Bridge

Today is my friend Bridget's birthday. I met Bridge my sophmore year at NDSU, and we became fast friends as we spent our years as Bison together as well as taking many of the same classes in the Teaching Education Department. She is a life long member of my Knitting Circle of Friends, she's what I call a journey friend...for I know she will be in my life years and years from now. You know how it is... just some stick around forever.

To help celebrate her day I thought what better gift than to hear just how amazing and special you are on your birthday. It would be easy to say that I know many, and I would prolli have to agree. However, thou I know many I don't speak words as such as these prudenly. Not just everyone has penetrated the walls of my inner soul to become one of my journey friends. I save that title for a select few, Bridge you are surely one.

At first glance you will be knocked out by her beauty. Some words like Malibu Barbie just may pop in your mind. She is in fact flawless on her looks. It would be easy to call her a Barbie Doll however if you took the time to know her or even just talk to her you would find that her inner beauty is even more beautiful than the blonde bombshell your eye first meets. She can be sassy, hip with fashion and speak her mind. She may tell you that shirt just isn't you or you need a breath mint. These are just a few traits of her... being her. Her strongest traits however is her gentle. kind. giving. loving soul. She is someone who gives of her time. She is someone who will wrap you in her warmth when you are having one of those days. She is someone that loves with every breath of her being. She is someone who will make you laugh til you cry. She is someone that carries that at home feeling with her because she makes everyone so comfortable being around her. She is someone that truly cares for you as a person. as one of her friends. She is someone that loves her little boy as well as the two children she now considers her own. Being a mom to Will, Tommy and Syd comes so natural to her. She loves with both roots and wings. Meaning she allows her children to grow and become with her love. She doesn't ground them with rules or laws. Such moms are rare to find. She is a gal that would rather have a budlight than a fancy drink. She is a gal that would rather have a backyard BBQ than a five star restaurant. She can rock a ball gown on a friday night as much as holey jeans and a paint covered shirt on sunday afternoon. So much a small town girl at heart (even thou she's always been a city girl) that loves the simple things in life. She is a woman that knows what matters. Her children. Her love(Dan the Man). Her family. Her friends. Her faith in life. She may not always agree with what she has been handed but she makes the best of it. She gets knocked down but always gets up and tries again. She is an example. a role model without a clue that she is. I know my life changed when she became apart of it. For in many ways she made me grow. I am grateful for the memories she has shared with me. The laughter. The smiles. The tears.

Happy birthday to my journey friend, Bridge. I hope its a great day. I wish more than anything that today you realize the gift you are to OOOh soo many each and everyday. Oh and by the way thou I have done many weddings... you are still one of my favorite brides as well as favorite weddings I have been honored to capture.

Blink of an eye

Blink of an eye... a saying that holds some much life meaning. Yet you don't realize just how powerful it really is until you find yourself in a moment where you say my life changed in the blink of an eye.

How often do we go about our lives in a routine. We are use to doing this and then this... going here going there. Seeing so and so and then seeing someone else. We get use to life being well life. And we don't mean too but often find that we take for granted life and esp the people that are in it. Tomorrow is promised to no one yet we talk everyday like its a for sure thing. The truth is tomorrow just might not happen for you or for me or for so and so. When was the last time you called up the people in your life and told them the meaning they have brought to your life. When was the last time you made time out of your day for someone you love just to let them know how much you love them. We are busy. We have work. We have a to do list. We have a house to clean-supper to cook and child to raise. But if you stopped for one moment and thought about it...in the end it all doesn't matter. It all comes back to the people in our lives and the love we have for those people. Today...TODAY they are here. Today they are smiling laughing breathing and living...TODAY... and tomorrow well they just might not be. And usually we only discover such a life secret once its too late. Once that person is gone. The person we thought would always be there tomorrow. So don't wait til tomorrow what can be done today. Don't wait to see your life change in a BLINK of an EYE.

***My thoughts and prayers are with Jamie and Tom Petrie and their family...esp Grandpa Bob. I pray that you are granted the time to just be with Bob and fill his moments with lots of love.***

Family Time

Sometimes the best moments and best memories are made by doing simple everyday things. For us we can escape to Paradise and its only minutes away. We put on our swimwear, some spf and pack a cooler and head out the door. We fish. We chat. We laugh. We tell stories and jokes. We make memories. We just hang as a family. We burn a little with too much sun. We take a few photos and just sit and relax. Its the way life is suppose to be.

Its easy to forget about life when you are floating on a boat in the middle of the water on a calm summer sunny day. Your troubles worries and stresses don't know how to swim so they are forced to stay ashore. I hope you are able to find such moments in your life. Today I am wishing you simple moments in your life that you can relax. enjoy. smile. and find yourself at peace.

a new chapter

They always say you will remember when you reach a point in your life where you know it will all change. That life will never be the same as it once was. That the person who you once were is now gone and thou parts remain a new part of you forms. They say things sometimes have to fall apart to fall back together right. They say you aren't given more than you can carry. They say the strong will carry on. They say some have to be slapped across the face to wake up to see what life is really all about. They say that some have to struggle and suffer for others to learn life lessons around them. They say alot of things. And I agree with it all. But I have something also to add... Its just a new chapter of the book of life if you ask me.

