Stephen

In the spring of 1999 I was a Sheriff's dispatcher for the County of Orange. During this time there was a riot that broke out in the city of Westminster. The riot had lasted several days and into about the third day, they decided to send a dispatcher out to the location to dispatch from the command post. Being that I was a single mom, of two little girls (4 and 7), and it was my day off, I jumped at the chance to make some overtime.


That night there were a ton of people around, various fire and police departments, even in-n-out had a truck there. We had top officials, patrol deputies, and the S.W.A.T. team on scene. Then, there was me, just a little dispatcher sitting in the bus. During the evening a dark haired deputy with green eyes walked into the van and introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Simpson, 362." (I know, so romantic) He seemed nice but lingered awhile and I'm sure he gave me a look. Over the years he's tried to change it to me giving him the look, not true.

A year and a half later we were married. I was a single mom and I was just a mess, lol but he signed on anyway. He was this bachelor with two cats and he was able to do whatever he wanted when he wanted. He rode his bike in the morning, napped at noon and went to work at night, happy to start all over again the next day. When we moved in we brought our music, dancing, snacks, singing, laughing, and all the drama that three women can carry in their 12 suitcases...each. 

I'm certainly not going to tell you it was easy, or super fun blending our family into what it is today. That would be a lie and an entry for "the other" blog. However, we did it and we stuck to it and fought to the death for what we have. When I say that I literally mean to the death. Death to ourselves for the purpose of being the team we need to be, the team God called us to be. Today we joke that we are together because no one else could stand us. We are complete opposites in personality but of total like mind in our character.


In all seriousness, I am with him because nowhere in this vast world could I find a man, of such character, strength, compassion, and perseverance. He is dedicated to duty and honor, like no one I know. I have never personally met another person who has worked harder at becoming the man God created him to be. When I tell him these things he responds by saying that he is just a "regular fella". Reading this blog entry will be hard for him because he is generally a private person. Being that he is a Sergeant in the Sheriff's Department he keeps a pretty low public profile with his personal life. I don't mention him too often but today is my chance to really cut loose.

Steve's loves are, shooting, ammo re-loading, riding mountain and road bikes, reading, weight lifting, and Emma. He's always up for a hike, geocaching, a movie, a glass of red wine, coffee, or chocolate. He loves Mexican food, playing WOW and never turns down meeting new people.

Snow shoeing in the Sequoia National Forrest

Racing in Trabuco Canyon

 Eating a cheeseburger after the Traverse bike race

At Nascar with Anthony, Michelle's husband

Vacation...

With Doug McManus in North Carolina

At work: 

Over the last ten years he's been with me through the Sheriff's academy, three surgeries and a retirement. And he has supported my adventure of photography. He totally gets the photo equipment obsession and is ever patient at my need to always have my camera. It was his camera from his childhood that inspired me to go to school in the first place.

I took these of him one day

when he had just gotten home 

from work, before he ever got

into the house. He probably gets 

really happy when he drives up 

and sees me outside with my 

camera ;-)

oxox, I think he may be "punking" me out here...

yeah, pretty sure of it.

Laying on the floor for about an hour, 

pretending to be dead for one of my photos

I have a secret fantasy that when Steve retires he will

become my business partner and take some 

 pictures with me. OK, It's not so much of a secret

The thing about being married to a cop is that you have to know you will be alone a lot. Sure it's only 40 hours a week, but there are those days they don't come home because of a late call or because a terrible horrific thing happens and they can't leave in the middle of it.  Steve spent his 40th birthday in a house with a family who had all decided they no longer wanted to be alive. They had been in the house for over three weeks in the middle of a heat wave, and while he searched their home from one terrible room to the next, I was at home with our friends and family having a 40th birthday party for him.

Steve may see more in one day, that others will go their entire lives without ever seeing.

One day he is in a house searching for 

a suspect who wants to shoot him and

 the next day he is reassuring his 7 year 

old daughter that she'll be ok on the

roller coaster...

 He sees all the bad and loves all the good

He knows that Cinderella wont be

here forever, so he dances with her.

Always taking the time to be there

when he can. Working shift work

also lets him be there when other

Daddies have to be at work...

like on the first day of school

I do think the best thing about his job is that we never take each other for granted because we understand that life is short and temporary, and each day we have is a gift.

