It's Official!

I am in business!

Starting October 6, 2009, Dynamic Skin will be open for business and I am now taking appointments.  I'm offering a lot of specials and discounts for first time customers and students.  I'll also be doing holiday specials starting in November.  You can visit the website for information on services and prices.  If you would like a brochure, I can also mail one to you - just let me know.

I'm very excited to be starting out on my own.  I worked hard through school with a lot of help and support from my family and this new venture is no different.  I wouldn't have been able to do it without lots of help from my family in various different ways.  And of course Josh has been wonderful, he's so supportive and excited for me.  I'm very lucky to have him.  I just want to make everyone proud!  My mom has offered to help with watching Megan for awhile until I can get some decent clientele coming in and then we are looking into putting her into some kind of preschool, our goal is the first of the year.  My dad and Teresa have also been a great help - they know how.  Tami is officially my Graphic Designer helping me with all of my brochures and business cards, hopefully soon some gift certificates.....and Kelly has offered her services as my Marketing Director!  She's very excited to help me with advertising ideas to get my name out there. My friend Patty from school is also starting out on her own and she has been a great sounding board to talk to about just how to go about doing all of this.

I hope to see all of you on my books and feel free to bring a friend!!  Refer a friend and get 20% your next treatment!

Latest Trip to the Zoo

We finally were able to meet up with Danielle and Jace and took a trip to the zoo. It will probably be our last visit before the weather really changes. Of course the kids had fun and were very excited to see eachother. The new Serengeti exhibit is open so we got to see all of the new animals too.

Here is Jace laughing at the sea lions swimming around in front of him.

Hugging it out in the monkey exhibit.
Holding hands, Megan was much more interested in this than Jace. We're going to have to watch her. And no, we didn't plan the overalls.

Holding hands a.k.a. Megan dragging Jace.

The new lions!

Trying to get a toddler picture - Megan not cooperating.

They had the Bald Eagle out so people could get an up close look. Beautiful!

Eating lunch together on the blanket.

Megan is feeding Jace her jello. We joked that this is what they could look like when they are in their nineties.

We couldn't go to the zoo without going on the train! And again Megan not cooperating.

"Toddler Smiles"

There's a good one!

The kids were pretty tired when we left but they were both really good and Megan and I had a great time with Jace and Danielle!

It's Still a Birthday Today

Today is my Uncle Steve's birthday and not a year passes that I don't remember it. It seems like yesterday and it seems like forever ago that we lost him, all at the same time. I also remember my Aunt Terri on days like this because it has to be extremely hard on her, I don't know how she does it. And of course my cousins.

I'm so sick of cancer. It seems that it has invaded the lives of everyone I know in some form or another. I used to be able to say I didn't know anyone who had suffered from it or been touched by it and now I can't think of one that hasn't. It makes me angry, it makes me sad, it makes me afraid and it makes me feel despair. Most of all it makes me feel out of control and at it's mercy.

Happy Birthday Uncle Steve. I will always miss you and love you and remember all of the time we had with you and never be satisfied that it was enough. And I will always regret that my kids never got a chance to know you.

Vacations Continued....on to Seaside

Before we had plans to go to Mexico or Hawaii we had made plans to spend about a week in Seaside to use up the rest of our timeshare credits. We showed up a day late but we still made it there at 1 a.m. the night we flew back from Hawaii. Megan didn't sleep the whole way there as we had planned or figured she would do. She was very tired when we got there and slept till about 10 a.m. the next day which was very nice! We spent the day as a family going to breakfast, trying to fly her kite on the beach, swimming in the pool and playing in the arcade. She was so excited to fly her kite but there was very little wind so we had to do some running with it to get it up in the air. She thought that was fun, following along after Josh and me.

Megan was also very excited to sleep in the "big girl" bed the first night anyway. After that she wanted to sleep in our bed, kings come in handy that way. We tried another potty training bribe. This kid has racked up a bike and a big girl bed if she would only go on the toilet!

I love this picture. They are even in step with eachother.
So excited to fly her kite!

Finally got it in the air for a short time anyway.

Distracted by the sand.

Oregon beach sun......quite different from Hawaii but still pretty.

Megan playing Guitar Hero at the arcade.

Look at that cute little bottom on the motorcycle.

Getting to kick the soccer ball, one of her new favorite games, don't worry we'll get her out of it.

The next day, Kelly and my mom came out to spend some time with all of us and then they took Megan back to Tualatin with them. While they were with us we took Megan to ride the carousel and Kelly shared a caramel apple with her. The wind had also picked up quite a bit so we got the kite out again and had a much easier time flying it.

The kite was up pretty high, we told her she had to hang on otherwise it would have been long gone before we could do anything about it. She held on tight.

When Megan went home with Grandma, Josh and I got some alone time together. Sort of, I laid around in bed watching a tv marathon while he watched something in the family room and then I went and saw a chick flick while he watched football. The next day we had to check out!

We went home before picking Megan up and I finally got the news I had been waiting for since August 21! I passed my state board exams and got my Esthetician's license!!

Hawaii!

