Go Team Christensen!

Top Ten List

2011-09-03T11:02:00.007-06:00

Well, we made it through our first two weeks of school! Hooray! It has been really weird to be back, but we are both enjoying our classes and are....so far....doing really well.

There are a few things that I picked up on during my first two weeks back. So here they are!

Katie's List of Top 10 Things she learned in the first two weeks of school:

10. Get to class early enough to get a comfortable seat, other wise it will be 50 minutes of uncomfortable Hell. My first day of my Nutrition class I was just a little later than I wanted to be, and I always try to sit on the left end of the room because I am left handed and hate bumping elbows. I ended up sitting in a broken chair that was extremely uncomfortable. Needless to say, the next class time I was 10 minutes early.

9. Don't sit behind tall guys during art history. Your notes will be lacking if you can't see the board, and you may or may not spend the entire class trying to write down what your professor says verbatim with out any luck.

8. The T-Bird Grill is gross......'nough said.

7. Some times, trees can be photogenic. So when we first got back to Cedar, I went and talked to the University Journal to see if they needed photographers. It doesn't pay much, but it helps. Well last weekend, I was given two assignments, the SUU Volleyball Tournament, and a tree. That's right, a tree. The only instructions I was given was "It's a tree adjacent to the Randall Jones Theater." Of course I took pictures of the wrong tree, but the photos I did get were pretty cool.

6. It's harder to run the stairs on campus than it used to be. When I was a criminal justice major at SUU I had to make it from lower campus to the fourth floor of the GC building on the edge of upper campus in 10 minutes and got pretty quick at it. In fact I didn't even get winded or tired.

Well, that is not the case any more.......

5. If you choose to go back to school when you are almost 30, you will get asked ALL of the time "are you really a student here."

4. Enoch has the most beautiful sunsets ever! The other night we got home just as the sun was going down and I was able to get a couple of shots of the western and eastern sky. This is why I

was excited to move back to Southern Utah.

3. Water Polo is a scary sport! Cameron is playing water polo with the club on campus, last weekend he convinced me to come watch them play. Wow....that's all I'm going to say! At one point it looked like my big goofy husband was going to give one of the other guys a hug, the POOF, the guy was no where to be found. When I asked Cameron about it he just laughed and said, "that's Tanner, he's pretty cool." So see kids, it's cool to hug your friends and then drag them underwater with your feet.

2. I love water!! I can't get enough of it, in fact, I drink more water than coke or pepsi now. Huge accomplishment!!!!

and the number one thing I have learned in being back at SUU.....

10. I can make art with out my camera! I am taking 2D Design this semester, and lets be honest, I can't draw!! Not even sort of. So this class was making me nervous. Well we spent this whole week working on our first project, we were supposed to demonstrate line. I think mine looks pretty cool.

In other news, I was hired yesterday to be the office assistant for the science department, so that is good news!!! Yeah for being employed!!! It's good to be back!

Back to School!

2011-08-20T12:56:00.000-06:00

So Cameron and I just recently moved back to Cedar City. We have been trying to get back to Southern Utah for about a year now, and I wish that I could say that we got an amazing job here and we are going to make buckets of money, but that just isn't the case. We are going back to school.

Now those of you who knew me during my first stab at college know that I was a less than enthusiastic student. I was really excited about the social aspect (roommates, singles ward, HOPE and of course my never ceasing search for my Mr. Right) but as far as academia goes, I mentally checked out. It isn't that I wasn't mentally capable of being a good student. I just didn't care and I didn't like it. My philosophy was "I just want to be a photographer anyway, so I don't need a degree for that." In someways I was right, in many other ways I was really wrong.

In the past three years Cameron and I have had challenge after challenge thrown at us. We have dealt with trips to the ER, surgeries, cancer, heart attacks, more cancer, broken hands and lost jobs.

We thought when the job at Photo Works came through that we were going to be ok. And then Cameron graduated from massage school, and we thought we were going to be great. Then Cameron broke his hand, you can't do massage with out both hands. Then after working 60 to 70 hour weeks during Christmas, my employers demoted me to a part time associate and I was making in a month what I had made in a pay check.

So in June, after getting paid so little to do so much at my job and Cameron not being able to find a massage job, we made a decision. We needed to further our educations. We moved six weeks later after being accepted to SUU.

