plans...

we have finally begun planning some fun times for us... here we go...

last sunday, i went with my bestie, christine, to see the help as you know, so i started looking at the movies that are either out or coming out and got an e mail from focus on the family about a movie that is coming out friday. i was able to talk ryan into going (even though he really doesn't like the movie thing) and his mom is going to babysit for us.

so, our 1st date night is dinner and Courageous!!! i can't wait to see the movie! i sure hope that this will inspire him to want to do date night on a regular basis.

then in november, kenzie and i have been invited to go to jacksonville for a weekend! that's going to be tons of fun! we get to go with our besties and have fun on jacksonville beach! more to come on that..

maddie isn't making many plans yet other than "i wanna be lemon meringue for halloween mommy!" and kenzie has decided she wants to be a vampire (which i am totally ok with! love me some twilight) so we know what the kids want to be and they will make adorable characters!!

and other than that we have the norm along with me starting to try and go to zumba on a regular basis and when i can't go i do it on the wii.

so more to come when there's more to report :)

Shoes In Chruch

I got this via e mail and wanted to share it with you all :

It has such a great little message and I pray that it touches your hearts in the same way it has touched mine ;)

SHOES IN CHURCH

I showered and shaved............... I adjusted my tie.

I got there and sat............... In a pew just in time.

Bowing my head in prayer......... As I closed my eyes..

I saw the shoe of the man next to me..... Touching my own. I sighed.

With plenty of room on either side..... I thought, 'Why must our soles touch?'

It bothered me, his shoe touching mine... But it didn't bother him much.

A prayer began : 'Our Father'............. I thought, 'This man with the shoes, has no pride.

They're dusty, worn, and scratched. Even worse, there are holes on the side!'

'Thank You for blessings,' the prayer went on.

The shoe man said............... A quiet 'Amen.'

I tried to focus on the prayer....... But my thoughts were on his shoes again.

Aren't we supposed to look our best. When walking through that door?

'Well, this certainly isn't it,' I thought, Glancing toward the floor..

Then the prayer was ended........... And the songs of praise began.

The shoe man was certainly loud..... Sounding proud as he sang.

His voice lifted the rafters........ His hands were raised high.

The Lord could surely hear. The shoe man's voice from the sky.

It was time for the offering..... And what I threw in was steep.

I watched as the shoe man reached.... Into his pockets so deep.

I saw what was pulled out............ What the shoe man put in.

Then I heard a soft 'clink' . As when silver hits tin.

The sermon really bored me............ To tears, and that's no lie.

It was the same for the shoe man.... For tears fell from his eyes.

At the end of the service...... As is the custom here.

We must greet new visitors, And show them all good cheer.

But I felt moved somehow............. And wanted to meet the shoe man.

So after the closing prayer......... I reached over and shook his hand.

He was old and his skin was dark.... And his hair was truly a mess.

But I thanked him for coming......... For being our guest.

He said, 'My names' Charlie............. I'm glad to meet you, my friend.'

There were tears in his eyes........ But he had a large, wide grin.

'Let me explain,' he said.......... Wiping tears from his eyes.

'I've been coming here for months.... And you're the first to say 'Hi.''

'I know that my appearance............'Is not like all the rest.

'But I really do try.................'To always look my best.'

'I always clean and polish my shoes..Before my very long walk.

'But by the time I get here..........'They're dirty and dusty, like chalk.'

My heart filled with pain.......... And I swallowed to hide my tears.

As he continued to apologize........... For daring to sit so near

He said, 'When I get here..............'I know I must look a sight.

'But I thought if I could touch you..Then maybe our souls might unite.'

I was silent for a moment........... Knowing whatever was said

Would pale in comparison... I spoke from my heart, not my head.

'Oh, you've touched me,' I said......'And taught me, in part;

'That the best of any man...............'Is what is found in his heart.'

The rest, I thought,..................... This shoe man will never know.

Like just how thankful I really am... That his dirty old shoe touched my soul

Holiday 2011 Photo Special

As a gift to my customers, I decided to revamp my holiday special! Here it is:

From now until 12/15/2011 I am offering:

On Site Full Sessions

With all images on cd for you for just $50.00

e mail Dawn @ rdmmcox67@gmail.com to schedule

wowzer!

it's been a busy weekend. recap:

saturday: kenzie was surprised with a sleepover that she thought she wasn't going to get, but we allowed her best friend to surprise her at her yaya's and take her home with her. they did the movie and playing school thing. they were great!

