40 Years

Well, if you can believe it, these two beautiful people above are my parents. To those who do not know them, meet Carol and Bill Wohldmann. Today, marks a very special occasion for them. They were married on this day, September 4, FORTY years ago. That's a long time. That was before this thing I am typing on was even invented... I think.

My parents are pretty awesome. Not in the way that some people's parents are awesome. Some people's parents like took them toilet papering in high school or let them buy their own personal box of Hostess snacks. That is not their definition of awesome. Their definition of awesome is to set an amazing example for their kids. They are hard-workers, do the right thing, help each other out, help others out, love each other no matter what, laugh A LOT, don't put on airs and they make beautiful children. (See my picture for an example)

So, to them I say, thank you! Thank you for not letting me slack off. Thank you for loving each other and seeing each other through hard times so that we could have a great life. Thank you for not giving me everything I wanted. Thank you for working jobs that weren't always fun so that we could do things like go to the glorious city of St. Louis and keep in touch with family that we would not have otherwise known. Thank you for making me learn and do stuff that I hated when I was younger like money management and cleaning house. Thank you for fixing my cars that I seemed to wreck all the time. Thank you for telling me to choose my friends wisely and not go out with boys that were jerks. Thank you for always giving me confidence and supporting me. Thank you for keeping me accountable. Thank you for loving me even when I was being a rebellious teenager and when I was being a know-it-all college student (and when I am being a know-it-all adult!).

Carol and Bill Wohldmann, you are amazing people. You have so much to show for it. Thank you for being my parents!

PS. This blog has the potential to totally embarrass my mom as she is one of the most modest people I know, but oh well. It's okay this one time, Carol. I love you!

One thing

Okay, tonight we will call this blog "Getting Real with Jill"... cheesy, I know. But who cares... I am getting real.

So, people over the last two months have asked me, "How have you adjusted to having two kids?" For the first three weeks, I said, "GREAT! No sweat." The next three weeks, I said, "It's an adjustment." Now, if someone were to ask me that, I would say, "This has been hard!" with a possible tear in my eye that with sheer will I keep from falling down my face.

Now, as most of you know, I REALLY like to plan, be ahead and think before the curveball is thrown... you know, all that Type A baloney. Also translated by some as being a controlfreak. Well, yes, I am. Nice to meet you.

But see here, that does not work super well with adding a second child to your house. No, sir. I have had more things go wrong or change in the last two months. Not all bad and certainly not all good.... one great! However, I have realized (as I have had to learn this SAME DANG LESSON like 400 trillion times) that it is not necessarily about the CHANGE that you are going through but the WAY you handle it.

I am a controlfreak... imagine how I have handled it. Yeah, not a good color on me.

I literally have been saying to God whilst shaking my fist in the air a la Scarlett O'Hara, "I just need one thing to go right. Just one thing!" Griping at God and your parents doesn't get you anywhere, kids. (but sometimes it does make you feel better for awhile :) )

So, as I was laying down counting my woes, I said to Mason, "I am tired of going to bed so emotionally exhausted. Good thing Suzie sleeps through the night."

This is where God says, "Hey, nerd, took you long enough to figure that out!"... not really... that is what I say to myself. God says, "There you go, Jill! Your one thing!"

Thank you, Lord, for my one thing you have given me!

So, I have babbled on long enough about my emotional roller coaster that is probably going to take awhile to get off of. I just wanted to say that amidst all the craziness that you may be going through, ask Him for just one thing if that's all you can do and He will deliver again and again. I am living proof of that.

This is dedicated to my beautiful sleeping daughter... I would rather have gone through all this five more times than not have you here. I love you, Suzie!

Sometimes you need a little inspiration...

Anna Paquin

Sarah Bernhardt Cookies

Maggie Grace

New York City in the snow

Zach Galifianakis

Edgar Degas

Tom Hanks

Beethoven

Super Sweet Car

Thank you, Yahoo, for providing these images and making my day inspirational!

