Right Now....

I want to be here....

or here...

(but in reality, they are actually the SAME PLACE!)

part 1 ::: (catching up on our lives)

Let's catch you up on what is happening in our lives.... BESIDES the house!

: Matt :

1. Work is going good.  He doesn't have as much pipe to take care of as he used to, so that is quite an adjustment for him.  He is not gone out of town at all anymore really. Which I know that he enjoyed doing (and i'm not going to lie, I didn't always enjoy it, but it was nice to have the bed to myself!).

2. Church. Ever since I have known Matt, he has been a deacon at his (our) church.  And just recently at the beginning of the year, his term was up.  That is an adjustment for him I truely feel.To not have any responsibilities after church, to count money, to fix thing or that thing is something he isn't used to.  But I think this will open up some opportunities for us to experience church together a little bit more. (more on that later).

3. House - i know I said i was going to tell you what's going on besides the house, but that is just such a big part of his (our) life right now. He is there every night working on pretty much everything. He leaves for work in the morning, doesn't come home, but goes straight to the house and works there from anywhere between 8-10:30 depending on what he needs to get done.  I bring him dinner and help him if I can help with anything. I really appreciate all the hard work that he is doing though. I am so proud of him and I take pride in that MY HUSBAND (along with some family & friends) did A LOT of work on this house (sheesh, he wired up the whole house with electric, how awesome is that!).  I am so excited to call that house our HOME.

: Jenni :

1. Work is slow. But that is very typical of this time of the year.  Hopefully it will pick up again around Valentine's Day.   I am still off one day a week (which i LOVE).  I use it to do some grocery shopping, see friends, or just catch up on business stuff (which actually was the MAIN REASON why actually started taking days off in the 1st place, haha - but the other things are starting to take over and become a little more important to me). I actually came quite close to changing jobs. I am not always the happiest at my job and I feel like I drive pretty far just to sit on my butt and not do much during the day. So, the bank in town had an opening for a teller/sales rep position.  I actually went pretty far in the application process (and the girls at the bank know me and actually really wanted me to work there), but then one morning on the way to work, I just kinda had an epiphany. I have it way to good at THE SHOPPER. I have the days off already that I want, I have vacation time already built up. So why am I giving all of that up just to work a little closer to home. For right now, the best decision for me, and for us was that I stay where I'm at.

2. Business is slower right now too b/c of the time of the year. I do most of my portrait sessions outside, so the winter is not ever my busy season. But I'm hoping to put together a couple of PHOTO SHOOT EXTRAVAGANZA days starting in May where I go to one location that day and see how many appointments I can "knock-out" that day, so i'm not eating up all my Saturdays of the summer. One will be at a county park in Hobart, IN - one will be at the beach/downtown area of New Buffalo, MI - and the other one will most likely be in fall probably at a state park.  Right now, the places I have thought of are all in Indiana, but I also want to "cater" to those that in the Kankakee area that I think might come out for this.  So.... i'm opening to anyone's ideas (not that I really have any followers of my blog, but i can dream, right?)




to be continued......

Seeing the GLORY OF GOD!

A little fun at the BEACH!

So I did a photo shoot with my brother, sister-in-law and my 3 nieces yesterday..... here some of the photos that 1st caught my eye and I just had to post!

this is Mikayla, she cracks me up.........

Madison, Cassidy & Mikayla

Album Pages

Here are some album pages that are SET IN STONE and I'm actually in love with them...... the other ones are well, coming along slowly.... i have client wedding photos to work on... so that's kinda getting in the way of getting these done... but that's ok, maybe it's better I take my time on 'em! =) ENJOY!

Finally Getting Around to Our Wedding Album

UPDATE: I deleted all the previous pages but one b/c I have changed them a little bit. But once they get more concrete and finished, I will share 'em with you!
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Well, last night, something just got into me..... I have been wanting to start Matt & I's wedding album for awhile now, but just never had the creative juices flowing enough to get going on it. So, yesterday, i sat down, looked at some inspiration (other designs and such that I like) and just went to town sketching out some designs. Not really thinking I was going to start designing 'em.... I went on my computer to check my email and next thing you now... I'm on a roll!!!! 2 hours later at 12:30am.... I have these 4 pages designed. They aren't all totally done. I've printed 'em out and have been "pondering" over them today at work, figuring out what I could change and what I love.

All the Girls getting Ready at My Parents' house! So much fun!

I have sketched probably about 4 more pages here at work today.... yes, bored. again. But this is keeping me busy!! YEAH!!!!! So, I'm hoping that tonight after I get everything set in place for the wedding I'm shooting tomorrow, that I can start on the new pages and fix these couple of pages up!!!!!!

I will say. I am NOW REALIZING HOW HARD it is/was for my brides to pick out photos for their wedding album. Plus, then to have someone else decide what all should be larger/smaller/more accented, etc instead of you. I have myself (and sometimes Matt) to figure out all this. It's great, but it's hard. I never thought it would be this hard. I just want to include all the photos!!! My photographers did an amazing job!!!!!!!

More to come tonight maybe?? Or this weekend? I'm really excited about it... so hopefully I can get this done quick... b/c once I start something and I'm on a roll... I just keep going! =) (Even if it means staying up really late!!!)

Changing my Mind.....

Imagine that... I'm changing my mind.

I will not be doing "my creative thing" on this blog, but thought of later, that naturally all that should be put on my derksphotography & design BLOG! =) check it out! I'll slowly get back into the swing of things!

