We’ve are LOVING Thailand! I can’t wait to share more when we are home and have better Internet access!

For now, here is Part 2 of my interview with Ron Dawson.

In this interview, I talk about being self employed parents, balancing parenthood with work, and a little on our popular instructional DVD series for parents, Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box!

To hear Part 2, follow this link to Ron’s website!

Hope you enjoy!

Without meaning to, we have reached the end of the world and take heart, it is breath taking!  After we left our dive in Chinatown, Bangkok, we got a plane and flew south to Krabi (which is about how I was feeling with our fourth day of planes :)).  We got off the plane and decided to take a longtail boat to a place called Railay Bay.  The adventure side of our trip went up a notch! You wade out to these longtail boats (they really are long, skinny boats), climb inside and hold on.   

Twenty minutes later, you see the most amazing scenery ever!  HUGE, beautiful rocks jetting out of the sea with such force I was rubbing my eyes in disbelief. 

We get to Railay Bay, and you guessed it, we get to jump out of the boat and wade to shore!  This is freaking hilarious to me because my backpack is so heavy that I don’t jump at all but try to roll of the side and thank God Brian catches me as I loose my balance and go backwards in the water.   We find a sweet bungalow in the jungle, literally talking “jungle” here.  And the strip of spots to eat and bars along the east side of Railay is straight out of the movie, The Beach.  It’s like this place is from another world!  We have a HUGE feast with a friend we meet from London, and I think our dinners are $1.50 each.  And we’re talking the BEST dang Phad Thai and Green Curry you’ve ever had.  You can’t help but tip for a total of $3 plus because it doesn’t seem right to only pay $1.50 for a feast of Thai food. Brian is dropping weight, and I’m freaking GAINING weight!  What do you expect when you put a half asian girl in the middle of rice paradise!!  I’m telling you, the food alone is worth taking four planes to Krabi and beyond.   Yesterday we rented a kayak and paddled out to an island called Chicken Island (it really does look like a chicken).  We didn’t think this journey would be that far…somehow the island seemed so much closer.  Then we found ourselves in open sea, and the island only seemed FARTHER away.  Brian started critiquing my paddling “form”, and ladies, you know it’s all down hill from here.  :)  But what do you do?  You’re stuck in a kayak for at least another mile!  I’ll tell you what you do, you freaking splash the crap out of each other without tipping.  And then once you have both cooled off, you start paddling again.  It was so worth it.  We found a deserted beach and snorkeled for hours off of it.   

(that’s me in the water!)

And when it was time to go back, we did what any self respecting couple would do–we applied our wisdom of 10 years together and 12 in counseling, and hired a longtail boat to take us and our kayak back.  

(daddy says “Hi Pascaline and Blaze! I miss you guys!”)We have loved every minute in this wonderful, beautiful place.  Our reason for coming was not only for our anniversary, but we wanted to see if Thailand was a place to bring the kids and live for a couple months out of the year.  Remember the book, Four Hour Work Week, yes, it has changed our plans and life in numerous ways.  All we know is that we can’t wait to get back here.  I can’t think of a better place to bring the kids, home school them in paradise, and just be.  The people, the scenery, the adventures that call you every morning, the food…the rice and CURRIES!!!!, yep, we’re going to work to get back here for sure. Okay, we’ve taken a bunch of photos.  Here are just a couple favorites! The mystery and beauty of all the longtail boats.

one more for the kids, “mama loves you Pascaline and Blaze.  And I can’t wait to bring you here so we’re all laughing on the beach together.  and see those rocks behind me!  you can climb them!!”

Tomorrow we scuba dive for the first time.  We’ve hired a videographer to come along so we can post it on the blog!  Do you think we’re nuts!  How can you not when it only costs $25!

 

While Brian and I are exploring the jungles and beaches of Thailand, I thought it would be fun to share an interview I did a few months back with Ron from F-Stop Beyond.

It’s an interview I’ve been meaning to post for a few months…where does the time go!

