Let's get ready to....EDIT!

Week 2 of my mentoring session with Rachel was on editing.  WOW!  Amazing what you can do post-processing when you KNOW what you're doing! :)  So, here are my pics!

This is my raw file vs adjustments in ACR (following the steps you posted).  Love how bright they are! :)  

This is my ACR picture on the left vs. my sharpened version on the right.

This is my sharpened version on the left with my skin coloring version on the right. 

This my skin coloring version on the left and my skin retouching version on the right. 

I guess this what I would consider my "clean" edit vs. haze.  I also wanted to note that PSE doesn't have channel mixer but I was able to go to "enhance" and "convert to black and white" and then go into screen mode to get the same effect in that first layer.  In the next layer, PSE doesn't have color balance so I adjusted through my hue/saturation.  I may not have adjusted as much as I need to here.  The rest I of the tutorial I was able to follow in PSE without any other adjustments.  Phew! :) 

I'm ready for some actions now that I feel like I have a basic "work flow" I need to follow.  Thanks, Rachel!!! :)

Rachel...one last note...it was hard for me to see the slight differences when I viewed the pics on my blog so if you want me to send the files to you, just let me know!