A Step in the Right Direction…

One of the things I want to do with my blog this year is share more personal details about me. Sometimes they might be silly, other times, it may be embarassing/humbling etc, but I still want to share. So here goes… Yesterday I had a doctor’s appointment with my family doctor. After Christmas I had some blood work done and I knew it wasn’t going to be good. Sure enough, it wasn’t. It’s no secret…I’m a big girl. I’ve always struggled with my weight, but I have never ever been this big. Soon after Anthony was born, I began a healthy lifestyle…and lost almost 65 pounds. Then I fell down the steps in 2006 and broke my leg in 4 places..had a couple of surgeries and ended up wtih a lot of chronic pain etc etc. Well, when you go from working out 1-2 hours a day, 5-6 days a week, to being completely bed ridden for a month or two…weight comes back on pretty quick. Then the pain kept me from working out and I ate what I wanted. Basically it’s all catching up with me now. So after a rather humiliating doctor’s appointment yesterday (I love my doctor and I’m glad she told me like it is)… I was told if I don’t get this weight off, I’m going to continue to be in pain, diabetes is right around the corner and my fertility is already being affected. Ok…whew… so after some tears on the way home…I knew what I needed to do. I came home and changed clothes…and then dusted these things off…

After some some grunting and groaning…I finally got my shoes on (when you’re big it’s tough), grabbed a bottle of water and dusted off another necessity…

...got in the car…and drove to the park where I proceeded to crank up the music and go for a walk. After 5 minutes (I’m not kidding)… my feet were aching…OMG…what have I done to myself?? So after a few more tears…I kept on going…and you know what happened? I started feeling better with every step. I could feel God (and my Grandma, who died exactly 8 months ago yesterday) with me. With each breath I felt better and better. Yes, it was just a walk to most people, but for me it was a turning point. Instead of going home and eating a big bowl of ice cream and feeling sorry for myself because “the doctor was mean to me,” I took action and it felt great.

The rest of the afternoon consisted of making a shopping list and ridding the kitchen/pantry of allll the junk. Luckily I have an amazing husband who is completely on board and said he needs to get back to eating better too, so he was cool with it. Then Anthony and I went grocery shopping after school and got lots of yummy healthy food! The kitchen is now stocked! (OK a couple of those items below are for Anthony’s lunch..haha) (Also, I already had tons of chicken and other lean meats in the freezer.)

I also spent some time online last night and tracked everything I ate….took some “start” pictures of myself (Oh Lord help me), took measurements etc. I wanted to share here because I think it will help me to have some accountability. To know that I just embarrassed myself and shared this with a lot of people will hopefully keep me headed in the right direction. I would love to hear your comments, tips, etc. On this post especially, please don’t read and not comment..I would love to “hear” your support since I put myself out there :)

This a.m….I’ve already been out for another walk…and it was easier than yesterday! I’ve tracked my food so far and am planning out the rest of the day. It feels good to be headed in the right direction to a healthy lifestyle and hopefully an addition to our family when I am healthy enough. As one of my friends joked…. (and I love it)..just think “Diet to Diapers!”  HA!!

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

So I was wondering….

Am I the only one who can’t seem to keep this beast under control?!?!?

In other news, I’ve been hard at work on my brand new blog, logo and website…it’s gonna be awesome and I can’t wait to share!!!

Brandi + Tony = Looooove

Have you ever met somebody that you just hit it off with right away? That’s what happened with Brandi and I, although I didn’t actually meet her until about 6 weeks later. Back in December, Brandi sent me an email asking me about doing a homecoming session for her and her boyfriend because I volunteer for an organization called “Operation Love Reunited.” (I’ve mentioned it before). Well I wasn’t going to be able to do the homecoming session, but I told her that I’d be happy to do a session here in Wilmington for them in January. So over the next couple of weeks, she and I emailed and chatted on Facebook (a lot!) We couldn’t wait to meet! We got together last Friday for a fantastic photo session which I can’t wait to share with you, but first let me give you some background on how Brandi and Tony met.

