Reggie.

On a very, very, sad note, our good friends
Ron & Cindy had to put Reggie down yesterday.
He was only 7. Typical for the Doberman breed
but so so sad. We toasted Reggie, Hobie, Katie
and Lucius with Champagne last night and just
sobbed! Pray for Ron & Cindy that they find
peace.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig...

Can't even believe that we are back home
already! Why, we just left, right?
Vacations are always so short but I must
say that Gary and I always seem to come
home wanting more and I guess that means
that they have all been successes!
We just simply plan for the next one!

Our next one just happens to be in 3 weeks
which gives me exactly 21 days to lose
20 pounds! Hmmm, think I'll try the "Duct
Tape Diet"...the one where I drive over
to Home Depot, pick up some Duct Tape and
place it over my mouth!

Thank you Dean & Lois for such a wonderful
time! I know it was a short visit this
go around but it was great to see you none-
theless. Our trip back home was uneventful
and our reunion with Boo was over the top!~
You must come up this summer when things
get to hot down there! You are always welcome.

Today is a catch up day, laundry day and
well, must I say...Super Bowl Sunday?

I managed to get my hands on a really great
red, long sleeved Arizona Cardinals shirt.
I just love it! My sister thinks I'm a traitor
but I just figured...when in Rome, right?
I mean, it's not like th Vikings are playing
today so I thought, what the heck!

Gary and I plan to sit home and watch the game.
Quite honestly, I'm not sure I'll watch it all.
But what I do know for sure, whether I watch
or not, I would like for the Cardinals to win!

I want to mention that a good friend and
colleague of mine, Krish Kiefer, lost her father
to cancer this past Wednesday. I would love it
if you would pray for her and her family as
they grieve his loss.

Go Cards!

How Goes the Battle?

Well, we are battling more nuisance snow,
the kind that just mucks up traffic,
super cold temps and I have my 2nd cold of
the season that has barely begun.
And NO, I did not get a flu shot nor will I.
I'm resting a lot and thankful that I shopped
early when it wasn't so darn cold.

The inquiries are beginning to come in for the
upcoming wedding season and at a time when
you don't even want to go outside, I find my-
self thinking of spring, summer and fall 2009
weddings. Sure, it doesn't take the snow away
but, remember, I LIKE the snow! The cold? Not
so much.

This is the week that typically is slated for
hair and lots of it. We ladies like our fresh,
holiday hair! That reminds me, I should have
made an appointment for mine! YIKES! Looks like
I may get the Christmas bang trim again.
What is it that they say about the cobbler that
goes barefoot? Yea, that's pretty much me! :\

Boo has a new box to play with (thanks to Amazon)
and I think he is finally "over" the whole
Christmas tree thing (yay!). He's our little
gerbal and likes to chew paper, however, so my
nice, new paper that I got from Provisions
is in jeopardy and that sucks! I can't leave my
lovely wrapped gifts out under the tree cuz the
little JOY in my life likes to chew! Turd.

Our friends Matt, Jenny, Olivia and "Bucket's" (their
new dog) come home this Saturday from Holland.
They've been there on business for 2 years.

I have something new for you to do. I recently
photographed a mom's belly and her family knowing
that her son "Luke" would likely not survive this
pregnancy.





Well, Luke is a mighty boy and is struggling
to hang in there. Please visit their newly devised
Caring Bridge site and Pray for and follow the
progress thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Here's Luke's CB Site.

Stay warm.

TCPPA Holiday Gathering.

Tonight is the annual Twin Cities Professional
Photographers Association's holiday party.
This year it's at Jax Cafe in Minneapolis.

I've missed the last couple of programs for
TCPPA so I'm excited to go and see everyone!
Did I mention that I'm going to be a board
member in 2009? Yep, I decided to step it up
and get more involved. This is terrific
organization and these are some magnificent
people not to mention fabulous photogs!
Tonight will be fun!

Gary got home around 3 yesterday. He'd been
gone since Wednesday. He'll travel out one
last time in early January...I think.

