Well friends, I suppose I couldn't leave my blog for an entire year, so I'm finally updating! Well, a lot has happened this past school year; for one, I got married!! Yay! I married Joseph Orson Haynie II (whom I usually call "Handsome") November 16, 2007! It was a fabulous and blurry day, and one that was very happy! I can't tell you how much better life is with Joseph and how glad I am to have him; the Lord has truly blessed me. Here's some wedding pictures and a honeymoon picture in Pompeii.
Currently, we are living in Fishers, Indiana, near Indianapolis. We'll be here for the summer and then back in Utah in September. Joseph works for an alarm company and is the lead technician in the Indianapolis office this year. He's gone a lot, but thankfully, some of the reps are married, so I have people to hang out with, so I'm less lonely. I've been hoping to work on some photography projects while I'm out here, excited not to have to take it too seriously or to have any assignments, to have fun instead. And maybe I'll learn to let myself have more fun with it while I'm in school too; I get too scared in school that it has to be good because I need a grade, which I think is my biggest downfall. Joseph and I are hoping to start an art school some day, and we're not going to emphasize grades because neither of us feel like grades encourage learning.
And anyway, I've been fascinated with the gum bichromate process since the day I learned it existed and have been dying to try it out. I almost did a project with it the semester I got married, but then I got married . . . and planning a wedding in two months, going to school the entire time doesn't leave much time for experimentation in photography, and I ran out of time, did it digitally, and it turned out lousy. I did everything digital last semester, and now the thought of digital is making me sick, so I've been researching gum bichromate, and it appears that I don't need a proper darkroom to do it, which means that I can do it right here in my cute little apartment in Fishers!!! Yay! I'm totally stoked! I'm just waiting for some more money, so that I can order the supplies I need, which shouldn't be more than a couple of weeks.
On a softer note, on March 31st Joseph and I discovered that I was pregnant, and we were both very excited. Then on May 7th we went in for my first prenatal doctor visit; they did an ultrasound and found that the baby had no heartbeat. It was what the doctor called a "missed miscarriage." Which means that I should have miscarried, but for some reason my body hadn't figured it out yet; we waited almost a week to see if my body would do it on its own, which it didn't, and then I went in for surgery, from which I recovered very quickly. In the days following finding out about the miscarriage, I've felt the loneliest I've ever felt. We've received a lot of support and a lot of kindness from everyone we've told, and I want to thank any of you who read this; it's meant a lot to me and a lot to Joseph. It's been a great blessing to be reminded of the love you have for us and what wonderful people we've been blessed to have in our lives. I'm glad to say, too, that we've only felt a loss and not lost any hope. The doctor said that it was very unlikely that this would happen again and that our chances of having a good pregnancy in the future were very high.
I made this image the day we found out. I was wanting it to look hopeful. The photographs were taken from the plane on our way to Italy on our honeymoon, which I thought was fitting.
