My life...just not on the road I expected (but it's still dang good).

Back.

I'm home and all is well.

Came home sick from Florida but am finally starting to feel better.

Turns out that spending two days in the air and two days teaching without much sleep is hard on the immune system.

And I got my computer back from the repair shop today.

Turns out that if you unplug your external hard drive on a regular basis without 'ejecting' it first, it will slowly but eventually corrupt your hard drive.

Josh Downs warned me about that but I didn't listen.  (And thankfully, he's not the kind of guy that says, "I told you so.")

Back soon.

Leaving for Florida...

As luck would have it, my computer started acting haywire this afternoon.

First it wouldn't burn the CD's I needed for my class folders and then it wouldn't read my external hard drive...which has the Powerpoint presentation I need for my workshops in Florida.

So instead of packing for Florida, I spent the afternoon down at the computer repair shop.

I'm home now (frantically packing because my flight leaves at 6am) but my computer is not.

Thankfully, they were able to copy my Powerpoint presentation onto a CD for me but it looks like I'm not going to be able to get caught up on emails before heading out of town.

So if I owe you an email (And I'm embarrassed to admit that I have emails from early September that I still haven't responded to.) it'll have to wait until I'm back in town and my computer is up & running again.

And since I'm writing this from Cali's computer (Ross's girlfriend) I'll leave you with one of her photos...

Back next week (and I'm feeling a blogging spree coming on!)

Lee Lee.

Picked my Sister up from the airport on Saturday.  (She lives about 8 hours north of us in Seattle, WA.)

Annie had been counting the days until she got to see her Aunt Lee Lee.  (She doesn't call her 'Mommy's Sissy' anymore.)

Coley had been counting the days until he got to play on her iPhone.

Spent the last few days celebrating Coley's birthday, shopping, eating good food and hanging out with my Sister.

I can't believe I spent a decade of my life (ages 8-18) despising her...because she's really quite wonderful.

Love you Leigh Ann.

Oh, and another reminder that I'll be teaching the One Day Photographers' Workshop in Florida this coming weekend.  I'll be at Whim So Doodle in St. Petersburg on Saturday, October 23rd (727 827 4911) and at Scrappy Boutique in Orlando on Sunday, October 24th (407 856 8070)

Teaching those one day workshops makes my giddy.  Tired, but giddy.

Looking forward to seeing some of you in Florida...

10.

He's ten today and just got done blowing out the birthday candle on his birthday muffin (with a fist full of birthday cash from Grandma Jo & Grandpa Tom.)

And now, at his mom's insistence...he's taking a birthday bath.

More Random Stuff.

1. Annie fell asleep in the living room the other night and I couldn't stop staring at her, thinking about how lovely of an age four is.

2. After the garage sale, I'm feeling about 2000 lbs. lighter and about $2000 richer. 

3. Going to spend this week continuing to organize the house and after that, I have to get serious about work...lots of work-related stuff that I want to accomplish in the coming months.

4. Coley's birthday is this weekend and my Sister is coming into town.  I can't wait.

5. Still haven't weeded through all the Greece photos yet.

6. Rode bikes with Josh and the kids to dinner last night and had to ride home in the rain (but I kind of enjoyed it.)

7. Still training for the traithlon and am feeling like it's the best thing I've done for myself in a long time.

8. Ross is home for the week because he's not getting enough hours at Burger King, so he's working for me instead.  Right now, he's hanging up all the clean clothes.  (Lucky me, I get time with Ross and I don't have to hang clothes.)

9. Registration for the next online Photographers' Workshop is on Nov. 1st at 6pm Pacific time.  (Class starts in January 2011.)  You have to be on the wait list in order to register for the class and I'll be sending out more details to all wait list students early next week.

10. Just a reminder that I'm teaching the One Day Photographers' Workshop in Florida this October.  I'll be at Whim So Doodle in St. Petersburg on Saturday, October 23rd (727 827 4911) and at Scrappy Boutique in Orlando on Sunday, October 24th (407 856 8070)

11. Still having a tough time committing to blogging but I'm getting there...

Simplicity.

Sometimes, life seems so simple that I have to wonder why we choose to make it so complicated.

Right now, I'm really needing simplicity.

And so I'm spending the rest of the week decluttering, cleaning closets, organizing drawers and loving my label-maker.  Getting rid of all the excess that is weighing me down. (Ali Edwards would be so proud.)

I'm even going to empty out our storage units (I'm embarrassed to admit that we have two of them - full of junk I swore I was going to paint/refurbish/put to use one day.) and am going to have a garage sale this weekend.

Josh is taking Coley hunting, Grandma Jo is keeping the girls and I'm having a garage sale.

So I'm turning off my computer for the rest of the week. 

And rest assured that I will post more photos from Greece and I will get caught up with my email and I will be a better blogger but for now, I'm busy weeding through all the crap...looking for simplicity.

Alive & Well.

Yes, I'm alive & well.

And no need to worry/feel sorry for me...I just got home from Greece.

Spent one week teaching and a another week sightseeing with Josh Downs.  (And in my book, people who get to spend two weeks in Greece don't deserve sympathy.)

And yes, I am wearing a swim-suit in that shot (but rest assured, I was also wearing a cover-up to hide my sausage legs.)

My husband had never seen me in a swim-suit.

And yes, that is my mojito in the lower left corner.

Though my husband has seen me drink many a mojito.

I left town feeling defeated & overwhelmed but came home feeling refreshed & hopeful...and tired.  (Can't sleep...hence, I'm writing this at 4:45 am on a Sunday morning.)

But refreshed, hopeful & tired sure beats defeated, overwhelmed & tired.

Hope to be back to my regularly-blogging-self very soon.

Have missed you guys.