sunday: maddie and i met christine, kenzie, julia, and yaya at target for some shopping then went to great clips, maddie got her hair all shaped up and kenzie got a cut! i'll try and get a photo of her later for the blog, but she got an inverted/stacked bob. she looks so adorable with it. and it made our school routine much easier this am!!! then we went to the grand opening at tcby for free icecream, face painting, and stilted balloon twister. very fun. christine and i then went to see the help! love that movie! want that movie. want to read the book too.

anyway, that's about that more to come later :)

your thoughts

i need some feedback. i've seen that juicing is on the rise again... first, i want to know what you think of juicing. and where i might find some information on juicing to begin with. maybe a site that has some recipes i could try???

now for today:

the girls and ryan went to do laundry and i am redesigning some flyers. work work work. other than that, kenzie is being surprised with a sleep over she knows nothing about. her friend julia should be getting to where she is right now and telling her that she's staying the night. love having friends who actually beg to keep my kids! and what a joy it is to know that my kids are SO WELL BEHAVED that people ask me if they can have them over!!! it's great!

on to other things:

this morning i had a friend send me a message on facebook. she wanted to "book" me!!! i was very excited! not only did she book a fall sesssion, but a christmas one, and a spring one (working on that special right now too) so that's great that i am having some repeat customers who want to have their photos done time and time again!

October looks like this: Thirty-One party, Makeover with Christine and Tina, then Diana and kids as well as Christine's Fall session.

November so far is this:

Pickens Family Christmas Photos @ Beach

Christmas Special @ Starkey

Christmas Special @ Beach

Lacy Family Christmas Photos

And of course I have all the crazy holiday stuff to do... halloween, thanksgiving, christmas, and new years all coming up!

Not to mention that I am booking some back to school sessions still.

More to come when I have a minute :) back to work... the boss is about to smack me with a ruler LOL just kidding, but it is time to get back to work on those flyers and the spring specials..

feeling much better

thank you Jesus! i am feeling much better. and while some may make fun of me for praising my Saviour, it doesn't matter! look at how many times he was ridiculed, yet HE REIGNS! Can I get an AMEN??? and if my sister were here she would be yelling "AMEN SISTA" it really makes me laugh that people are so unhappy with their own lives that they have to berate me and make fun of me because they think it will make them happier. this has been going on for almost a year, and i am done with it. best to part ways than to continue having these spats. i am going to be called names and made fun of sure, but for it to go public on networks, it is not acceptable, neither is it ok for it to envolve my business. so if these people decide to envolve that, there will be law enforcement involved at all costs.

other than that kenzie got her progress report today and is doing great.

maddie is maddie is maddie...

under the weather

so the three cox girls have spent 1 day each under the weather... today's my turn... saturday/sunday was maddie, monday was mackenzie and tuesday is mommy... so until i feel better, check out my business site":

Dawn Cox Photography

this week

has flown by.  i can't believe it's thursday already.

so far i've been really busy with getting models for my portfolio together, after the next few shoots, i will only need a maternity shoot and a senior to round it out really nicely.

i have a few shoots coming this weekend and since it's been nice, they are a for sure go.

i'll be posting pics to my business blog .  i'll tag here so you can all see them, but in the mean time if you want to see my stuff, find me on facebook @Dawn Cox Photography

gotta run :)

quick update

not much to report here other than that i am getting a few more calls/emails about some photo shoots and madison is now getting speech therapy.

so first the speech therapy, yesterday, ryan got a call while he was at work about madison. it was the speech therapist saying that she needs about 1/2 the speech therapy that kenzie gets. i am actually pretty happy that she is getting it because although she has great speech, this will help her just a little more.

now the photo's, i am slowly getting more and more people inquiring about having me do their photography and while some may think that i am offering prices that are too low, i am doing what i feel is needed because there are SO many in my area who don't have the chance to do great photography with their family because the prices are WAY out of their budget. while you have the right to think that i should charge more, i would challenge you to think about the lower class working americans who cannot afford to pay 3-500 every time they go to get photo's done with their family.

that's all for now

dawn

rambling

so, as we all know, i'm not working outside of the home. some people don't agree with this, however this is what ME AND MY HUSBAND have decided is best for us right now because of a few reasons:

* we have 2 children and need one of us to be available for them before and after school

* it's been my dream for a VERY long time to be able to work from home and while I am not where I want to be with that it is a work in progress

* we have but 1 car. enough said on that

now, while I did put in applications and go to interviews, no one is hiring me and i believe it is because of my LIMITED availability. See, I don't believe in allowing my children to be raised by anyone OTHER THAN ME OR MY HUSBAND. Therefore, I am available to work either 10 am to 3 pm or 6 pm to 8 pm. now, with that said, no one is going to hire for those hours, therefore I am working on getting a photography business going.

