All I Want For Christmas...

Christmas has come and gone, but Frank is still wishing to find himself a permanent home.

If you aren't familiar with his story, you can check it out HERE, HERE, and HERE.

We're thinking the best case scenario for Frank would be:

- to have an owner/family who has a heart for rescued dogs (and who loves big dogs - Frank is 55 lbs.)

- to have a home with no cats

- to have a fenced in yard that he could run around in

- bonus points if he would have a brother or sister to play with - he loves other dogs

If you know of anyone that could meet the above criteria, please send them this blog post or have them email me at Cheyenne.Schultz @ gmail dot com

Here We Go Again....

Let's start with December goals and then I'll give you the update on the Frank saga. So here's what I've got going this month:

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1) Make m&m christmas cookies for Geoff to take into work.

2) Get all of our Christmas shopping done and shipped out by December 17 (we haven't started yet - this could be trouble).

3) Update the website in preparation for the new branding launch next month.

4) Clean my car (yes, I know....it's on here AGAIN).

5) Get our finances in order.

6) Get caught up with all editing. This, my friends, is going to be the end of me. Luckily, I've enlisted the help of a certain someone who lives in this house to help me get through it all. Here's the next few things coming up:

Julie and Pat's wedding
Rebecca and Thomas's engagement session
Allison and Don's wedding

7) Continue making it a priority to read/pray/journal each morning.

8) Figure out whether we want to purchase the 24 1.4 or the 35 1.4 - any recommendations out there between the two?

9) Shoot the roof off of Elevation's Christmas Eve services uptown at Belk Theatre - you do NOT want to miss this - if you are in Charlotte December 23rd or 24th, get yourself to a service....details found HERE.

10) Go into the new year with ZERO emails in my inbox.

11) And lastly, work to find Frank a home.

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Yes, you heard right. Frank is back with us for the time being. The past few days have been a total emotional rollercoaster for me. I've gone from peace to sorrow to relief to stressed (should you want to see a full serving of my dramatics saying goodbye to him over the weekend, you can click HERE - or, just scroll down to the post before last) .....I think I've come full circle and have now landed on peace.

As it turns out, Frank doesn't do so well with cats. He isn't mean to them....he's just super excited about them and chases them. The family that took him has six cats, which over the course of a couple of days, proved to be a big enough problem that they thought it best to return him to us.

At first, feeling like we were back to the drawing board with finding him a home, I was pretty stressed about it. But, overtime, I've refocused and know that this is an opportunity for me to put my trust not in myself but back into God. He is in control and will work it out how and when he sees fit.

So, we are still on the hunt. Best case scenario would probably be an owner/family who has a heart for rescued dogs, loves big dogs, has no cats in the home, and has a yard that Frank could run around in. A couple other sidenotes - he's not "a chewer", he does really well with other dogs (even snippy, nasty little one's like our two girls), and he loves to cuddle and play. I actually think he would do super well with a family with kids.

There you have it - if you could continue to keep your ears out for anyone looking to adopt the nicest, sweetest dog alive, let that would be great. :)

Frank Found a Home

As we saw the stray dog running wilding all too close to I-277, we knew we had to at least try to catch him. As previously mentioned, we always chase after stray dogs, but are never successful in catching them. When we got ahold of the dog, I had no idea what I was about to be in for.

That evening, I didn't know how much time I would waste calling and emailing Charlotte no-kill shelters over the next few days, as it proved to be basically impossible to get him into one.

I didn't know that the dog was completely infested with fleas, not neutered, and would try to pee on everything in and outside of our house - including Jazzy at one point (that was an accident :) ).

And other than mindlessly giving our other two dogs their monthly dose of heart worm preventative, I didn't really know what heart worms were and how much money they would take out of our pockets to get rid of them.

But mostly, I didn't know how much I would come to love this dog and I didn't know how hard it would be to say goodbye to him.

I prayed close to every day for the past month that God would find a safe and loving home that Frank could permanently go to. Actually, I PLEADED with God that we would find a good home for him. And wouldn't you know it? Yesterday, my prayer was answered. And now, while I do feel relief, peace and comfort knowing he is in a great place with a loving family, I am left grieving his loss from our own home and family. Ridiculous, I know. I know that overtime the emptiness I'm feeling right now without having Frank here with us will fade. But for now, my heart just hurts.

