Heading Home

I’m on my way home now! I just got to the airport, its about 4:00 pm. I thought my flight left at 5:00 so I left the hotel at 3 thinking it’d take 30 minutes to get to the airport and then I’d have 1.5 hrs to get through security, to my, gate, and have enough time for any emergencies or delays or whatever. Well I realized after I got here that my flight leaves at 5:30…. So now I have an additional 30 minutes to hang out at the airport. Oh well.

I had super butterflies again before heading here. I just get nervous that I’m not going to know what I’m doing or that something could go wrong. It didn’t help that when I grabbed my luggage I realized it was pouring rain, with loud booms of thunder and flashes of lightening. It was coming down so incredible hard! I took a taxi to the airport and about halfway there the rain went from pouring (so hard it was like a blizzard of rain) to being completely dry. Praise God that it is completely dry here at the airport.

Anyway, I’m glad to have a little bit of time to work on catching up with editing photographs and 365’s. I’m way to far behind (again!). I just can’t seem to keep up, I have so many other things going on that cause me to fall behind. At least I’ve been good at keeping up on taking them!

I’ll try to post some New Orleans pics at some point! (No promises though as I always seem to promise pictures and then never make it around to getting them up. But I’ll try hard!!!) 9 more hrs and I’ll be home!

There are three adorable little girls sitting in front of me. Each has the same dress, but in a different color with their name embroidered on the front. They all have beautiful blond hair tied up in big colorful bows. So cute! ;] Someday I’ll have my own children. I really hope I at least one daughter, if not a couple.

Secret Agent.

Today I had just finished a big committee meeting (4 hrs with no breaks!), I’d been drinking tons and tons of water and had to pee like a racehorse! The bathroom was on the completely other end of the hall and so I half waddled half ran down it to get to the bathroom, which I promptly tried to open and was just as promptly met with a deep “whoa – whoa!” And thankfully the door was barely cracked and so I quickly shut it. There was another door around the corner, which was unoccupied, but the toilet was disgusting. I wasn’t about to wait outside for the man who I’d almost walked in on to finish and I also didn’t want to have to wait for the elevator to go up to my room to use my bathroom.

I knew there had to be stairs somewhere (we were on the 8th floor), and I found them behind an almost unmarked door. The stairwell was just like from movies – completely empty, somewhat dusty/dirty and clearly rarely used. First I ran up one flight of stairs to the 9th floor, but realized this was a floor of rooms and there were no public bathrooms. So then I tried to go down to the 7th floor, but this door was locked with an employees only sign on it. Gah! I really had to go by this point and so I went one more flight down to the 6th floor. When I opened the door I realized I was in some sort of office, but it was like I was in the back area of the office. I had no clue who’s office it was or if I was allowed to be there, but I could clearly see a door marked “Women’s” and there was no stopping me. I quickly glanced around (like a secret agent woman) and then calmly walked into the bathroom. As I entered a woman exited and I smiled and nodded and tried my best to act like I was supposed to be there. She nodded back and walked away.

Yeah! Success! On my way out I opened the door slowly, glanced around and quietly slipped back out the door to the stairwell and went back up to the meeting room to gather my stuff. I only regret not bringing my camera to document and better tell my story. ;]

Hello from 37,000 feet!

Hello world from who-knows-how-many-thousand feet! I’m currently on a plane on my way to Denver and then New Orleans. I’m attending the RESNA conference as part of my training to assist with some wheelchair standards balloting and other administrative/secretariat work with my office job. [note- I found out later that we were flying around 37,000 feet]

I was so incredibly nervous. This morning Jeff woke up at 5:00am to go to the gym, and I figured I’d sleep till almost 6, but I couldn’t go back to sleep. (Which is a bummer because I couldn’t get to sleep last night until midnight or later.) So I got up, did my hair and finished packing my bags. Jeff got home, we ate breakfast, said goodbye and headed to work.

Around 10:00am I started getting major butterflies. It was the weirdest feeling. My stomach felt like it was being vacuumed out. My boss and I were planning on leaving the office at 11:30, but didn’t get out until noon, and so then I was really worried we’d miss our flight or be late or something. But since he’s in a wheelchair (and he flies all the time & knows all of the stewardesses and check-in people) we bought lunch and made it into our seats in only a few minutes. (And they upgraded me from my crappy seat at the back of the plane to sit in the third row with extra legroom so that we could sit together and go over work.)

