Christmas Traditons: Postcard to NYC

One of my family's Christmas traditions are these: Swedish Tea Rings. Every year I would help my mom make these and deliver them to our neighbors and friends. But the best one was always saved for Christmas morning. After opening presents we would enjoy this once a year treat. Well, Nancy and Joe are in NYC for this Christmas and next so I took up the honor, stress and enjoyment of making them. Although my mom did find a way to make them for my dad this year! Dear Nana and Grandpa, Since you are away this year I decided to carry on the tradition and make THESE Your other children were very surprised and happy when I showed up on Christmas Eve with these in hand. Especially since I didn't do my math very well and each tea ring was twice the size it should have been! :) Christmas morning was great for all to have a little piece of Christmas past and mom in each home. Tea ring and coke after presents, what more could you need? Hope NYC tea ring is as good tea ring at home.

Austin Cade Lee

I have had a couple practice photo shoots lately. This is our newest nephew Austin and his older brother Payton! Thanks again to my sister-in-law Kelli for letting me use her boys as my models, so cute. Coming soon: my niece Libby and the Real Salt Lake game!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN BIRTHDAY!

Shawn asked me weeks ago to change our blog background bc he was "bored with it" so here's a quick change for Halloween/his birthday. That's right today is Shawn's birthday, Happy Birthday love! Being a Halloween baby Shawn loves Halloween. When I got out our decorations this year I realized our collection was quite dismal. It may have worked in our apartment, but our house looked pathetic. So I started celebrating a little early and got going on more decorations. It's not much but its a start, and I'm sure it will keep growing over the years. Shawn got his very own first ever grill for his birthday, and a fire pit will follow (hopefully the awesome Utah Utes one from Costco!) Last night we had some friends over for dinner, cake and the Utah game, go Utes! This morning I got up and cleaned up from last night and made Shawn a special Halloween/birthday breakfast, then we started our Harry Potter marathon in preparation for HP7 in a few weeks! I'll be making Shawn a delicious steak dinner tonight, decorating our Halloween ginger bread house and his parents are taking us out tomorrow. I hope I've made your birthday a fun month Shawn! I told Shawn we were old today and he said "we're not old till we have kids" I guess we won't be old for a while :) Love you Shawn! PS: Also a Happy Birthday to my brother JD today, and my dad aka Elder Lyon yesterday!

Halloween

We had our friends Heather & Brad over tonight to carve pumpkins! It was fun to catch up, and we enjoyed doughnuts and hot chocolate after. More Halloween posts to come, it is Shawn's birthday after all :) Maybe I'll even finally post pics of our house decorated and everything!

Belated Labor Day

What do you do on Labor Day when neither of you have to work and no school? First you sleep in then you make crepes and fill them with this this and this then you go shopping in Park City at the outlets then you get Indian food for dinner then you share said Indian with siblings and finish the night off with Settlers of Catan Awesome labor free Labor Day

New JOB!

It's true I'm DONE with Costco! I got a new job at The Imaging Depot. It's a new photo lab in Ogden that the Inkley family is opening. I get paid more, will be full time, benefits & they work with my school schedule! I will start on Tuesday :) I had my last day at Costco today which was bittersweet but mostly just awesome. Some things I will miss:

• seeing Shawn at work
• the fun girls I work with
• seeing people I know but don't see often (the ones I actually like running into)
• the short commute
• taking/receiving lunch to/from Shawn
• my family visiting me at work
• the friends I made
• sharing the looks of frustration/astonishment/bewilderment/dismay...(the list goes on and on) with the girls in photo after some member did or asked something ridiculous
• the funny ridiculous questions or things members do ie. "will these pictures melt in the car?" , the lady that wouldn't buy our holiday stamps b/c they had a "smoking snowman" on them: it was frosty the snow man with his corncob pipe! .... endless list
• knowing exactly what to do, how to do it and what's expected of me

