New plans

Hello friends and happy Tuesday!

I hope this post finds you all well.

I am just dropping in real quick to give you guys and gals a heads up!

 

I have been considering a new avenue for this brand along with my photography business and I have some plans in the works! This means there will be changes around here put into effect in the upcoming months and hopefully will be done by the start of August! I'll m ake sure to keep you all updated, and make sure you check out the rest of my social media as well for sneak peaks and special information.

 

Relay for Life went quite well. It was ridiculously hot, which we were not counting on. We luckily had a tent from the Boy Scouts secured for us. Mo had to go get some sunscreen and bug spray because we were being eaten alive! My team rasied $70 and 70 Euro in cash, which we turned in before we left Saturday night. Although there were only 4 people that showed up for my team that day, we still had a pretty good time. We went around the track quite a few times, Mo helped me create a cool banner for our team, and we had fun at the games. We didn't stay the whole time, lefts hortly after 8 pm due to the bugs as well as Mo's allergies and my need to lay down after all the traveling.

 

Also! Next monday starts registration for RUKristin's Find Your Voice workshop which opens on 01 July! Remember that this is a free workshop, but you still need to register for it! This is going to be a fun six-week course on learning to find your storytelling voice, no matter if you're a scrapbooker, photographer, blogger, writer... it doesn't matter! I am looking forward to this workshop! I hope you guys and girls will join me!

 

 

Make sure you stick around and see all the good things coming up here in the near future. I am going to be a busy busy bee!

 

 

 

"I Love" Sunday's v.31

Hello friends and Happy Sunday!

This has been a super busy week for me... and I am super pooped. 

** I flew to Florida Sunday evening/ Monday morning to surprise my brother this week. He graduated on Thursday, and had no idea I would be there. The best part was watching him try to figure out what was going on Monday morning when he was getting ready for his last day of school. At first he thought I was our mom (she occasionally sleeps on the couch) but then he saw the light of my cell phone and my mom walked in, he had to do a couple of double takes before he pieced together that I was there.

**  My mom made me my first Midori Travelers Notebook and taught me how to make my own! I have a field notes size that I am going to use as part of the Listers Gonna List project as well as to keep track of my blog posts. I made a larger size Midori to use as a calendar and crafting project notebook. I also made one for my friend Eilene, the Event Coordinator for Relay for Life. 

** So my best friend from 5th Grade was in the area visiting her father (she moved to Nebraska after 7th grade) so I got to see her! We haven't seen each other since 2012 when I was home on mid-tour leave from Afghanistan. We surprised my mom for lunch before we went to Hot Topic for some geeky shopping. I got a Batman swimsuit that is reversible, it's more black then yellow on one side and the other side is more yellow then black!

** I finally got my rose tattoo that I have been wanting for a while! I went to the same place that I got my music tattoo from back at Christmas of 2011. He did my rose tattoo, touched up my breast cancer ribbon, and did a heart on the side of my wrist for me and my best friend. Pretty stoked about it all! I do so love tattoos.

** I also was treated to a pedicure by my friend Ashes and her mother on Wednesday. It was nice to spend time with them. I am kinda weird about people touching my feet, especially now with the Fibromyalgia acting up more in my legs and has poor timing on when it choses to act up. 

** Jordan graduated on Thursday morning, thankfully it was a quick ceremony. There were a lot of screaming and high pitch noises that kind of set me on edge, but it was still nice. Afterwards, we went and I took his senior pictures. Check out this post on my photography blog for more information! I swear although he doesn't look like it, he is 5 years younger then me!

My dad took this picture of me and my brother

** Yesterday was Relay for Life on base. It is always a great evening and we had a lot of fun throughout the night. Mo was so proud of his Avengers styled A for our banner. Everything on that banner was drawn by either Mo or myself. There will be a more dedicated post about the entire event later this week!

**  I am planning on participating in RUKristen's Find Your Voice 2015 this year and I signed up to be a sponsor and an ambassador for the event. I can't wait to find out whether or not I get to be either (or both). I am working on being a better memory keeper and combining my love of photography, memory keeper, and story teller. ((That is partially why I decided to participate in #1000WordStory))

.: Little Loves :.

||  Mountain Dew Baja Blast | McDonald's Sweet Tea | making lists | restaurant style chips | blogging |  building my business | Harry Potter shirts | My new chevron shoulder bag | new sandals | Frosted Sugar cookies ||

What are you loving from this past week?

