It is beautiful out here, and we absolutely love it… I feel so lucky to wake up in such a beautiful family in such an amazing house, with such a beautiful view! The old house in the Avenues was really great while we were there… and it was fun to entertain in, but it was ultimately too dark for my taste. Fortunately, our new place is so bright… and all of my plants are super happy. It feels like a dream! I am hoping we can buy the place one day. We had so much stuff to move, and it was so exhausting, I never want to move again… and why would I want to live anywhere else, check out the view!! Hopefully we will have a nice big swing set sitting in that back yard within the next few weeks.
During our move I noticed that we kept collecting certain items over and over… from things that we needed, had bought before, but couldn’t find. Those items included light bulbs, and lemonade (boxes of packets from Costco, lol), and there is more, but I can’t remember what they were. We had SO much stuff… I think we are officially hoarding (lol), and I really need to go through everything as we unpack. We are so thankful to all of family and friends who came over to help us move, even in the snowy, cold weather… seriously, couldn’t have done it with out you. I hope we can be there for you as much as you were there for us!
Our first big purchase was a lawn mower, because it ends up being cheaper doing it yourself in the long run. Fortunately, I have built up my credit enough to charge it on some Home Depot credit, haha. I had to make sure to get one that my 11 year old could use. Todd taught her how to do it, and by the time I came out to help, she was a pro. We took turns mowing the backyard, although she hardly let me handle it because she was having so much fun. We filled up 7 bags of grass, and managed to get it thrown out on garbage pickup day. Come to find out, everyone just dumps it in the back desert area behind the houses, lol. One day we will have a 4 wheeler to ride out there… maybe for Christmas? hehe.
I have been planning to take some stock images, but we have been super busy unpacking, and working on a big commercial client body paint shoot. I free handed a pattern that was a lot harder than it looked. For a while, I wasn’t sure if I was going to get through it… but I did good enough, and the rest will be fixed in post. They said, they might want to fly us out to Chicago to do it again, but we will see. They would have to pay a lot of money for that, lol.
Our first big family party will be next week for my daughters 7th birthday party… so we are super excited for that! And the next one will be the following week, for our house warming and friends to come over. Glad we have friends that will come all the way out here just to see us! It is pretty far from the city (about 45 min south… far for Utah, haha).
Update: 05-11-2011 – Here is a shot from my first stock photo shoot (of Todd and the girls) in our new house!
Today I had a great idea to keep track of all the cool,crazy, random places I would like to go see one day… I am sure this will grow to a massive list over time!
Ohio State Reformatory (where The Shawshank Redemption was filmed) : http://www.mrps.org/ “The cornerstone laid on November 4, 1886 evolved into this magnificent Chateauesque structure. Cleveland architect Levi T. Scofield designed the Ohio State Reformatory using a combination of three architectural styles; Victorian Gothic, Richardsonian Romanesque and Queen Anne. This was done to encourage inmates back to a “rebirth” of their spiritual lives. The architecture itself inspired them to turn away from their sinful lifestyle, and toward repentance. This grand structure is comprised of more than 250,000 square feet and houses the world’s largest free-standing steel cell block.”
San Jose, California Winchester Mystery House: http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/“Winchester Mystery House™ is an extravagant maze of Victorian craftsmanship – marvelous, baffling, and eerily eccentric, to say the least. Tour guides must warn people not to stray from the group or they could be lost for hours! Countless questions come to mind as you wander through the mansion – such as, what was Mrs. Winchester thinking when she had a staircase built that descends seven steps and then rises eleven?’”
I LOVE ART. I saw this at the Peterson Art Center today where I take pottery classes (ending April 2011 due to moving) and loved it, had to take a picture of it and post it…
Speaking of Pottery, I recently made some super rad mugs… they are the best thing I have made so far. I think it would be SO COOL to put little frogs in the bottom of the cups. Since I didn’t make them and attach them before they got too dry, I would need to glaze them in during a firing.. not sure I want to take the risk… Maybe I will try it on one of them! Here is a picture of them in the “Green” phase:
(April 15 2011) Update: I made little frogs to go inside the mugs that I made! I am thinking I will glaze the mugs blue and the frogs green…
I am taking another makeup class, this time at Skinworks (Christel’s crash course). It’s awesome, she is a great teacher, and I am getting more needed experience (YAY!). Here is a shot of her giving a demonstration: (Can you tell, I love posting pictures, hehe)
Other than that, we are just packing and getting ready to move! April 16th April 30th is the moving date… Can’t wait for my master bathroom with a jet tub! First priority this spring is to get a killer swingset for the girls!!