Changing It Up

I am not sure what the dealio is with the football references lately... maybe it is the hot summer months that have me thinking about the bliss of the fall. COLD, WE MISS YOU! Well, I do anyway.

In the movie, Remember the Titans, Herman Boone is taking a newly integrated football players and making them a championship team. At their summer training camp, he is yelling at them during practice: WE HAVE TO CHANGE THE WAY WE RUN! WE HAVE TO CHANGE THE WAY WE EAT! WE HAVE TO CHANGE THE WAY WE TACKLE! WE HAVE TO CHANGE THE WAY WE WIN!

After remembering this scene today, I thought of two things. One, I am so glad is not the norm for chicks to play football. I would have either told off Coach Boone or sat on the sidelines and cried. Two, sometimes if we want dramatic results in our life... that's right... we have to change some things up.

To say that I have to change EVERYTHING about my life to achieve happiness would be both overwhelming and impossible. However, I am seeing distinct areas in my life where God is saying, "That... that right there... needs to change." Sometimes change is about thinking out of the box, getting more creative, working smarter and not harder.

So, I think I will. Life's getting more exciting by the minute...

Inadvertently Changed

In January 2010, I was doing my usual bit: watching all movies nominated for Academy Awards. (Waste of time? I think not!) In one of the movies, The Blind Side, a well-off family takes in a homeless high school student, who also happens to be an amazing football player. In one of the scenes, the mom , LeighAnn Tuohy, is having lunch with her friends at a fancy restaurant. One of her pals says, "LeighAnn, you are changing that boy's life." To which she immediately replied, "No... he's changing mine."

Rewind about 6 months... I am standing on a cement slab covered by a very carefully placed tent with about 200 people. About twenty of us were Americans and the other 180 were African pastors from all over East Africa. We had more looks and smiles to exchange than words due to the language barrier. We were all waiting patiently for the session to start... and this was the important one: every single pastor in that tent was getting a brand new bible concordance for them to take home. Some of them had been preaching out of one book of the Bible their whole ministry, so you can understand the unspoken excitement in the room (tent). AND I... the American, who had about five Bibles in her house and three computers with Bible Gateway at her fingertips, was going to help hand out the concordances to them. I am changing these pastor's lives.

On the contrary...

So, we start teaching them about how to use this new reference book and I am watching them all. The way they carefully turn the pages as to not tear it. Their backs hunched over with noses close to the page to focus completely on the words. Hands being raised to ask questions so to be SURE to know how to use this wonderful book. Then, later... the pastors would carry these concordances around to be sure to have it if they needed it. I would see them lounging on the grass between sessions reading through it and studying. Their commitment and thirst for knowledge was amazing. Didn't I change their lives? No... they changed mine.

They reminded me to not waste my resources. They reminded me to not take my blessings for granted. They reminded me that giving is not all about what I am doing for the other person, but to look and hear what God wants to teach me through giving. They reminded me that petty situations are exactly that in comparison to what our REAL purpose is.

So, GIVE and be changed.

Mission Barnabas International is the amazing organization that I worked with in Nairobi for the pastors' conference. They have many opportunities for anyone to be involved on whatever level they want to participate: financial giving, donating items to be shipped to Africa and many more. Check out their website to see how you can be a part! You can also be their fan on Facebook.

What Made Tonight An Amazing Night

Having the laundry done in one day.

Shopping for the week and not having to think about that anymore.

Eating dinner with my family that took me 15 minutes to make.

Listening to Zeke correctly say his "r"s and "l"s and hearing him giggle every time we ask him to say a word with those letters.

Watching Suzie doze on and off while there is the din of the evening around her.

Working together with Mason to out our kids to bed while Pandora old school jazz is playing in the background.

Bathing Suzie and rocking her to sleep after reading her "Goodnight Moon" for the first time.

Singing Zeke his favorite song like I do every night. No matter how old he gets, he still likes to hear it.


Goodnight noises everywhere.

A Royal Wedding

Okay, so I know it is incredibly cliche for me to blog about the royal wedding, but I must say I have to! There are very few events that I enjoy more than weddings, whether working at them or attending them. It is so special to be there to witness two people officially proclaiming they love each other and they want to spend the rest of their lives together.