"I Love" Sunday's v.30

Thank god today is Sunday!!!!!

It's been a long couple of weeks for me with these back to back rotations. Technically this one that I am in doesn't end until the 3rd.

** For those that don't already know, I am flying home today to surprise my younger brother for his high school graduation! He and my mom talked a couple months ago that he wished I could be at his graduation but he knew that I couldn't. When I got moved to my new section back in late March, early April, I talked to my NCO and he told me I could take leave for Graduation. He has absolutely NO idea that I am going to be home after midnight on Monday. It's a 10 hour flight from here to Washington D.C., and another couple hours from there to Tampa.

** Mo and I got to talk this week a couple times, which makes me happy. Things are going much better for us. We're working things out slowly between us, which is probably the best news I've heard in quite a while! Any who, I get to see him today, he's taking me to the airport after we get some lunch. He's also picking me up next Friday so we can drive back to Hohenfels because Relay for Life is next Saturday.

** Found a couple of good websites and blogs to help me start and build my Senior Photography business, which makes me pretty excited. I've also been working on my website to make it more user friendly and pretty-flu (yes, that is a word!) I was also directed to a website called Squijoo, where you pay $10 a month and you get unlimited access to free templates for marketing. I downloaded a bunch of templates to use and am pretty excited to get things put together.

** I have been finding more people who are bloggers with chronic illnesses or disease. This makes me happy because it means there are other people like me and people I can talk too so I am not alone.  It's hard being new to this world and not having someone here to talk too. I don't know anyone in person who has Fibro like I do, so I don't have anyone to talk to on a daily basis. It's nice finding other bloggers because I kind of have people to talk to, people who share their stories, and I have people to learn from. It's just nice knowing that I am not alone.

** My friend got me hooked on a new tv show, Hawaii Five-0, on Netflix. It's actually extremely entertaining to me. I like the friendship between Danny and Steve, and I love the random things that Danny says. If you haven't watched the tv show and like Crime Drama shows, please watch it! "Why must you say that? You're like a devourer of dreams... like Pacman in cargo pants." Watching this show is just another reason for me to go visit Hawaii!! It seems to be a very beautiful place with interesting people.

** I started working out a little bit, trying to see what I can do without causing myself more pain. Anyone who knows me should be able to guess with what I started with first.... squats. I like to say that squats are the devil, and they hurt quite a lot, they are a well known way for me to strengthen my legs... and help me get rid of the jiggly legs that have appeared over the last couple of months of little extra activity. Here's to starting a new workout plan to help deal with the pain!!! I am going to win against this fibro!

.: Little Loves :.

|| Learning new things | So ready to be on leave | Surprising people | having hope | Communication | Chocolate Milk | Beef Jerkey || 

#ThisWeek- Service

Hello dear friends! Happy Memorial Day to you all.

I was super stoked when Mandy emailed me and asked me if I wanted to guest post for her for Memorial Day using the term Service, to which of course I instantly agreed!

This particular topic is very easy for me to share with you guys because I serve every day. I serve as an Air Traffic Control Operator for the US Army, I serve as a volunteer for Cancer Research events, and I serve as a photographer for my unit. Service can mean different things to different people, and each meaning can be as important as the next.

I enlisted into the U.S. Army at 18 years old and went to basic training a month after I graduated high school. Just like my older brother before me and other friends, I knew I wanted to serve in the US Military and do my part to help serve my country.

That's me, in 2011 I was deployed to Afghanistan with my unit to serve as an Air Traffic Control Operator in RC East, near Kabul. We controlled multi-national aircraft that were assisting with Operation Enduring Freedom against the terrorists. Our job was to get aircraft from one point to another, giving them alerts of other aircraft in their flight path, giving them a reassuring helping hand when the weather got bad, as well as assisting the medical helicopters when they needed to take off in an instant! Luckily, everyone in my unit came home together in 2012, whereas other people in my brigade weren't as lucky. This deployment served to create an unbreakable bind between the fifty some odd people in that unit. We knew we could rely on each other when it was needed, we knew that there would always be someone watching our backs, and it created unbreakable friendships that still stand to this day, even though we've spread all over the country and even into Europe and Korea.

Everyone enlisted for their own reasons, some, like me, do it because they want to serve their country and help make a difference. Call it super-patriotism I guess. Some people enlisted just to get out of their small town. Some people joined, hoping to turn their life around and make a difference that way. For whatever reason, for decades, people have enlisted in the US. Military. They take an oath to serve their country, to potentially go to war in countries that hate us with a passion, knowing that they might not come home. This is how we serve our community.

