Say Cheese!

We're discovering that it is nearly impossible to get out of the photography industry—and that's okay! In March we left Calumet Photographic and began our own company, Klos Creative. We have also joined a few of our favorite co-workers in creating a marketing company, e-motiontek. One of our first projects with e-motiontek is to overhaul Photomama.com's design, marketing and functionality.

What good are memories if you don't share them? Photomama is the place for moms (and dads too) to store digital photos, share albums and photos with family and friends, order prints, create photo books and gifts, and that's just the beginning. Photomama has a lot to offer including 8¢ 4x6 prints through 2008. Photomama photos are printed on Kodak professional grade paper so you don't have to be concerned about quality. And because we want you to enjoy your Photomama experience, we're giving away 100 free 4x6 prints so you can try us out, fall in love and keep coming back. To redeem your 100 free prints, just enter "100FREE" at checkout.

Photomama will be adding more gifts and enhancing the photo books regularly. I'm excited because not only do I get to share this deal with you, you'll also get to see what I do at home (besides eating ice cream Snickers in my pjs and IMing my mom).

So check out photomama.com and enjoy your free prints! And...if you want to turn your photos into art, check out my stamp classes at stamppaperscissorsblog.wordpress.com.

Softball Season

We ended our regular season with 8 wins and 4 losses and came in 5th place out of 19 teams. It was a lot of fun playing on a team with my sisters (for the first time), PJ and friends from church. The girls played great. Lauren had some powerful hits and even made it on to the All-Star team, but couldn't play because she was on vacation. PJ did get to play in the All-Star game and hit a home run...go PJ!

We are two games in to the tournament. We play again this Saturday and Sunday. If we can continue on our winning streak we have a shot at winning the tournament. We are hoping that we'll be able to field a team since so many people will be on vacation this weekend. Keep us in your prayers!

Lauren about to get a whopping hit that lands her on first base.

Jillian on third, about to score a run!

Monica on first.

Enjoying an intense game.

This was one of the most memorable plays of the season. PJ dives for the fly and catches it. Rich who was also going for the ball jumps over PJ.

Celebrating Freedom and Free Time

I enjoyed being able to spend time with family this weekend as we celebrated the annual 4th of July party and Hayden's first birthday. I was also able to share my love for creating cards and scrapbooking—in addition to creating websites and graphic design for print I have added a new occupation to my list this summer. I signed up to become a demonstrator for Stampin' Up! in early May after a few months of prayer. I've known about Stampin' Up! for several years and have looked to their catalog and products for inspiration. When I was creating thank you cards back in March for Ethan's service I made my first purchase of some stamps, ink and card stock. I met with another demonstrator, Karen, who gave me some background on the company. At the time I was more interested in designing websites for demonstrators, but after hearing about the different ways SU allows you to tailor your business the wheels started spinning and I began to pray about this opportunity. I wasn't all that crazy about trying to be a sales person, but I loved the idea of holding classes at my house and teaching others about stamping, making cards and scrapbook pages. It has been a really fun journey so far—a great creative outlet—and I have enjoyed building relationships with family and friends. Check out my stamp website at stamppaperscissorsblog.wordpress.com for samples, class schedules and more information about Stampin' Up!.

I created this frame this weekend: Hayden eating cake from his first birthday.

Summer Storm, God’s Fireworks

On Wednesday night we had some pretty showy storms—lots of lightning and noise, but not a ton of rain. Not around here at least. Earlier in the day Monica and I were on our way home through Lake In The Hills and it rained and hailed so hard that we had to pull over. We could hardly see a car length in front of us. And let me tell you about LOUD. When hail’s pounding your car from all sides you nearly have to yell to talk, and forget about the radio.

Later in the night the storms heated up again, and before the rain started I grabbed a long exposure shot in front of the house. Just as the shutter clicked the clouds opened up. It was a mad dash to the house, but once inside we were glued to the windows, watching, watching, watching. It made me think how awesome God’s creations are and the force and destruction that they can bring while still maintaining beauty. Makes me glad that I’m on His side.

Happy Independence Day! Be safe this weekend. Thank God for our freedom (not only in this wonderful country, but freedom from sin through Christ Jesus!).