My Mom is Beautiful

My Mom is Beautiful. Inside and out. Anyone who has ever met her has been touched by a light. She carries a light. She is Beautiful.

It's not like I haven't always known that my Mother is Beautiful. But I loved visiting with her today. We did her hair, then a pedicure and then a photo shoot! Very fun.

For those of you who don't know my Mom, you're missing out! For those of you who know my mom but don't know about all that she does, you're missing out! She's amazing I tell you! Her job title is Mom/Speaker/Writer/Singer/Guitar Teacher etc. She's amazing at all of the above. Withing the past couple years she's come out with TWO books. "First Aid for Feelings" and "My Journey from Darkness to Light".

Check out her website at www.PatriciaPotts.com where she has A TON of uplifting stuff-including her books. My Mom has been through A LOT throughout her life and she's still here to show for it. I am SO thankful. I wouldn't be at all the person I am today without that wonderful woman.

Her book "My Journey from Darkness to Light" is all about what she's been through and how she got to where she is today. Just a couple things about her: She's Bipolar. She's been through THREE major depressions. She had a brain tumor when she was pregnant with me. And much more... Seriously, Mom, I am the luckiest EVER to have you! She's a living testimony that we go through trials for a reason! We CAN make it through! And things WILL get better. So much better. With God, ANYTHING is possible!

I just want to post some of the pics we took today. It was SO much fun!
And Mom, YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!

Unruly yet Beautiful

Welcome to our yard. Front and back are full of wonders. We really didn't know exactly what we were getting into when we got the house. It's CRAZY! If we were to week every day it would still be a forest. But the other day I went picture crazy and took a bunch of pictures of some of the plants in our yard. Enjoy!



















p.s. As far as the salon goes, it's going well! We're on track. It's been frusterating but rewarding. If you know of anyone who lives in the area of Ogden, please let them know we're there. If you have any brilliant ideas for the salon, please pass them on!

Wow- What a Ride!

Ok, I'm sorry if I have not been the most fun person to be around lately. It has been such a rollercoaster with this new salon. Lot's of ups and downs. Not lots of sleep and sanity:). BUT, it's FINALLY here! The GRAND OPENING of Striking Image Salon! We've put our blood, sweat and tears into this salon- literally.

Renovations - We ran into a bunch of complications with the renovations, but it's all done now. What a relief! Wait 'till you see the pictures - what a transformation. (Don't you dare skip down to the bottom to see the pictures before you finish reading...I KNOW you are tempted!)

Interviews and Hiring Process - It felt SO strange to be the interviewer rather than the interviewee! Seriously-you should try it sometime. But we now have two full time stylists and one part time. We're still looking for another part-time and any booth renters.

Grand Opening/Marketing - SO stressful-I must say. We decided that we wanted to do something that would REALLY get people in for the Grand Opening. FREE HAIRCUTS-Thursday through Saturday. We posted adds on KSL, delivered 500 fliers to homes close by, PLUS we hired this guy who rides around on his 6 FOOT TALL UNICYCLE holding our sign. Haha. Needless to say, we're JAM PACKED with clients all the way through Saturday night (and more if we allowed it). We have each client fill out a form with their info and if they want to recieve updates and promotions. Surprisingly-almost everyone wants that. And another check box asks if they want to be called in 6-8 weeks to schedule their next appointment. Again, almost everyone said yes! Awesome. Others have already pre-booked their next appointments and some have scheduled colors. So, it's going really well. Except that our stylists COMPLAIN quite a bit (about working for free). But it will benefit them in the long run. And it's not even that long of a run. They're getting thier business cards out there, they will have returning clients, word of mouth spreads fast- you HAVE TO make sacrifices to build a clientelle. This is just a lot quicker of a way than little 5% off coupons. I just wish they understood that we are LOSING a lot of money to do this. Paying A LOT of money for advertising (we're doing a lot more methods than I've mentioned). Have spent COUNTLESS hours working towards making the salon sucessful. It just seems to me like they think we do nothing. Just sit there and watch the money roll in. I WISH!! It guess it's just teaching me a lot. There is the employee point of view and the business owner point of view. I can see both. I've been in both situations. But they are both SUCH DIFFERENT points of view. The employee has bills to pay and wants the money. The business owner has put a lot of time, effort and money into the business and has to face the fact that it wont be profitable for a while. EVEN IF it doesn't pay for bills. It's a risk that needs to be taken and has been taken for most all businesses. It's actually really interesting for me that I've REALLY been in both situatioins now. As the employee and the boss. Hmmmm... (so sorry to LET IT ALL OUT! It's 1:40am and I'm a bit stressed)Hmmmm....

Anyways, it really has been so exciting though. The stress aside, it's been AWESOME!!! So so so great! Darrin mentioned to me today that he got the chills the first time the phone was answered by an employee: "Striking Image Salon - this is Lisa!". Me too! And to have our very own signage and mail and employees and building (well not quite ours...) and all of that good stuff. YAY! I just want to SHOUT FOR JOY!

