Can you say HUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE?

It's been quite an exciting week, Thanksgiving came and went along with Family and traditions, new and old.

Every year we go and cut down our own Christmas tree, and Grandmas too. Every year is something new and challenging whether it's pouring rain, inches of snow, or the sheer size of the tree we decide is the perfect one for us.

This year was no exception, the first one in the lot had our name written all over it. After shaking the snow off the branches to see what was underneath, we mentally "tagged" it and moved on to see if any more were as pleasing. None were so we cut it down before someone else had the Snyder tree in their Family room. Trees always have a funny way of growing as soon as their cut and put into the back of the truck, and this is one king of trickery. This thing is HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGEEEEE!
The width of the base is about 5'7'', and it's got to stand at least 11' high. I can't wait to put it up!
Good thing we went with white lights on the outside of the house this year, becuase we're going to need all the colored lights we can get!

Well everyone, I leave for Disney World tomorrow and i'm super duper excited. It's going to cost a little more than expected, but it's either "go big or go home", and how many other times will I be able to sit with Sigrid Maerz, talk about Jesus, witness the Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade, and tan in December??? For great friends and Mickey, money is no object! I'm sure i'll have quite the blog come Tuesday!

I'm outie!

A Professional i am not...

So i photographed a wedding this weekend, and boy was it A LOT of work! Props to all those wedding photographers out there, and especially to Neil Cowley! It was a long day, and probably would have been even longer if I hadn't known Nanette and Gabe and most of the wedding party, or shot next to my best friend Rachel. I took over 1400 shots and thought it'd be hard to narrow it down to 300...but in a lot of shots the lighting was bad and everyone was just a touch out of focus, a little disappointing for my first go around... but here's some i've salvaged:

As Single as they come...

So i found out today that one of my good friends just got engaged to be married...CONGRATULATIONS SIGRID! And i'm photographing a wedding this weekend of yet another friend of mine, not to mention both my best friends are happily married and have been for over 2 years now. Most of my other friends are either engaged or in serious relationships, and here's me as single as they come. And not to mention i relived my date-less days by going solo yet again to a work Gala. This makes me think...

What is it about me that is preventing me from getting married? The right guy you might think...and yup, that's a pretty important aspect when it comes to marriage, and nope, haven't found him yet. But why? There's the million dollar question...and to that only the Lord knows.

The Christian, faith-filled side of me understands that there is a perfect man for me out there somewhere and sooner or later he and I will cross paths. Things will happen in God's perfect timing when that time is the most unexpected. I keep telling myself that the Lord is perfecting my future husband, and it takes awhile to mold him to my standards. So the next question is are my standards too strict? But who determines what is too strict? I definately don't want to settle on a man who will pay attention to me, but doesn't love me forever...is it so bad that i want him to be perfect?

The Lord says: "I want you to be free from the cares of this world...Married women and women who have never been married are different. The woman who has never been married can spend her time working for the Lord. She wants to please the Lord with her body and spirit. The woman who is married cares for the things of the world. She wants to please her husband. I am saying these things to help you. I am not trying to keep you from getting married. I want you to do what is best. You should work for Him without other things taking your time." - 1 Corinthians 7:32-35

So according to the Lord it's a good thing that i'm not married, here's the problem...i'm not using my singleness to committing myself to the Lord. Maybe that's the key, maybe the Lord put that thought in my head this morning as I was driving to work (i had a dream about Sigrid getting married last night, so thoughts of marriage were already in my head before i came to work and actually read her blog that told that she was engaged!)

Committing my life to serving the Lord is something that i've strayed away from the past few months, and maybe it's a wake up call for me. It's time i stood up in my faith, and reached some souls for Jesus. Maybe that's part of the solution, maybe not, but it definately wouldn't hurt. Don't get me wrong, it's not that if i serve the Lord then i will be married, but it's time that i used my free time and my everyday life to love the man who loves me, has always loved me and will always love me, back.

All the Christians i know who are married or soon to be married are amazing women and men of God, maybe there's a level of faith i need to get to, which makes me work on my faith and hope. But then i see other friends who aren't Christians experiencing that same love that results in marriage, and that shoots me down again...

There is a reason I'm not married, to learn something about myself, to support my family and be there any time i'm needed with no other obligations, to be free to travel to Pittsburgh, Rochester, and Florida on a whim, to get my career online and save up some money....

