Nathan has a funny story about the craigslist ads we placed, several stories actually. He should blog them… But to sum it up, we got a bunch of headaches and hate mail resulting from the ad and we also found many talented and passionate candidates.

We found a winner with Pretty Please Photography out of Flagstaff, Arizona because she has a great candid approach to photos which is key because at your wedding it’s all a total blur! Seriously, the day after the wedding when people asked how I felt about it, I couldn’t answer because I hadn’t seen the photos yet. I personally like the “in the moment shots” the best anyway since I often look like a fool in staged shots, so lucky for us we found TaNee’ of Pretty Please Photography.

The photos from TaNee’ are now unveiled and they look great! She got so many intimate captures and many special moments from the wedding, plus some truly beautiful formal photos that I never knew I’d be capable of appearing in (without looking “a fool”, LOL).

Here is a glimpse of what the she captured…

The post A look at the wedding though one of our photographer’s eyes… appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

Other than the prenatal visit and the face of nasty we did have the pleasure of sightseeing throughout Nashville and neighboring areas of Tennessee. We stayed at a cheap Red Roof Inn Saturday night and had linner at Whole Foods that day (linner is a combo of lunch and dinner. A un-word N uses for fun).

We were both really beat by about 5pm-6pm that day. After all we did wake up at 5am to make the trip out to Summerfield. So we checked in to our hotel after our linner and then we laied down for a nap after the prenatal appointment. I got to put a hot compress on my spider bite before napping and we also got some natural cortizone type cream for the bite at Whole Foods.

We have no Whole Foods in Evansville (or any decent natural food store for that matter) so hanging out at the Whole Foods in Tennessee was a treat for us. We also stocked up on my favorite breakfast item, Strawberry Hemp Granola! 2 pounds wont last long but it sure is a great treat!

Sunday morning after a good nights sleep we awoke and headed out to sight see. We took a guided tour of the Carnton Plantation in Franklin, TN and had a blast. For some reason we enjoy guided tours of old historic places. While in Flagstaff, we attended a tour of the Riordan Mansion in Flagstaff, AZ that we also really enjoyed.

Anyway the Carnton Plantation is not only cool because it is an old plantation house with tons of history. It is also noteworthy because it was a civil war field hospital during The Battle of Franklin and is now a final resting place for 1,481 men who were killed during the Battle of Franklin.

Carrie McGavock, wife of John McGavock who resided at Carnton Plantation was in the midst of The Battle of Franklin on November 30th 1864 when the Army of Tennessee passed around her home headed toward battle. Carrie took in hundreds of wounded and dying Confederate soildiers during battle and the day following battle. The florrs of the home are still stained with the blood of those who were treated there.

It was a very educational and historic place for us to visit and we had a great time learning and reflecting upon the history of our country. We even kind of like the outlying areas of Nashville and would consider living there.

It was an amazing place for us to visit because as natives of the west coast we never really got to visit and take in all of the sights and locations that played such a huge role in civil war history. Sure we are well aware of the way Native Americans, Cowboys and Hispanics have shaped the west coast’s history but we’ve never been face to face with civil war history so we really enjoyed the day.

Oh and I got the stress cracks on my MacBook fixed up at the Nashville Apple Store. We didn’t have an appointment with the genus bar because no appointments were available during the time we were going to be there, so we talked with a concierge about the cracks and explained we were from out of town. They were nice enough to out us on a waiting list, in case someone was late for or failed to show up for their scheduled appointment.

We waited about an hour in the store but they managed to squeeze us in and they even fixed my cracked MacBook at no cost, right there in the store. It only took them 15 minutes! We figured I would have to send my Mac out for repair and that they couldn’t fix it in store. Amazingly they did and were super friendly about it too!

So all in all the trip was lots of fun and also a great success. We found a place to have our natural birth, got to have some fun while learning about civil war hisstory, got the MacBook fixed and we may have even found the place we want to live after N’s 3 year contract is up here in Evansville. Productive don’t you think?

The post Some insect ate my face and we had fun sightseeing in Tennessee! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

N insisted that we go for a nice drive before the party started, you know one last calm time together before the chaos of it all. So we head up the San Francisco peaks, N said it was his favorite drive and it is very pretty. So we are driving along and enjoying the scenery. When we get to the lodge we see that the ski lift is running. We have never skied or been on the ski lift so we get tickets and embark on the ride up to the top of the mountain for  one last look at flagstaff before we move away.

He brought the camera and tripod so we could get some photos of the amazing view from the top of the mountain. We posed for a few photos with the view behind the two of us then he says “lets take on last photo”. He sets the camera timer, comes around to pose for the photo and gets down on one knee…

He proposed right there on the mountain and said

“I’ve viewed this mountain, the highest peak in Arizona, as a symbol of our relationship together.  Over the last six years together, we’ve climbed the highest and achieved the most here in our home state together.  There’s many more peaks out there for us to explore and I want to continue doing it together.  Talina, will you marry me?”

Now it is time for us to really to move on to the next phase in life with an engagement and a new beginning. The ring is beautiful and the moment was so thoughtful and special. I got to proudly wear my ring at our going away party and share the news with our pals. It was a very special day for us.

Now we are getting a handle on the fact that we are moving in 7 days. We need to get busy now but we just wanted to share the news with everyone. We are engaged!

