and you can’t bring any of the furniture left in it with you anyway.

We leave Virginia this week for a week long stay in North Carolina before heading off on a 3-4 day roadtrip back home to California for a 3 week stay with family and then it’s time to board the plane for our 20 hour flight to Japan.

Wish me sanity and expect photos.

the best ones are at the top of the trees. The boys don’t want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they just get the rotten apples that are on the ground that aren’t as good, but easy. So the apples at the top think there is something wrong with them, when, in reality, they are amazing. They just have to wait for the right boy to come along, the one who’s brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree. - Anonymous

One of my biggest responsibilities as a mother is to make sure my children, especially my daughter, know their worth. I hope I do that job well.

As most of you know, my family and I moved to the East Coast to accompany my husband while he attended a military course for the past four and a half months.

He graduated last week!

We are all extremely proud of his accomplishment and ready to tackle the next big step in our lives — our move to Japan.

It saddens me to think that I won’t be in California to capture all your new extraordinary everyday moments, but I am also excited about what awaits us overseas. And if, by chance, you find yourself in Japan, don’t hesitate to look me up. We’ll be there for three years and I’d love the company.

After some re-designing (just a bit), the website is back up and running.

You may notice, however, that the galleries are empty. In truth, it takes me forever to decide which photos to share as is because I adore all the photos I’ve taken of clients, but I also have a project in the works that will allow for new photos to be added to the galleries to accompany the previous photos and I’m taking my time in properly organizing and choosing.

In addition, I will be offering Portfolio Fresh Faces sessions in the near future. These sessions will benefit me in that I can continue to better my skills as well as add to my portfolio, but this will benefit those of you who book for these sessions, too.

How is that, you ask?

The Portfolio Fresh Faces sessions will be offered with a waived session retainer fee in exchange for a signed model release. That’s right — no retainer fee! As if that isn’t incentive enough to book your session when the appointment book opens, you will also receive 3 digital files sized to print as 5×7 or smaller on disc. This is quite a savings being offered, let me tell ya, because I no longer offer my images on CD without the purchase of a print collection. For frame of reference, the session retainer is a $75 fee and my smallest print collection starts at $450.

If you are interested in participating in a Portfolio Fresh Faces session, stay tuned to this blog for announcements and updates!