Fast Times at Sunny Cove

Currently, we are residing at what Jack likes to call "The California House" which is located just above Studio City, in the Hollywood Hills. It is a darling little house, and since we've been here we have done a few fun things. One, was the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. It was particularly nice because we had just visited the super duper wimpy one Salt Lake, on 106th and State. With its trout. So this one seemed magical.

Anyway, we had alot of fun. Jack enjoyed being able to touch slimey and spiney things, and I rather liked taking pictures. Here are some from the bunch:

I hope you like them. I do. It's so nice to take pictures at an Aquarium without the big FLASH REFLECTION in each one.

Stay tuned...for more CA stuff.

How are your Mom and Dad doing?

This is a question that I have recieved more this week, than I thought I would all six months they'd be gone.

For those who don't know, my parents are doing the BYU study abroad in London from January to June. This is the first time they've stayed that long, usually they do the two month program, of which Laura and I attended in 1995, and then mom and dad did again in 2003 (is that right...?)....

Anyway, as this is one, huge chunk out of the year and many people are interested in their well-being, Laura and I are updating a blog that is to keep family and friends informed of how Tom and Becky are doing, and what fun things they get to do everyday. We do have to run it by mom..so some posts will be a few days delayed, but it is a good taste of what they are up to over there in England.

So for anyone who wants a dose of BYU Study Abroad, London 2009, here is the link:

Durham's Across the Pond

"We hereby demand.."

So some of you know I'm into photography. And for the fun of it, I used "weebly" to make myself a little photography website. I like to pretend people look at it and think "Man, I would pay her to do my photos" and they'd call me and I would be super duper professional. But REALLY, that site is mainly for family and friends to look at my photos, and for me to have a safe place to put them that I know the will always be there and I can look at them whenever I want.

TODAY! I get a fun email, and goes as follows:

Dear Lisa marie trent -

We refer to your website hosted at the above-referenced URL ( lmtphotography.weebly.com ) Your Website incorporates certain items which are either copyrighted to, or form part of registered trade marks held by, LMTphotography. Specifically, you have used the name lmtphotogrpahy copyright in 2008 over images and on your website" in conjunction with Titles lmtphotography, the "Offending Material"). The Offending Material clearly can be mistaken for content from our website hosted at the URL, www.lmtphotogrpahy.co.uk

-We hereby demand that: you immediately cease all use of the Offending Material whether as part of your Website or otherwise; this includes the lmtphotography contained in the webaddress.

-You will not at any time in the future promote or conduct your business or provide any goods or services by reference to any name, image or trade mark which is proprietary to lmtphotography, including the Offending Material.

We would like to deal with this matter amicably. Accordingly, please confirm your agreement to the above undertakings by return email within seven days. Assuming that we receive confirmation from you to the above undertakings before Thursday 15 January 2009 and you fully comply with the undertakings then we will treat this matter as closed.

If, however, you fail to provide your full cooperation as requested then we will instruct our IP legal counsel in the United Kingdom, to take such action against you as may be necessary in order to protect our intellectual property rights. We trust, however, that we will not need to take further steps to enforce our rights and we therefore look forward to hearing from you by Thursday 15 January 2009.-

- After reading your site closely we can clearly see you have set up the site to improve and showcase your photography skills , your work is pretty good and we wish you all the look in the future but sadly your site name and branding bears to much resemblance to our own ( currently our site is going through a major over haul and your site hasn't affected any enquires to our business)

Yours faithfully

Lee ThomasLMT Photography / Media / Design / www.lmtphotography.co.uk

My favorite part is the backhanded compliment, saying my work is "pretty" good. Telling anyone that anything is "pretty good" is a certifiably dubious gesture.

In quick response I wrote the gentleman back, telling him that my site is mainly for family and friends, and that I am not a professional, and if you are going to suck all the fun out of it, and be a the jerk across the pond that made me cancel the website that I put alot of work into JUST because they think that someone in the UK will see me as a photographer before they see you, and FLY me over there to do their wedding, then ok.

Be the jerk.

But in further investigation I realized that yes, it's true, I don't have legal rights to use the copyright towards a name I have not registered as a business entity. So I went to my weebly site and changed all copyrights to "Lisa Marie Trent" (because I do have legal documentation proving that is my name.) However, the website it justified because I registered it with weebly.com and if it wasn't available, because Mr. LMT Photography DOT CO DOT UK found it before me, in fear of someone using the name, then that would have made perfect send. But I entered "lmtphotography" into the blank and it WAS available.

Not to mention, that it is a SUB domain, I didn't go out paying for it and making sure it was the first site that would pop up if someone googled "LMT Photography". So my feelings are that this man has no legal boundries to "demand" of me and that my site will stay alive.

