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The Robertsons

I recently had the opportunity to take Jeff and JoAnna Robertson’s very first family photos with their sweet new addition to the family, Hank! JoAnna is my awesome business partner at Blade Resources, and I couldn’t be more excited to do the session. Baby Hank’s facial expressions are heart warming, funny and you never know what he’s thinking, but I so enjoy getting pictures on pretty much a day-to-day basis from Jo. Such a beautiful family, and I’m excited to share them with you! Enjoy.

Bow turns one! | Abernathy, Texas

A couple friend of mine whom I met attending Clarendon College approached me about taking some pictures of their sweet little boy, Bow, who will be one-year-old this month! Brandi’s idea involved paint, nakedness, white, and the outdoors where Bow is happiest, and I could not wait to do the session! Bow was a bit timid at first, but with a little help from mom and dad, he went all out! Brandi made the paint with evaporated milk and food coloring, which of course was much safer than real paint. We also took pictures of Bow in his birthday party shirt (before the paint), which is Mickey Mouse themed. He has the most beautiful blue eyes, which really stand out in his photos, and I’m so excited to share them!

Holiday Special | Christmas Cards in September

It’s that time of year again. Colder weather is approaching, leaves are turning and the grills for football season are firing up. I understand Christmas is the last thing you want to think about right now, but the reality is it will be here before you know it! As my partner and I at Blade Resources began looking at calendars and schedules for the end of the year, we knew we had to work to put time on our side, so here we are in September rolling out our Christmas card special!

It’s never too early to start thinking about those holiday greetings and current family photos you want to share with friends and family. We decided to take this deal one step further though. Usually you get one or the other – photos for a card or a template from some online print service. Well, JoAnna and I want you to have the opportunity to have both! Three packages are available with differing quantity options and you can choose from 13 custom templates we have designed. On top of that, you also get a 30-minute photography session with yours truly, and those photos will be used on your Christmas cards.

If you have questions, feel free to e-mail us. We also welcome you to take a look at all the templates and fill out an appointment form here.

Texas Wedding | Gotti – Rivers

Two weeks ago, I was able to share a very special day with bride and friend Rebecca Gotti and her groom Robert Rivers. The wedding took place in a beautiful old church in the heart of Bastrop, Texas, southeast of Austin. The wedding was very traditional and elegant, and I truly enjoyed the unique character their wedding carried. Rebecca and Robert are such a loving, care-free duo, and I’m so happy to be able to share photos from their special day!

Stark difference in food between Team Bride and Team Groom!

Newborn | Henry Beck Robertson

I have long awaited the day to photograph this little guy! Parents JoAnna and Jeff Robertson are close friends, and JoAnna is actually my partner in another business endeavor, Blade Resources. Needless to say, we have been planning this photo shoot for a long time.

Any photographer can attest newborn photos are tough work. JoAnna was such wonderful help and did a ton of research beforehand, so she was extremely prepared for different swaddling methods and posing techniques that really made my job quite easy! Did you know there is a “white noise” app for iPhone? In the desert of Andrews, Texas, we listened to the sound of rain, thunder and lightening off of the app, and it worked like a charm to get baby Hank to sleep every time. We were also a sweaty mess by the end, but when babies are often half naked most of the session, space heaters are soothing for them and also provide added white noise.

Thank you, JoAnna and Jeff, for the opportunity to capture your sweet baby in his first few days. So much fun – enjoy!

Lubbock Engagement | Melissa & Shooter

Had the best time photographing this lovely couple! Melissa and Shooter definitely have their his and hers, but they are wonderful together, and I enjoyed getting to know them as we sped all over the country north of Lubbock last week. Pictures aren’t Shooter’s idea of fun I was told from the beginning, but he did great and has a wonderful smile despite his concerns. Melissa is sassy and beautiful, and her bright outfits definitely make these photos stand out!

NM Engagement | Jana & Keith

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to photograph maybe one of the most fun-loving couples I’ve worked with so far! First of all, they drove all the way from Carrizozo, New Mexico to do the shoot! Secondly, they gave me the challenge of coming up with something suitable for the collection of Avengers t-shirts Keith had. I don’t know much about superheroes and comic books, but I knew they wanted to show their fun side and what better place in Lubbock than Joyland park. We did part of the shoot out at a friend’s farm in the evening and wrapped up around Joyland/Mackenzie Park the next morning. The extra time was worth it! Enjoy Jana and Keith.

Lubbock Haboob | June 2012

Many people have never heard the word “haboob” before, unless you live in Lubbock, Texas, that is. I missed the last haboob because I was extremely ill laying on my couch and only aware that it looked awfully orange outside, but I had no desire to venture off the couch and discover why. I was, however, kicking myself in the rear for not getting photos as the photographer instinct kicked in as I jealously looked at photos on Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere. So as you might imagine, when I was sitting on my couch, again, this afternoon, and the news lady said, “take shelter – a haboob is on the way.” I put on some decent shoes (in case you get stranded somewhere) grabbed my camera and bolted out the door!

Game Plan: Head south to get out in front of the haboob, away from the not-so-pleasant-to-the-eye town landscape, away from the little farms right outside, away from power lines (which is near impossible) and get somewhere I could get a decent item in the foreground. Then I looked down and my gaslight was on – crap. So I pulled into the nearest convenient store and put in what I thought was enough gas to get me by. I also was aware that I only had about 20 lbs of pressure in my front passenger tire, which might not be good considering in situations like this, I usually end up winding up and down dirt and caliche roads. I pressed on though (don’t tell my dad).

I’m winding and weaving down country roads to get ahead of the haboob. Have you ever tried to outrun one of those things before? Well, let me tell you – it is hard! That thing moves so fast, and every time I thought ‘ok, this is a good place,’ it would catch up with me before I could get out of the car and set up. Afraid I might not get wide and far enough from it for my big camera. I quickly snapped the iPhone panorama below, then the dirt hit me before I could even get back in the car.

West Texas Haboob

I decided to press on south, determined to get a picture with my 7D. Weaving and winding down backroads again, I found myself in an extremely sandy, deep rutted road I for sure thought I was going to high center on and be stuck in a wall of dirt. My solution – go fast, but not too fast – didn’t want to tear anything up or flip! I made it through, luckily! Merle dog wasn’t sure what she got herself into either, jumping in the car with me for an adventure. As long as the dirt hadn’t caught up with us, she did enjoy sticking her head out the window.

Merle Jean

Cruising along, I finally see something that I think would be great for the foreground of my picture. I’m due west of Tahoka at this point, almost 40 miles south of my house! I’ve got my foreground in sight, three John Deere tractors sitting side-by-side. Unfortunately as I get closer, I see these tractors are down a turn-row, not an actual road, so my guilty farmer’s-daughter conscience steps in, and I picture my dad chasing someone off his land at a high rate of speed, not because they were up to no good but because it’s fun and they had no business being there in the first place. But heck, I had drove all this way, it wouldn’t take but a couple minutes before the wave of brown sandblasting covered me again, so I ventured down the turn-row. Sure enough, in the distance across the field, a pickup stops (I can easily see his break lights) and he’s checking out what the heck I’m doing. So I cruise along like I belong there and the truck creeps onward. Then I decided to turn around and go back to the tractors. The pickup starts to back up – crap. Finally decided to just jump out, snap the photos and go on my merry way. I figured if anything, I could talk my way out of it. Fortunately, man-in-truck did not pursue! Not quite the shot I hoped to get, but see below what I came up with.

Thus my haboob story comes to an end. I limped into Tahoka, aired up my tire, turned back north for the first time in the last hour and enjoyed the lightening show followed by a downpour of replenishing rain.

#longlivefarmers

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Newborn | Kason Lane Harris

During college my junior year, two failing roommate situations were taking place. Fortunately, God had great plans and brought a member of each of these situations together. Yes, that would be me and the new mom this blog post focuses around. Now, without going into too much detail, I will say we had a GREAT two and half years together with roommate number three in the mix too – inseparable and uncommon that we all got along so well! We went through many struggles together but none like this new mom endured during that time. Let’s just say sweet baby Kason is a miracle baby and a blessing from God. And as for this new mommy, she is one of the strongest people I know, and I am very blessed to have her and her husband in my life! Meet Kason Lane Harris, who after coming a month early and spending some time in NICU is finally at home, healthy and doing very well!

