Josh and I quickly made friends with a young couple who joined our church several years ago.  Evan & Kristena were just the kind of fun, young, and genuine friends we were hoping for & when they arrived we were so excited.  And, as equally as excited as we were to know them, we were just as saddened as when they moved to Oklahoma.

I have been able to keep up with Kristena little by little on Facebook and on her blog, Thimbly Things.  Kristena is amazingly talented in creating masterpieces out of what others might consider useless or junk.  I asked her if she would be able to create a non-traditional family tree for me to give to my dad & his new wife for their wedding.  Well, I’m happy to say it has arrived!  I am so excited to share more of it with you a little later, but for now, here is a quick shot of the lower half.  Thank you so much Kristena…I LOVE it!

Oh, and for those of you on Etsy, go check out Kristena’s store.  There’s even more amazing treasures in there!

Okay, so if you know me, I have a morning ritual of looking a some favorite blogs:  Heather, Stacy, Bev, Pioneer Woman, Jasmine Star, Jessica Claire, How About Orange, Thimbly Things, & Want What You Have.  These are blogs that belong to friends, people I admire, or just strangers who I like to read about.  Well, as I was reading Jasmine Star’s blog, I noticed she was giving a FREE video chat on PhotographyMentor.com and basically having a Q&A with her readers.  I hoped on (after much time & difficulty) and sat there in awe!  Here she was, in person (sort of), Jasmine Star, photographer extrodinaire, on my home computer, kinda, sorta talking to ME (and the other 300+ people watching).  I got up the guts to ask a little question, and she answered it!  It’s not much, nothing to speak of, but I felt very special having someone so talented at what she does take the time out of her schedule to talk to us blog readers and answer our many questions.  So, thanks Jasmine.  I really enjoyed listening to you share.  Here’s my little clip, with my name, in case you wanted to see!  Hopefully I’m not breaking any copyright laws!  Ask forgiveness, not permission, right? [vimeo http://vimeo.com/3122528]

She said my name! from joshsroka on Vimeo.

And speaking of videos, I thought you might enjoy this one of my littlest girl trying to put her shoes on. Be sure and watch the whole thing because the expressions at the end are worth it!