Erik dug up some amazing pictures and this one, especially, cracked us up.

Quite the before and after...

Shawn & Michael in 1995.

And here they are in 2009.

And this one...

Shawn thinks he looks like a little Asian girl in this picture. :)

I think he's just adorable.

More to come soon...

PS - Shawn won't let me decorate for Christmas at our house until after Thanksgiving, but I went ahead and decorated my blog. :) Merry Christmas (in a few more weeks)!

Recent obsessions.

This, friends, is our new favorite snack.

Pomegranate.

Who knew fruit could be this heavenly and delicious?

Drooling yet?

If you've never had one, don't be afraid of it! You just cut it open and pull out the seeds and eat them. They're like nature's sour candy and soo good for you.

Secondly, let's just put this in the category of something I said I'd never do.

A worm compost bin.

Shawn was so sweet to drill holes in the bottom of a large plastic bin to make a home for some wormies. :) (Ilene, do you recognize the bin?)

Then we put in some cardboard and some other paper, wet leaves, and some soil and added a bit of water and let it sit for a day or so.

Then we added this guy.

And about 24 of his friends.

I was actually brave enough to buy them and put them in myself, but I had Shawn dig some of them up to take a picture. They looked fat and happy, chomping on pomegranate rinds, kale, and squash peel (in this picture). And hopefully, in just a few months, we'll have rich, organic soil to use for a vegetable garden!

Happy Saturday!

More exciting news...

Shawn's photography site is now up and running!

And it is gorgeous.

Take a look:

shawn.newbymedia.com

If you go to the upper right hand corner, you can click on "next" to see lots of beautiful samples of his work.

He does wedding photography, family photography (need a Christmas card picture?), headshots, and more. You can find his rates under the "about me" section.

If I were someone looking for a photographer, one thing I really appreciate about Shawn is that you don't have to order prints through him. Lots of photographers charge for prints, but Shawn edits all of the photos then gives them to the customer on a high quality CD so they can print and reprint as much as they like (at somewhere like Costco where the prints are excellent, and dirt cheap!). Our wedding photographer also did this and we appreciated it so much.

I'm so proud of him for all the work that has gone into this and for the quality of his work. He has such an amazing eye. Also, thanks so much to Erik for helping make this website a reality. Your expertise is so, so appreciated.

So if you need an engagement, wedding, or family photographer, let him know, ok? :)

Brighter Day Jewelry

Just wanted to let you know that after a long hiatus, my Etsy shop is up and running again with new items that would make perfect little Christmas gifts! There are earrings, rings, scrabble tile pendants, necklaces, photography, and even a painting. Everything comes gift wrapped and ready to give as a gift or keep for yourself.

Here's the site:

http://brighterday.etsy.com

Also, let me know if there's something you'd like to have custom made. Those are my favorite kinds of orders!

Merry (early) Christmas!

Train ride back in time.

Today we took a train ride to Watertown, Tennessee.

Ever heard of it?

Neither had we.

But we had a lovely trip there and were able to spend the day with family.

Sweet Maddie girl.

The train was decorated for Christmas. Love it.

Miss Jess, who turns 8 in just a few days!

McKayla Jane with beautiful, glowing hair.

Aunt Missy telling a joke.

"What do Winnie the Pooh and John the Baptist have in common?"

"The same middle name."

Mom reading "Wayside School" book with the girls... one of our favorites as little girls.

Finally, we made it to our destination!

There happened to be a World War II reenactment happening in Watertown today, and they went all out.

Like I said....

During lunch at a Mexican restaurant, we heard about 30 minutes worth of "battle" with loud gunshots the whole time. Memorable for sure.

I couldn't do this one justice by putting it in black and white... the colors were too pretty! Here we are.

After a couple hours there, we boarded the train and headed back to Nashville.

What a fun, memorable day for all of us!

The end.

An evening with our hero.

We had the privilege last night of meeting a man who Shawn and I respect and admire so much, Mr. Mike Huckabee (future President of the USA, in case you wondered).

He was at Davis Kidd bookstore in Nashville doing a book signing of his newest book, A Simple Christmas. The guy has to be exhausted. He's covering 60 cities in 3 weeks.

At around 8:20pm, he arrived with applause and greeted the 200 or so people there, then began greeting each person individually and signing their books.

To show you how close we were, my camera has no zoom. :)

We waited (nervously) in the line for about 20 minutes and brought our book for him to sign as well as this photo:

The woman in the photo is my Grams, who just passed away a few months ago. And the guy in the light blue pants? Mike Huckabee himself. (And no, the guy in the black is not related to John Stamos/"Uncle Jesse", although he looks sooo much like him! That's James Robison, an evangelist.) Mike Huckabee and my Grams and Granddaddy Ware worked together in ministry back in the 70s. When we put the picture in front of him, he asked, "Now where did you find this?" with a smile.

I told him that Reba was my grandmother and he asked, "So are you Melodie's daughter?"

Amazing! He knew who we were!!

He went on to talk about how much he loved my grandmother and how he's never heard such beautiful piano playing like hers. He told us he was so sorry to hear that she passed away and hoped that we had received his message on her memorial site (uhh yes!).

Then he asked what my parents were doing these days and we filled him in. He was so genuine, humble, grateful for the support, and kind.

We stood there with him for several minutes and it was magic. What an honor.

To cap off an already amazing night, we met Master Sergeant Whaley, who stood in front of us in line.

We thanked him for his service, then got to talking to him for a while. What a dear man. You can tell he loves the Lord and he was thrilled to tell us about how God is moving in the military these days. He had been a missionary kid in Alaska and was excited that we had graduated from Moody. When we looked him up later, we found this article about him. He actually raced in the Iditarod!

After saying goodbye, we headed outside and spotted the Huckabee tour bus (how could it be missed?).

We know we'll see him again. Hopefully in a large, white house.