Do you Clip?

I recently told Gary that I wanted to try
something different. I told him it had been
years since I had done it but I remember the
sensation and satisfaction being pretty
terrific. I also remember that it took a bit
of planning, preparation and on occasion, timing.
PEOPLE! Get your heads out of the gutter, I'm
talking about clipping COUPONS here!!!
(btw...do you say "Koo'-pon" or "Kyoo'-pon"?)

I guess after years of just running out and
picking up what we need all "willy nilly",
I thought that perhaps taking a stab at
saving some cash might be fun, addicting or
just plain smart, right?
Anyway, so I get up this morning, pour my
coffee, grab my "cheater/readers", a scissor
and I sit down to the kitchen counter.

I start with the ads to see where the stuff we
need is on sale then move to the coupons to see if
I can save anymore money. This proves to be
a total bust. If you don't eat cereal, drink
ensure, use disposable batteries, need diapers,
consume canned fruits-meats or veggies....
you simply can't save money. I laughed out loud.
Gary thinks that I'm crazy. I knew that already!

So after studying this weekends ads & coupons
today for about 45 minutes, I have come to the
conclusion that I am already in the red. :\

Happy Birthday to Stacey Thon! *<):-D

Girls Night Out in Excelsior!

Every Thursday is Girl's Night Out in
Excelsior. This week is even better
because it's "CRAZY DAYZ" too so there
are tons of special and deals up and down
Water Street! Like buy one get one wine
at Jake O'Connors! Drawings and % off
clothing in all the stores...it's fun.
I'm sure I'll be Twittering from Excelsior
tonight with the all the gals.

I stopped out to see my mom last night
after dinner (thanks Gary! DE-LI-CIOUS
pork tenderloin, garlic toast & red grapes!).
My brother, Mike showed up shortly after
with gorgeous hydrangeas and tabloid mags
for her..so thoughtful!

She seemed a bit out of it. Still hasn't
eaten much but they took the catheter out
(again) which is good and they put her back
on IV nutrients and fats...oh, how I wish
I could be hooked up to a fat IV drip! I just can't
seem to keep my fats up! ;)

Well, we sillied around a bit and then
broke the code on the computer in her
room ("for STAFF USE ONLY") next to her bed
and went to FREE SLOTS.COM
and my mom TOTALLY came alive!
She starts in...."Go to Mystical Wizzard..."
It was sooo funny.
We kids think that Mystic Lake Casino should
be sending my mom flowers or a line of
credit or something! :)

2 Words...

NOT FUNNY.
Woke up to this today. Jealous?
Um, yea, I thought not.





Nice, right?

Well, I had a full day yesterday.
Met Nicki in Excelsior for an early coffee
that turned into a lunch at Jake O'Connor's.
It was raining but we managed to dodge the
rain a little by popping into some of our
favorite stores and a couple of new ones too!
Martin's is back in Excelsior and Omorphia is
new to town.

















Ahhhhh, a cappuccino & the molten lava bailey's
dessert at Jake O'Connor's....oh, just SHOOT me!





Oh, we did split the fish & chips too!

On to part 2 of my day...I went to Abbott to
photograph a full term, Trisomy 18 baby girl
that passed in utero sometime Thursday.
Her name is Lauren..perhaps spelled "Loren",http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
in that her dad's name is Lorenzo.

From there, I went directly to the Depot in
Minneapolis (the hotel/ice rink) for my
Christian outreach foundation-Here's Life
Inner City.













I'm pooped.
Enjoy the snow!

running with megan..

what a day we had yesterday.
first, gary to the surgeon...
ran home, took hobie to the vet~
then megan and i ran to southdale
to shop at macy's and find boots
for her then we had to race back
to pick up hobie from the vet~
he's now poop free! :)
then megan and i got back in the car
and buzzed up to crystal to meet
with sergio (her good friend) and
his girlfriend wendy for a bite at
"el toro" in robinsdale...
sergio had to work last night so
it was a quick bite and off to
ridgedale to get the shoes that the
southdale macy's was out of stock on.
THEN i thought...wow, wouldn't it
be fun to introduce megan to von maur!
so we hit that place too and we both
picked up some lancome! we were nearly
shopped out...
the following are some highlights from
my camera as we both brought along
our cameras for the day. i nearly got
kicked out of the macy's at ridgedale
for taking pictures of shoes...yea, like
i'm going to, in my spare time, copy some
shoes and start another business...
megan and i just laughed! ;)





















today, it's off to the hilton to drop off
some things for the new year's eve event.
then....later we are to hook up with
sergio again and i also am going out
to excelsior to attend a belated "boxing day"
gathering at my brother & nicki's home.
looking forward to an outing with friends!