I haven’t been on a plane since my honeymoon. And honestly I don’t remember much of those flights except for looking out over parts of Mexico that were very odd landscapes of desert and weird bushes and swamps. I know that some people don’t like flying, but I thought takeoff was kind of fun. I like the feeling of being pushed into my chair – it makes me feel like I’m a racecar driver or something. My favorite part is looking down on everything. You get to see clouds from above, blue skies below you, the layouts of cities and towns, and the amazing formations of mountains, valleys, & waterways. It’s so beautiful from up here. I imagine this is only a sliver of the kind of view God has of earth.

My rough butterflies have gone, but I’m still nervous. The farthest east I’ve ever been is around Colorado. I’m going all the way to New Orleans?!? Is that considered east or south? I’m very excited to see and experience a different city’s culture and I’m stoked to eat Creole and Cajun food, but I’m nervous about the work part of the trip. I have meetings all day Tues, Wed, and then Thurs, I’m meeting with tons of people through RESNA’s organization. I know some, but not nearly enough to fully comprehend what is gong to be going on during the meetings. But I’m hopeful I’ll be able to pick it up quickly and learn the lingo and such.

My boss and I spent the first part of this plan ride working on things for the meeting and the office. Then he said he wanted to take a short nap. I would love to take one, but I can’t sleep with people all around me, so I figured I’d take out my computer and work on some stuff… then I realize that while I did manage to back up 100 gb of pictures I’d been putting off for months, I forgot to copy the pictures I’m yet to edit onto my computer off of my external hard drive so that I could work on them on my plane rides. Oops!

Hopefully there’ll be somewhere I can plug in my hard drive during my layover and I can transfer some pictures over to work on during the next flight. If not I’ll just keep writing blogs or something and make sure I copy them for my plane trip home on Thursday.

Oooh! Turbulence! No joke I’m looking out the window at eye-level clouds! When I was little I told myself that when I was older I would take a flight or something, capture a cloud in a jar and bring it home with me so I’d always have a cloud to look at. ;] If only that were actually possible.

In other news Jeff and I upgraded to iPhones last Friday. I am so glad we did too. I’ve been using a piece of junk phone for the past couple years and another crappy phone before that and so on. I love being able to check my email and…
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Sorry, I got cut off on the previous entry while on the airplane . It was time to turn off electronics so I had to shut down my computer. Its now Wednesday night (technically Thurs early morning here in New Orleans). I’ve been super busy the last couple days with standards meetings. Tomorrow is my last day, and I’m spending the morning in some paper and poster presentations and then heading back home!

God's Love

Romans 5:8 - "but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

The last couple of days I've been in the dumps. Its been rough at work, I've been falling behind on some housework, I'm fighting getting sick, and I'm all around exhausted. I didn't want to read my bible or study, but I found myself praying more and more not only for myself but for other people. And as I prayed for other people, I felt my situation become less and less difficult to deal with.

God is so mighty. My day is trivial in the grand scheme of things. In the overall plan of my life, one day of hardship is nothing. And in comparison to what others deal with on a daily basis not only in this country, but across the world, I have an amazingly blessed life. I have a job, I have a house, a car, a husband that loves me, friends that care for me, a church body that prays for me, and God that watches over me. I don't deserve any of it. Nothing I can do can merit what I've been given. So I have every reason in the world to be thankful and grateful and humbled.

;]

Photo-therapy

066/365 - June 15, 2009, originally uploaded by HarmonyHilderbrand.

Gah! Yesterday and today I've just been down in the dumps. I've felt completely bleh.Maybe it's the result of too much laundry and too much [and long] work.

So I'm taking a break.. and relaxing and recouping by watching a movie coupled with editing photos.

Martinez Family Portraits - Sneak Peak!

So here's a sneak peak at some family portraits I did for the Martinez Family on Tuesday.

Martinez Family , originally uploaded by HarmonyHilderbrand.

I was so incredibly nervous... It never fails. The night before a photoshoot I work myself up into a freinzied excitement. The morning of I'm going over my checklist in my head [did I charge my batteries? is my memory card empty?]. But then a couple hours before the shoot rolls around and I get extremely nervous. Its kind of like I doubt my photography skills, or fear I'll make some horrible blunder in my internal camera settings and shoot the entire thing and realize I ruined all the pictures. At least I know I can't shoot without a memory card in the slot.

Anyways Jeff and I got to Sand Harbor a little early and so we shot a couple pictures of the two of us (see my 365 project) and then some jumping pictures. When the Martinez Family arrived we started walking around the beach shooting journalistic style. It was such as blast! They have two adorable little girls, ages 1 and 2. The one year old was extremely outgoing and reached out to me as soon as she was out of her carseat! The two-yr-old was shy, but had an adorable little smile. Both kids were probably the best children I've ever shot! They were such a cute family! More pictures to come soon.

p.s. - Here Jeff & I jumping (June is for Jumping - don't ya know?)
He had such a blast.. [even though he won't admit it].

