Evening in Town

I really love walking around town in the evening when all the shadows look blue and "cool" and all the highlights are orange from the setting sun.

A sprig down by the creek.

There is always something about any factory, but especially old factories, that just makes me want to explore them!! I love the hustle of industry... and this is about one of the two large industries in Seneca ;)

Have a wonderful almost-weekend! :)

-MarLeahJoy

Davis {Senior 2014}

I took these well over a month ago, but since he just had his graduation party... surely I'm still not too late to post these ;) 

We went to an old deserted farm out in Kansas for the photos and I could have just stayed there for hours and explored the house and all of the barns. But we were actually already pressed on time as it was. 

Anyway, we had a lot of fun that evening! Hopefully, I will be able to go back one day and just take pictures there.

And on a really, really, really random note... I want to drive my bug down to Silver Dollar City, and I guess just take with me whoever would be willing to cram in my hot car with me. I've been wanting to go to SDC for a while now, and I was thinking about who's car I would go in... but why not mine!? Roll the windows down and sing really obnoxiously and loud the whole way... why not? It would just somehow complete my craving to experience the carefree, retro summer I have idealized in my mind.

Anyone feeling adventurous enough to go with me?

I'm sorry... I warned you that that was really random, didn't I? ;)

-MarLeahJoy

Aged Tree

I know that Missouri is not the most beautiful state ever, but hey! I love that our trees are at least more lush than... well, Kansas :P I was in Kansas over the weekend and I was like "It's pretty here, but the trees are just 'blah'! They seem a little scruffy!"

This was taken just up the hill from my house. 

-MarLeahJoy

Work Portrait

This one is me... a happy self portrait I took of me at work. Not at the bank, though -- I'm pretty sure that would be illegal or something. ;P But this was right after I got off work Saturday; I came home and weed eated. I normally don't weed eat around the place, but sometimes you just have to do some hard labor to make you feel good about yourself.
But I called it a "happy self portrait" earlier, because I'm happy with my summer. Happy that I'm working this summer. Happy with my old phone that has no data. Happy even though I haven't hiked yet, or gone swimming. Happy for the green trees and cool weather. Happy for my friends. Happy for the present, even though I have a lot of aspirations for the future.

-MarLeahJoy

A Bath for the Classic

 Last night, I was trying to find my way to someone's house to visit their new little baby and I ended up going on a wrong road that was a deep, mushy mud trail the whole way. I am actually quite surprised I didn't get stuck...  :P My cousin was telling me about how cars end up rusting mostly because of dirt that is never washed out of the wheel wells. So with that in mind, I was like, "There is no way I'm going to let my little mudding expedition make my car rust!" So "washy, washy!"

Not to mention that I hit a bird on the way to work this morning D': It was such a tiny little cute one and it was with another bird on the road, but this one just didn't fly the right way. It was the worst sound ever :( And I probably would have balled my eyes out if I wasn't heading to work. It was that bad. 

So with the decoration from the poor bird on my car, all the normal bug splatters, and the mud caking the bottom... I was ready to purge my baby.

I normally take it to a car wash, but those places always makes me feel so rushed. They're always begging for more quarters before you've even washed off half of the spots. So I did it myself the old fashion way with the hose and a sponge. And I think I like that way better anyway! More quality, personal time with my car. Jk, I'm really not that obsessed! :P

-MarLeahJoy

Night Gazing

You know, when I started my job, I was like "Awesome! This will make me go to bed at a reasonable time.... blah, blah, blah." It worked great the first week! The second week I was exhausted because I never went to bed on time a single night, and the third week was my last week on the morning shift so I was able to make it through like a zombie and feel fine! I'm so glad they needed me for the closing schedule instead, though, because now I can enjoy my evenings! :) 

...including tonight! There was a lovely lightning show, but it was still so calm outside. So I could just lay down and watch it as my camera did it's thing... and I didn't have to worry about waking up before the roosters call this morning. So nice!