megan is taking the train back home in the
morning and i will be heading back downtown
to shoot an event at the mpls hilton from
10:30 to 4. megan is shooting a wedding on
new years eve and i'll be shooting the minnesota
miracle event at the airport hilton that night.
work, work, work...good thing we play hard!!

silpada jewelry...

fine sterling silver jewelry

the recap on cindy's party last night
goes a little something like this...
i went knowing that i would have fun,
drink some wine, snack on some goodies,
talk to all the gals and even take some
photos~oh sure, i did all that AND i
ended up purchasing 2 rings!!
i absolutely LOATH waiting!
"here's all the really fun~gorgeous
stuff that you can have..." ....in 3 weeks!

i'll still love them when they get here!
thanks again, cindy for a great time.


ron & cindy (& reggie)






i forget this little guys name but he tagged
along to the party and stayed pretty darn late!





gary just called. he got three birds yesterday!
not that that excites me any but i told him that
when you go out there every other weekend you're
bound to get good at it, right?!

the snow that is to hit us tomorrow will, of course
hit them first and so they are considering heading
back early so they don't have to follow it all the
way back to minnesota on sunday and we are expecting
a PILE of snow. the first big snow of the season.
pretty cool really....on december 1st an all.
that should get everyone in the Christmas spirit!
i'll be posting images of that tomorrow! :)

i have several families that are waiting to take
"snow" photos and so this may turn out to be a
very busy weekend for me! :)

i head to the Hilton later today. 2 families are
checking in for the weekend

Go get ready for the snow!!!!!

(i'm sorry, i forgot to post photos of Uta
and her new "do"! what a treat for me to
meet her and cut her hair. Uta returned to
germany this morning...hope to see her again!@
thanks, ann conrad, for bringing her by!)

northfield, minnesota

home of carelton college, st. olaf college
and malt-o-meal! woody, a friend of my husband's,
used to say that he loved the days that they made chocolate!!

in that g was not interested in applying to either
college, nicki and i went straight into town
to wander around this quaint little river town.
"digs" is one of my favorite stops.
they have the most unique collection of cards,
paper, candles, doo~dads and now have crazy
fabrics on the lower level! i'm a paper nut
so i always stop in there to see what's new!!











hey, jen! i shot nicki "swishing through the leaves"!!!
can't you just hear the leaves??? :)



we popped into the town bakery to grab a goodie and
i got reprimanded for taking pictures...in a BAKERY?
are you kidding me?
well, what could i do but stop shooting. it smelled
just like the excelsior bakery from when i was a child.
many great memories for me from the smell of a real
bakery....sorry to have caused any undo stress!



then just simple darting in and out of the shops
on the main street (mostly to get warm! it was cold!)



before we headed back to digs so nicki could pick up
some fabric, we went around the corner to "basil's"...
for some of the greatest pizza!

i'm off to a pre-op appointment this morning.
nothing serious but i must get going!
thanks for checking in today!
stay warm!

thymes sale...

(this tree is down the block from my friend gerri's house.
it's soo beautiful!!)

ever been to the thymes sale?
this will be my 3rd with nicki, it's so much fun.
they sell all their over runs and all sorts of stuff
for super cheap! they used to hold it it the CW
building in north east minneapolis but it's full
of condos now...really cool loft condos!! :)
now it's held a couple of blocks away and runs
though saturday (just a 3 day event).

the first year we came out with SACKS of stuff!
as we walked to the car i said "we smell good!"
just being in the warehouse walking around
your clothes just pick up all the scents.
it was (as nicki's mum would say) "GO-juss!"
(oh, that's "gorgeous" with a british accent! ;)
anyway, she's coming over around 9:30 and we
are going to head out and see how long it takes
us to get there with the 35w bridge out and all.

then it's downtown for the big ribbon cutting at
the Colin Powell Youth Leadership Center!