This is a 2 part interview, so I’ll post Part 1 today and then Part 2 on Friday. Ron’s main business is being an incredible videographer in CA. His site is Cinematic Studios. Last month, he was awarded as one of the Top 25 Event Videographers in the nation! (He’s also got a great blog for all you blog readers!)

Ron wanted to do these interviews on the side as a personal project. He did a handful of interviews with different photographers, wanting to capture who they are and what makes them tick. If you enjoy listening to podcasts, check out the F-Stop Beyond website for a handful of wonderful interviews!

Okay, here’s Part 1! I hope you enjoy!

F-Stop Beyond

To play, just click the green arrow below and make sure your volume is up. It may take a minute to load and then the audio should come on for you.

Just a little reminder that today is the LAST day to vote for the Finalist in the L-O-V-E photo themed contest!

If you haven’t voted yet, click here!

Voting officially ends at 5pm PST!

Hey everyone!

After three days of different flights, we are in BANGKOK!  And can you believe we don’t have any jet lag.  I think I was so tired from not sleeping Friday night that I just crashed on the plane and made the adjustment right away.  Yeah!

So I have to tell you that I’m just laughing as I write this blog post because the adventures we’ve had so far are hilarious!  We had booked train tickets in Hong Kong so that when we got into Bangkok, we’d go right to the train station and then ride all night to Chomphun, arrive at 4:30am, hang out until 7am, catch the ferry to Koh Tao island and lickety split, we’re scuba diving. 

Well, we should have known something was wrong when we were sent a random email to pick up our train tickets in a place called Domestic Cargo at Bangkok Airport.  Doesn’t that just so wierd already?  What the heck is Domestic Cargo? 

So we arrive in Bangkok and are told in this email to take Shuttle Bus A to Domestic Cargo which ends up becoming two shuttle bus transfers, on a crowded bus of local Thai people, driving around and getting the “full tour” of Bangkok’s airport grounds for almost two hours, to be dropped off at Domestic Cargo which is literally in the middle of nowhere!  I almost wet my pants, I was laughing so hard.  No one was even there but two guys behind a counter.  It made no sense at all.

And wouldn’t you know it, they didn’t have any train tickets for us.  :)  AND we were told to get back on the SHUTTLE BUS!  AHHHHH!

But we cut a break and met Tom, a taxi driver who just happened to be dropping someone off.  He got us to the train station, find out there are no tickets for us tonight or anyone for the NEXT WEEK due to a Full Moon Party happening end of the week. I guess 15,000 people travel to these parties.   So we checked into a total dive at the last minute in the heart of Chinatown and got in one of those open aired moped taxis (life risking all in itself!) and went searching for curry and rice. 

We found an open night market near Lumphini and lots of food with foot massages that cost $10 for one hour!  And when we finally made it back to our dive hotel in Chinatown, passing the vendor who is frying crickets along the side of the road, I fell right asleep and dreamed of cockroaches doing the conga all night at the foot of my bed. 

We are back on a plane today.  We’ve decided to go the opposite way we orignially planned and head to the mangroves, limestone rocks and beaches.  We have no idea where we’ll sleep or what we’re doing, but to my surprise it’s okay with me.  I actually woke up early this morning while Brian slept and watched the sunrise and wrote in my journal for almost two hours.  I felt my soul take a deep breath, and I realized that is why I’m here…not to find the perfect hotel, the perfect beach, but to practice living…living without reservation and as a result, breathe a bit deeper.

Now back to the conga! 

(Quick note from Brian:)

Here’s Me Ra and I carring our back packs at the Cargo Terminal.

You’ll notice Me Ra’s not in the picture, but her Backpack is. Interesting? Maybe I just like to carry both of our packs for the extra excercise?)

Are you debating on whether or not to sign up for the San Diego workshop with myself and Carey of Barefoot Memories? If so, watch this video clip! Carey was just featured on Fox to talk about her beautiful photos! She did a fantastic job, even plugged our instructional DVD series (love you Carey!)! You’ve seen video posts of how crazy Brian and I are, now see what Carey is like.

