Sunday, August 31, 2008

"Weekends, I prefer the weekends"

Anyone know who or what I’m quoting with the title of this blog? Hope so.

Anyway, I do prefer the weekends, even though I don't really have a hard work week, I still enjoy lazy Sundays with family and fun Saturday nights with friends.

Oh! Exciting news, our friend, Marissa Collins just got engaged on Friday, so we went to her engagement party on Saturday night. It was one of the highlights to our weekend. I would say the second highlight would have to be this guy. We saw him on our way to look at houses.
And that was the best.




And this was pretty rad too. This kid is gonna HAVE to be cool.

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Friday, August 29, 2008

Wedding Slideshow

We just posted Brianna and Eli's wedidng slideshow on our BLOG. And our website. Check it. Let us know what you think.

Also, does anyone want to hangout this weekend? I need a freakin' break.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Wedding Pictures

Hey guys, Chance and I just finished shooting a wedding in the woods of Redding. We posted some sneak peek pictures on our BLOG. www.chancejamesblog.com

Keep checking it out on a regular basis...we have more good stuff coming. Also, to all you seniors out there who are looking for some crazy, sexy, cool senior portraits...make sure to email us. We would love to help you out.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

i loooovvvve...

how i can tell how many people, and where and when they read my blog, and no one comments. it's kinda a bummer. But hey if you want to stalk me...that's cool too.

Living with your parents is cool

Okay, so it might not be considered "cool" but Chance and I decided we will be moving in with my parents at the end of October.

The last couple months we've been trying to buy a house, or at least rent a house until we found a house we like enough to buy, but it's been a hard process. And we don't want to just move into the first house we look at. We stopped looking for awhile because we’ve become so busy with starting the photography business, and figuring out if and when we are going to be moving to Hawaii…(it’s a BIG possibility that we will move in about a year or two).
Our lease is up in October, but we really don’t want to renew it. We feel like we need more space, and we want a backyard...you know all those selfish things you never thought you would care about, but now you do. Yea, we want that. So we decided NOT to renew our lease and we would start looking to rent a house in the meantime.

One day my mom called me out of the blue and said, "I know you guys are trying to buy a house and haven't found one yet...just want to put out the offer to move in here and save up for 6 months or so."

Our first reaction was NOOOOOOO way. Because
1. One, people will start feeling sorry for us because they’ll think we cannot afford to live on our own, which is not the case
2. We won't have our own kitchen or living room...it will be us and Mark and Vick.
3. it's in Madera, and its 20 miles to Fresno
4. Living with your parents just sounds bad.

But I really feel this is totally a blessing to us because we would have NEVER thought about moving in with my parents to save money, but it’s going to be such a good thing. I mean, this way not only can we save for a few months; we are going to try to pay off our car debt. (We still each owe 5000 on our cars and I own 4000 on my credit card from before we got hitched).

I know God is totally watching out for us because if we would have just jumped into buying a house, we still would have the car debt for sure. I’m actually really excited about getting everything paid and starting on a clean slate.

And if we STILL don’t find a house in 6 or even 8 months, at least we paid off our debt and we can hopefully find a house to rent while we are on our quest.

Also, my parents aren’t your typical parents. They are not in anyway intrusive, pushy, or annoying. In fact, I think they have a better social life than I do. They’re cool and to be honest, I would rather have us live with my parents then some of our friends. Mark and Vick are pretty legit is what I’m getting at.

So that being said, I’m in the process of organizing, cleaning and giving stuff away. It’s great. I loooove to get rid of things, it feels amazing. I know that sounds weird, but it makes me feel calm for some reason.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Idealist

Took this personality test thing, and this is what it told me i was.

Let me know if YOU think this sounds like me.

So.
Funny.