Senior 2012 | Nathan Reeves

Everyone meet Nathan Reeves, a Texas Tech senior graduating this May! Nathan and I have known each other for several years now through the ag college scene since he first came to Tech as a freshman! He always has a smile on his face and is really pleasant to be around. A Houston area native, Nathan is now a West Texas transplant and will begin working for Cargill this summer. We had a great time this evening, and I look forward to photographing the entire family when they travel to Lubbock in May for graduation! Best of luck my friend!

Help with the shoot from my friend Jill Horne! She's got jokes that make clients laugh!

Senior 2012 | Autumn Reno

This weekend I had the privilege to photograph miss Autumn Reno, a senior at Texas Tech. She showed up wearing a bright orange dress and a pair of awesome shoes (that I now want to own), and I knew we were going to have a great time! Autumn has such a beautiful smile and a sweet personality that really showed in her photos. Good luck, senior!

Engagement | Rivers & Gotti

You never know what you’re going to get weather-wise in Lubbock, Texas, but March 27 turned out to be one of the most beautiful days I’ve seen so far this year. The previous week, rain clouds (later to find that they were empty) rolled through the area, making some great skies. I left work, camera in tow, and started driving east to try and get out ahead of the clouds to take some photos.

The clouds were moving fast, and often times I find myself weaving up and down dirt roads in unfamiliar territory to try and reach an optimal location to take some pictures. When that happens, I don’t like to say that I’m lost. I know the general area, so it’s more of a discovery process-discovering new territory I have not yet tried to photograph. I’m so glad that I took this adventure the week before, because it gave me a whole new route, scenery and ideas for today’s engagement session with miss Rebecca Gotti and mister Robert Rivers!

This shoot was one of the funnest shoots I’ve had in a long time, and Rebecca and Robert were great! Below are some shots from the day. Enjoy!

Fishing for Photos

Those who follow my Facebook page may remember a small promotion I did at the first of November. Kelly Jo Fish, one of my best friends since childhood, was the winner, earning a free mini photo session. We tried to do the session close to Christmas, but as you can imagine, New Mexico weather did not allow for this to happen due to the cold and unrelenting wind that is hard to schedule around in this area of the world. However, I could not have asked for more perfect weather two weekends ago, which made for an exceptional session. I always have fun with Kelly Jo, sister Chesnea and mom Lynette. In fact, I missed several opportunities for photos of them laughing because I was doubled over myself, unable to put the camera to my eye and keep it steady enough to focus. Thank you girls for a memorable day!

Wardrobe change. Good thing we were in the middle of a pasture!

An old passenger rail car used to store hay many years ago.

Beautiful ladies!

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Fall on the Farm

This weekend I was able to spend three full days at home, and it might have been the most productive weekend I’ve had at home in a while. It’s a busy time of year on my family’s farm in eastern New Mexico. Unfortunately, there will be no milo harvest this fall, but there is still wheat to plant plus a lot  of cattle work.

My family has long been involved with the youth show stock industry, and now that my siblings and I are all done showing, we still enjoy being involved by selling show steers and lambs to current 4-H and FFA show-goers. We are consignors in the Best of the Southwest sale, which will take place Oct. 31 – Nov. 1 online at Breeder’s World, and Friday was production day. We took our six steers and one heifer to another consignors place to video and photograph the cattle for the online sale. It was a gorgeous day for it, and anytime you place cattle with high dollar equipment and people herding the calves every which way possible, it can get interesting. But, all-in-all it was quick, efficient shoot that proved to be successful. A big thanks to Kyla Copeland for coming out and handling this for us this year. If interested in viewing photos of all the sale calves, go to the Blackburn Farms Facebook page.

Dad and brother Brian preparing the cattle for their video/photo debut!

Comb used to groom the cattle.

Cattle "hair products"

Her best pose.

When I go home, it’s hard not to sleep in (something I rarely do anymore). It’s also hard to stay in bed because of the outdoor elements and beautiful New Mexico sunrises I just don’t get to see as often anymore. Saturday morning I took my dog Merle for a cruise and snapped a few photos.

I’ve never seen so much baled hay in the fields around our area of the world before this weekend. The drought this year has had a devastating impact on so many farmers and ranchers, and hay to feed cattle has become a hot commodity. Fortunately, my family has been able to hold on to all of our cows and the endless bales of hay came from CRP land that came out of the program at exactly the right time.

My faithful copilot.

This baled CRP grass will be much needed to feed cattle this winter.

She loved the open spaces.

The rest of the day Saturday was spent weaning and working calves and preg-checking cows. Weaning calves is always an interesting time of year. Thankfully, our house is not located right next to the corrals that is currently holding the calves during this period. You see, those babies really miss their mammas and call to them often, but it’s a process that must be done.

Preg-checking cows is a bit of an art, but my dad and pawpaw have done it so many times now, they rarely make mistakes. It’s an easy cull process. If the cow is open, meaning she didn’t conceive a calf, then she goes to the sale barn. This may seem harsh, but the fact of the matter is, if she’s not carrying a calf, she’s only costing the producer money. Considering the conditions this year, we’ve had a good breeding rate so far.

The weekend has come to an end, and it’s back to work tomorrow! In closing, I’d like to say WAY TO GO Red Raiders, Cowboys, and Rangers!

Why I love my job!

I’m completely embarassed that it has been since the end of May since my last blog post, but a lot has been going on for me this summer. Six weddings and 18 weekends straight of either being out of town traveling or having definitive plans in town really doesn’t leave much time for anything else. However, I’m through with excuses and really excited about this entry!

My weekend was jammed pack full of activities. Alumni events with friends and old classmates, tailgate with friends, Texas Tech’s homecoming game with Mom and Dad, Country Peddler’s show at the civic center and lunch with Memaw and Aunt Debbie, breakfast with friend Ben from out of town….ok, so I really haven’t slowed down at all. The last step to this weekend aside from rest and relaxation (and maybe a trip to the office to catch up on some work; it’s like I can’t just be still!), was a morning photo shoot with a group who are anything but serious!

This morning I photographed co-worker Jenna Hightower, her husband Dustin, sister Caylee and brother Willie for Christmas presents for their mom. Nobody tell Susie Gibson about this or the surprise is ruined. Nonetheless, Jenna has cleared this post because these photos are too funny not to share!

Tech’s campus the morning after homecoming is a perfect time because as you might imagine, no one is there – only the leftover cones, greek signs, tents and chairs that were buzzing with activity the day before. Now, if you know the individuals in the following photos, I’m sorry! No really, you will only laugh that much harder!

Have a wonderful, blessed Sunday. I’ll try to come up with fewer excuses between now and my next post, and please subscribe to my new blog!

A beautiful morning on Tech campus!

Brotherly Sisterly Love.

…and that led to this!

Some more Brotherly Sisterly love.

"What ya readin'?"

Jaywalkin'

Oh would you like privacy while changing clothes?

The look of true love!

Willie, eating some of Jenna's fly-away hair.

Dustin, attempting to tame the hair!

"What, I was just trying to help!"

DeLane + Sam Engagement Session

I had the opportunity to photograph miss DeLane Luce and her country beau Sam Fech on the Luce Ranch near Ft. Sumner, New Mexico recently. The Luce family has been near and dear to my heart for a long time - stock show and lamb jackpot family friends from back to the days of french braids, big bows, red rockie jeans, lace up boots or tennis shoes and flushed freckled cheeks from the 7+ lambs our daddies sent us in the ring with. DeLane is a beautiful young lady now, and I can’t believe she’s getting married. But, I’m so happy for her and Sam both. They are a loving, playful couple perfect for one another and that defintely shows through in their photos. A special thank you to Momma Luce, DeLane’s Aunts and the sweet lady who held my reflector at one of the locations – New Mexico wind remains to be treacherous sometimes! Enjoy.

