i n • p u r s u i t

If you were fancy, you might call these photos "lifestyle photography," but I call them snapshots. These are just photos I've taken while hanging out with family. They're just moments that I've been blessed to capture simply because I happened to have a camera on my person. Obviously, I believe that getting family portraits is an important thing. But family portraits shouldn't be your exclusive tangible memories. Don't wait for the special moments to take photos...you never know what you might miss in between. I realize that I have very few photos from last year because I was so busy working that I just didn't take very many. Then, I was visiting a friend who has a ton of snapshots on her wall. Just photos taken of her family living life. I visit her a lot and I've seen these pictures more times than I can count. But for some reason, it hit me that day and I found myself marveling at the importance of a snapshot. You don't have to...

Sometimes, I try so hard to dress interesting that I want to wear nothing but jeans for a while. That's how this week has been. I've been in jeans all. week. long. Sometimes, I'll top my jeans with my Red Wings tee-shirt other times, I'll go crazy and wear a cute top and cardigan.  This was half and half: gray boy-friend tee with pretty cardigan. This outfit is not striking. It's not ground breaking. It's just comfortable and cute. I've been recently thinking about how I mostly only do outfit posts when I feel I have a post that is "worth" sharing. Which means its interesting and pushing my limits. Well, duh, you might say. Isn't that why you started So Much Pretty in the first place? Well, yeah. But I think I'm going to be changing it up a bit. You'll see more outfits that are my everyday dress along with the outfits that took me ages to pick out. You see, I spend so much time in jeans and t-shirts. And my comf...

[ source ] I love this passage. I especially loved it when it was finally explained to me. Count it all joy when you encounter trials of various kinds. And it's like, What? No, I don't think I will count trials as joy . In fact, they are no fun at all. But if you keep reading, you know that the joy comes because you know what being faithful through the trials brings. Steadfastness, which is defined by Google as "loyalty in the face of trouble and difficulty." Count it all joy. Because you know that God will bring you out on the other side of these trials a stronger person. I could write a novel about what has been happening in the Kuechenmeister household lately, but for the sake of brevity, I'll give you a timeline. June 17: 3rd menstrual cycle of 2012 July 11: blood test shows that Femera actually worked (i.e. I ovulated) July 19: very faint positive pregnancy test July 20: negative pregnancy test July 22: faint positive pregnancy test July 27...

It's been quite a while since I last sat down and wrote a blog post. Like a *real* blog post. Something more than a few sentences or a few photos. There is so much going on. I've re-written this start of the blog several times because I'm not sure what to write about! Not me. #1: I use a mac. #2: I wish I had that cocktail ring. ;) I just added this photo because I felt like this space really needed it. [ source ] Shoot. I just spend a several minutes blogging and sharing with you all about my new job. Only come to find out that I already told you about it . Let me say something, however, that I didn't say before. God wonderfully and amazingly provided me with this job. When it was decided that I'd start job searching, this was the first one I applied to. And it was the only one I applied to that I thought would be more than just a job but something I might actually enjoy doing. After all, I was applying for the position of social media manager. I us...

[ source ] So, today marks the beginning of week #4 that I have been waking up before the sunrise to meet up with three other women and go on a 3-ish mile walk/jog around a local university campus. My alarm clock goes off at 5:30AM (giving me 10 minutes of sleepy time, 5 minutes of getting ready time, and 15 minutes drive time to start out walk by 6AM) which is SO DANG EARLY. It's so early that, as we're getting back into our cars after our three miles, the sky has that sun-kind-of-is-kind-of-isn't-up look to it.  Actually, that was before daylight savings time.  Today, the sun rose after I finished my walk AND went grocery shopping. Oh, did I mention that if we don't show, we owe the group $5? Money is a great motivator for me! [ source ] My main goal in getting up and exercising is not, in fact, the obvious fitness benefits. It's the up and at 'em that I really need. And trust me, nothing wakes you up like a three mile walk in 35º ...

I've just returned from getting my blood drawn. I've never had so much blood drawn as I have in the past few months. And really, getting all that blood drawn really adds up. Especially when they heap on the testing they do to that blood. Yikes. But that's not really what I wanted to write about. We all know how expensive medical care can be. What I wanted to write was just a little update on my heart. Friends with caring hearts have inquired. It's nice to know that people are praying for me. :) My heart is fine. It's rather content, actually. I'm absolutely loving my time with my husband and my dog. I'm focusing on my photography. (If anyone in Greenville needs photography, call me! I need the money. ~_^) I'm having lunch/coffee/drinks with girlfriends and photography friends. I love going to my Ladies' Bible Study (though, they have childcare, so...irrelevant). All that to say, I'm loving my life. I get that this is the lot that I'v...

I just got off the phone with my doctor and I'm positively giddy. I have an answer. I know what is up with my body. (Background info here ) And, honestly, I never thought I would be so excited to hear that something is wrong with me. As it turns out, I have polycystic ovary syndrome or PCOS for short. When my doctor said that, I said, "I KNEW IT!" Okay, so I didn't know it. I had a hunch. A hunch that grew and grew everyday. Especially when every single OPK came back positive. I'd stand in the bathroom, staring at that little stick. Squinting. Turning it in the light. Shaking it. Staring at it again. I'd test in the morning, afternoon, and night. Always positive. I can't possibly be ovulating every single day. Well guess what? If you have PCOS, you have excessive LH which is what the OPK is testing for. So they come back positive. What is PCOS? Well, for starters it's the most common cause of female infertility (according to womenshealth...

