. randomness .

. apparently i can't do much cohesive these days, it's all random photos from my iphone or random thoughts running out of my head . it's where i'm at these days i guess .

. this weather is awesome . early, but awesome . yesterday i turned the air on . i had flash backs of right after we moved into this house and i was babysitting levi and andrew . an ache that i hadn't felt in a while came over me, i missed them and all their silly ways . and i strangely didn't mind doing the laundry, washing dishes, taking out the garbage . i truly felt as if i was living in this house, my dream house, for the first time again . that passed last night when i had to finish up the laundry .

. my weeks have been fairly booked with photo sessions, but they keep getting rescheduled . no ones fault, they can't help it, but it's making for extra time . which i do really love, but find myself wondering what to do with it all . last saturday i had 2 sessions booked and both had to reschedule, so that left my morning wide open . i had already planned to meet my friend emily for omelettes at the rotary omelette breakfast in kalona . she mentioned she was going to hit a few garage sales since it was city wide, and since my morning opened up i went too . it had been a long time and it was so much fun . we had to stop for coffee to wrap up the fun .

. a few of my finds from the sales .

. after my morning saleing, i had went to this little missy's birthday party .

. it was a butterfly party, wish i had taken my wings .

. then kept andrew and seth for a few hours while mommy helped with a wedding . we ran errands and put bandaids on ouchies . and went through a car wash, seth wasn't a fan .

. and sunday i was able to spend the day with my mom . it was special . we don't usually spend the day together and it worked out that she had the afternoon free, as did i . had lunch (dad came too, he can't crash our party, he only makes it better), then walked around the square a little, sat in the park and talked .

. then got iced coffee at dodici's cafe . mmmm .

. i feel blessed to have so many special people in my life . my days are filled with family, friends and love . i know i don't look happy about it here, but i am !

. randomness .

. i was supposed to have a photo shoot this morning, but we rescheduled due to the very overcast skies...we were hoping for some fun outdoor shot, fingers crossed for next saturday ! soo excited about taking prom photos this afternoon, a group of 12 ! AHH ! does that sound like fun, or what ?! wishing we could do some outside, but i'm not counting on it . with this wind, can you say 'dress up day' ?

. been working on that curb appeal on the house, remember ? house numbers are on, new mailbox in place and just put up a new porch light . a forsythia wreath on the front door, it's all come together quite nicely . i'll post photos at some point . the dilapidated porch floor is what's holding me back . all in good time ! we've only lived here 6 years people, give us time !

. just noticed that there's sunshine in the forecast for the next 4 days, who do we think we are, california ?! sooo excited, but not holding my breath !

. love arranging all my props cute at the studio for window peekers . i only just started doing this a few months ago, it's like styling a window display, i like it !

. spent quite a bit of time at the studio this week . 7 shoots, well, make that 6 since this mornings rescheduled . whew, what a great week .

. even got a day of shopping in and while i was there i saw this . these guys are great and i wish it would have worked out to hear them that night, sometime i WILL make it to hear them play !

. had coffee with a friend . it was the best, the coffee and conversation . this single coffee date changed my week ! thanks, ashley ! you can pretend like you didn't read this . ha !

. when i went out to feed the dogs .

. mad for plaid, i am ! jammies !

. editing while watching the royal wedding yesterday . i'm not totally caught up in it all (like my awesome friend, emily...seriously, she's awesome, she was featured on katemiddelton.com, go read her stuff, you're really laugh out loud!) . but i do love and appreciate style and a couple who appears genuine and in love, and from what we are shown they appear to be just that . i did love seeing all the hats and couldn't imagine being a female guest and NOT having a hat, and i saw a few of them...poor things . why ?!

. this means the sun is shining . !!! . and i almost see a chevron pattern in there . hm, pretty .

. i'm wanting to get more creative with my photo shoots . lately my mind has been racing as to how i can mix things up . i have a few ideas, but if you have any inspiration, send it my way .

. i mowed yesterday and i actually enjoyed it a little . i'm hoping it's really growing on me and i'll learn to love it . most of the time it's just a job, one i dread and pray the 2 hours flies by . i've even tried embracing it before with no success . not sure what's change, but i hope it's for good . am i asking too much from mowing my yard ? i don't think so .

. that's all for now . happy saturday to you !

. more random things .