So I sent him this:

Re: Legal Action Taken By Mysterious British Dude

I agree to take all "Copyrighted to LMT Photography" ........."offenses".....as you call them... and I will no longer claim LMT Photography as my name basis, UNTIL, here in the land of the free, I get a business entity. But as for the website, I will NOT change the web address, because doing so will ERASE all photos and ALL work I have done and it took ALOT of time, and energy to get those photos up.

Now, I entered www.lmtphotography.weebly.com into the weebly browser and they said the SUBDOMAIN was available. So take your problems up with weebly. But as it is a subdomain, and I am not paying for it as my personal domain, I don't need to do anything you hereby demand.

Good luck. ~Lisa Marie Trent

So for now, my site is alive and well. Please visit it, to help make this effort worth the fight. Thank you to all who do. And please, go visit Lee's site, because you might like his photography more than mine, and YOU may want to fly LMT Photography British Style over here to do your next Christmas Card.

(Later, I received another.)

Hello lisa I see that you have changed the copy right notice on your website. thank you but we are asking you to remove every title and reference to LMT photography this includes the main page title and all other title and reference to the the above. There are 2 ways we can solve this , you can act as requested - but you may keep using the webaddress lmtphotography.weebly.comor we can as you put it take the matter up with weebly , who I may point out hold your self liable and will just remove your account and all contentplease find below the following for reference.

Thank you for your compliance.also my client would like to point out they do not do weddings and they are not "douchebags" also know as deformation of character please think wisely before you respond to this email as I would hate to have to write another email regarding a whole different matter.

I did say douche bag. Sorry.

And for the big finale:

Hello Lisa Thank you for your email - I take it you do not believe in copy right law then, all we are asking is you replace the words lmtphotgraphy this is all, think of it this way we have paid money for lmtphotography and if you had paid for something you wouldnt like other people using it.Also in reference to you blog please can you remove my contact details from your post I found it quite an enjoyable read.

See. My blog is known worldwide.

A Decade or more ago..

This goes out to my homies, the homies from the days passed. Unforgotten days, due to these terribly embarrassing photos. For those who are offended by this, or wish I hadn't posted these photos, TOO BAD, they are MY photos....neener neener neener.

(Photos in no particular order)

Below, we have one of many trips to Las Vegas. This was certainly a treat for whoever took the picture.. Date estimate..spring '2000? Or 2001....Help.

Next.. a random night out at TGI FRIDAY'S. Yes Amy, you were there. Thank you for coming.
This is kind of the days when we all wore too dark of lipstick. Date.. '99. Ish.

Ah yes...this is up at Lyndsey's place in Malad, ID. We all look like we are having tons of fun. But later, Krista and her british boyfriend get Lynn's Hummer stuck in 2 feet of snow, and Lyndsey and I are left to dig it out. 2001.

Vegas....same trip as above. Nat and Stef. Natural high...

Deb and I were always good and taking pictures of the two of us, by ourselves. 2000.

Jess and Lyndsey being rambunctious. This was at Snowbird. Um...1999? Maybe '98.

Lyndsey, rockin the guitar. Why? I don't know. Halls of Alta. '99.

Now we move on to more mature times, College. You wonder how this went down.

"Hey lets get a picture with the big gorilla!"

"I'm gonna pick his nose!"

"Me too! And mine!"

"I'm gonna grab his butt!"

And as the grand finale-- how I ended up with this? I don't know. But this was Brooke's picture for Varsity try-outs. Pretty freakin awesome.

Thank you for joining me on this journey, and thanks to the unkowing participants. I am only through ONE box of my old photos, so stay tuned for a sequel.

Merry Christmas to all...

Ahhh, the holidays. So I hope Santa is peacefully resting...as all his work is done. Meanwhile I'm left cleaning up his messes.





Jack was very excited to find his tool set and ginormous blocks on Christmas morning. Now they are of course ALWAYS scattered everywhere and I find myself "playing" with them more than he does...but that's ok.

Please don't let me forget Jack's super terrific birthday party. We maganged a Yo Gabba Gabba party, and it was pretty sweet. SO sweet in fact, that these cupcakes couldn't compare with the sweetness, however they were the highlight of the evening... and the bulk of my entire day.








Not to mention the Gabba Land I whipped up in a couple minutes. Forgive me, DJ Lance Rock wasn't invited to the party. Not because I'm racist, but because he his is just plain a nuisance.





And Jack decided to take the form of Linus, as he drags around his favorite blue blankie, and chose to remove my already nice tree skirt, PUSH the presents aside, and wrap my pathetic tree with a little love.

So there you go. Christmas summarized.

I'm THREE YEARS OLD.

That's right. Jack has now been with us for TWICE the amount of time Josh and I have spent without him after being married.


