It goes without saying that I love my husband. When I left last weekend to go to the PPI convention is Des Moines, I may or may not have cried a little bit. As I hugged him I said, “I miss you already.” He told me to have a fun time, which I truly did, but he was always there in my mind and my heart was always missing him. It reminded me all over again of our year of long-distance dating and how truly heart-breaking it was. Seeing him for a weekend here and there was so awesome, but taking him to the airport shook my world and watching him walk through security and out of my sight brought me to shaking sobs every single time.

There is something about Kevin that is home to me. And while I was excited to get back after 3 days to my bed and my couch and my computer and my kitchen and my shower (my friend, Sarah, calls it “home-itis”), I was most excited about hanging out with Kevin again. He just gets me.

As for PPI, I had an entire post dedicated to it, but just couldn’t come up with the right words. It was a great experience. There are so many great photographers in Iowa and I was blessed to meet many of them. I am also, and maybe mostly, blessed to have a core group of photographer girlfriends who are comedic, kind, and awesome. I got several stomach aches from laughing so hard.

PPI was also exhausting. Running on little sleep and long days wore me out. (I was also wearing my new contacts which made my eyes extra tired.) There were a lot of good speakers from whom I soaked up knowledge and a few no-so-great speakers from whom I had to take some and leave some. There is always a lesson to be learned though, whether it’s figuring out where to go in business or figuring out where you don’t want to go. What works for one, doesn’t work for everyone and I felt confident in knowing that I was nailing down my vision and my style and who I am now in comparison to who I want to be. I’m setting higher goals for myself and I’m exciting to push myself harder. Nervous, yes. Scared, yes. But excited, definitely.