Senior Portraits Sneak Peek - Chloe

This is my absolutely stunning cousin, Chloe...And I had the honor of spending an evening with her to shoot her senior portraits.
I ended up shooting somewhere over 800 photos and, of course, not all of them turned out, but we sure did manage to get some keepers.
I have only gotten started on editing the masses of pictures but I wanted to make sure to share a few of my favorites so far.Let me tell you we had so much fun searching for cool places to shoot and trying out all sorts of different poses.
Of course it didn't hurt that I had an gorgeous model to photograph!
Isn't she a natural!?
I did learn one very valuable thing from this photo shoot...
DO NOT drink a 44oz fountain pop while driving all over town doing a photo shoot! I went about 4 hour without hitting a bathroom and let me tell you...NEVER again!
We sure did get a lot of giggles out of my discomfort though :)
We actually made a ton of fun memories that I know I will cherish for years to come!
I'll let you view the rest of the photos without commentary (mostly because I am tired and running out of things to say :) Enjoy!!!

Getting closer by the day...

The long awaited 'Shop Update' has arrived!This building sure has been keeping us busy (and our pockets empty) this summer!

I will spare you the step by step pictures that led us to the inside being (almost) done.
The pic below is me standing inside the overhead door and to the right. In front of me are two 'pits' where motorcycle lift tables will go. The room in front of that is the 'fabricating room' aka the 'dirty room' where Duke will have his grinder, machining tools, welder, etc.
This is a look inside the fab room. He has started to move some of his equipment in since this pic was taken but that will have to be for another day.
To the left of that is the hallway (duh!) and then further to the left is the 'dyno' room.
The dyno room that is filled full of JUNK, that is! While the electrician has been working this room has become the catch all for all of the stuff. If you look close you can see that the walls are made of peg board (there is also a second wall with sheetrock behind the peg board) and the hope is that it will help to muffle the sound while running a bike on the dyno. Let me tell you, Duke sure put a lot of thought into this shop...like 20 years of dreams that are finally coming true, that is!
The ever exciting hallway. The door on the right is an access door into the fab room, the first door on the left is the mechanical room and the second door on the left is the bathroom.
Inside the mechanical room, where some day there will be boiler to heat the infloor heat.
And the bathroom. It is hard to see from the pic but our friend Keith stained the concrete floor a reddish-brown and let me tell you, it looks pretty darn cool!
This is the back area aka 'cold storage'. It has the option to be heated but for now it is going to serve as a big (34' x40') garage with pallet racking and room for all of Duke's 'toys'.
Another angle of the cold storage.Looking from cold storage back into the shop.
Oohh, there is the front garage door and the front service door.
Another view of the front shop, which is also 34' x 40'.
And these last two pictures are a little more recent. Last Friday, Duke and his friend Doug began building a workbench and the desk area for the front shop.
We are going to have to wait another week or two before the counter tops are in to finish it though. Oh, and you can see there is now electricity and ceiling fans! I can hardly contain myself!!
I am also proud of myself because I have been watching the Menards ads and I managed to get a toilet for $39 after rebate! Woo Hoo for cheap toilets. I also picked up a faucet for the sink the other day and today I found some roller shades for the windows.
It will be nice when we can FINALLY clean out our garage and shed at our house. I just have to keep reminding myself that it is getting closer by the day!

Completely Random Update

Where has the summer gone? It seems to be going by so quickly. Last week was already Grant's last week of t-ball for the summer. I'm sad to see it over because he had so much fun but am happy to have my Wed evenings back with nowhere I have to be. We did manage to get all of the kids on his team together for a team picture. They are all so stinkin' cute!And a couple of highlights from the last game of the season...
Socializing with the other team...aka his good buddy Peyton.
We have already done all of Grants school supply shopping and he is getting very excited to start Kindergarten. I, on the other hand am not sure if I am ready to let him be that grown up yet. I already know I am going to be a complete mess the 2nd day of school because the 1st day is a 2 hour orientation and I get to be there with him. The 2nd day will consist of dropping him off at Kids Company in the AM and then he is off to class, back to Kids Company and then I will pick him up after I am done with work. Boo hoo! I am really going to miss him being my little boy :(

The basis for my sadness today is probably because I am missing my kiddos like crazy. Grandma and Grandpa K took them back up to the lake with them on Sunday afternoon and I won't pick them up until Fri evening. I did however get to see them for a couple hours last night at Carter's (nephew) soccer game. Having them gone for the week is sort of a mini vacation at home for me but I sure do miss the madness and I still haven't been getting every thing done that I had hoped to get done this week. The last couple of weeks I have been keeping busy with my yard/flowers and editing tons of photos I took in July thus the reason I haven't had the energy to sit at the computer to actually put together a blog post. I do have plans to do a shop update, some plant pics and even some photos of the kiddos this week, if I am lucky but then again the week is already half over! Here are a couple of cutie-patootie piggy tail pics of my little Tootie to tide you over...Oh, and I'm not sure if I have mentioned this yet, but I am signed up to do an inline marathon on Sept. 11th in Duluth. It is actually the Grandma's Marathon route and YES, it is 26.2 miles! I did do a 12 mile jaunt last Thurs but I have some cheaper blades and, as a result, I acquired a nasty blister on the inside of my right foot. I tried to train with a friend on Sat but I couldn't even lace my skates up so I ended up running along with her for a while...2 miles running, power walking 1 mile and then running another mile...all in flip flops! I didn't have my tennis shoes with in the car and I figured since I had lined up someone to watch the kids and it was a beautiful morning, I might as well get some type of exercise in. I actually surprised myself because I have never run that far at once in my life! I did order a better pair of skates with bigger wheels so hopefully they will be her no later than next Tues so I can kick my training into high gear. This weekend is the local county fair and we have plans to bring the kids to the Demolition Derby on Sat night - and annual event for Grant and I and this year Audrey gets to come along (Duke too, if he's lucky :)

Mid August, I have plans to take a vacation day to bring the kiddos to Como Zoo and a little birdie told me my parents may be coming down for a visit in a couple of weekends. The rest of this summer is going to be busy and fly buy but I am determined to enjoy every last bit of it!