Catch Up!

Wow, I've really been falling down on the whole "blogging" process. I just haven't worked it into my schedule. There's been a lot of changes going on around here that is for sure. Let me see if I can sum it up and get everyone caught up that might not already know..

January - work work and work... some photography - a wedding to photograph.. a reception to attend.. and a bridal show to exhibit at.. we won best booth award.. it was massive.. you can see it here.

February - work work and work... more photography - mostly consultations with new brides, open houses at a couple of venues, and album design like crazy.. and we celebrated 3 years in our new house.. my job as an escrow officer got increasingly worse - that is more work, less hours (30 per week - cut since Dec 1) and poor management.. can we just say an abundance of stress? But the best part of the month was that I was appointed to the Board of Directors for the Austin Professional Photographers Association!

March - work work and work... more stress... back to 40 hours per week - only because I had to beg for it. By the end of the month I was completely exhausted and brain dead - so much so that I called in sick on the last day of the month (busy time and I've never done that before) and I went to the doctor.

April - no work for me.. on leave for the entire month - due to the stress. While I was out I went ahead and had my left foot surgery done - double bunionectomy. Might as well kill too birds with one stone. Also while I had 4 1/2 weeks off, I had a lot of time to do some thinking about what I really want to do. After some long discussions with Bryan and weighing the pros and cons of everything under the moon, I decided to go back to college and finish a degree. Bryan is behind me 100%. I enrolled for the upcoming Summer term at Austin Community College for 9 hours. My plan is to complete a two year Associate degree in Business Administration and then transfer to The University of Texas at Austin for a Bachelor of Business Administration majoring in International Business. The IB program at the McCombs School of Business at UT is one of the best in the country.

May - I worked only four and a half days and turned in my resignation - it was just too much - not for me and the stress was still there. Time to make a drastic change. I won't go into the details but this was a long time coming. I spent the month taking care of me for a change - mentally and physically. I started going to the gym every morning and working out - I feel great. I breathe more and listen to the birds outside. I am at peace in my world. My grandmother suffered a heart attack on the 20th. Her daughter (my aunt) passed away after a long illness on the 25th. Granny got out of the ICU and was back home two days before my aunt's services, only to have to be lifeflighted back after 24 hours. She remained in ICU, sedated, and unconscious throughtout the end of the month.

June - Bryan has been working a tremendous amount of overtime the last couple of months while he can and while it's available. I have warned him not to burn out.. if he wants to work six days a week for two weeks in a row, then he must take off his 3 days on the 3rd week. He's doing great! The summer term at ACC started and so far so good for me. I'm enjoying it and I've spent alot of time studying. It's not my first time in college - I already at about 64 hours of credit but not all will apply to this degree. It has been a long while since I took this much at one time - but I can do it! Granny remained in ICU for a few weeks and was moved to a rehab center next door to the hospital. She was there two days when she went into insulin shock and was taken back to the ICU at the hospital. That was on the 17th. She was never alert after that and was on a ventilator for almost a week. She had no signs of any brain activity and on the 23rd at 3pm, my mother made the decision to disconnect her so she would not suffer like that any longer. She lived for about 45 minutes to an hour and quietly and peacefully went to be with Jesus. We buried her this passed Saturday the 26th and Bryan was one of the pallbearers. I'll post her obiturary in a seperate posting - take some time to read it, she lived through some pretty interesting times. I'll miss her a lot but I know she is with the Lord now.

So, you're all caught up on what's been happening around the Morrison household! Hugs to everyone!