The last time I got my eyes checked, I was in fourth grade. My understanding back then, was that I am a little far-sided so I needed reading glasses. I probably wore them once, and then never put them on again. Recently, I have been noticing that things just might be a little blurry… so I decided to get another eye test. The doctor told me that I am still far-sided (of course), and that normally when people look at things, they are automatically in focus… and my eyes have to work hard to focus on everything. I am thinking this is where my headaches might be coming from! So of course, I ordered my 2 for one deal and was able to pick one one the pairs today. As you can see below, I’ve got some stylin black frames (lol). What I really want is a few pairs of Marylin Monroe, or old granny style frames, hahaha. Anyways, they suggest to get used to glasses before even considering contacts… I will probably, eventually go get some.
They said that it would take me a few days to get used to them because my eyes have had to try focusing on things for so long… and I can tell that they are still trying to, even as I am wearing them. My first thought after trying them on, was WOW! Everything looks HD. I could see every pour on Todd’s face! Another thing is that it seems like I have 3D glasses on, can’t really explain it better than that. And I am also noticing “purple fringing”, aaahhh! I wonder if that has to do with the quality of glass, lol. It’s easier to sit in one place and look at things not too far away as I get used to them.
So the first thing I did was take a million pictures… So here is a shot of me being dorky, taking self portrait hipstamatic iPhone shots after getting new glasses, lol
Update March 20th: We read online that in order to test a perscription, you need to wear your glasses for 4-5 days (at the least) without taking them off… if blurry vision still occurs, then the perscription might be a little off. I am on Day number 2, and it is still taking some getting used to. The weirdest part is, if I take them off, I can still see everything in focus.
Update March 22nd: I am discovering that I need glasses more than I thought I did. I can relax my eyes with glasses on, so when I take them off and keep them relaxed… everything is pretty blurry.
Update March 30th: My eyes have adjusted to the glasses, and they are much easier to wear now. I can totally function with out them, but totally notice the strain especially when I am on the computer or reading, or even watching TV. I am going to try out contacts sometime next week, Im kinda nervous… I have virgin eyes!!
Update April 5th: I tried contacts for the first time yesterday… it took me 20 minutes just to be able to get one in. It was tough, but I did it. I wore them for a few hours and then took them out. I have been wearing my glasses pretty much all the time.. and lately have been getting horrible head aches. I’ve never had such bad head aches all day, everyday like this before… so I am taking the glasses off for a few days to see if they go away. Also going to go back into the doctor to ask about it.
Update April 11th: I had my glasses off since my last post, and still have some slight head aches… but not nearly as bad as before. I went back to the doctor today, and it turns out my perscription was not my full perscription (to help my eyes adjust to glasses easier)… so now they are re-ordering the lenses with the full perscription thinking that might be what was causing head aches. I have to wait about a week to get the new pairs and will update after that!
Never thought I would be living so far south of Salt Lake City (about 45 min)! I am amazed at how beautiful it is out there with the lake and mountain view… Why didn’t anyone tell me?!? hehehe. Come to find out, a lot of people we know live out there, so we will be in good company. After searching houses for lease in our price range, we felt like we could get the most bang for our buck in Saratoga Springs. It was either old, dark and/or cramped in Salt Lake, or big, light and open in or around Lehi. Since we work from home, we are pretty much free to live anywhere, and Todd’s family lives in that area, so the choice was pretty ease to make, lol. Anyways, time to pack up, and clean our SLC house (which was fun for a while). Look out Saratoga Springs, we are coming soon! Bwahahahaa
Btw… we are hoping Todd’s kids will get to join us at some point, and are always thinking of them.
Pics of the house:
View from backyard:
Kitchen:
Front of House:
Update (June 2011) Here is a shot of the backyard view at sunset!!….