Carey, me and Brian will team up to do a special workshop for women in San Diego that happens right after Mother’s Day! The PERFECT Mother’s Day gift, don’t you think!

The dates are May 24th and 25th with a Special Add On “Business Day” on May 26th! For all the details on this workshop, as well as how to register, or info on our upcoming Sonoma Workshop in April, click here!

See Carey’s great interview below!

If the embedded show isn’t working for you, here is a link to the You Tube version! Enjoy!

It’s 4:12 am on Saturday morning! I haven’t gone to bed yet! We leave in fifteen minutes for the airport. And I just had to jump on and say how excited I am.

Here’s a little background.

This trip is to celebrate our 10 year anniversary (that happened in July)!

Brian and I decided last week that we were so burned out on suitcases and hotels, so we went to REI bought two travel backpacks and a pair of Chaco shoes.

We are literally backpacking Thailand and showing up with no reservations anywhere.

Totally unplugging.

So needed.

We’ll do our best to hit Internet Cafe’s and tell you what’s happening on our adventure. All we know is that our aim is Railay Bay, the number 3 place to rock climb in the world. And then scuba diving in Phi Phi Islands.

Sleeping in beach bungalows and eating curry. I can hardly stand to be off!

(if I can manage it, I’ll try and upload a photo of our backpacks. it’s hilarious! we literally packed five shirts, three shorts, two swimsuits and a WHOLE LOT OF CAMERA GEAR! :))

xoxo

I couldn’t leave for our trip without getting up the finalists for the L-O-V-E Photo Contest!

For those of you who are new to the blog, we do a photo contest every month and for February, blog readers decided it was all about “what the word L-O-V-E means to you.” People could send in any type of photo they wanted, as long as it stuck to the theme. I can honestly say, I have never cried so much looking through the dozens and dozens and dozens of contest entries. The images and their accompanying stories touched me so deeply. It was EXTREMELY hard narrowing it down to five, and I’m just glad I don’t have to pick a final winner!

Post a comment and vote for your favorite image. Tell us why you liked it so the artist that took the image will be blessed (this is by far the best part of these contests). And don’t forget, we always pick a random voter to win something too. Prizes and future prizes are listed below. Let’s get to the photos!

1. Finalist #1: Unconditional Love, by Stephanie. I love this image. The tenderness, the soft cradle of the young one’s arm around big brother. The sweet kiss. The safety and trust. All these things are what makes this such a striking image to me.

Then I read Stephanie’s email that accompanied the picture, and the moment she captured meant so much more. Stephanie wrote, “When you first look at this photo…I suppose it seems like simple sibling love. What it says to me…is a powerful statement of God’s unconditional love expressed through children. We are a blended family–and you would never know it.” Thank you Stephanie for sharing this beautiful photo with us. I know there are many challenges blended families face in building intimacy and safety. You must see this image as evidence that you and your husband are doing something right. Stephanie has a blog if you want to check it out called Pass the Pepper–very cute title!

2. Finalist #2: Newlyweds with a European Flavor, by Acacia. This image is so sweet! Can’t you see it on a commercial or in a magazine? The energy between this newlywed couple is so lovely. Acacia shared that this is her newlywed sister, and they are now living in England. But before they left the country, she took this shot in their parent’s side yard and loved the European feel it had.

I get the same European vibe from the image. I love the composition of the shot with her long legs running of the bottom of the frame, the husband kneeled over–we don’t have to see his face to know he adores his new wife. And her smile and sass almost has the Audrey Hepburn “Gigi” feel. Acacia, your sister must love you for this shot! Good job! To see more of Acacia’s work, visit her website. (Acacia, I LOVE the song on your website. I think I kept your site open the whole time I worked on this blog just to keep listening to that fantastic song. Not to mention your images are beautiful, and you are a steal for what you’re charging!)

3. Daddy’s Hairstylist, by Gina. The image is simply adorable! It makes me smile every time! I LOVE this image! The little girl is just going to town, and I love how you get this feeling from dad’s face that there is no where he would rather be. He’s got all the time in the world for his personal hairstylist.