So here I am, fighting back tears (although I can't believe I have any left)....but I am thankful.

I am thankful that Frank was brought into our lives and gave us so much joy in the short time he was here.
I am thankful that God blessed us with the resources we needed so he could healthy through proper vet care.
I am thankful for a husband who loved Frank as much as I did and who now lends me his shoulder to cry on when I miss him.
I am thankful for the peace that I have knowing Frank is going to be loved and cared for permanently.



Yesterday I was on facebook and saw this status update from Samantha - the daughter of the family who took Frank:

"My chihuahua has found a new best friend. Cooper+Frank=Best Friends For Life. :))"

This made me happy. Really happy. :)


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The first night we found him.

Frank with Jazzy.

I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures before we took drove him to his new house.

I will miss hugging him like this.

Thankful.....very.

Instead of listing out 20+ things that I am thankful for like I did last Thanksgiving, I think I'll just give you the top four today - some bigger/more important than others.

1. I am thankful for waking up this morning with Geoff and three dogs in my bed. Frank actually sleeps on the floor during the night, but jumped up to say good morning. I have the best family ever.

2. I am thankful for hot tea, chocolate, and the Thanksgiving Day Parade in front of our space heater this morning. Enough said. :)

3. I am thankful for our adopted Thanksgiving family - the Kaczmarski's. My family lives out in California and Geoff's live in Chicago. This is our FIFTH year that they have taken us in. Today I look forward to Mrs. K's stuffed artichokes, meeting the newest member of the family - baby Kaylee, and lounging on their couch (possibly while watching a Christmas movie and/or reading Twilight). To see Mrs. K's fabulous artichokes, check out this post from two years ago, HERE.

4. I am thankful for my job. On Monday I had the opportunity to shoot an actual ENGAGEMENT and was reminded (as tears welled up in my eyes from behind my camera) of what an awesome gift has been given to me that taking pictures of people in their best moments is actually something that I get paid for. Man, I'm grateful.

Can't hardly wait to share a bunch of pics from Amy and Andrew's engagement, but for now, I'll leave you with this one. :)

Late Night Epiphanies

Today was supposed to be a post showing off a bunch of new wedding albums that had recently come in. And while I am excited to show them to you....because they do look amazing....I couldn't pass up the opportunity to write about my husband on this day.....just because. :)

Last night he got home pretty late - it was almost 1:00 in the morning. Even though he had been a slave to his at work computer all night doing some freelance motion graphics work, he wasn't all that tired when he got home.....or maybe that was because I don't know how to set our new security system right and the SCREAMING alarm that went off when he opened the front door woke him up. I don't know. Regardless, we decided we were awake enough to grab ourselves a bowl of Special K red berry cereal and chat for a bit at our dining room table.

As we sat there across from each other - our spoons clinking our bowls - I had a moment. You know what I'm talking about? When a seemingly insignificant activity suddenly becomes an incredible moment in your life that you realize just how dang AWESOME you have it? That was me.

Goodness, I love this guy. And goodness.....I am SO thankful that God has orchestrated my life so perfectly that Geoff was brought to me. And I swear....EVERY day....I am astounded at WHY IN THE WORLD I have been blessed so.

Geoff, thank you for being such a loving, supportive, patient, selfless, serving, funny, sensitive husband - you are beyond precious to me....I love you more than I love See's Krispy Coffee candies.....and that's an awful lot. :)

I 100% meant what I said last night from across the table - you are SUCH a good man. Love you to pieces. :)

Whirlwind.....that's just us.

Hi friends. Can you believe we are almost a week out from Thanksgiving?! I'm going to work super hard this week and really try to knock out a huge chunk of editing so I can actually enjoy a couple days off around Thanksgiving and not feel guilty. :/

Things have been a whirlwind around the Schultz household. In a good way......yet still a whirlwind.

Friday's are typically reserved for date/hangout day, since it is our only day off. We rarely spend time cleaning/getting important things done during this time....but for some reason, the majority of last Friday was spent cleaning and organizing. It felt good to catch up a bit on life stuff. And perhaps we fit in some Baskin Robbins ice cream and a movie (Premonition with Sandra Bullock - good movie in my opinion).

