Thankful for Compliments

Anyone who knows me well will agree that I've always been a bit self-conscious about, well, everything - including my writing. Considering I was nearly a journalism major before I fell face first into design and printing and never looked back, you'd think I would at least give myself a little bit of credit in that department, but instead I've often breezed over the idea that my writing is anything worth reading and continued on with projects like this blog out of pure enjoyment for documenting my life in a way that's simple and sentimental to look back on.

I've had professors tell me I have a very journalistic "voice" in my writing, and enjoyed little else in high school as much as my time covering sports and entertainment for the school paper (the fact that I had to talk to several of the hottest guys in school on a daily basis to keep tabs on the baseball team sure didn't hurt either). I've always secretly thought that if my passion for advertising ever dies, writing would be an amazing thing to fall back on... but I'd probably have to build up some of that confidence I'm lacking to really do anything with it, huh?

Then came the Lawler family.

Now, while Mr. Lawler may be slightly obligated to be extra nice to me because I'm dating his son, that doesn't mean he has to read my blog - and then tell me how great it is - but he does. He has consistently praised my story telling, and because of that I'm always excited when I have something new to crank out an entry on. And then there's Dan's Aunt Claire, who ran up to me with a big hug on Thanksgiving gushing "there's my favorite blogger!" Really? Those four little words quickly made my day, and I'm sure I blushed when she continued on about my writing to everyone else in the room. Talk about a confidence booster!

And so, I'm approaching this whole writing thing in a new way, with newfound positivity and some major excitement. While I have no plans to walk away from my advertising production career, I have a couple of amazing freelance/part-time/out of this world opportunities I'm planning to apply for and if by some miracle I'm chosen for the one I am most excited about, I can start checking items off of my 30 Before 30 list in no time.

So until I'm ready to divulge details on the above (which will be after the application deadline because I'm selfish and don't want a single other person that doesn't already know about it to find out) ;)... enjoy these pictures I took on Thanksgiving with my new toy, the Nikon D3000 SLR camera. It makes me feel fancy, gives me hope that I've got at least a teeny bit of photographer in me, and apparently takes some pretty great photos straight out of the box -

Ryan and Nikki - two of my favorite people!

Dan and Kadence - more favorites :)

Adorable little girls!

Naptime with Mayah

Family photo!

Louie Louie - not so little anymore! Almost 40 pounds at 5 months.