D-O-N-E!

056/365 - June 05, 2009, originally uploaded by HarmonyHilderbrand.

That's right! I finished my 3 weeks summer school course. I can't believe how fast it flew by! Now I'm 3 credits closer to graduating.

In celebration [and since June is for Jumping] I did a jumping portrait for my 365.

Now that school's done I really feel like I can finally relax. This weekend was great. Saturday jeff and I went to Chili's for dinner [because Jeff was craving ribs.. and Jeff never craves anything] and boy was it delicious! Then we came home and watched an amazing movie - Defiance with Daniel Craig. If you haven't watched this movie, then you should. It's based on a true story about the survival of a group of Jews in the forest during the Holocaust.

Saturday I finally caught up on my 365 project. I was almost a full two weeks behind on uploading! But now I'm all caught up and looking forward the rest of summer. I've already started making my summer goals list [okay so I'm nerdy like that], and its way longer than I'd expected. I don't think there's anyway I'll get it all done. Among my goals is go through all my pictures and rebuild my portfolio for my website. Every time I've tried to do this I've failed, because its a lengthly process to go through all the pictures I've ever taken. But I'm determined. If I take it a few months of pictures at a time, then I should be able to complete it by the end of summer.

I'm really looking forward to fun outings this summer. I may be working full-time, but I plan on using my weekends to go hiking and camping and taking outings to the beach. Maybe Jeff and I'll even take a road trip! I also hope to get into shape. Not that I'm horribly out of shape, but I want to run a marathon some day [part of my life-goals list... I'm very goal oriented] and I'll never be able to if I don't start working up to it.

Anyway, I'm thrilled to be done with school and am so excited for summer!

Final Catch Up

038/365 - May 18, 2009, originally uploaded by HarmonyHilderbrand.

So once again I just haven't had time to really catch up with everything.

I've been a good girl about shooting my 365 pictures each day, but I'm way behind on editing and uploading.. and I'm still putting it off.

...why?
Because this is my last week of three for my summer school course. I have a paper due Wed, presentation on Thurs, and Final on Fri. After that I'll be done. And therefore I'll have time in the afternoons/evenings/weekends to work on editing pictures, updating blogs, etc.
But for now I need to be a diligent student and finish out the week strong.

So hang-in there, and check back soon for more regular posts.

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Quick update on past week or so:

I had a blast in Reno celebrating our friend's birthday on last Saturday. We went to the Grand Sierra Resort and played some slots (we each got $5 in free-play, and we all lost it except Justin who doubled his). Then we ate at the buffet. The night was still young so we also drove go-carts and played some miniture golf.

On Sunday Jeff woke up at 1 or so in the morning with an extreme pain in his abdomen. He was trying to convince me I needed to take him to the ER, while I was convincing him it was just gas or something. Jeff took some medication we had and then we stayed up for a couple hours looking up symptoms online until the pain subsided so Jeff could sleep. We were able to get up for church, but had to come home and take a nap mid-day. Then we went to the Shuler's home, and awsome couple from our church who have a beautiful house and backyard. We sat on their patio and discussed marraige and then we all headed over the to the Borgman's house for a movie.

Now I have to mention that when I heard we were watching Nacho Libre.. I was not thrilled to say the least. I barely remember that movie, but only remember thinking it was somewhat stupid and dull. However, as they promised me, "you haven't seen Nacho Libre, until you've watched it with the Borgmans." They are crazy! They know all the lines, and think the movie is hilarious. I have to say I did enjoy it. However the thing that got me was how Brian (our pastor) would come up to Jeff and I and drop a line from the movie in total casual tone, and Jeff always thought it was hilarious and it took me forever to catch on.

Monday was memorial day and so we went to the church's annual memorial day picnic. I had a blast taking pictures of people playing games, we ate some delicious burgers and hot dogs, and of course watermelon! I also got my exercise in playing a good hour or two of soccer. Pictures to come later.

Last week in school I had a midterm and another paper, both of which I am happy to say I aced! (One thing you should know is I'm kind of a nerd. I'm in the honors program and I try really hard to get good grades).

This past Friday-Sunday was women's retreat. It was awsome. There is so much I want to say about women's retreat, so I'll have to save it for another post. In short, good teaching from an amazing woman of God; wonderful fellowship and building relationships with the women from church; beautiful weather and amazing scenery.

Today is my Mom's birthday (I have no idea how old she is... I'm afraid to guess for fear I'll guess older than she really is). Happy Birthday Mom!