Saturday we got to shoot the wedding of Lindsay and Alex - this wedding was extra special, as they were married at the same place Geoff and I got married 2.5 years ago - The Great Aunt Stella Center. :)

On Sunday, I was out-shot by Geoff at Neera and Dave's engagement session in Belmont. Here's one of his amazing shots:

Yesterday - Monday - was my mother's 50TH birthday! Nothing else to report. Happy Birthday Mustang Sallee!

Today is Tuesday....and it will consist mostly of editing and giving lots of love to sweet Frank. He had his heart worm treatment a week ago and has since had his ups and downs. Today is a bad day.....lots of coughing and hacking....breaks my heart in a million pieces. I've been praying hard that he is relieved of the pain. :( Poor, sweet Frank.

Tomorrow - Wednesday - is going to be ROUGH. Sadly, I have totally and completely fallen off of the train of working out and eating right. But tomorrow, I'm going to my first Body By Buck session with Geoff and a bunch of other Elevation staff and spouses. It will be a miracle if I can make it through the 45 minute session.

And there you go. That's what's been going on the past few days. Also to come......are these:

Jen and Brian

Rebecca and Thomas

Emily and Michael

Melissa and Diego

(and a peek of their details - special post for Alyse) :)

Tomorrow you'll get to feast your eyes on Andrea and Shawn's Vanlandingham Estate wedding. :))))) Happy TUESDAY!

November Goals and Days Like Today

Besides having dropped Frank off at the vet to receive his second treatment for heart worms....and besides Geoff not being right here next to me....I love days like today.

Raining outside;
sitting in a quiet Panera with a cinnamon crunch bagel and hot tea;
snuggling into my favorite warm vest and scarf;
feeling semi caught up with my email;
finishing up editing the wedding of a super cute couple;
and excited for the pumpkin spice latte I will have later today at Starbucks.

Yes, it's a good day.

Doesn't even matter that it is already November 10th and I haven't blogged my November goals until today. Some of them have even been completed as I type this. Which is a great thing. :)

1. Edit, edit, edit. Have so much to edit this month - you have no idea.

2. Work toward the completion of our NEW BLOG <----------can't WAIT!

3. Order client albums before our album company's cut off date

4. Renew/update privilege license (DONE!)

5. Clean out the inside of my car (still not done from last month :( )

6. Celebrate my mother's 50th birthday

7. Take a load of stuff to goodwill (spring cleaning needs to begin now)

8. Get the extra couch out of the dang living room (DONE!)

9. Set up our home security system (DONE!)

10. Find the time to do a Frank photoshoot

11. Design and order our Christmas cards

12. Brainstorm for a fun project that will premiere following the launch of our new brand

13. Contact accountant (carry over from October - this MUST get done...like, now)

14. Begin re-reading "Redeeming Love" over Thanksgiving break (such an amazing book)

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Panera has become much less quiet in the past 15 minutes - time for Starbucks. :)

Here one more peek at my edit for the super cute couple I spoke of at the beginning of this post - their blog post coming tomorrow. :)

Meet My Family (well, some of them)

November goals are coming - soon enough.

For now, and this has been a long time coming, I am sharing some of my own family pictures that Geoff and I took back in AUGUST on our trip to California. "Edit family pictures" was on my list of September goals and October goals. And well, it took me until November 1st to get them done.

Taking these pictures was a rough experience - I was sick with the flu. I was on day three of the horrible sickness, so I was finally able to stand for short periods of time. I am THE most pathetic person you will ever meet when I get sick...so sucking it up to shoot these was quite the feat indeed. :)

My brother and sister-in-law - Joe and Jessica:

My brother, sister-in-law and niece - AJ, Khadijah, and Eulalia:

My brother and his girlfriend - Morgan and Leah:

My youngest brother Brandon (who wanted some pics of himself for facebook :)):

My mother and step-dad - Sallee and Fred:

And here's all of us - not pictured above, my brother Ryan is on the top right (thanks to Leah for taking this shot):

And here I am - in all my glory.....lovely, aren't I?

Help Find Frank a Good Home!