The babies that keep us going

One of my favorite times of year on the farm is when we have new baby lambs and calves. There’s something about them that not only causes you pain, sweat, aches, long nights, and sometimes regrettably a need to make bottle after bottle, but they also give you an extra skip in your step, a smile on your face, and an incentive to get out of bed every morning and care for that little animal. Just as we care for our own babies, these little guys need the same love and attention.

I will never forget seeing pictures of myself rolling around on the linoleum kitchen floor of our house with orphan baby lambs. Mom strapped a diaper on her kids and the orphan lambs the same, penned us up in the kitchen and sheltered her ‘babies’ from the cold outside.

Milk is good!

Speckle face babies are the cutest

Feed us please

My dog, Merle – a fine specimen she is!

We’ve come a long way.

Recently, my grandmother found an old photo that really caused me to think. The picture below was taken in 1929 on my family’s farm where my parents and grandparents still live today. In the photo is my great-grandparents Barney and Zona Blackburn and my great-uncle Austin Blackburn when he was only a baby. My grandfather wasn’t even born at the time.

They are harvesting milo, and because I work at National Sorghum Producers, I found this picture to be particularly special to me. As long as I can remember, my family has grown grain sorghum. Little did I know it has been an important crop on my family’s farm for almost 100 years.

A lot has changed since that time. My family has acquired more land and has grown with technology. Fortunately, we no longer must dump the grain into a horse pulled wagon. Regardless, when I think about the tradition my family has had in farming, I find it will be hard to ever give that land up if it is up to me one day. I’m proud to be a farmer’s daughter and know I would not be where I am today without that upbringing.

It’s snowy, cold, windy and bitter today, but when I called my dad early this morning to tell him I had a frozen pipe, I knew exactly what he was doing – breaking ice, feeding cows, caring for newborn baby lambs…maybe not with a smile on his face but with a smile in his heart. He’s one of the most selfless people I know who cares for his family, his land, his stock, and subsequently the people he feeds every day.

Pray for a farmer today. They don’t get snow days.



Great-grandparents Barney and Zone Blackburn with son Austin, harvesting milo in 1929.



Santa Baby

The cutest thing about babies is the many expressions they offer. On a day to day basis they discover new things and with the inability to say much, that’s understandable anyways, they often express their emotions through their face. Isaiah has never been shy of expressions, and it was a pleasure to take his 6 month photos for that reason! Hannah and Brandon will have their arms full with this little one, just wait until he is able to talk! Enjoy the many faces of Isaiah.

Rush Family, Battling the Wind

Over Thanksgiving weekend, I had the opportunity to photograph the Rush family. Alicia was my high school basketball coach and to this day I still struggle as to whether I call her Coach or Alicia! A family very near and dear to me, I was happy to take a break from family time and do their Christmas card photo.

My brother tagged along and went through photography boot camp if you will. One of the greatest challenges I’ve struggled with lately in my outdoor shoots is wind. West Texas and Eastern New Mexico are infamous for howling winds, making photo shoots rather challenging. Cowboy hats and reflectors are difficult to hang on to, but with the door frame and stairs of the old school building we were shooting at and the old truck near it, I was able to put the family in a location the wind influence could be controlled more.

Another reason I took my brother along is the fact that I would be photographing three young boys, which any children of that age can often be a challenge. They know my brother well and I hoped he may be able to get their attention and make them smile more often than I could. When it comes to children, often it comes down to whatever it takes. I’ve always wanted to set up a video camera while taking baby photos to capture the weird noises, faces and actions they make attempting to get their young one to smile. I didn’t know it at the time, but my brother asked later if I knew why the boys were laughing so hard at one point in time during the shoot. I had no idea, but he let me know he was pretending to kick me from behind as I was squatted down taking photos. Again, whatever it takes!

Thank you to my brother for withstanding my orders and thank you Rushs a memorable shoot!

Fall Colors are Right for the Cogburns!

This last weekend I had the opportunity to photograph a beautiful, fun family – the Cogburns from Abernathy. Chris, the dad, is a co-worker at National Sorghum Producers, and his wife Amy might as well have her own cooking show! If it’s been a bad day in the office, she magically appears with warm gooey cinnamon rolls you can’t resist…really!Tucker and Logan were good sports. I put them through photography boot camp and boys will be boys though. All-in-all, I love the fall colors that came out in the shoot. This time of year is beautiful and they dressed the part to make those colors stand out!

I also have very exciting news regarding my photo gear! Christmas came very early, but my wonderful Mom just couldn’t wait. I’m packing a new lens and cannot wait to put it to use! Thank you Nana, Pawpaw, Mom, Dad, Memaw, Aunt Debbie, and Aunt Cindy. I’m so blessed to have such loving people in my life and can’t thank you enough for your support!

With that, meet the Cogburns.

We had a little trouble getting balanced on the railroad tracks! I’m glad, or I would have never got this shot!

A pecan orchard near County Line. Love fall leaves!

The Pruitts

This weekend, I had the opportunity to photograph the Pruitt family not only for Brik Wayne’s 6-month-old photos, but also for their Christmas card. I first met Stephanie and Zach attending Texas Tech, and now Stephanie and I actually work next door to one another in the ag communications field for two separate commodities.

I love using seasonal props, and couldn’t wait to get a baby Santa hat on Brik for his shoot! He was a little camera shy at first, but the personality certainly comes out with the weird things parents do standing behind me. I’ve always wanted to video the parents as I’m photographing the baby because that would be quality entertainment, and I think any parent/photographer who has gone through this process would agree – the things we do to get them to smile!

Below are a few images. More babies to come before the year is over. The baby Santa hat will travel!!

Such handsome little overalls.

He loved being wrapped up in the towels.

Baby Santa.

Daddy and Brik with some mistletoe.

He loves his Mommy!

You want me to do what? Love this expression – one of many.

Senior Session with Koreley Holubec

This evening I did a senior session with Miss Koreley Holubec. Koreley graduates in December from TTU and has many things in mind for these photos! We had a great time running around this evening on a perfect Lubbock afternoon. Koreley has an awesome personality and is truly natural in front of the camera, which is always a plus for the photographer. Koreley is one of the many wonderful people I met attending Texas Tech, and I wish her the best!

2010 is the end of the road for this TTU Senior.

Love the colors on this funky painted building!

This one’s for her dad! Showing love for a farmer.

Congratulations Joy and Mike

Recently, a former co-worker of mine, Joy Fassauer, married the man she had long been waiting on, Mike Reed. She asked me to photograp her wedding, which I was thrilled to do. It was my first time to do a whole wedding solely on my own, so I was a bit nervous. However, I had a great time and was pleased with the results! They had a beautiful, small wedding in a memorial chapel on the WTAMU campus. Simple, live orchestra, ocopella singing, and rich colors were classic Joy, and I’m glad I was able to share their special day with them. Here are a few images from the wedding. Enjoy!

Joy and her granddaughter, so cute.

Joy and her children Kimberly and Barry.



The kiss – too funny with Mike’s thumbs up!



Kansas, the No. 1 Sorghum Producing State

I know it has been quite some time since my last post. So much has changed in my life since that point, and things haven’t slowed down since, but I’m back!

For one, I started a new job with National Sorghum Producers in Lubbock, Texas, as the Communications Coordinator. Secondly, I moved…twice. Jennifer Blackburn Photography is back and running stronger than ever. I have a dog, which is more or less like a child, and I have a whole new perspective on what they call “the real world.” All-in-all, life is pretty fabulous, and I have wonderful family, friends, co-workers, and clients to thank for that!

This last week my colleagues and I spent a week in Kansas driving all over the state to visit with various media outlets to talk about the sorghum industry and what we’re doing to improve it. The entire staff met in Manhattan, had meetings, then we all set out to divide and conquer the state. Most staff went separately to meet with producers in a particular region of the state, but the three communications gals tackled the entire state together. I like to call ourselves the “Communications Road Warriors.”

Touring a grain processing facility in Manhattan

Inside, listening attentively

Did I mention we had fun!

