Photography!

I am so excited to share with you that I am officially opening a photography business...Jill Jarvis Photography! Soon you can check out the official JJP blog for info about this new adventure. For anyone that books a session within 2009, there will be a variety of extra specials bonuses. For starters anyone that books will receive a custom card/invitation - get a head start on preparing for Christmas cards! Be sure to mention the blog when you book!

Join the Jill Jarvis Photography fan page on Facebook! Check out some recent shots taken for friends/customers! For anyone in Ohio, if you're interested in booking a session between May 28 - June 6...let me know! (jill [at] jilljarvis.com)

Most importantly thank you to everyone for your support and encouragement in this newest venture!

“I lift up my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:1-2

Where does the time go???

Have you been wondering where we've been lately??? We've been actively living life and i just haven't gotten to the blog to post any updates. All good things, just not enough time in the day to blog! Here are a few of the things we've been up to...Jameson's last days of school (Miss Frances loved the bird feeder he picked out for her!), graduation program at school, i attending the student ministry event to take pictures, James has had a few important client meetings, preparing for our trip to Ohio, 4 year check up for Jameson (included 4 shots - yuck), a birthday party for our friend Aubrey, a photo session to capture this sweet boy at 5, i snapped the picture of myself in the mirror of an old truck (the angle of the mirror worked to help hind some curves!), add in that my laptop was gone for some upgrades and you get...less blogging! Here are some pictures from some of the above mentioned activities! We hope you are doing well and enjoying life!

Revelations 3:8

One Door Closes...Another opens

"I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name." Revelations 3:8

When God leads you to the edge of the cliff, trust Him fully and let go, only 1 of 2 things will happen, either He will catch you when you fall, or He will teach you how to fly!

Our day...

Such an amazing, adorable video:

Today was a bit of a crazy day for us. We woke up, after sleeping in just a bit (till 8 - yippe the boy is getting it)! Then we decided to head to Anderson to get a few things, including a gift for Jameson's teacher. Well we got ourselves all set and ready to go, drove the 30 minutes it takes to get there. Then as we were pulling into Sams i reached for my purse to get the membership card out. My wallet wasn't in my purse. Then i remembered that i'd taken it out shortly before we left to pay a bill. So we went into Sams so i could submit a photo order. On the way there Jameson asked for a pretzel and luckily we had a few dollars in the truck so we shared a pretzel. The next step turned out okay because i had gift cards for Home Depot. So we decided to get his teacher's gift from there. (She is getting a nice bird feeder and some food, i think i'm also going to make something too.) From there we headed home since we only had about .95 cents left. We did head back out once we got home but we went the other direction to finish our errands. While we were in town Jeannie called to ask if we could get together so i could help her with some scrapbooking. It turned out good that we were still in town and James wasn't going to be home until late tonight. Jameson had a blast with their itty bitty puppy, Daisy. Overall as crazy as the day seemed it was pretty good!

One more thing...read this from Pioneer Woman Photography regarding getting yourself into the pictures!

Shine 09

Today was the annual Shine project for FCC. For 3 hours on a Saturday in May we serve the community. James & i were leaders for the group that was painting the park near our house. It is amazing what 3 hours of manual labor can do to a faded park. i am so grateful for the members of our team...the park looks great now! The photos above show the before and after. It looks so much better now. Even the little ones got involved. Jameson was so excited to help out. He was actually painting quite a bit. Look at the paint splatter all over his face & clothes. Luckily I got his new shoes off before they got paint all over them too. Never too young to serve!

Online reading...

i'm not sure if it is a good thing or not but i have been getting lots of reading done online lately. i don't seen to ever read from an actually book or magazine in my hand anymore. As the summer is approaching i'm sure this will change slightly but for now, i'm online charging my brain. One article i read was here. It is mainly about photography but there are so many other pieces to it that it applies to artist in general, actually anyone really. There were two main points that i gained from this piece.

• Being creative and being inspired are two totally separate things. i know i've always thought that but this article really put the words behind the thoughts i'd had about it.
  
• "Success is continuing to try in the midst of repeated failures because we believe that there is a solution to the problem we are working on and that it is only a matter of time until we find this solution. In this respect failures are nothing else but valid attempts that did not materialize into the outcome we expected."

Another piece that i read was all about the benefits of using gmail and other google gadgets. Read about it here.

In other news i found out this week that i won't be presenting a session at the ADPi convention this summer. This is a relief for me. Since i've switched positions the session i was going to lead was in the old area (alumnae). It will be good to be on the recruitment side of things instead of feeling like a cross-over. i'm sure there will be times that i'll be pulled in both directions but i at least won't have to be nervous about presenting (because as many of you know speaking in front of a group is not my true cup of tea).

Tomorrow a group of us from FCC are going to be working on an outdoor painting project for Shine '09. i'd like to ask that you pray for us that the rain will hold out long enough for us to work on dry equipment and that all of the other volunteers out there will be able to shower our county with these 3 hours of service.

Mother's Day gifts!

