cupcakes

I felt like I wasn't posting enough photographs. Although, this one doesn't really have to do with anything. Except explain why we're getting chubby. Because I like to bake. Actually, I like to cook. But I'm trying to better my baking. Hence, ganache covered cupcakes. Mmmm...

Random thoughts:

- we're shooting THREE weddings in two months (and already booked for one next summer).. yay!! which means we're going out and getting another new lens tomorrow. i'm SO excited!

- we met with the irs today and fixed some more of our fraud issues. in fact, they liked us so much, they decided to give us back the $1,500 they owed us. nice, huh? thank you irs! (we also bought a filing cabinet... we decided we need help in the organization department.. we seem to have more paperwork than your average newlywed couple)

- my dad is writing a book about hell.. intense, no? after all the lds books he's published, i think it's kind of fun. his agent will be sending it out to publishers within the next month or two. it's a three book series and i think it's ingenius! there's more information about it here: http://jscottsavage.blogspot.com/

- scott gets home in eight months! yay :) and erin comes home in two! yay again!

- night classes start for nick in two weeks.. no more husband at night :(

- i need a job!

- that's about it.. just trying to keep everyone updated on our not-so-exciting life :) (still re-reading hunger games, though.. the new book comes out in eleven days.. yay! go peeta.. ahem.. or gale, whatever..)

- oh! and katie gave us a basil plant! and a mint plant! i'm sooooo excited to cook with them. we named the basil plant bizil.. in memory of our old basil plant.

my husband is cool

he is. like when he tells me his dreams every morning when he wakes up.

last night, we travelled around ALL OVER in his tool bag.. and then we came home and went to sleep.

he's very animated when he tells me his dreams.

i love him.

gale or peeta?

This is us lately (isn't he attractive??). Mmm. Anyway, like I've said a million times before.. we're taking lots of pictures. Evidence that I need a job.. or to go to school.. or both! I figure I'd better take advantage of all this free time while I still have it. We've been averaging about 3 photoshoots a week.. and Nick comes with me to at least one or two of them. He's SO great.

Other than that we've been maintaining our regular schedule.. eating, sleeping, cleaning occasionally. We're re-reading Hunger Games and Catching Fire (I HIGHLY recommend them if you haven't read them) so that we're ready for the final book Mockingjay when it comes out this month. We pre-ordered it and we're really excited.

For those of you that HAVE read it.. are you voting for Gale or Peeta? That's one of our only disagreements in life. That and crunchy vs. creamy peanutbutter. Oh well.. keeps life interesting.

So that's our story. I'm trying to be a good and dedicated blogger. My other blog has an updated editor, so when I put up photos, it does it a lot nicer, and you can do more to them. But this one is old and I have NO idea how to update it. Lame. Did that even make sense? Lame again.

Welp, hope this was update-y enough. I'll try again soon!

photographs

I feel like my whole life lately consists of taking photographs, and I love it! I've had more and more people asking me to take their photos, and I feel like I'm stepping outside my very small comfort-zone and trying new things. I've been asked to do two weddings (a week apart) in september. I'm doing bridals. I'm doing groomals. I'm even doing two maternity shots (of two very good friends).

I love this job! really. One of the couples that asked me to do their wedding in september was looking through my photos. While e-mailing back and forth with the bride, she told me her fiance said that he loved how real I made people look.. that they weren't posed or fake.. but real. SO cool. That's exactly what I'm going for. I want people to look how they really are.

Tonight I'm doing my first maternity shot.. it'll be so fun, but I'm going to be honest, I don't know what to expect. I have so many ideas running around my head. I'm excited to see them come to life.

Anyway.. feel free to go check out the photo blog. Sorry, that's definitely getting more of my attention lately than this blog. I'll work on that :) Until then, go leave some love over there!

http://ewophoto.blogspot.com

(ps- did I mention the fact that my BEST FRIEND helps me with all of my photo shoots? Nick is incredible. He holds my reflector (he knows light better than I do), gives me suggestions, goes through the photos with me. He's such a trooper, and he loves this as much as I do. I guess that's why I didn't name our photography Erica Thurman Photography.. it is definitely a team effort.)

thoughts

okay, i'm having a hard time getting photos to post.. basically i hate the internet. i can manage photographs on my photo blog (thank heavens), but not this one. which is a shame.. because i have some cool photos...

- moab
- nick's birthday
- playing with friends
- our west coast road trip
- idaho family reunion
- disney world! (er.. from december.. heh)

.. and just photos in general. they're cool. be excited for them. but not too excited. because they might never come. and i don't want to let you down. (especially you, jessica...)

so because you get no photographs, here are some not-so-insightful, just-plain-random thoughts from yours truly (it's going to be a busy week, there's a lot going on in my head). if you don't want to read all of this, i've bolded the main points, for your skimming convenience. you're welcome.

- as you've noticed, i've decided not to capitalize lately. i kind of like it.

- i have a really cool husband. he encourages EVERYTHING i do, or talk about, or dream about. he doesn't question me or discourage me, he joins me and loves me and tells me i can do anything. i like him.

