Update September 21st!

I was replying to an email from my Aunt Fe-Fe this morning and for some reason I just started pouring out all our news. Sheesh. I thought as I started the "travel update" section that I really should finally start a blog for Jay and me (that really sounds wrong to me, i always want to say "jay and I" and Noni always corrects me. for some reason it just won't stick! sorry noni! but thank you for being so patient!).

We have had such a ridiculous amount of things going on -pretty much since we started dating - and we're not the best at keeping everyone updated. So it's high time! Especially since I have the night to myself! ever since college i have absolutely loved spending friday nights alone in my office or at a library. quirky, i suppose, but i just start to wither away if i don't get enough quiet time.

Gabe's wife Melissa came out to see us over Labor Day! It was so fun to see her! Jay and I had just gotten back from a roadtrip through Montana and Wyoming on our way back from a wedding I photographed in Bozeman. Very good, quite, rustic trip. Phew- we needed it! Just time to be alone and quiet with each other! Anyhow, we had fun with Melissa! she really wanted a nice photo to give to Gabe so Juli and i dressed her up, put a little "natural" makeup on her and did a photo shoot! fun! here's the link to the images: http://picasaweb.google.com/regina.mountjoy/MelissaSFashionShoot?authkey=yRp1WSgctv4

she cried when we dropped her off at the airport. she is so very sweet. jay likes her so very much because he says she is unpretentious. i wish we all lived closer. I'm so relieved that Gabe had the good sense to marry her instead of some other dumb girl. Not that I thought he would, he is very very smart and sensible and handsome, but i'm still relieved.

I'm not sure i could be much busier these days. we're still trying to finish up the renovations on the house (3 bathrooms to go!), plus i'm right in the peak of my wedding season, meeting lots of people of want me to hang work in their boutiques and shops, trying to get weddings & portrait shoots edited and presented to my clients, meeting with potential clients, bookkeeping, marketing, finished album and reprint orders, re-organizing and creating better systems for the studio and keeping up with all the work, etc. I don't feel like I'm keeping up all that well- just kind of trying to keep my head above water and focus on the things on doing well and all the blessing instead of the ways I'm failing. i really am extremely critical of myself and always frustrated with what I'm not getting done or doing well. i realized recently (big revelation) that this feeling of impending failure and not having enough time may in fact be a perspective rather than reality. 33 yrs old and this is just occurring to me. so that is my prayer request: asking the Lord to teach me how to re-frame my perspective. just a minor thing!!! we did however decide it was time to start making church a priority so we've started trying out churches in the area. it might be a little while until we find one we really want to be our home church, esp. with all our trips coming up. but the process is started and it has been fun- very reminscient of when Jay and I were just friends and liked to go to church together!

travel update:

jay left tonight for an impromptu trip out to LA to surprise his brothers for Eliah's birthday! i am very very excited for them! jay has gotten to see and talk with all his brothers a lot this year and that is SO awesome! i hear that Eliah's friends have planned out a huge and detailed for Eliah all over the city. it sounds so amazing! it didn't take much to convince jay to he should go at the last minute. pretty much just the "ok!" and he was off!

we leave next Wednesday for a wedding i am shooting in San Fran! i have a few sets of clients out there so i'll meet with them and also see Ian for a little bit before he heads off to Harvard for a big consortium or something related to expiditing medical supplies to Africa. Ian has become quite the intellect and earned/won himself another year's full-paid + stipend scholarship at Berkely to "round out his education." it seems like only yesterday he was introducing himself to me by pelting me with crabapples and trying to tackle me- how old was he? about 4 or 5? what in the world. anyways, then we're going to try to get up to Napa for a day or two. I've never been and am really excited to see it! as always, wish we had more time & money. but we'll at least get a glimpse and there's always grocery stores!

end of October we'll make our traditional trip back to Indiana for the annual Square Dance held at the Perzee Farm! this particular party has been dubbed "The Crappiest Year of All-Time" party due to the Perzee's loosing yet another child/brother, Jeremy, in a completely random motorcycle accident over mother's day, the perzee farm being hit by a tornado a day after which john perzee's best friend died in a helicopter accident. we all just stand around dumbfounded, drop to our knees in prayer, cling to the promise that God will not give us more than we can bear, open another bottle of wine and/or make another round of dirty martinis.

thanksgiving jay and i were hoping to head down to North Carolina to visit my parents and be introduced to their new hometown and dip over to Charleston, but it sounds like mom & pop want to skip that and just see us when they come back for Christmas. we hoped Gabe and Melissa could come down as well but Melissa just found out tickets are over $600. i really think they should hole up together anyway and watch old movies and cuddle and reconnect. i can't imagine falling in love, getting married and then being parted for a year. it was totally bizarre when jay went to Spain/Germany/Ireland in May for 3 weeks with his brothers. i wondered if we would even know each other when he got back and if we would have this chasm between us since he had just experienced something i would never be a part of. but after an awkward drive home from the airport it was just fine. i am confident G&M will just fall right back in love and find their pace again. anyways, not sure what we'll do over thanksgiving now- possibly host it at our house since our kitchen is newly remodeled and totally gorgeous!! jay is such a rockstar and it turns out we have pretty good taste! (according to some, mostly ourselves.)

Christmas: very exciting news! i just booked a wedding in Sydney, Australia. yup. i can't believe it either. but we bought out tickets today. the bride (wendy) is the best friend of another of my clients who's wedding i photographed in Atlanta earlier this year. when i met her she wasn't even dating anyone but she recently fell in love with an Australian on a tour of New Zealand and asked me if i would consider crossing the world for her wedding. once again, i am a hypocrite. a common pattern in my life. i have for the last couple years been on a soap box about how we need to keep the standards high in professional photography and not be undercutting the competition. i turned down a wedding in Costa Rica this year because the bride wanted to pay so little for so much product and there were several other photographers bidding less than half of my price. i just didn't feel right about coming down on my price. half of what i do in my business seems to be based on making sure i don't feel taken advantage of. if i loose my heart in this there is no business left. but all wendy really wanted was me to shoot her wedding and a small album and she is covering all my fixed costs: 2 flights to Sydney, room and board for a few days and the cost of her album. so we're square and i feel really really good about my decision. so does jay! he had the whole trip planned before i even got to tell him that the request had come in (emails sent to me get filtered through his company so he's usually one step ahead- sad.) so Joshy and Steph are going to fly down and meet us in Sydney for New Years 2008!!! we'll spend about another week in Australia with them and then head to New Zealand until January 16th. (I pushed for staying through February, but Jay really felt like he should get back to work for some reason.) I'm having a hard time imaging a way I would rather spend my birthday than walking through the Botanic Gardens of Christchurch New Zealand in their summertime. Heavenly.

OK, just got called home because David & Christy are at our house with baby Georgia!! have to see the baby! have to kiss the baby! will write more later, possibly.