This year I challenged myself to make all of the gifts that we gave for Mother's Day. I did it! The cards I created were fun because I decided on a color and found coordinating papers in my stash (just went to the green folder - love having my PP organized by color!). I used the cricut to cut out the butterflies. The piece that I made was creating hybrid bracelets (8 total - yes we are blessed!). I used photos of the boy and digital bits from various Songbird Avenue kits. In addition to the bracelet the mothers each received a really fun fabric wrapped decorative photo thing (that is the true technical term for it). More pictures are on facebook if you want to see some up close shots as well as the second version I made for Nana Susan with pictures of Addy. Full credits for this piece can be found at TheDigiChick (hybrid pieces from Sugarplum Paperie & Ali Edwards).

Now we're off to help with Abby & Caroline's babies. They have something at school with the big kids so Jameson & I are going to watch the littles. I told Jameson about it and he said but mom I'm not a girl so I can't help babysit. Such a funny boy.

Unplugging!

Okay so i know most of you that know me realize that i can be a bit obsessive. Well the focus lately has been on twitter. On Tuesday i think i updated about 2 dozen times...too much for a normal day but there was a reason for that day. One it was Jameson's birthday and it was a quick easy way for me to update our activities. The other reason was that it was Jesus Loves You day and i was spreading the truth that He loves us. So now i'm going to go the other direction. i just read about this idea on Stacy Julian's blog & Jodified's blog about unplugging for an entire day. No internet. No TV. No Phone. No Computer...for 24 hours. i'm choosing this Sunday as my day. i will be at church in the morning and with my two guys the rest of the day (so no need for a phone to be contacted in case of emergency). i'm actually excited about it. Last summer every weekend i would walk away from the computer. i need to remember to do that throughout the year, not just when the weather pulls me away. How about you, do you realize you have an obsessive personality and do you know how to counteract it?

Did you notice the lowercase i's throughout this post? Yesterday the Proverbs 31 devotional was written by Marybeth Whalen. The verse was "He must become greater; i must become less." John 3:30 Notice the lowercase i..."we don't need to be capitalized. We need to be small, insignificant".

Happy birthday Jameson!!

It is simply amazing to think that God has blessed our family with this little boy that is FOUR today! We are blessed to have this happy little boy is in our lives. I thought I would post some photos to document Jameson's birthdays since 2005. Enjoy...

Hybrid!

Check this out...DST Insider May edition! I have a project featured! I honestly meant to post this over the weekend as it was {inter}National Scrapbook Day. However with our schedule it didn't happen. For anyone interested in any digital items there were lots of freebies out there. I know that The Hybrid Chick still has some challenges going on throughout this next week. Be sure to check it out!

Fun-filled weekend!

Wow have we had a fun-filled weekend! It basically started Friday, with Western Day at school! They had a horse drawn wagon, a goat named Ding-Dong, hamburgers on an open flame, stick horse races, horseshoes and best of all...cowboy hats for everyone. Look at how cute this little guys looks! Then later that afternoon James' mom (aka MC/Nana Susan) and Joe-Joe arrived. James even came home a bit early from work! We had a nice relaxing evening here at the house.

Then on Saturday we had Jameson's birthday party...at Home Depot. Oh boy was he excited! So our plan for the day was for Susan & me to get dropped off at Home Depot while the guys went to do something else. Well Jameson wanted to help set up for his party, and he actually did help! His party was all about what he is into these days...The Home Depot and Chick-fil-A. Add in a mix of friends and family and you've got his utopia. The entertainment was that the kids each got to made a wooden wheelbarrow planters. Jameson got done with his before most of his friends arrived so he was entertaining himself with a tape measure. He thought it was the best when it would fly off the end of the boards...simple joys! After everyone was done with the project we enjoyed chicken and cake. The cake was adorable and not only did it look great, it tasted even better! Jameson even wanted to cut it himself, luckily the cutting tool was just a putty knife! Overall the party was a great success and Jameson is starting to look forward to being 4. He keeps asking if he is already 4 or if he has to wait until his official birthday (Tuesday). So funny the different ways he always looks at things. And now I'll answer the question that you're probably thinking, yes we had his party at Home Depot. No they don't typically do parties there but I asked and the manager said yes. We did find out that they aren't really supposed to do it but since they had told us already they went ahead with ours. So if you have a little boy that is also obsessed with HD, you most likely won't be able to have a party there.

After the party we headed up to Split Creek Farm to check out the baby goats. Caroline & Lily were also going so Jameson had someone else his same size (a common question when we're going somewhere). Jameson thought it was hilarious that the goats would try to eat his clothes. He and Nana Susan each had little nibbles from the little goats! This photo of Jameson & Lily was right before Jameson gave Lily a kiss. They are so funny together!

The next activity for the weekend came today. The Fanello girls were all receiving their First Communion. It was nice to get to spend this special time with them and lots of extended family from Ohio. After mass we all headed back to their house to spend some time together. During mass the Priest mentioned something that I thought was very interesting. He said that in Eastern cultures women with small children will bring them to the altar for communion; and it is given to both mother and child. However in Western culture they must wait until the age of reason. The part that has stuck with me throughout the day was that this church has given the age of reason a specific age. Is it possible to set a specific age on when a child is old enough to reason? In my mind, welcoming Jesus into your heart to choose to follow him on a daily basis varies person to person.

More updates will be coming in the next few days. Jameson has his birthday celebration at school tomorrow and then we had the official birthday on Tuesday. For anyone that are on twitter, Tuesday is going to be Jesus Loves You day...join in on the challenge!