BFFE

Christie Grummons. This girl (well now woman) came into my life in the 8th grade. I was sitting with my friends in the gym at LAB and in walks this cute blonde girl and sits behind us on the bleachers. We started talking. The rest is history. We became inseperable. If we weren't together, we were talking on the phone with one another. Our parents came to know the route from Northridge to Westchester very well. :-) Because we always wanted to go over to each other's houses. We were best friends. Who knew though that 16 years later this same girl would be my "go-to girl"?!?

This isn't a post about how we are such good friends and where I proceed to tell you all about our fun moments and so forth. This is post to tell you how much I admire this woman and who she has becomes. She is an amazing wife, daughter, sister, and mother! :-)

Seeing her grow throughout these 16 years has inspired me to become a better person. This is the girl that at the age of 16 got told that she had to transplant her whole entire life from sunny California to Spokane, Washington! And after a few tears, a quick trip from me up there to visit 5 days after she moved, she picked herself up and made the best of it. And from those years in Spokane, she gained best friends and her future husband. :-) This is the woman that finished college in 3 years while working 5 jobs!!....yes 5 jobs!!! And without one complaint. This is the girl that no matter what life puts in front of her, good or bad, she has kept her faith in God so strong and visible to the world. This is the woman that while pregnant with her son, was working 16 hour days! This is the girl that has gone through raising her son in the first year of his life with no family in the same state as her! This is the girl that NO MATTER what is going on in her life or at that moment will drop everything for me for anything I need.

We've been through A LOT in those 16 years. I couldnt' begin to tell you some of the things that this girl and I have conquered throughout these years. But we've made it. I've made it. And I've made it because she is the girl that has hopped on a plane for me because she knew that just seeing her face when she steps off that plane makes me feel so much better. We don't have to say one word to each other...she just knows exactly what I'm thinking and feeling. This is the girl that has opened her home to me countless times. A girl who has opened her home to me from one day to another, when I call her and tell her I need to fly out to Portland the next day because I need to get away. This is the girl that has stayed up with me for hours with pizza and ice cream...talking, or not talking, or crying, or laughing, or laughing so hard we are crying...did that until I felt better. This is the girl that if we don't talk for a while, the next phone call will seem like we just talked 5 minutes ago. This is a girl gave so much up for my wedding. She sacrificed time with her husband and son to be here for me that day and the 9 months before it. This is the girl that made the most heartfelt beautiful matron of honor speech ever. Of course she was my matron of honor...who else would be. :-)

I don't know what I would do if she wasn't brought into my life. I have a feeling the life would be so much different. All I know is that I thank God for the day that he brought us together. Thanks to that day.....BFFE....was born. BFFE: Best Friends For Ever. Yes internet, we know that forever is one word and not two. But we wanted to be different and unique :-) And to this day whether its in an email, text, or even on the phone...the first words out of our mouths are: Hi BFFE@!!!!

I admire this girl more than anyone. She is a beautiful person inside and out. And I can only hope to one day be the mother that she is.

BFFE - Thank you for so many ridiculously great, amazing, unforgettable memories for the past 16 years. I can't wait to have more memories. Especially memories of our family vacations together. :-) And our kids' marriage(s)....of course!! :-) LOL!!!

I hope everyone has their own "BFFE" out there. They come in handy. :-)

Until next time,

-Me

Back to the homework days :-)

Started school this week. Very wierd to be back on that campus, being such a different person. Last time I stepped foot on that campus I was 21...and oh so naive. My life was in such a different place...making it such a different experience. When you are that age and in the prime time of having fun...you could care less if you are late for class, if don't go to class, if you pay attention in class, and basically you just want to survive the class and make it out alive and with a passing grade. It's so different now. I want to be there, I want to do good, I want to learn anything and everything that I can.

Looks like the semester will bring me some very very good challenges that hopefully will make me become good at photography. At least that is my hope. I just know that every time I start snapping away at that camera I have a huge smile on my face and I feel at home...I feel like it's something that I LOVE doing and can't get enough of.

