It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Just a reminder that college football kicks off tonight. The Cards will stomp Murray State tonight and the Vols take on Cal Saturday night. Aaah...college football is back, and all is right with the world again.

Little Smile

Ok, so I ask you: Who wouldn't have baby fever after spending a few minutes with this guy?

I Do & I Don't

I just finished editing and loading the photos I took this past weekend of the wedding of a sister of a close friend, Terri (did 'ya catch all that?!). Shoo! It was a bit of a workout for me as there were nearly 200 photos to edit down, and I'm not used to working with that volume. I also learned quite a bit in the process, most importantly that I do love photographing people, but I don't neccesarily love doing it on their wedding day.

Even the most laid-back of weddings become a bit hairy down the stretch, and there are no do-overs in wedding photography. I definately prefer the pace of working with kids and babies taking their portraits. Kids can certainly be unpredictable, but you almost always have a second chance to get the shot right. If you miss the first kiss or blur the cutting of the cake, well, you're SOL. But I did enjoy watching a young couple start a new life and family together, and to help document that special moment in time for them.

Anyway, I'm pleased with how the photos turned out, and I hope the couple are as well. Every wedding I attend now brings back memories of my own wedding, and things I would do different and things I wouldn't change for the world. I do love our photos from that day, both the professional album and the candids turned in from friends and family. I don't think I would alter any of them a bit. It almost cracks me up to go back and look at them now, and to think those two people had no idea of the journey they were in for together, the journey that we are still pleasantly traveling together.

I had a newborn session this morning, and let me tell 'ya it's a good thing I'm pregnant because I have a terrible case of baby fever. He was so cute and pink and little and soft I almost couldn't stand it, and I am now impatient for the arrival of our new little one, even though the baby wont arrive for another 5 months or so. I don't think I ever expected to be pregnant at this point in time, but I do think we are very lucky to have this little blessing. Funny thing how those two little "I do's" turned into so much more...

Live, Baby Live

After much work and many, many emails to coordinate the effort, my new photography website is finally LIVE! It got a bit sticky last week when I discovered that the company that registers my domain forgot to register it this year, and that potentially it could cost me $100 just to use my URL of aldermanphotography.com. Thankfully, I finally got someone on the phone who knew what they were doing and fixed the issue, and the final connections to the new server were made this morning. Check out the new digs at www.aldermanphotography.com and let me know what you think!

Gone to the Dark Side

What is that thing parked in my driveway? Surely, it can't be a minivan (it is, and don't call me Shirley - just for you Court). And if it is a minivan, it most certainly can not belong to me. Because I said I would never own a minivan. Never ever ever ever ever. In my group of girlfriends, we affectionately refer to the purchase of a minivan as "crossing over to the dark side", and indeed I have done just that. Last week we bought a new 2007 Nissan Quest, and the worst part of it is, I love it.

It was hard to drive away from the car lot and wave goodbye to the X-terra, which I had loved so dearly for so long. But the simple truth is we had outgrown the X-terra. We needed a vehicle that would accomodate 3 car seats, and the X-terra couldn't hack it. Are you silently doing the math in your head and trying to figure out why the car needs to hold 3 car seats when I only have 2 children? I'll give you 3 guesses and the first 2 don't count.

Yep, another Alderman is on the way. We found out the Tuesday of moving week that I am expecting again, and let me tell you, it added a whole new dimension to the move! I'm due at the end of February, and we are very excited about adding another member to the family. It will be total chaos around here, but I have been assured there is something freeing in that chaos, and so I am taking some comfort in that.

So, other than that, there's not a whole lot going on around here - ha! I have been enjoying the tomato plants that the previous owners left behind, and I even had a chance to make some tomato sauce last night...mmmm, so good.

Movin' Out

We're here! We're really, really here in the new house in Carmel, IN. And let me tell you, it wasn't easy. The wound is still a little too fresh to recount the entire saga of our "move from hell", but I can offer these three criteria by which to judge if the moving company you hired is run by a complete psychopath:

1) At 12:30pm on moving day, with nearly half of you belongings packed up on his truck, does your mover suggest, "If there was anything you were thinking of leaving behind, I'd go ahead and do it."

2) At 8:30pm on Day 1 of the move (which is the same time the mover had promised he would have you moved and unloaded to the new house) does your mover pull away from the old house with all of your patio furniture and your grill bungee-corded to the back of his truck to store your belongings at his house overnight?

3) Does your mover (who also happens to be president and owner of this moving company) arrive on Day 2 of the move (there was never supposed to be a Day 2) three hours late and still drunk from the night before?

If you answer yes to any of these questions, then your mover is definately certifiable. On the good news side of things, we haven't found any major breaks with any of our stuff, and everything did make it here (so we think).

We love the new neighborhood and have already met many of our neighbors - Casey even attended his first birthday party last week for a little girl across the street. I'm starting to locate where everything is and can now find the essentials (Kroger, Target, Costco, etc.) on my own. I have to admit to feeling a little homesick for the old house and Louisville - I miss the familiarity of the city and having my things in all their places.

I've also been working hard this week on the new photography website, and I should have it live by the end of the week. It's really looking good, and I have already lined up a new client (a neighbor is due with a baby boy in a few weeks and asked me to do a newborn shoot). This area is full of small children and so I am hoping it will be a good move for my business. I have ordered some new equipment and am working on a marketing campaign, so stay tuned for updates on Alderman Photography.

I need to get back to unpacking and trying to keep the kids off the boxes (my living room is a bit of a death trap right now!). We're here, and I guess we're Hoosiers now (I even have the Colts license plate to prove it!).