And I finally have a lightning picture I am pleased with... I would love to get larger strikes, but I'm satisfied with this for now. :)

-MarLeahJoy

Wedding Edits

I finally have all of the edits done from the wedding except for going through and finding some that look good in black and white. So I might post some of those later this week. But these are just some more of my favorites... and they all look very different because some were taken inside, some outside, some in better lighting and some in worse :P

(seven photos)

>>click to the right>> 

-MarLeahJoy

In the Cool of Evening

That title actually happens to be the title of a christian song I like :)

I really don't have time to write much, but these are two more pictures from my "Sunday-hop-across-the-fence-into-the field" ;)

p.c. Bretton took that one of me.

>>click to the right>>

-MarLeahJoy

In the Field

I have to say... I just love fields! After church last night there was a gorgeous sunset that attracted me to one corner of our church property. There were too many trees and brush on our side of the property to really get a good picture so I wanted to go climb the fence and go to the other field... and things always look better on the other side of the fence anyway, right? ;)

There were two fences I had to climb if I wanted to get in the field, though... so I began contemplating and weighing the odds of me ripping my long red dress if I tried to do it. :P Finally I just (gently) threw my camera bag across both fences, so I would HAVE to climb the fence... no turning back! ;)

It was worth it! And I didn't rip my dress either :)

>>click to the right>>

The first picture is me and "the essentials" aka, my camera bag.

And the second one is just foliage.

Annddd... I just want to share a story about my day at work.

It started this morning as I was on my way to work, I was praying about my job and about how I want God's continued help so I can be successful at work. Then I remembered something from the message at church last night that, in summary, was talking about how we can have joy and peace from God in any situation because of salvation. That geared my prayer more towards saying: "Lord, even if my cash doesn't balance, and I am short of money... still, I can be happy in You!" After I prayed those words, I was like "Wait! No, that means that I could be short today! Like, today, when I'm counting all the money before I leave... my drawer might be off!!" So then it was kind of like, "Well, so be it! I just might not balance today. But as long as You are with me..." 

That was quite a thought for me to wrap my mind around, because in the three weeks I've been there, I've always balanced. And to think that I'm willing for it to happen to me today? Well... D:

I opened with a few other people than the person I normally start the day out working with... and it was really hectic on top of that. And I made a few little blunders and got flustered because someone else was observing me. o.O But I made it through and got all of the transactions figured out! :)

When it came time for me to count my drawer and leave... the head teller said that she would count my drawer today. I was like "Oh, okay". 

Now in my head I was thinking... "Yep, watch this be the day that I don't balance. Because for all they know I could have faked that I balanced these last three weeks. I mean, there is really no way for them to ever know that I'm not lying to cover up my mistakes. That would just make me look really bad to balance every day that I count the drawer and then not balance on the day that someone else counts the drawer." 

I know that they think I'm an honest person, but still, I wondered what they would think if I didn't balance today. :/ But I just sat there and watched her count all my money. Anddd.... I was $10 short. :/ She told me to count my drawer again just to make sure. So I started to... and then they asked me if I had done any currency exchanges, and I had done two. One of them was still waiting to be picked up by the business, so they got it out and started recounting. In a little bit, I heard "yay!" and the manager walked back with two extra rolls of coins that I had accidentally added to the amount.

So, the inevitable happened. And it happened to me today. I was short money. But I am thankful that it happened this way for my first time, and that the money was still there at the bank. As I was driving home thinking about it... I could just feel God close to me. I was like, "You know! The Lord was right there with me all the time. He knew all about it and he knew what I could handle and what would be the best learning experience for me. Because it could have happened in a way that I actually handed out 10 extra dollars to someone, and there would be now way to fix it. But if it happened that way, then it would have only been because God allowed it, and because He knew that it would work for my good overall.

I'm just so thankful for how the Lord blessed me, even in my un-perfect day!

-MarLeahJoy