My new chapter began when Cancer became apart of my family. You find yourself all around people who's story is changed by this deadly killer. But until it becomes your story you just don't realize how precious life is. You don't realize all that comes along in its carry-on... the worries, the wonders of what will be and the list goes on. Or sometimes you find yourself living this life that seems like its yours but its not. But thats just because it takes awhile to adjust to realize this is reality now. So what do you do when you find yourself in a new chapter...that you don't want to be in... You keep on living. You keep on loving. You keep on believing. You keep on hoping and keeping the faith. You keep on walking and climbing without knowing where you are going. You keep on laughing. You keep on smiling. YOU just KEEP ON. What I found to be the most touching and yet overwhelming feeling is that yes we all find ourselves walking in the dark unknown but never did I think we would find so many in that dark unknown walking with us. Its these amazing people that hold in their hands the candle of hope that will lead us into the light once again. And it will be then a new chapter will start once again. Thou now we don't know where this journey will take us we trust it will lead us just where we need to be.

Living this Life.

We all find ourselves wrapped in life. We get in our daily lives and sometimes it seems like there is a bubble protecting us from the real world. So we go about our lives trying to make sure that bubble doesn't pop. But what we don't realize just how easy it can happen and how fast it can happen. Life can slap us across the face at any moment and awaken us to its reality that usually comes in the form of change. And often this such of a change is not one we like to embrace or even show the smallest signs of welcoming it into our lives.

Life can change in the blink of an eye and open our lives up to a new reality. a new life. a new journey. Sometimes we plan for such things. Sometimes we welcome them with heavy feet that don't want to start the new walk but slowly we take the steps and soon embrace the new reality of life. And then sometimes we hide from life's reality and beg for it to not be. Whatever they be we carry on. We trust in life's journey. We trust that it sees things that we can't. We trust there is a plan and a meaning that if we embark on such a journey we will one day find it and truly understand. But for the mean time we take it moment by moment. Then day by day. Until what was once not our reality becomes our life.

We are truly amazing beings the things we can adapt to. The things we can overcome. The way we can live this life and the way we can carry on. Because the truth is if we don't life will be a waste. And who knows maybe the new reality that we don't want to face and accept just might be better than the one we are living in right now. Change is funny like that... how its so hard to embrace at first but then there comes a day where the change is just a part of you almost like that was the way it always has been. So ya life can change in the blink of an eye but maybe just maybe it will open up a whole new world we never knew was even out there or even possible to live in... I guess thats what we find out along the journey... I guess thats what we find out by living this life.

LG

Today I wish you millions of simple moments of happiness. I wish that the glass of life is always half full. I wish you countless smiles and endless laughter. I wish you a life journey that takes you thru the ups and downs - happiness and sorrow - darkness and light so that you find yourself truly living each and every part there is to this life. I wish that you find yourself surrounded by supportive - down to earth people that will show you understanding and compassion during your life trials as well as celebrate along with you in your successes and happiness. I wish you a heart that is filled with love from others and for others. I wish you many more running miles on those stick legs of yours. I wish you life moments that will help you to learn to grow and to become the person that you now are and still will become. I wish that you find the beauty that surrounds you....ALWAYS. That you can see this beauty as much out your back and front door as you would in the places that you travel to see. I wish you a simple life that is filled with moments that you never would even dream of having or living.

Today I hope you trust your journey in this life. I hope you realize that you being just you is and always will be enough. I hope you find reasons everyday to LOVEthisLIFE... not just in moments of sunshine and happiness but in darkness and sorrow as well. I hope one day you will know the greatness that lies in your soul. I hope one day you will know of the difference and meaning you have brought to so many lives. I hope one day you will know just how loved and cared about you are.

Today we celebrate you, Lindsey Graham. Know there truly aren't words to fully speak my thoughts about you my friend. "Thoughts too deep for words." Sums it all up. All I can say is that I am grateful. I am thankful. I am blessed. I am lucky... to call you my friend.

Happy Birthday!

just watch me...

Sometimes I think of all the things I want to do. see. feel. experience. I think of the journeys I want to travel on. The person I want to grow into and become. I think of all the places I want my eyes to taken in. Of all the things I want to capture behind the lens of my nikon. I think of all the people I will someday meet and of all the people in my life that I want to see and spend time with.

It can get a tad bit overwhelming - thoughts of not being able to do this or that drive me completely crazy! And I will not allow such a thing like you can't do this or that cross my mind. And being told such things is surely a fast way to upset me. Instead to get by I think of the things that I will get to... In this life and the rest will just have to wait for the life to come. But don't think I won't try to do any many of those to do's that I want to do see feel and experience.

I am always on the go even when I am taking it easy I never fully just stop the truth is I find no relaxation in doing nothing. And if anything doing such a simple task actually is one of the few things that sparks stress in my life. So I run around with my head cut off tryin to do this see that meet up with so and so write this blog take this photo edit that one plan this dream of that drive here go to work clean organize and clean again call text laundry ski ski ski ski make a call to those I love and then think of all of the other things I need and want to do.

Its in my blood to never stand still. And if I reach the end of my days before the end of my to do's it will be okay. Because I will know I didn't waste a single moment. I packed as much as one ever possibly could in this life. I didn't limit myself to this or that I simply just did what I could do and not let such words as can't won't don't cross my mind or block my path. I am here to live! And trust me I will spend all my days on this earth living this life to the very depths of my being. Trust me when I say I will live my motto fully and completely... I will LOVEthisLIFE... Just watch me