Happy Tuesday, folks! Today we want to share the awesomeness of Google Voice with you! How many times have you given clients your personal phone number & they’ve taken advantage of it by calling you after work hours? It’s so tempting to answer their call, right?… Be tempted no more! Google Voice will give you one phone number that you can use as your business line, & it can reach multiple lines. In our case, we have one business line that will ring both of our phones when a client calls.

Another awesome feature of Google Voice is that you can set up a voicemail & “business hours” for your new business line. This way, if a client calls you at 7:30 (when you’re eating dinner ) it will go straight to your voicemail. We’ll admit that it’s very difficult to not work after your set business hours because there’s no where to clock out, & most of us work from our home where the work is so easily accessible. This is where Google Voice comes in handy! If you set up your phone to only ring within your business hours, then you’ll be less tempted to think about work after hours, & over all, less stressed

When a client calls you & leaves a voicemail, a transcript will also be emailed to you; &, in our case, this can be pretty funny to read! Since we’re in the south, many people who contact us have southern accents & Google Voice will try to decipher what our southern people say. When reading these transcripts, you’ll get a pretty good idea what people say, but some words & names can be spelled quite funny; but that’s why you have a voicemail, right?

The best feature of Google Voice is that it’s FREE! There’s no monthly or yearly fee, & you won’t be charged extra by your carrier (no matter who you use!) We hope we’ve made this clear for you! Good luck! Let us know what you think of Google Voice!

A few months ago we had the privilege to film Joy + Dan’s wedding in Windsor, Ontario; & that is where we tasted some of the best chili of our lives!! Luckily they were kind enough to share this recipe with us & now we want to share it with you!!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb of ground beef (We like lean beef )
2-3 stalks of celery
1 large onion
3 cans of Tomato soup
2 cans of Spicy Chili beans
2 cans of Maple Syrup beans
1 can diced Spicy tomatoes
Add brown sugar to taste
Chili Powder

Directions:
Brown the ground beef with onions, celery and add chili powder seasoning to taste… When this is cooked, drain off the fat (there won’t be much fat if you use good lean beef.) Then add all of the ingredients, stir and cook on med-high at first 10 min and then reduce to med and be sure to keep stirring or it will stick to bottom of pan and get burnt. Reduce again to med-low. Cook for about 20 more minutes & now you’ll have lunch for a few days!
Let us know how yours turns out!

Coming into this new year, we have a new name & a new Facebook Fanpage! We will no longer be known as 2Duce2 Films or 2Duce2 Videography. We’ve decided to drop the “2Duce2″ & now we are just

“Eugene + Heather” !

Props to David Mendoza III for the awesome new logo!
Pretty soon our fan page “2Duce2 Videography” will be gone, so be sure to like our new fan page “Eugene + Heather“

It’s funny how many times a business’ name, logo, & branding can change. Look at Coca-cola! How many times have they changed their can, logo, & slogans? Yet people have always known them as “Coke”. “2Duce2″ was always so confusing & so hard for people to remember. We’ve been called “Duce2Duce2″, “The Duces”, “The Browns”, & many more names; but we just wanted to be known as one name. Like Coco-cola, we’re adjusting to our crowd & our intention is to give you all the best experience from simply “Eugene + Heather”. So keep an eye out, because pretty soon you’ll be seeing our “+” all over the place!

On this new fan page you’ll be able to view our newest videos, find links to our newest blogs, & see what new things we have going on! We’re excited to be known as just “Eugene + Heather” & we’re super excited for what this new year has in store for us!

One of the most precious moments in life is to experience a family bringing a baby into the world, & we had the privilege to share the Birth Day of Reuben Monroe with Josh & Amber Ulmer. Josh & Amber had asked us to document #babyreuben’s Birth Day Story, alongside awesome birth photographer, Amelia Hambrook, & we want to share our behind the scenes experience with you.

[all photos were provided by Amelia Hambrook]

Obviously, we don’t have any children yet, but we feel like we’ve experienced (secondhand) what it’s like to have a baby. We’ve been with Josh & Amber throughout this entire journey of getting baby Reuben here! Last spring we remember sitting on Josh & Amber’s back porch when they told us “We want to have baby #2.”… then (it seems like the next week) Josh called us one morning & said “Hey guys, baby #2 is on its way!”

Heather’s Experience
This was truly one of the best experiences of my life… like right up there with marrying Eugene! Amber did a fantastic job & Josh was right by her side the whole time! From breathing through the contractions to bringing little Reuben into the world, he was there holding her hand while staring into her eyes & reading her face to see what she needed. Since I was in middle school, I’ve been watching TLC’s “A Baby Story” & any other birth documentary in fascination & curiosity. I was sure I knew everything that was involved in giving birth… the technical terms, the procedures, the screaming… but I’d completely forgotten about the most important part -Love! Throughout Amber’s pregnancy, she & Josh showed me how much someone can be loved before they’re even here. It’s funny how you can spend so much time planning for a baby, then carrying a baby, then going through contractions for the baby, then within a short time a little person can suddenly arrive & change the entire feeling of a room!

I’m sure there are many of you who have personally experienced your own child being born or even someone you know, but this was totally new to me! I’ve always known that I would one day have children, but this has definitely moved me over the threshold of wanting children!

Eugene’s Experience
The biggest thing I wanted to be sure of while we were shooting this Birth Day Story is that we didn’t interrupt anything. We never wanted to make any situation awkward by being close (with a camera) to what was going on. We didn’t want Josh & Amber to feel like they had to act a certain way when we were around. You’ll see above that we ended up being able to get super close to Josh & Amber. Since they’re amazing photogs, they probably noticed us doing it. When we first started shooting we kept our distance and gradually would get closer, once we saw they were super comfortable with our cameras.

Once it was time for Amber to get down to business and have her baby, I couldn’t move next to her head fast enough:) I didn’t’ wanna see anything that would scar me for life:) It was amazing how quick everything happened next. It was like first there wasn’t a baby and I blinked and there was another lil Ulmer crying like crazy:)

I think one of the coolest things about this experience was seeing how supportive Josh was to Amber during the whole thing. He really upped the bar for when Heather and I have a kid!

Shooting this huge moment in Josh and Amber’s life was for real one of the coolest things I think we’ve had a chance to shoot! I’ll be honest…because of them, I really want to have a kid now.

We hope you enjoy the sneak peek below.

The music in this video was provided by: The Music Bed

Thank you, Josh & Amber for letting us share this most special day with you!