I am majoring in Graphic Design, and of course I will take some photography classes in there as well. Also, all of those Criminal Justice classes that I took before were worth it, because I have enough credits for a minor! Cameron will be taking prerequisites at SUU for a year, then transferring to Dixie to to the Physical Therapy Assistant Program. He will apply for the program in March and my fingers are crossed that he gets in. This program is the perfect compliment to his massage.

Ok so I've sounded a little whiny, "poor Katie and Cameron, they just can't catch a break, boo hoo." But really that is not my mentality at all. I am so glad that we had to go through hell to get here. I am actually excited to be back in school. Scared to death and feeling REALLY old, but excited! If it were not for the hardships that we have had in the last three years, I don't think I would have made the decision to go back. I would have worked forever at Photo Works for less than I am worth and although I would have tried to be a better photographer everyday, I wouldn't have had the training that I needed to make me great!

As an outlet, I will be blogging about this new adventure in out life. I figure we are going to be so busy that that may be the only way that we can communicate with anyone other than Cam's parents (who we live with), Carly and Scott (Cam and Scott have a class together) or Hillary (just because Savannah will ask why we never come over, and I am a total sucker for Vannah). Hopefully with in the next year or so we will have adoption new to blog about as well.

Anyway, so that's just a little update on us.

A Year Between Blogs.

2010-05-14T21:35:00.001-06:00

Wow......I am terrible at keeping up with this. I have started SO many different posts and then gotten bored or busy and just never finished them. So I have a year worth of catching up to do. So, here goes........

Cameron got approval to walk on July 2nd right in time to go to Blanding for the Palmer Family reunion. We spent the summer getting him up and good to go for work. He was work released in August and got hired at Chrysalis. It was a blessing that he was able to find something so quickly.

Since we got married in 2006, Cameron has tried so hard to get me to let him go to massage therapy school. Every time the subject would come up I would QUICKLY dismiss it and tell him no. For one, I really didn't want him touching other women, I know that seems a little jealous and such, but I just couldn't feel comfortable about it. I also thought it was an easy way out. You know, you see all the commercials on TV "get your degree on line and get paid 5 million dollars, and we'll give you a free lap top." blah blah blah blah. Well, at the beginning of August Cameron asked one more time. I told him, "tell you what. I will check and see when their sessions start, if there is one starting in the next two weeks, I will say yes no questions asked. If not, then we will seriously discuss it before the next session started.

I got on the computer the next morning, and....the next session started that day and there wasn't another starting for 10 weeks. I felt relieved. I told Cameron that he should go and get some information from Utah College of Massage Therapy and we would talk about it that night. Well, any of you who know me well, know that God tends to have to slap me up side the head before I get the message. So Cameron went to the school and he called me an hour later called me and said, "they have a night class that starts at 7 tonight, so I enrolled and got approved for the student loan, I will finish in and year and this way I can work during the day." WHACK!!! Smack upside the head.

Honestly it was the best decision ever. He loves it, and he is SO good at it. He just recently interviewed to do his clinicals on Friday which is apparently a really difficult thing to get. He is happier than I have ever seen him. So....if anyone wants a massage, let me know.

Anyway, life was pretty normal for the rest of 2009. We thought for sure that 2010 just has to be better than 2009. I mean it had to be, right? In 2009 (in chronilogical order) we hit a deer, Cameron lost his job, Mom had her thyroid removed, the same day Cam slips on ice and breaks his leg badly enough that he has to have surgery. Then they find cancer in my mom's thyroid, and has to have radiation treatment. We find out that I will probably never be able to have a baby, just to name a few of the wonderful trials and tribulations we had. 2010 had to be better, right? Wrong.

On January 10 at 10 p.m. I got a call from my boss "Katie, we haven't been totally honest with you about Kiddie Kandids. We are negotiating with the lenders, but we will not be opening tomorrow. We'll have you back in the studio by Friday at the latest, and I will keep you posted." at 11:55 I got a text for my boss "Kiddie Kandids just filed chapter 7 bankruptcy, I am sorry. Go get your stuff from the studio in the morning and call your staff."