We decided to take a random trip to Rachel near Area 51 and go to the Little A’Le’Inn cafe that we saw once on TV… and while out there, why not hang out in Vegas too, right? Usually we would gamble and little and watch a show… but I had limited funds and decided go with some shopping for fabrics and to use my student discount for makeup from the Mac Pro store. Oh, and we also stopped by at a costume shop just to see what they had. We might need to go back and buy some stuff before our big iStock Minilypse in July. Overall, it was a pretty fun and random trip… and no, I didn’t see any UFO’S, haha.
The drive to Rachel was long and there was nothing but desert and maybe a few alien signs just before you get to the Extraterrestrial Highway. Area 51 is so far off the road, that you have a to drive a ways out just to get to the signs that say you can’t go any further. We didn’t bother to drive out there… but we did visit a little alien cafe in Rachel. There were a few people there looking at pictures they had taken of what they thought might be UFO’s… I wished our friends Russ and Laurie were there to strike up some interesting conversations, lol. We pretty much just ate our lunches, bought a t-shirt, took some pictures and then headed back to Vegas. I imagine it would be so much fun to visit that place on a night that you know would be super busy with people itching to come tell everyone their abduction stories, lol.
While in Vegas, I thought it would be fun to go check out a local fabric shop, and wow… it was sooo different than what we’ve got here. They have a lot of fun, flashy stuff!! I bought a few yards of some super cool fabric and some fur. Last Christmas, Todd and I were looking for some fur and couldn’t find any of good quality, so now I have some for when I want some. Then we went to Caesar’s Palace Forums Shops where I got to use my MAC Pro discount card… I decided to go with a grey smokey eye pallet. Other than that, we went out to dinner and hung out.
Most importantly, it was good to get out… something we haven’t done for a while. Sitting at home, with a never ending to -do list all winter long as got me in a funk.
We had a great Valentines this year… Todd is such a romantic sweetheart, and I love him to death! I took him shopping for a cool new jacket, and out to lunch at Sawadee. We also volunteered in my daughters 1st grade class, went to Costco to buy the book my daughter’s picture is on, and then went out to dinner at the Mayan. Todd and the girls also surprised me with flowers and gift cards! I think we officially overdo all holidays, haha. Anyways, I decided earlier this morning to blog some couple pics of us from the last few years… I don’t think they have really come together in one place. So, here are some of our couple shots in random order, loving life together!! I will add more once I find them:
Valentine photo booth pics (taken 02-14-2011 while out to dinner):
Merry Christmas from Todd, Renee, Jaimy and Brooklyn!
We cherish & are thankful for all of our friendships. So if you have become a part of our life, whether it is modeling, friends, coming to parties, facebooking, emailing, photo club, book club, through iStockphoto etc. then thanks and we love you!! There is nothing better in this world than to be enriched with true friendships and family. We hope to keep all of our friends close… so hope to see you around in 2011!
Wow, what an amazing year this has been! Some of the highlights: Todd and I got married in Italy(!!), we started getting more creative with our photography (body paintings, etc), we also traveled to Disneyland, Death Valley, Seattle, Moab, and Vegas! I went ghost hunting for the first time in my life at the Stanley Hotel in Colorado. Todd spent two weeks in Japan on a crazy, awesome photo trip with iStockphoto. We purchased snowboards this winter and plan to become more active up in the mountains. We won an Arty’s Award from City Weekly for best photography exhibit. Our kids are doing great, they learned to ski this year for the first time! Jaimy played soccer this fall, and Brooklyn is in Gymnastics. They are both good and happy girls who love their family and are thankful for the opportunities we give them.
My New Years Resolution (Business): Buy a beauty dish, upgrade our computers, invest in a studio, learn hair and makeup, dabble in sewing so i can create my own wardrobe, get into set building, upload some shots to Getty Rights Managed. and possibly put together a super artsty vetta style lypse together with super artsy creative sets, models, wardrobe, etc. Personal Resolution: better healthy lifestyle eating.
Its been 12 years since I have been snowboarding!! I started in middle school (about 1994 or so) and sold all of my gear several years later when I got pregnant with my first daughter. I have thought about going again over the years, but it never felt even close to a reality until this year… and wow, it was about time, lol. Over the last few months I have had a few snowboard dreams, but there is always not enough snow, or I get there when the resort is closing. I will try to enjoy it more if I ever have another one, because its fun when you don’t feel the pain of your calf muscles burning while dreaming! We live in SLC, UT and are about 30 min away from the ski resort with some of the best snow on earth… so you would have to be crazy not to go, right!?!? I actually didn’t even have a good winter coat… so we ended up using a sears rebate refund on Black Friday (same day we went boarding). It was half off during the Thanksgiving sale, so the rebate covered the whole ski coat and has continued to keep my nice and warm. What a great deal!!