So, here's the deal. Last night on our way home from an engagement session in NoDa, we spotted a stray dog running around near Davidson Street and I-277. Geoff and I will always try our best to catch a stray we see running around, but have never been successful in actually catching a dog. Last night, however, we were able to get ahold of him and put him in the back of our car.

From there, we took him to our vet to see if he was micro-chipped...no dice. Our options on a Sunday night were few and far between -we didn't want to hand him over to Animal Control, so we decided to have him vaccinated, board him for the night at the vet and then try to get him hooked up with a no-kill shelter/rescue group today. So far, we haven't had any luck. Project Halo seemed like our best bet, but they are already full. Now, I'm getting desperate for him and want for him to find a safe place to stay temporarily until he can be adopted or find him a permanent home now.

We've been calling him Frank (as in, Frank the Tank). Frank is the SWEETEST boy - he smiles a lot and sits and lays down when you prompt him to. The vet gave him a physical last night - they said he seems to be in good physical health - weighing in at 62 pounds.

If anyone is interested in him, please email me at Cheyenne.Schultz@gmail.com - if we don't already know you, we'll ask that references are provided. Thanks so much!

October Goals

Okay, so I know I'm a few days late in blogging my October goals....better late than never, right? :)

Before we get into October's - here's a quick report on what goals were met in September:

1. Have an uptown date night with Geoff
2. Update and renew our equipment/liability insurance
3. Organize our new client folders
4. Get caught up with paying our sales tax
5. Send my grandma a present for her 70th birthday
6. Do something fun for Labor Day
7. Figure out what to do with the excess furniture in our living room
8. Visit the Old Tyme Marketplace

LOVED this place - picked up this super cute container for the kitchen.

9. Network with one new wedding related vendor
10. Take Ellen and Jazzy to the vet

And here's a few pics of my happy, healthy girls.

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Here is my listing for October goals:

1. Finish decorating/painting the living room

2. Deep clean of the inside of my car

3. Deep clean my entire house before my mom and step-dad get in from California

4. Edit the pictures we took of my family on our trip to CA

5. Get our Pickpic merchant account set-up

6. Finish new logo/begin new blog

7. Make contact with our accountant to discuss accountant type things

8. Order four client albums currently in production

9. Design and order new parent album sample (DONE!)

10. Get new privilege license

11. Set up an "us" shoot for Geoff and I

12. Have a pumpkin patch trip/carving pumpkins date

13. Make pumpkin bread

14. Develop a list of magazines for submissions and submit some weddings for publication

15. Implement Geoff and Cheyenne "photo challenge" into every wedding/shoot.

Baby...

.......no, not mine.

Last Friday Geoff came home from work telling me I HAVE to watch this video. And truthfully, I had a bad-wife-eye-rolling-what's-he -going-to-show-me-now moment....followed by reluctantly shuffling my feet over to the monitor to half-heartedly look over his shoulder at the youtube video.

From the opening shot, I knew who had made the video - our insanely talented friends Jared and Maria. After this realization, I quickly became interested.....and by the end of the video, I was screaming and jumping up and down at what I had seen. :)

You must watch. You just have to.

Cutest video ever of how Jared and Maria told their parents of their big news. :)))

Antiqued!

Well, folks - we're off to a good start. Today I completed my "get to the gym three times each week" goal AND my "blog twice weekly about non-shoot stuff" (per this post). Feels good to accomplish something. Although, I have to be honest, I BARELY made it to the gym today....I swear, every time I know I should be going I come up with some excuse of why I can't...."I have WAY to much editing to do today"....."If I go to the gym, I'll have to take another shower and waste time getting ready"...."ehhh....I'll go tomorrow" (which turns into never).

Anyway, also on my list for the month is to choose paint colors for the house. Since we think we finally have our dining room the way we want it, I figure that's a good place to start.

Last Friday afternoon Geoff and I found ourselves enjoying a little "antiquing". I never really knew I liked to antique (can that be a verb?) until Geoff and I started popping into a few shops here and there. Well, last week we struck gold in a couple little shops in Plaza Midwood ...and then....after many friends telling us about it...we visited The Sleepy Poet ....WHICH....WAS.....AMAZING (and really super affordable). We found quite a few pieces that we fell totally in love with and had to pick up.