BOOM.....We started 2010 off with a bang. We felt the world fall back down. Since January, I have worked for PictureMe Portraits in Walmart, and Brent Brown Toyota (that's right, I sold cars) and I am currently getting ready to start a whole new adventure with a brand new portrait studio in the same location I was working in and several members of my old staff. Cameron quit at Chrysalis in March and took a sells job so that he could gain a little more experience with sells before he starts his own practice. He finished that job in April and started working for Cinemark at the dollar theater tonight.

I feel really blessed that with the economy the way it is right now that we have both been able to find new jobs as quickly as we have. It has been a fantastic demonstration of the tender mercies of the Lord. We have had an AMAZING support system. Honestly, we have the BEST families in the entire world!

So here we are, 45 classes away from Cameron's graduation, 10 days away from me starting my new job. The past year has been a stuggle, but we are getting by the best we can, and we are happy. I should do this more than once a year.......

Update and Megan's Engagements

2009-05-31T22:32:00.000-06:00

At the persistance of Miss Monica, I am finally updating our blog. (Hooray!) Things have been good for the most part for Cameron and I since my last blog. Cameron can finally put a little bit of weight on his foot and start working up to walking with a regular shoe instead of the boot and a cane instead of crutches. Unfortunately all Cameron hear in the appointment was "regular shoe" and "walking with a cane." Therefore it is like pulling teeth to get him to wear the boot at all. Luckily we don't have a cane, so he can't fight me on using the crutches, but he has decided that it's ok for him to drive because he says I drive like an old woman. I decided to post a picture of how happy he is when I try to get him to take care of himself.

Isn't he handsome!?

Last Friday I got to do some out of studio photography. I took my cousin Megan's wedding announcement photos. It was so nice to take photos of adults that smile on cue with out the assistance of the tickle feather. It also helps when you have such good subjects to take pictures of and Megan and Nate were fabulous. But in addition to the great pics of the happy couple, the scenery up Provo Canyon was beautiful. I couldn't help but post some photos.

This is the path to Bridal Veil Falls. I just thought it looked cool the way the light hit the road and how green everything was.

These were flowers along the trail.

More Flowers.

And more flowers.

This was taken at Vivian Park just past Bridal Veil.

Cameron was such a trooper, he tagged along on the crutches all over the place, he even climbed climbed around in Bridal Veil Falls to get the good lighting.

Here are some of the photos of Megan and Nate. They did an awesome job. Hopefully this week I will have enough time to get the Joslin's Photography blog up and running.

All in all it's been a pretty good month so far. I feel like I should knock on wood when I say that, but it has been. I get to go to Cedar on Thursday to see the Hollingshead family and Cami. I will post more pics next week.

One Crazy Month

2009-05-05T23:55:00.000-06:00

Hello everyone! This is my second attempt at the whole blogging world. My first attempt failed miserably. But recently I had a very good friend tell me about some one who was trying to adopt and found a birth mom through their blog. I know that that is a slim to non chance, but since that is the avenue that Cameron and I are looking at right now, I figured it was worth a shot.
So that and the fact that I am terrible at keeping in contact with people on a one on one basis has inspired Our Little Corner of the World and (soon to come) Joslin's Photography.
It has been an amazingly trying year! It's a wonderful reminder of the tender mercies of the Lord, and the amazing way that he strengthens and guides us. From the end of January, to now it has been one unfortunate event after another. There are times that I feel that God just challenges me to see how far He can push me. I know that this isn't true but sometimes it feel that way.
Currently, Cameron is recovering from orthopedic surgery on his Tibia and Fibula, and my mom is in isolation because she is doing radiative iodine treatment for thyroid cancer, and I am realizing that I have been given a great opportunity to take care of my family.
I guess there are just some things in life that we aren't supposed to understand, that's what I am going through right now. Between my husband being out of work for three months and having to take care of him all on my own, and my mom having cancer, and (last but not least)the fact that we have not yet been able to have a baby I have felt really bitter.
But I have realized that I need to look at things I can be greatful for. True Cameron is out of work for a while, but I have a good job that I love and I can provide for us. And yes, my Mom has cancer, but it's one of the most treatable forms of cancer. And no, I can't get pregnant, but I have 13 wonderful nieces and nefews and I love them dearly, and I get to help other mothers create memories of their children everyday through my photography.
So it may be stressful in Our Little Corner of the World, but every minute of that stress is a blessing.

PS not all of my entries will be a novel like this one.