A lot of grain piled outside in Kansas. Nice rays through the caps of the piles though.

Jaimie and Joel Engagement Session

Ree – The Pioneer Woman came to DC!!!!

For those of you who know me, you know that I LOVE the Pioneer Woman – Ree Drummond, a city girl transplanted into Oklahoma ranch land. She has been such an inspiration for reasons that are hard to explain. Let’s just say I idolize her because I can relate on so many levels – farm/ranch life, photography, family, cooking. All done with love and a desire to share with others what brings me happiness.

As soon as I heard she was going to be stopping in DC, actually the Borders in Fairfax, Virginia, I made plans to go. All morning I researched other ladies’ blogs to find out what the process was going to be like because I wasn’t sure what to expect when I got there or if I would even get there early enough. I was worried I’d travel all that way and not even be able to see here. So here is what people should know when they go to the Pioneer Woman book signings.

• Arriving an hour to two hours early always helps, but if you have to work like me, you will still be ok if you arrive right at the time the book signing starts.
• You can buy a book when you get there.
• When you arrive they usually hand out tickets with letters (A, B, C,…) or with different colors (black, blue, pink,…). That is the order you will be called in, and there is usually 50 for each group.
• They will call the groups in order for you to line up. Pay attention for your group because if you miss it, you don’t get to go get in line with that group, you have to go to the end of the line because you weren’t paying attention like me!
• Now you just get to wait. It could be a while!

I left work an hour early and began my journey. It was a 40 minute metro ride and a 20 minute cab ride. I got there right at 6 p.m. when the signing started, got my book, got my ticket, got some coffee and water, and set up camp in a chair. Little did I know that where I thought I was sitting on the opposite side of the store PW was on, I actually sat down very close to her and saw the back of her head for the first time as she greeted people going through the line!

Couldn’t believe it but tried to calm my excitement because I knew I was going to be waiting a while. Eventually, I got in line and waited for four hours as the line winded up and down book isles eventually making its way to the signing table. I had so many things I wanted to say, and even though I got most the words out when I saw her, I was still very nervous! She made a livestock judger who has said hundreds of sets of reasons stare in awe! It wasn’t that bad, but I certainly did take down the red in my photo with here because I know my face was as red as my shirt!

I met two lovely ladies in line, and we talked roughly the entire 4 hours in line. Meg and Lacey were great company! Lacey even was gracious enough to give me a ride back to the house so I didn’t have to metro!

Here are some pictures below from the signing! You can live vicariously through me! It was very exciting and she is just as sweet and beautiful in person as you would expect!

Many people had one book. Some had as many as five!

Back in a flash! I was total paparazzi at this point as I stood in line. I flashed some pictures of here coming back from a potty break. Poor Ree. I would be exhausted.

Oh no, and unexpected loop in the line.

There she is! There is light at the end of the tunnel.

Almost there!

Me and Ree! I’m glistening from the nerves!

Such beautiful handwriting!

Thank you Ree for an unforgettable experience!

Easter Weekend

This Easter weekend started by getting off from work early on Friday, which was very nice. The weather was warm and beautiful, and we definitely took advantage of it! Alexa, Angie and I put on our bathing suites and headed to the mall to lay out. This white girl definitely needed some Vitamin D. When we got there I ended up taking a lot of pictures of the guys playing ultimate frisbee though. Zach, Noel, Coleman (UNT intern), Trevor (from my office), Juliet, and Abbey were a few of many throwing the frisbee around on one of the grass areas in the middle of the mall. I have never played ultimate frisbee, but it’s comparable to football I guess – not quite as physical. It was fun to sit out on the mall and people watch. There are some crazy characters, and since the Cherry Blossom Festival was this weekend, there were tourists everywhere!

Saturday, I was lazy for the greater part of the morning. It’s nice to sleep in sometimes! That afternoon Alexa and I went back out to the mall to lay out for a few hours. It was so warm and nice! Then, we got ready for the afternoon. For the Cherry Blossom Festival they had a fireworks show. A good friend, Dwight Clark, whom I met up here who interned last semester has an apartment in Chinatown, so instead of fighting the crowds down by the tidal basin we dicided to watch the show from the rooftop of his apartment building. It has a great view of the cityscape and would be a lot less crowded. I could also set up my camera and tripod in an area where I would be able to get some clear shots of the fireworks. After, we watched the Duke/WV game. Go Blue Devils!

Sunday was the best! They have a traditional Sunrise Service on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for Easter. Yes, by sunrise I mean we woke up at 5:45 and left the house at 6 to make the 2.7 mile treck to the Lincoln Memorial. It was a LONG walk but very well worth it because the sunrise was truly amazing along with the sermon and the 2,500+ people who attended.

After, we made the 2.7 mile treck back to the house…but we stopped along the way at McDonalds. That sausage biscuite with cheese, orange juice, and coffee never tasted so good! Ten minutes after arriving at the house, Angie, Juliet, and Madelon knocked on the door to head to our regular church for Easter service at National Community Church near Union Station. We had a great sermon there as well.

Needless to say the dogs are tired. We headed to Dwight’s in the evening for some pool time – too crowded though, then we had dinner with the TTU VP of research who took us to dinner for the second time to a tappas place called Jaleo’s. And, to end the long day, I watched How to Train a Dragon in 3D – great movie!! Needless to say, it’s been a great weekend full of friends, fun, and fellowship!

Chicken Spaghetti!

I felt like making dinner for my roomies this week, so I decided to make chicken spaghetti. This recipe was a house favorite back in Lubbock. We would have lazy Sundays and the girls would all come over, we’d eat tons of food, watch movies…and do our homework.

Thank you Haley, Jynna, Stacy, Kati, and Maddee for all the good times!

1. boil one chicken breast
2. cook one package spaghetti noodles
3. sautee brocoli and mushrooms
4. add 2 cans cream of chicken, 1 can rotel, 1 block velveeta, and garlic salt and onion powder
5. mix all together and enjoy!

Happy roomies ready to eat!

North Carolina – Figure Eight Island

I have been slacking for the past couple of weeks on my blog posting, but this one definitely makes up for it! Last weekend, Shelby and I planned a trip to North Carolina to see her friend, Hunter Meinzer – who is also Wyman Meinzer’s son, my photo instructor at Tech. He works on Matthews Cutting Horse Ranch near Turkey, North Carolina.

It was a five hour drive, but one that we were ecstatic to take considering neither of us had driven a car since January! The scenery was nice, full of trees, but still nice to be out of the city. It rained almost the whole way there and was cloudy and nice when we arrived at the ranch. Oh, and we also found a Sonic we could stop at on the way and get breakfast! Yum – missed it!

Hunter was working out some horses when we got there, so we watched him some and met some of the staff. The ranch was beautiful, and we were glad to take in all the sights and smells we have so dearly missed – yes, that includes horse crap! haha

After Hunter was finished, we met the owner of the ranch, Jeffrey Matthews. He asked what we were doing in DC and how long we were there for the weekend. After we told him, he told Hunter, “why don’t you take these girls to my beach house this weekend.” We certainly didn’t want to be getting Hunter out of work, and he told Mr. Matthews that he had horses to ride the next day. But, he insisted we go! Shelby and I were screaming on the inside with excitement.

We found out he had a beach house on a private Island called Figure Eight Island near Wilmington, North Carolina. It was originally purchased for around $150,000 by three gentlemen. Now a single lot sells for over $1 mil. So, we loaded up in our Zip rental car, stopped at Walmart, which we have dearly missed as well, and headed to the beach!

It was very cloudy when we got there, but still a little warm. We didn’t get in the ocean, but headed back to the house to take in the hot tub!

My bed – it was so comfortable!! Trust me, I looked at the tag. It said 100% cotton made in Italy. No thread count – rats! We each had our own rooms like this with huge flat screen tvs and touch screen remotes – crazy! The whole house was decorated in a cowboy/beach theme – so nice.

Heated pool and a hot tub! We stayed in the hot tub almost all afternoon Saturday!