Boo missed Gary. It's always fun to watch them
reunite after he's been gone. This poor cat is
going to have a difficult time when we are both
away this winter...Yikes! I already feel bad
about leaving him. :\

Today is an anniversary for some new friends
of mine. This will undoubtedly be a tough one
for Kelly and Jeff. One year ago today, they
lost their little girl Aliah. I was the
photographer that responded to their loss
last year for NILMDTS. Pray for this family
as they gather with friends and family today
to remember Aliah.

Just 23 days until the big New Years Eve event
at the Airport MOA Hilton for the MOMF!
This is one big bash! I hope that if you don't
already have plans that you will plan to join
me on New Years Eve for this money raising,
gift giving, family friendly night of CRAZY FUN!






Have a great Monday!
Oh, one more thing...

Hmmmmmm...

Thanks for sending this Steve!
I think I'll share it here rather than
send it out in an e-mail.

1. There are at least two people in this world
that you would die for.

2. At least 15 people in this world
love you in some way.

3. The only reason anyone would ever hate you
is because they want to be just like you.

4. A smile from you can bring happiness to anyone,
even if they don't like you.

5. Every night, SOMEONE thinks about you
before they go to sleep.

6. You mean the world to someone.

7. You are special and unique.

8. Someone that you don't even know exists loves you.

9. When you make the biggest mistake ever,
something good comes from it.

10. When you think the world has turned its back on you
take another look.


Happiness keeps You Sweet,
Trials keep You Strong,
Sorrows keep You Human,
Life keeps You Humble,
Success keeps You Glowing,
But Only God keeps You Going

I have a loss to cover this afternoon out in Waconia.
Pray for the young couple that is losing their first
child at 20 weeks gestation.

Saying Goodbye.

This week, sadly, good friends of ours
are laying their mother's to rest.
I'm not really sure how I feel about funerals.
I was going to write that I "hate" them...
or that I "loathe" them. But I paused a moment
to see if that was, indeed, how I really feel.

Funerals are a time to gather, reflect, share
and console. Trouble here is that I think that
I relive my father's funeral at each funeral
I attend which, in turn, makes them all the more
difficult. But I know that death is apart of life
and I know that altho' we think "Why would God
do this?" that God is there to hold us as we
grieve.

I pray for both families in this sorrow filled
time and pray for strength and healing.

I think that funerals are a time to re-connect
with God, appreciate those around us and think
about how we would like to make changes in our
own lives to affect those around us in a positive
light. In a word...funerals=change.

I think I will embrace these funerals and love
these families and thank God for my faith.

Cold night...chilly morning.

By that I mean that I got a late call from the
Charge nurse at Mpls. Children's.
Full term girl born at 3am yesterday failing.
I knew if I sat at the computer and on the phone
trying to line up an affiliate that I would be
quite possibly be delaying the inevitable so I
grabbed my camera and raced downtown.

Family all gathered. Mom & Dad exhausted and holding
their daughter in the NICU. No answers, no indications
of what the trouble might be. So not fair.

I pray that, in God's grace, she made it through the
night and by some miracle she hangs in and shocks
everyone by surviving.



I'm praying for you little miss S.

Mom's new room.

Good news...
My mom is in her new room. They moved her yesterday.
I will go and see her later today. Tim, Mike & Pete
went to see her yesterday. So we finally have her
out of ICU and are looking forward to getting her off
of all the wacky drugs and back to earth.

Bad news might be...
The set back that she'll have in rehabbing her back.
She would have been full on into that by now and
instead she's flat on her back. Pray that she is tough
enough to get into it when the time comes!

I guess I'll take my own advice and "not borrow trouble".
God has his plan for everyone involved here and it's
not my business to muck that up.

Things are finally feeling like summer around here.
It'll be in the upper 80's all week and the 4th is
looking nice. The whole weekend is looking nice, actually!