The funny thing about weddings is that they are all the same. Now, don't get all weird on me. They are different in style, size, culture and, in this case, stress level! However, the purpose is the same: to bring two individuals together as one.

Now, there were things that I saw during the broadcast (watched this evening, I did not get up or stay up to watch it live) that I have seen at every wedding. Most importantly, the look on Princess Catherine's face as she was going down the aisle looked the same as I have seen in MANY brides: I am nervous, I am happy, I can't wait to see my groom and I had better not trip. It was so great! So human despite the media frenzy and pomp and circumstance surrounding her. I loved it.

I know I am not British. (duh, I am German, ask Lori) But I really hope the best for these two despite all the craziness around them. Laugh if you want! Hey, at least I didn't cry while I watched their wedding like I do everyone else's. Yes, my wonderful Selah brides, nine times out of ten I cry at weddings. So, chances are, I cried at yours. :)

Here's to the opening of wedding season!

28 Hours

Starting point: Target on Denton Highway....

4:30 Have Zeke and Clara Matheny in the car. Going up the correct side of the parking lot. Chick in a Jeep Cherokee type car is cutting across parking lot in between cars and hits my front left wheel well and quarter panel.

4:31 Off duty deputy sheriff calls 911

4:40 Every single member of the Watauga fire station, EMT brigade and one policeman show up. Yes, sirens on and lights flashing. Aces. Zeke is elated. Pretty sure Clara was embarrassed.

4:45 Blood pressure taken, fine. Dr. Wiggy called, no-go on ambulance ride. Note to send him muffin basket later for saving me from embarrasment.

4:50 All of the said public servants were working on finding my spare tire and jack. Who can be the manliest and find it first? Turns out the policeman won.

5:00 (This will pick up I promise) Tire is changed. Clara is with Lori. Zeke is with me asking me to crash the car again.

5:15 Home unloading melting groceries and Zeke has an accident. He opts to eat a bowl of his new Cocoa Puffs while wearing only, and I mean only, a shirt. I did not even notice until he was done.

6:00 Try to make sense of my house.

6:05 Give up

7:30 Start feeling sore around my ribs and abdomen. Noting too bad, but I decide to call Dr. Pam. She says come over. I call my angel of a mother-in-law to come over for Zeke duty. Put Zeke in tub.

8:00 Leave house. Pick up wine for Dr. Pam for doing an adjustment at 8:30 at night.

8:30 Adjusted, feeling better, go home.

10:30 Mason is woken up to read on a Facebook message that his wife was in an accident (sent by me of course). He calls immediately. I feel bad for starting his day like that.

12:30 Go to bed after watching a disappointing DWTS and doing the laundry.

7:30 Wake up, get Zeke to school and on my way to the doctor.

9:15 Insurance lady from Jeep chick's company calls... here we go.

9:20 Injury report time. I casually mention that I went to a chiropractor last night. Sirens went off in the lady's office and I hear something about a code red in the background. WE HAVE AN INJURY CLAIM. The guy will call me later. Can't wait.

10:15 Dr. Wiggy appointment. All is good. Suzie is safe, measuring fine and fantastic. Nurse lady informs me that I am only supposed to gain 25 pounds while pregnant. I have gained 27 this far and have 7 weeks to go. I stare at her blankly a la Homer Simpson and leave.

11:00 Injury claim guy meets me at Starbucks. He has to see me to make sure I am whole. He does offer me a claim check way over what I needed or expected. (A blessing!) Asked me to sign a piece of paper. I told him I am one of those '60s housewives whose husbands like to look over everything. He says fine, call later. Fanatastic.

12:20 Try to eat lunch fast while sitting in a resturant. Looks like I have not eaten in five days whilst doing it. I don't really care.

12:50 Get a rental car. Guy at rental car place tries to give me the rental insurance. No, thanks.

1:30 Pick up Zeke and realize that the seat belts do not lock in this car. This is a problem.

