On a new quest...

As this blog came up on my screen just a few minutes ago, I was stunned to discover that it has been a year since I posted here! YIKES!! While I would love to reflect on the last year and wander slowly down memory lane, there just isn't the time for that at the moment... I am editing a wedding, school portraits, and several family sessions. Time doesn't seem to be on my side these days:(. However, I am thankful for this season of busy-ness!! The Lord continues to be gracious in spite of my many shortcomings and I will never be able to wrap my head around His goodness!!

My photography business is growing... truly by leaps and bounds and maintaining this blog in addition to my photography blog is overwhelming and I end up keeping neither one completel updated. So... here is how to follow the adventures of the Hodges' family and my photography business:

www.monicajune.com

Please come visit us there:)!

Christmas in July, well, really May...

I am the queen of good intentions - take tonight for example, I bought Mother's Day presents for the mothers in my life. However... it won't surprise me at all if it takes me two weeks (or longer) to get these items boxed up and shipped out.

Enter Christmas cards - every single year I have the intention of having my cards and letter, signed, sealed and delivered the week of Thanksgiving! Well... it is the first full week of May and you guessed it, the Christmas cards and letter are just now going in the mail. Make that the Christmas cards from the past two years!!

Oh well, better late than never, right??

So, for those of you that I hand delivered the Christmas cards to, here's the letter to go with it:)!

Merry Christmas all year round:)!

Christmas in July, Ok, well May…

Hello everyone…

Slacker – that’s the only word for it – slacker, slacker, slacker!! Yes, you are seriously getting TWO Christmas cards in one envelope with a letter on Valentine’s paper and it is almost the middle of MAY!!! (After I missed Christmas, I was going to send out the Christmas cards with a Valentine’s letter.)

I really have the best of intentions – every year I vow that I’m going to have the Christmas cards out by Thanksgiving with a nice Christmas letter on top of it! And, well, you see the resultsJ!

So much has happened in our lives, as I’m sure it has in everyone else’s!! I know this because I get your Christmas cards and letters (on time, I might add, in direct contrast to my extreme tardiness!)! Seriously – one of the highlights of my year is when I get Christmas cards! I love to sit and look at the pictures and see how all the kiddos are growing and to read about how your lives are going as well!

Anyway… Megan is graduating this month and leaving the nest to head for Canada! She is pursuing her dream of becoming a very competitive show jumper and having her own equestrian facility. It seems hard to believe that the teeny tiny baby that
was born so very early almost eighteen years ago, is really old enough to be graduating from high school and heading out the door. In my mind she is still that little bitty baby and the feisty toddler and the sweet little elementary school girl. She isn’t all grown up. Really. She’s not. Oh, but she is! I am ever amazed at God’s goodness in blessing me with her. I couldn’t ask for anything more – she even keeps her bedroom spotless. All the time. Without a word from me. Seriously! Don’t ask how that happened because as the years roll by I seem to become more and more unorganized. She is driven, focused and ready to face the future more than I think I am even today. She blows me away!

So… what is she going to be doing in Canada?? She will be living at an equestrian facility (www.wachterhorses.com). While she is there she will assist in all areas of the facility – from the breeding program to manual labor, from breaking and training horses to being trained as a rider, from assisting at very high level competitions
(think mini-Olympics) to competing at those same competitions. She is so very excited and honestly, while Wyatt and I will miss her, we are very excited for her.

Speaking of Wyatt… can anyone say “little guy with a mind as sharp as a tack, a sense of humor to rival an adults and a will that is steel enforced driven by the energizer bunny”? If you can say all of that, you have summed up our little guy perfectly! He is seriously smart – I’m not biased. Really. Remember, I’m an educator. The kid is smart – the other day it was 7:08 and he said, without pausing to think, “Hey mom. It’s 7:08. My bedtime is 8:00. That means I have 52 minutes until bedtime.” Umm. Wow. You’re right! He is seriously funny as well – my list of “Wyatt stories” is a mile long!! His strong will wears me out on a daily basis – it takes everything I have to stay one step ahead of this guy! This worries me, because the older I get, the slower I get and he seems to just speed up. Anyone see a potential problem in the futureJ? He is also such a sweet little boy – he always, well almost always, has time to give hugs and kisses to his mommy. Melts my heart. Everytime. He is in first grade right now and stays busy with Cub Scouts, AWANAs and friends. The dude is a social butterfly always asking when the next play date is. He keeps Megan and me laughing and pulling our hair out all at the same time, all the time! What a joy and an indescribable gift from Heaven.

