Well, working for Jeanne again has been great! She's such an encouragement and I'm glad to be able to be helping her out as well. We got a ton of great photos of Asher on Monday... he's such a great model! Some of hers are so cute!!! Here's one of mine...
Also, the car situation is not looking so great. It was a bit more expensive for all the stuff on the car... window controller command center needs replaced as well as the timing belt and possibly other stuff associated with that. So, those 2 things plus the tow, worst case scenario would be about $875. I talked to the person who sold it to us and she's willing to pay 1/2 the cost or (since she's had a couple higher offers) to take care of it, we'd give her the car back and she'd give us our first payment back as well. Ugh, what to do! My gut is saying to just start from scratch again. At the end of this week (after getting our $500 back) we'll have a bigger chunk of cash to put towards a car. Not that she's giving us a bum deal or anything but we just weren't planning on spending near $3000 for a car. And really, we don't have enough $$$ to pay for 1/2 of the repairs plus our next payment in 1.5 weeks. Sounds like the choice is kind of made for me :-)
I guess I'll probably be looking for a new car then... if you find a nice/not embarrassing to drive car for around $1500 let me know! I have our Escape until Mark gets back, we talked about me stealing the car once a week to still go out to Jeanne's... so maybe in another 2 weeks we'll be able to buy a different car outright. Maybe I'll even just rent a car 1 other day a week to work for Jeanne... a month of that would ensure I could get a nicer car... hmmm! Be praying, as usual.
So, yesterday we had a parenting first... cleaning up lots of puke! We were lucky for 2 reasons...
#1 Asher only gagged after eating most of his banana so it wasn't an all day thing.
#2 Asher was sitting in his high chair... the fountain from his mouth mostly landed right in the tray :) Nice visual huh?
Anyway. I got a car finally! I'm able to pay for it by the work I'm doing for Jeanne again... I went to college with the gal who sold it to us and we now go to the same church so she's letting me make a couple separate payments on it. The bad news is that it stalled once and I had to get a jump to get it going again and yesterday it died again but only to be towed to the Ford dealership here in McMinnville... where incidentally, our other car was finished being serviced (luckily that was free!). Anyway, so we'll see what's wrong with it. While we were driving earlier in the day one of the rear windows fell partway down the door and we couldn't get it to roll back up... but, good thing that happened b/c if it had rolled up we probably would have just found a ride home and left the car in the parking lot for a few days... which may have gone on past a week since Mark is going out of town today! Talk about a run-on sentence!! We should find out tomorrow what the cost of repairs will be... someone from Les Schwab had a theory which is only one filter or one part that may need replaced... we'll be praying about it for sure. And we'll probably be able to knock a little off the price of the car since we only got it last Saturday and already it was not even a running car! The car was a great deal though... valued at least over $3500 through kbb.com and we got it for $2000. It's a 2000 Ford Focus and it's perfect for me to be driving around - once it's actually up and running again :-)
I've been booking more photo shoots and I'm actually all caught up on the editing which is a great feat for me! I have another shoot this weekend... Austie's sister from North Bend is coming up and we're going to go crazy doing lots of stuff in the studio. Both Jeanne and I will get some great stuff for stock and Austie will also get some awesome shots for her makeup portfolio. Here's a photo from Matt's senior photo shoot...
and another from the shoot I did 2 weekends ago.
Well, thank goodness I'll be busy this week b/c Mark will be gone with his boss on business for almost a week... hopefully Asher is good for me! Pray for strength, patience and endurance!!!!!
Actually, this post isn't about Asher (as so many are) but about me! As you know, and as many other people have mocked, I focus mainly on my RF stock portfolio... well, yesterday I finally saw one of my images sold for stock in use! Yay!!! So exciting! I guess I'm so excited b/c it makes me feel like I am good enough for my images to be used in professional stuff... check out
www.zales.com
It's Justin and Austie fall of last year... so fun! Besides this, my photography is really picking up so I'm keeping way too busy. Plus, I've started to work for Jeanne again 2 days a week and I'll be paying my friend Gizelle to babysit Asher at least one of the days, sometimes two! Alright, I have work to do. Love you all!
I know, I'm always saying how cute he is... but really, look at the evidence!
Asher had his 6 month well-check today... he was such a ham. Grinning at the Dr., laughing at me being silly and just having a good time in general. Until the shots at least :-) He actually did pretty good with the first shot and then started wailing after the next... only 3 this time though!
He's still growing perfectly... his head is over 97%, weight is at 90% and his height is 75%. Not bad at all! We're so thankful for such a cute baby who is so healthy and happy. Here's a photo showing his great joy! Oh, and we're still waiting for that perfect photo of his little teeth... both are coming out now and should make a full appearance by next weekend... so fun!!
Yay! Asher's teeth are finally breaking :-) Right now you can feel the tooth on the bottom left and you can see the cut in the gums there with a small spot of white! The right tooth is a bit behind... just a pale color in the gums. I'm so excited! He'll be so cute with his little teeth poking out! I'll put up the pics as soon as those teeth make their full appearance... and if I can get him to hold still long enough!
Ok, so I couldn't figure out how to embed this one into the blog, but here's a link to a video of Asher being a ham for the camera (or in this case the webcam). Just click the screenshot below.
No, Asher isn't crawling. But he is wiggling about the floor! Take a look at this photo...
First, Asher started out playing with the green frog to the Left of the image. Then, he twisted, turned and pushed a bit, including some rolling back and forth, and eventually got ahold of the tan onesie he's holding :-) It was laying by that red and silver bag. Then you can see how he headed toward the green toy further in the background... what a crazy kid! I can't imagine what "fun" it will be when he begins to do all of that in about 1 minute vs. 10 :-) Here's one more gratuitous photo!
It's been a while since I actually posted. Between cleaning up at home, taking photos and keeping Asher happy all day I don't often have "free time" at the end of the day. In fact, usually I still have a to-do list for the next day. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that someday I will get things done and have a little extra time for sleep :-)
So, I did some senior photos yesterday for Mark's Boss' son... I'm really happy with how they are turning out...
I also booked another paid senior photo shoot for next Saturday with someone my friend Austie recommended me to. Then I'm also doing Matt's senior photos this Saturday... did I mention I was busy? But it's really great to see my photography picking up. My earnings don't pay for a lot of things we need yet but maybe in a few months we'll start to see a difference.
Today Kory is having someone put a bathroom into our ginormous bedroom. Should take about a week. In the meantime, the bedroom is pretty much off limits during the day so I have to be quick and organized getting out of there in the morning with everything I'll need for the day... Asher will be taking naps in Mark's office (hopefully actually sleeping during that time). The problem is, you can hear everything in the office from the living and vice-versa. It is going to be a long week... but the reward will be worth it... our own private bathroom in our room!!! Ahh. Pray for my survival!!!!!