things I will not miss so much

• the essence of Costco ie. the smell, the members, the employees, the general feeling there
• members getting mad at me for stuff that's not my fault ie. their heads getting cropped off, they pushed the wrong button, again the list is endless
• the stupid members that ask or do ridiculous things: "which one is glossy or lustre?" duh the one that says glossy on it (our examples say glossy or lustre), walking a member through how to order their pics as I read EXACTLY what is on the screen, "How long is it going to take?" if you've ever been to Costco you'll know there is a GIGANTIC sign that says in caps 1-HOUR PHOTO hmmm..... people getting mad at me b/c I can't ring up non-photo items at photo and then leaving the gum, milk, or clothes on the counter for me to put away, the calls right before we close (especially on Saturday or during Christmas) wanting to know why their stuff won't be done today....etc I'll stop before I get too mad
• members getting mad at me for stuff that is my fault, no one is perfect what is yelling going to fix?
• angry managers (luckily mine was nice most of the time) that will do anything for the member even if it's against Costco policy and makes you look like a jerk
• members demanding and getting whatever they want
• having to tell people they can't use someone else's card
• mostly the members at Costco

Things I am excited/nervous about

• new job, new place, new managers, new co-workers
• new machines, especially the massive ones that can print 44in wide and super long
• no Costco members
• working only in a Photo store not a warehouse that has tons of other stuff
• being able to teach and work one on one with customers
• not having to call customers "members"
• not knowing exactly what I'm doing, how to do it, what's expected of me, but trying to learn

I know I'll have some of these issues at my new job but most of them will go away. This new lab is more about teaching people how to use and enjoy their photos so I'll have more time to explain and teach and not get frustrated. Now don't be offended if you're a Costco member, I just don't like the ridiculous ones! But I am no longer an employee so now I can join the regular members and hopefully be a good one, not a ridiculous one!

Udpate

No pics of the house yet. It's still a work in progress. We lost a lot of storage space in the move so we're still trying to find a place for everything. The kitchen and our bedroom are done, still working on the office. Our cute house has some quirks b/c it's so old: tiny closets and no outlets. It's been hard trying to find a place to plug things in! Despite these things we've loved it so far. Our internet will be hooked up on Monday so I'll try to do some pics then. Another thing we love is the yard. Right now we're laying in our hammocks in the back in the shade :) while I steal internet from Great Harvest! It's slow but it works for now.

Moving!

It's official, we're moving! Which also means no more managing!!!! Everything fell into place this past week. Shawn and I started looking at places last week but weren't having much luck. On Wednesday we looked at a cute house for rent. The landlady said she had had a lot of interest so they were just going to pick who they liked out of all the people she showed it to. Crap how were we going to stand out with the application just asking for basic info? Brilliant idea hit me, I wrote down some more personal info on the back about Shawn and me, including that we had managed apartments for 2 years and knew how to be good tenants. The lady told us she had a wedding to go to all day on Thursday and they would continue showing it through the weekend and then make their decision. So we prepared to wait all weekend and continued looking at other places. But she called the very next day, and wanted us! So we're moving this weekend into a small house a block north of where we are now. We get the top floor, and another college student gets the basement apartment. The square footage is the same as what we have now, but there are washer/dryer hookups and a yard! Pics will be coming soon!

Other Favs

Here are some more I've been working on. Thanks to all my models, and let me know if you want to let me practice on you! Through looking at other blogs I found out that the color isn't as vivid on their pics either. Apparently that's just how it it, boo.

Remember These?

Summer time has also allowed me to do some learning with my camera and Photoshop. I found some websites I love, thanks for the tip Kath! Through these photographers I've learned a lot of tips and even more about Photoshop. These pics are from a shoot with Jess, Nick & Bridge last fall. Love the before and after

Summer Time

Our summer has been full of fun this year! Here are some pics from Bear Lake, boating trips, fun with friends & Nancy's retirement party.