Obviously, we are so grateful he is here. To think that my little boy flatlined 3 hours after birth, and was brought back to us by dozens of doctors so he could have his Gabba Birthday today means the world.

Jack was born 11:30pm December 17th, 2005. He came willfully on his own, a week before his induction date. I went into labor and called my mom to tell her I wouldn't be making it to the family party she was hosting, due to the birth of my child. She quickly finished up her preparation, put one of the guests in charge and she and my dad ditched their very own party to come be with me and greet their first grandson. Laura I'm sure would have been there too, but she was at the U2 concert and was a little late.

Jack was a beautiful 5 lbs 14 oz, and went straight from me to the NICU, then taken over to Primary's.

You know the rest...

So here we are, with a 25 lb three year old, who can sing, jump, run, play and keep up with the rest of the 3 year olds. We love him more than anything else in this world, and we hope to continue celebrating these birthdays/milestones for YEARS upon YEARS upon YEARS.

Happy Birthday Baby Bum.

Jack,one year old.












Jack, two years old.












Jack, three years old.

"I want to go to the car. I want to go to the car. I want to go to the car."

That is pretty much how Jack's first visit to the dentist went.

That, and he has ALL his teeth. Whew!

Tips, Tricks and Efficiencies

After Jack made his nightly trip to our room at 5am to say "He's scared" and I escorted him back to bed, I couldn't sleep. By 6am I thought I would make good use of my time and go swim some laps. So I got up and suited up, and the gym apparently doesn't open till 7. So I knew if I went home I'd go back to bed and it would all have been a waste. So I drove up the canyon and watched the CATS groom the slopes at Snowbird. That's a whole other post.

This one, however, is about ways I try to save time, money and hardship.

1. By recycling ALL things recycleable I cut my trips to the garbage can in half, and save garbage bags, simply by using a recycling bin.

2. When giving juice to Jack, I always dillute it halfway with water. That way he is getting the sweet drink he wants, with less sugar, and his tastebuds are sensitive to taste- hopefully benefitting him in the future to not like things that are TOO sweet. (Thus, less cavities.)

3. By using my fabric grocery bags I got at Harmon's for $1 each, I fit more groceries into each bag and have less to drag in from the car.

4. Organic milk stays fresh 1-2 MONTHS longer than regular milk. (Costco usually has the ones that last the longest.) That way, I know I will always make it to the end of the bottle before it expires.

5. We now use the "confetti" from our paper shredder to cushion breakable things we either ship, or pack. (Like christmas ornaments.)((I also use old egg cartons for ornaments as well.))

6. If I take Jack's diaper off for a bath or to change his clothes and it's BORDERLINE too wet to put back on him, I can extend the life of the diaper by pouring a little cornstarch in it. (And prevent a rash at the same time..)

7. If I run out of laundry detergent, I can get one extra load by filling the bottle up with water, shaking it to get all the soap coating the sides of the bottle, and pouring it into a new wash.

8. I try to only buy new clothes after selling some to Plato's Closet or donating them to the DI. That way my closet isn't to overwhelmed. And neither am I.

9. At the end of the year we collect ALL the change in the house (and cars), looking in every spot like under and inside of couches, places Jack will have put it, pockets, change purses and the laundry room- and we usually average about 75-100 dollars.


10. Keeping the same amount of dishes in your cupborad as there are people using them in the home, helps eliminate excess dishwasher usage (in turn, dish soap and electricity, and GAS if you use hot water), because each time you use your plate you are more inclined to just wash it, dry it, and put it away. (1 plate, bowl, cup, etc. per person. I understand this is harder with more people, kids, or teenagers.)

If anyone else has good tips.. please chare. Oh and I did go swimming after these thoughts. My back still hurts though.

~L

Give Thanks.

I'm giving thanks to my family, because they are the very core of my survival. I'm giving thanks to my husband, because he knows me better than anyone and loves our family enough to strive for the perfect life. I'm giving it to those who care about me and bring happiness to my life. And to those who I don't give enough thanks to that deserve it.

I am thankful for every little thing in my life that somehow I was lucky enough to have and I hope that I can only help others to have as blessed of a life as I do.

And I'm thankful for my readers. You guys are so darn sweet. To read this babble.

Happy Thanksgiving, may your bellies be full. ..As well as your hearts.


This will be me later:

Scared to the Bone.

For Halloween we visited our DEAR friends Kim, Nate and Ireland. My pic's aren't up to par, but you get the gist. Irelands a bunny, Jack's a skeleton...Kim likes bubbles.. it all speaks for itself.













We also saw some more of the sites in Vegas, like the Bellagio (jack was quite thrilled with the fountain this time. NOT LAST MONTH, but this time was different.) And the Atrium was pretty, and kinda spooky...but pretty. And Jack got to see "num num's" up, close and personal.