Hey There, Good Lookin'

This could, quite possibly, be one of the worst photos ever taken of me. So naturally, I want to share it with you, dear Internet.

I'm giving a little photography presentation for the young women of the ward tomorrow.  This is the photograph I'm going to use to show what happens when you break all the posing rules.  In case you're wondering just what photographic calamities came together to cause this perfect storm, here's what's happening: (i.e. what not to do)

1. I'm standing straight on... doing nothing.

2. Rory (the photographer) is shooting a full-body portrait from above eye-level, thus making a relatively tall, thin woman look both short AND squatty.

3. I stuck out my hips a bit so they are the closest thing to the camera (whatever is closest to the camera looks the biggest)

4. Rory shot at a low millimeter (28mm) which always causes distortion.  In this case, it makes it look like my upper body is the same length as my lower body. 

5. Of course all of those things could possibly be excused and the photograph saved IF I had a really fantastically great expression to distract from all those other elements.  I don't.  I'm not exactly sure what expression is on my face (maybe a cross between looking like I'm stuck in traffic and looking like someone around me just passed gas).

You have now both laughed and been educated with this post.  Your welcome.

Catchin' up on your R&R!

We live in Texas now- San Antonio to be exact! At the end of May, we moved to where "the stars at night are big and bright!" 

Prior to moving here, I had never been to Texas (unless you count a layover in Dallas a decade ago- which I don't). Since moving here, I have learned all sorts of interesting things. For example, before moving here, I thought that San Antonio was located in southern Texas. Now I know that is not the most correct answer. The most correct answer is that San Antonio is 5 MILES FROM THE SUN!!! In other words, it can get hot here; like your-sweat-starts-to-sweat hot.

I have also learned that Texas drivers are never in a hurry... ever. Nor could they possibly fathom why anyone would be. I never thought going the speed limit to maybe 5 over the speed limit qualified me as a Speedy McSpeedster, but out here I might as well have taken driver's ed from the cast of The Fast and the Furious.

Now the summers and driving aside, we really do like San Antonio! We live in a great area, our ward is fantastic (Rory is the assistant Deacon's advisor, and I'm the Beehive's advisor), and we are both loving what we're doing out here.

I will now proceed to brag about Rory: He is doing extremely well in graduate school. For the most part, his classes are interesting and applicable to him. He also keeps very busy with his graduate assistantship, where he works as part of a community outreach program covering, for the most part, high school athletics as an athletic trainer. I'm a proud, proud wife.

As for me, I got a job working for a real estate company for the first couple months we lived here. Now, I'm fortunate enough to be doing my own photography (see here for my website or here for my blog). I take pictures like this...

And like this...

And like this...

Of course we miss our Utah friends, but life is great! I hope now that things have settled down a bit to be better about updating our blog. (I make no promises, however) Don't hesitate to drop us a note- we'd love to hear how our far away friends are doing!