Well…I’ve noticed, lately, that I seem to leave many of my images in color…I haven’t been converting many. I guess living in Minnesota with so many colorless months I’ve simply gravitated towards colored images. They’re happy. Color images smile.

So I asked myself…do you only want to capture time? OR, would you like to make an impact with those very same images and stop time? Hmmmm. I think it’s high time I select the latter.  Now, I’m not saying that I’m leaping off the color wagon but perhaps I’ll dabble with sitting on the running board and drag my boots a bit. Here are some recent captures of mine…thanks for checking in…

I wanted to introduce you to him because, well,
I love cats and this one was pretty neat.
He kept walking up to my lens so I shot these
all by holding my camera down at his level with
an 85 1.8 – shutter speed @ 350, 4.0 @ 1.8 at
an ISO of 100! No flash.

Sorry Allison, I’m easily distracted by cats!

I’m gonna work on a slide show and put up
a podcast for her, I think. Sound good Melissa?

I got to see Betty & Alice yesterday. I love them.
It does my heart good to see my friend’s cats!

Send me a cool photo of your cat and I’ll put them
up on my blog…send a little bio along with it
like, full name, aks’s, favorite toys, snacks,
places to sleep…stuff like that!

Flying Cloud Air Show is going on right now
through Sunday. They come in right over our
house…pretty cool. I”ll try to grab a couple
of pix over the next couple of days.

Have an incredible weekend!
Off to a party with some crazy former neighbors.

Oh, and tomorrow is the Chanhassen location
of the MiracleKids Triathlon. 7am! See ya there!

I am so grateful for all of my friends & family
that have risen up in support for Gary and I this
week. It has just meant the world to us.
Thank You.

I began working on the triplets Senior images…WOW!
Handsome, Handsome and Lovely!
To Adam, Max & Paige…thank you for the
opportunity and creating the ideal session
situation. I can’t wait to share them with you!

This morning I’m going through another Paige’s
senior portraits that I shot yesterday so that I can
get to the wedding images from today when I’m
completed with that.

I have a family shoot tomorrow mornings with one
on the way and a 2 year old darling little blondie~
I can’t wait to get to their home!
Then I get to cool it for the week and photograph
a couple of Seniors next weekend. I love this
time of year! Shoot, Shoot, Shoot!

I still have to find time to study for my SCUBA
certification. Looking forward to diving on my
own this year in Mexico! Soon I’ll be shooting
underwater weddings in the Caribbean! Woooo Hoooo!

Check out Paige from yesterday…

They live down the street. We get together
often and have some really terrific times.
Many times Ron will say to us, when the
night comes to an end,…”Hey, next time
we get together maybe we can have more fun.”
And we usually do.

These two seem to always surprise us with
the kindest gestures and with the loss of our
boy Hobie, I must say, their thoughtfulness
will be forever cherished right along with their
friendship.

Last night, while on a walk with their boy
Reggy,

they popped by with a framed image and
memorial poem about The Rainbow Bridge.
I clutched it too my chest and began to cry.
I would need more time before I could read it.
Ron & Cindy, your kindness touches us deeply.
Thank you.

Also, I want to thank my newest forever friend,
Heather Lombardo. She is the head of NILMDTS
here in Minnesota. We’ve done a lot together and
she is a very special lady. Thank you for taking
the time to recognize our loss. The flowers look
so alive and gorgeous. I’ve set them next to our
framed memorial.

Lastly, we received a bouquet from Anderson Lakes,
our veterinarian, yesterday as well. Thank you for
your kind words. I know you will miss performing
all the enemas! You are all top notch, we appreciate
everything you do for us and our precious, furry
family members!

The outpouring of concern and love from all over
the world has left me speechless.

Gary and I are both coping and doing well.

Bad news might be…
The set back that she’ll have in rehabbing her back.
She would have been full on into that by now and
instead she’s flat on her back. Pray that she is tough
enough to get into it when the time comes!

I guess I’ll take my own advice and “not borrow trouble”.
God has his plan for everyone involved here and it’s
not my business to muck that up.