1:35 Have to pick up phone charger from house to call rental car place and complain about this. Coming out of the house, I almost slip and bust my bum on the slippery linoleum floor. Say words that I will not post in this blog.

1:40 Call poor, defenseless rental car guy. He says this is new in cars. The seat belts have sensors now and will lock on impact. Great. Let's hope the guy at the factory installed that correctly.

2:00 Pick up Hudson the Hurricane.

2:15 Pick up Ellie after her teacher lectured me on having the sign with Ellie's name on it propped up correctly because it was difficult to read. Yeah, lady, that is what I am concerned with right now. Helping you read. I know that sounds mean, just saying how I felt.

2:30 Chat with Mason about car ordeal.

3:00 Kids all are melting down.. something about a mask being broken or something. All of them are sent to bed.

5:00 Meredith picks up Zeke because God has ordained her to make my life easier at very opportune times.

5:30 For some reason, I have Ellie and Hudson "help" me vacuum out the couches. Why? I have no idea.

6:00 Put Ellie and Hudson in the car. Leave Stringers' garage door opener and the last set of Xterra keys on the back of the rental car. Drive off. Realize I don't have them. Starting crying. Go home. Nowhere to be found. More crying. Drive slowly the way I came to try and see them. Find the keys. Random person asks me if I am okay. I give him the "It's not you, it's me" look. He understands. Drive by the decimated garage door opener. Anticipate sister's wrath.

6:10 Call mom. More crying.

6:30 Mom meets me with keys to the Stringer home and bathes the children probably as a penance for already calling my sister and laughing about my peril on the phone. I decide to forgive her.

7:00 Leave the Stringers' house.

7:01 Almost hit a cat.

I miss Mason.

2011 CRAZY SESSION SALE!

Welcome to our CRAZY SESSION SALE! A first in Selah Photography history!

Right now, we are offering certificates that include a 45 minute session and up to 10 high resolution edited images for only $150! (a $225 value) This is a limited time sale that runs from February 22 to February 25. These sessions can be used ANYTIME in 2011. (Think ahead for the holidays!)

How does it work? Well, it's easy. You can email me (info@selahphotography.com) or call me at 817-741-3419 and let me know that you want to take advantage of this awesome deal. We will take some payment information from you and get your certificate in the mail right away.

These certificates are good for the following sessions: family, children, newborn, engagement and headshots. Extended family session certificates can be purchased for $195. It does not include bridal, high school senior or weddings.

Also, you do not have to specify the kind of session you will want or book your session at the time of purchase. You can be put on a reminder email list so that we make sure that you get that session done! (I can’t stand buying certificates and then I get busy and forget to use them.) You purchase as many certificates as you wish for the year. These are a great gift idea for Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Flag Day…

Give us a call or an email to take part in this AMAZING sale! We also appreciate you “liking” our Facebook page… pass it on to your friends so they can like it too!

www.selahphotography.com

What's in a name?

People ask me what my favorite part about being pregnant is. And while I try to mentally decide between morning sickness and not sleeping on my stomach, it hits me like a lightning bolt: the name. Picking out a name for a new person on Earth is one of the most fun, conversation inducing, opinion raising tasks. Shorten or not? Traditional or funky? Family or no family? I love it! So many options. My friends, family, neighbors, man walking his dog down the street or pretty much any random person can tell you that I am not really one for options, but this is the one exception.

SO! When we named Zeke, we decided that we are not ones for out there names that no one would get like "Exxon", but we did not want to name our kids "John" and "Mary". Our names (Jill and Mason :) ) are names that have actually been heard of, but they are not used in our generation very much. When we found out Zeke was a boy, we started the search. One night we were driving through Southlake and I was looking through the baby name book and there it was "Ezekiel". It means "Whom God makes strong"... loved it. I wanted Zeke to have every tool behind him to become a strong man in the Lord including an awesome name. My father's name was the choice for the middle because we wanted to use a family name for all of our kids. I think that names from family members is a way of honoring them for the impact on your life. And my father certainly has had that on me, so Ezekiel William it was.

