Second Trimester

I'm officially into my 2nd trimester. Can you believe it?! Well maybe you can, but I can't believe I'm through the first one already! I'm glad, don't get me wrong, I feel so much better, less nausea and less tired.

I go to the doctor a week from today and will get to hear the heartbeat for the first time. We saw it on the ultra sound 3 weeks ago, but didn't get to hear it just yet. So, we're excited to hear the heartbeat and compare the rate to Jordan's.

Obviously I'm going to be happy no matter the sex of the baby, but I think I sort of "want" another girl. The only reason is that I think it would be neat for Jordan to have a sister close to her age. I think that they could be really close. Not that she and a brother couldn't be, but you girls with sisters know what I'm talking about.

I think we've decided on a girl name. We've been really struggling with deciding on one we loved and didn't have "buts" about. If Baby Foshe is a girl, her name will most likely be Nora Kathryn. Isn't it pretty! I know Nora is an old name, but I am absolutely in love with it, plus it was BJ's grandmother's name and she was a special lady to lots of people. Kathryn is from BJ's mom's side and I think it rings nicely with Nora.

I had issues with Nora when we first started discussing it, not because of the name Nora, but because of the name Jordan. I don't think they go that well together, but I am over that. What I'm still sort of hung up on....and I know you're going to think I'm nutty, because everyone I've told this to does...BUT...

Jordan is a uni-sex name, but has been a boy name in the past. Jordan gets called a "he" lots of times when I'm on the phone making an appt or something...you know when people only know her name is Jordan and don't know her. So my concern is that Jordan will grow up and hate me because her sister got the "girly" name....

Crazy, right?! Tell me this is dumb and that Jordan won't care that her name is Jordan and her sister's is Nora. Someone please tell me that! lol.

I'm feeling much better. Almost no nausea at all--which is fabulous! If I let myself get too hungry I get nausea, but I try to avoid that! I'm not as tired, but of course I'm still tired!

I have finally gained a few pounds, only 3 though. I'm a big girl to begin with so I'm not supposed to gain as much weight as you skinny girls ;-) But my belly is obviously bigger, that's for sure.

This is what the baby looks like at 12 weeks. Crazy, uh?!

In other news, I did not get the job that I asked you all to pray about. I was really disappointed and cried for a minute when I found out, but I'm better now. I'm planning to get my non-traditional treaching license and hopefully be in a classroom by next August! So wish me luck!

Happy Hump-Day! Hope everyone's week is going great!!!

Serious Face

Got this chair today at a yard sale for 2.00! SCORE! I have been looking for a chair to use in my photos and I found a great one!!

And my subject is just precious! I just plopped her up in it to get a quick shot so I could see how the chair was going to look--and it looks pretty good I think!

EDITED @ 6:00pm to add:

I thought I'd see what it looked like in sepia---I love it!!

Thank you!!

Thank you all for your interest in my photos! I really didn't know what the turnout would be, but it's been great. I'm closing the giveaway now, as I have far more than 6 photo sessions scheduled--and will be quite busy throughout the summer.

If you're still interested in my photos and did not get in on the promotional free sessions, please contact me for my prices...I'm very affordable!

Thanks again to everyone!

Giveaway!

If you haven't noticed, I love to take photos. I don't know how good I am, but I think I do a pretty decent job. I'm learning more and more each day. I have done a few for hire jobs and would like to increase those.

So, in order to do that I am going to give away SIX photography sessions.

I have done weddings, babies, children and families. But, I'll try anything, so if you are interested in having some photos made, let me know!!!

What you'll get is an on-location shoot that will last 1-2 hours depending on the location(s), number of subjects, etc... You'll also get a CD of the original images plus any edits that I choose to do (color enhancements, b&w, sepia, vintage, selective color, etc..), you can also make edit requests.

So, if you're in the NWA area and would like to take advantage of this, please let me know. I am planning on doing 2 shoots in May, 2 shoots in June and 2 in July, for a total of six. So, let me know who you what photographed, where and what month and we'll get together and iron out the details.

I'm excited to photograph some new subjects! You can see some of my photographs here: http://foshefamily.blogspot.com/search/label/photography

If you are interested in this, please do two things. 1. Leave a comment in this post that you're interested, you don't have to give details in the comment, just a note that says "hey, i'm interested," or whatever. 2. E mail me at brandy_foshe@yahoo.com and let me know what you're thinking.

I don't even know if six people will be interested, but it's worth a shot! Also, if you're not interested or not in NWA, but know someone is or who might be, please pass this along!

THANKS!!!

I'm Famous. Almost. Ok. Not. Really.

If you dont know about Pioneer Woman already, and you read blogs, you must be living under a rock. She's like the most famous blogger there is. She's great! You should check her out if you haven't already. She's good at lost of things, but one thing that she's amazing at is photography and photoshop. I have stalked her blog for some time and I even leave comments from time to time. She gets like thousands. I've always thought it would be cool if she drifted over to my blog and commented on mine. But that hasn't happened, after all, she's a busy woman.

She just released a free set of Photoshop Actions that are amazing and I have posted some photos already that I've used the actions on.

Well today, I went over to PW's photograhy blog and saw what?! TWO of my photos ON HER BLOG!! Hello!! She started this Flickr group for people to share their edited photos using her actions. I dropped about 4 for 5 of my photos in, secretly hoping that PW would comment on one.
What I got was even better!! Out of hundreds, she picked TWO of mine to showcase on her blog! How freaking awesome.

I realize most of you are like, "you're a nerd Brandy, get over yourself." I know I am, but PW is cool.

So anyway I just wanted to share! Thanks for listening to a nerd!

R.I.P. Throwback Thursday

It is with overwhelming sadness that I say 'Goodbye' to Throwback Thursday. Sadly, this chronicle of the Foshe Family blog has come to an end. I simply have no more old photos to share. None that are worth posting anyway.

So with that, if you get bored and would like to look back on the 8 month journey of Throwback, you can do so here.

So from now on, just expect lots and lots of new current photos!!

For some time now I have been wanting to take some 'railroad track' photos of Jordan. We have a track that is very close to our house, but I've just never ventured down there to see how photo-opportunistic the site was. When it gets a tad warmer, I'd like to explore some more and find a cooler place, but for now, here's a few shots I got. It was windy and she was tired, but we got a few cute ones! What do you think?

this one could be my favorite!

More Pictures!

First of all, she IS the cutest child ever! ;-)

Second of all, she LOVES her Tucker!!!!!

And, of course, she loves her daddy!


AND, so it begins.....okay, not really, but we are trying to get her aquainted with the potty, so that she will get comfortable with it and hopefully make an easy transition to using it!! She loves to sit on it, but don't think she quite grasps the concept just yet. But it makes for such a CUTE picture :-)!

Summer Tease....

Last weekend we got a tiny taste of spring/summer like weather. It was wonderful. We spent a lot of time outside and even went down to our local park. Fast forward to this weekend and it feels like WINTER again! I'm so sick of it already---COME ON WARM WEATHER!

Anyway, here's some cute shots of my girl at the park. It is IMPOSSIBLE to take a picture of this girl sitting down. She is not a sitter. She does not sit for anything. She hates to sit. She doesn't sit in the bathtub, when she eats, she doesn't sit and watch tv, she prefers to stand, run, walk, basically, she prefers to be moving at all times. She will sit to read a book for seconds at a time.

Anyway, I have to take the pictures where I can get them, so here's some---





PS, I used Pioneer Woman's FREE actions on these photos to achieve their awesome colors and effects!!! Check her out if you use Photoshop and like to edit photos!!!

Throwback Thursday

Okay, so for today's Throwback Thursday, I'm featuring a WHOLE lot of pictures from my trip to the Phillippines. Which, I think I may have taken in 2001, not 2000 like I originally stated. At any rate. Prepare for a lot of boring pictures that you probably care nothing about.

I went on a very small mission trip, with 5 other people. It was a pilot program for a program that the BMA was hoping to impliment, small, short summer mission trips for students. It has a name, but I can't think of it right now. Anyway, our group was the first. It worked well and now the program has been in full swing for several years. They host several trips to several different countries each summer.

We went to the Phillippines. We worked on two different islands, with two different missionaries. First, we were on the island of Panay, in the city of IloIlo. There, we worked with Brother Don, a long time baptist missionary to the phillippines. Below is a map of the island of Panay and a map of the entire Phillippines, just so you can have an idea of where we were.


Here is me and Brother Don. This picture was acutally taken at the end of our time with Brother Don. We spent 1 week at each location. Here, we are at a boat port, about to boad a big o' boat to go over to the island of Negros, but more of that later.

This is me and one of Brother Don's friends and someone who he works with and we worked with. For the life of me I cannot think of his name.
Brother Don does a lot of work with the bible college there in IloIlo. Here we are visiting the college and some of the students.

