The time spent here has been fantastic. I’ve made new friends and colleagues at my day job and learned a thing or ten. I’m a navigating officianado in the Round Rock area….a locavore of foods and brews…a closer friend to my travel partner. Intimate conversations lead to solid friendships – I’m lucky to have her around.
So now I’m ready to go home. To my furbabies and my cozy warm bed. To my big shower and all the acoutrements of my wardrobe. To my man…because I miss him like woah.
Thanks to Amanda for letting me borrow this one. 
love (austin adventures),
jenifriend
The greatest thing about Texas? Certainly not it’s barbeque…Kansas has them beat like woah!
Access roads. Or as we Kansans prefer to call them – frontage roads.
They offer up such an impeccable opportunity to capture moments otherwise never captured had the highway been the only available place to stop. Bare, sporadic trees…abandoned vans donned in hippie love…dirt roads inevitably leading somewhere…it’s all fantastic and pertinent to the story of Texas.
love (30 minute photography stops),
jenifriend
It’s amazing how slowly, yet quickly, this week has passed. And to know we have another four days of adventures ahead of us before leaving the weirdest city in Texas, it excites me just thinking about the troubles Amanda and I can get into. We’re here for work, but we’ll be returning back to Kansas having had such an incredible experience together for purely personal reasons. With the beginning of this year being slow in the number of photo sessions because of my upcoming wedding, I’ve tried to revert back to the uninhibited side of photography…where it all began for me. It’s been an exquisite time rekindling that spirit within, and I’ve been so lucky to have someone who is walking in the shoes I walked in just over a year ago. I’m excited to share, with you all, Amanda of Fat Monkey Snapshots. She’s currently where we all started, filling her memory card to capacity and chasing light trails with a slow shutter speed. Please do the fantastic Photographer thang that you all do and welcome her, encourage her and show her the way of a new life from behind the lens.
love (continuous shutter speed),
jenifriend
At the request of my big-kid job, I am hanging out in the Lone Star state for the next couple of weeks. Last minute decisions called for a degree of spontaneity that I haven’t tapped into in a looong time and I’m so grateful (and honored) to have the opportunity…
…and the Texas sunsets…and deep fried, stuffed, avocados…and Mexican martini’s…and a fantastic colleague co-worker friend to share it all with (whom bytheway I’ll be introducing you to shortly enough, as she’s coming up in the photography world and has an intense talent that just NEEDS to be shared).
Two days in and we’ve conquered Austin and San Antonio with a vengeance…
What is UP Texas skies?!
I prefer a grassy focus to the focus of…oh say…a historical monument!
This marks the spot of where the perfect picture of the Alamo can be captured…so they say…
I absolutely agree.
Meet Amanda. She’s rad. So are her underpants.
An old abandoned gas station = photos aplenty. Including this one that MUST find it’s way into my home.
love (new adventures in fantastic places),
jenifriend
It’s been a whirlwind of events here lately as the 90 day mark quickly approaches. To think I’ll be getting married this time in 3 months…well…that just blows me away. Excites me to no end I assure you, but blows my mind nonetheless. It amazes me that we’ve been working towards this for almost two years…
With the wedding planning reaching an all-time high, photography sessions will be reaching an all-time low. Not to fret, as I will continue to entertain you with my photographic adventures leading up to 4.24.10. I’ll still have sessions to post, but that frequency will be limited until mid-May.
Stick around; there’s more to come of yours truly!! And because he is one of the sweetest kitties in the Midwest, I give you…Oliver aka Oliver Sebastian aka Sweet Lovey Lovey Boy.
love (fantastic wedding festivities),
jenifriend
Sometimes life is really hard. God throws me a curveball and challenges me. Other times, life is really really good to me. God throws me a ball straight down homeplate and gives me an opportunity to get a homerun.
Okay so I’m not quite sure why I’m using so many baseball metaphors, but either way I have great news. Upon returning to Church this past Sunday I found a small cardboard box awaiting me. Imagine my surprise, upon opening it, to find a gift certificate to a local Day Spa entitled to moi. The women of my former Yogilates class at the Church pooled together and bought me gift. For a moment I sat in my living room expressionless because, really, how do you react to such generosity? Then I remembered my normal reaction to everything these days (really…it must be a flux in hormones) and the tears came streaming down. I just don’t know that a thank you will ever be enough to show these wonderful Sisters in Christ how truly humbled I am to know they thought me worthy enough of receiving such gifts.
Bonnie D. Nancy M. Kathy S. Betsy B. Brenda C. Julie S. Alyssa S. Stacey B. Julie M. Laurel W. Shelly S. Terri O. Anyone I missed…THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I promise I’ll use this amazing gift well.
love (God’s work in others),
jenifriend
As stylin’ as they were, my poor eyeglasses just really needed to be replaced. After a run-in with a certain dachsund/beagle mix back in college, a few rear-ends sitting on them and me falling asleep in them Lord knows how many times…it was time. With my 101 in 1001 I decided to make the goal to seek out a perfect replacement. There were a few steadfast rules that had to be followed when in hot pursuit:
1. The glasses must be sturdy…they have to keep up with me after all.
2. The glasses must be rad.
3. The glasses have to SCREAM “Hey…I’m Jenifriend!!”
Not too much to ask for in a new pair of specs.
Out with the old…
…in with the new!
You can’t tell…but they’re green. Yummo!! Matchy with the peepers!!
love (the new look),
jenifriend