It was Todd’s first time up, and I knew he would pick it up pretty fast. After all, he was a major skier at one point in time, able to pull of back flips and 360′s etc. Don’t get me wrong, he falling left and right at first… but by the end of the day, he totally kept up with me.
I was going to use our nice camera to take some pictures, but wasn’t sure if I could pick up where I left off. It’s probably a good thing I left it in the car, lol. Here is a video of us at the end of the day. Todd is doing great, and then I catch my edge and wipe out!
At about 2:3o pm. I was ready to go get some hot chocolate at the lodge and relax. After that, I was ready to go home… good thing too, because I have been sore for three days now! We rented our gear this time around, and had to return it the same day. I found a super rad snowflake beanie that I love. Can’t wait to wear it next time The drive home was absolutely gorgeous. I really need to go up in the mountains and focus on some landscape photography this year. Anyways, here is an iPhone shot of Big Cottonwood Canyon:
Ideally we would like to own our own gear, and get some of the cheaper season passes (mon-thurs no holidays) … we will see if I can make it happen for Christmas. We also want to introduce my girls to skiing and boarding, so hope that will happen over the next few weeks!
I found this event while looking at Chip Coffey’s website and thought it would be fun to go to. Todd was going to be in Tokyo and there is no way I would go by myself, so I sent the link to my good friend Russ and told him we should go! He thought it looked like fun, so we made it happen. Neither of us are ghost hunters at all, but Russ is a psychic with medium potential, and I grew up feeling energies, etc. So anyways, this blog post is all about our experience at the TAPS (ghost hunters) event at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park Colorado from Nov. 5th-8th 2010.
The Stanley Hotel
The drive from SLC to Estes Park, Colorado was only about 7 to 8 hours. Most of the drive is through a ton of untouched desert with a few cities here and there. We talked about all kinds of stuff, listened to music, and also The Four Agreements by Don Miguel on the way. I think we left at 10am in the morning and got there around 7pmish. Estes Park is a gorgeous little town located up in the mountains. You have to go up a windy canyon road to get there and the scenery is just breathtaking. Fortunately we also had some really great weather pretty much the whole time we were there.
pic of me in room 217
Our cold’s got the best of us the first few days… we were drugged on our cold medicine and slept through the night the first few nights we were there. We did manage to go on a hotel ghost tour (pic to the right), the history is quite interesting… and also the fact that Stephen King stayed in room 217 where he was inspired to write “The Shinning”. We also learned all about all of the ghosts that are still known to haunt the hotel. Our mornings were slow, and we might have missed the first paranormal discussion while eating breakfast, but mostly made it to the rest of them. Some of the topics were Psychology of the Paranormal, Religious Demonology, Nephilim, Spirit Communication, etc. The TAPS team really does have a cool group of people/investigators involved like Adam Blai (a real life Exorcist for the Catholic Church), Jeff Belanger (Author and Legendtripper), Scotty Roberts (Editor of TAPS magazine), and Mike Brody (Comedian) just to name a few. They were all really nice, and definitely
TAPS people
mixed and mingled with the crowd which was really cool. I really wanted some sort of personalized experience from the whole event (not counting on any ghost experiences, lol) so I got a tarot reading from Scotty Roberts. I had a few drinks just beforehand, and can’t remember all of the details, but I do remember him talking about my creativity. Since he is the editor of TAPS magazine, I figured this would be the perfect time to pull out all of my business cards and show him what I do, LOL… Oh, and I told him I would take the best portrait of him that he has ever had, haha. After that, Russ and I went on to give our version of a ghost tour of the Stanley hotel posted below.
iPhone Movies starring Russ Lyman! Our ghost tour version of the Stanley Hotel…
During one part of the presentation, I could see a huge white glow around Adam Blai… but I am not sure if it was an Aura thing or somehow my eyes were doing something weird. The glow was extremely bright! I am a huge skeptic of seeing Aura’s, but definitely believe in them. So that was a weird experience.