Your Keirsey Temperament Sorter Results indicates that your personality type is that of the IDEALIST

All Idealists (NFs) share the following core characteristics:

Idealists pride themselves on being loving, kindhearted, and authentic.
Idealists are enthusiastic, they trust their intuition, yearn for romance, seek their
true self, prize meaningful relationships, and dream of attaining wisdom.
Idealists tend to be giving, trusting, spiritual, and they are focused on personal
journeys and human potentials.
Idealists make intense mates, nurturing parents, and inspirational leaders.


Idealists, as a temperament, are passionately concerned with personal growth and development. Idealists strive to discover who they are and how they can become their best possible self -- always this quest for self-knowledge and self-improvement drives their imagination. And they want to help others make the journey. Idealists are naturally drawn to working with people, and whether in education or counseling, in social services or personnel work, in journalism or the ministry, they are gifted at helping others find their way in life, often inspiring them to grow as individuals and to fulfill their potentials.

Idealists are sure that friendly cooperation is the best way for people to achieve their goals. Conflict and confrontation upset them because they seem to put up angry barriers between people. Idealists dream of creating harmonious, even caring personal relations, and they have a unique talent for helping people get along with each other and work together for the good of all. Such interpersonal harmony might be a romantic ideal, but then Idealists are incurable romantics who prefer to focus on what might be, rather than what is. The real, practical world is only a starting place for Idealists; they believe that life is filled with possibilities waiting to be realized, rich with meanings calling out to be understood. This idea of a mystical or spiritual dimension to life, the "not visible" or the "not yet" that can only be known through intuition or by a leap of faith, is far more important to Idealists than the world of material things.

Highly ethical in their actions, Idealists hold themselves to a strict standard of personal integrity. They must be true to themselves and to others, and they can be quite hard on themselves when they are dishonest, or when they are false or insincere. More often, however, Idealists are the very soul of kindness. Particularly in their personal relationships, Idealists are without question filled with love and good will. They believe in giving of themselves to help others; they cherish a few warm, sensitive friendships; they strive for a special rapport with their children; and in marriage they wish to find a "soulmate," someone with whom they can bond emotionally and spiritually, sharing their deepest feelings and their complex inner worlds.

Idealists are relatively rare, making up no more than 15 to 20 percent of the population. But their ability to inspire people with their enthusiasm and their idealism has given them influence far beyond their numbers.

Extreme Home Makeover

makes me cry. Every time.

It's like the people that are getting this new, beautiful house are soooooo thankful and that makes it even BETTER. But not only that...they are such amazing people! Most of the time the people receiving the home makeover are incredibly generous. They are constantly serving others and loving on people, or animals or the planet.

I get excited when i watch it because it motivates me to serve more, love more and of course, reorganize my apartment.

loooove it.

Ty kinda bothers me sometimes though. But other than that...love it.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Wow

We've been busy. We are trying to get things going with the biz.

Chance and I are leaving this Friday for the whole weekend. I'm excited because we will be shooting a weekend wedding. It should be fun.

Wow. I need more sleep.

I have a headache, someone bring me an icepack.

New Photography Blog

Hey guys, we changed our photography blog. To view it, just click HERE. Or type in www.chancejamesblog.com in your browser. Let us know what you think!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

It's finally here.

I know that I’ve been talking about a wicked awesome new website forever, but I promise...it's finally here. When we first started the website we tried to be like every other photographer out there...and that was a BAD idea, because well...that's just not us. Both Chance and I are EXTREMELY different from the norm. And we wanted our visitors to understand that.

Our website is finally up and we are very proud of it. We are still making some little additions here and there just to make it more enjoyable for the viewer. Please let us know what you think. Encouraging words or even advice would be really great. Thanks to all who support us, we love you.