 

Another way I serve people is through being the social media coordinator and a team captain for Relay for Life and assistance event coordinator for the Breast Cancer 5K. A lot of people all over the world have been effected by Cancer for many many years. At Relay for Life, we're walking to raise money for cancer research. I Relay for my best friend's mom who was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in 2014, for a girl in high school whose father passed away our senior year, for a friend I met back in 2012 who had cancer, and for the people who have cancer right now and for those that lost their battle with cancer. We want to raise money for cancer research! To inspire cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers to have Hope, to know that people care! 

2014 Breast Cancer 5K, I worked at the handmade crafts table for people to purchase goods to raise money

Another way I 'serve' is that I am the photographer for my unit, I photograph all of the events the unit has for free. I capture the memories and the camaraderie between the Service members of the unit and their families. I donate my time for my coworkers to give them good pictures at the Hail and Farewells, Promotion Ceremonies, Reenlistment Ceremonies, and even a Retirement Ceremony. I document the End of Rotation BBQ's where we present awards and celebrate another successful rotation of training NATO aviation allies.

A retirement ceremony I had the honor of photographing. The brigade commander was passing a retirement flag to a CW4 who served almost 24 years in the United States Army in Aviation.

Yesterday I combinined my love of photography and my volunteering time to fundraise money for Relay for Life 2015 by hosting mini sessions with two other photographers in my area. We're hosting mini sessions for people in the community and all the proceeds go to Relay for Life happening on 06 June. 

 

 

Thank you Mandy for asking me to host this prompt today. It was definitely fun to write and think about the different ways that I serve.

 

To my friends and readers- how do you SERVE?

 

 

 

"I Love" Sunday's v.29

Hello friends and happy Sunday.

Not a lot really happened for me this week, it was rather uneventful.

** I got to work all the short shifts this week at work. I got to work at 1600 (4 pm) every day this week and the latest I stayed was 2000 (8 pm) except for Thursday, where I worked until 2300 (11 pm). This is awesome because I got quite a bit done in my room or for my blog or business every day and then I was only at work for a short while.

** I have spent the last week cleaning out my ENTIRE room and I got rid of a bunch of stuff. Having everything crammed into one room means I've accumulated a bunch of junk in over a years time. I have a lot of papers to shred at work tomorrow from when I worked in the tower. It's super good since I will be leaving Germany soon and the less amount of stuff I have to ship back to the States, the better off I am. I also found a couple things that I was looking for. 

** My friend gave me the latest Fast & Furious movie- which was pretty awesome. I might actually watch it again to make sure that I didn't miss anything!

** Today was my Hope Mini Sessions. I'm happy that they happened, but slightly disappointed in the turn out. I don't know about the other photographers, but I only got booked for two sessions. That's still $100 towards Relay for Life, I was just hoping for a little more. Hopefully next year, once I am back in the States and can build a bigger following, I can get more people to participate. For now, it's a learning moment! On Saturday I got to meet the other photographer in person, I've been following her work for months now, and we discussed how I want to do this again in October for Breast Cancer Awareness, and she said that we can work on that in August or September to help get the word out sooner and get more people interested. It all just comes down to planning and learning from each experience.

** I spent today hanging out with the couple from my Hope Sessions today. We celebrated Memorial Day today since I work tomorrow. They grilled me some awesome foods and we went to a town fest for a little while. They bought me ice cream :D

** I got nominated for the Liebster Award by two people. That was fun!

** Joined the International Geek Girls Pen Pals Club to hopefully make new Geek Girl friends!

** Spent most of my free time looking through the Elle & Company blog for good information and learning tools to better my blog and my business! Always looking for ways to improve!!!!

.: Little Loves :.

|| Nutty Bars | Lipton Raspberry Ice Tea | Dr. Pepper | The Originals | Bitten | Fast & Furious marathons | BBQ Pringles | Chili's microwavable dinners from the frozen food isle | Another week closer to me going on leave! ||

What are you loving from this past week?

"I Love" Sunday's v.27

Hello friends and happy Sunday!

