go me.

so im pretty freaking terrible at blogging now. i have my reasons.
as karma would have it, after i posted about how great our business is going and humble bragged my ass off about how i get to sleep in, geoff and i thought it would be a great idea if i got a "day job" to pay for health insurance and save more money. my very awesome, funny and single friend mark got me a job at Troy Lee Designs. It was an easy job of clocking in, routine stuff, clocking out but i was literally standing on my feet all day long. shoot me. then it started getting in the way of booking more jobs so we realized that if i quit the jobs we could book would make up for TLD. so i reluctantly put in my two weeks. i really liked working there and just started making friends with some of the people there. now we are busier than ever with LPP and started offering photography services as well! But now people want us to do both film & photos and we kind of want to start slowly cutting back on how many wedding videos we book and start booking mainly photos. So we started another company: Orange Owl Photo.

other new stuff that happen:
-we are selling our house in March and moving to Costa Mesa. "Why?" you ask as if i needed any reason to move out of LE. 1. its the land of "-er's". colder. hotter. dirtier. 2. once Jolene goes on her World Race i will have none of my daily girl friends in corona anymore. Even geoff is pumped about this move so you know its a good thing. 3. its closer to the beach. 4. we have a plan to start buying a condo every 2 years and renting them out. its our retirement plan.
-we decided no babies until 2014 at the earliest.
-im turning 28 in a few weeks.
-we are planning to go to alaska, chicago, europe and possibly hawaii next year. i cant freaking contain myself. we are going to make it happen.
-i love the show Girls. (im currently watching it and thats why it made the list)
-i lost 10lbs and trying to lose another 10 more.
-geoff has finally experienced me fully drunk in all its glory so much so that i created a adjective. Tustin Ranch'd (TR'd)
-my high school reunion is this weekend. i will not be attending. maybe the next one?
-thats all i can think of right now.  

im back to staying up way too late and sleeping in until lunch time. 

Post Wedding Pic

Meant to take a pre and post wedding picture of us but since it was our first one of the year I was too stressed to remember. And now G is in his pjs on the couch and im too tired to beg him to take a picture with me.
Today was awesome. And if this wedding is any indicator of how the rest of the year is going to go, it's going to be better than last year and that I have no short term memory. I was such a airhead today.

Geoff quotes from today:
- I love the shit out of you but you worry me sometimes.
- Whenever you think about telling me you farted, just don't talk.

A Year Ago

Today i woke up "early" at 8am. Ran errands for a few hours. Went out to lunch with Geoff. Browsed Floor & Decor making a game plan for remodeling our bathroom. Met up with friends and took their picture and went out to dinner with them. Came home and started working again. This has been my routine lately.
Wake up around 10am and go to bed around 2am.

Exactly one year ago today i quit my safe, m-f, 7-4, family ran business, job.
For a long while it was like having two full time jobs. Working with Shade Tree Films was (and is) a blessing. And then starting LPP with them and eventually taking over it fully. Id come home from a long commute from yucaipa at the STF office and start working on a LPP film until midnight to wake up at 5:45am and do it all over again. Id probably be dead if it werent for Geoff and i carpooling everyday and him taking the morning shift. After a few months of that schedule i had a breakdown and cut my hours even more from STF so i could try and keep up with the backlog LPP was accumulating. Still there? Good. After Geoff got a new job at South Hills Church (another blessing) and i lost my carpooling buddy, i went commission with STF and started working from home and gained like three extra hours of sleep a day!
Ive never loved my job more than i do today. Ive never loved my life more than i do today. Ive never been so blessed and felt favor like i do today. Our business is growing and we are now partnering up with EPlove and offering photography (<--even more freaking favor on us). I freaking love photography. Hope to have as many, if not more, photo weddings as we do video.
Our marriage is in a better place than its been in a while. I think its because we both get plenty of sleep now and feel more sprightly ;) no babes in the near future. though, seeing G play and wrestle with our friends kids makes it difficult at times. He's gonna be a awesome dad.
I guess the whole point of this post is to say that a year ago i decided to not live in fear anymore. I didnt live in fear that i would fail because i didnt except us not succeeding. I wanted this really bad and ive we've worked really, really, really, hard to be here.
One year ago I chose to live in love.

Thank you for supporting me. I love you.

Sick Day

DIY Bathroom Part 1

Our guest bathroom was a bit of an anomaly to me. Its not a half bath or could even be listed as .75 of a bathroom.
From my past experience of renting a room from craigslist i learned the hard way to check the shower for a actual shower head. So when i toured our house for the first time i immediately noticed that the shower was in fact not a real shower but just a bathtub. Our house was built in 1979 so why there isnt a shower head is weird to me. Not like showers were a rarity in the 70's. Anyhoo, Geoff's friends from Plea for Purging and all their GF's were going to be staying at our place while they were in town for a fest and that lit the fire to get the shower working so that we didnt have 10 people using one shower!

BEFORE

After all the drywall was cut out i got busy editing a film on the couch and forgot to take pictures of geoff putting the cement backer board up and him and his dad cutting the tiles in the rain in the front yard and putting them against the wall.  I did help geoff grout though so... i helped a little :\

Oh and i picked out the shower head.  Here is the completed shower:

Shower Curtain

The shower head is at least 7 ft high.

We bought the slate tile on sale at Floor & Decor for a total of $36! The shower curtain was on sale at UO for $24. Shower head was about $50 from Home Depot. Window film so our neighbors dont get a peep show. And we also bought a new smaller vanity, faucet, and toilet all under budget too! We set aside $1,000 to redo it all but we've only spent $600 on everything so far. And thats including a new saw. All thats left to pick is paint and base boards and we're done.

Now if we could only get on Yard Crashers!

One year later...

So Geoff and i just celebrated our one year anniversary. Can i just say, i told you i wasnt pregnant. We were married 3 months after we got engaged and a few people (who clearly didnt know us that well) thought i was knocked up. False.
Marriage is a lot more of everything than i could have ever realized. Some days i think ive married the easiest going person in the world and other days it feels like the most stubborn. We have changed so much within that year and learned even more about each other that i cant even imagine what the next years will unveil. I'm not going to lie, this year felt like two but i think its because of all the stuff thats changed since then. In hindsight, theres some things i wish i could do differently that may have made the transition from individuals to a team who has to share everything much easier...

1. Buy everything YOU want before you get married. Sounds selfish and shallow, i know. But once you get married the money you make will be both your money. And unless you are blessed with a lot of it, your going to have to ask if its OK with your spouse to spend both your money on something that only benefits you. This is still the hardest thing for me to adjust to. I cant just buy a dress from target or f21, expensive skincare products or tan without seeing if Geoff is cool with it. And lets be honest, he is a tightwad with money and not a chick so he doenst understand why i want another new dress or iphone when i have a perfectly fine one from a year ago. If you are engaged, make haste and buy all the pointless crap that makes you happy before you get married. 
2. Save all your money. Singletons, i know what you're thinking but i promise you you wont get that much from your money dance and in wedding gifts. When you get married its like this evil bill fairy will appear and things that you didnt account for or something expensive will need repair and boom, there goes a few grand. Stressing about money is the worst thing to fret about in general let alone something that might be on the back of your mind when you are going to bed to get frisky. You cant eat love and it doesnt pay the bills. 
3. Double Vanity. No matter if youre renting or owning, make sure your bathroom has a two sinks. Beard trimmings, toothpaste and counter space wars. This is no joke.
4. Let him play video games. And guys, let her do her thing too. You both need time apart from each other that isnt work related. Sometimes you just need to check out of life for an hour so you can regroup and be yourself. Sure, the timing may not be right because you want to complain and vent, but we all need to hit that reset button now and then so we can have enough patience to still like you. 
5. Close the door behind you. Keep the mystery alive because once its gone its gone. And once a dude realizes its cool to fart around you or pee with the door open, things only get more graphic from there.
6. Register for a cork screw.

In one year together we bought a house, made it a home, started our own business, stayed debt free, stayed true to our no kids pact and have become closer together than ever. I am seriously so in love with Geoff still. He is the manliest, sexiest, funniest, hardest working provider to me and i still cant believe he wanted to marry me out of all the other smart, funny and beautiful girls he's ever known.

Best year ever!


ps- hawaii vid coming soon!

For Japan With Love

Our friend Lydia from Ever Ours started For Japan With Love asking for donations for Japan hoping to get $5,000. At this moment its currently over $40,000! Please help those affected by the quakes in Japan by giving what you can. No amount is too small! Each ShelterBox includes a disaster relief tent for an extended family, blankets, water storage and purification equipment, cooking utensils, a stove, a basic tool kit, a children’s activity pack and other vital items.

Case of the Mondays

Aloha!

I surprised Geoff with a trip to Hawaii for our one year anniversary! Still here waiting to go snorkeling in that crater. Thought I'd share that surprise I mentioned to you! Haha

I am alive...More than ever

No apologies here. I've been busy making my dreams and passions come true. This year has been beyond anything i expected. Par for the course when it comes to things you ask from God. Thanks, God!

So since i last posted something on here i quit my job and started a new fabulous one working for these guys. AMAZING. These past few weeks have been awesome. And.... this week is going to be even better!!!! But ill share that with you on thursday. Its a lovely surprise.

My office of 3 years. Good-bye J&L!!!

Heres some films geoff and myself have made recently. watch. enjoy. and please, share your thoughts.





Talk to you soon,
Mrs.B