For those of you who don't know, we were supposed to go to Mexico at the beginning of September with my dad and stepmom but 2 days before departure, a hurricane was forecasted to hit exactly the part of Mexico we were going. The news was sad for about 2 minutes until my dad told me that he was re-routing us to Hawaii instead! Poor us! We even got to stay one more full day than we would have in Mexico. We had to deprogram Megan on going to Mexico so to this day, she still asks, "I go to Mexico?"

We had such a good time and are so grateful for the opportunity. We stayed at a beautiful hotel called the Hilton Hawaiian Village. It had 90 shops in it, TWO Starbucks (!!) - too bad we couldn't afford it though! It has a bunch of pools, a private lagoon and is right on the beach. You could really just stay there and never leave if you wanted to.

It was great that Megan got to spend time with Dad and Teresa too. We did some Skype phone calls before we left so there would be some familiarity and anticipation for Megan. It worked really well because she was very excited to see them and had no problem opening up to them.

This is our first view from the lobby when we arrived - one of the 5 or so pools the hotel had.Josh and Megan checking out the view from our hotel room

As you can see the Skype-ing worked! We headed straight to the pool when we arrived.

Hundreds of koi fish on the property.

My view from my lounge chair by the pool.

We took Megan down to the beach when we got there too. She had fun building a sand castle with Teresa. She didn't really get into the water much at first.

Josh and Dad did though. Josh has never been anywhere like Hawaii where the water is so blue and warm!

The hotel had African penguins and Megan got to pet one during the feeding time. She said, "Penguin real soft!"

Pretty cute picture of Megan and Grandpa!

Our little daredevil! She was so brave just jumping right into the pool. She kept telling us to move so we wouldn't catch her. People around the pool kept asking how old she was and calling her fearless. She had so much fun and she slept really good, most of the time!

One of her many jumps into the pool. She had to try her goggles but really only had them on for about 10 minutes of the trip.

"I take a break Mama."

Megan met a little girl at the pool named Sophia. This was about 20 minutes before her little accident.....

We were playing at the pool and I decided to go get some lunch and bring it back. Megan was walking over to me and slipped on the pool deck right into a lounge chair. She hit with her face and bit almost all the way through her bottom lip. So of course she was bleeding a lot and screaming almost as much. It didn't however keep her from eating the Cheetos that came with her lunch before the cut actually stopped bleeding. Mmmm....bloody Cheetos. Anyway, we took her to the doctor that was at the hotel and she said it was relatively minor. So she got a bandaid for the scrape on her chin and a fat lip for the next couple of days.

That night we rode the trolley into Waikiki and walked around a bit and had dinner at a great place that surrounded a huge aquarium. Megan got to watch a scuba diver swim around in it and hand feed the fish. It was pretty cool and a very yummy dinner. Megan got her own virgin Blue Hawaiian drink. I'll have to get that picture from Grandpa.

Waving at all of the "peoples".

Megan and Duke

Dinner at the restaurant that night. She was very excited to use her chopsticks.

The only family picture we got while we were there.

This is Megan playing in the sand on the North Shore. As you can see there weren't many waves that day so we didn't get to see any surfing. It was so calm Megan was even able to swim in the water.

Josh asked Megan if she wanted to be buried in the sand thinking that she would say no but she was very willing and laid right down for him.

Little toes peeking out!

She thought it was pretty funny.

On Friday night the hotel has a show called the Hawaiian Rockin' Revue or something like that. We were able to watch it from the 2nd floor terrace of our tower and then watch the fireworks show right afterwards. This is a picture of the sunset that night.

Megan thought the fireworks were pretty neat. She didn't get to see them on July 4th this year because we were camping.

One of the penguins.

Getting some more swimming in.

On Saturday we went to Hanauma Bay for some snorkeling. It was pretty overcast that day so the water wasn't very clear but we did get to see some fish. Josh probably couldn't have spent the whole day out there.

What a ham. I wish her eyes were open.

Swimming with daddy.

This was a break that actually turned into an hour long nap, poolside. I just covered her with a towel and let her sleep while I sunbathed.

This is Megan when she is not so happy.

Oh look she's happy again, about 3 seconds later. We may start calling her Sybil.

Dinner at Duke's tasting her very first sushi!

Josh's face says 1,000 words.

Grandpa got Megan a lei that she was happy to pose with for about 3 seconds.

Our last day in Hawaii, we thought we should get some pictures of the property and where we got to spend our time.

The only picture the 3 of us got, unfortunately I was dressed like a slob so I would be comfortable for the plane.

Flamingos at the hotel too!

Megan and Grandma T

Watching the penguins and turtles.

Megan also did really well on the plane. It was 5 1/2 hours each way and she definitely was a trooper. We also got to see another hotel there called the Hale Koa. It was actually right next to the Hilton and is for military families only. Military can stay there for great rates based on their rank and it's also right on the beach. Since it was next door, we were able to go to the Px and do some of our grocery/snack and souvenir shopping for much less than anywhere else. We were also able to get a great deal on the rental car for our excursions. We may have to go back there someday!

Thank you Grandpa and Grandma Darling!