Greenville Wedding Photographer | 10 things…. MAY!!!

Hi!!! I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!!!  We just got back from the beach for a long weekend and it was time well spent with my family!!!  On the way home I remembered I hadn’t done my 10 things post for May so here I am with just a few days left in the month writing away!!!  I’m really hoping I don’t repeat myself (you’d think with this list I have sitting in front of me I wouldn’t do that but knowing me it’s bound to happen!!!) so if I do every repeat myself… just know I really don’t mean to!!!

Here are my 10 things about me for MAY!!!

1.  Like I mentioned last month… I LOVE TO TRAVEL.  I grew up in a family that traveled almost every summer.  And the way we traveled was road trip/camping!!!!!  That’s for another month, because I could go on and on about how I’m not a huge camper… but I will say that because of the traveling we did aka road trips/camping my parents gave me the travel bug and I have seen A LOT of the USA and for that I am soo very grateful (I have a feeling I wasn’t grateful then… but what 5 year old, or 10 year old… or definitely what 16 year old who has a boy friend… and would rather not be holed up with her sister in the back seat of a crowded old person car as we travel up and down the west coast is grateful…)… but looking back, all the miles logged, tents/camper set up and taken down, miles hiked, picnics had, I am soo incredibly grateful and thankful to my parents and the experiences they gave me growing up.  I can’t wait to take Kenzie & Gary back to some of my favorites but also go see places that I haven’t seen yet!!! So far I’ve been to 40 of the 50 states.  Out of the remaining 10 there are 6 on my bucket list that I can’t wait to see and explore!!!!!!

2.  I grew up loving Carolina Basketball.  And by Carolina I mean UNC!!!! GOOOO TARHEELS!!!!!!!!!!

Aubrey, we cherish these images of the two of us!! They are actually the last photos we had taken of us before there was a Kenzie :)!!!  It was a fun evening in downtown Richmond, Thank you for these soo much Aburey!!!!

3.  I love BBQ… North Carolina, pulled pork BBQ to be exact.  I had a hard time when living in Texas and if you talked about BBQ you were really talking about… brisket/sausage… y’all those things are good.. but BBQ is pulled pork… and to top it off is an actual pig pickin where the whole pig is cooked and served and there’s an apple in it’s mouth!!! 🙂 🙂 LOVE IT!!! (google it if you have no idea what I’m talking about)

4.  My first car was a little civic!! That car and I logged MANY MANY MANY miles & I have some great memories… I think my favorite thing about the car is that I would strap the poles I used for pole vaulting to the passenger side!! I had to get them to practice somehow in high school!!! 🙂 🙂 I probably looked crazy but whatever!!!

5.  I grew up in ministry due to my dad being a preacher, I grew up serving on staff at numerous church events, was a leader in my youth group… but when I was 18 and sitting in a circle at the end of a missions trip in Marsh Harbor, Bahamas… I felt God’s call on my life to be in ministry and to serve Him with my life.  For a long time I didn’t know what that looked like.  I didn’t feel called to go to seminary, or be a youth pastor, or a missionary, or preacher, and I didn’t marry a preacher… so for a really long time I struggled with God’s call.  Even after working for a whole summer as a summer staffer for a Christian organization I still didn’t know what this call on my life was supposed to be about.

During our time in Texas I worked at a church full time and then volunteered to work with the youth at our church (I loved working with those girls), I loved both so mcuh and at a youth retreat one evening when myself & my good friend Melanie (fellow youth helper) were hanging out with the girls in our cabin and the two of us were sharing with the girls our stories… God used her to speak to me about His call on my life.. it was pretty much a slap in the face because there I was in ministry but because it wasn’t “full time” ministry (the youth thing) and even though I worked full time at a church I didn’t necessarily see myself in ministry (just roll your eyes at me if you see where I’m going with this)… but I remember her stopping me abruptly when I was sharing and saying “Kendra, you have answered God’s call to ministry.  You are in ministry right here, you’ve been in ministry with your work, you are in ministry with your photography, most importantly you are in ministry with this youth group, God is using you.”  She went on to tell me that yeah it may not be what “ministry” looks like to a lot of people, but God has placed numerous ministry opportunities in my life and I’ve said yes to them… so to stop saying I wasn’t in ministry and know that I was!!!