Dealing with unmet expectations is basically the story of my adult life. That's a nice way of saying that I've been known to throw temper tantrums when life doesn't go my way. Sad. Pathetic. True. I'm learning to call it what it is. However, these tantrums are getting fewer and further between. I'm getting better at trusting in God's plan for my life. Trusting that He knows what is going on. But then, suddenly, another seemingly simple expectation is unmet and I'm struggling all over again. What am I talking about? See, I had this plan (oh, and doesn't it always start out this way...) that when Mike and I had been married for around 2 years and 9 months, we'd have a baby. My plan changed a little. By that, I mean that my birth control prescription expired and paying $70/month for it was getting rather expensive. We're not anti-baby, so we went with it.  At which time, of course, my brain shifted gears to BABIES!!! One thing it f...

I know I've been totally slack on blogging lately. It's not like I haven't been on the computer. I've definitely been on the computer. But I feel like I don't have much of anything interesting to say. Life has been going really really great lately. I love my little family. Mike and I have been so close and connected lately. My little puppy is as cute as ever. Ladies Bible Study has started up again and this semester's study in James is proving to be a good one. My job, and my attitude about my job, has good. I've started a photography class. My photography is improving. I just got home from helping a girlfriend put together all her centerpieces for an upcoming fall-themed wedding (in which I'm a bridesmaid!) Life is good. Life isn't perfect. I don't think it ever is. But I've got a lot to be grateful for right now. Actually, I've always got a lot to be grateful for! But right now, God's helping me to remember all my wonderful bles...

I know not everyone can make it over to my photoblog, so I thought I'd start giving you a weekly recap! (Clicking on each photo will take you to the original post. Sunday, I posted this photo of a friend's engagement ring. Monday, I changed the layout of my blog so I could post more than one photo at a time. Then, I included the rest of the photos from the shoot that included Sunday's picture. Had a lot of fun taking pictures of Ron & Prudence who are getting married soon. Tuesday, I posted a lot of photos from my parents' house, a.k.a. the Heuser family farm. Thursday, I posted photos from a wedding I went to last week. I know Bonnie from church and swing dancing. And, since she and Jason met swing dancing, they were kind enough to invite all of us dancers to the wedding to dance the night away. :) Most of the photos, however, are not of the lindy hoppers, but of the newlyweds. Saturday night, I shot this photo while downtown with Caleb and Anne Ma...

That's what some Bangladeshi man said to us as he pointed at these kids. Or it may have been stray children. Either one is accurate. We had just gotten off a long train ride from Chittagong to Dhaka and were waiting for Rick to come pick us up. As we stood leaning against the gate that separated the parking lot from the train platform, we were slowly surrounded. Children in front of us and men behind us. They wanted to check out the bideshis or foreigners. One of the men wanted to practice his English with Mike and towards the end of that very short conversation, he pointed to the kids. "Street children," he told us. The boys mostly stood there and smiled at us. They kept trying to speak to us and Mike kept responding with "Bangla nah." They were waiting and hoping for handouts, but they weren't begging. Mike said I could take their picture, that they would really like that. Sure enough, as soon as I pulled out my camera, the kids put their arms around...

Yep, we finally made it. We weren't even sure it was going to happen! Sunday morning, we had tickets to fly out out to Greenville that evening. Then our travel agent called and told us that Air India wanted us at the airport NOW. So, we gathered our stuff and Mike said to me "Don't mention this to anyone else." We had been told there were 900 people trying to get to Mumbai that we were afraid of losing our seats. Well, when we got down to the hotel lobby, it was full of Indians and their luggage! A sign said "Sorry to see you go!" and a bus was on the way to take us back to JFK. Upon getting to the hotel, I was grateful that our flight was one of the first canceled. We got into the hotel but there were cots set up all over the airport for travelers who didn't get as far as we did. More waiting on the floor of the airport until we were able to check in. There was a bit more hullabaloo and waiting, but eventually we found ourselves India-bound. Our s...

I'm sitting in the Crown Plaza in Long Island, New York instead of on the plane to Mumbai. We've not even left the states and we've had first crazy little experience. (Forgive me if this post if rife with typos. I wanted to be sure to get this story down before I forgot, and it's been a long day.) It started when we found the Air India check in counters in JFK. I didn't really suspect anything while we were waiting in line. Then a man approached the end of the line and asked where we were traveling from. We were allowed to skip in front of everyone else in line, along with a couple of ladies from LA and a man from Minneapolis. Mike and I were the only westerners in line, the others were the most western dressed. I looked at Mike and asked him what that was about. Why did we get to skip in front of everyone else. Mike shrugged, "that's just how these things work." As it turned out, being in the front didn't help us much. Our flight was "indefin...

Bold beaded earrings ($2.00) Peaches & Cream Freshwater Pearl Earrings (12.00) Sweet Pea Pearl Earrings ($7.00) Bold Beaded Earrings ($2.00)

I've got some new pieces for sale at my Etsy shop . They're pretty different from what I'm used to making and I'm quite pleased with them. I kind of think of these pieces as my "vintage inspired" line. Dragonfly necklace, $18 **SOLD** Pearl bracelet, $7.00 **SOLD** Ribbon and pearls necklace in BLACK, $12.00 **SOLD** Ribbon and pearls necklace, $12.00 Gold and pearl earrings, $7.00

If you read this regularly, you may have heard me mention my Etsy shop. But maybe you've never checked it out. I love making simple earrings out of pretty beads and decided that maybe other people would like them too. Also, I am cheap. So, I refuse to sell my jewelry at a price that I wouldn't pay. So you get a great deal--not that I would ever call you cheap! ;) Here are four pairs of earrings I just sold. If you like them, you should check out my shop because I have plenty more! And if you like a pair below, I can recreate them just for you! (Except the blue-and-white ones. I'm out of those beads!) genuine black freshwater pearl earrings: $5 blue and white beaded earrings: $4 beaded earrings: $2 Metal and clear glass beaded earrings: $4