Well I'll keep you guys updated. Until then just wanted to let you guys know that I've started using my Flickr account to upload my pictures. Feel free to take a look and comment :-)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andreamurphyphotography/

Until the next time,

-Me

Good...no Great.

My whole life I've strived to be the best....at everything. And I have a hard time accepting that I'm not the best at everything. I don't commit to everything, but once I have decided to commit to something, I have 100% committment to it. I am in it until the end. And I am not only in it until the end, but I will do it to the best of my ability. I'm proud to say I get this trait from my father. (I'm sure he would be proud that I said that too!). But it's true...he's taught me my whole life: "Andrea, don't do things "half-ass"...do them correctly and completely". When I still lived at home, I would constantly bring my dad on to all of my crazy projects that I had. Whether it be painting my walls purple, or finding a cool way to display my hundreds of picture frames, or even just washing my car. I would always enlist his help...partly because I thought he would know the "perfect" way to do, but mainly because I loved hanging out with him and I knew that along with the help would come some really fun conversations. And without a doubt, I knew that if mid-way through the project I decided that I wanted to start slacking because, "It was fine just like that", I knew that my dad would be there to tell me to stop doing it "half-ass" and do a good job. I have never and I will never forget the words that are so familiar to me, "Andrea, if I'm going to do something I am going to do it 'right', and if you are going to do something you are going to do it 'right'. Put 100% into it always."

I hear my dad's voice telling me this in everything I do. I graduated high school in 1999. My parents have always instilled in my brother and I that we will work for our money. Even though my parents had no need for us to work; and it killed them every time they saw one of their kids having to give up going out with their friends, or be completely exhausted and still have to go into work, they still made us work from the day we turned 16. (Well 14 for my brother, but shhh we won't bring that up :-)). My first job when I turned 16 was working for Marie Callendars...selling pies...and putting whip cream on them! Glamorous I know!! :-) Even though it was just a little old high school job, from the first day I started there...I put my all into it. I didn't just want to be good at my job...I wanted to be great...I wanted to be the BEST pie seller there! :-) I hated it at times. I hated having my friends come into the restaurant and have dinner and be sitting there having fun, while I had to work. But every time I came home bummed out about it...my dad: "Andrea you are doing good learning about responsibility and work...because of this job you are able to say that YOU are paying for car". Helped ease the wound a little.

After I graduated in 1999, I went to College of the Canyons. I had the grades to get into a state university but I really had NO clue as to what I wanted to do with my life, so I decided that because my parents spent a FORTUNE on my high school tuition, I would go to a community college for my AA degree until I decided what I wanted to do. The first two year in college, I was working at Black Angus restaurant. I liked it for a while. Same thing with this job...I wanted to be the best...so I worked my butt off to make it from Hostess to Head Hostess and then to Server and then to one of the their Top Servers. I liked my job until I learned that there are some people in this world that just should not be allowed to dine in restaurants...or there should be some mandatory education on tipping. Mandatory education on how most of the servers you see in restaurants are STARVING college students that LIVE for their tips and live off of their tips and when you leave $.50 (YES FIFTY CENTS!!!) as a tip....it really doesnt help that student with ANYTHING. Yes I am still bitter about the incident. That same night I put in my two week notice. I couldnt take it anymore...it just wasn't challenging enough. Don't get me wrong...I would reccommend a restaurant job to every single college student out there. It's short hours and you can make a crap load of money if you work your tables right! Like my mom has always said, "Andrea...let me see THAT smile...that smile is going to take you places". There is nothing like a happy, peppy, SMILING server. :-) But I had been there for 3 years now and I needed a change...a new challenge.