I guess I knew....

Goooooooood Moooooooornin'.......................

Even though I knew what I was getting myself into, marrying a pipeliner... it is all coming reality to me now! I find it harder than I thought to have nights to myself, especially unexpected nights. It is one thing to know when he'll be gone and I can mentally prepare for that.... but when it's an emergency and it could last a couple of days..... that is something I'm not good at! The reason I bring this up is because Wednesday and Thursday night, Matt was up in Rockford again, doing the same stuff he was doing the week before, and those nights, I don't enjoy, but I know that he is going to be gone. But Friday night, Matt got a call saying that the Freight Train that got derailed in Buffalo Grove was RIGHT ON TOP of the pipeline and workers needed to be there to make sure no damage was being done to the pipeline (which is quite a few feet underneath all that happened). This is a picture of the mess that needed to be cleaned up even before they could even start checking out the pipeline to see if any damage was done to the line.

I will say that I am thankful I have a man that is a hard worker and enjoys the work that he does. He cares about the work he does and he likes to do it right.

As for me, I had a wedding to shoot yesterday for THE NEW MR. & MRS. GARY ZEKVELD (Gary & Hannah "Smith"). It was a beautiful wedding. The weather could have cooperated a little bit better, but man, those girls "MAN-ed UP" and fought the cold to take pictures outside! Hannah was beautiful, Gary was handsome and I'm jealous they will be in the warm weather of Mexico today. Here is a beautiful picture of the bride & groom:

Hope everyone has a relaxing day......

late nights = BAD HABIT!

i don't think i can ever go to bed early...............SHEESH.......

so, i know it's only technically only wednesday night.... but i am already looking forward to the weekend (i have been since last weekend! =\ ). for some reason.... weekends seems to just make me happy... i get to be with matt a lot more than during the week.... so, i really look forward to that!!!

this weekend, we get a break with showers, but we still have a busy, full weekend! friday night is a night with both set of 'rents at the mom & dad hoekstra's house and saturday night is the BRAD PAISLEY concert!!!!!!

for anyone that knows me pretty well, you know that i have lists.....and lists..... and a lot of 'em..... i probably write enough lists that i have everything i write on the list memorized and probably don't even have to write it down to remember..... but i have an ongoing list for the wedding but also my business stuff that has to be done before the wedding (so i can enjoy it and not be thinking of all the work i have to be doing)... so the business checklist is SLOWLY going down, but i keep telling myself i have a month...... 3 albums and wedding photos to get done...... AGH... NO PROBLEM! haha.... but here are some sample pages of some album pages i have design in the last couple of weeks/months..... there are a lot more... but these were easily accessible....

and my checklist for the wedding is going down actually.... WHAT? Surprising (but now that i say that.... tomorrow i will think of a lot more stuff i have to do... oh well.... such is life, right?)!!! i am starting to wrap some presents, trying to be creative and add a little "jenni" touch to 'em..... i ordered my headpiece/tierra (which who knew that it took a MONTH to get that in? good thing i ordered it now!!!).... and other little things that are "secret!!" i can't wait to get some more stuff done, but i'm sure if i start doing some of that stuff... it will be premature and i will have to re-do it..... so for now, i guess i just wait a little while!!! =)

hope you all have a good day/night/rest of the week!!

Only 3.5 months! WOW!

Hello all.... Well, I'm going to attempt to start posting things that are going on in our SOON-TO-BE MARRIED lives as of right now and hopefully continue it when we are married too!

We are in the midst of wedding planning right now... at 3.5 months to go, I'm feeling a little 'overwhelmed' and Matt still thinks that everything is planned and ready to go, haha... but he is being a good sport about it all. We have had one shower already and have 4 more. The first one was with The Stouwie side of my family (my mom's side!). It was a small, intimate shower and we had a lot of fun with it being our first one. Matt was a very good sport, making the women laugh, and helping me move along with the presents! We got some WONDERFUL and very thoughtful gifts that we appreciate very much! Here are some photos:

-- Me & My Girls --

(Amanda, Amy, Ashley, me, Sara, Patti, Becca

Mikayla, Cassidy, Madison, Lydia)

Some say we are a perfect match... i have NO IDEA WHY! haha!

"Do you think this is big enough for your cereal honey?"

See... Matt was a VERY GOOD SPORT!

Even though I photograph weddings, I still am amazed at how much there is to do. I anticipated that it would be a lot of planning and I thought I would be pretty organized, but it seems like that is all just slipping away. But I'm trying to stay on top of it

as best as I can without driving myself, matt, my mom or anyone else crazy!! Haha! At least we have a lot of the major things done.... =) Invitations are starting to get addressed and ready to be mailed out in the next month, wedding bands have been bought, dresses are ordered, honeymoon booked... just to name a few!

I know some of you have asked, "well, who is the photographer getting to photograph her wedding?" Well, I have these AMAZING photographers, Rob & Lisa Walcott, they are a married couple from Michigan that I know from Trinity! Lisa was in a couple of my art classes! Check 'em out.... their website is www.walcottimaging.com! They offer a photobooth, so we will have a headshot photobooth at the wedding too! =)

Also, other than wedding plans, we have also painted the office and gutted the bathroom. Matt put a lot of time, sweat and work into re-doing the bathroom over the course of about 2 weeks! And here is what the before and after pictures looked like....

Before

After #1

After #2