As far as Heaven goes, it had been almost five years since Kyle went to be there. My mind has a hard time wrapping around that fact. He is still missed so very much and we talk about him on a regular basis. Wyatt is full of questions about what his daddy was like. While it is always fun to answer his questions, it is also heartbreaking because part of my heart rebels at the thought that Kyle isn’t here to see his kids grow up. I fight the notion, well, the reality really, that he is gone and all we’re left with are our memories and pictures. Such a big hole that God is gracious enough to put bubble wrap around and continue healing.

As you can tell, Megan and Wyatt keep me so very busy, but I manage to throw a few of my own activities into the mix as well. We are active at church – I teach in the single parent ministry every third weekend and stay busy with the choir. After being home for two school years, I went back to work part time in order to have decent health insurance at a fraction of private health insurance costJ. I work for Spring Branch ISD as a Literacy Coach – this means that I work with the teachers and help them with their literacy instruction. I really like the job and am so blessed to be working for a wonderful principal. In addition to that, my love for photography has grown from a hobby to a business and this year (2009) I have literally seen an explosion in the amount I am shooting. I love it and wouldn’t trade it for the world. My website is www.monicajune.com and is slowly coming along. My goal is to use the summer to really make it a fabulous marketing tool and to continue to grow my business.

Life is so good. Although we fuss from time to time, we really shouldn’t! God is so good to us and for His blessings we are tremendously thankful! We hope that you are having a wonderful year and I look forward to everyone’s cards again this winter. Hopefully, I’ll do better about getting my own cards in the mail. Although, now that I think about it, “Christmas in July” (or May) might be a fun Hodges’ traditionJ!

Praying for God’s richest blessings on all of you,
Monica, Megan and Wyatt

She's graduating...

It really doesn't seem possible that the little 2lb, 3.4 ounce baby girl that entered the world so suddenly and so very early, is really almost eighteen years old and finishing high school. The announcements came in the mail today and seeing them makes everything real in a whole new way. I knew it was coming, but now it is real. She's a young adult, ready to launch into the world. I think I only blinked once. That's how fast these last eighteen years have flown.

She really is my hero - the obstacles she has overcome and the challenges she has faced head-on would be daunting for anyone, let alone a little girl. I admire her tenacity, focus and drivenness. She knows what she wants and she is going for it.

On May 21st she is headed to Innisfail, Canada, where she will be living and training. She is going to be learning how to run an equestrian facility from the inside out - from breeding, working with stallions, working with mares, working with foals, training the horses, training riders and being trained as a rider. Her goals are to compete at high levels of English show jumping and to eventually have her own equestrian facility. Given her track record, I have no doubt that she'll achieve all that she aspires to and more. Here's to you my sweet girl!

PS - Her mommy took the pictures and did the announcement - not bad, huh?? (It is really easy when you have such a beautiful subject to photograph!)

Inquiring Minds Want To Know...

Or so I have been told... It HAS been a really, really LONG time since I've updated my blog - sooo... sorry!! Anyway, I've been told, "Update your blog - inquiring minds want to know what's going on with your family." So, Angie - my faithful reader;) - here's an update...

We are all doing well and life continues to move forward at warp speed. I know I sound like such a dork when I say this, but it seems hard to believe that it is Easter weekend - I still haven't mailed my Christmas cards yet!!!

Anyway... Megan is almost a high school graduate, Wyatt is ready for second grade (at least that's what he tells me - he wants his 2nd grade math book already!) and I am continuing to make it through the school year as well as trying to shoot as much as possible. Over the past five weeks I shot two weddings, three newborns and a handful of families. Tomorrow morning I am doing a senior shoot and a family shoot - it should be fun!!

Megan is firming up her post-high-school-graduation plans and while I'm not going to unveil them yet, it has something to do with horses (surprise, surprise) and Canada... yes, you read that right, Canada!

Stay tuned for lots of pics, more news about Canada, funny stories from the Wy man, news about my website and even more pics:)! Oh, Happy Easter!

An engagement...

Sweet friends of mine from church are getting married in February and I have the privilege of being their wedding photographer - yesterday we traveled to the edge of downtown to do their engagement shoot. I don't know about them, but I had a blast - before we left, I asked if they were ready for an adventure and it was a good thing they answered yes, because an adventure is what we had - from homeless men being territorial about one of the places we were shooting to lots of broken glass, empty bottles and blue toilets - take a peek at some of my favorite shots...

