Brother

My little brother is getting married. I can't believe I'm saying those words... My little brother, the one who's always had a soft spot in my heart. The one who made us cry as he stepped out onto a football field. The one who always looked up to his big sister.

Dan is a blessing. Dan was in a car accident when he was 9 years old and it was very, very severe. He was in critical condition for days, as well as my sister, Jenny. I remember when he woke from his coma. We had finally talked Mom and Dad into going to get some supper. The nurse came to get us (me & Greg) to tell us that he was awake. I kept telling him that I loved him, over and over, just to hear him say it back. I just wanted to hear his voice.

Now, I am so blessed to see him reach another milestone. He's getting married and building a home with a girl who is so incredibly sweet. I am excited to have Sonya in the family. I love watching him experience love and I love watching him make a home.

Brother, you are a blessing to me and the rest of our family. I love you and I'll always think of you as the youngest of the "kids". I'll always look out for you, I'll always be your biggest fan. I'll always be your big sister. Congratulations on starting your life with Sonya. I wish you both a life full of blessings and happiness.

On my mind.

I don't know what it is about turning 30, but I feel like I've been doing a lot of soul-searching lately!

I made reference in one of my last posts about knowing what one of my goals is - to make people happy and not to tear them down. One of the worst feelings I've ever felt is knowing that I've hurt someone's feelings. I think a lot of times my personality comes across as insecure because I'm always apologizing or worrying about what someone thinks.

Honestly, in the little things, it doesn't matter to me what people think. I love owls. I love vintage trivets. I love vintage stationary. I love vintage, ok, well pretty much anything from the 70's! I love to change the toliet paper roll to a fresh one when we have company coming over (don't worry... I'm not wasteful, I just put it away for later). I do that so our company doesn't run out... so they don't have to go searching. I don't do it because I'm afraid our house won't look perfect. I straighten my naturally curly hair. I give in to my child a lot. I yell at Greg sometimes. My house is a fright right now (and most of the time due to a busy life!). I am me and I'm an ok gal.

So, I guess tonight I just wanted to talk a little bit about me. I am enjoying life right now - where we are. Our growing family - Jenny & Rene are expecting, Lindsey & Matt are getting married, and Dan & Sonya are getting married. Gabe is at a great age to play. Greg and I are in a great spot. I have a job. I have my photography. Life is good. I feel like I'm maturing and at 30 years old, I'm really not so worried about what other people think.

Bottom line - Love my Greg & my Gabe, love my family, enjoy each day, and don't stress the small stuff. After all, we've got one go around here. I'm not going to spend that time - waste that time - on relationships, activities, and stuff that aren't me and what I'm living for.

Photography Milestone

Well, it's that time of year! Getting back into the swing of things with my photography business. It's exciting and a lot of fun, but busy. I love taking pictures so much. I have gotten better since last year, but I still have a lot of work to do! I'm really excited because I have a day-long seminar coming up in May that focuses on outdoor portraits. It's a very small class and it's pretty hands-on. I learn so much better that way!

This little sweet girl was a newborn the last time I took her pictures... In fact, she was my first newborn session! It was so great to be able to take her 1 year pictures.


It was a beautiful day for pictures!

I want.

I need.

I love.

Life is so full of wants... I want a nicer car. I want a newer house. I want more time. I want a less stressful job. I want this, I want that. I want the beautiful necklace in the picture (hint hint for Mother's Day, Greg... :) ) hehehe.... Sending subliminal messages your way... You are getting sleeeepy... :)

I know I don't have the best home, but I love it. I know I don't have the perfect marriage, but I love it. And, I know I don't have enough time, but I do know that I'm thankful for what I've been given. Bear with me while I reflect on life while listening to my kiddo play. I may not keep up with the Joneses, but life isn't about the money and the nice things. It's about the people you love. The people who love you back. And, it's about making someone else's life better - not trying to tear them down because they don't have the best in this or that. It's about making your kids lives better and teaching them to love all of God's people. It's about remembering your committments. It's about faith. There's only one go 'round. I don't want to be sorry that I treated someone worse than they were worth. I want to go to bed at night and feel like I helped someone that day. These are my goals and I fall short. But, this is what I try to be.

I am not afraid to garage sale.

I love to garage sale. It's one of my favorite activities with my BFF, Tami. Here are some of my recent finds!

I plan on cutting the front of this pillow off and framing it for my scrapbook room. I loved, loved, loved the embroidery, but even with washing it, the thought of laying on someone else's pillow creeped me out. Ok, only one of these is from a garage sale. The top middle one is what started my collection. It is one of the only items I have from my Grandma Smith and I have always cherished it. I love the design and I love how sweet it is. The one on the bottom right, I got from a garage sale for $2.50. I was so excited to find it!! The one on the left is from eBay. I think I paid $7.00 for it. Periodically, I'll get on eBay and etsy and check for them. I just think they are precious. I'd like to have a collection on my kitchen wall.