On a sad note...my sister had to get rid of Spice.
Spice is Boo's mom. Pete brought her up to the vet.
First, Sugar (their other Birman) started peeing everywhere
so they found a home for her~then last night, while the
whole family was sitting, peacefully, watching a movie,
Spice crawled right up next to Anne and peed right there
on the sofa. The NEW sofa! Anne says she's out of
the cat business. Of course, she's sad. She rather still
have both cats but can you blame her? I couldn't
handle a cat that just peed on stuff all the time either.
I'm sorry Anne. Now you can enjoy your salt water tank!
oh, wait, didn't one of the gobie's jump out and die on
your carpet recently?? That's kind of funny, really.

Everyone is good here at the Austin house.
Hobie and Katie tolerate Boo a little bit more with each
passing day. The lawn is flawless, the garden is
blooming and colorful and Gary and I still talk about
what to do for our upcoming 10th anniversary.
The jury is still out.

I have a wedding free week this week and will start
back up on the 12th. I'm sure that my sister's bash
will feel like a wedding tho'. She and Pete are throwing
a huge party at their home on the 4th.

To any of you who have never commented here on my blog,
I challenge you to do so this week.
Oh, and Jenny's "Dutch Word of the Day" blog is back
up and running again via Holland! :)

Keep my mom in your prayers, thanks!

Small world.

So yesterday I decided to send an e-mail
out to my logo designer and friend, Jessica
Rodin, and let her know my plans for my
identity that she created. She checks it out,
clicks on the blog link and up pop all the photos
of Danza and her mom & dad. Not so noteworthy, right?
Well, it turns out that the other mom up in
ICC at Children's, Alicia (who I met while I was there
photographing Danza) and Christa have become
the best of friends as their daughters are about
2 weeks apart and have spent many days and nights
together. I even took a few shots of Alicia,
Christa and Danza together.
Guess what? Alicia is a really good friend of
Jessica's & Tom's ("Boat Tom" for those of you
who have heard about his gorgeous Yacht).
Alicia is also a hairdresser and has been doing
their hair for years and they have just become
great friends and I can tell you from experience
that it's hard for me to even call some of my
clients, "clients" because they have become such
wonderful friendships! WOW, right!?

So now, I ask that you pray for Alicia and her
family as their little girl is still up in ICC
at Children's and they are missing their friends!
Pray for their daughter's continued success and
health so that they, too, someday soon can return
home and start their new normal!

Alicia is on the left...





Another fun thing...Alicia & Christa don't live
that far from one another either...cool, huh?!

Jessica wants to be in the homecoming photos
when Alicia's little girl goes home!! :)

2 Words...

NOT FUNNY.
Woke up to this today. Jealous?
Um, yea, I thought not.





Nice, right?

Well, I had a full day yesterday.
Met Nicki in Excelsior for an early coffee
that turned into a lunch at Jake O'Connor's.
It was raining but we managed to dodge the
rain a little by popping into some of our
favorite stores and a couple of new ones too!
Martin's is back in Excelsior and Omorphia is
new to town.

















Ahhhhh, a cappuccino & the molten lava bailey's
dessert at Jake O'Connor's....oh, just SHOOT me!





Oh, we did split the fish & chips too!

On to part 2 of my day...I went to Abbott to
photograph a full term, Trisomy 18 baby girl
that passed in utero sometime Thursday.
Her name is Lauren..perhaps spelled "Loren",http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
in that her dad's name is Lorenzo.

From there, I went directly to the Depot in
Minneapolis (the hotel/ice rink) for my
Christian outreach foundation-Here's Life
Inner City.













I'm pooped.
Enjoy the snow!

Abbott, Hair, Pancakes & Hilton

What a day this has been already and I'm not done
yet. I got a call this morning from Hope's mom.
Could I please come down with the CDs before they
checked out of Abbott at noon. YES!!!
So I drove down and I handed them 3 CDs & hugged.
They were so very grateful and I was so honored
to come along side them for this horrific and
daunting session.
I asked that they contact me when they have another
so that I can photograph something happy for them!
They agreed and I popped out and headed home.