Sure, we came into his life and turned it upside down. He is surrounded by chicks and chick stuff like bras and crying.

Every time someone says "poor Steve" (because he is so outnumbered) I just want to yell, "are you kidding?" What man would not want to be loved by so many women? He is not only loved by all of us, but my sisters love him so much too, and my Moms do to! He loves and appreciates the female spirit and allows us to embrace and flourish in it. He is never crabby about it. He just laughs and slowly backs out of the room.

He appreciates us for who we are and has a specific relationship with each one of us. He really is my favorite boy ever.

 Me and my boy

 With Alix the "buddy"

 Amanda the "snuggle"

 Emma the "Baby"

 A man of many things

 He carries us, he supports us, he protects us and leans on us when he needs to.  He is a gentle and strong warrior who believes in truth and beats himself up when he falls short. Always pushing on and striving to be better, to be more. My partner, my love, my best friend, my hero, my husband.

Stevie D.

I love PhotoJojo!

This year for Christmas, my mom gave me a gift certificate to Photojojo! This is a darling website that makes photography products. The products are not what you would expect, as in Canon, or Nikon lenses or lighting. They are the most darling little things from unusual camera bags, a coffee cup that looks like a lens, to a pair of glasses that have a camera in them.  Even the gift card is cute!


For a girl like me, who loves junk I could live the rest of my life without, I LOVE it!


PS the camera that comes attached to the gift card has a button on it that flashes when you push it. You can totally flash all your friends and family in the face like a paparazzi without the fear of taking a real picture!  Fabulous!

When I went online to place my order I was sad because it said my items were on back order but then they showed up on my doorstep like, four days later! I was giddy with excitement! So here are some really cheesy pictures of what I got:

Being that I shoot a lot of Interiors, I thought this little baby would be perfect. It's a hot shoe level. It slides right onto your camera and no matter what angle your camera is at you can check to see if it's level.  I usually use my husband's level and try to balance it on top or on the side of my camera. It's such a pain and not always very accurate. This little baby is going to change my life.

This little number is a stamp, and it comes with an ink pad. I did not need this at all, but I have a feeling there is going to be a tiny bit more sunshine in my life because I bought it. It's such a nice stamp and the ink covers the image so nicely! 
I have visions of using this on the back of a card or handmade book , possibly embossed in silver? Sparkly teal? Any color would look perfect as a camera!

Now, I really didn't need these adorable magnets, but I purchased them in a group along with the stamp and tiny picture holder below.  
I have a chalkboard wall in my workspace and the primer I used was metallic, thus, magnets STICK TO IT!!!.  I know, I'm very clever.  Anyway, these tiny cameras and roll of film are a perfect addition to my chalkboard.

Besides, look how cute they look on the wall next to my fabulous 
sparkly sssssspiders...

The last item that came in my group of fantastical junks was this sweet little picture holder. As a photographer, I ALWAYS need one more spot to slap up a picture. 


This picture is a wallet size image of my favorite nephew, MAX.  That will tell you how small it is.

PSS, Happy Birthday MAX!  He just turned 7 years old, and "so far, that's the oldest he's ever been." 

Here is the picture holder in it's natural environment,

I have added a second photo of Max's baby sister,

 my favorite niece, Nora.

Now when I'm supposed to be working, and that ADD moment comes, I can stare at their precious little faces and think of all the funny things they say and do.  Mmwwhhhaaa! 

In case I was not already in love they threw in this
itty bitty dinosaur into the box just to seal the
relationship, and it worked! 
oxoxoxoxo

That's it, that's all I have to say about that. 

I Have an Idea #1

So I was thinking in the shower the other morning and I came to a conclusion. I need an Eye cam and I need it now.  I have this fabulous idea of having a camera implanted in my right eye.  No, really, how cool would that be?  Just think of it, no heavy equipment to carry around and you would always get the shot! It's water proof, and the kids will never get tired of having you pointing your camera in their faces. It would have to have a Ziess lens for sure, and it could be activated by a strong blink.  You would have those pictures of all the sweet expressions on people's faces, the ones they usually remove as soon as soon as they see the camera. I could capture that look my husband gives me from across the room ;-), and  I could finally get a picture of the fabulous light that trickles down my shower wall at about two thirty in the afternoon. 


