Living For Me

Ever since my health scare with my heart a couple of months ago, I’ve made a couple of decisions. By the way, I’m doing much better now! Some good medication, along with holistic remedies, stress relief, exercise, diet, is helping a whole lot. I used to be so bad to myself:

Decision #1 – I quit smoking. The day the doctor told me my blood pressure was through the roof and my heart was going nuts, I put them down. That was November 17th. I now know somewhat of what an addict goes through. Due to my health problems at the time, I thought it would be best to NOT use any patches, pills, lozenges. I went COLD TURKEY. I still dream of cigarettes. I still have major cravings. They were my stress buddies – much like addicts use drugs to help relieve stress (or so my son tells me). Quitting sucks!!! But I haven’t slipped – not even once. I figure if my kid can do it (he’s clean in prison – no drugs, no cigarettes), then I can do it.

Decision #2 – I’m going to be quitting my business. I’m a professional portrait photographer. And a pretty darned good one if I do say so myself. My work can be seen here: www.memoriesbycarol.com. Three-and-a-half years ago, I purchased an old home to convert into my portrait studio. Its a beautiful old home! With amazing gardens out back. Its the absolutely most perfect place to have my studio. But, after over 7 years of trying to make this business work, I’m done. Its just not possible to make enough money. Not to pay for the studio anyways. I may go back to working out of my home. I have the mother-in-law’s downstairs apartment that I can convert into my working space. It just seems silly to keep trying to pay for the studio when I have that space at home I could use. And, we’re not getting any younger, so SAVING money instead of spending money – for our retirement – should be my priority. My stress level has gone down immensly just by making this decision alone. Although this place is so incredibly glorious, and I’m going to miss it so! But it is time to say good-bye.

Decision #3 – I may just become a housewife again! And not work at all. I haven’t made this decision for sure yet. It would be weird to just be a housewife again. Although I’ve been enjoying January! Its a terribly slow month for portrait photographers, so I’ve been spending a lot of time at home, cooking, cleaning, organizing. Its been kinda nice! And it would be kinda nice to have the summer with my kids. They would be able to swim in our backyard pool again! (I won’t let them when I’m not home – which I’m NEVER home in the summer – SUPER BUSY TIME for me!)

So we set a target date of February 1st to put the studio on the market. Looks like that’s not gonna happen. We still have some cleaning and staging to do. But hopefully soon. It will show best in the Spring with the gardens in all their glory!

If you know of anyone that wants it, holla me!

Here’s a few pics of the outside. These were taken in June, 2010: