It all starts with an idea.

So here we are! Welcome! You’ve made it to my little slice of the internet. Hopefully I won’t wreck it like Ralph did when he broke the whole thing with his insecurity. If you haven’t seen it yet, do it.

Insecurity is why I’ve been sitting on this idea for so long. Maybe insecurity isn’t even the word. Perfectionism might be more fitting. I’ve sat and brainstormed this so many times and tried to figure out how far to back track to find just the right starting point to write about. We do that so often don’t we? Back track while trying to plan ahead…a constant mental tug of war that keeps us stuck right where we’re sitting. Maybe that’s just me, but I have a feeling that’s not even close to the truth.

We just began the year 2019 about a week ago, and I have picked my “word of the year”. I first thought of this word making fun of myself, but soon realized though it wasn’t trendy or deep, it was exactly what I needed to put on my big girl panties and attempt to break that perfectionism mindset.

Meet “decisiveness”.

She and I have never gotten along. My conversations with her have mostly been slow and awkward arguments. Only on a few subjects have we been able to get to the point and be done with the matter. Whether she’s staring me in the face from the menu of a new restaurant, or constantly bringing up the idea of starting this little blog…I tend to just give her a blank look and overthink all the angles of how to respond to her. Is it weird that I’m giving a word a personality? Whatever. I’ve decided to keep going with it. See what I did there? Progress.

Getting closer to the point of this entry, I have decided that this is the day. I’m starting this blog under the name I’ve had in my head for a couple of years as well as a domain I purchased last year to protect it. Another example of my very small steps with lots of time in between…bless.

So what’s with the theme here? The concept is how everything starts, obviously, but I’m specifically referring to story telling in photos, TV shows, and Movies. If you know me and my little family, you’re predicting what’s coming. If by chance you’re a random stranger who doesn’t, please allow me to explain.

My husband, Brad, is an entrepreneur in the production and marketing world. He’s cooler and braver than I’ll ever be…and much more decisive, I’ve got a ways to catch up! He graduated from UT Austin with an RTF degree (that’s radio, television, and film) and came up with the concept of a story right out of college. He worked in Hollywood for some cool people in the movie industry. I won’t name drop, yet. That was 10 years ago and he’s now on the cusp of making his biggest dream (besides marrying me, duh) happen.

Oh, the dream? Making his concept, turned script, turned decade-long project into a reality. His movie. Yeah, for real. Yes, he used it as a pickup storyline to impress me. I guess it must have worked, but he didn’t tell me it would move as slow as my decision making did. The movie is called Tough Draw and I’m going to make a separate post about it later. Click the link if you can’t wait to follow along, I don’t mind. Maybe he’ll be my first guest blogger! In short, its a sports drama about bull riders and that whole crazy world. It’s going to be amazing and will appeal to many different audiences, not just rodeo fans. I can’t wait to watch it.

Now for me, I’m a vet tech turned SAHM that took my hobbyist photographer self and made that into a passion in business to help contribute financially where I can. I’ve taken advantage of the access to the incredible camera equipment and pushed myself further into my craft. I love it. I’ll talk more about that side hustle later too.

So you see, we’re just a couple of creatives. I love to write, but I haven’t done it outside of personal journaling in years. Brad loves to create visual stories in video form. I also love to make time stand still in photos for families (after weddings though, don’t even ask either of us to do that ever again, mad props to you in that area). And we love each other and our two precious boys…our favorite subject of all. Lots more of them coming too.

With that being said, this little blog will follow a cheesy, punny theme…because its just too fun not to, ya know? Life, Camera, Action. I’ll follow genres of TV shows and movies to break down the posts into their titles and categories. If nothing else, it’ll make me smile. I hope it does you too. The play on words of ‘highlight reel’ is another way to push myself and those reading to break the stigma of social media and the trap many of us fall into of only sharing the prettiest and most perfect points in our lives. I want to highlight real. Parenthood, marriage, creativity and some of the hard stuff too. Its just a place to share our family and our stories.

Ultimately, everything I put here, whether deep or simple and silly is meant to encourage you and point you to Christ. I made a decision very early in my life to say yes to Jesus and I want nothing more than to share Him with you through my ramblings, mom hacks, photos, and videos. If I can do that for just one of you reading this, its all worth it. He is who we aim to glorify in everything we do in life. His story is the greatest of them all.

End Scene.

Linds.