26 September 2009

Me Ra Koh Workshop - Washington DC

Hello all! Ok I’m sorry its taken me so long to put these pictures up – but I’ve been working endlessly trying to make sure they look as good as possible as well as keeping up with household/life stuff J So I guess a little intro to what I did, why and what the end result is and what it means for me. As many of you know Charlie and I got really lucky for our wedding and had Me Ra and her husband Brian shoot our wedding photos for us. It was an amazing experience and they are truly extraordinary people. One of their main focuses is to help women gain confidence in themselves and discover what their photographs show.

This last weekend I had the privilege of finally going to one of their workshops in Washington DC, spend two days with them and 19 other women learning, growing and stretching as an individual and a photographer. Saturday we spent all morning working on camera stuff/reviewing settings and such. That afternoon we had mothers and their babies come in and model for us. I got to work with Becky and her baby Clara – adorable. Steph was so kind to let me borrow her camera with her super shnazzy lens that I used to get some of these shots:



I also got to take some shots of first time mom Paula and her beautiful baby girl Jane.

And this is Stephen. J

The next day we got to work with families, everyone was so nice and helped each other out, I got to use other lenses, cameras and learn from everyone around me. Here are some of my family shots.



I honestly don’t have any words for the way the weekend changed my life. I knew that I loved taking pictures and capturing different moments in my and others’ lives, but I had no idea how the pictures were impacting me. I’m looking forward to taking more pictures and seeing where this new path leads me.

I hope you guys like the pictures! Let me know what you think!

24 September 2009

First Grad Class

Not too bad... I'm quite exhausted - photo editing, running 2 blogs and having a business its definitely keeping me busy, in a good way though! I'm having a blast!

Tomorrow:
Post blog of Washington DC trip with pictures.
Email pictures to Me Ra
Go buy my school books for my 2 classes.
Laundry
Organize office/TV room.
Go for a walk with the Boothoms.
ITS

Life is good :) Let the good times keep coming!
Check out www.ckshealth.blogspot.com

I'm going to Maui! Diamond Run goal = April 16, 2010.

Going to keep focusing on the positives even though the negatives keep coming.
God Bless you all - Good Night.

22 September 2009

Summer Catch Up


Ok – I know I’ve procrastinated this summer keeping everyone up to date on what’s been going on in my life. So I’ll try to summarize it as best as possible.

My last post was the week of my sister’s high school graduation – my finals week at LSU. After that life got slow and hectic at the same time. The end of school was a challenge for me, the end of so much hard work and blood, sweat and tears… Quite an experience. In the end, graduation was awesome! SO thankful school is over and I have my diploma!!!

Yvette, who thought I was crazy for crying all week had graduation finally hit her. I heart her. She is one of my favorites.

I spent the beginning of my summer with Tim after his knee surgery – playing referee between his knee and my giant Booth dog. Haha that was a challenge, the big loveable doofus dog wanted to help Tim, and would end up just landing on him. So that was a 24/7 job.

In July I started working at Quality Management again; doing a big project. So that kept me busy. Charlie and I also started working on our own business, Mona Vie. We are having SO much fun starting it up and seeing it grow. www.ckshealth.blogspot.com is our blog that if you guys want you can keep up with what is going on.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince came out this summer (if you didn't know) so I spent WAY too long out in front of the theater by myself - but it was worth it! Family tradition of the midnight show continues. :)

July 22 marked 5 years of being together and 2 years of marriage. So, we felt like it was something pretty amazing and it should be celebrated, so Charlie took me to The Melting Pot. It was a good night to enjoy a 2 ½ hour meal and just hang out. I love my hubby – I can’t wait for our 5 year marriage anniversary.

Every year I fall more in love with him, he’s my best friend.

In August we had a “Family Vacation Week.” Instead of going out of town, we decided to spend a week together as a family doing things here in the area that we haven’t done before. So the first day we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Rosine’s which has Mediterranean food.

Then we went and painted our own plates at the Paint a Memory place in Corona – now we have a complete set of “family” dishes. It was a lot of fun – despite all the ridiculous teeny bopper music they were playing. Lol


The next day we went swimming, barbequed and went to the Orange Country Fair.


Santa Monica Pier & Venice Beach was the next day’s activities.

Tuesday we had a family photo shoot with Yvette & Darren. They were awesome!!! Here is the link to the slideshow that she put together – She is AWESOME!!!! Check it out!!!

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6512912&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1%22

San Diego Wild Animal Park was Wednesday:


Then a weekend in Solvang:

We stopped at The Alcove CafĂ© on the way out – delicious food.


Game night in the pet-friendly hotel. J


We’ve been working on Mona Vie quite a bit and at the end of August Yvette joined our team! Super excited about that J So within a week we had a trip planned and we went up to San Jose for a tasting at her mom’s house and spent the weekend up there. So awesome! Things are moving fast and we had a blast up there.

Did you know that San Francisco has a 2 Story Anthropologie!?!?!?!?!?! Oh my gee. Lol What an awesome place. Haha I only spent $9 on nail polish. Good for me.

And now – here I am, sitting in the Washington DC Airport with my computer. I just spent the weekend here for a photography workshop with MeRa Koh J What an amazing experience!!! I’ll post tomorrow with some of the shots that I got over the last 2 days – and tell you guys all about it. So much fun. Life changing, really.

My flight takes off in a few hours, and I won’t get home until late tonight. YAY though for all the fun and exciting things going on right now.

School starts this week – I’m only taking 2 classes towards my Masters. So that’ll give me more time to put towards Mona Vie and my Photography.

14 September 2009

I'm lame

I know its been a while since I posted - but HI Everyone! We are alive! I'll post during the week while I have some free time. :) promise.