One Quarter Down...Seven To Go

Hey guys! Well the first quarter of grad school is officially over. Before I get to all that happened at my final presentation critiques, I'll go ahead and fill you all in a little update of other things. First of all, thank you to all of your prayers and support for my Father. To those who didn't know, Saturday night late, my Dad was feeling pains in his chest and my Mom took him to the hospital. At first I thought it was a heart attack, but luckily his blood work and tests came back ok. They then identified it as an intestinal issue that might have been causing the pains. Then, they found a few lumps on his lungs. The tests from those came back ok, and my Dad was released! :) Praise the Lord! He has to go back in a month just for a brief checkup, but he is in fine spirits and sounds like Dad :) It was such a weird feeling because I picture my Dad as this indestructible Superman. He still is! Thank you, Jesus.

My roommate Eric and I decided to rearrange the living room of our townhome apt. I know that sounds really "metro" of us haha, but we wanted to let more room in. And it worked well. Moved the flat screen TV to a different wall and arranged the furniture differently and now there is enough room in there to move around when we jam out to Rock Band on Wii or whatever.

I got rid of my Verizon Wireless account a week ago because I had had issues with my new Blackberry that I bought. It wouldn't let me check email, and when I called to get support they didn't really have any advice except to send it back to them and let them fix it. And I need my phone. Of course I tried to get a deal sorted out since it wasn't my fault and I just got the run around. So a fellow classmate was telling me about AT&T, so I checked their plans and rates out on my way to the Verizon store. It turns out, I can save $20 a month by switiching to AT&T and keeping my number and all my options. So I switched and got a new phone. But not just any new phone, mind you...the iPhone!!!!



Yeah it's pretty much the best thing EVER!!! It has GPS, Games, I can check up to 10 different e-mail accounts, find local cheap gas and restaurants, check my bank account, check my Facebook, watch videos, Instant messenger, make a grocery list, manage my calendar for weddings and other events, make restuarant reservations, monitor my health, etc. It does everything but brush my teeth and bathe me pretty much. I love it! The best part is a lot of the options are in an Application format that work super fast, so I rarely have to use my internet...even though that is fast...but more time consuming. I can check movie showtimes and order tickets. Just so much. I don't know why I didn't do this to begin with. Plus I'm saving $20 a month! My Blackberry couldn't do all of that. So yeah, needless to say I'm excited. Thank you, Apple iPhone haha.

This weekend I'm going home for Christmas break. Second Quarter doesn't start until Jan. 5! On my way home, I'm stopping in Greenville for the weekend to hang out with Andy, go on a "date" with my friend Meredith, and shoot some engagement photos for my friend Brittany. Then I'll keep driving North on home to Virginia on Sunday. YAY! I love home...plus we need to go get our Christmas tree. I think I've been listening to holiday music since Halloween.

Without further wait, I'll now go over my grad school critique. My Photography one was Monday night and it went really well! I think I made a great impression. I was kinda bummed though I had to go first of the seven of us. Oh well. They wanted to start out with an awesome photographer I assume :) I'll try and post all 12 of my final shots on here so you can see my final results. Some of them you have seen, and others you haven't. I think the favorite ones they seemed to love the best were my murder scene, fruit bowling, my roommate shot of him playing the guitar in the middle of the street and definitly my WWII widow shot. My professor actually said "I absolutely love this!" for that shot. :) My Writing critique was last night and it wasn't bad but not great either. I have a lot to work on as far as keeping the reader engaged and writing with deeper emotion, etc. But its ok. They could tell I was used to blog writing and also editorial writing in college. I'll post the photos in the next day or so. To those of you who have Facebook, you can see my work there. Or on my grad school photo page on my website www.redbulbphotography.com. Enjoy!! We won't find out our number grade for our work and critique until we get back in Januray. Which kinda sucks.

Keep praying for my sister Rachel as she prepares to leave the US Jan 12 for missionary training in Germany before heading to the Phillipines. I'm so excited for her! Also, I've been in talks with the International Mission Board regarding freelance photography assignments that maybe I can be involved with overseas on breaks from school. I'm waiting to hear back of any opportunities. Until then, I'll be keeping all of you in my thoughts and prayers and hope the holiday season is off to a great start. God Bless!

More to come...