. spring . is it here ? or isn't it ? by the calendar it is, but i still seem to have to wear socks every day or else my feet get cold . last week when i went over to my mother in laws and cut some flowers i also cut some branches from their newly trimmed apple trees . i brought some branches home that had buds on them and look, they just bloomed on my kitchen island .

. and well, this is about as easter as i get when it comes to decorating .

. i ordered this amazing rug (from here if you're curious) over a month ago and it just came on monday . it was backordered . my experience with backordered stuff has been that about 3 weeks after it's backordered i seem to get an message saying that it is no longer in stock and so therefore i don't get what i ordered . i didn't get my hopes up then that i'd actually get this so a few days ago when i got the email that said it was shipped i got all excited again . her she is, and i love her !! she'll be going with me to the studio now and then too for maybe a fun family session ?! how did it become a she ? hm...

. brings some more color and mismatch to my office . i love it !

. and i finally got some of those instagrams printed ! i chose mpix.com for printing and they would go as large as 5x5 . i'm very happy with the outcome . saw this cute idea to string them up here .

. that's all for today, friends .

a day to remember

. today is a day to remember, not because there's anything special about it ...

. except for these beautiful flowers clipped from a friends forsythia bush .

. and cleaning and laundry all morning .

. and making sandwiches for the guys working outside .

. and chatting with a friend on the phone about personal things and feeling her love .

. and 70 degree temps with the sun shining .

. and worship music in the background .

. and planning to go pick some daffodils from my mother in laws before it rains .

. and cleaning out the freezer to stock it with meat .

. and cleaning the basement a little while i'm down there .

. and FBing heart felt messages with a friend .

. and a window open . (can't open many living on the gravel road)

. and enjoying spending some time in the kitchen with fresh vegetables .

. and realizing again that God is in control and thanking Him for that.

. and still working on memorizing those verses below, i've almost got them .

. and playing wwf's here and there .

. and so, well, it's a simple day i want to remember .

. my day .

. monday with my boys .

. buds .

. my special treat to myself today . coffee with all the fixins .

. if you're a hoffert you most likely love BBQ sauce on any meat .

. some fun in the sun .

randomness

. lots of thoughts swarming my head these days so i thought i'd put them down here . i always love reading others randomness so hopefully you don't mind mine . here goes...

. waaaaay back when, when i started my very first blog, i think this was august 2008, steve helped me set things up and as any of you that know him, know that when he does something he does it on a fairly large scale . like 17 pounds of bacon, or 27 pounds of grapes, those are both stories entirely all their own . aaaaanyway, back to setting up the blog story, we decided on a name (photo eye love, now photos eye love) and when setting up the gmail he called it iowaphotoassociates@gmail.com . i laughed and let him . well, here i am, however long later and did you know that you can change anything about your google account except for your email address ? anyway, please don't send me emails at this address, as i don't check it regularly, but now i do have a sarahnebelphotography@gmail.com address, so feel free to email me there or the cloudburst one .

. the sunshine not only warms my dogs basking in it, but my heart . i truly haven't been ready for spring until just this week .

. cleaned out the fridge this morning . hate that job . but so glad it's done . cleaned all the carrots, cut the tops off and made them into a little bouquet looking thing so now they'll look more appealing to eat . don't say anything, i took a lot of guts to write that .

. if you get a really really pretty iphone, you should protect it by getting a cover for it . that's right, i didn't . i dropped it yesterday, trying to save a kitten's life and so now mine has a case and a broken back, oh and no insurance since they don't let you get it after it's been dropped . lovely .

. speaking of my iphone, i could marvel daily at the apps out there ! a period tracker (period plus if you're interested) . white noise app ?! you no longer need to take your fan when you go somewhere to sleep, while you're using it why don't you switch your white noise from using an oscillating fan to waves, or a thunder storm, or a ticking grandfather clock (my fav) , cuz it's all on there !

. you've probably noticed i've been posting a lot about food lately, you know, here and on facebook . i'm trying to figure all this out, why i eat, my relationship with food, why i eat too much of the bad for you stuff, and the good for you stuff . trying to put my finger on how it makes me feel . trying to work more exercise into my life . i don't want these things to be temporary, so i'm taking my time getting them all figured out . i'm reading made to crave(thanks to the recommendation of emily, wow, i know lots of emily's...emily T) and i've only just begun, but i'm loving it, it's making so much sense ! the idea is we are all made to crave, but the world trains us to crave things like food, fashion, sex, drugs, alcohol, any number of things, but we are made to crave Jesus Christ and when we fulfill those cravings with Him our life will be a productive one for Him . now, i'm only just starting the book, there's much more to it i'm sure, but that's what i've gotten so far .

