The Last Four Years

I wanted to write kind of a “catch up” entry before I start writing where I left off at Prosebox. Partly for new people here who have no idea who I am, and partly for those that I’ve recently re-connected with after four years of absence.

The last four years have been good, mostly happy, and VERY busy. When I last left Open Diary, I had just found out I was pregnant with our third child. Well, that baby just turned THREE, his name is Charlie, and he fit right in with his big brothers Jasper (4) and Wesley (7). We have now been living in our new house on the farm for almost five years now, and have just continued to settle in and enjoy the quiet life in our rural Minnesota town. Sadly I did suffer another miscarriage of baby #4 in early 2016 (technically pregnancy #5 since if you recall I had a miscarriage with our first baby before Wesley) however this time was not nearly as traumatic and I was able to bounce back much quicker this time around. I am at peace with it.

My husband Nathan and I are still good. We have our moments when he drives me crazy, but overall he’s proven that he’s a great man, a great dad, and a solid provider. He works so hard for us and at the end of the day he’s the one I was meant to be with all along. That’s the coolest part about having my diary back, too… our entire relationship is chronicled here from the very beginning! Can you believe we’ve been married almost ELEVEN years now!?

Wesley is in second grade and still kind of a handful at times. He’s been unofficially diagnosed with some kind of sensory processing disorder but is getting some occupational therapy at school and we’re just watching it for now to see if we need to do anything else. He’s my most difficult child by far, the most emotional, and the one who gets in the most trouble, but at the heart of it he’s a great kid and I’m glad he’s mine. 🙂 Jasper is almost five and is probably the complete opposite of Wesley! He’s easygoing, mellow, and goes along with whatever. He has his moments too (he gets emotional pretty quickly too!) He just started his second year of preschool and will go to Kindergarten next year. Charlie is a typical 3-year-old. He’s hilarious and busy and also drives me crazy most days. But I wouldn’t have it any other way, having three boys is an adventure every day!

My photography business has also been through a LOT in the last few years. Where we last left off in 2014, I was burnt out, and pretty much ready to throw in the towel. I was struggling to get decent clients in after raising my prices. I knew I needed to charge more to even make it worthwhile, but had no idea how to get people to actually pay for it, especially since I was simply telling those new prices to my old clients and many of them didn’t stick around (for comparison sake, I was trying to bring in $500 per session for digital only). In early 2016 I took a life changing online course called the 4 Figure Formula on how to get 4 figure sales with In Person Sales (instead of handing over a CD, you actually sit down with your clients and they place the order through you). It was mind blowing to think I could make over 1k per session but I followed through and did it. Before I knew it, I was not only bringing in 1k per session, but regularly passing that mark. This year I had my very first $3,000 sale, and am currently closing in on a sale of $5,000 this week! It seriously changed everything around for me, brought me out of a failing business, and now I am launching two new websites in just a couple weeks.

In 2015 I also started photographing the Northern Lights, hence my photo for this entry (which by the way, I LOVE this option! What a cool way to bring personality to our entries!) and created a whole new branch of my business called Kittson County Skies. I have had many of my images go “viral” and have started selling the images commercially and to local and regional businesses. I do wall gallery designs and help enhance businesses with my images. I will be sure to come back and share my websites once they are officially live so you can see more of my images!

So, that’s what I’ve been up to the last four years…. how about you?