Met Jacquie back here at the house and did her hair.
Will came along and then we went for pancakes at
the Original Pancake House in EP. YUM! I had the
blueberry...so, so yummy!

Now I'm off to the Hilton to welcome 2 families.
Each family with a 13 year old child with cancer.
1 boy & 1 girl...hmmmm, already I think they should
meet up this weekend! ;)

We (Gary and I) have no real plans this weekend.
I must say that that was even fun to type!
So who knows where we will end up.

I am praying for Steve, Becky & Melissa Chepokas today
as today marks the 5th anniversary of Mitch's death.
And Becky's mom is in for a cancer diagnosis today
as well...please pray for this beautiful family!

ABBOTT

I finally got to sleep around 2 this morning.
I went to Abbott at 7 to await a C-section.
This couple was preparing for the worst and
praying continuously for the best.

The couple decided to do a C-section at 31
weeks in hopes of being able to see their
little girl alive rather than taking their
chances with having her pass in the womb over
the next several weeks.

Little Hope was not expected to live much past
delivery but Dr.s & nurses watched from behind
the glass of the OR in the next room ready to
charge in and run her to Children's if need be.

I was given scrubs, booties a hair net & mask.
Pretty exciting really. Heather said it would
be a terrific experience and wow! words cannot
describe the incredible weight that I felt in
that OR room. I was given all access to move
about (as long as I didn't touch anything blue).
Having never had a child of my own therefore
never having had a C-section, I was in awe of
of the staff moving like chess pieces..precise
purposeful and methodic.

The dad, strong, holding his wife's hand and
video taping at the same time. Grandma was there
too, supporting, hand holding and brushing her
daughter's hair off her forehead. Really very
loving, touching, moving and yet while I was
watching this all from behind the lens of my
camera, it seemed silent...peaceful. I felt
God's presence. God moves like a chess game too,
precise, purposeful and meathodic. Not always
with the end result we all pray for but nonetheless,
he is always with us. I can't imaging going
through life not believing that. That's my peace.

I would like to thank Jim Bird for coming along
for the shadow. Altho' it ran so very late and
he needed to go, I think that he learned a lot
and will be ready for his next session solo.

As expected, Hope Roseanne lived only for about
20 minutes. But she was born alive.
Weighing just 3 lbs 4.4 oz and only 11 inches
long she was a very big presence and a joy
to behold.

Everyone got to hold her and say good-bye.

Make no mistake that the smiles on these faces
quickly turned to tears when the news made
it down the hall to station 65.

This big, loving family will hold one another
for a very long time. Blessed are families
that have the ability to come together quickly!

The above photos were taken by Jim before he
had to leave. I'll post photos of Hope later.

Pray, always pray, for all those involved.

DEEPER FREEZE!

WoW! Could it get any colder? YUCK!

Now I know what your thinking...
"Sure Sue, you work out of your home,
and rarely get outside."
(That's totally true!) but that doesn't
change the fact that it is just insanely
cold out!

I got a response back regarding my blast
about my e-mail woes from my uncle Mike
and his wife Peggy yesterday. That was so
fun! I hope that they check my blog from
now on to see what everyone is up to!
Growing up, once my youngest brother Mike
was born, we referred to my uncle as
"Big Mike" and my brother, of course, was
"Little Mike"...we were so clever back then!
Uncle Mike was the middle son in my dad's
family and I'm the middle in mine. a good bond.

I JUST got word that Scott & Jacquie, late
last night, made a horrificly selfless
decision to put Lucius down. I could not
even speak the words to tell Gary when he
walked in this morning (he had an early
morning PT appointment-his first one).
Please pray for my friends as they grieve
the loss of their beautiful doberman, Lucius.





We will all miss him.

a twin passes...

I was lucky enough to get the call to
go to Minneapolis Children's Hospital last night.

I met an amazing family with twin girls
born on December 14th @ 23 weeks...pretty tiny.