Please check it out. Just click HERE. If that doesn't work go to www.chancejamesphotography.com

A new blog is on the way...so keep checking in!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

San Francisco

The past three days Chance and I were in San Francisco for a photography convention. We decided to head up a day earlier and also stay an extra day. It was soooo much fun. We have three sets of friends up there, and we were able to see two of them. Our other friend was in New York for the summer, so hopefully we can see her sometime soon. Right morgs? :)

The first night we got there we stayed with Whitney and Bret. Whitney is one of my dear high school friends and we were able to catch up and hang out with her and her husband in their adorable little apartment. We talked, watched the Olympics, walked to the beach and just enjoyed seeing each other.

Thanks Whitney and Bret for letting us come and visit on such short notice; it was so great to see you.

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The second day we were there Chance and I had some interesting adventures. Some good, some not so good...but that's what makes it fun. We went on the BART (my first time EVER) and witnessed a fight, we paid waaaaay too much money for an aquarium that was really lame, we ate reaaallly good food, and really bad food...and we walked in circles trying to find H&M in Union Square. We rode in the cable car while we talked to some foreigners. We talked to a few homeless people, saw the Sliver Man (who was horrible) and went to a very good photography convention, (keep a look out for new additions to the website as well as a new blog coming soon).

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The second night we stayed with my cousin Nina at her apartment in Burlingame. Thanks Neener, love you!

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The last day Chance and I had lunch with Nina and Scott before we headed home. But on our way home, we decided to stop at the Winchester Mansion. It was wicked. get it? haha.

Anyway, yea it was fun.

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Wednesday, August 6, 2008

you don't work?!

When i tell people I don't work, that I'm a 'stay at home wife' they always give me that judgmental look and fake laugh and say, "wow. so what do you DO all day?"

I do everything, and nothing. The last couple months I've actually found myself very busy with our business, and other various things. And when i'm not so tied up, i make movies.

This isn't my best work, i'm sure i will give you the pleasure of viewing more very soon. And maybe i'll fold all the laundry that's sitting in the background of the video soon too.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

I PEAed the bed

On Sunday night, I was sooooooo uncomfortable. I woke up in the middle of the night sweating. I know, gross. I was so flippin' hot that i ran to turn the AC waaay down. I then dashed to the freezer and grabbed an iceback and headed back to bed.

*side note-I love ice and i love icepacks. Every time i have a headache, or i don't feel well, or something is bleeding, or i'm having a bad day or i want to 'chill' out or i'm extremely hot...i put an icepack on my body. I even steal icepacks. I stole one of my parents' icepacks this weekend...sorry mom.

So after i grabbed the icepack, i nested it in my bosom, and fell asleep.

9am came around and i woke up with millions of peas (as in vegetables) in the bed. Apparently i had grabbed a bag of frozen peas instead of my trusty icepack. Chance got up and was asking why there were peas in the bed, so i told him and he proceeded to tell me what a dilweed i was.

peas EVERYWHERE. they were in my shirt, smashed up against my legs and under my armpit. haha..sick. We figured since they were already defrosted we would make them for dinner. juuuuust kids guys, come on, that's sick.

The pea disaster was a perfect ending to a stressful weekend. Chance has been going crazy finishing the new website, and i've been busy working on the new photography blog. We have sooooo much stuff going on with the business it makes me want to poke my eyes out, but we are still grateful for God's complete love for us. We see it even more in hard times.

Sunday August 3rd was my mom's birthday. She's basically the best woman ever. She's so loving and generous...and never complains. She's beautiful, genuine and one of my best friends. I look up to her so much and i am so blessed i came from her womb, (sorry, i had to say womb...it's just funny).
We had dinner at my parents’ house, and watched Vantage point and had sugar-free pie. yuuummm.
*side note- my parents don't eat sugar, they're healthy, they rock.
here are some pictures...


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and here is Geromino in the car ride to Madera


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And my dear friend Kelsey made this Geromino look-alike cupcake...


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And here is me when Geromino woke me up this morning. (he wakes me up EVERY morning!)- i know, i look reeeaaal good.


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Oh Oh! and even though we are broke Chance still managed to buy me these legit shoes. He's the awesomest.


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