It is no surprise to those of you who know me or who read my blog entries, that my friends mean the world to me – they are a constant source of guidance, laughter, honesty and hope. I had the pleasure of becoming friends with Mark Eric more than a year ago, and over time that friendship has turned into quite a cornerstone in my life, and with it new friendships and invaluable business guidance have followed. I was lucky enough to meet, and help out, Sofie Louca, Mark and Jason Domingues with the Leavin Las Vegas workshop earlier this year. The amazing connection I felt with the three of the them was instant, and I was humbled to recently receive their kind and gracious offer to come on board as a Don’t Box Us In administrative member. In my new daily work routine, I checked the DBUI blog, only to be greeted by a sweet welcome from the gang.

In case I haven’t mentioned it lately, I truly am blessed to be surrounded by such amazing people, and doing a job that I absolutely love.

Thank you guys! I can’t wait to see Don’t Box Us In grow and flourish!

(Don’t forget to head on over to the blog and participate in the latest contest – show us your RED. The lucky winner is set to receive some great Vintage actions from Red Leaf Studios)

Today was a beautiful, albeit slightly hazy, 69 degrees. A wonderfully comfortable – I love my jeans and fuzzy slippers – 69 degrees. Now, after three weeks here in the Pacific Northwest acclimating to the indecisive weather, and loving every minute of it, I’m heading back to California to shoot an engagement and wedding where the incredibly horrid 104 degree weather awaits me. If this “Washington” girl dies from shock – you’ll know why!

Here is the sweet couple that I get to shoot on Sunday. The fun and talented Chris Stewart will be helping me, so I know we’ll have a great day. And despite my grumblings of the heat – which I can’t stand, part of me is looking forward to going home… ehm, I mean, to Sacramento, even if only for a weekend.

The company that hosts my server is having technical difficulty this week and are running backups on all their servers – this affects some sites and not others. Up until today, I was fortunate enough to not be one of those affected, but today I became aware that my site is one of the ones having problems. Hopefully everything will resume its normalcy soon. Thank you for your patience as we wait for the problem to be fixed.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend. Check back in for more blog posts – I’m on a roll!

*ETA – I just found out that my email is now affected too. If I don’t respond within 24 hours, please know that I probably didn’t receive your email. Please check back in for updates.

This entry will be brief, lots of things to do for tonight, but I received this comic as part of a mass email – I got a crack out of it. Enjoy.

I got a funny email today from a friend. She told me her story of how, while cleaning in another room, she suddenly realized the house was suspiciously quiet. She went to find her daughter only to discover that her daughter cut her hair. She was mortified. She said she was angry and found herself wagging her finger lecturing about safety, poking eyes out, scissors being a no-no, etc. She left the room and cried; sad that her baby’s golden locks were gone and then wondered if she acted too harshly.   She asked what I would do if I were in her shoes….. hahahaha. Well, let me think…………

Rewind 3 years to these pictures. Here is Nyah, immediately after I told her that “no, we can’t tape the hair back on” – notice the bangs and the left pigtail. 

Here is the same little girl after some Salon treatment. Notice the pixie bangs?

So what was my advice?   Laugh- because it is funny as heck!!

I just had to post this pic: Carter taking a picture of me taking a picture of him! Can’t wait to see his proofs!

It’s been 6 years since my life changed forever.  It was 6 years ago yesterday that I discovered what true love was, when I held my firstborn child in my arms, my little girl, my sweet Nyah.  Well yesterday, my sweet girl turned 6, and while it feels like just yesterday that we welcomed her, it also seems like I can’t remember life before her! 

Well, in my “going all out for birthdays” tradition – we’ve had a weekend extravaganza!  She got to celebrate Thursday at a friend’s house, yesterday at school, last night with family at the roller coaster/pizza place and in about 15 minutes I’m hosting an all girl pajama party for 10 girls!!!  I mean, what better way to say “I’m so glad you’re here” than to celebrate it for as many days as possible.  My friend Lexi is lovingly called “The Gig Extender” and I think we must be drinking the same water.  But it will be a blast.  I know I’ll be up ALL night moderating the activities, so I’ll post a bunch of fun pics later ~~~~  Okay, check back in with me later tonight, but for now, I’m off to join the world of the High School Musical fanatics!!!!!!