptiness in our lives. It is frightening for me to see, for instance, how the life-style of so many today causes them to disengage from their families and their friends and their peers toward a heedless pursuit of pleasure or materialism. So often loyalty to family, to community, and to country is pushed aside in favor of other pursuits, which are wrongly thought to be productive of happiness when, in fact, selfishness is so often the pursuit of questionable pleasure which passes so quickly. One of the differences between true joy and mere pleasure is that certain pleasures are realized only at the cost of someone else's pain. Joy, on the other hand, springs out of selflessness and service, and it benefits rather than hurts others.

Service to others deepens and sweetens life. Not only do we "find" ourselves in terms of acknowledging divine guidance in our lives, but the more we serve our fellowmen in appropriate ways, the more substance there is to our souls. We become more significant individuals as we serve others. We become more substantive as we serve others-indeed, it is easier to "find" ourselves because there is so much more of us to find! - (Spencer W. Kimball)

Josh & Dyan

If you want to see more of their temple photo shoot, I put like 50 on a blog site for them to see and pick what they want printed for their reception. click here

So Much Fun!

So, I did it! I survived my first wedding photo shoot tonight. It was so fun, and tiring. The wedding is this Saturday. Can't wait to share all the pics. Thank you to all of you who encouraged me to do this!

BOSTON

I loved the mix of old architecture with the new. This is the old state house above. On the balcony there, the constitution was read for the first time.
this is the oldest church in the U.S. built in the 1700s. Benjamin Franklin was baptized in this church. I loved the chandalier. There was a good feeling in this church. People were actually reverent went they went in. You could feel that good things had happened here.
ok, so not exactly a church or historic monument, but I thought this bar's name was pretty funny and clever!
This is the famous swan pond on Boston Common. I just loved all the old trees. So beautiful!

Isn't this a cool door? It was located on Beacon Hill.
Us following the trail of freedom. Boston is the most walkable city I have ever been in. So clean and everywhere so picturesque. Starting at Boston Common there is a red line that you can follow through the city (a walking tour) that takes you to many historic sites. Very cool. We were walking it with a group of amish teenagers. You can see a couple in front of us. They were such a stark contrast to the immodestly dressed people all around us. Very refreshing. I love their culture.
Ok so the thing most common on the trail of freedom is dunkin donuts. It really became a joke with us. We couldn't get over how many there were. Seriously on every corner. So we had to stop and try a "boston" creme donut of course.
All over there are these spooky and cool old graveyards. You just don't see anything like this out west.
We went on a tour called a "duck tour". You ride in these old world war II jeep/boats. They showed us around the streets and then you went into the Charles river. Kinda cool. We also drove up to Salem and along the coast all the way up to Gloucester. Very Cape Coddish. Didn't take my camera. Can you believe that! While I loved Boston and it is really a very unique and beautiful city, cities still aren't my favorite. Where's the beach! It did remind me of Italy in parts. Just the smells and the open markets took me back. We hung out in little Italy where there are 110 italian restaurants. We had some yummy food. I bought some Panna, and Beschamel sauce from an Italian salumeria. I am excited to use them. I am guilty to admit that I spent alot of time in my hotel room laying in bed and reading Harry Potter. Isn't that horrible or "oorreeble" as Fleur would say. ha. We could have used that time to go to plymouth. I did see "old iron sides" though. Coming up are fun pictures from my trip to my sister Glor's house. We did a family photo shoot too. Very midwest with the red barn. fun fun.