Long Grass, Bright Nursery

Our backyard has officially become a jungle. Oh sure, the front yard looks nice, but it's long past time that we mow the backyard. Summer has smacked us in head. (is it even officially summer yet?) We have been spending way to much time inside working on various web projects and have yet to begin our regular outdoor activities resulting in long grass, too many weeds and generally too many yard projects to wrap our minds around.

On the other had, we DID get our nursery painted last night. Joy's family spent the weekend with us and graciously helped us clean out our downstairs spare bedroom from the massive Department 56 Christmas Village that still hadn't been completely put away. Then we moved the upstairs spare room furniture to the downstairs room where it took on a much cozier efftect after a quick decoration session. Ok, now the upstairs room can be converted into a nursery.

It was merely minutes after the family left for home that Tom grabbed a paintbrush and roller and began splashing paint on the walls of the now empty room. By 11:30 pm last night the nursery paint project was completed. In the days to come we will place the wallpaper strip around the center of the room and it will be complete!....Now we just need to save for the baby furniture. So, back to the web projects we go. So much for getting the backyard mowed.

This coming weekend we will photograph our first professional wedding. We are very nervous about getting it right. It's time to put all the training and tid bits of information together and make it all work. Tom recently purchased a set of professional lights complete with a power pack, umbrellas etc. After a few more ebay purchases, (Compact Flash cards, gizmos, meters etc.) we'll see if we can bring everything together and make the flashes flash! Wish us luck. It seems easier to just be the bride and groom.

Memorial Day coming Soon!

We are anxiously awaiting Memorial Day weekend. We will travel north to spend a few days with Joy's family. No hot tubbin' this time, but we are hoping the weather will allow us to get out on the lake even if for a little while. Regardless, we look forward to spending some time relaxing and sitting around (we're really good at that).

We have finally managed to finish up three large web projects that have been hanging over our heads for some time. Of course, there are more to follow. Our work is never done.

Tom has received his final grades for the semester that just ended. Happy to annouce a couple of more "A"s. One in Digital Darkroom (a Photoshop Class) and another in Photographer's Assistant. In only a few weeks, class starts up again with Ambient Lighting. In the Fall it will be Wedding Photography and Portraiture 1. Needless to say our biggest excitement this year will come in November!

And...what will we do now that our favorite show "Heroes" has wrapped up for the season??

Have a safe and fun-filled Memorial Day weekend!

A Nice Mother's Day...

We enjoyed a nice Mother's Day with a sunny afternoon drive north to Pequot lakes. Pequot is a very small town just north of Joy's home town, Nisswa, Minnesota. Joy's Grandma, Great-Grandma and her Uncle Paul were all recognizable figures in Pequot for decades. Several anscestors are burried there, so it has become tradition to visit the grave sites and do a little clean up and leave some flowers as well. We then had lunch with Joy's family in Pine River, MN and returned home to Andover late Sunday night.

The Archibald's in Oregon had a nice time as well. We really wish we could just "blink" ourselves there for a visit now and them. Sadly, we must rely on phone calls and second-hand stories to be a part of the fun.

Baby is just about 13 weeks. Joy's world is one full of nausea and...well more nausea, I guess. We are hoping that she will get through this miserable stage and move onto the next tri-mester with bundles of positive energy. We can hope can't we?

New Baby Photo!

Extra! Extra! We have the 2nd photo of Baby Archibald!

We had our 2nd ultrasound today. The baby appears to be healthy and is growing as it should (9 weeks). We were able to see and hear the heartbeat again. This time the little one was VERY active on the ultrasound, moving all over. That is, until the doctor turned the monitor so Joy could see, then the baby decided to be shy and stop moving! Argh! Playing games on its mother already! At least Tom got to see it moving around.

Yes, it still looks like a "blob" but now it's a bigger blob with arms! The circle on the bottom is the head, the two things sticking out on each side are the arms and the top circle is the rest of the body. You can't see the legs from this view, but the Doctor was able to show us the legs on the ultrasound, too. Tom thinks this ultrasound looks like a picture of Homer Simpson. Hmmm, should we name the baby Homer?

Joy is nauseous almost 24/7 now. Ugh - SO much fun. The saltines and ginger ale seem to work a little bit, at least for a little while. So now Tom is the one eating for two - ha,ha!

Tom went home to Oregon last weekend (Wednesday-Sunday) to be with family and attend John's memorial. He loved being there and getting to see everyone again; I know it was very hard for him to come back. We are planning to take a family trip out there for Christmas 2008 - should be fun with a little 1-year-old!

We also wanted to send a big "Get Well Soon" to Jesse. He was badly injured in a skiing accident in Utah. We are thinking about you and hope you recover soon. We know you are in good hands!

And finally, our thoughts and prayers are with the families, friends, students and staff of Virginia Tech. What a horrible, horrible tragedy. We also send our prayers to the family of the gunman. Such a tragic loss for all. We hope everyone will one day find peace and comfort in the memory of their loved ones.

Take care - we will try to update again soon. It had been a while this time.