Then, four years later we find out that we are expecting again. Yay... more naming! So, we found it was a girl and began the process again. There were several names that we considered. Two top contenders were "Suzan" and "Ruby". In the spirit of keeping with our family trend, we decided that "Suzan" was our top pick after my infamous Aunt Sue. (Talk about an influence in my life! That is another blog for another time.) Her name means "purity"; pure in heart is something I have been praying over our kids for a long time so it works perfectly. To be a little different than even that, we went ahead with "Suzanne". And not to keep Mason's family completely out of the naming mix, we decided to use his middle name as our daughter's: Robbins. (Monica's grandmother's maiden name) Suzanne Robbins. Perfect!

So, this blog was supposed to be short (sorry...), but I am having a dilemma. Zeke goes by the shortened version of his name as Suzanne will. How to spell it? That is the dilemma! Suzie? Suzy? Thoughts? We do have a majority on this, but I would love to know what you, Internet world, thinks. Hmmmmm......

The Incredible Pantry

OK, I know that I am way too excited about my pantry, but I can't help it. I think it is because I feel like I am accomplishing something in preparation for our daughter to arrive. Or maybe because I think it rivals Martha Stewart's... I am not sure. Anyway, here it is!

The additional shelves were added by my amazing dad, Bill. I can remember him doing projects like this for our house when we were growing up. The projects always seemed to take longer because he never rushed and he always measured twice. Thanks, Daddy! You made my kitchen amazing!

The Social Network and The Fighter

Okay, let's get something out of the way. The obvious title motif is a little overboard this year. Look at some of the Best Picture potential nominees: Black Swan, The Social Network, The Fighter, The King's Speech. All the Yahoo users were up in arms because Inception won nothing last night. Well, the Harper Awards give it Most Creative Title. There you go, Yahooers, happy now?

Anyway, Mason and I went to the movies all day today and saw The Social Network and The Fighter. Both great movies with great acting and great scripts. Here's the thoughts on them:

The Social Network- Okay, Mark Zuckerberg, if you are reading this, just don't cancel my account. I am addicted to this thing you shamelessly created from someone else's idea. Moving on. This was a great movie. The screenplay was fabulously written by the wonderful Aaron Sorkin who also wrote some of my favorite shows, The West Wing and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (NBC please bring it back). It was witty, quick and purposeful. Jesse Eisenberg did a great job at making Mark Zuckerberg seem like a hero and a villain all at the same time. Honestly, I did not like Zuckerberg after leaving the theater. I felt sorry for him. Maybe that was the point. Look, I am not really sure what happened in all the stealing idea situations; we are not Friends (see what I did there?). I do know that if he is half of the dillhole that Jesse Einsenberg portrayed him to be, I would block him from my news feed if we WERE Friends. (enough of that) Seriously, he seemed so very determined to be in that inner circle that it made him emotionless to anything else. It left me feeling sad. And Mason too. No tears, just sadness for poor billionaire Mark Zuckerberg. But all in all, it definitely deserved the accolades it received at the Golden Globes.

The Fighter- Anyone who has known me for over an hour knows that I love Rocky. This movie was like Rocky except you switch Adrian for a girl with a left hook and a bad mouth, you trade Paulie for a crack addict and Mickey is actually a overtanned, overdyed, overbearing mother. Then, you have The Fighter. Oh, and throw a wonderful corps de ballet of seven sisters who would scare a child on Halloween. We'll make them the awesome doo wop group that sang on the street corner. Take it back, doo doo-da-doo... Anyway, The Fighter was an amazing film with a spitfire cast. The story was a story we have heard before, but they did it in a really interesting way. Christian Bale, who most of you know as our current Batman, was Captain Insane-o awesome in the role of Dicky Ecklund. He was delusional, he was insane, he was hilarious. He was Dicky Ecklund. It was phenomenal. He was my favorite part in the whole film. Mark Wahlberg was good too. Fully committed to the movie and he was the steady beat to the up and down craziness of Christian Bale. Melissa Leo and Amy Adams totally embraced the lifestyle and look (eeeek) of the time and the environment of the plot. All of them are shoo-ins for Oscars nominations if I were voting. This film was really worth watching.