Why photography? well, it's one of the things I love. There is no start up cost involved basically. And there are TONS of beautiful backdrops in nature here in florida not to mention, I can make my own schedule with this. Not to mention the potential earnings! The sky is the limit.

with all this said, if you don't agree with what we have decided to do for our family, it's ok to voice it ONE time but when you constantly are voicing it is when it upsets us and makes us not want to come around or associate with you. we are worried about OUR FAMILY not everyone elses decisions for us. we will raise our children the way we see fit and right now this is the best solution for us.

we are so tired of being the people who are judged because we don't make enough money and we don't have everything that other people have. sometimes it isn't what you have that makes you happy it's the love in your hearts and let me tell you people, THE LOVE OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL.

now with all of that said, let it be known, WE ARE STAYING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS. by home I mean we are not going to go to anyone elses house. the girls have stated they may want to do a "country cabin christmas" at starkey park, and while we haven't ruled it out, we just are spending a quiet christmas with our kids and a few of our close friends. if you should choose to want to see our family for christmas this year, that's great, come on over and have a fun day, but should you decide you don't want to see us for christmas, that is fine with us too. i just don't see the sense in dragging everyone and everything all over the place to do christmas, when the kids would have so much more fun really playing and having family time with their parents and i wouldn't get asked, why didn't i get what he/she got from santa mommy???

anyway, enough rambling from me :)

a fun weekend

this weekend was a blast! something i haven't been able to say for a while so i am happy that things are turning around!!! here's a recap:

friday night we went to citrus park mall with our friends julia and christine and while madison decided it was a good time to disobey, all in all we had a good time... we ended up ending the evening short because of madison's bad behaviour, but we did not allow that to hinder our weekend.

saturday since it was wet out, we decided to go to clearwater. i couldn't do photo's on the beach or at the park and ask my clients to sit on wet ground. soooo un comfy that would have been, therefore we are rescheduling for better weather and hoping for this saturday for our friends james and stacey... so we went to salvation army, old navy, and the westfield mall @ countryside. it was so much fun (maddie stayed with daddy this time) and on the way home we went to steak n shake. something we don't normally do so it was a real treat. the best part was that because our meal rang up to 16 dollars, both girls were FREE bringing our total down to 10 dollars and change!!! nice! and we didn't even use coupons. then kenzie went home with christine and julia for her sleep over. she had a blast and did very well with their dog kasey!!! she had karaoke on the wii, dancing, movies, nails polished, etc... she was sooo good for her too!

today maddie went with daddy again today and had daddy daughter football time LOL and i went to the playground with julia, christine, and kenzie. we had a picnic lunch and played there at the playground, stopped in at the grocery store on the way home and then have vegged out since getting home due to the activity of the weekend.

now that maddie and ryan are home, it's time to get the kiddos to bed. it's been nice getting back into the routine of blogging a few times a week. it really makes me happy to blog but what makes me even more joyous is when i am asked by my friends about my church and they decide to come attend. so on sunday, i am meeting anita and eric to show them the ropes as far as where the kids go to classes as we drop our own kids off at class. it's so nice for friends to be able to start attending at such a big church :)

Surprise!!!

So I made you go an extra day, but let me tell ya, this week has been strange for me... Busy with lots of stuff, but without further ado, here's what Kenzie got to do.

The day after the playdate, we had been invited to go (FREE) to a Soccer "Practice" or so we thought at the University of South Florida. We thought it was really cool! So we went with Christine and Julia. When we got there we found out that it was really a double header! There was a game going on when we got there after church, so we watched the 2nd half of that and then came the fun part. Kenzie got to wear a retired Lady Bulls Jersey and go on the field during the line up but that wasn't all!!! See the photos I captured as she was on the field and other moments of our day!

First, you have to know that Mackenzie has finally found her BEST friend! Yeah Baby! They at first thought they would be wearing these Blue Pasco Pirahana's t shirts and that was cool, but when Coach asked them to both put on the jersey's they were thrilled! We had a short photo op outside of the college here and then we were off to see some Lady Bulls!!!
Right after the first game ended all of our Special Olympians got to go out on the field and get told what they were going to be doing. So, Kenzie got to join them. Keep in mind that Kenzie is not a Special Olympian, however they didn't have enough on their team, so they asked Kenzie if she would like to join in the fun! So she was right out there with the rest of the team and she loved it!!! As you can see, here, she's sporting the retired jersey and looks like she's a kid in a candy store. This photo I got of her on the field when she wasn't even paying attention to what I was doing!!! Cute Cute Cute!
Here she's paired up with the player she was going to run out with. I am assuming that the player is telling her what's going to happen and what Kenzie should do. And might I add that she did a phenomenal job! This kid was born to listen let me tell ya. Well at least when it comes from someone as cool as a Soccer player!!!