 ♥ Thanks to listening to Pandora at work during this last rotation, I came across a lot of new (to me) music that I really enjoyed! Was introduced to Ed Sheeren (my boss likes listening to Thinking Out Loud every day), Jasmine Thompson, and Christina Perri. So I got them, Imagine Dragons, One Republic, The Script, and I Prevail on my iPod now. Rather enjoying having new music!

♥ Last night I went to Kareoke with some of my friends from when I first moved to Germany at a little bar in their area. It's a German bar but is frequented by American's. There was a lot of great music and not so great singers, but we had fun.

♥ This month is the month of birthday's for me. Grandmother's bday was yesterday, The 4th started it off with a friend from base, followed by a pen pal, today is Mother's Day and a friends bday, tomorrow is Dad's birthday, the 15th is Mom's, the 17th is my best friend Lindsay and my penpal Patti, the 20th is my longest standing friendship (since 5th grade), and then there are two more at the end of the month. Busy busy busy for me!

♥ This weekend I got all caught up on my TV shows, which always makes me happy. I hate having to wait a week to watch my shows and get all caught up. I tend to forget what happens in that week between episodes and it makes me a little annoyed (kinda weird, I know).

♥ Friday was a Hail & Farewell for work. We went to this nice German restraunt in a nearby town and most of the entire unit came out. This is the biggest Hail & Farewell we've had since like last June when our old LTC left and we went on an all day adventure at the Weltenburg Monestary (they make their own beer). This time, our LTC is leaving us as well, as are a bunch of people surprisingly. The food was good though, and I hung out with our crew chiefs and had fun. I did get to spend the last like 2 hours taking photos of the event for our Facebook page... which is always an adventure.

♥ Finally redid my Photography website and Blog because I have been working on a rebranding of my business :) That made me super excited! I know there still needs some work to be done to make my blog look more professional, but I did the current look on my own, and I am pretty happy about it! I have a new logo and what not! I am super excited to being going back to the states before the end of the year and actually being able to charge for my photography! I haven't been able to due to the boss of the Tower wouldn't let me submit paperwork to our team command for signature allowing me to have a Home Based Business during my free time ((he's a butthead)) so I haven't been able to charge for any of the work I have been doing since I got here last March.

My new logo

♥ The flyer is finally out for the upcoming Hope sessions for my post's Relay for Life event at the start of next month.  I am super excited. I have been thinking of this idea since last year's Relay and I finally got it to come to life (for lack of a better phrase. It's late.... sssshhhhhhhhh). Basically I am teaming up with 4 other local photographers and we're each doing 10 sessions at a discounted rate and all the money made gets donated to Relay For Life. (( You can donate to my team here)). We're all pretty excited and it'll be awesome to get to spend time with other photographers!

Our flyer

♥ My Marvel Collectors Corps box came in finally! Super excited about that. It's a bi-monthly subscription box that has a Marvel theme each time. The first box was themed for Avengers: Age of Ultron since the movie came out on the 1st! It was awesome! I got a t-shirt, 6" Hulkbuster from Funko!, an Ultron Dorbz toy, a Captain America pin, a special comic, and an Ultron patch! The nerd in me was having a field day!!!

Marvel Collector Corps items!

.: Little Loves:.

|| 4 Day work week | German cola | the fried rice dish we always get from this awesome German made Chinese place | the warmth of the sunshine |  Smores Pop Tarts ||

What are you loving from last week?

Relay For Life 2015

Hello dear friends and Happy Friday!

((Super stoked it's Friday, even though I have to work all weekend))

Like I mentioned in yesterday's post at the very end, I am participating in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life event this June. Last year, we were the first event created is Germany, falling under a Relay for Life in McKinney, Texas. We have to have a chapter in the states since we live in a foreign country, and thankfully the event coordinator has participated for years in Relay and her sister is the coordinator for the one in Texas, so we just fall under them. Last year, we didn't have a lot of time to prepare for the event, but we still raised over $18,000! This year we've had several more months to prepare, get the word out, and get people to participate.

Yesterday, I participated in an Arts & Crafts fair on my home station to let people know about our event as well as do some small fundraising for my team. I talked to some ladies who are going to put together raffle items or raffle baskets for the event, which is pretty awesome.

I am a team captain again this year, a team made up of Mo, me, and a couple of my coworkers. Hopefully we get more people to join our team!

If you would like to donate to our team for Relay, please go here!

So, I'll be spending my time making paracord items, fabric hairbows, and crochet little monsters like the one below. You can find more of my crafts here, and I will ship them anywhere, if you would like to purchase something to support our cause!