**Update - I posted this before Christmas and even today, Miranda's eyes haunt me. Feelings of not having done enough flood over me and cause my heart to break. Our world is full of hurting people and that is exactly what Christmas (and everyday for that matter) is all about - telling the good news of a Savior who came to earth as a precious baby boy just so that all of us who are sitting on the curb, can know His peace, can know Him.

May 2009 find us all reaching to those who are sitting on the curb!

These thoughts have been swirling in my head for a week now, but quiet time to sit and type is at a premium these days.

Last Sunday morning I drove my aunt and uncle to the airport. Between sips of strong coffee, my aunt and I chatted somewhat animatedly on the way there, with the occasional dry witted remark from my uncle. It was only 7:45 in the morning and the day before was one full of activity and excitement. Our extended family celebrated Christmas - it was beautiful chaos. Now we were left to reminisce and look forward to what the rest of December might hold.

After dropping them off at the curb, I pulled out of Hobby airport and began the trek home, lost in my thoughts, mentally planning my day and humming along to the Christmas music from the radio. Inevitably my thoughts turned to Christmases past, more specifically, I began to count how many Christmases have passed since Kyle celebrated with us, here on the earth. This will be our 5th Christmas without him. Like scenes from a movie, memories floated through my mind - Wyatt's first Christmas, Megan's special gift for Kyle the first Christmas that the three of us were a family, the Christmas that Megan and Kyle thought they would be cool and hide my gift in the tree - a sapphire necklace and ring- thank goodness we found them before completely tearing the tree apart. The last Christmas we had as we ate dinner in a restaurant in Temple, TX and he gave me the most precious gift he'd ever given me, all warranted a sigh.

Lest I get too caught up in my own life, the Lord has a way of getting my attention in a hurry. I was almost to the Beltway and out of the corner of my eye I saw her. Sitting on the curb in flip flops, pajama pants, a knit top with a trench coat belted tightly, wind-blown hair and tired eyes with mascara streaking down her cheeks, there she was. I tried to drive on by, but the Lord wouldn't let me. I figured she had a gun in her coat, but He knew she held a blessing just for me. I was so determined to drive on by that I even turned the corner, but quickly turned right back into the parking lot and headed straight for her.

As I got ever closer, my heart began to pound, not knowing what to expect. In today's world helping those who are stranded can come with a risk. I rolled down my window and asked if there was some way that I could help her. She responded that she didn't know, she didn't know what she needed - her boyfriend kicked her out of the car three hours earlier and she was just sitting there trying to decide what to do. She mentioned the cost of the hotel rooms around her and that several men had already stopped to proposition her, but that she was not that kind of girl. It was clear that she was holding onto her composure by just a thread, a thin thread at that. We continued to talk and I asked if there was somewhere I could take her or someone we could call. No, there were no friends, no family. She was just going to wait it out to see if her boyfriend would come back for her. I did tell her I couldn't afford to put her in a hotel room, but I gave her some cash. A drop in the very big bucket of her empty heart and eyes. I pointed her to a church and shared what my experience had been at that church and that I knew they would help her with arms of love and acceptance wide open, no questions asked. She didn't want me to take her there, but she did clarify that she had the name of the church right.

Before pulling away, feeling completely powerless to help her, I asked if she would tell me her first name so that I could pray for her. She kind of half smiled and said, "Miranda". I drove away with tears in my eyes and tears in my heart. Even now as I type my eyes are filling with tears.

It is so easy in this season, but really in any season, to get caught up in our own losses, our own grief, our own agendas and all around us "Mirandas" are sitting on the curb, just waiting to know that someone cares, that they matter to someone. Not every "Miranda" is sitting on a curb outside, it could be your neighbor, your friend from work or high school or college. It could be someone from church or playgroup or your child's school. Rest assured, we are all surrounded by a Miranda.

This Christmas, may our Heavenly Father open our eyes to the "Mirandas" of the world. They're there - just sitting on the curb. Waiting.

Our Christmas Card...

I was so excited when I got the proof for our Christmas card this morning, that I just had to share it and give a shout out to the ladies who made it happen...

Sally Brewer, in Virginia, took the pictures this summer when we were out there visiting my brother and his family - www.sallybrewer.com - all of the pictures were wonderful and I just had to use them for our card.

Heidi, of www.keepsakedesigns.net, created the card and didn't she do a fabulous job??

Thanks ladies - the card looks wonderful and I can't wait to send it to all of our friends and family!