And my caption here is: "HA! I can run faster than you!" LOL but in all seriousness, when they were announcing the starting lineup the kids got to run out with the player they were paired with. Kenzie made it look like she's done this millions of times, but really, honestly, this was her first time ever having the chance to do something so cool! And she came off the field saying she wants to start playing soccer! Go figure! LOL

Here we have the starters waiting with their little ones as the rest of the players are called out to field. Looks like the players were having as much fun with this as our kids did!!! Julia and Kenzie were just taking it all in as you can see. There was a breeze, so Kenzie kept fighting her hair... We should have put it up, but I didn't think of that til later in the game :)
Shew, that's over, now it's time to sit on the "mountain" and cheer the girls on "USF! USF! USF!" The kids loved sitting on the lawn embankment at the end of the field and I gotta say it was cooler over there as I went later in the game. It was a great game and went into double overtime only for our Bulls to hold Murray State to 0-0!!! The refs weren't really doing their job in my opinion and toward the end they apparently woke up and figured out that they should have been calling fouls on Murray all along... We had one foul shot and barely missed it... darn!!! But they played hard and the kids loved seeing how to play soccer.
Scrimmage time at half time. The kids all got to play in a scrimmiage on the field for 1/2 time. Kenzie had so much fun!!! It was wonderful!
At the End of the game, Sarah Miller stopped and posed with our beauties for a photo for me!!! She's such a great gal!!! Kenzie loved getting to hang out and have autographs from the players and she says the best part was when Sarah and Julia took a pic with her for me.

All in all she had an amazing day!!

*ALL PHOTO'S ARE COPYWRITE TO DAWN COX 2011 DO NOT COPY!!!

Lacy/Cox Playdate

Fun times were had Saturday as we met Christine and Julia at the playground for a spontaneous play date. Mackenzie and Juilia are a perfect set of BFF's! They had so much fun together and didn't want to leave that night, but all is well!
Julia isn't used to the camera so much, so she did a great job! See, she has a touch of Autism, but all in all she's a great kid! She just doesn't have the camera pointed at her all the time like my kids do, so she's not used to it. But we all know that if you hang out with the Cox's there will be photos taken LOL!
"Hey, Julia, lets play peek a boo!" and that's just what we did! We had fun playing peek a boo around the tree!
She really didn't care for this monkey bar thing, but she was a great sport and climbed up there for me! Love this child!
These girls will do anything I ask! they didn't like that I was asking them to pose in the grass for me, but hey, they were great sports!!! Love the way they went back to back and believe it or not, Julia naturally put her hands on her leg like that!
"Please let me up now" LOL again, not a fan, but a great job!!!
"Peek a Boo! I see you Mommy" She's always been a great model for me! And this photo shows how great she is!!! Love my lil Kenzier!!!
Here we were on the monkey bars again... And I decided to do a mock color spot with that flower... looks great if you ask me :)
"Please get me down from here!" she didn't like where I had her sitting, but the photo turned out pretty good!
Although Madison didn't like getting in the photo's I did get one great one of her swinging!! She's such a case when it comes to photos. If she doesn't want her pic taken, it's not going to happen!

So, we had the play date and then got invited for somethign special. See the next post for that... I'll be posting it tomorrow to keep you in suspense!!!

A Word (or a bunch i should say)

This morning, I woke up and we got the kids off to school, then felt a tugging, so went to my bible. Here's what the Lord had for me today:

Psalm 34 Verse 10

The lions may grow weak and hungry;, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Why is this significant to me? Just the other day I was having a discussion with a friend of mine and she said that when we begin to seek the Lord he will provide a way for us to do what we need to do according to his will. Now, this is really cool to me because I really believe the Lord was preparing me for this verse! And my take on it is that even though I am going through a rough patch (yes, a rough patch is all it is) SEEK HIM and HE will see us through it!

Philippians 4 Verse 19

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

And for this verse it really hits home because as the economy struggles so do we and God will provide all that we need, we just have to ask and be thankful for what we have not coveting what we don't have. It's nice to have dreams, but when we can't achieve those dreams, we should take a step back and say thanks to God for what he did allow us to have!

Proverbs 22 Verse 14

The mouth of an adulteress is a deep pit; he who is under the Lord's wrath will fall into it.

I don't have much to say about this verse. It just was my proverb for the day so thought I would share it.

My prayer is that through the tough times, we will all remember that God gives us Tests!!! And to praise HIM in the storms of life because ultimately He is the one who can and does bring us through the storms.

Until tomorrow, God Bless you!!!