Brandi is a flight attendant. Tony is a marine. Last January, Brandi was working on a flight that was dropping some Marines off in Kuwait and long story short…Brandi and Tony met and exchanged email addresses…as he was getting off the plane! They corresponded for months and in late August, he came home for his 2 week R&R and he spent the whole time with her. They are now in loooove and so cute!

It was only appropriate that for their photo session, Brandi wore her flight attendant uniform and Tony wore his Dress Blues.

I made sure to take pics of each of them individually, since Tony is in NC and Brandi splits her time between Texas (her home) and Minnesota (where she flys out of) and around the world. That way they will each have some pics of their honey to stare at..haha.

This next picture was Tony’s idea…I love it!

After our time downtown, we went back to their hotel for them to change clothes and then we headed over to Mayfaire.

  So Brandi love love loves to read and there’s a story about a certain book that she sent to Tony in Iraq that he started reading and didn’t realize it was a girly book (OK, it was Twilight..haha)..I thought it would be cute to take a couple of pics incorporating that book, so we went to Barnes and Noble. And promptly got kicked out. They said we couldn’t take pics in there, so we had to settle for pics outside of the store..haha. It wouldn’t have been so bad except the young woman who kicked us out was kinda rude and demeaning, but whatever.

Brandi and Tony.. I had so much fun with you and can’t wait to see you again. I wish you both much love and happiness. And of course, Tony, thank you for your service to our country!

If you want to see more pics from their session, I made a little slideshow here.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

The Toret Family

I still have just a few sessions left to share from 2009….so hopefully I can wrap them up within the week. I did pics for the Toret family back in October. The kiddos were a lot of fun and very silly. I love the ones of all 3 kids with each parent….they are definitely loved!

(Yes, I’m a woman of few words tonight..lol…just can’t think of much to say..)

Valentines Day Mini Sessions

WOOPS: Forgot to put on there…you also receive 20%

off additional prints!!!

A Bunch of Randomness

So I thought I’d share a bunch of random tidbits….because I can…

• I have blogged 37 (38 w/this one) times this month already. Last year…I only blogged 82 times total. Pitiful. Glad I’m well on my way to blasting that number out of the water in 2010!
• We got a Wii for Christmas. We love it! We play it a lot! But not too much.
• This week our heat went out, our internet went out and the car was broken. All in 24 hours.
• We have had our puppy, Scooby Doo for a year this month. He was 4 months old when we got home, so technically, he is still a puppy…or a teenager..or something like that.
• We had visitors here from Minnesota over the past week. My cousins, Megan (21) and Emily (19)…we had tons of fun. When Megan graduates in May she might move here…we’re trying to talk her into bringing Emily too :)
• Last week, we went bowling with the MN visitors (and my Mom). We had a blast and it was the first time my Mom had bowled in over 20 years..she was actually good. I beat everybody in the first game. That never ever happens. My score went steadily downhill over the next 3 games.
• Anthony is out of school on Monday, so we’re taking a mini vacation to Myrtle Beach tomorrow. We’re going to stay at a resort with an indoor water park. Anthony doesn’t even know we’re going. It’s not Disney, but he’s going to be pretty surprised. I plan to have a great time..just sayin.
• I like to read trashy smut books, so after I publish this post, I’m going to go snuggle up on the couch with my new favorite down blanket and read. I might even get a cute 6 yr old boy to snuggle with me while he watches cartoons. If I’m really lucky, an 80 pound puppy will also snuggle with us. Yea, that’s pretty much a given.

Here’s some pics with regards to the above…

Anthony skateboarding on the Wii/Balance Board…he’s actually pretty good at it…

Anthony & Daddy have been playing the Legos Star Wars Game on the Wii..I thought it was funny the other night to walk in there and see both animals laying with Brian  and the 2 of them playing. (I’m trying hard to remember to take personal pics of every day life.)

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii……  The day the heat was out, Diana and Lillian were at the house (along with my cousins)…we were playing the (you guessed it) Wii all day and ordered pizza and just bummed out. Since there was no heat, everybody snuggled under blankets including Lillian and Diana…

Here’s little baby Scooby when we got him last January at 4 months old….