The post 7 days to go and we have news! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

If you are interested in seeing the coverage channel 2 did on their own shutdown you can follow this link to view the report. Don’t expect to read about it in the local newspaper, they are slow to the punch.

Northern Arizona will still have a minimal news presence as KPNX Channel 12 plans to broadcast on Channel 2 from Phoenix with some Northern Arizona related news. Locals will still get to see weather and possibly a local story on the Channel 12 news but it just wont be the same as having an operating station and several news personalities residing within the area.

Unfortunately this has been coming for a long time now, in my opinion. Ever since they announced the station was being put up for sale back in November 2005 we knew something bad was coming we just didn’t know what or when. We all figured the station would sell and continue operating under a new owner like it has in years past.

After 3 years of the unknown it seems the fate of 2News has been decided. The station did not sell and the staff is simply being taken off the air. The loss is a big one for the the community, Channel 2 has been around since the 70’s.

“Channel 2 was the first television station in Flagstaff, Arizona. The station made its debut on May 2, 1970, and was originally owned by Wendell Elliot.

Channel 2 is an NBC affiliate. It was originally located in downtown Flagstaff and moved to its current location in 1984. The original call letters were KOAI-TV, and were changed to KNAZ after the sale of the station to Capital Broadcasting in 1981.

In 1988, the station was sold to Grand Canyon Television Company, Inc. On May 23, 1997, Gannett Broadcasting purchased KNAZ-TV.”

(from: http://www.azcentral.com/2news/about2news/articles/knazhistory-CR.html)

Gannett Broadcasting owned and operated KNAZ-TV/ Channel 2 for 11 years. After a 9 years they tried putting the station up for sale back in 2005. Today, 3 years later the doors to the station are being closed permanently.

The announcement to take Channel 2 off the air came 10 days before the actual turn off date which isn’t much notice for employees. However, employees were offered severance packages and other positions within the company during the meeting on August 6th 2008, they were given 48 hours to decide their futures.

Regardless of what staff members decide the lights will permanently go out at KNAZ-TV/ Channel 2 August 16, 2008 after the 10 pm newscast. For more discussion on the situation you can check here, over here and also here.

The post KNAZ-TV/ Channel 2 goes off the air… appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

My brother, mother and niece came to spend the weekend with us, to help and add to the excitement. My niece, Hazel was teething so she was tired and semi-cranky. Here is a photo to illustrate her mood:

We were not so motivated the first day because we didn’t sleep much the night before. My family was supposed to arrive at our place around 11:30pmish but were delayed in getting on the road and actually didn;t arrive till about 1:45am. We were waiting up for them and we watched the movie Cloverfield while we waited, it was an interesting movie! It sure kept us awake.

After the family arrived I didn’t get to bed till after 3:15am and we awoke Saturday morning for the first day of the yard sale at 5am! We were a bit lazy on the merchandising and displaying of stuff in our sleep deprived state.

Dixie’s previous owner, Maiden53, came out to our yard sale to check things out and visit with Dixie. It was a good visit and Dixie got lots of good play time in with her old buddies.

Also, we had lots of compliments on our signs and had some great traffic! We made $225 on the first day and ended up closing up at about 1pm since it began to pour rain. We were thankful for our E-Z UP tent when the rain came.

Unfortunately for us our E-Z UP tent was defective or something, as we were taking it apart we noticed that the un-reinforced supports were warping or bending. It was like the screws were tightened too tight when it was assembled in the plant or something because the aluminum supports were bending and caving in.

This was a bummer because we paid like $400 for the tent for my craft business and this is only the second time we have used it. After closing the thing (following the manufactures instructions) it looked like this:

After pulling our hair out about the E-Z UP tent we tried to relax and move on to happier things. We got to observe and enjoy the elk in the meadow a few blocks from our home. My family was amazed and fascinated by them. Here is a photo I shot of the elk:

That evening we swung by the motor home we are going to pay for this weekend so my mom could see it and get an idea of what we still needed for the trek.

The next day we started the yard sale later and were more focused on making the products we were selling look nice. Here is what Sunday’s display looked like:

We made a total of $378 for the weekend and are rid of most of our little knick-knack stuff but none of the furniture or bigger items sold… Sunday’s crowd was considerably smaller and we made less but $378 is better than nothing.

After many yard sale visitors comments about how they would take certain things for free if they didn’t sell we decided that we wouldn’t be freecycling the bigger stuff if we could help it. It’s kind of rude of people to expect to get it for free anyway.

If we are selling it we need the money for it right? Assuming we’ll just give it away for free at the end was just sort of insulting for us… We really could use the extra cash for the move and we need to sell as much as we can as opposed to just giving it away so if you can’t pay the piddly $10.00 we are asking for a dresser you could have bargained for a lower price- we want to get something for it but no we will not give it to you for free when it doesn’t sell. Ugh! I am not going to go on about that much longer, it will just make me mad.

So all in all we made good progress in our moving preparations! Oh and if you are in Flagstaff, AZ and are looking for a good carpet cleaner give SOS Carpet Cleaning a call and tell them I sent you! We just had Kevin (the owner) out for a price quote and are really happy to be doing business with him, he is so friendly and is a great guy!

The post Whew, it is OVER! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.