Welcome to Paradise! We also ate at an amazing seafood restaurant right on the coast and had the most amazing crab stuffed salmon! It was very yummy! We drove around and saw the sights of Wilmington and did a little shopping.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Well, the title of this entry is totally bogus! It was not sunny at all. In fact, we were soaked entirely the first day, but let’s start from the beginning of our trip.

Saturday morning we hopped on another charter bus headed on about a 2.5 hour trip to Philly. Our driver fittingly picked us up in Chinatown. He barely spoke english, but as long as he could understand us when we told him it was hot in the bus, that was fine. He did a very good job of opening the window and keeping the airflow going, unlike my trip to NY when I thought I was going to be sick because the bus was so hot and stuffy.

So we’re going along kinda slowly and we come to a toll booth and this other charter bus cuts us off. Needless to say our drive gets very upset!! After the toll booth we’re picking up speed. I’m like, alright now we’re gettin’ down the road. Well, little did I know at the time, he was trying to catch up to that other bus. As soon as we pulled up beside the other bus he flips it off and yells a few profanities. The other driver laughed, we laughed, and so did the other bus passengers! Other than that the drive was perfectly fine!! haha

So we get to Philly and it is pouring! We duck into a building and it happens to be this huge mall that will save us walking outside for 5 blocks – very cool. However, the few blocks we did have to walk we managed to get completely soaked from head to toe, demolish one umbrella, and the only good the other was doing was keeping it from directly blowing into our eyes. It was like a hurricane the wind was blowing so bad! Not that I’ve been in a hurricane, but that’s what I would imagine it would feel like.

So we check in and drop off the bags, and decide hey, we’re here, we might as well do some sight seeing. Our hotel was in a great location – only a few blocks from everything we wanted to see, but if you can imagine. We only got wetter as we saw the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and the Christ Church cemetary.

So, what did we do? If it’s raining, let’s go to the mall, which was fun ’cause it was an awesome mall, but me and Shelby were inclined to look at everything spring and yes, we shopped! Two new dresses and a skirt/shirt outfit, which I can’t wait to wear!

We also got pedicures! It was my first one ever. Shelby made me, promise! I warned the lady before she started that it could be bad with it being my first one and all. I didn’t even know! She should have been wearing a face shield cause there was stuff flying off everywhere when she had out the little electric pedicure tool that’s like a sander! Very gross. My feet felt great though after!

Other things we saw were Christ Church, Betsy Ross’s house, the Navy shipyard (from afar), and we ate an original Philadelphia philly cheeseteak! It was delicious. Despite how bad the weather was, I like Philadelphia. It was very historic and a different historic than DC. The old cobblestone streets were neat too. It was crazy to be in some of the exact places as our founding fathers were. It seemed very untouched and that made it seem not all that long ago!

Mexican Food and an Irish Parade

Saturday morning, Shelby and I set out for a day full of shopping. Eastern Market was the first stop. This place is amazing. It very much so reminds me of a lot of the booths at the fair but way better and very unique! There is a flea market area, a strip of vendors (all outside), then there are tons of fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers, and a meat, fish, and bakery areas inside. Shelby and I could walk around for hours there! It was a gorgeous morning and we were set to shop after getting some great mochaccinos from Port City Java! Now shopping doesn’t mean buying anything. I usually just look and don’t spend a dime, but there’s always that one thing that just grabs you that you have to have. For me it was a pair of salt and pepper shakers that were antique Mammy style with a man and woman. I collect them and felt like it was just something I had to have. I’m not good at haggling, but I did manage to take $25 off the original price. I was super excited!

After Eastern Market, Shelby and I headed to Alexandria, Virginia, for some shopping in Old Town. Little did we know, there was a St. Patty’s Day parade going on. It was a lot of fun and defintely made the afternoon enjoyable to see all the irish dancing, drinking, eating, music, kilts, clogging, fun and much more!

Some random man in a kilt we asked to take a picture with!

Me in front of the ferry on the docks by the river.

We ate at a place called Austin’s Grill. It said authentic Tex-mex on the sign, so we felt the need to be the judge of that! First they brought us green chips and salsa for St. Patty’s day. It was delicious, and our food was pretty good, as well. I definitely think we’ll hit it up again before leaving.

The parade behind me!

Shelby rockin the aviators in front of a very sweet car that was in the parade.

It’s finally starting to get warm around here and we’re expecting to see temperatures in the 50′s next week. I am very excited. It is nice to see the sunshine!

Weekend Trip to Columbia

This weekend was a good weekend to get away from the roomies for a little while (still love ‘em, but needed some me time). I headed out Saturday morning on the metro to the end of the green line where my Aunt Julie (JuJu) was picking me up. She lives in Columbia, which is about another 15 minute drive from the end of the green line. She asked me when she picked me up from the airport what I would want to do up here the most, and really the only thing I could think of, as silly as it sounds, was to go ice skating! I’ve never been. There sure aren’t any ice rinks around Grady, New Mexico, and how hard could it really be – like roller skates on ice!

After eating some delicious barbecue (I was having a dreadful hankering for beef!), we headed to the ice skating rink. Upon arrival, I immediately felt regret as I stood in line with my aunt and about fifty 4 to 12-year-olds and their parents! We pressed on. We began to laugh and doubt this decision as we pressed on, but we pressed on! So, we laced up our skates and made our way to the ice, neither knowing how to ice skate! We both hugged the wall the first couple, ok three or four, times around the rink.

Then, I decided there was no way I’m going to learn hugging the wall, so I veered a couple feet from it and went on my mary way. One of the guys that worked there stopped and gave us some advice. That advice was great and helped a lot. I thought I was getting the hang of it, then I started going too fast with reckless abandon and it happened. I started veering sideways again and fell for the first time. You just have to laugh at yourself in situations such as this! The funny thing is, it was right in front of a 6-year-old birthday party group! I’m sure they laughed hysterically as I made it up to one skate and slid on one knee and one skate to the wall to pull myself up the rest of the way! We left the rink about 15 minutes before closing to beat the rush. There was no way we were going to be able to take our skates off without somewhere to sit!

That night we had yummy chili and banana nut bread for dinner! Then, we went to see the movie Crazy Heart. I think it would be an ok movie to the regular viewer, but there were many things in the movie that I loved or found peculiar. First off it had one of my favorite Texas Country singers actually in the movie – Ryan Bingham. He also was nominated for an Oscar for the theme song “Weary Kind.” It also showed lots of beautiful scenery, and some of it had to be in New Mexico. It was crazy that I knew how many small towns they mentioned in the movie including Clovis, New Mexico; Enid, Oklahoma; and Marfa, Texas – Solid movie.

Now I’m back at work for another week! Texas Tech University will be in town. We have dinner with President Guy Bailey tonight, a reception Wednesday night, and a luncheon with Chancellor Kent Hance on Thursday. Can’t wait!

http://www.youtube.com/get_player

The Zamboni!

NO CAMERAS WERE HARMED DURING THE ATTEMPT TO SKATE. ALL TAKEN WITH IPHONE! haha

6 weeks down, 11 to go!

Well, sad to say but I have slacked on taking photos this week! That’s fine, I’m sure you all visit my blog not to see my photos but to read my outstanding words of wisdom and thrilling tales of daily happenings anyway! -Ok, probably not, but for the sake of wanting to please viewers with a photo, I’ve included one taken during a photography class taken in Juntion, Texas, which is significant because it reminds me of all things I love and have longed for lately about springtime in Texas: warmth, water, friends, photography, and memories!

This past week was a short week at work because we were off for President’s Day on Monday. Most of the house waited with anticipation for Friday because Shutter Island came out in theatres! Many of us are scary movie enthusiasts, but to my surprise it wasn’t that scary. I was very confused at first, but it all comes together perfectly in the end getting 5 stars from the TTU interns!

Saturday, the communications grads, in other words Laramie and Blackburn, set out for the Newseum. Before we ate at Cocina Mexicana, a tappas mexican restaurant! Laramie had stuffed quail and it was amazing! They make the guacamole right in front of you and even though we didn’t get it, we definitely will next time because it looks amazing!