One of the twins was just not strong enough.

They made the decision that at 7pm last night
she would be removed from life support.
Such a difficult scenario to witness to say at
the very least.

I was present before, during and after. That
little darling hung on for over an hour as if
to be certain that everyone would get the
chance to say good bye. so sweet, she was.

I met an amazing nurse there....her name is
Andrea. She was staying on well after her
shift to see this family through this
traumatic period as she has been their nurse
these past few weeks. I know I'll work with
her again someday. You were terrific Andrea!
Always smiling, always comforting.

Please take a moment to pray for this young
couple. Their other daughter remains at
Children's and is currently stable..doing well.

I have to confess that on my way down to
Children's I thought to myself that I should
maybe stop doing this. I'm not sure how
it is really effecting me...
But once I arrived and began to work with
the parents and discuss their wishes...
I realized that God has me in this position
for a reason and he has made me a strong servant.

For now, I will continue to serve as a NILMDTS
affiliate. I am grateful for the opportunity.

On to Gary....
The films show that Gary has a ruptured disc
between his C6 & C7.
We will travel to Arizona as planned and
return for some cortizone injections.
He's feeling better and his spirits are up.
I think he is really looking forward to a
change of venue...well, anything other that
the porch, really. :)

Dean & Lois, see you soon.
Scott & Jacquie, I will continue to pray for you
and Lucius...I'm so sorry.

As for those of you wanting to see some images
from New Year's Eve. I apologize to you all
for the delay. I'll be getting to them soon.

Enjoy the warm up!

wedding hairdo...

this morning i'm meeting with mandy.
she and mark are getting married next
saturday here in the twin cities.
i did their engagement photos almost
a YEAR ago!! wow!!







i'm giving her the foil of her life
today! (no pressure!) i will not be
creating her wedding hairdo the day
of the wedding but i'll be at the salon
where she's having it done. it looks
pretty cool!

jason, of staja studios, will be joining
me in exchange for assisting them in
northfield a couple of weeks ago.
i really think it's cool when photographers
get together and pitch in when you need a hand.

moving on...i've gotten many calls and
e-mails regarding gary in the past 2 hours...
he goes in for his "stand up" mri today
at about 2, from there we wait to see his
surgeon tomorrow morning for his recommendation.
going forward we ask for some devine healing.
anytime you feel the urge, pray for gary's
spine, C5 and his spirits, as he's been awful
down. perhaps even pray that he can get some
rest...he has not been ABLE to sleep much due
to the location of the pain.

he's decided that he needed an outing so he
got in the car and went to target to get
more meds...big outing! ;)

we'll know more tomorrow sometime.

thanks for your prayers and well wishes.

oh, p.s. my good friend jacquie and her family
just got bad news about lucius..their doberman.
he has cardio myopathy...terminal.





we all know what it's like to lose a family
pet and how devastating that is..please keep
them in your prayers as well.

love all people.

Christmas 2007...in the can.

well, it's really more of a "film" term
than a literal meaning...in that our
Christmas was really wonderful and we
topped it off with a little Christmas
fire last night. it was just gorgeous
out last night. calm, quiet, snowing
profusely...it was the perfect nightcap!
i hooked up my ipod and we sat and
listened to some classical music by the fire.
it was magical.







first we were at my sister's for Christmas Eve.





then to gary's brother's on Christmas day
for a delicious brunch and gift exchange.
gotta love this cat of theirs.."G"



i got bonnie a hillary nutcracker!~
it is a true, working nutcracker but i think
that she will keep it in the package as a
collector's piece! ;)



we left there a little earlier than expected
due to the snow that started to pile up.
and we even got another 3 inches after we
went to bed around midnight last night!
here's some shots from this morning!







nice talking to you last night dean & lois!

gary cannot get in to see his surgeon until
the afternoon of the 31st. bummer.
he'll get an mri prior..of that i am certain.
he's really struggling to keep it together.
his shoulder is in rough shape...pray for a
good outcome. thanks!