So the last day we were there, we paid extra to see Chip Coffey… I didn’t really know what to expect. He came in, talked about himself, talked about his show (Psychic Kids) and then opened the floor to questions and then psychic questions. It seems like he was spot on with some people there. It would have been cool to have a personal experience with him, but it was only those few random people out of the crowd that were lucky. One of them was a girl who wanted to desperately find her one and only (this would be husband #4 for her). He said a name that came to him, and she turned to the crowd looking for him, or any guy that might be available, hahaha. Anyways, he ended up telling her to just “shut up!”. I think the crowd clapped… it was funny. Before he started the questions he asked if anyone hadn’t seen a horror movie… ever. One guy raised his hand, and Chip probably embarrassed him pretty badly telling him he’s the only one with a “we we” (or something like that) who has ever said that and he should get his email so he can send it to the seven other women he has ever met that is like that. It was to the point where none of us wanted to turn around and look who the guy was, because we didn’t want to embarrass him even more. I can see how some people would leave feeling pretty offended by Chip Coffey, and glad it wasn’t me. Overall, he was very blunt… and would tell you he could care less if you don’t like it (not very compassionate… at least to this crowd). I thought it was great to watch though, I really find medium capabilities extremely interesting. I would have appreciated a personal experience, but overall, would never pay to go see him again. Afterward, Russ and I got our picture taken with him. We were in a long line and rushed through… so it kind of felt like sitting by Santa Claus for a picture. I was so weirded out, that I forgot to make eye contact, say hello and thank you.
Later that night, our group was scheduled for a ghost hunt with the TAPS crew. To make a long story short, we ended up sitting in the dark for four hours (rotating rooms every hour) with about 15 strangers asking questions to thin air. And I say thin air because the ghosty’s were definitely avoiding our group for some reason (haha). I downloaded an iPhone app that is supposedly just another electronic device for a spirit to manipulate called iOVILUS. We only used this in one of the rooms, where one of the many words said happened to be “moist”.. Russ and I could not stop laughing!! hahahaha! If you don’t know us personally, the word moist happens to be one that Russ doesn’t like much, so it was already an inside joke. I actually recorded a bunch of audio trying to get evp’s, but am still trying to find motivation to go back and listen to it. Overall conclusion… I would never be a ghost hunter. I really don’t care to capture any evidence, or sit around dark rooms waiting for it. However, I do love having personal experiences with spirits or energies when they do happen. I would do it again for fun with friends, but not seriously.
It is beautiful out here, and we absolutely love it… I feel so lucky to wake up in such a beautiful family in such an amazing house, with such a beautiful view! The old house in the Avenues was really great while we were there… and it was fun to entertain in, but it was ultimately too dark for my taste. Fortunately, our new place is so bright… and all of my plants are super happy. It feels like a dream! I am hoping we can buy the place one day. We had so much stuff to move, and it was so exhausting, I never want to move again… and why would I want to live anywhere else, check out the view!! Hopefully we will have a nice big swing set sitting in that back yard within the next few weeks.
During our move I noticed that we kept collecting certain items over and over… from things that we needed, had bought before, but couldn’t find. Those items included light bulbs, and lemonade (boxes of packets from Costco, lol), and there is more, but I can’t remember what they were. We had SO much stuff… I think we are officially hoarding (lol), and I really need to go through everything as we unpack. We are so thankful to all of family and friends who came over to help us move, even in the snowy, cold weather… seriously, couldn’t have done it with out you. I hope we can be there for you as much as you were there for us!
Our first big purchase was a lawn mower, because it ends up being cheaper doing it yourself in the long run. Fortunately, I have built up my credit enough to charge it on some Home Depot credit, haha. I had to make sure to get one that my 11 year old could use. Todd taught her how to do it, and by the time I came out to help, she was a pro. We took turns mowing the backyard, although she hardly let me handle it because she was having so much fun. We filled up 7 bags of grass, and managed to get it thrown out on garbage pickup day. Come to find out, everyone just dumps it in the back desert area behind the houses, lol. One day we will have a 4 wheeler to ride out there… maybe for Christmas? hehe.
The drive home was absolutely gorgeous. I really need to go up in the mountains and focus on some landscape photography this year. Anyways, here is an iPhone shot of Big Cottonwood Canyon:
