I am not a prolific blogger. Anyone can tell you that who checks my blog and sees the lacking posts. I have decided to make my life a little bit easier and combine my family blog with my photography blog. I am starting to get with the times and have subscribed to the blogs that I can through google reader and the ones that I can't I have marked in my favorites :-) I am doing much better blogging there and will start to integrate a little bit more about my personal life there. I am also hoping that this integration will help me carry my camera around a little bit more. Visit www.belindaolsen.com to check out the update on how we are doing and read my funny story from today at the laundromat.

I LOVE General Conference! I honestly look forward to it year round. There are so many awesome things about conference, here are just a few:

-getting to hear from the Prophet

-feeling inspired to be a better person

-hearing answers to questions

-church in your pajamas and treats too

-seeing your friends and their dads sing in the MoTab

-seeing the beautiful floral work and spotting the techniques we learned in a class together :-)

-Sunday dinner at my mom's

-talking to my husband about conference

Six months and counting to the next conference...

PS I am still collecting back your blog addresses since I failed to rescue my blog template

For those of you who want the condensed version:

The day after Christmas we bought ourselves the best present ever...a car! We bought a 2005 silver Toyota Camry. We have loved it!!!! We had been grateful to have a reliable car (no worries about us and the Toyota pedal recall). Previously I drove a cookie cutter lame car.

It had no:

power breaks

power steering

power windows

A/C

cruise control

etc

etc

I am really excited that this car has a reliable CD player...one of my favorite features next to the sunroof.

If I could eat one thing nearly every day it would be sushi. You can get it with fruit, spicy, mild, cooked, raw, with fish, without fish, with egg......you name it and you can have it. I wish I could say that this is what I had for dinner but...it was from a couple of days ago. If you are hesitant about sushi but like fish there try a golden california roll. It is the traditional california roll (cucumber, crab, avocado) wrapped in salmon and cooked. YUMMY! Give Happy Sushi a try.

Each year I make the resolution that I am going to get healthier and lose weight. This year I had $20 and a healthy competition to motivate me. Several of my coworkers and I started our own 'biggest loser'. We started mid January and end April 1st. So far I've lost almost 30 pounds! Below you can see my host of characters that have contributed. For the first time I am actually exercising regularly and actually like it :-)

Lately I have felt like I have been pulled in many directions and have spread myself too thin. I put myself in this situation. I knew I had lots of things to be grateful for. One thing that has really consumed my thoughts has been my photography business. I have trying to improve my camera handling skills, creativity and really focus on where I wanted my business to go. As I was driving down the road having a crappy, awful, no good, very bad day I saw this sign. I drove past it and kept thinking about it nearly a mile down the road. I flipped and made a U turn and literally sat in front of the sign for a good 10 minutes. I thought a lot about the words 'Be prepared to stop'. I stopped dwelling on my crappy day and did some praying and meditation on where I should go. I have several things that I will be announcing over the next few weeks on my photography blogsite.....

A few hours later I went with my niece and brother in law to Hardware Ranch to spend some time with my camera. I saw the sun peek out through the clouds and saw beautiful blue sky and had to take this picture because it was such a stark contrast to my earlier awfully bleak day.

One thing I have decided to do be a better blogger ;-) and photographer is do a 365 photo challenge. I am going to take my beautiful camera with me each day in my gigongous purse and take at least one picture of something that I do or see. (despite the fact that I am somewhat cheating since this picture was from earlier in the week and not literally from today)

Here's to making a beautiful day 2 tomorrow............

Two years ago today I married my best friend! Today we had a great, simple day at work and then at dinner. Craig was even willing to give up his favorite: sushi for I could go for a low cal option...an awesome salad from Hamilton's! (the type of sushi I like is dipped in tempura and fried, I'm passing on fried food for now. More to come about that story later)

I love you Craig! I've loved the last two years and really look forward to lots more!

Hello Friends!

I feel like every couple months I do one of these posts where I apologize for being a bad blogger for disappearing. I have been a better blogger at my photoblog and encourage you to check it out at www.belindaolsen.com. This summer I started pursing my own photography business. One of the things that I have wanted to do since I was in high school is to be a photographer for National Geographic. In the past I have often forgot how much I love photography. Well, I hate to break it to everyone but right now I am not shooting for NG, I photograph something else I really enjoy. PEOPLE. I love to work especially with babies, children and families. I love to capture people in a timeless way.

Everyone makes resolutions in January. One of mine is to have my camera with me more often! (I just have to wait until it comes back from its annual servicing with Nikon) This year I am going to push myself to feel comfortable in my own skin, try new techniques within my style, meet new people, and market a great photographer: Me!