Gina said her husband is a surgeon, so “he is VERY busy and tired, yet he always makes time for our three kids…he lets her (his daughter) put bows in his hair, straight iron it, blow dry it, you name it, he complies.” Gina, this is one of those photos that you will keep and show your daughter someday. And in that moment of seeing this image she will know that even though her daddy had long hours, her dad’s love was unending for her. No matter what she may fear, wonder, doubt, hope about her relationship with her dad–it will all fade when she sees that dad had nowhere else to be but here with her–getting his hair done. What a gift you’ve given to your daughter in years to come.

4. Finalist #4, An Enduring Love, by Cyndi. This is an amazing story of love. Cyndi said her grandparents have been married for over 70 years. Just this last year her grandmother had to be put in a 24 hour care home for people with Alzheimer’s. On the day this photo was taken, her grandmother remembered her Pop and agreed to hold hands with him. Cyndi writes, “You could see the joy in his eyes that she remembered him that day.” Okay…I’m crying again. Here’s the beautiful photo.

Brian are I are going to Thailand to celebrate 10 years of marriage, and I cannot even fathom the richness of 70 years. Can you imagine all they have endured, experienced, loved, and become together? I look at their hands and can’t imagine a more powerful image of an enduring love. Thank you so much for sharing Cyndi–this is an image that makes us all better people.

5. Finalist #5- Big Brother’s Love, by Michelle. There is so much that goes into capturing a beautiful image. Whether it’s composition, lighting, blur or no blur. And yet, sometimes the most powerful component is timing. The single, fleeting moment we are able to see that is happening in front of us, and somehow we remember to pick up our camera and capture it. This image is one of those powerful, fleeting moments. Here’s the story behind this image.

Michelle’s 5 month old had heart surgery, and after a quick recovery, he found himself back in the hospital 3 weeks later. He was on a ventilator for a month, and she writes “with much hesitation, we had to finally give in and let our older son visit his baby brother in the hospital. As soon as he walked in the room, they had their “moment”. It brought tears to my eyes to see the love of my older son had for his brother.” As a mom, I understand Michelle’s wording of “having to finally give in”. Maybe she was worried her older son would be scared from all the tubes and machines surrounding his baby brother. But I can’t imagine what she must have felt when her son surprised her and went to his baby brother’s bedside, as if he was blind to all the tubes and machines–only seeing his little brother and knowing he wanted to hold his hand. This is when the depth of love, no matter how young or how innocent, takes my breath away.

In DVD 1, Refuse to Say Cheese, I talk about how I want our kids, Pascaline and Blaze, to someday look back on the photos we took of them and know who they were, what they worked through, what frightened them, what they overcame, what they were sure of despite their surroundings.

I don’t want a box full of smiles, I want a box full of stories.

Someday Michelle’s sons will look back on this photo and know their bond was mysteriously strong and a force to be reckoned with from the beginning. Michelle, you have given your boys a gift by capturing this image. I also commend you for remembering to take a photo!

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These are the Five Top Finalists for the L-O-V-E photo contest. Honest to goodness, there were so many more images to share that were ALL powerful and beautiful. In fact if it’s okay, I’d like to share some more in the future b/c there were just to many good ones!

So post your comment below with your vote, and the Finalist will win their own copy of the AWESOME software, Photoshop’s Lightroom from Adobe. (Thank you for sponsoring this contest Adobe! We love you!)

The Random Voter Award will receive a copy of DVD 2, Beyond the Green Box. I think Brian chose this when I was sick last week, and I’m thinking it’s because he stars in it as the Nutty Professor.

If your a Finalist, time to email your friends and tell them to vote for you!

To all the rest, cast your votes for your favorite finalist and be the possible Random Voter!!

You all have until Wednesday, February 20th at 5pm PST to vote!

We’ll announce the photo contest for March at the end of February. It’s a fun one! I’m so excited! And…and…we may have some more Sony cameras for awards! (yeah!!!!) I’m working on these prizes for you friends!