We really have been so blessed in this endeavor. Hey-we're not dead, right? haha. I'm so thankful for the opportunity and pray that everything will pan out. And SO thankful for Darrin. It's so great to be able to put our talents together to create something so big.

Anyways, pictures as primised-SORRY it took me so long! Can you guess which ones are before and which ones are after? I sure hope so!
















P.S. My Sister and Brother in law did ALL of the vinyl lettering for the salon and they did an AMAZING job! If you need vinyl let me know and I can get you prices OR her name is Patti Simon and # is (801)502-4868. They have a website but it's under construction www.sticktovinyl.com. Check that out later:). Thanks again Jason and Patti!

A Leap of Faith...and Hope!

Well, as some of you might have heard and MANY of you probably haven't, Darrin and I are opening a salon! Can you believe it?! I know-neither can I. Haha. Anyways, what happened is about two weeks ago Darrin's mom called and told us that they (meaning his parents) are refinancing their house and so if we'd like to buy a salon they'd loan us the money. WOW. That came as a total surprise to me. Darrin and I have talked about wanting to own a salon (and in the future more than one) for quite a while. But I don't remember ever mentioning this to my mother in law. But I guess Darrin did once.

So, anyways, here is this new opportunity staring us in the face. My first impression was to laugh and say, "ya...right. Us owning a salon right now. HAHAHA. That's the last thing we can handle let alone afford!" But then we couldn't stop thinking about it and Darrin started to do a ton of research into it and then we couldn't stop talking about it. So, Darrin found a building for a salon for lease in Ogden and wanted to go look at it. So, needless to say we did go look at it (it can't hurt to look...right?) It was super out-dated and needed HELP though. So, the landlord said if we signed the lease he'd do the renovations we wanted. We talked about it, prayed about it, went to the temple etc. In the end we felt pretty good about signing the lease.

INTRODUCING: STRIKING IAMGE SALON- 2937 NORTH WASHINGTON BLVD- OGDEN, UT 84401

So right now we are SUPER busy picking out colors, furniture, flooring and walls. I'm finding it hard to visualize so I hope it'll all come together! So, the purpose of getting the salon in Ogden is so that it doesn't compete with my Salt Lake Salon. I will still be working from home most of the time in Salt Lake and we'll be finding stylists to work in the Ogden salon. So, basically the Ogden salon is a franchise of my salon. Same name. Same website (www.StrikingImageSalon.com). Same prices etc.

The landlords obviously want us to start paying them asap, so they plan on having all of the renovations done by June 15th!! AHHHHHH-is what that makes me say! That's so soon! So needless to say I'm pretty stressed (yet very excited!) about getting all of this done in SUCH a short amount of time.

If you know of anyone who lives in the Ogden area be sure to let them know to come visit Striking Image Salon! And if you are a stylist or know of one who lives in that area or not too far have them give me a call!

I'm really grateful for the opportunity and I hope it works out! I do know though that the Lord will help us through this brand new page in our lives.

Our Vacation/Accident

Well, I know it's been forever...again...since I've posted. It's just finding the time and having the story. Well, this time I have news. Darrin and I went on vacation this last week with Darrin's family to St. George. It was absolutely gorgeous there! We got these awesome condos and the weather was great. Not to mention I was in desperate need of a vacation. To all of you out there who work from home or are a stay at home mom-I'm sure you'll agree with me when I say that it gets REALLY wrestless. I think that it's even worse if you don't have kids. When you have kids you can take them all kinds of places and have playdates etc. So, I just feel that since I work from home I'm in CONSTANT need of a vacation cause I'm always in my house. Aside from that point, we were having a lot of fun in St. George: Swimming, relaxing, shopping, glow in the dark mini golf, eating out, etc. etc. Then, Monday we went 4-wheeling! I'd never really been before so I was real excited!

We'd been out about 10 minuites and CRASH!?!*??!*!!!*

We (meaning that Darrin and I were on the same ATV) hit a big patch of rocks and were going a bit too fast to stop or turn around. So we flew. Our ATV kept going until it caught up to the Ranger (type of ATV) and when my family noticed we weren't in it (a bit funny) they knew something was wrong and came to the rescue. I do not remember flying through the air. I do not remember crashing. I do not remember landing. Darrin on the other hand remembers EVERY single bounce. Ouch. Anyways, I woke up to Darrin screaming in pain, I couldn't breath, and my father in law was asking me where I hurt. My head was POUNDING!!! And then I became extremely nauseated. Darrin's tailbone was in excrutiating pain and he was really banged up. So, they shaded us with a tarp while the ambulance was on its way.

Can I just say that the board's they strap you to to go in the ambulance are THE MOST uncomfortable thing either Darrin or I have EVER layed on. It made the ride SO much worse. Not to mention that the ET strapped my HAIR into the head velcro thing. Then he tried to get it out himself. OUCH! A girl nurse tried later and did a much less painful job of it. The guy who did it did feel really bad though.

