Lifestyle Portrait and Wedding Photographer located in Western Kentucky
Tomorrow is my first wedding of 2013.
Wait, let me step back.
Tomorrow is my first wedding of 2013!!!!
There. That’s better.
I can’t tell you how exciting this year is going to be. How busy it’s going to be and how life changing it’s hopefully going to be. There is so much in store and it is all starting tomorrow with Sunni & Cody’s Kentucky Dam Village wedding.
Congrats Sunni & Cody! I can’t wait to share in this special day with you!
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It’s Christmas!
Well, it WAS Christmas a while ago. Due to my unexpected hiatus from the blogging world, I’m just now getting around to blogging pictures from my mom’s family’s Christmas get together at my parents’ house on Christmas Eve. Now, normally, I would have just let it go since it’s so close to Easter but I love Christmas so darn much! Looking at these pictures just makes me happy
The real tree my mom decorated herself. She was pretty proud of it and was so excited to try a purple theme this year.
Above the fireplace were my mom’s Santa’s From Around the World. She collects them.
My little second cousin. Isn’t he a cutie?
For the first Christmas…ever… my family opted to have BBQ instead of the traditional ham or turkey. No fear, the desserts were nothing but Christmas!
My immediate family with my mom’s mom in the middle <3
There was this time in my life; I believe most people call it high school, but I call it the wonder years. I wasn’t a great student but I was a good one. I made the grades but I didn’t spend my entire high school experience doing homework and studying. I didn’t drink or do any sort of “partying” and I was and still am MORE than OK with that. Instead, I had a great group of best friends. We called ourselves the Ya-Yas – yes, after the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (don’t judge). There were four of us and we literally did everything together. I always had a boyfriend. First there was Justin, then Jared, and finally Neil – the only boyfriend I ever loved. Of course, I now call him husband <3 I played the piano. I sang in the chamber choir. With the choir I performed in New York City, Washington D.C. and Chicago. I was in the color guard all four years and in the winter guard for the first 3. I was flag captain my junior year and guard captain my senior year. I was very active in my church. I worked part time at a catering company for a while and then as a pharmacy technician at a retail pharmacy for even longer. During the summers, I also worked at my dad’s office. Also during the summers I swam every day and played tennis at the country club. I was daddy’s little girl and my momma was my best friend.
There also was this time in my life – I’m pretty sure everyone just calls it college. I went to school full time… for 8 years, at two different schools. First I studied pre-pharmacy, stopping just short of applying to pharmacy schools; then I studied accounting, following in my father’s footsteps; and also went to school for nursing – graduating with my associates in nursing in May 2012. I worked part time – first in a hospital pharmacy, then in another hospital’s pharmacy, then at a tax firm, then at a restaurant, then at a retail store, then at a nursing home, then as a web designer, and then again as a retail pharmacy technician. Can you tell I like variety? I lived in the dorms for one a one-half years, then moved into a house with my best friend for 6 months, then moved into an apartment with that same best friend for a year, then I got married and moved into another apartment with my husband for 2 and one-half years, then we moved to another town and lived in my parents’ lake house for one and one half years, then moved into an apartment for one year. Again, can you tell I like variety? While I lived in The College Town (2004-2010), I was in a sorority, I went to parties, I went “clubbing”, but I never got into any trouble. I went to the gym and the theater all the time. I had good friends, great friends, and a best friend who is still my best friend to this day.
And then, there is now. I’m 26 years old, soon to be 27. I will be celebrating my 6th wedding anniversary this July with the love of my life. I’m a homeowner and a business owner. I’m a full time photographer and a full time student. Yup, I’m going to school online for my Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing (BSN). I’m also a full time registered nurse with a good job at the hospital I’ve always wanted to work at. Needless to say I’m a little busy. I try to still be active in church and keep up with my friends, but it’s getting harder and harder the more successful my business grows.
I’m not going to lie and say that I have no regrets. Of course I do. I regret that it took me 4 years to decide to become a nurse, because I could have not wasted so much time trying to figure it out. I regret that I didn’t find my passion for photography until I was 24 because I could have been doing what I love for a long time now. I regret not staying active in church. Getting back in the swing of things is harder than I thought it would be.
Essentially, all of my regrets have to do with not doing what I am currently doing sooner. We’ve heard that God has a plan for us, and that if we just put our trust in Him, He will lead us. Well, if I wasn’t a firm believer in that before, I definitely am now. My life is changing and it’s all because I’ve been trying my hardest to follow where I truly believe God wants me to go. Can I be 100% certain? Not until I’m standing at the Pearly Gates can I ask that question and it will be answered. But as much as anyone can be, I am. Here goes nothing!
Major things are happening here at Rachael Houser Photography.
*Is it weird that I say “here at Rachael Houser Photography”? Like it’s an actual location and not just wherever I happen to be at any given time…with my camera? haha jk…..
You may recall me saying Year One of RHP I photographed 3 weddings of my own and during Year Two I photographed 8. Well it’s only the beginning of January and I have already booked 8 weddings for Year Three of RHP. To say that I’m excited does not describe my feelings well. Ecstatic might be a better word and still even then, I don’t feel like it’s enough.
I’ve gained a whole new amount of conviction in my passion for photography and I truly feel that this is what I’m being called to do. All of these signs have been just coming out of nowhere, pretty consistently, and the feeling is somewhat like a tugging at my heartstrings. I’ve prayed about it, talked with family and friends, and then prayed some more. I’m starting to take steps toward making this dream of mine come true.