So, there you go. Two more Ineviteables down... many more on their way. Nominations are up at the end of the month we will see what happens!

PS. This was originally written for Facebook, which is why I am asking MZ to not cancel my account.

Golden Globes 2011

Okay, so I have seen some of the movies that are nominated tonight. I don't really make it a priority to see all of these because the Oscar ceremony is really a bigger deal to me. However, I must point out two of the films nominated tonight because I have recently seen them. These two films, Black Swan and The King's Speech, are what I put in the Inevitables category. That means it is inevitably going to be nominated for Golden Globes AND Oscars so I will not be wasting my precious movie watching time. So, here you go:

Black Swan- Saw this with a friend who is into artsy stuff and we both wanted to see the movie, so off we went. The movie was... emotionally confusing. I liked it, but I didn't. I appreciated it, but I did not appreciate some of the unnecessary content (my friend and I agreed the girly love scene could have not been done at all and eluded to in the movie in a much more tasteful way). I was scared, but I wasn't. So, it was emotionally confusing. So, here is what I did like about it: Natalie Portman did an amazing job creating this character that wanted something so perfect that she drove herself to madness. The artistry of the actual dancing, costuming, camera perception and visual effects were wonderful. But honestly, the likability of the movie ended there for me. The film was directed by Darren Aronofsky who also directed The Wrestler and I had the same reaction to this film as I did with that one: I saw it. I am glad I did. Once. And I need to either go say about 30 Hail Marys or take a shower.

The King's Speech- Okay, I saw this one with five of my friends. We all have very different tastes in movies and we all loved it. Colin Firth is my hero and Geoffrey Rush is amazing. The subtly of the acting, set and script made this movie. They did not have effects to make things exciting, they made the movie exciting by.... ACTING. Soapbox alert! I had a realization after seeing this movie. There are two types of people in this world: those who are entertained by movies with effects and those who are entertained by movies without. NOTHING WRONG WITH EITHER. I just realized that I am a person that prefers movies without it and that rely on the abilities of the actors. Take Avatar for example. Not really known for its acting... which is fine because that whole film rested solely on the effects. And... I am going to say it... I found The King's Speech to be 10 times more entertaining than Avatar (sorry, Jared Viertel). Of course, as mentioned before, neither way is wrong. It is all about YOUR preference. Soapbox over. So, I highly recommend this movie. There are no special effects, but I think you should see it nonetheless!

Watch the Golden Globes tonight. You will be glad you did.

Inspired by Erin

Well, hello everyone...

I wanted to start blogging because my cousin Erin shared her blog with me and it seemed like a really cool thing to do. Blogs are funny to me because I hear my sister talk about them all the time. She reads blogs of people that like make their own paper for their Christmas cards, grow all their own food and whose kids speak Mandarin at 5. She immediately rolls her eyes in disgust and calls me saying, "I am going to start a blog that is called 'We are having chicken nuggets for dinner again.' or 'I haven't worked out in a month and I don't care.'" I don't know if I will be on one extreme or the other, but we'll see how it goes.

Sunday is my birthday. I really don't feel like the new year starts until January 16, so normally I spend the first two weeks in a state of flux. Weird. I know. It's like I don't want the year to start, so I loll around the house hoping that pending things like taxes and website redesigns will not creep into my brain.

31 is the magic number for Sunday. Never thought I would get to this point in life. Not to sound morbid, Mom, but when I was twelve, I could never picture myself as a 31 year old. Some people do, not me. Maybe it is because I did not know what it would look like: great husband, 3 year old that sounds French when he talks, a daughter on the way that will probably be sassier than me and a faithful dog that loves me no matter what. What more could a girl want? Or I guess since I am 31... what more could a woman want? Nothing I tell you. Nothing.

Thanks for reading my first blog! I will keep you posted on how this year of life changes me. It is sure to happen.