So now 12 years after that initial call to ministry, I can look back at the incredible opportunities He has placed and continues to place in my life:  from helping start a Christian sorority on my campus, to working with Group Workcamps, to continuing to serve on staff at youth events, to my jobs, to photography, to mission trips all over the world, to working with our youth group, to being a wife, the friendships, the little girl He’s entrusted me with… all these things are things are opportunities for me to be in ministry for Him.  I hate it took me so long to realize that my life is a ministry to Him, but I’m thankful He used Melanie all those years ago to speak to me… and to really let me know that my definition of being in ministry isn’t just the only kind of ministry He calls people to!!

Alyse, this was the first time we actually met in person!!! I’m so thankful for you & your friendship over the last few years and I can’t thank you enough for documenting our sweet family!!

6.  Being that my dad is a minister I’ve always sort of compared preachers to him if I wasn’t sitting there listening to him preach.  I had a hard time in college finding a church home, we moved to Virgina after getting married… same thing, no one was my dad & since that’s all I knew I didn’t want a lot to do with finding a church.  But then we moved to Richmond, TX and I got to be part of my dad’s church again and I loved it.  I loved getting to hear my dad preach every Sunday, and I loved getting to serve alongside my parents!! When we moved last June I knew I couldn’t keep comparing preachers to my dad… I knew that we had to find a new church home and I had to go into it this time with an open heart and mind.  We started attending a church last July in Spartanburg and while we loved the worship, Kenzie liked her teachers, we just weren’t really feeling it…. sooo a few months ago we decided that we had to find a church home.  We walked in the doors at Grace Church Spartanburg and felt so incredibly welcomed… here we are 3 months later and we know that for this season in our lives, this church is now our church home.  We are excited to get involved & to start serving where God leads us!!!  All of that to say, I miss being able to hear my dad live on Sunday’s and getting to worship with my family!!!!

7.  I LOVE to walk… like for working out… I like to think I’m a fast walker (I think I have met my match though… my friend Joanne gives me a run for my $ every week 🙂 )… but I love to walk, and since I really can’t run due to a bad knee it’s how I work out more often than not!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!

8.  After being on the beach this weekend I can say that the way I do the beach is sooo much different than it was before I had Kenzie.  I was a girl that LOVED the sun/you could say worshiped it… like loved it to the point that I was in it all the time.. I LOVED to be tan… NOW… I sat under an umbrella and coated myself with Kenzie’s sunblock over the weekend because I don’t want sun!! Ohh how things have changed!! Granted, I LOVE to be tan… but these days I’d rather just be white white white :)!!!!!

Janine, I know for a fact I wouldn’t be the photographer I am today if it wasn’t for you!! Thank you for your love, your friendship, your support over the last 6 years!! Thank you for also braving the drop in temperatures on this April morning a few years ago!!! Love these images soo much!! Kenzie was starting to totally show her little personality and I’m so glad you were able to capture it for us!!!

9.  I use essential oils & I love them.  Our family loves them (Gary can’t deny it 😉 there are certain ones he really likes too), and we use them daily!!

10.  I’m pretty sure I told y’all that I went to UNC-Wilmington.  Loved it!! When I went into college I had NO idea what I wanted to do! Actually, I had sort of wanted to be a doctor so I was going to go that route… then biology and chemistry had me seeing I didn’t want to go that route, so then I changed majors, then changed majors 2-3 more times and landed the spring of my junior year in business school :)… Somehow I was still able to graduate in 4 years with a Business marketing degree… I think if I would have had a little more time in the business school/I didn’t need to cram everything I needed to do in 3 semesters I probably would have done finance or accounting but that just wasn’t in the cards… but I am thankful that the Cameron School of Business makes you take a few classes in everything business wise (well minus economics because uhh I hated those classes) because it gave me a well rounded understanding and it’s helped me with my business so many times!!!

Soo that turned out to be a lot longer than I meant for it to be 🙂 but there you have it… 10 more things about me for May!!!!  See y’all in June!!!!!

Kendra Martin Photography is a Greenville Photographer & Spartanburg Photographer specializing in Wedding, Senior, and Lifestyle Photography.