I cannot believe it’s finally Spring here! It’s been a long, long Winter. I’ve been sick, I was sick for a month! The youngest drove me to the ER and luckily I was able to get an appointment with a doctor about an hour later. After getting some great antibiotics, the sickness finally left. I still have a little cough here and there, but, nothing like it was.

Craft projects have been on the back burner, I need to get some more jewelry and other things made! I’m cropping tomorrow night with some friends, been since my birthday since I’ve scrapbooked, so I need to!

Over the past few weeks I’ve actually been pretty busy with photo jobs. Three new clients was my goal this year, I’ve actually had 5. I’ve also had 2 repeat clients. I also just did an event, which may turn into something else. Oh that’s another new client, so that’s 6. Wow, I doubled my goal! I also have one assistant. I’ve hired two but I’m actually looking at a different assistant to replace the one that can never help me.

We’ve been watching the little one for so long at night, that it will be weird to not have to watch her once the semester is over. She’s going to take EMS training so she can get nationally certified, that’s only twice a week. January through May 2010.

Hubby and I have a few parties going on this month. Two with his work and one for my annual cookie exchange. It’s only the second year in this house, but, I think it’s the 3rd or 4th year total.

Not much else really going on. Hubby goes back on the 23rd for a follow up appt. He’s pretty much back to 100% with his sense of smell. The youngest is going to the cardiologist on the 14th for an appointment. Hopefully it’s nothing, but I have a feeling it’s something.

Have a good rest of the weekend and I will try to post later in the week!

Wow, it’s been nearly a month since my last post!

• My mom was here and the visit was 99% better than I thought it would be.
• I’ve been working and when I’m not, hey, at least I’m having fun!
• The little girlie is potty training, which is HUGE news in our household!
• Hubby has surgery on the 23rd for his snoring (deviated septum) and for polyps in his passages. Hopefully this will bring back his sense of smell!
• I’ve been going to the gym when I can and I’ve pulled out the 30 day shred again. I haven’t done the shred since this past summer.

My birthday is Friday! Sunday is church and a banquet that night.

Hope everyone is well! I have been reading, but, since my mom just left, I haven’t really had any time to comment, I’m sorry! I will try to do that this week if I can.

Wow, it’s been a while since I wrote something here. I’ve been so incredibly busy.

We have been so blessed by a friend’s daughter. She is filling in the time gap between the time I leave in the evening and the time that hubby gets home from work. The youngest is taking night classes again this semester, so, usually I’m here, but, once or twice a month we need someone. It’s money well spent as the little girlie really loves her and she’s a sweet girl. She’s a client too, I did her senior portraits this past summer!

I had a family portrait session at the beginning of September. It went really well. I’m getting used to little boys and all the energy they have. The boys are 4 years old and 1 1/2 years old. Cute as can be. I have the photos, just waiting for the client to look at them so I can post them online to share.

I also presented to two BNI members that have uprising seniors next year. I think they will both purchase sessions. I also talked to a few people at the past few mixers that have high school students. I’m laying the groundwork for next years sessions now.

My mom is coming to visit next month. This is a good thing. We are getting along a lot better now than we did 3 years ago. I haven’t seen her since 2006 and she’s never met the little girlie at all. She will be here at the beginning of the month for a week.

I’ve been getting really involved with the Chamber of Commerce. I’m on my first non-military committee. There’s an annual event here that I’m helping organize and getting some insight and contributing ideas to. I also plan on helping out with another committee for an event in the Spring. We’ll see what the time commitment is. I try to do things in the morning, so I at least see hubby at night. It’s really weird doing things that aren’t military related. Good, but weird.

Last weekend found me on a bus with 7 of my friends and 20 others. We left early, early Friday morning and arrived in Ohio sometime mid-morning. I  made my first Longaberger basket! I also received another basket on the bus along with an wrought iron napkin holder. I bought two retired baskets. They are hanging on our wall in the hallway. One is for hubby to put his keys, sunglasses, phone and other work stuff in and one is for all the receipts and paperwork that always seem to accumulate on our island. I am hosting a catalog party next month, let me know if you want to buy anything. I hope to get an organizer basket for the kitchen, so we have a place for paper and pens. It was a good trip, but really tiring. We spent the day on Friday shopping, eating and then slept in the hotel that night. Saturday morning we went to a few places, then shopped in the mid-morning to early afternoon. Then back on the bus. We stopped at the site of Flight 93 on the way home. I’m really glad we stopped. I will post those photos on my personal and the photography Flickr this week. They are haunting. There’s not really memorial there, yet, but there are plans to add one. There were benches with the names of each of the victims that died in that crash. It just is sad that after 8 years, nothing really has been done. People have brought stone memorials and put them there, there is a 20-30 foot fence with tons of things on it, I have photos of that. People have left things as they visit the site. There are flags and a huge cross. It’s just a tragedy to me that the ones that fought back, are really the last ones to get any sort of memorial.