Things are finally feeling like summer around here.
It’ll be in the upper 80′s all week and the 4th is
looking nice. The whole weekend is looking nice, actually!

On a sad note…my sister had to get rid of Spice.
Spice is Boo’s mom. Pete brought her up to the vet.
First, Sugar (their other Birman) started peeing everywhere
so they found a home for her~then last night, while the
whole family was sitting, peacefully, watching a movie,
Spice crawled right up next to Anne and peed right there
on the sofa. The NEW sofa! Anne says she’s out of
the cat business. Of course, she’s sad. She rather still
have both cats but can you blame her? I couldn’t
handle a cat that just peed on stuff all the time either.
I’m sorry Anne. Now you can enjoy your salt water tank!
oh, wait, didn’t one of the gobie’s jump out and die on
your carpet recently?? That’s kind of funny, really.

Everyone is good here at the Austin house.
Hobie and Katie tolerate Boo a little bit more with each
passing day. The lawn is flawless, the garden is
blooming and colorful and Gary and I still talk about
what to do for our upcoming 10th anniversary.
The jury is still out.

I have a wedding free week this week and will start
back up on the 12th. I’m sure that my sister’s bash
will feel like a wedding tho’. She and Pete are throwing
a huge party at their home on the 4th.

To any of you who have never commented here on my blog,
I challenge you to do so this week.
Oh, and Jenny’s “Dutch Word of the Day” blog is back
up and running again via Holland!

Keep my mom in your prayers, thanks!

I quickly learned that Ranee goes by “Ning”
by pretty much everyone so I joined in as well.

These two are amazing. They met at the Starbucks
on 11 in Burnsville. They married a year ago on
June 9th (2007) in Iowa with a more intimate
group and now wanted to share with everyone else
their love and commitment to one another by
holding an anniversary, marriage ceremony.
It was just fabulous! With as much attention
to detail as most first weddings I ran around
and captured it all single handed..with pleasure!

Starting with where they met and finishing after
the first dance. All held at the Crystal Lake
Golf Course in Lakeville. And their dog, Logan
was a ring barer as well!

The Coordinator there, Rosealie, was very
certain in her role and asked us to refrain from
using the course for photos as there were many
golfers still playing so we did what we could
around the facility and really just had some
fun! Here are some of my faves!

Thanks Ning & Jay for allowing me this opportunity!

Rusty is staying in the office for now
with the door closed so that Katie & Hobie
can know of his presence, just not see him.
Then in a few days I’ll open the door and
“expose” the little darling through a gate.
This is what the experts all say is the
best way to introduce a new pet to the
existing ones.

Oh, and just so you don’t think that Gary
is against this…When I finally came to
bed last night, Gary had Rusty up in the bed
with him and he wanted him to sleep with us.
That lasted about 10 minutes!
He is just too cute.

I have way too much work to catch up on.
I have to go…..Here are some random shots
from the weekend…

This date will always be a day that I
celebrate and not because I love
Mexico (I do) but rather because it
will forever mark the day that I
decided to save my life.

This is actually the 5th anniversary
of the day that I quit smoking. Yay me!
I know I mention it each year but it’s
significant to me and I would like to
let others know that there IS life
(no pun intended) after smoking.

Now, I’ll admit, I’ve given myself
plenty of liberties over the past
5 years and as a result I’ve put on
nearly 25 pounds (not real happy with
that), it just creeps up on you.
but today that all changes.
I’ve decided that today I am committing
to taking my body back!!
I’ll be posting my progress in bits
and pieces as not to bore you or scare
you away from my blog!

My first goal: Lose 10-12 pounds by the
Starkey Hearing Foundation Gala (June 14th).
There. I said it. Now it’s out there.

(My mom just sent me an e-mail that
reads…”Felize Quitidad!” she’s funny!

I’m supposed to go and pick up my kitten
today. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Kind of a me day today although I have
reserved it for Nancy & Rick Martin’s
wedding images..still going through those.

Have a great day!