- he also decorates cakes. i don't know how many of you know this. we spent an hour yesterday looking through a dessert magazine.. he's gettin' really into it. i like this :)

- he's also the hardest worker ever. we seldom have "down" time. rather we have, i'm-home-from-work-what-project-can-we-work-on time. whew!

- i have two photoshoots this week.. one family and one engagement. and a maternity shot next week. in the next two months i will also be taking bridals and wedding photos. i'm loving this!

- i'm also cooking good food this week.. chicken artichoke calzones, tortilla soup (my crockpot meal while i'm out shooting), bbq-ed hamburgers w/ grilled pineapple & corn on the cob, shrimp and scallop pasta with bruschetta. yum! i love cooking! and baking! this week also holds vanilla bean cupcakes with chocolate frosting (or ganache?) and a fancy cake nick wants to try out.

- also.. i'm going to a semester of culinary school.. dun dun dunnnn!

- also.. we got pell grants. yay! yay for free money!

i think that's all i've got. that's our lives right now. we take photos, cook good food, and work on projects. who needs a job? oh that's right, me. i also need to figure out this whole getting-photos-on-my-blog thing. and not-talking-in-hyphens.

the end.

ps- we're going to epcot/universal studios/island of adventure/HARRY POTTER LAND/florida in december... ahhhh!

we're back

wow... it's been a while. sorry guys! we're back now. i'm still taking photos every day, nick is still taking things apart and putting them back together, and we're still going on adventures. time to start updating again!

finishing february

Warning: This is going to be a long post.. I'm determined, over the next few days to catch up, since I'm more than a month behind.. yikes! Apparently I only blog when Nick is out of town. Oh well!

16 february 2010

Another night w/ Garn and Heidi. It's fun having our best friends around so often.. and SO fun seeing their little girl grow up. She's gotten so big, and has such a personality. Below is a photo of our adorable husbands.. both keeping themselves entertained.

17 february 2010

This was an enrichment activity I missed out on.. Nick and I were both feeling sick. But Heidi brought me back all the peices, so I can put it together myself. Cute!

18 february 2010

This is the morning little Riley Apsley was born. Meanwhile, her precious older brother and sister got to hang out with "Aunt Jen", mini donuts and Thomas the Tank Engine? Could life get much better? I think not.

Later that night we got to head over to ALA and watch Jake in Sound of Music. He was part of the Vienna Children's Choir. We were a huge fan of the costume ;)

19 february 2010

Yeah, okay.. this was a stretch. One of our favorite treats is slicing up potatoes, brushing them with olive oil and baking them in the oven. Mmmmm.. fries and homemade fry sauce. See? Even the fry is enjoying it...

20 february 2010

We found this photograph hiding out in our car... I think we had it out for our reception, or something like that. I love love love this picture. My in-laws were cute little kids, weren't they? (Julianne's not born yet, but she would have added to the preciousness). I'm a huge fan of Lisa's glasses and Nick's bald, fat head :) What cute kids we'll have!

And of course she's a cute baby too!

21 february 2010

I LOVE Sunday dinners.. mostly because I don't have to cook them (mom's cooking is best!).. and also because we ALWAYS play games. I always win, of course. I was really amused when I looked up from our game to find Dad had drawn a moustache on himself. He thought it would make him look more.. thoughtful?

Since Maya wasn't able to participate in the game, she felt inclined to eat.. a banana peel. Yuck!

22 february 2010

I was able to go judge a Reflection's contest at a local charter school in American Fork. There were SO many talented entries. This one was definitely my favorite. Made by a little elementary student, out of scraps. So cool.

On my way home I stopped by the Mt. Timp Temple to take some photos. It was a gorgeous, overcast day. We're so lucky to be so close to such a gorgeous temple!

23 february 2010

There are more photos of food in this blog than there probably should be. But cookies.. in a pan.. mmm...

24 february 2010

I love my job.. because we just do weird things. Like make co-workers Available/Unavailable signs. Kim puts up with so much from us... really.

25 february 2010

Mmmm.. I never ate foods like this 'til I married Nick. We had our home teachers over for dinner and made shrimp tacos with mango salsa and chicken fajitas. Mmmm! Then we spent the rest of the night playing games.

26 february 2010

Apparently we had some extra paint.. so we painted half of Jan's office red. I should have done before and after photos, but it looks SO much better with red. (We also cleaned her desk, haha)

27 february 2010

Why would I put in a photograph of our stairs? Probably because I dropped my camera down them. Yeah. I've learned why I married Nick.. I break things and he fixes them. This poor guy, who has never looked inside a camera, took the whole thing apart and put it back together. What a keeper! (I rewarded him with BLT's.. with avacado.. BLTA's? See? I'm cool too!....)

28 february 2010

We got our beautiful quilt that Aunt Melody made for our wedding.. isn't it gorgeous?! This doesn't really do it justice, so you can come to our house to see it in person. But I LOVE it.. thanks Aunt Melody :D

Well look at me go! Done with February.. now just another month to go and I'll be mostly caught up. Bleh, taking the photos is so much easier than blogging them :) I'm loving this project, though.. it's so much fun! Thanks everyone for putting up with me having my camera in your face 24/7. I'm off to the aquarium with my family to take more photos and then I'll come back and we'll see how much of March we can get through.

(If you read this whole thing, thanks for being such a trooper!)