First, is this set we decided to make into a cabinet for our dishes. LOVE. (And, I insisted on getting the teapot...because it's cute).

We also found this "one-of-a-kind, unusual china cabinet/coat rack" (that's what it was labeled as anyway)....it has old forks and spoons screwed into the wood.....uhhhh.....yes, we'll take that one please.

And here's our cabinet and table that we already had - I've got to say....I'm loving the contrast of modern vs. antique. Yes, very much. :)

So, now that you've seen the dining room - thoughts on a color choice????

Happy Thursday. :)

September Goals

Yesterday, over salads and perfect fall weather, I made a new friend. :)

Nancy Ray is a photographer located in Boone, NC. After having just recently discovered her blog, I promptly added her to my bloglines and began pouring over her "100 Days of Posting" self-imposed challenge.

Having been so consumed with our never-ending shooting/editing, shooting/editing, shooting/editing schedule this summer, I've found myself stuck in a blogging slump in that our blog has come to exist for the exclusive purpose of showing our latest work. Which, don't get me wrong, I love blogging our sessions and weddings. But, I've missed blogging just for fun.

While taking an email/editing break last night....oh, around 2am-ish.....I saw Nancy's September 1st blog post, which was devoted to her September goal setting. At the first of each month, this is something she'll be doing - and having invited her blog readers to join in, I decided I would too. :)

So, here is my hodge-podge-business-personal goal listing for September.

1. Blog at least 2 non-shoot/wedding related posts per week for the month

2. Get to the gym at least 3 times per week

3. Take Ellen and Jazzy to the vet (this has been on my list for WAY too long)

4. Edit the pictures we took of my family on our trip to CA

5. Get our Pickpic merchant account set-up

6. Have an uptown date night with Geoff

7. Update and renew our equipment/liability insurance

8. Organize our new client folders

9. Get caught up with paying our sales tax

10. Send my grandma a present for her 70th birthday

11. Get totally caught up with editing weddings through our 8/29 wedding

12. Do something fun for Labor Day

13. Work with Erica to finalize our new logo (!) and begin working on our new blog

14. Have coffee with a new friend

15. Have coffee with an old friend

16. Figure out what to do with the excess furniture in our living room

17. Pick out paint colors for our downstairs rooms

18. Spend time daily reading my bible

19. Visit the Old Tyme Marketplace

20. Network with one new wedding related vendor

Let's do this! :)

And, here's a couple peeks at what is to come.

Monica and Brent

Ashley and Jason

Becky and Tim

The Old People

When I was little...probably in middle school...my friends and I use to go down to the Rio Vista ballpark to watch "the old people" play. Well, I guess we didn't really go down there to watch the game - we mostly went for purpose of running around together with licorice doing whatever it is that 8th graders do.

As an 8th grader..."old" meant you were 22 or older.

Two weeks ago I was back home in California for a reunion with my 5 best girlfriends from high school. The night before we headed over to San Francisco for the weekend I found myself back down at the ballpark to say hi to some high school friends I haven't seen in many years. Except this time....my friends weren't running back and forth through the bleachers with candy in hand....this time, they were on the field. Somehow, we became the old people.

I know I always seem to make cliche comments...so here's another one - I REALLY feel like I was JUST in high school yesterday. It totally blows my mind to think that this year marks TEN YEARS since I walked across the stage with my 80-some-odd classmates that I had known since the first grade.

Don't get me wrong - I'm pretty dang happy with where my life has taken me through the years.....but sometimes, it would be awful nice to be sixteen again....driving to my friend Lindsey's house in my green pickup truck......Outkast blasting through my speakers......with my what seemed like daily ritual of after school Shell station nachos and mentos....to watch Jerry Springer....without a care in the world.

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This October is my ten year reunion. Since I'll be shooting a wedding and will be unable to attend, we decided to have a mini-reunion with "The Six Pack". Yes, that's what we called ourselves. :)

I didn't shoot a terrible amount other than on Saturday when we took the ferry to Alameda...here's a few of my favorites. :)

Love this.

And yes, of course I forced them to let me take a headshot. :)

Lindsey

Halee

Jessie

Jackie

And here we are - well, most of us. We have a bad track record of not having pictures with ALL six of us. Our sixth - Judie - had to travel back for her son's karate belt ceremony.