patience is a virtue (that i would love to have)

"Every one of us is called to wait in our own way. We wait for answers to prayers. We wait for things which at the time may appear so right and so good to us that we can’t possibly imagine why Heavenly Father would delay the answer.

Often the deep valleys of our present will be understood only by looking back on them from the mountains of our future experience. Often we can’t see the Lord’s hand in our lives until long after trials have passed. Often the most difficult times of our lives are essential building blocks that form the foundation of our character and pave the way to future opportunity, understanding, and happiness."

I love Elder Uchtdorf.

Entire talk can be found here: Continue in Patience

hippity, hoppity -- easter's on it's way!

mr. wilson will be starring in his very own photo shoots...

join us, won't you?

tell your friends!

5 years ago today...

i made the best decision of my life:

that, my friends, is the look of pure joy.

and it hasn't stopped there.

thanks babe, for the best five years of my life.

i love you more than you will ever know.

and the best is yet to come!

the BIG 2-4

Wow, time flies, doesn't it?

Last Friday was my birthday and it was awesome! Let's start from the beginning...

On Friday morning I opened up the front door to leave and found this:

It was such a great surprise and a great way to start my birthday! Thanks Rachel and Sara!

After a loooong drive up to Los Angeles, I attended my very first photography class. I wrote all about it on my photography blog. You can read it here.

On Friday night, Jeremy drove up and met me in LA. We went to a fancy place for dinner and it was so yummy!

(taken with my iPhone)

That night we stayed at the new Marriott in LA - it was awesome! Here's what the view looked like from our room:

Can you see the Hollywood sign?

Saturday night I finally got my much anticipated birthday cake!


Isn't it awesome? The hardest part was watching it being taken apart and sliced up. But it was so yummy! My friend Emily did a great job! You can check out her blog here.

Thanks honey, for making my birthday so great! I love you!

P.S. Thanks for all the birthday calls, cards, texts, and facebook messages! I felt so loved!

update

Last week, Jeremy and I went to Utah. It was great to visit with family and eat lots of yummy food. (Utah has the best restaurants.) And my camera got some good use while we were there too. :) After our trip to Utah ended, I came back to Cali and worked three days in a row while Jeremy went off to Cincinnati for more work. Luckily, we got a nice long weekend to relax. This week I start the night shift. For good. I'm scared silly.

In other news...

My little photography blog has a new address! It's www.mikellenewman.com (sounds more official, right?) But don't worry, the old address will still take you there. (That means you don't have to change all your links. Because you've all updated your blog lists with a link to my photography blog, right? No? Shame on you.)

I'm trying to think of ways to increase my clientele. I was thinking of doing a giveaway for a free photo session that would include a cd with all the images. But... I've been offering that anyway and I'm not getting any business. Anybody have any grand ideas for me to get some more work? I'm getting pretty desperate here...