So, I got a concusion, did something horrible to my heel (feels broke but isn't-must just be really bruised?) and have a brace for that, and then I just have a bunch of abrasions all over. Darrin broke his pinky finger (it's SO nasty to look at), bruised his tailbone (OUCH!!!), and also has nasty abrasions all over. Not to mention we're finding new bruises, aches and pains daily. Some are getting better that we had from the beginning and some are just getting really noticable.

Since we were on vacation for a week, I had my schedule SUPER booked up with clients for when we got back. Well, I didn't want to have to cancel them all and we REALLY need the money now (I'll post venting about medical bills later) and so I kept all of them. I really just feel like I haven't had a chance to relax. Not a chance to rest and heal. Late to bed, EARLY to rise is what it's been. Appointments from morning to night. Hardly any breaks. I just know that if I rescheduled all of the appointments then later I would have a whole LOAD of them all together and that wouldn't be fun either. So, might as well get them over with (not in a bad way-you know what I mean). So, anyways, that's what I am doing up right now. I woke up at 6am because my client needed to get in at 7 today. Oops-while I was doing my makeup this morning it dawned on me- "maybe she meant 7pm..." And she did!!! Dang! I figured since I was up I might as well blog this.

Aside from the fact that Darrin and I have deep bruises and scabs all over and are pretty achey brakey, I find myself really confused and dizzy often. Even running into doorways and I've still been having headaches and nausea. Darrin has been to the orthopedic Doc. and had his hand re-looked at and re-wrapped and is doing alright.

Now that I've written about so many horrible things I want to say that I am SO greatful! The accident could have been MUCH MUCH worse! We could be dead. We are healing rather quickly, both of our families have been GREAT, and my sister for heaven sakes went out and did our grocery shopping and paid for it!!!! SO many blessings to be thankful for-so many angels in our lives. I am so happy we're both alive and doing how we're doing. (...and for meds...) :).

Vacation Time + Celine

Well, I recently went on two vacations. First off, Darrin and I went to Las Vegas to celebrate our big 1 year anniversary. There was a furniture show there that Darrin needed to go to for work anyways, so we thought we'd kill to birds with one stone.

We stayed at the Stratosphere Hotel. $22/night and our room was one of the nicest hotels either of us had stayed it! Down comforter, Down pillows, King sized bed, nice carpet, furniture, plasma TV, and non cheesy pictures on the wall. Even the bathroom was nice!

We went to the furniture show which was LOTS of walking (not so fun) but they did have complimentary massages :) YES! We also got all day Xtreme passes for the rides on top of our hotel. There are 3 rides that we could ride as many times as we wanted all day and they were open until 1am. That was a ton of fun! We ate at a few buffets, walked the strip, went to the M&M world, and toured a lot of the exquisite hotels. We also brought "Alias" along with us and watched that part of the time...we just couldn't part with it. We HAD to see what was going to happen!

On Thursday my sisters picked me up and we headed to Arizona to go and visit Tiff. So, Darrin and I said our goodbye's and departed:(.

The trip to Arizona was a BLAST though! We did A LOT of talking (especially in the 13 hour car rides!), pedicures, watched lots of chick flicks, ate chocolate covered strawberries, went to dinner, went to breakfast, went shopping and enjoyed the nice weather there!

Why am I not posting any pictures from these trips you ask? I had my camera STOLEN while in Arizona. All of my pictures from Vegas and Arizona were on there! How could someone sleep at night knowing that they've STOLEN MY MEMORIES!!!???!!! Anyways, that's why this is just a boring post with no pictures :(


Darrin and I also went to the Celine Dion concert that was this past Sunday with my parents. We bought the tickets A YEAR AND A HALF ago so it's about time we saw it! It was supposed to be this past November but she was sick so they had to postpone it.

For those of you who don't know, I LOVE Celine Dion!!! I think that she is fabulous. I blame my love for her on my Father. She was always played when we went on any roadtrips with the family (along with Enya...of course!), and when my dad gets ready in the morning he always listens to music and Celine was a hit. Growing up I used to steal (well more like borrow without asking :)) my dads Celine CD's. I LOVED listening to them, learning the words and then singing to them at the TOP of my lungs. I still do!

Anyways, needless to say, going to her concert was like going to Disneyland for the first time as a kid. MAGICAL!!! It was also my very first concert-so it was just incredible to me. Too bad we were at the 2nd to last row up in the Energy Solutions Areana! haha. But even at that it was still fabulous! Can you believe that the tickets that were close to Celine were $1,700!!! WOW! And I thought ours were expensive at $58 a pop.

When we got home from the concert I looked up some of her information. There are so many interesting things about her! Among them are:

-She is the youngest of 14 Children!

-Her 81 year old mom insisted on going on tour with her

-This was her first time in Salt Lake City

-She has a shoe fedish and owns thousands of pairs! (how would that be?! And my husband thinks I have a lot!)

-She and her husband met when she was 12 and he was 38!

-Her now husband mortgaged his house to fund her first album because he believed in her so much (she was 12 at the time)

-she has an 8 year old son with VERY long hair


These are just a few of the facts that I found interesting!