The Newseum was very cool! There were five floors and each had something different and exciting to offer. We watched a 4-D movie. Those are different from 3-D in the fact that they include air, movement at our feet, and our chairs moved – very cool! There was an actual piece of the Berlin Wall in there, a wall dedicated to fallen news reporters as a result of war or some other event they were covering, a wall with the front page of every major newspaper across the world for that specific day, a floor dedicated to 9-11, which had a piece of the radio tower on top of one of the twin towers, a floor with papers that date back to the early 1800′s even, and much much more! It wasn’t one of the many free museums, but I would definitely recommend it!

Sunday, I was tired and lazy, so slept most of the day! Noel, Shelby and I went to the nearest Chili’s for dinner thanks to the kindness of Noel’s grandmother who sent gift cards! -very nice of her…and him for choosing me to go!

This week is the first full week of work we’ve had in about a month and we will be in session the whole time. We’re six weeks in, and even though I’m having a great time, I’m beginning to miss home a lot! So if you’re on Facebook you might have already seen this as my status, but if not, I’ll leave you with this little poem I came up with one morning. I was severely made fun of by my no-heart, male roommates, but I don’t care. I thought it was pretty clever!

I miss live country music, the stars, wide open spaces, and my car. I miss dirt roads, cheap beer, good friends, and skies that are clear. I miss working hard, breaking a sweat, my family and west-Texas sunsets. I’d even deal with the wind only to be home again.

I Heart New York

Well, as Shelby put it “been there, done that, got the t-shirt!” but I think it’s safe to say that I won’t be moving to New York in this lifetime. It was a LARGE place with much to see and do, but my overall feel is that New York is over crowded, over priced, stinky, trashy, busy, and there are way too many angry people and cab drivers for that matter.

We did get to see some neat things though! Below, Shelby and I are sporting our I Love New York tee’s in front of our hotel, which was within walking distance of Times Square. We spent a lot of time in that area and found the closer to Times Square, the higher the prices and the more people there were! There were lots of guys trying to sell you stand-up comedy tickets along with about a million other things, but by the end of the weekend we were no longer nice and had fun with it! Alexa kept telling them she didn’t like to laugh. I told a guy I didn’t like stand-up comedy and he returned with “are you lying to me?” to which I replied “Yes.” He just laughed and walked on.

The highlight of our trip might have been M&M world, which we visited too many times! haha Those peanut butter M&Ms are very addicting! We also ate some great food while we were there. Our best dinner was at a place called Blue Finn and I had some great sushi! Mom and Dad can’t believe that I’m now a sushi fan. I tried to get Mom to try tobiko once. She didn’t like it haha! The guys had some amazing steaks, which made me miss beef from home a lot!

Other things we saw included Wall Street and the infamous bull. We visited Ground Zero, which is basically a huge construction site! The end product will be an amazing memorial though. Shelby said her tour guide told them that they are still identifying people to this day as two people were identified on Friday due to new DNA technology. That’s just crazy to me!

Laramie and I also took the Staten Island Ferry out and back to see the Statue of Liberty. The water was neat and made me miss the lake and summer time! We were all crowded outside at the front of the ferry, and one nice gentlemen told us to go to the back where there were no other people, the view was better, and it wasn’t as cold with the wind out of our faces. Man was he right! We got much better pictures there!

On Valentine’s night, we went to Rockefeller Center. Let me tell you, it is extremely COLD on top of a 70 story building in February at night and very windy! Laramie got some good shots of the sky line. He also held his camera on the very edge of a pillar on top of a 70 story building, which I didn’t want to risk! haha I did get some shots of the city-scape though.

I also met long time family friends, the Northcutts, for lunch one day! Tyrell, his wife Maria, and new baby Sashenka live in New York and Tyrell’s parents, Todd and Tammy, happened to be visiting the same time I was there. It’s nice to see familiar faces so far from home!
It was a good trip, and we had a lot of fun! Glad we’re in recess this week at work because we’re all a little tired. It was a long 5 hour bus ride! I was very glad to be back in DC though!

Snowmageddon!

I know I have been failing at my getting my blog up for this last week, and I really have no excuse since we’ve pretty much been confined to our house with all the snow! I’m starting to get cabin fever, but I am glad it’s here and not at home because at home, we probably wouldn’t have any power!

I haven’t been to work since last Friday the 5th, and I have a feeling we may not go to work for the rest of this week! We got 3′ of snow Friday-Saturday and the sun finally peeked out on Sunday as we trecked through the snow to church! On Saturday, we went set out to check out all the snow that had fallen the night before and was still falling. As we approached the Capitol there were many others out sledding down the hill close to the capitol. A couple of our guys gave it a go but our makeshift snow sledding gear wasn’t near as sophisticated as those seen with the 5-12 year olds! Laramie and I attempted to take a lot of photos, but I was worried about the moisture creeping into my camera so we put them in plastic bags and made a whole for the lens to come out. It was a task keeping the cameras dry!

We’ve been out a couple of times to eat since then and have played in the snow some, but other than that we’ve been pretty well confined to the house. I should be working on my taxes during this opportune time, but ah that will get done! haha We’ve also been working on a 1000 piece puzzle! Yesterday, after about 5 hrs straight working on it and watching four movies, including two Lord of the Rings, we are still not finished! It has alot of blue sky and alot of rock, which are hard to piece together, and my only thought is – I miss the 5 piece puzzles from when I was 3!

We had planned to go to New York this weekend, but now we just hope the bus will be able to leave from the DC area. Tonight we’re going out for Laramie’s 23rd birthday. Hopefully, the place he planned to go will be open! When it snows up here. Everything shuts down and people go crazy! For example, at the first word of 3′ of snow, Shelby and I went to the grocery store to get a few things…mainly for me a frozen pizza for dinner! We waited in line for an hour to check out though because there were tons of people there – maybe a hundred. The snow storm has had many nicknames: Snowmagedon, Snow2K, Snowpocolypse and more! We are surviving though! Here are some pictures of the snow below!

These are the first floor roomies! Zach, Shelby, Noel, Me, Kat, Jett, Alexa, and Laramie.

In front of the Capitol!

Lots of skiers!

A White Covered DC

This past week has been amazing! Work definitely picked up and people in the office are warming up as well, making things a little easier. The week went fast but the weekend seemed to have lasted, which was nice because my roommates and I had an awesome weekend.

I woke Saturday to snowfall that didn’t quit all day! Shelby, Noel, Alexa and I were supposed to head to the Duke/Georgetown game. Noel had a friend who plays softball there and she can reserve extras. Well, when she called will call the next morning they said unfortunately, President Obama, his staff and their families, took the extra tickets for the game. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a basketball fan, so that was disappointing, but we plan to get to another Georgetown game some time!

We ate lunch at a place called Good Stuff Eatery, which is owned by Spike-a famous chef apparently! Cheap burgers that taste amazing. It’s one of our favorite places to go! Shelby and I weren’t feeling like going out that night with the rest of the crowd, so I drug her out in the middle of the night for some night shots with our surroundings in the snow! It was sooo cold, but I liked how the snow covered up some of the “citiness” if that makes sense. Security totally followed us close to the Capitol. I’m sure we looked suspicious with a backpack, tripod and it was probably midnight at the time. Shelby and I a threat – please! haha

Shelby and I got up Sunday morning and headed to church. The sun was out, there was snow everywhere and it was a beautiful morning! The sermon at church was amazing! The man who preached, Dr. Dick Foth, helps with the prayer breakfast, which started when Eisenhower took office. Eisenhower told a friend that the White House was the emptiest house he’d ever been in. The friend invited him to a small group that had fellowship in the Senate. Then the prayer breakfast was created. Now people from all over the world come to it, and Dr. Foth has been a part of it for a long time.

After church, I made pancakes for the whole floor! It was nice to all sit around the table together, listen to songs of worship and take in a beautiful day. We went to the zoo after that and saw the giant panda before it goes to China for good. Then, this evening I made chile rellenos, black beans, and blackberry cobbler! It was a hit. I love cooking for groups. It’s so fulfilling!

