I miss my mom every day, so instead of making a big deal out of today, I decided to be proactive. Do something good, but something that took sacrifice on my part. My mom was so darned tough when she was sick, so I knew I had to do something brave to honor her memory.

So today I chopped 10 full inches off my hair for Pantene Beautiful Lengths. I've been growing my hair out for this purpose since my mom got sick, but every time I went in for a cut, I chickened out. Today it was now or never!

(yes, I am crying like a baby in this picture. baby! it's hair! it grows back!)

I picked Beautiful Lengths for two reasons: 1) they make wigs for women with cancer and 2) I only needed to cut 8 inches off. But of course, my trusted stylist convinced me to give just a bit more. :-) I decided not to go with Locks of Love not because I don't think it's a worthy charity, but because I really felt strongly that I wanted to help someone with cancer. Cancer is impossible, the treatment is horrible, I think it is so important that these women have one, good thing given to them: the chance to look like themselves. I watched my mom lose her hair twice and as a woman, I could see that even though she felt horrible and was sick constantly, losing her hair was still the worst part.

So if you have at least 8 inches, I can tell you now from experience that you will feel SO good when you put your pony tail in an envelope and ship it off so someone else can have the dignity of a beautiful head of hair.

Added bonus: turns out my salon does cuts for FREE if you're donating it. Oh, and I adore my new hair cut and I can't wait to do it all over again.

**Note: all pics were taken by my assistant/second shooter.... my hubby Ryan! He's getting good, eh?

Ryan and I are very careful with our money. And by 'careful' I mean we try not to spend to much.... so we can take amazing vacations every year. We go out to eat maybe twice a week, we refuse to spend $20 to go to the movies unless the movie HAS to be seen in the theatre, we use coupons when we can, in general we just try to keep it under control without depriving ourselves of some fun.

But lately I've realized that I really need to upgrade my camera. My main camera is a Nikon D200, which is just fine, and when I got it I was THRILLED to have the upgrade, but now I've outgrown it. I need higher ISO capability. I need a full frame. I need higher ISO capability. The D200 is ok for my outside portraits, but oh boy, it is so noisy at high ISO for indoor stuff. And since I prefer to do as much as possible with available light, the D200 just isn't cutting it.

Soooo.... after much hand-wringing and over thinking, Ryan and I have decided it's time to make the big jump. So in two weeks I'm hoping to have this baby in my hands:

The D700. Yum. I am so excited to get my hands on this little guy. We're going to be dangerous together.

But, fair's fair. If I get a new toy, then doesn't Ryan deserve one too? Well of course! So for the first time ever, Ryan has himself a brand new, not handed-down, mountain bike:

Nice, huh? It's a Gary Fisher 29er. So, now the other trade off for me getting that camera is that I'm going to have to start being brave again on my mountain bike. Ugh. Do you have any idea how many sharp, pokey things there are in the desert just waiting for me to fall?

We drove to a nearby park that had a little lake at it because Suzy just LOVES water. And ducks, oh she loved the ducks. It was a little rough going to start, but when we figured out that nothing made Suzy happier then being up in a tree, we were golden.

Enjoy these pictures of sweet Suzy.

Suzy's daddy is a firefighter, so of COURSE we had to have her try on his gear. What do you think? Future firefighter?