And THIS. Oh, it just makes my heart melt! It's in near perfect condition, an antique, and best of all, I found it for $12.00. I got this at the Pantagraph's garage sale. I am thrilled about this one. This will be great for newborn pictures. I'm toying with the idea of spray-painting it white, but after photographing it, I think I may leave it alone. I've got a couple baby sessions coming up, I'll just have to try it out.

And this. This was too sad not to buy. My mom and I collect recipes and always put together our own recipe books. This was a recipe book belonging to someone in Washburn and it was being sold for $1.00. All of the recipes inside were either hand-written or collected from the 1950's-1970's from newspapers or magazines. I thought of the time, thought, and care that was put into this. I thought of the mom/wife sitting and planning out meals for her family. I thought this was a treasure.
AND, we can't forget about Gabers! My most exciting finds are when I find vintage Fisher Price toys. I love the little people like I had when I was little. And, Gabe loves them too. He loves getting to "give them a bath" when we get home - which consists of him pulling a chair up to the kitchen sink and me helping him wash all the guys. Ok, so Mommy washes and Gabe splashes and makes a mess, but he loves it. I think I paid $20 for the above set, but it was worth it. It had all the pieces, plus a few extra. And, it went great with the family house we got him on eBay for Christmas last year.

And, I got this one yesterday at the Pantagraph's garage sale. It was only $4.00 and it had all the pieces (except for the side door, but that's ok!). And, Gabe loved it. He's been playing with it non-stop since I brought it home.

I thought I'd be doing better at blogging this time around, but we are so busy right now. Our last month consisted of the following:

• a minor car accident and dealing with a rental car, insurance, repairs, repairs messed up, etc...
• Greg in the hospital for 4 days with a minor surgery & MRSA
• a kitchen flood
• mid-remodel projects
• a messy house
• wedding invites & shower invites to design and prepare
• shopping and planning for a shower (I love preparing for showers!)
• a busy preschooler
• Greg travelling

I'm so excited for this coming week. We're going to St. Louis with Greg while he travels for work. We'll be going to Gabe's first Cardinals game and Gabe and I are going to head to the zoo while Greg's working. (Sorry Greg!). It'll be a well-enjoyed break and mini-vacation for the Herrman family! I'm sure I'll have a ton of pictures!

Hey Mr. Golden Sun...

Gabe's learning some songs at preschool and it is TOO cute! "Hey Mr. Sun, Sun, Hey Mr. Golden Sun, Please shine down on meeeeeeeeee!!" Also, he loves his Batman guys, his Daddy, and picking his nose. Enjoy!

Daddy's Home!

What a week it's been for the Herrmans! Greg just got home today after being in the hospital for four days. Last Thursday, he had a hair follicle inside his nose that became infected. It caused him a lot of pain, so Friday, he went to the doc in a box to get it looked at. The doctor put him on a couple of antibiotics thinking it would help calm it down. By Monday, Greg still hadn't gotten better and was feeling weaker and more achy my the minute. So, we went to see our primary physician. The doctor was going to send Greg home with a heavy dose of antibiotics, but after hearing there'd been no improvement since Friday, he ordered us to go to the hospital.

Upon arriving there, Greg was seen by another doctor who determined Greg needed to go to the hospital in Bloomington so he could see an ENT. The doctor also ordered a cat scan so it could be determined how far up into the nasal cavity the infection went. Greg went by ambulance and I stopped by home to pack a bag for Gabe. Thankfully, we already had care set up for Gabe since Greg and I were supposed to be going on vacation with Steve & Tami. We didn't get to go on vacation, but that's ok by me. I'm just glad Greg's on the road to recovery!

Greg was diagnosed with MRSA at the hospital and an ENT performed a surgery to drain the infection and get the area cleaned out. In surgery preparation, they couldn't get a tube down his throat, so to relax the throat muscles, they gave him some medicine. That medicine caused his potassium levels to drop and when he woke up from surgery, his entire body was cramping. He was in so much pain! They were able to kind of get the cramping to stop, but his head and neck remained in pain - severe pain. I'd never seen it that bad before.

So, Greg was referred to a neurologist. The neurologist (who was awesome!) ordered an MRI and discovered Greg had 3 ruptured discs in his neck, one of which was very severe. The neurologist seemed to think that's been the reason for his chronic neck pain. It must have flared up because of the muscle cramping after surgery. He advised that surgery could be done to fix this. I felt nothing but hope after hearing this! Greg's suffered with neck pain for so long! So, we waited until he was safe to be off of the IV antibiotics and now he's home! We'll be following up with the neurologist in a couple of weeks to talk about treatment for the ruptured discs.

Craziness, isn't it? I couldn't believe that he had MRSA from an infected hair follicle and that we were finally able to find out about his neck problems! He's doing pretty well today. We both got a nap, I went and picked up Gabe, and we just did pizza delivery for supper. I'm so thankful that Greg is ok. I'm also thankful for all of our friends and family that stopped by, prayed for us, and helped with the Gabers. We love you all and are so thankful for you.