Enjoy the photos below! If you’re wondering what the mirror says….Noel likes to leave the girls nice messages on our mirror during the night after we go to sleep. It says hottest interns in DC! Shelby’s not a fan, but I think I’m the ridiculous one with my reflection taking a picture! I told here it’s just life! We’ll appreciate it one day.

Tiger at the zoo

My view heading to work. I’m in the building you can barely see to the left.

This is Tortilla Coast on the corner of our block. Decent mexican food but nothing like home!

Night shot of the Capitol.

One week down 16 to go!

After the first week of work I have learned so much. I’ve met lots of people in our office and Lucas’ personal office as well as a great deal about the history that lingers in ever part of this historical city. The second day, our intern coordinator challenged the other intern and myself to a scavenger hunt to help us familiarize oursleves with the House buildings and the Capitol. It may sound a little corny, but it was fun and really did help us find our way around. These tasks included meeting the staff in Lucas’ office, finding our own state representative’s office and setting up a meeting, finding our state statues in the Capitol and writing down their names, finding a quote about agriculture above one of the doors in the Capitol, obtaining our id, and a few more. Proud to say I won the scavenger hunt and received a really nice portfolio to take to hearings. Work is a little slow right now-there isn’t a lot going on right now, but I’m sure it will pick up very soon.

Aside from work, we visited the Arlington cemetery this weekend. It was rather breathtaking to see how many soldiers and family members of soldiers that had been burried over almost a whole section of land. Rolling hills with rows upon rows of headstones display the sacrifice thousands have made to this country and I felt very honored to look upon such a site. There is one site that contains the tomb of an unknown soldier that could not be identified by any form. To this day a soldier guards this tomb at 30 minute increments. Honestly, watching the soldier gave me chills. What an honor it must be to have been chosen for this. They pace back and forth 21 steps and stand at each end for 21 seconds and change their arms from shoulder to shoulder each time. The precision was amazing and every motion was the same everytime. It was interesting to see the changing of the guard as well. Below are some pictures from the cemetary. I felt black and white best portrayed the mood of my surroundings.

My Week Off

For the past week I have seen and done a lot. I’ve walked more than I have in a while and experienced various types of weather. During the week, everyone else was gone to work, so I set out on my own to explore various parts of DC, but I didn’t wander too far off the beaten path. I made friends with a police officer-always a good person to know. I’ve seen most of the monuments with the exception of the Jefferson Memorial.

This weekend we did a lot of things as a group. Friday night a very gracious donor invited all 19 interns to his family’s home where we ate, drank and met other Tech graduates in the area. It was neat to find out that there is such a tight nit group of Tech graduates in the area that continually communicate with each other and gather.

Last night I met up with good friend Jessalyn Murray whom I grew up with in New Mexico. We graduated from high school together and have rarely seen each other over the past five years, so it was nice to go out last night. Fifteen of us went to a seafood restaurant on the river in Georgetown last night. I had crab cakes, and it was amazing! After, we did some country dancing and karaoke. People up here line dance to everything! We broke up their lines with some Texas two-stepping though!

Tomorrow is a holiday, but I will finally start work for the first time on Tuesday! I’m very excited to start. Below are some pictures from our sight-seeing adventures. We were totally tourists!

Day 1: Home Sweet Home

Well, I made it! Last night I got into DC at about 5:20 and as the plane was landing, I noticed there was snow on the ground-not a lot but enough to make it pretty chilly, but surprisingly, the weather looked worse than it seemed. My Aunt Julie picked me up from the airport, we dropped my stuff off at the house, and then headed to eat at a little cuban place that had awesome Mojitos! I returned to the house and met everyone there that I didn’t already know. They all seem like nice people, and I think we will have a great semester together.

Below are some pictures of the house! It’s not near as old as I thought it would be it seems, and anyone who knows me knows I’m a little OCD about cleanliness, so I tried to be mellow but couldn’t help but tidy up the house before I took pictures.

Everyone scurried off to work this morning, and for now I’m just sitting at the house waiting on my FedEx packages to arrive. Hopefully, they’ll arrive safe and sound. Last night was not the easiest. I have been able to sleep really well due to traveling with a judging team and sleeping odd hours, odd places, and odd positions, but the outside world is a little different now!

The base of my window matches the ground level outside, so when I heard a noise outside my window last night and peeked through the blinds I saw a figure dumpster diving! It made me nervous despite the bars on the window and Shelby’s warning but not to worry. I know I’m safe but definitely not what I’m used to! Then, at like six o’clock this morning the dumpsters were being dumped by the city and it seemed to take forever. Shelby said that was a normal Tuesday thing but luckily it didn’t happen every morning of the week.

Let’s take a tour! Below is the living area:

This is my room, coupled with Shelby on the other side:

This is the Kitchen:

This is the girl’s bathroom-toilet on left, shower on the right, sink behind me:

This is the Luandry walk through:

Tonight, I buy groceries, and as soon as my tripod gets here, I plan to take some real photos!

Things I’m Going to Miss About Home

1. The countryside:

   There’s one thing about growing up and living in eastern New Mexico and west Texas – you can see for miles. There are no trees, and that’s fine with me! Travelers can see farmland and pastures with a few towns or spots in the road that you might miss at the blink of an eye. I can’t imagine being completely surrounded by pavement, but I will soon find out how that type of lifestyle will be.

   
   

2. 
   2. Living in the middle of nowhere:

   The negative side of growing up on a farm and ranch is the closest town is 45 miles away. The positive side of growing up on a farm and ranch is the closest town is 45 miles away. Haha Now most people I know would agree with the above statement. I love the serenity of being so far away from anyone, but I have to admit – since I’ve been in college, it’s nice to be able to run to the nearest convenient store and be back to the house in 10 minutes.

3. Random road trips and driving in general

   

   I love driving! I love going on road trips with my friends, and anyone who is close to me knows that last summer with all my road trips combined, I traveled over 6,500 miles. May not seem a lot to some, but for me by myself while working full time, I saw a lot and made some memories. My road trip gear usually included a purple Gatorade and a bag of Doritos and I was set to travel! I also enjoyed time on the road with my judging teams. My best memories were made riding in a packed, smelly van! For now, I guess the metro will have to do.

4. My family, the farm and all it entails:

   

   There is no question that I wouldn’t be where I am today without my family. They have provided me with so many opportunities over my lifetime from the very beginning, and I’m thankful to have their support in this endeavor. Mom and Nana have provided me with more clothes than I deserve Dad and Pawpaw help to remind me where I came from and to remember that haha, and Memaw and Debbie with gift cards and some extra cash which has helped significantly. One of my favorite parts about the new year is when we start having baby lambs, and I will be sad to miss that. I’ve enjoyed being home enough to see the baby calves. Animal husbandry is so enjoyable/rewarding when there are newborns on the ground!

5. My friends:
   
   

   I feel as if I’m the most blessed person in the world by the friends I have. Some have come and gone, some I see every now and then, and some I’m privileged to see every day. Our friends become our brothers and sisters away from home and our family in all honesty. I love all my friends and thank God for putting them in my life. I have the best friends in the world and look forward to making many more in DC.

I look forward to the days ahead and leave for DC Monday!

This Small Town Girl is Going to DC!

As many of you know I will be interning for the House Agriculture Committee in Washington, DC, next semester. It’s an amazing opportunity, which will allow me to grow and learn as an individual. I look forward to representing Texas Tech and am thankful for the donors that make this opportunity available. The application process was rather nerve-racking, but I made it along with four of my peers – Laramie Adams, Shelby Stokes, Zach Gilbert and Madelon Osborne. I am exctied to go to DC with such a wonderful group of people and look forward to our semester together in the Tech house.

There are five individuals representing CASNR and 14 others from the rest of the college. It could be an interesting semester with us all sharing one roof, but I look forward to learning from and getting to know the other interns.

As I travel and work through the semester, I plan to keep followers up to date daily with my experiences in DC. There will be a plether of opportunities for some great photos, but I’ll have some candids of the fun we’re having as well.