And here he is now….Such a big boy! I never thought I’d be an animal person but I sure love my puppy!

Since my sister is still on maternity leave, when the girls (From MN) were here, we hung out at my house a lot during the day to play Wii and I would work in my office while everybody alternating playing games and holding baby Lillian. Here’s Megan…the future RN!

And here’s one of the pics from bowling…

Finally, just a cute picture of my boy that I took tonight…isn’t he handsome? :)  That’s it! Have a great rest of the weekend…I won’t be blogging tomorrow, but might on Monday..depends on what time we get back from Myrtle Beach.

TGIF

So it’s Friday night and I’m about to fall asleep, but since I’ve done so good with blogging daily, I just had to pop on here and do a quick post. I’m almost caught up with sharing all of my 2009 sessions – yay! I should be able to wrap them up next week. In the meantime, I had such a fun session today with 2 super sweet people. Some of you may have seen this on facebook already and I will give the full story later, but a year ago tomorrow…

Flight attendant & handsome marine…meet on a flight to IRAQ! After a year together via email, phone and a 2 week R&R..they are in loooove….

Here’s a quick pic with many more to follow…

I have a shoot in the a.m. so I’m going to bed..night!

Emily and Stephen – Part 2

As mentioned in Part 1, Emily and Stephen got married in September outside in a tent…on the side of a mountain…in the rain. There really was nowhere indoor to take photos, so we got creative. The first few here are from the house where the girls got ready. Luckily on the side of their house was a covered walkway between the house and the garage, so we stayed dry and used some of the brick as a back drop. Emily was such a trooper and kept a smile on her face 99.9% of the day and didn’t let the weather spoil her special day. She looked radiant…

I hadn’t met Emily’s Mom before, but by the time we left, we were calling her Mama too. She is such a sweetheart and really made us feel like part of the family instead of just the “hired help.” Thanks, Mama Pruitt!

A few more pre-ceremony photos. We had hoped to do a lot more than we ended up doing, but that’s ok, we made it work! You can see in the back of some of the pictures, the misty weather. I think that actually adds to the pics since it was definitely not bright, sunny and dry! I love love love this next picture of Emily and her Dad. I think it’s so sweet how he was helping her keep her dress dry.

Finally, it was time to head up to the venue. It was still raining so some people had to park at the bottom and be driven up the mountain in 4 wheel drive vehicles. Luckily I was with the girls and we rode in a big ole pick up! The plan was to get married on another part of this land to the left of the tent, but with the bad weather, the ceremony was moved underneath. So many helpers made the change quickly and it was beautiful. The bridal party came down the hill, with their umbrellas..luckily everybody stayed upright :) I love the next 2 of Emily and her Dad.

Hopefully they won’t kill me for posting this one, but I just love it. I love capturing raw emotion. Their friends had just finished singing a song written just for them and they got choked up.

Yay! They’re married; seal it with a kiss!

Some of the details… Emily and Stephen had a really fun wedding party and they didn’t mind getting a little wet! Carlie and Leah bought matching umbrellas for the wedding party the day before since it was looking like it was going to keep raining, so they were perfect for pictures! If it had been nice weather, Emily and her Dad would’ve crossed this bridge to “walk down the aisle..” Everybody else would’ve come in from a different side. So I wanted to make sure to utilize the bridge in some of the pics… Emily and Stephen are so cute together… they are so in looove…but they also do lots of laughing with (and at..) each other..haha. The groomsmen came up with this one all on their own..I just hit the shutter…

  The reception was fairly short because of the weather (it was a bit chilly along w/the rain)….but they still had their first dance together…

Finally, as things were winding down, somebody brought out the bubbles… Emily and Stephen, thank you for having Brian and I document your special day! It was an absolute honor and you and your families treated us so wonderfully. I’m sure you’ll find Brian sitting out on the dock one day when it warms up, fishing. haha :) I wish you all the best!