New Job, New Home, New School, New Car, New EVERYTHING!

Wow, there has been SO much that has happened since my last update, I can't believe it!

New Job:
Ahmad recently was offered a job at Nutraceuticals in Park City. They are a huge international supplements/sports nutrition/health products company. Ahmad is their new Director of International Sales and Marketing. It is a huge opportunity for him and I am so proud of him! He started on Thursday this week and so far is doing well and likes the new job.

New Home:
Since Ahmad got a new job in Park City, we decided relocating is an absolute necessity. The commute, in GOOD weather, from Eagle Mountain to Park City is about an hour and a half. You can only imagine what kind of a commute this is going to turn in to in the winter or in traffic. He would be looking at around a 2 or 3 hour commute ONE WAY to work every day! So, we decided to start house hunting. Our first weekend out looking at houses, we found "the one". It was built in the 60's, but effectively the build date is 2007 because it has been COMPLETELY rennovated. The floors, bathrooms, drywall, paint, kitchen, appliances, EVERYTHING has been replaced. It is a gorgeous house with marble, cherry wood, and travertine floors, granite countertops on every counter, cute knotty alder cabinets, two travertine fireplaces, a huge yard and patio with a cute little fire pit in the corner of the lot, a huge 2.5 car garage for Ahmad, a big movie room for Ahmad, and lots of space. It is a little smaller than our house now, but I will take less space for a better location any day! =) Plus there is only 2 of us so a 2700 sq ft house is plenty enough room, with some space to spare for when our friends/family visit! =) The owners have accepted our offer, and we are scheduled to close on 9/3. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

New School:
Ahmad and I have been attending Westminster College for our MBA, but recently we decided to make the switch to Utah State University. Their program is recognized through the same accrediting body and has just as good reviews as Westminster's program. There is still a big international trip and the program is just as challenging. However, the big difference is that it is much more affordable since we don't believe in taking out student loans, and also the schedule works much better for us. We start in October since we had some transfer credits from Westminster, and then we will be able to go through the program together along with our neighbor and good friend Lance Olsen. =) That should be really fun!

New Car:
Okay, this really isn't big news, but it went along with the "new" theme, so I will share it. =) Ahmad is a sucker for Jaguar's, and his friend happened to be selling a new Jaguar XJ8 that he has had for a few months. Ahmad jumped at the chance and so we are now the proud owners of a Jaguar XJ8. Don't ask me why 2 people need three cars, but the car is very nice and Ahmad looks really cute in it! =) I'm still happy with the range rover, but in winter he will probably trade me since Parley's Canyon is not a fun drive without a 4wd vehicle.

New Kitten:
Ahmad and I are NOT dog people. Dogs are adorable, but among other things our busy, upbeat lifestyle is not conducive to owning pets that need a lot of attention, training, cleaning, and upkeep. Kittens, however, are very self-maintaining and require minimal upkeep. I have finally managed to convince Ahmad to let me get one, and so we adopted Mia from a local breeder. She is a tiny purebred Siamese kitten who just absolutely cracks me up! She is adorable! Plus I am totally baby hungry so having something little and cute that I can take care of is really good for me! lol! Now if I could only get rid of my pet allergies...

New Attitude:
I have decided that I stress WAAAAAY too much over everything. I have made a pact to myself that I am going to deal with stress in a more healthy way. I am starting up Yoga again and am going to not sweat the small stuff so much. I feel better already!

Here's to a new school year, a new outlook on life, and a positive approach to the future! =)

Betsy's Baby Pictures

Ahmad and I went over to Mark and Betsy's for a BBQ this weekend. They made lamb chops (YUMMMMMM!) with red potatoes and asparagus, followed by grilled pineapple for desert! It was absolutely amazing. While the boys checked out some projects in their house, Betsy and I did a quick little photo session with their new baby. Here are some of the pics from the shoot. What do you guys think?!

Business and Personal Updates

Wow, it has gotten SO BUSY!