Thank you to my family and friends who have supported me, supplied me with “official dress”, and money to help me out. I really appreciate it all and would not be embarking on this trip without your help. And, thank you Kristen Shaw for making me look all professional in the photo above!

The time is almost near! I fly to DC on Monday, January 11 and I’m finally getting excited! Stay tuned, more to come!

Jennifer

The Cowman

This morning I met before sun up with a friend, Dusty Burson, to head out to O’Donnell, Texas, to shoot some photos for another friend of mine. Greg Clark, a good friend and excellent poet wanted to make a poster with his poem and my picture and design for a neighbor he wrote about back home (Blum, TX). Morning conditions were great, and we had good help from friend, Curtis Williams, and some curious, cake hungry cows that helped with the shoot. Below are a few images from the shoot-enjoy.

I’m still here!

What can I say other than life can get pretty crazy sometimes! Although I have not done a lot of shooting lately, I have been very wrapped up in other areas of my degree that I really enjoy. This semester I was selected as editor the The Agriculturist, which is a student produced magazine in the Ag Com department at Texas Tech. Writing articles, taking photos, editing stories, designing layouts and advertisements has taken a lot of my time. Not to mention, I’m still working at National Sorghum Producers and have put out two separate issues since my last post. So, needless to say, I’ve been a very busy girl!

Below are some photos from the Dalby Ranch near Post, Texas. My friend Kristen and I drove there for her senior, special problems class. I just happened to get a few shots while playing assistant.

Evening Shoot with Sam Petty

Yesterday evening, I went out with good friend Sam Petty to take some portraits for his personal portfolio Web site. It turned out to be a beautiful evening and the sunset made for some colorful skies.

Sorghum in the Texas Panhandle

A couple weekends ago I traveled to Sunray, Texas, and met with wonderful family with a rich farming tradition, the Cartrites. The sorghum was beautiful there and harvest was in full swing. Mr. Cartrite was nice enough to take some time away from the combine and gave me a plether of fields to choose from for our photo shoot. Below you will see some amazing sorghum with distinct color differences with the pollination strips. I hope you enjoy this farming at its finest.

Seth Savage Band

Went out with the Seth Savage Band yesterday evening and had an awesome time! It was my first band shoot, and I have to admit that I was pretty nervous. But things quickly loosened up and I was having a great time with this awesome group of guys. I even had to hurry them along a few times reminding the sun doesn’t last forever. It was a great experience, however, and I’m glad to do it for them. I was really happy with the results, so ladies and gentlemen, the Seth Savage Band!

The Seth Savage Band

Lone Star State Bank in Brownfield Celebrates 90 years.

The past two years I’ve been working at Lone Star State Bank of West Texas here in Lubbock and have had a wonderful opportunity to learn and meet so many wonderful people. Last week our branch in Brownfield celebrated its 90th Anniversary. I enjoyed my last photographic adventure for the bank before changing jobs to National Sorghum Producers. Thank you LSSB for everything!

Sorghum, Sorghum, Sorghum

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m working as a communications intern this summer for National Sorghum Producers. This week we had our annual board meeting, and I had the opportunity to take the board members pictures. Here are a couple members. Not the ideal lighting conditions, but sometimes you just have to make do.

My very first published cover!

Blackburn 50th Wedding Anniversary

This summer my grandparents, C.J. and Nancy Blackburn, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. The entire family spent a week in Ouray, Colorado, in a cabin where we hiked, fished, ate tons of food and simply enjoyed one another. My grandmother is a retired photographer. Of course, she still does it for fun and when requested, but we felt the perfect gift would be family pictures while the entire family was there together. I have been proclaimed Nana junior and had the opportunity to photograph my beautiful family. Photographing your own family can be a chore, especially with stubborn cousins, but regardless, we all enjoyed the end result. So, thank you Nana and Pawpaw for everthing!

All of this 50 years in the making!

A fun photo by campfire near our cabin nestled in the valley of the Rocky Mountains.

My cousins Rance and Kelsey with their wives Alissa (yes, they’re both named Alissa. Talk about confusing).

Pine Lodge Celebrates 100 years – Welcome to Nitengale Roost

My family has a cabin on Capitan Mountain, which is about 50 miles West of Roswell, New Mexico. Uniquely, it is one of the four mountain ranges in the United States that runs East to West. In the early 1900′s my great grandparents would drive from Roswell to their cabin nestled in the side of the mountain with some of their friends. Pine Lodge had eighteen cabins until a large forest fire in 2004, which burnt 12 of the 18. Only by God’s good grace was our cabin one of the surviving ones that did not burn. I have many childhood memories from this small wooden cabin and wanted to capture its feel and history this past weekend. Below is a picture of my family along with some pictures of the cabin and the Pine Lodge area.

This is the holding tank for water that is taken directly from stream water and supplied to the cabins below stream.

A view of the cabin at night

My grandmother, Nancy, cooking in the kitchen

My great-aunt Cindy reading

Notes left from friends who came to stay

A little work for National Sorghum Producers

Drew and Brooklyn Cox

Hello bloggers. It has been forever since the last time I posted a blog, but hopefully I’ll be back in full force now with Summer here and more digital shooting. Soon I hope to post my better images for Wyman’s special problems film class with a semester theme “Selling Lubbock to the World.”

As for today’s post, I had my first opportunity to take some baby shots. A special thank you to Andrew and Susan Cox for taking that chance on me. I shot their 2-month-old baby girl, Brooklyn, and their 2-year-old son, Drew.

We set up a make-shift studio in the baby room simply using a black sheet and natural window lighting. It was difficult at first considering babies and young children don’t like to be still for very long, so I ended up having to bump my ISO up to 400 which I was leary of, but all-in-all I was very happy with the images I ended up with.

It was definitely a learning experience, and I would like to share a few pointers:

1. Plug in a hair dryer and this fussy baby girl went silent everytime. (no really, it’s true)

2. Little boys love to tell you their favorite things and what they like, which makes them smile for you!

3. Make sure babies don’t get their two month booster shots the same day-haha

4. Young children are only going to be happy for so long, and then, it’s play/nap time.

5. Help from the parents is a lot of work but necessary- Andrew and Susan did great!

Of course, I learned so much more and will definitely take it with me to the next shoot!

Portfolio Site

Hey guys, just posted a portfolio site that I created for a Web Design class. The link is www.webpages.ttu.edu/jennibla/portfolio . Check it out and let me know what you think!

Matt Williams

Hey guys,

I know it’s been forever since I posted a blog! I’ve been shooting ALOT of film for Wyman’s special problems class and haven’t found the time to scan in the slides.

Anyways, here are some shots I did for TechImpressions. Most of you have heard the story about the Tech student who kicked a 30-yard field goal during half time of the football game in order to win free rent from Lynwood. Well, lucky me-I got to shoot him for the magazine.

We had a lot of fun. He was really easy to work with and I enjoyed our shoots. We did get locked in the stadium both times, but fortunately found our way out! And, I have to say thanks to Kristen and David for helping me out.

Can’t beat a New Mexico Sunset!

I was driving home Sunday, December 21, and as I began to cross the state line into New Mexico, the sky filled with colors as the sun was setting and it made me happy to be home for that particular reason.

Pheasant Hunt Opening Weekend with the Family

Chet & Chaney – Go Red Raiders

Here’s a preview of some quick shots I took of my roommate’s cousins–Chet and Chaney. They were all decked out for the Tech game and wanted some Christmas card photos.

National Champions

Hey guys,

So, I created a blog for the first time. Everyone else has one and I figured it’s about time I jump on the bandwagon and create one too.

About me:
I’m a senior Agricultural Communications student at Texas Tech University with minors in Photography and Spanish and originally from Grady, New Mexico.

I’ve judged Livestock at Clarendon and now here at Texas Tech. I have to say that has been one of the most amazing experiences in my life and feel completely blessed to be able to work with the guys on my team (I’m the only girl!) and the other people I have meet through that experience.

I’m still trying to decide what I want to do with life, but I know that I love photography, I’m interest in videography, and know that I want to stay close to Agriculture, but I’m still up for anything.

So check it out!