We did not do any work inside the city of IloIlo. We did a tour and we visited the bible college and then we headed to a remote village way up in the mountains, called LubLub. When I say remote, I mean remote. It was about a 2 hour drive and a 5-6 hour hike from town to get to Lub Lub. We could only take what we could carry, which was about a small backback, which had to also contain water, and such. Basically 2, maybe three changes of clothes, if you had small clothes, and a few other neccessities. We were roughing it, to say the least. On the hike to LubLub, we had to cross several high and rushing rivers. There are real photos from my trip, not photos from national geographic, which I think they look like. These photos are very poor quality. I didn't take them, a team mate did, and I got them from her many years ago. At any rate, you had to carry your stuff on your head, because the water got as deep as your chin in some places. It felt SOOO good though, because it is dang hot in the Phillippines!
This is just another shot of the hike....we're headed up to those mountains....
And here's my team at the top of the hike! We made it! It was soo cool and beautiful way up there!



This was the back porch of where we stayed up in the mountains. We had no electricity, no running water, and well, no other modern conviences. This is where the women prepared and cooked the meals everyday.

And since we had no running water, this was our bathroom. Complete with toilet and shower. The shower is the bucket of water with the bowl, to pour over you!

A great thing about the Phillippines was the food. While it was scary to try such foreign cuisine, it was fun. This photo was actually taken in the city, at the home of some church members, but this was a breakfast, they go all out!

And here is some fruit. The fruit was the absolute best!!!

This is the inside of that...

I can't remember the names of any of these, but these were yummy too!!


These things had a grape-like center and were yummy as well!



Here is one of the churches outside of the city.

This is the inside of the church. No nice and soft padded pews here!

The symbol of the Phillippines, the Jeepney. This is the preferred method of transportation. Public that is. Almost no one has cars, everyone rides these for mere pennys. This is as far as we could drive before we had to start hiking up to LubLub.

Here is just a CUTE kid from up at LubLub. We worked with the children's school while we were at LubLub.

This is me at Leeta, one of the people who works with Don.


And this was my bed at LubLub, complete with mosquito net. And on it, sets everything I brought with me for the weeklong stay! One backback!

The next several pictures are pictures of the adorable children at LubLub. The kids stole my heart!!






Here's our guys, eating some rice. What we thought was authentic Phillipino rice (you know it's their prize crop!). As we're sitting there eating it and talking about having eaten authentic phillippino rice.....we look over and see a riceland bag from STUTTGART ARKANSAS. We about died. Brother Don told us that the rice that they grow in the Phillippines lacks the nutritional content that our rice has, so they have it shipped in to feed the kids, so they can have more nutrients.

Sorry these are sort of out of order, I hate moving pictures in blogger. Anyway, this was taken back in town....this is how they serve sodas. They recycle bottles, and have huge bottle recycling plants. So to save bottles, they serve soda in baggies. This is not pee, it's mountain dew!


Here I am with a bunch of kiddos at LubLub. They LOVED having their pictures taken!!!


Here we all are with the kids.

This girls name was Kimberly, and she was my buddy that week. I fell in love with her!


They wanted to be wherever we were!

Another Jeepney...in the city.

More cuteness....



Okay, so after IloIlo and LubLub, we traveled by boat over to the island of Negros, to the city of Bacolod to work with missionary, Darlene Carey. She is amazing. Here's a map of the island.





It was a stark contrast to our time at LubLub. In Bacolod, we stayed in the city, in a hotel. Not that it was all glam and glitter, here a couple of our room-mates....



While we were in Bacolod, we worked with Darlene at a church and mostly we worked with the youth. It was really fun and we made a real connection with the kids. I even stayed in contact with a couple of them for a couple of years after the trip. Here I am with some of the girls!


In this photo, I'm about to give my testimony--but before hand, I wanted a loosen up exercise, so we taught the kids how to call the HOGS!!!

Look at 'em calling those Hogs!!

Here I am talking....boring!

Talking again...

Me and another cutie!

This is me and Darlene. This was at the airport the day we left. You can sort of tell I had been crying. I was hysterical the day we left. I did not want to leave. It was such an emotional trip.

Here we are again...

Me and a precious little baby!

Me and Jinket...this is one of the girls I stayed in touch with for a while. I wonder what she is doing now.

We took a short ride out to the ocean....it wasn't that pretty, but it was still the ocean!



And that concludes this LOOOOONG edition of Throwback Thursday! I hope you enjoyed my trip down memory lane!!!!