I guess more pondering is in order, but at the end of the day my faith of someday being married trumps it all.

I'm going to DISNEY WORLD!

That's right folks, I'm going to the Happiest Place On Earth...again! It doesn't matter if i've been there once or a hundred times, i get just as excited! And in less than a month i'll be there again! I'm taking a log weekend to go visit my friend Sigrid who is working there for the semester!

Sigrid is a great friend of mine from Circle C, someone whom i've known for about 5 years, but this past summer became great friends, which is wierd because i didn't even work at camp! She is an amazing woman of God, always smiling, and ready to encourage me whenever i may need it. I told her that i'd visit her as soon as i knew she was working at Disney, but i don't think she took me seriously.

I hadn't talked to Sigrid from about the end of August until about 2 weeks ago, but have been keeping up with parts of her life from her blog. She's been having a rough time with crappy jobs (yes i guess there are crappy jobs at the Happiest Place on Earth) and roommates, and she's not able to go home for Thanksgiving or Christmas...so why wouldn't a visit from Jaime cheer her up!??!?! This is so meant to be that i found a round trip, non-stop flights to and from Orlando for $115!!! Can you believe it?? There's still a few kinks to work out, but the Lord's hand is already in it, so i'm not too worried.

It's definately going to be a great couple months...i get to photograph Nanette's wedding in a week and a half with Rachel and hang out with everyone on Rochester...my brother and sister are coming home for Thanksgiving...Thanksgiving day itself...and then going to Disney World, which then puts Christmas only 3 weeks away...holy crap! By this timeline it's almost CHRISTMAS!! Well i better not get too ahead of myself.

To wrap this up...the Lord is amazing, great friends are amazing, and Disney World is amazing. How can you not smile at that? Peace out!

How Could we resist?

How could we resist not going out SPOOKING!?!? Even though it was a Monday night, and i had meetings from 7:30-9:00pm....ya gotta do it! So we did. Unfortunately all my mom's friends and co-workers either have experienced being Spooked first hand, or they have heard the stories from those brave fools who "ripped off their masks" or attemped to call the Police. Either our reputation preceeded us, or some of them were already in bed. So mom's friends, off the list.

That only left one category...Jaime's friends. Oh wait, Jaime doesn't have any friends in town! So we move to Jaime's Co-workers. Now it's a great thing that I got my new job at Bona's, because all my co-workers from Cornell Cooperative Extension live out in the boonies and own guns...(ps spooking and guns DO NOT mix). Soooooooooooooooo, we decided to pick on some unsuspecting 20-something bachelors that live in a house in Allegany. I've only been to their house once to watch Survivor (Yes Bec and Rach, these are the infamous "Survivor" guys that have taken me away from watching Alias live, so don't you think they deserved it?), but i knew the layout of the house pretty well.

So at about 10pm we drove up, got out of the cars, took a few deep breaths, and knocked on their front door, after we had attemped to open the door and walk right in...(who locks their doors in Allegany!?!) So we waltzed in, got a beer from their beer vending machine, turned on Monday Night Football and took a load off. My mom sat on one couch, bouncing up and down and waiving her fake white roses around like a wand, while i tried to contain my laughter as they repeatedly asked "who are you", and "are you at the right house?"

After sitting on the couch for a few minutes i quickly moved on to the kitchen to find candy and leftovers. Finally one of the smaller guys ripped off my mom's mask to which she replied "HELLO!" He had no idea who she was, and was freakin out and finally said..."I think it's time for you to go!" So we revealed ourselves and all had a good laugh....but the story's not over...

The third guy was sleeping upstairs...can't leave anyone behind, so my mom and i go trampling up the stairs, and try to knock down his door...but he had it locked too! Finally with enough pounding and knocking, he opens the door. I jump in his bed, cover up and start snoring while my mom just waves her roses. He's laughing on the outside, but craping his pants on the inside...He hears the other guys' voices and thinks to himself "well atleast they are downstairs and won't let anything happen to me"...so then we leave, and wait for him at the bottom of the stairs.

Finally we unmask ourselves yet again, and we all get a good laugh! That was the only house we went to but what great fun! The stories are going around Bona's today, so i'll have my 5 minutes of fame...

Another Halloween of spooking down in the books. Bec and Rach, wish you could have been there...