I was fortunate enough to find a 9 to 5 job in an office. But now I had to decide what to do with school. 9 to 5 was not going to allow me to go to school during the day. My parents have always said that once we graduate from highschool we are on our own for our spending money. They will of course provide house and food...but no more money. :-/ EXCEPT....they always said...if we wanted to study and go to school they would pay for that. This was their strategy to keeping us in school. :-) I decided that I did want to keep going to school...so I only had one choice: night school. At this point I obviously was not going to get my AA in two years so I knew I had to step it up. So next thing I knew...I was working from 9 to 5 in Woodland Hills, and then commuting out to Santa Clarita for school from 7 to 10 every single night. :-/ It was hard and grueling and sucked so bad at times that I would cry in the car. I was tired, I had no life, and was drowning in so much homework I had no idea how I was going to make it out alive. And of course....doing bad in school was not an option...because I have to do great...I have to get straight A's...I have to get a 4.0 GPA or very close to that. :-/ I was caving under the pressure. My parents could see it and my mom said that I should slow down. My dad said it too....but I could see it in his eyes...it wasn't pressure to do it all...it was that fact that he knew that I could handle it. And I did...I pushed through and I finished. I was so happy when I took my last final. And with a 3.6 GPA...not perfect...but I did ok. :-)

Once I finally got my AA degree I decided I needed a semester off. I had gone to college straight out of high school which meant that I was almost 21 and had not had more than a summer off from school since the age of 5! One semester turned into two and once that second semester off was over I was faced by my mom. At that point, I was working at a finance company. Doing good, but we both knew that there wasn't much room for much growth there. One day she said, "So Andrea....what are you going to do with your life??". I knew I had to do something. I never knew that my life would change so drastically in the following months from that conversation.

God really blessed me at that point in my life. I was at really low point, not really happy with anything or anyone in my life. I decided that I wanted to better myself. I wanted to go back to school. I wanted to go get my Bachelor's degree. But this time I was going to do it right...I was going to go to school full time and get my degree in 2 years...putting me at over 18 units a semester. Thinking about it now...I was crazy. But that was my decision and I was not going to go back on it. My job was going to have to take a back seat to my school no matter what. At that point, I let my boss know that I would either have to start coming in part time or I would have to resign from the job. They didnt want to see me go, so they agreed to the part time position. A few weeks after I decided that God laid out a plan for my family and I that none of us could say no to. He gave us a possibility of starting our own family business that my brother and I could run. But we would have to start from scratch...making nothing..and it could be a while before we would start making money. We decided to dive in head first at the opportunity. Within a week from that decision I had quit my job, used all my savings to payoff my car so that I could cut my expenses way down and opened up our business. But this wasn't going to change my decision of going back to school. So in the fall of 2004, I found myself going to school full time and trying to launch a business off the ground. It sucked again, and I had no life again, and of course this time I was GOING to get that darn 4.0 GPA even if it killed me! So I spent my days going back and forth from school to work trying to work around my schedule and then staying up late at night doing homework and studying. I wanted to be good...no great and both my school work and my job.

End of Spring 2006 I walked across the stage at CSUN to receive my Bachelor's Degree in Sociology. I graduated Cum Laude because of a 3.8 GPA. I have never been so proud of myself in my entire life. I not only had conquered two grueling years of school, but I did while launching a now very successful business off of the ground and dealing with some intense personal issues. I remember the look on my parent's faces that day...they were proud too. Not only because I was getting the first Bachelor's degree of anyone in our family...but because I had pushed through and pushed through to be good...no GREAT.

2009 has begun and I have begun it with a very different life...but that same attitude. I am now married to a wonderful great man that is so loving and supportive of everything, I couldn't ask for more. We are homeowners and are loving our life. But with 2009, also came that itch to something good...no great. I decided I wanted to pursue my love for photography.

I want so badly to be good....no GREAT at photography. I want it so badly that it hurts. I think about day and night. I start school next week. :-)

I guess the whole point of this big ol' blog is...I start school for photography next week. And there is no exception to this class than any other class I have taken in my life...I want to be good...no GREAT at it. I want to be great. :-)

I'll leave you all with some of my latest adventures in photography.

Until later,
Me :-)