I also want you to know that we have a whole week of blog posts for next week when we’re gone! I couldn’t leave you all hanging for a week! I’ve lined up some really fun stuff. My hope is that we can post blogs while we’re actually in Thailand, so you can see where we are, what we’re doing, but if all else fails, we’ve got posts lined up just in case. I hear there are Internet Cafes everywhere so it will be fun to keep in touch while abroad!

Happy Valentine’s Day Friends!

We are back this morning after a wonderful and exciting meeting with Sony!

The kids are wearing pink and red, and we’re off to make Valentine cards.

If I can swing it during their nap time, I’m going to post the Five Finalists for the LOVE photo contest.

But in the meantime, I’m looking for some great books to take with us to Thailand.

Can you tell me your favorite novels?

Here’s what I’ve read in the last couple months and loved:

The Glass Castle–amazing true story!

Love in the Time of Cholera–my little brother’s favorite. love story that spans over 70 years.

Oh, and Brian bought me the new John Grisham book, The Appeal, but I’m waiting to start it until we get on that 20 hour flight!

Before I go into today’s blog, I have to thank all of you for the countless emails you sent to Oprah and me and Brian. Thank you so much for all the kind words. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to send emails to the show. (and dealing with the 2000 word maximum :)) Your emails and kind notes left me speechless, and brought me to tears. Your testimonies of what the DVD series has done for you is so amazing! Your stories of how the 101 Kits has taken your dream to a reality of doing your own side photography business…made me cry some more! Thank you a million times for sharing! We’ll keep our fingers crossed together!

In the midst of preparing to go on a trip to Thailand this weekend (more on that later), the consumer side of Sony invited us down to their headquarters in San Diego. It’s a total unexpected trip for our month’s schedule, but we have to keep jumping off this cliff right? Who knows where it may lead!

Since we’re in San Diego, who did I call but Carey of Barefoot Memories! She’s so sweet and got a babysitter at the very last minute and met us for dinner last night. I had to show this photo to you that Brian took with her iphone.

This is a photo of Mom #1 and Mom #2. Mom #1 is a whole state away from the stress of balancing home, kids, work, and every thing else. Mom #2 is Carey, she’s only 15 minutes away from her kids. She’s not far enough away in proximity to get out of the blur of motherhood, work and life.

And we are holding up the newest issue of Shutterbug magazine b/c MPIX did a full page issue in red with Carey’s photo as the highlight! Yeah Carey! Okay, I have to say one more thing. My birthday was on Saturday (yeah), and can you believe Carey sent me a gift in the mail?! I’ll post a photo of it for you!

So here’s the other fun thing! Guess where Sony put us up at? Yes, it’s a crazy coincidence! The Rancho Bernardo Inn where Carey, Brian and I are hosting the San Diego workshop! You know how you get a bit scared because you book something on line and hope the place looks as great as the website makes it look like? Well, I’m freaking out! This place is the cutest Inn I have ever seen! You women who are coming to the San Diego Workshop in May are going to FLIP OUT!!!

It’s quaint, cozy, all these wonderful sitting areas with beautiful furniture and french doors everywhere–I’m telling you that we are so excited to host our workshop here! Brian and I are so blown away that we are going to bring the kids and a nanny b/c the family pool is so cool, and Lego land and Seaworld are around the corner. Can you tell I’m excited!

I think I’m just burned out on hotels since we’ve been in FIVE in the last three weeks, and this place actually makes me want to stay another night. Not what I was expecting! Thank you Sony!

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To see the Rancho Bernardo Inn for yourself, check out their website.

We still have a few seats left in the San Diego workshop. Some people are local and not staying at the Inn, some people are having their husband and kids stay and making it a mini family getaway, some people are making it a weekend away to themselves at the Inn, if you want details on the workshop and how to register for one of the last few seats, click here!

Okay, off to our Sony meeting. Say a prayer for us.

Oh my gosh! I almost forgot the best new hyperlink of all today! Check out Carey’s new website for parents! It’s My Fun Camera!