It's been awhile.....

Howdy y'all!

I was looking through my past blog posts and realized it's been almost exactly a year since my last one. Hard to believe it's been that long....so much has happened and the time has flown by. 

A lot has happened in the past year, but  a few things that stand out are the trip Levi and I took to Yellowstone National Park in September, going back to school and the passing of my beautiful horse, Smoke. 

Smoke passed away in August 2016 after a year of struggling to recover from a shoulder injury that landed her at Michigan State vets twice. We were just starting to make significant progress toward a full recover when she contracted what we believe was Meningeal worm, a parasite carried by deer in our area. She fought a long hard fight, but in the end, she was ready to stop fighting. She is missed very much, but I am thankful that her last few years were happy ones and we were able to give her the love she deserved. 

In September, Levi and I embarked on an amazing two week trip to Yellowstone National Park. It was absolutely an amazing experience. And yes, it was just me and Levi, all by ourselves, driving 15,000 miles, staying in a little rustic cabin nestled between two mountains and exploring the beauty of the park! 
We hiked many miles, saw tons of wildlife, narrowly escaped being attacked by a bull bison, almost got our car rammed by a bison, took thousands of photos and ate wonderful local food. It was a bit nerve racking for me, as it was my first time away from home doing something like this by myself and driving so far. We had a few hiccups along the way, but we would do it again! 
This was my first official photography trip and I hope to take at least one trip like this every year, Lord willing. 
To see some photos from our trip, click on this link:

​https://plus.google.com/collection/E12tbB

And, after being out of school for 4 years, my brain cells are being stretched! I am taking night classes to be a Medical Assistant, with plans to eventually work in a clinic setting or a lab. I've been interested in all things medical for a number of years, but I didn't want to go to college, so when I found out about this class, it seemed like the perfect opportunity. It's held in a career center just a few miles from where I work now. We are almost a month into the class, and so far I am enjoying it (not enjoying the homework though lol) Looking forward to my externship sometime in June or July.

So, you are probably wondering what is going on in my writing world....well, nothing. I have not finished or started any projects in a long time. I do intend to finish Be Still My Soul, Thunder and The Christian Cowgirl Adventure Series Book 3 at some point, but at the moment, I simply cannot write. I'm sure any of you writers out there can relate...the words have just dried up. I'm not giving up writing for good, I'm just focusing on some other things right now. 

Since I haven't been writing, and I now have almost 500 photos in my portfolio, I have been focusing more on my photography. I now have all my photos listed on Amazon Handmade in six sizes : 4x6 - $4.99 / 5x7- $7.99 / 8x10 - $14.99 / 11x14 - $24.99 / 16x20 - $34.99 / 20x30 - $49.99

I have a new photography website: ​https://www.photoartbylauren.com/  and I have started a photography blog, doing the 365 day photo challenge. You can follow the challenge on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Photo-Art-by-Lauren-137514356693655/
Google +: https://plus.google.com/collection/sxfrNB
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/photoartbylauren/
or by subscribing to my photography blog. I'm working on getting a sign up form up on the blog page, but it's giving me some difficulites. So for now, you can subscribe to the blog by sending an email to photoartbylauren@gmail.com with *subscribe* in the subject line. 

I'm not sure if or when I will resume blogging here, but I will post again when I have an update on some of the book projects. Otherwise you can follow my activities in one of the places listed above :)