Hubby dropped me off at the spa yesterday, I had my hair cut and my eyebrows done. Also had a manicure. I haven’t been there since July, which is way too long for my hair to go without a cut. Then we went out to eat. It was nice.

Tomorrow at church I’ve been asked to take some photos. That wasn’t unexpected, but it kind of was.

I will try to post more often. I hope someone is still reading!

I cannot believe how quickly this year is passing by. My mom will be visiting in October for a week. This is the first time we have seen her since 2006. She’s never met the little girlie in person. We’ve been bugging her for two years to visit, I’m not driving to Florida to pick her up, but, I will pick her up at the airport. Hopefully she will be happy here for a week, I will be busy some of the time she’s here, but, most days I will just be around or at the gym for a little while in the afternoon.

Hubby and I went to Annapolis this past Saturday for a few hours. We shopped, well, I shopped at a few places. I have NEW clothes that FIT! (more on this later), then we ate at Gordon Biersch. If you have not been able to go to one, you should! They have great garlic fries. This was our second time eating there, we tried one in Vegas as well. Then we headed to our friend’s house for a few hours. We swam, talked, had a good short visit.

Sunday found us welcoming a new piece of furniture into our home! A friend of hubby’s that he works with, had a piano that he was giving away. We received it after a lot of hard work, dealing with rain and lifting. I listened last night while getting things done in the kitchen to my husband playing some songs. I missed hearing him play and he’s good at it. “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen is the current fav I ask for.

I have been purging and cleaning a lot of things lately. I went through my closet a few weeks ago and got rid of a few things, encouraged hubby to get rid of things as well. Last night I finished the job. Shoes, shirts, blouses, jeans, if they didn’t fit, they are gone. I can now say that I have a new wardrobe! I’m getting the dresses filled in, I really wear more skirt/blouses than dresses, but three is enough for right now. 2 pairs of cotton pants – one khaki and one black, one pair of black dress pants. Three or four cardigans, about 10 polos, 6 dresses blouses/sweaters, 20+ t-shirts. I think I have a few skirts too, cotton (khaki, denim, black). Target is really where I’ve been shopping for the past few months. They have some skirts in there that just hit me right as I’m short, so they aren’t mini’s on me, just right. I bought a jacket or two from there, those denim ones in colors. I also bought a black jacket from Wal-Mart. I like some of the George stuff. I need to go in there and see what they have for the Fall. I have two entire drawers in my dresser open for new things. I would like to get some jeans that fit really nice, dark and light. I have two pairs from last year and I have a feeling they will be donated over the next few months once I find new jeans.

I’m starting to look for Christmas ideas for the family already. I have one thing crossed off of the list, already bought it. I just need to wrap and hide it. Hubby pointed me in the direction of his Amazon wish list last night. His bday is the 21st of this month, I needed ideas! I have some now.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the youngest is going to college again this Fall. She changed her classes around with the help of a counselor, so, she’s carrying four classes, one or two each night, M-Thur. We are purchasing a new laptop for her to use at college. She’s done so well with the stuff she has on her plate with the little girlie and everything that goes along with being a single parent, that she’s earned it. There have been some issues with the dad and I won’t go into all the drama that surrounds it, but it’s been hard on her. Luckily she isn’t old enough to understand. Hopefully it will be resolved one day.

We just got a flier in the mail from the Ren Faire people, I cannot wait to go! We are thinking about Labor Day weekend! We didn’t go last year, I think it was the first year since 2005 that we missed!

I’ve been fixing up my office over the past few months. I repainted part of the wall that was damaged by something that was put up with that stick on stuff vs. brackets/screws/nails. I now have a black corkboard (found it at Office Depot) and a white board calendar (Target) hanging on the wall above my desk. I have a white board (Office Depot) behind my door. Hubby put up some file holders on my wall last night, which are great. It’s nice to have more of my desk top open. I really loved the look of the Pottery Barn things, but, the price was too high and I really just wanted things with black frames. They are out there if you look.

I recently upgraded my BlackBerry from a pink Curve 8330 to a black Tour 9630. It’s a pretty nice phone, I like most of the features. Hopefully an upgrade will be coming out soon for the OS and it will take all the little hiccups out. While I was there I upgraded our phone plan so now we have 10 designated phone numbers that don’t cost us minutes to call. The oldest and my BFFOUCDP are on the same carrier, so that didn’t leave too many that we needed to designate. Hubby’s work number, my mom, his mom and dad and our home number are now free for us to call from our cell phone’s.

I put a new profile photo up on my business website as well as Facebook and Twitter for the business. I have a new logo for the business site, she’s so good at what she does! I could have created it, but, there were too many options in my head that I couldn’t pin one down.

I have been going through our personal photos from the last month and have a few really cool photos from the 4th of July. I slowed down my camera and got some neat shots of the fireworks. I will probably print and hang those in the house somewhere. I also have a cute, CUTE, shot of  the little girlie in a red, white and blue dress waving a flag. :smile:.

TTFN!