The story will be postponed till next week.  My family got hit with a stomach flu… EWWW… YUCK… And Laundry.    So… I’ll be posting the story next week.  Keep an eye out!

I came across this little gem of a coffee mug.  And I normally don’t go ga ga over coffee mugs, just the coffee in them!  But when Photojojo posted this on their tumblr site… I went ga ga.

Apparently… They gave this away at the Olympics… You can read more about it here….  (That’s where I “borrowed” the photo from).  Which I don’t normally do… But then again… This is something I’m ga ga for…  So maybe my brain isn’t quite working as well as it normally would.  LOL!

Have a great Thursday!

This month, iheartfaces is hosting an awesome giveaway. They are giving away a FREE ticket to Amy Wenzel’s photography workshop in Grand Rapids, MI. In order to enter, you have to write {in 600 words or less, of course} what it is that you do that inspires people?  So, below is my attempt at telling how I wish to inspire  people.

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If you have been following my blog for a little while, you have seen a couple of stories of people in our community and their photographs.  (I put links to them at the end of the post)  I have a heart for telling stories, real life stories, and connecting them with photography.  I believe that in telling our stories, the real stories of our lives, that we can touch others in theirs.  We can reach out with parts and bits of our story that will resonate with somebody out there.

By adding in photography, we add a visual piece of that story.  What we may not be able to express in words can be seen in a photograph.  Catching Memories started out as a cute catchy name for my business, but as I really think about what direction I want to take my life, I find that the name really sits well with what I want to accomplish.

I want to tell stories, catch memories for all time, to give a visual and a word picture of what they look like.  I want to touch people with your stories.  I want to be transformed by your story.  You give me strength to move throughout my life.  You face difficulty, you face life head on, and put one step in front of the other to keep challenging life to give you it’s best shot.  That part of your story is encouraging to me to do the same.  And because it encourages me, I know that it encourages others, if we have the strength to tell it.

This is why I give my meager skills as a photograher to you in exchange for your story.  I desire to tell your story here because I desire to inspire others with strength, your strength, your encouragement, and your life.   There are so many people out there living in a constant struggle to find the strength to move forward in their life.  There are so  many people out there in need of knowing they are not alone in their struggles.    Whether it’s a mom who struggles with a colicky baby, or someone faced with poverty, or someone dealing with a death of a loved one or someone struck with illness.   Then there are the stories of families who have a loved one who is incarcerated or of  small organizations that reaches across the world to help feed the poor.  Then all the stories of everything in between.  I want to tell your stories because I know that you are not the only person out there struggling with these issues.  I want to encourage others who deal everyday with these same pains.  So that they may have the courage to reach out and use their story as well.

Maybe as a community we can reach out using only our stories, our lives and touch someone’s life for the better.   Not as a voyeur, but as a storyteller, as a way to reach out and connect.   Connect in the deepest way possible, in our pain, and struggles.

Contact me if you are interested in sharing your story.  We can schedule your free story session.  I have openings from April on…  Please think about reaching out to others using your life story.  It’s a small thing, but I believe it to have a huge impact.

I have another story session to be released next week.   Meet the W family.  :)  If you want to see past Story Sessions click here and here.

I’m not so sure about Hilarious… I tend to “delete” outtakes, as I like to conserve space on my hard drive.  LOL!  So… As I was perusing my archives I came across one I took that I didn’t delete.  It’s one where my instructions were “Give your sister a hug”  So, my son, decided he’d do a running hug.  And tripped.  As you see here, he’s about to crash into his sister, and they both fall down.  ;)  I didn’t get that part, because, the mayhem started…. Oy!  (and then the running hug wasn’t so hilarious anymore!)  LOL!

Check out the other entries over at I Heart Faces.…  I’m sure you’ll get some good laughs today and tomorrow!  ;)

By all this snow we are having…  Where is all the color?  Seriously.  I do have a photoshoot tomorrow…  So… Maybe… Just Maybe… Some creativity will sneak up into me and jump out of the photo!  ;)  Have a great Friday!

My husband’s hands reading a book….

Check out the other entries on I heart Faces…

Jason and I have decided that to keep our Marriage strong and connected that we would, each day read a portion of a book (any book) and talk about it, and think about what it means to each of us.  Our first book was Love and War by John and Staci Eldredge.  From there, we decided to read The Hole in the Gospel by Richard Stearns.  We have not yet, at this point, finished reading this book.  But I wanted to touch a little bit about how this book is transforming our view of our world, our faith, and our Gospel.  We read a couple of chapters so far where both of us are in tears.  Jason barely being able to read aloud through his tears.  And me blowing my nose and hardly hearing what comes next.  The stories Richard told today, about children in the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda broke both of our hearts.  We just could not comprehend the horror’s that go on halfway across the world.  We can not leave today without some action though.  As much as that story broke my heart, I wanted to leap up from the table, and book airline tickets and help out the organization that is recovering the souls of the children effected by this tradegy.

Although that is not a very real possibility for me to do that right now, it was what my heart wanted me to do.  Richard talks about Matthew 25:31-46 and really made that gospel mean something.  Did we serve Jesus while living out this life?  Did we feed the poor, visit the imprisoned, take in the stranger?  Are we serving the least of these?  If we are then we are serving Jesus.  Becoming a Christian does not mean just accepting that Jesus was the Son of God and that he died so that we may have life.  (Yes that is part of it)  But it’s not the whole story.  It’s not the whole Gospel.  The Whole Gospel means that we need to serve the poor, hungry, sick, imprisoned people.  And that is what living this life and living it to the fullest is all about.  - Serving.

Our works alone don’t get us into heaven.  But our faith coupled with works is how we need to be living.  I am going to be praying for God to open the oppurtunities for this life to serve the least.  And I’m going to be making calls today to get started.  - If you have any suggestions, let me know.  I would love to include my whole family as well as serve separately.    Leave a comment below if you know of any organizations that I could serve the poor. Thanks!

Sir Scrapalot – SSA_YMCOT_eyeletframe
Suzy Q Scraps – sqs_sunshine_paper_blue
Mari Koegelenberg – mkc-iluvu-solid001
Janet Phillips – jphil_sensationalsingle1
Cheeky Monkey – CheekyMonkey_AHappyHeart_pp014
C.D. Muckosky – CD_LuvNotes_Love
CatScrap – fruitloopsally_ahth-collab_stitches (shadowed or unshadowed version)

I love that the Daily Digi does this challenge each month alongside their Digi Files.  It really gets me to use the elements and papers that I buy…   And of course it get’s me scrappin…  Can’t beat that!

The Ferrences had talked about getting an album made of all the photos from their Story Session shoot.  This is what I’ve created for them…

The cover, page 1 through 3

Pages 4 -9

pages 10-15

pages 16-21

pages 22-27

and the final page….

Do you want to share you story on my blog?  Do you think you have a story to share?  Do you think that you would like a free photo session?  I’d love to feature one story a week on my blog by the end of 2010…. Contact me to schedule your free photo session now!

ps…  You also get a CD with all the color images from the session for free too!  (Bonus!)

pps…  Whether you are a family, an individual, a couple, a non-profit organization or  just interested in what this is about contact me via e-mail.  juliaspencer14 at gmail dot com.  :)

Remember last weeks story?  That could be you.  :)