Congratulations Bryan Clay! 2008 Gold Medalist for the Decathlon!

He did it! He is the greatest track and field athlete of all time! Bryan Clay from Hawaii has won the Gold Medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games for the Decathlon. Some of you are probably wondering why I am posting this information here. Well, we have been huge fans of Bryan's since he was a student at Azusa Pacific University. He won the Silver medal in Athens and now has shown the world that he is the BEST. Bryan won by 240 points which is the largest margin of victory since 1972. Wow!

In case you are wondering what all the Decathlon entails, it is comprised of 10 events where you earn points for each: 100 meter, Long Jump, Shot Put, High Jump, 400 meters, 110 meter hurdles, Discus, Pole Vault, Javelin, 1500 meter.

Click here to read the article about Bryan and his victory by Gary Pine of APU.

A week before Bryan and his coaches left for China, we gathered as a community at APU and over Bryan and his family. Obviously the power of prayer works!




Take a look at Jacob's shirt...My Dad can do it all! He sure can!

Have a great day and congratulations Bryan!

Coming soon....TCHS Class of 1988 Reunion!

Yesterday, I had responded to a post on one of the photography forums I belong to and joked about divulging my age. Someone commented that my age was posted in my profile. ha ha! Yes, it is true, I am 37, almost 38 and excited more than ever for so many great things that are going on in my life. The post on the forum was about our favorite songs from the 80's, and we submitted a huge list of songs to our DJ for the class reunion. *one of my favorite songs from the 80's is the Safety Dance by Men Without Hats.

This coming Saturday, August 16th is the 20 year class reunion for the the class of 1988 of Temple City High School. I am one of the co-chairs of the committee and let me tell you, it has been quite the wild ride. Myrriah and I never thought this day would finally be here, but it is, and kind of like your own wedding day, if something does go wrong, the event still has to go on. Our hope is that everyone has a wonderful time and walks away with some rekindled friendships and great memories. I am so excited to see some of my classmates who I have not seen in some 10 or even 20 years, and I think it is ironic that I have not moved that far from "home" and hardly see any classmates in the area. Come to find out, so many of them still live in the area and we are excited about staying in touch for years to come.

On Monday night, we had a last minute committee meeting, made some last minute phone calls to missing classmates, and went through the yearbook to go down memory lane. There were great laughs about the completely crazy things we did in high school, and there were tears while reflecting on the sad things that happened while we were in high school, and afterwards. This coming Saturday marks a huge event in the lives of myself and my classmates, as a lot can happen in 20 years and I am excited to see how their lives have changed. I never thought I would have the opportunity to be a part of the planning committee, as I was not the popular girl in high school, but the one who was the athlete/band geek. If I was not playing my clarinet, marching on the street and on the field, I was in the pool, swimming hundreds of laps and winning races. Looking back to high school, I feel that it is the much appreciated journey that launched me into adult hood. And now that I work with College Students, I appreciate those formative years in high school even more. Check back over the next few days to see and hear about the reunion!

If any of my classmates are reading this...I am SO excited to see you on Saturday to reconnect and go down memory lane. Click here to join our group on facebook!

Free to Succeed Tour: Los Angeles

A few days late, but worth the wait!

This past Wednesday, August 6th, I had the amazing opportunity to go out to Los Angeles to hear Jasmine Star and David Jay speak. This speaking engagement was part of the Free to Succeed Tour, or the Freedom Tour as some would refer to it as. I had been waiting for this day for a few months and was so excited, that I just could not contain myself! I had met Jasmine previously when her sister came to speak at APU, but I had not met David Jay. Tears come to my eyes when I think about the numerous things they have both done to impact my journey into the professional photography arena.

They have done so much for so many photographers like myself to make our lives so much more free. DJ is huge on freedom in the photography business and encourages others to become freedom ambassadors by spending more time away from our computers in order to have more time behind the camera and with our clients. And when it comes to Jasmine, she spoke eloquently about how we need to brand ourselves in our businesses, take care of our clients as we would want to be taken care of, and really find our own unique passion in our business. I appreciate both Jasmine and DJ so much for this rockin' evening and am so excited to share with them some of the things we will be working on this fall.

I also had the opportunity to meet [b]ecker, who is HILARIOUS by the way. He was too cute for words and was just hamming it up with everyone and sharing more about the up and coming [b]school. There were so many great photographers at this event. Some who have visited my blog or I had visited theirs. It is so nice to finally put a face to a name like Hanssie, and Christopher Wren and Shawn Kloster! It is a super small world we live in! I work with Chris's Mom and Shawn's Grandmother at APU. Crazy! Some people joke about the 6 degrees of separation of Tira. It may be true!

The evening would not be complete without meeting Allie, DJ's girlfriend, and Shyla. They were so sweet and encouraging, that it felt like we had been friends for years. Shyla moved to Boston recently, so hopefully I can connect with her again soon. Allie has a brother who attends APU and will be studying in South Africa this semester.

I can't wait to reconnect with everyone I met at this great event!

DJ and Jasmine, thank you so much for an incredible, life changing evening! You both ROCK!

*all of the pics were taken with my "pink" point and shoot! :)

More ways to be unique!

Not only do I have a unique name, for which I am grateful to my parents for making up, but I love to find ways to be different. I know, you are thinking, well, you have a blog and website just like everyone else, what gives? You just wait buster.....come Christmas time, it will be even better!!!!

Anyways, have I told you how much I love my Shootsac? I have in the past, so click here! I love it even more because I have added two more covers to my extensive collection. You see, last week, July 22nd came around, and not only was it our wedding anniversary, it was also Jessica Claire's birthday. And what did she do? She of course came out with the most gorgeous cover to celebrate her birthday. Of course, I jumped online to view it, fell in love with it, and whipped out my credit card to snag one up bright and early that day. I waited patiently for my new covers to come (mind you they do have the best customer service, Vu you rock!) and great shipping. Even though I have not figured out why they come from Wisconsin. There must be a fabulous seamstress who makes all of these great covers. Regardless, they rock!

Okay okay...on to that great cover and why I need to continue to tell you how fabulous Jessica and her team are. When I opened up the box, my eyes got really big because it was so beautiful. And, there was this sweet card in there as a little thank you for my purchase. AND, it is a limited edition cover! I scored on the list, as I got 8/100! See below:





Thanks Jessica for the new additions to my collection, and Happy Belated Birthday!