For example, I will have a booth at the local Wedding Expo the end of this month, I’ve signed myself and Neil up for a marriage retreat specifically for photographers that’s in April, I’ve signed up for a women’s photography retreat in October, AND I’m going to start looking for a office/studio location. Also, a new website design is in the works as we speak.
I’m putting all my faith in God that he will help me see this through. I can’t wait for what’s to come!
yay! can’t wait to see you at the Marriage Retreat and P31 Conference! you will LOVE Winshape Retreat Center! It’s amazinggggggg!!!!
We bought our first house in 2012. We moved in in September with full intentions on changing a few MINOR things here and there. As all homeowners should understand, after a few weeks of living in the house, we had already started a list of things we wanted to do, some small weekend projects, others… not so much. Other than painting every room in the house (except the future nursery) we’ve only changed out and painted the front door, but still left on our current to do list (I say current because I’m sure it’ll grow!) is the following:
Gut, totally re-configure, and renovate the master bath, hall bath, and hall closets (doing this in February!!!)
Make a built-in office area in the eat in part of the kitchen
New mantel on the fireplace
Hardwood flooring in the living areas of the house (all of which are carpeted right now)
Carpet in the bedrooms (where there is hardwood…)
Re-configure the laundry room
Add on to the back deck
Paint the trim on the outside of the house
Add some curve appeal
Fence in the back yard (for the pups of course!)
and finally
Repave the driveway
Of course there are other little decorative to do’s that still need to be done (our master bedroom is BARREN) but that’s neither here nor there.
HERE, today, this post is more so on what we recently got to check off our to do list: The Master Closet!
Our master bedroom is a normal old house master bedroom size. Not big but it’s not small either. It’s actually perfect considering we’re hardly ever in our bedroom, except to sleep (duh), but when we’re both in the bedroom getting ready we don’t get into each other’s way. UNLESS we were looking in/getting clothes out of the closet.
I took this picture after we’d already started moving everything out. I was like CRAP STOP and then moved a few things back in just to take the picture. You get the idea though, right? It WAS a normal size non walk in closet.
So first, we removed the bi fold doors. They were crappy anyway. We will at some point put NEW bi fold boors on but in the mean time, I kind of like being able to see my beautiful new walk in closet, free from obstacles! Convenient enough, the future nursery closet was directly behind our closet and we have other plans for that room but that’s for another time
We closed up the existing opening to the future nursery closet with 2×4′s, aka studs, to make an appropriate wall frame.
OK now seems like a good time to mention that, when I say WE, I don’t always mean Neil and myself. More like, Neil and his dad because they did this project on Neil’s days off, while I was at work. Notice the two light bulbs? Yea, something really pretty replaced them!
A few sheets of dry wall hanging and some HEAVY mudding made the giant whole in the future nursery wall disappear… and suddenly we have a walk in closet! And NOW seems like a GREAT time to mention how grateful and thankful I am to have such an awesome handy husband with such an generous handy dad to take on these projects for me. Sure, Neil would have liked a bigger closet but he could have lived without. On the other hand, he knew how much I REALLY BADLY wanted it.
Then came my job. Painting! Of course, I painted it Sherwin William’s Tinsmith grey because it’s the best paint color in the whole wide world. No, I’m not exaggerating. And Neil hung this BEAUTIFUL light fixture that you see in the middle picture. We had something more…. casual bought already but one day, while browsing my local Home Depot, I happened upon the light fixture that I have always pictured would be in my walk in closet some day. And it wasn’t TOO pricey, so I jumped! It totally completes it! It also shines this super neat design throughout the closet. There isn’t anything I don’t love about this light! OK, moving on…
Our closet sat like that for a few days, until we finally went shopping for the shelving. A few days really means a week here. Our clothes lived in our guest bedroom closet and on the guest bed for over a week, y’all. It was chaos in that room and I purposefully did NOT take a picture of it. So above is my AMAZING husband hanging the shelving…stuff. I actually helped with this part! PS, the middle picture makes Neil look like he has some weird male pregnant belly thing going on. It’s just his shirt gapping over (I’m sure you already gathered that). Just to clarify (and to brag on him a little) he is actually really fit <3
And now, the AFTER pictures! My side! As far as the layout of the shelving goes: by having the hanging racks on the side walls instead of on the back wall, I increased my hanging space by an entire foot! You see, I measure this thing out before I decided. I’m smart like thatIn the two back corners there’s only the top shelf, making much needed room to hang my dresses and his suits. My side has more top shelf on the back wall, for obvious reasons.
And his side! This angle shows off our shoe shelves better – which I might end up changing a bit but this shelving collection allows for that kind of thing EASILY.
Ta Da! I am so in love with our newly renovated master bedroom closet! I hope you all enjoyed this blog post. Let me know what you think in the comments!
Disclaimer time again: all the images on this blog post were taken with my iPhone. As a photographer and as someone who just likes to document her life, I love that the iPhone 5 has such a strong camera built in. Definitely beats not having to carry about my big heavy DSLR camera all the time!
Everything you’ve done has led you to where you are now … love of pharmacy and medicine led you to nursing; the accounting experience is crucial for being able to handle business finances; and photography might not have been nearly as fun before the digital age!
It’s all full circle and the best is yet to come for you!