I just found your blog a few weeks ago and was reading old posts, and I would love to know how you got into photography? I'm really interested but don't know where to start.

Thanks Dana for the comment/email that reminded me I still have some unanswered questions! I will get to the rest shortly. Promise. 
For as long as I can remember I've loved taking pictures. In high school I was always carrying around a disposable camera (does this date me?) and I couldn't wait to drive to Des Moines (35 min away) to get them developed! I have so many 'selfies' , the original kind where you had to hold your arm out to take a picture.. 
When I got my first digital camera jr year of high school I think I was the first one in my group of friends to have one and it was a BIG deal! Then my dad upgraded me to one with 8 mega pixels (compared to my previous 3) when my sis and I took a trip to Hawaii and I went crazy snapping pics all over the islands. I came home and thought I needed to develop every single one! Which lets just say ended up being a Lot of money for 17 year old Darlene!
I became even More obsessed with photography when jasper was born. I would take a million pictures a day of him. And then when I got my first DSLR at the end of 2008 before studying abroad in Sweden and that was it for me! I used to only like taking pictures of people but after studying abroad there and traveling around, I fell in love with taking pictures of all the gorgeous buildings, the store fronts, the cobble stone roads, the lakes and rivers, really anything! It wasn't till about a year and a half ago that I took some online classes and decided I wanted to do something with my photography eventually. I just wanted to get better for taking pictures of my own kiddos. It wasn't till a few months later when some friends started asking me to take their pictures that it grew into something a bit more! Hopefully that answers your question! Sorry for the novel :)