It's just a thought. I can foresee a problem if you sneeze though...

CLICK!

Michelle

My first profile is MIchelle! She is my baby sister and today, January 8th, is her birthday! So she has been chosen as my very first person to blog about. If you follow this blog you already know a little bit about her because I have written about her wonderful interior design business Inhabit, her grand opening, and our great times together! 


I first met Michelle when I was eight years old. Her birth was vey exciting for me because it meant I was no longer the only little sister. She was, however, the first baby to be born to my Dad and my Step-Mama.  

Here she is in all her tinniness

My big sister, Cathy and I were thrilled to have a little sister that we could play with and dress up like Mrs. Beasley. She didn't have very much hair but our Mom fixed that by taping little bows to her head. 

Here we are just giving her a little extra push on her rocking horse

 Chelle

Chelle with Mom

I'm sorry, I had to, the hair was too good to

pass up.

(with Mom, Dad, and our brother Mike)

*

When she was little we used to tease her that she was going to get rickets because we could never get her to leave the house. She just wanted to stay inside, and read. She could read before she ever started school and skipped kindergarten because she was so smart.  (She played childhood sports, but we had to tease her about something)

Now we run races together! We hate it but for some reason we can't stop signing up for them. Which reminds me, I have a new race to tell you girls about.

Chelle, Me, and Cathy

Here we are again

This was my favorite: she posted this picture

on Facebook and wrote, "I can't believe I won!"

I'm still laughing at that one...

Michelle is married to Anthony and they have two little girls that walk on four legs. 

Michelle with Mom on her wedding day

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Chelle and Anthony

*

*

*

*

Daughter, Gigi

*

Daughter, Pricilla 

Over the last 30 'ahem, or so years Michelle has grown into the most wonderful woman.

She's beautiful and smart, and probably one of the funniest women I've ever known. I'm so thankful to have her in my life. She feeds my creative side and reminds me not to take my serious side so, well, serious. 

Us

Michelle is loyal and dedicated to her whole family and has such great relationships with all her cousins, nieces, nephews, siblings, aunts and uncles. She plays many roles in all of our lives but has a way of making us feel like we are special.

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Mom, Chelle, and Auntie Jo 

*

Chelle and Lindsey 

*

*(Cath, did you take this?)

Mom, Chelle and Mike

*

 Mom, Cathy, and Chelle

*

 With Baby Sam

The kids

She is an amazing Aunt and an incredible example of a strong woman to my daughters. 

She is passionate, intense, and absolutely the "sunshine" in our lives. I also have to add that according to Emma, my 7 year old, Auntie Michelle is a total Fashionista! 

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*

Ok, these shoes could only belong

to a real fashionista...

Michelle, I am so glad you were born "today". We are all blessed to have you in our lives!

I love you.

PS I can only take credit for the images that have an * next to them. 

Its a New Day!

Since I have five thousand ideas for blog entries I thought I would start organizing them by just digging in and starting at the beginning.

For the New Year I want to try a couple of new things. A photographer friend of mine, Noel Hannon, recently completed a project called Project 52, and even created a book by the same name! His project has been inspiring me for quite a while now and I've decided to try something around the same lines. I plan on spotlighting a person I know, someone amazing and wonderful, every week on my blog. I am a story teller and I want to tell you stories about some of the fantastic people I know. PS everyone I know is fantastic, trust me, I'll show you. I'm super excited to embrace this project, and I hope you all love it too.

Next on the agenda will be a weekly post of one of the shoots done that week, whether a job or self inspired project. Not only will I get to share what I'm doing but I'll also have the motivation I need to be out shooting all the time.

Lastly, I have decided, with much personal struggle, to start a second blog. It is completely different and separate from this blog. It's not about photography, but about me, my heart and about life. My hope is that it will serve as a place one can go to be encouraged, spurred on, and maybe feel like they are not alone in the daily craziness we call life. It is called Son Flare and you will find it here.


I had a great year last year and have met some great people because of my photography and I can't tell you how excited I am for 2011!


I wish the best to you all!

I just can't have a blog entry without a picture.

I just love this image of Amanda, so natural and beautiful.