The business is coming along nicely. The new website is up officially...

http://www.vie-photography.com/

Please check it out and let me know what you think!

We have also been working on ordering business cards, fliers for our seasonal specials, etc. It has been fun but very time-consuming!

Personally, Ahmad and I just finished our first MBA financial accounting test. We both did pretty well, comparatively speaking! The class average was abouta 70%. I got an 83% and Ahmad got an 82%. By the time the curve is applied, we will end up with a B+ probably. That isn't bad considering how difficult the course is, trust me!

We are really enjoying doing the MBA. We meet new people and learn something new every day!

We also just finished a presentation for our Creative Strategy class that was pretty amusing. The assignment was to come up with a mission statement for Robin Hood to help motivate his Merry Men. The point behind the assignment was to use and evaluate the electronic brainstorming process and compare it with face-to-face brainstorming. The mission statement was really not important. The point was to get creative with the process and come up with some great ideas by thinking outside of the box. I am my mother's child, let me just say! We came up with some REALLY creative ideas. We used props to illustrate our points and submitted an "old" written paper by burning the edges of our written group paper and baking it with lemon juice in the oven. We inserted pictures of Robin Hood in our powerpoint, and we even managed to work in some Napoleon Dynamite references (I have no idea how! lol!)! We blew everyone away, needless to say. It was lots of fun and has been a really interesting class.

Hope everyone is doing well! We sure are busy, but having lots of fun! I hope you are too!

Vie Photography Website!

We are still building the flash website (it is harder than I thought!), but in the mean time feel free to check out the Vie Photography Blog and the Vie Photography temp site...

http://viephotography.blogspot.com
http://www.vie-photography.com

Oh, and what do you think of the logo?

Official Beginning of Vie Photography

So it is official. I have chosen a real name for my photography business and we are in the process of setting up a website, etc. I need some feedback from everyone, if you don't mind, on the name, possible slogans, etc.

Name: Vie Photography
Slogan: Capturing Your Life (?), Capturing Life (?), Capturing Life with a Lens (?), Any other ideas?
Website: We are in the process of purchasing a domain right now. I will post it when we have it and have it all set up.
Flickr: No photos posted on it yet, but the new flickr site will be flickr.com/photos/viephotograhy
E-mail: We will have an E-mail address that goes with the website, but I set up a few alternatives already: viephotography@yahoo.com and viephotography@gmail.com
Blog: I just reserved the name today and haven't done any editing to the blog site yet, but the site is viephotography.blogspot.com, for those who want to add it to their blog lists.
Logo: I'll post our logo today or tomorrow too, it is pretty cool but I just realized I only have the Adobe Illustrator file on my work comp so I can't post it yet. Basically the color is a pretty green and VIE is in a swirly flowery kind of text that is elegant but not overly gaudy. We thought that would go along with the whole "Life" theme.

Any ideas or suggestions so far? Let me know what you think! =)

Headshot Photo Session

This weekend I took headshots for a friend of mine who is auditioning for a local theater company out here in Utah. We did about a 30 minute session in her back yard, and surprisingly we got a bunch of photos that turned out really great! I thought I'd post a few for everyone to see, for those who are interested. =) Of course, you can always see more on my flickr page (flickr.com/photos/kristalkareh).

First Week as an MBA Student

So my first week of MBA school is officially over. So far Westminster has proven interesting. Our first class is a Business Philosophy class, which is always interesting. As expected, pretty much everyone in my class has really strong opinions about things they don't know anything about, and they defend their opinions no matter what! Even if that means they look like an idiot, they still stick to their guns. I am all for sticking up for what you believe in, but only if you have an informed opinion.

Besides dealing with a few of my uninformed yet passionate classmates, I am really enjoying the class so far. It is fast paced, but not really challenging yet. I am waiting to be pushed to a new level. Maybe once I get into my upper level classes. I'm not saying that because I think I know it all, just because we are going over a lot of the same things I learned about in my undergraduate degree classes.

Anyway, so far it has been great and I am very optimistic for the future. Go Griffins! =)