Update

So, this week has been busy. Chris and I both took Wednesday off because my mom went into surgery that morning. She's had some problems for many years but only recently was the cause found. She had a rather large pelvic mass in her abdomen. She decided not to biopsy it until after it was taken out. It turns out that it was only a fibroid mass attached to a ligament - fibroid masses are usually non-cancerous. So all is well and she is doing really GREAT! She spent 2 nights in the hospital and I've been helping her when I can. She already says she feels some relief from her related pains she's had all these years. We're all very happy things turned out so well.

Because I took Wednesday off of work for mom's surgery I've been staying at work extra long hours the other days to make up the time. It's been busy and eBay is super crazy right now with things constantly changing.

I also went to an orientation for my master's program Thursday night. I am SO excited to be starting school again. It's so weird because while you're in school all you can think about is getting done with it, but after having a semester off I'm totally ready to begin this new chapter. These classes are so much more specialized and totally what I want to be doing as a career so I am just so excited to get going! My first official class is Tuesday :)

My schedule will actually be very light compared to what I was doing in the last few semesters of my undergrad stuff. I'll still get to work the day shift at work, but on Tuesday and Thursday nights I'll head up to the U from 5-8 pm. Not bad at all!

So that's the update. :)

Good Deed

So the other week, exactly 2 weeks ago to be precise, the garage door was accidentally left open overnight and Ramin's golf clubs were stolen. So was Chris' snowboard and sub-woofer, plus some change out of his car. What horrible luck. Guess you can't trust any neighborhood anymore.

Anyway, last week Chris and Ramin decided to put out some flyers on the community mailboxes asking for any information about the stolen loot. As they walked around the neighborhood they also took Belle for a walk :) It was good for her. There also happened to be this stray dog wandering around and it came up to Belle for a minute and sniffed her and ran off. About 5 minutes later a car pulls up and asks Ramin and Chris if they'd seen a big white dog wandering around. It just happened to sound like the exact same dog that they had just seen. So they told the lady in the car what direction the dog ran off in. Another 5 minutes goes by as they are heading home and the white dog shows up AGAIN! So this time Ramin and Chris take her by the collar (at least she had one) and walked her home to our house. And behold the pictures of what this beautiful dog looked like:

This dog was named Tiny Malone according to her dog tag and she was THE SWEETEST thing. She was also impeccably groomed!! And she was HUGE!!! Just look at the size of her compared to Chris! She was so sweet. When they got home I came outside to see her and I gave her a bowl of water. She has so much fur she was dying of thirst after running around the neighborhood! Ramin called the owners and told them where we lived and it took them about 20 minutes to come pick her up but it was great taking care of this beautiful dog for a short while. Turns out she is a Great Pyrenese. I don't think I'd ever want to own one, I can't even imagine how much fur she sheds, but she was so sweet and laid back. I feel good Chris and Ramin brought her back so we could make sure she got back home safely. I just hope she doesn't get out again :P

New/Old Passion

It's no secret I want to have my own invitation business. I've been thinking about it for almost a year now honestly. I've done so much research on what is out there that it's almost overwhelming. Nonetheless, I do know that when I do start my own projects (once the photography thing transitions a bit more to Jill and when I have more extraneous money), I'd like to incorporate handmade stamping into my invitations. In the invitation business, everything is either digitally printed or letterpressed. Digital is cheaper but doesn't offer the handmade feel and letterpress offer the extreme handmade feel but is hella expensive. So I think I want to combine the two. The whole reason I even wanted to do invitations was so I could use my hands and have fun compiling all of the components. I actually like mundane work like that. I always have, ask my mom who used to take me to work with her when I was young. If you needed labels made and stuck on folders, I was all over it!

Anyway, so I've been researching a lot lately about what kind of stamps I'd like to incorporate. I think I'll use my blog to sort of show some of the things that inspire me. Or maybe I'll start a whole NEW blog just for inspirational things - I already follow a lot of blogs dedicated to that sort of thing. So for now I'll just post the few I've found already that I LOVE! I actually have a lot more to post, including stamps from Tim Holtz (note to family, anything gift related should be from Tim Holtz - man I'm the easiest person to shop for hehe).

These stamps I found from Somerset Studio. They create an awesome mixed media and paper magazine. I've purchased it a few times in the past but never really had the will to do much. Now once I get the right supplies I'm totally ready! These stamps here are totally my kinda style!! What do you think?

While I'm thinkin about it...

I heard this song on the radio today. It's my all time favorite song. It has many good memories for me, most of which only Chris and my Dad would understand and remember :) Anyway, I love this song and it's very special to me. It's not only the actual music but the lyrics as well. It's helped me get through the hard times in life. I've talked with my friend Lisa before about songs we'd want at our funeral. I want this song played. Anyone even remotely close to me understands and would appreciate it. Not that I'm planning to have a funeral anytime soon (knock on wood) but I think it would be a great song for everyone to remember me by.



And I'd also like this song played because it's my second favorite song and it makes me cry whenever I listen to it. I can remember when Chris and I used to sit in Dad's car for hours and just listen to this 8-track play over and over, Steve Miller Band's greatest hits. I loved all of the songs, but these 2 really have a special place in my heart and evoke strong emotions for me.

Anything Goin On?!?!

I've been trying to think of an update but honestly, everything is the same as it has been for the past 2 months - BUSY!! Work is very busy (in a good way of course) and so has the Atmina business. We're coming up to a slower period because we haven't got many scheduled appointments. But we're welcoming the break I think. We're at the point where we REALLY NEED a new camera. And we've already got our choices narrowed down - it will be either the Nikon D5000 or the Nikon D90 - basically very similar cameras. We've done our homework and talked to various photography stores about the cameras and looked at things online. For our price range this is the best we can get. And speaking of price range, the only way we'll be getting this new camera is if we qualify for the business credit card we applied for at Chase. I've pretty much got everything business wise taken care of for Atmina. Checking account, sales tax license, business license from the city of West Jordan and now we're in need of some funds. Don't get me wrong, we've made money so far but a lot of it has gone to more urgent supplies, like creating our OWN backdrop for the studio. An associate at Inkleys gave us the idea so instead of spending $125 for one of theirs that we weren't too fond of, we decided to make our own with supplies from Home Depot :P And it cost less than $100. Jill is in the process of creating it.

Anyway, enough about the business :P Then again, I don't have much to talk about. You might be wondering how I'm going to keep up with things once school starts again in a few weeks. Well I've thought about that. We're hopefully going to find an assistant for Jill to take on photo shoots, and she's going to have to do a lot of them herself. I will probably still have time to be the editor and run all of the business aspects, I just won't have time to be going to all of the shoots. I guess we'll see how it goes as it comes.

I'm now working for eBay at home 2 days a week. I think I posted a bit ago that we've had to move buildings as things expand and we've been crammed into tiny rooms with folding tables for our desks. So our awesome boss got us all laptops and now we can work at home a few days a week. So I work at home Mondays and Fridays. It really helps me out because I save those few hours each day not having to get ready and pack a lunch and drive back and forth. I'm able to actually be MORE productive at home since there is less distraction (hey I like to talk to co-workers :P) and I enjoy just being at home. I hope I'll be able to keep up this routine once school starts as well.

Anyway, that's an update. I'll try and get a picture update of the garden items sometime this week. I always LOVE showing off my plants :P