. along those same lines i'm also reading crazy love . not terribly far into this one either, but loving it just as much . realizing how if we truly love Christ with all that is in us, with a crazy sort of reckless abandon that He is automatically our all in all . i know that's truly what i want out of this life here on earth is for Him to be my everything and for that to reflect upon everyone i come in contact with . if you've read either of these books tell me your thoughts .

. hm, saying more and different stuff than i thought i would when i started this post .

. my laptop cord is not working, am glad i got the insurance (extended warranty) on that ! new one to come, not soon enough though...now i have to resort to using my desktop that i just like to look at . kidding . kinda .

. i'm wearing bangles today, wondering how long they'll last . i hate noisy accessories . i hate wearing heels that clonk, clonk, clonk as you walk and it lets everyone in the entire building know that you're coming .

. i need my friends . so glad i have the best ones !

. one of my favorite things to do is meet new people and in doing that make new friends . i feel like i get to do that all the time with photography . it's funny because a really great client of mine ordered some photos and through a series of mistakes and miscommunications we've had to chat quite a few times and meet up twice and we have such a great time every time . she's yet to get her photos . she doesn't care, and neither do i because we kinda like meeting up .

. i don't know if i saved that kitties life or not ! it's kinda driving me crazy .

. and a pic, because a post is always better if there's something else to look at besides words . right ? or maybe not, having a bad hair day so i just pulled it all back . but there's my new phone cover, the only one that fit since the back was broke .

. happy day friends, tell me something that's been swarming through your head lately in the comment section .

. instagrams from monday, tuesday and today .

. fresh produce .

. making salsa . wasn't the best i've ever made .

. reed was playing basketball with baby toys on the dining room table . one toy in the cup, one toy in the bowl . i decided this was not a great idea .

. spring is here, although it's a cold and snowy one we're having !

. finding a feather on our walk .

. school .

. love the fringe on the run .

. boys playing with my old cameras .

. love these photos . i think the boys are so cute with them . ryan was fascinated with that big old one, he opened it all up and put it all back together, not as easy as it might sound .

. the sun was shining just right into the closet this morning and this bottle was the prettiest thing around .

. lots of office work today .

. life in instagrams .

. seriously, the iphone has changed my life . photo life for sure . i love being able to whip out the thing and grab a quick pic . i'm going to try to get some of these photos printed just to see what they look like . anybody done that with instagrams ?

. but, the phone changing my life . okay, words with friends, this game is addicting and sometimes i just have to quit playing, so i can STAY ON TASK ! :) super fun to play though, except this game . it was hard ! i loose a lot, but i still like to play .

. empty water bottle .

. yes, i wrote the date, not my name, on the tag of my pants . okay, i'm not weird, at least not for this reason . i did this because i had bought different brands at different times and wanted to see how fast they faded . anyway...it does seem kinda dumb now, BUT the best part about this story has nothing to do with my faded yoga pants and everything to do with the fact that the faded yoga pants that haven't fit in a while, fit now ! and i wouldn't have remembered how long it had been since i'd worn then if i hadn't dated them like they were corn going in my freezer at the end of summer !

. ry took this pic of reed running from him . typical .

. the boys are obsessed with anything fun on my phone so they think my scrabble game on my phone must be wild fun because it's, well, on my awesome phone, so they wanted to play the game in real life . let me just say, not so fun .

. getting my hair done at salon rage .

. visiting my friends em and gibbs . this picture melts my heart .

. em's cool home .

. em's cool dining room decor .

. let me just stop a moment and say how brilliant gibbs is ! this kid can say just about anything . he's so verbal !! he's not quite 17 months old and can talk like i've never heard a child do before . so, he's a genius, for real !

. whipping up some stir fry .

. mixed with a little quinoa . my new favorite grain .

. me and brooke, instagraming together .

. at a horse sale . we choose this over pedicures . why ? we decided it was because we are maturing and family is more important than our nails getting done . that didn't stop us from whining to family the rest of the time together about not getting our nails done .

. tiny towns have the coolest stuff .

. morning coffee .

. getting ready to go trail riding .

. good times .

. and more to come after bit, this just gets me up through sunday .

:)