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 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!

The oldest has a new job! She will start May 4th at a very well known menswear company! We are SO excited to say the least! She will be the assistant merchandise manager. They are a very high end clothing store. They are a good, solid company and she will be about 1 hour from us!! *Yup, we’ll get to use her 30% discount!* She’s busy packing up her stuff and saying good-bye to her friends and our family over the next two weeks. They are paying for her relocation and somehow she got them to pay for her moving boxes as well! She will have her boyfriend help her out, pack the U-haul and someone is driving her car up to MD. They may tow it like they did when she moved down there last June. Has it really been less than a year? Wow. I’m glad that everything worked out so well for her. She will be about an hour north of us, 3 hours from her boyfriend and friends! She found a great place too, two rooms, good rent, and a roommate that has the entire top floor. She’s painting the bedroom for her while she’s still in Atlanta. She’s going to inherit the queen bed left there and bought new bed stuff for it. The second room is a little sitting room, but she will use it for a TV room with a craft table I’m sure!

I’ve been busy over the past few days getting business things accomplished. Head over to the photography blog to see what’s been going on! I’m currently researching Mac’s and I will be test driving one in person sometime over the next few months. I need to set up a Flickr account for the business to showcase my portfolio in another area. I’ve also been thinking about selling some of my nature and environmental photos, probably on DeviantART. What do you think of this idea? My business will be going up in front of the Board of Directors for our counties Chamber of Commerce next week. Once that’s done, I can post a link to my listing on their website and order new business cards with that on the back as well as the two associations I’m a member of already. I’ve purchased table coverings for the small business showcase in June. I bought two cloth ones at Home Goods yesterday for cheap, cheap. I’m trying to get in contact with Brandi, the senior that I shot last summer, to join me there. I thought it would be cool for her as she’s prominent in my portfolio photos as well an aspiring photographer on her own! I will have a wall behind me, hopefully and a power plug so I can bring my laptop and have a slide show. I also bought a 11″ x 14″ portfolio and I think i will go back and get another one. Each one has 24 sleeves, which means 48 photos. I thought I would put different photos in each one. I also plan on having business cards, probably something to hand out as well, maybe a photo framed key chain thing. I cannot find anyplace to print on them, etch anything on them even. I can buy them plain though, maybe put something inside it? I cannot figure this out. Those little plastic squares, that’s what I’m talking about. Otherwise it’s probably pens or bottle openers. I’m trying to figure out a logo for the site and for Twitter. I cannot do it today, I’m tired of thinking about everything! I did contact my previous clients and asked them to write a testimonial/thought about their photo shoot.

Last Saturday I cropped and actually accomplished a lot! I have started the flipping of scrapbooks to Creative Memory ones. I have condensed 8 books into three with only 2 more needed! I placed an order to be delivered to me at the beginning of May for the Nat’l Scrapbook Day crop. I also have an order being delivered to me on Sunday.

The youngest and I were going through old photos the other day and I found some negatives! I took them to Target and they scanned them and burned them onto a CD for me. There are some stunning photos on there that hubby took overseas. I hope to get them out of my computer and print them in the near future. I was hunting for the originals to these photos for a while, glad I found them. I don’t have a lot of negatives to be honest. I think they have disappeared with moves and the like. I do have a lot of photos on DVD’s and the actual print, so it will have to be a scanned copy for anything I need to print.

I had to buy a new printer the other day. I’ve had the one that died for quite a while, it’s lasted through the last two moves, so at least since 2004. I say that it served well, printed a lot of things! We have a wireless printer, which is great since sometimes I do turn off my computer at night and someone wants to print a story or is researching something. I still have a photo printer though, it’s the same kind as the one that died. Funny, I use Nikon to shoot photos and Canon printers. Hahahaha. I really like them though, the replacement is a Canon as well. I just haven’t ever had any issues with a Canon printer, but have with Epson.

This weekend is totally booked, I’m booked from tonight until Sunday night. Tonight is my last photo class! It seems like I just started, wow. I’ve learned a lot though, I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone and learned more about how cameras work and what the settings do. I’m not relying so much on the auto settings, but, actually have used manual mode a lot lately. Tomorrow we buy our plane tickets to Vegas, shop for new shirts for hubby to wear to work, spend time together. :heart: Saturday morning we’re heading up the road to see my friend. She has a ranch now with horses, I thought it would be a good visit since I haven’t seen her since 2001! The little girlie will like seeing the horses too. I do plan on taking my camera, not missing this opportunity! It should be nice weather too. Saturday afternoon I have a photo session with a engaged couple.  This is my first engagement session, I’m stoked! Sunday is editing and more editing of the photos.

I hope you are doing well! Comment please, so I know you are alive and kicking and reading!

Today is Friday, finally. I’ve actually had a really good week, just been getting stuff done around the house.

Yesterday was our outdoor class, we were just on campus, but it was fun to shoot outside. We also had an hour or so inside the classroom talking about photo programs and things.

The oldest will be here tomorrow night for the weekend! This is a surprise visit, we weren’t expecting her, but we are so glad she will be visiting. I just realized that we haven’t seen her since Christmas! Wow! Time sure does fly! She and I talk nearly every day on BB messenger and she or we call her weekly to catch up. She will be here Sunday and then on Monday she will be in Baltimore looking for places to live.  We have gotten some really great updates from her and sometime on Monday she will know if she has the job! She had great interviews on Wednesday and there was only one other person interviewing for the position! The last interview ended very well, as the interviewer is a big guy at the company and talked to HR for about 5 minutes while she waited outside the closed door! :grin: This is a great opportunity for her. Once it’s sealed, I will tell everyone more about the job and the company. They are in good financial health though, which is great.

I’m cropping tomorrow with my scrap buddies. I am not cropping though, just putting pages in books and transferring photos to a hard drive from the one that crashed. Hubby recovered a lot of things, so that’s what I’m doing!

I had to go to Lowe’s today to get a new handle for our sliding glass door. We are finally getting things updated and upgraded around here. This one was really needed, it broke yesterday and the lock wouldn’t catch. So, after spending $10, we have a new one! I really like the lock on it, it’s got a key vs. just a twist thing. Even though we have an alarm, I feel more secure having a real lock. I may send him out to get another one for the basement door, if this one fits!

TTFN!