My Life

9 – 1 = 8 Lives Left

This afternoon Chuck, Brayden, Hauggy and I took a walk at our favorite park. I was scouting a cool field where I planned on shooting Jill and Brandon’s maternity session in a couple of weeks. However, we won’t be going to that park again. We’ve been going to this park since Brayden was a few weeks old and I love it because there are so many cool trails to explore. We were walking towards a dam with cool graffiti on it and I hear Chuck yell, “Pick up Hauggy and RUN!”. I scooped Hauggy up and ran for my life, which is really hard to do with a 25 pound dog when I haven’t run in ten plus months. I knew from the sound of Chuck’s voice that it was either a mountain lion or a deranged man with a knife. We ran down a hill and got off the trail. We realized that we were going to have to walk back towards the mountain lion to get back to the trail. So, we started yelling help. As we were walking on the trails earlier I was cursing the mountain bikers who would go zipping up and down the trails, but now I was so happy for them because they could get to us fast. Two mountain bikers got to us right away and they escorted us back to the park.

Chuck told me when we got back to the car that he saw a big brown thing in the bushes about 200 feet away from us. He didn’t say anything at first because he didn’t want to scare me and he thought it was just a coyote. But, then it started running towards us and jumped over the bushes. That’s when he saw that it was a big mountain lion. I’m so glad I didn’t see it because I think I might have been too scared to run. When I called my parents to tell them, my Dad said that we did the completely wrong thing and should have faced it and made ourselves “big”. Dad, the next time you get chased by a mountain lion let’s see what you do! We were just trying to save your grandson and granddog. I think once I picked up Hauggy it gave up. The whole thing was so scary. I don’t even want to think about what could have happened. I’m just glad it didn’t. The statistics say that you are 1000 times more likely to get struck by lightning than you are to get attacked by a mountain lion. But, today was close enough for me.

I don’t even want to think about little Brayden on his chair in the middle of that field (because I probably would have taken his 3 month pictures there) and a mountain lion jumping out of the bushes or if I would have had pregnant Jill all the way out there who wouldn’t have been able to run. I’m going to start carrying pepper spray with me so at least I will feel a little bit more in control if I were in the situation again. I’m bummed because I lost one of the coolest locations to shoot at, but I will just have to find another one. Any suggestions for my maternity shoot?

And to make everyone happy after my scary story, here is a picture of Brayden Bittel. He was 4 weeks old in the picture. I love his toothless yawns! The shirt was given to him by my friend Jamie. He was supposed to wear it on Valentine’s Day, but he was still in the hospital. By the way, he slept through the whole ordeal. Even with Chuck running for his life he stayed totally asleep in his Baby Bjorn. Crazy kid misses all the fun adventures!

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Posted in My Life | 9 Comments

Happy Earth Day!

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Happy Earth Day! There’s always more that each of us can do to help our environment. Here are a few things that I do for my business to make it as “green” as possible:

I reuse the boxes that prints are shipped in. So, you will probably be receiving your pretty pictures in an ugly, beat up box. But, it’s what’s inside that counts, right?

I use rechargeable batteries in my flashes so I’m not throwing away batteries after every wedding.

I recycle my printer cartridges.

I do as much business via email and fax so I can use less paper. And, of course, the paper that I do use is recyclable.

Not business related, but I’ve been stocking up on the reusable bags from Ralphs and Trader Joes so I don’t have to use their plastic bags.

I am going to get better at turning off all my computers every night so energy is not wasted there.

And when my lease is up on my car next March I am going to probably be leasing a Toyota Prius. As much as I would LOVE a Range Rover Sport, it will be nice to save money on gas and help the environment at the same time!

What are things that you do to keep your business and life as environmentally friendly as possible? I would love to hear ideas from everyone! Happy Earth Day everyone! Go hug a tree today!

Posted in My Life | 9 Comments

Brayden is 2 Months Old!

Time to bring out the chair again! Brayden Bittel will be 2 months old on Saturday! Where has the time gone? My little man is getting SO big! The doctor says he’s as big as a 4 month old! At his 6 week and 6 day appointment he weighed 12 pounds and 14 ounces and was 23 1/2 inches long! That’s the 95% for weight and 90% for height! We’ve got a big boy on our hands! This month Brayden has started laughing and smiling. My most favorite thing is when I get him out of his crib in the morning and he has a huge smile on his face when he sees me. It melts my heart! He’s also found his voice and coos. He loves talking to his butterfly on his gym. He loves to read Dr. Seuss books with his Daddy and enjoys looking at the pictures. He still loves UCLA basketball and Kevin Love even if they are big losers Tongue out His diapers have Sesame Street characters on them and he hates when he gets the Elmo diapers! Don’t ask me why, but the kid hates Elmo. He’s not sleeping great through the night. He wakes up twice to eat and usually goes right back to sleep so it’s not that bad. All and all he’s a pretty happy kid and seems to be getting happier everyday.

This month we went to the Fullerton train station for his photo shoot. We had a very long day today so we made it a quick one. Here are some of my favs.

The cargo pants and hat are a gift from our awesome friends Johanna and Kyle. Doesn’t he look so handsome?

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Check out Brayden’s awesome shoes! These were a gift from my BFF, Michelle.

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That’s all for now! I have my first engagement session back tomorrow in LA and I’m super excited! It’s going to be my first time leaving Brayden all day, but I think it will be a good break for both of us :) Have a great weekend everyone!

Posted in My Life, Then Comes Baby | 13 Comments