My little guy turned 4 today! I can’t believe how time flies! With a sunny day and a bag full of bribes, we went out for an annual birthday photo shoot and he somehow managed to ham it up for me!

For those of you who don’t know, I grew up in Eugene. However, I am unfortunately not a true Duck fan.  I spent my college career in the heart of the midwest and am an avid Big 10 Fan….especially when it comes to my alma mater, Purdue University. I caught major flack from my college peers for not attending the NCAA Playoffs that Purdue was in when they played in Portland at the Rose Garden Arena. So, knowing that Purdue would be playing on Duck turf this fall season, I knew I needed to get tickets. And yes, tickets I got and I will be in the midst of all the Duck fans. And, I’m ok and at peace with that. I’m just going to support my team.

That said, I am going to do something fun with this….

If Purdue wins….YOU WIN! I’m giving away a 1.5 hour complimentary photo session (Value $175)

A Few Rules:

• Must live within the Portland Metropolitan Area
• You must be a fan of our Facebook Fan Page
• You must enter your name on the drawing (located on the Facebook Fan Page)
• If Purdue wins, drawing will be completed on Sunday, September 13th  from names that were registered in the drawing prior to game start (7 PM PST)
• Winner will be notified on Monday, September 14th
• Session must be completed before October 31, 2009 (only applies to weekday sessions – weekend additional fees apply). Good for senior or family sessions up to 4 immediate family members. Additional charges apply for additional family members.

Good luck to everyone!

Yeah, yeah…my friends gave me a some grief because I took my lil guy to Tulip Festival last week in Woodburn. The day after he had the 24 hour stomach bug. And yeah, maybe you should report me to children’s services because I had dragged him down to Jamison Square the day before the 24 hour stomach bug to enjoy the sunshine we had last week. But hey, you tell me if it looks like he’s upset and not enjoying himself. It’s very rare that I can get either of my kids out for some decent images, let alone, by myself!

We had a blast and he was pooped at the end, but it’s not ALL about the flowers at the Woodburn Tulip Festival. I even ran into a client and met some new photogs while I was out there too!

It’s our son’s 3rd birthday and it’s also New Music Tuesday. Instead of a traditional birthday song, he’s stuck on this one and I love it!

This is the Happy Birthday Song by The Ting Ting’s

Facebook has to be, hands down, one of THE best tools out there today for networking and making connections. Sure, if I want to maintain my professional business connections, I’m also on LinkedIn and other networks but I have had the best opportunities to reconnect with old friends that I’ve lost touch with through Facebook.

In 2000-2001, my husband and I had the opportunity to live in Germany so I could get my MBA in 11 months through a program with Purdue University. We met some really cool people during our time there. And, while I may not communicate with them on a regular basis, it’s great that we’ve been able to make connections through Facebook. One couple friend in particular, Jen & Shane Holmes, have to be the coolest, laid back, intellectual and musically talented people we know. Shane used to make ‘mixed tapes’ for us when we lived in Hanover. Somehow the mixed tapes still sit nearby but are not played – mainly because we don’t have a tape player in our house anymore! Either that, or the kids got ahold of them and permanently ruined them.

Stage left – Facebook…Jen & Shane found me on Facebook the other day and the reunion has begun. Thanks to another friend who told me about 8tracks.com, Shane is back on the new, technology improved way of sharing his mixed tapes with me again

Check out his mixes on 8tracks.com – or follow SenatorShane

I had so much fun last weekend watching the Purdue vs Oregon game and throwing out a little incentive for you guys. So, I’m doing it again. Purdue is playing Central Michigan tomorrow, not as intense as watching Purdue vs. Oregon play, given my location, but it’s another game nonetheless.

If Purdue wins, I’m giving away another 1/2 session to the first person to contact me after the game.

A few rules this time:

• You can’t ask me ‘who won’?
• You have to tell me what the score was at the end of each quarter
• Session must be scheduled before the end of October

GO BOILERS!!!!

Today, Nike sponsored a ‘race around the world’ - The Nike Human Race. Not literally a race around the world, but over 30 cities participated in the largest ‘world’ race today. For my Nike friends, feel free to correct me offlineUp until about 2 weeks ago, I had planned on running this 10K ‘virtually’ with my Nike Plus device the plugs into my iPod and tracks your pace and mileage. Don’t ask me why, but for some reason this ‘world race’ sponsored by Nike, didn’t plan on having an actual race location here in Portland – until 2 weeks ago. Much to my surprise, not only were they going to make Portland an actual race location, but they also had Nada Surf lined up to play at the end of the race.

Anyway, I somehow convinced my friend Jeannie, to run this 10k with me today in exchange for running  next weekend’s Pints to Pasta 10K. So, yeah, I’ll be doing this again next Sunday. It was absolutely beautiful this morning. Not too many clouds and some nice warm sun poking it’s rays through. Had a blast. Am waiting to see pics that some other friends took of me coming into the Finish chute. In the mean time, here’s a little music from Nada Surf to hopefully add a little sunshine to your day if you’re in the Pac northwest enjoying the rain right now!   

So, I was playing around with a studio set up last weekend that I needed for an upcoming shoot and I think I’m running out of ‘favors’ from my family. I think my husband will have something to say about this once he finds out I posted this to the blog!