notable is the fact that megnan & randy clay's
wedding album arrived at my door yesterday.
i'm going to meet her at 7:30 tomorrow morning
when she gets off work at the hospital.
(i know, ugh, right?) i mean her not me.
she works in labor and delivery!
oh, and the album looks awesome, i can't wait
for her to see it! she's seen the online
version but when you actually get to hold it
in your hands and flip through it, it's really
soooo much more fun! see you tomorrow morning megnan!

postponing the portrait party with kindra's friends.
if it's nice out, i may head to the park tomorrow anyway.


have a blessed day! another beauty of a day!

hither & yon...

yesterday seemed much a blur to me.
first i met up with nicki and my sister,
anne for coffee in excelsior @ the dunn
brother's by the lake. perfect day to
sit outside on the patio and throw back
a nice dark roast! this was anne's first
time coming along as all of her children
are now in school all day (ahhh, me time!).





once we were finished with our coffees
and solving the worlds problems, we set
out for a little "walk about" on the streets
of excelsior looking for something to strike
our fancy...and boy did it!~this town can
kick you if you aren't careful!$$$$

first we hit "capers" and saw our good, long
time family friend donna and a client of mine,
fran and we chatted it up for awhile.
this store is full and i mean FULL of fun,
girly, gifty, warm fuzzy kind of stuff.
it's right on water street, the main drag in
excelsior across from jake o'conner's (which
i'll get to in a minute).
i picked up something for anne and handed it
to her right there in the store. a candle.



cute, right?!

then we moved on to "cheri's"~a consignment
shop~ where i found a michael kohrs yummy
army green with chocolate brown leather trim
winter jacket...bought it! i needed another
jacket...i don't have a green one. :)

then we also hit "gatherings of excelsior"~
this is one of the great florists in town.
i watched as anne approached the counter cuz
i knew that she didn't know that they had
a cat in the store and she came face to face
with it and jumped! pretty funny really.
here's "timber"...



he just sits there an lets you love on him.



i've seen more an more of these fairy gardens
around, have you ...they truly are the sweetest
things. i've GOT to get one.



i almost just bought one of these fairies
to stick in one of my plants..too cute.



well then i had to go meet cory so anne
and nicki decided to go to jake o'connor's
for some lunch on the sidewalk. crap.
i called cory and rescheduled...not me at ALL!
we were just having the best time and i wanted
more sister time. lunch. awesome. as usual there!

one last stop..."meridian ltd." owned by
christine a. kuhns. a really terrific
woman's clothing store. this is where all
the cool stuff is...joe's jeans, 7's, l.a.m.b.
(gwen staphanie's line), there's more, i just
can't think of it all..oh, twill twentytwo.
great jewelry and belts and bags...a REAL
girl store. and it's laid out just like
the shops in melrose or beverly hills. truly great.









no JUNK, no CLUTTER. thanks chistine, we'll
be back soon. thursday nights is ladies night
in excelsior and they offer anywhere from
10 to 20% off! so go for it girls!!!!

had to run home and get ready to go meet some
bella photographers up in maple grove.
just a casual gathering to meet and greet
and talk bella and talk photography.
it was great. a lot of no~shows but we
managed to make great use of the time.
thanks ben for graciously offering to foot
the bill for dinner and i learned so much.
thanks for sharing all of your insites
and personal stories. hopefully next time
we can get it together earlier and get a
better turn out. perhaps we should start a
bella blog like a pro forum for works and
ideas...what do you say!?


got home at about 8:30 and got a call from
heather from nilmdts before i even shut the
door..they were desparate. no one else was
available to take this session. so i grabbed
my gear and headed for children's in minneapolis.

this little darling was just born via c-section.
she was perfect, perfect on the outside only.
she was born with severe internal trauma
unknown to all involved. little miss kaitlyn
was due to be delivered yesterday but to
her family, not God. everyone was gathered.
so much love in that room. this time there
was a chaplain present (my first experience
with that) we all prayed while she was alive
and then everyone kissed her goodbye and we
waited. and waited, and waited....she passed
around 11:00. just devastating.



don't let me doubt in darkness what You have
shown me in the light......



got home around midnight, gary was fast asleep.

please take a moment and pray for this family.

i have big bella wedding today at minnikahda.