25

Well, it's been almost a month since I've updated.  I'm still boggled as to how I ever updates more than once a day at the beginning.  What in the world was going on in my life that I felt it needed to be typed out ASAP?  Yikes.

Anyway, I figured I should type something now since I'm not in the middle of any projects.  Let's see...what is going on in my life now?  Well, my birthday is tomorrow and I'll be 25.  I forget that I'm not actually 25 already.  At times I feel like I never passed 19, but then I'll feel like I've been 24 forever.  Tonight my mom is having a dinner for me for my birthday.  We'll be having roast beef, homemade noodles, mashed potatoes, fried chicken, and egg noodles.  Seriously!  I was jokingly telling her all of the food I wanted her to make for me and she said she's do it.  Amazing!  I think I'll probably gain 20 pounds tonight alone.  It'll be worth it!

Yesterday Miles took me out and about.  We started off by eating at Cheddar's, which was pretty tasty.  Next we went to Old Navy with the intention of buying a purse.  The purse I'm using now I bought for about $3 at Kmart before I even got pregnant with Anna.  The problem is that I hate about 90% of purses that I find at stores these days.  Anyway, Old Navy was a bust, so we moved on to Target.  We checked out their clearance, tried on a few dresses and some dress pants.  The dresses were tragic and the pants fit my waist but were too loose on my legs.  Then we stopped by TJMaxx.  I usually don't really like TJMaxx but I was surprisingly successful.  I found a pair of comfy dress pants to wear to the weddings I'll be photographing in the upcoming months for $20, and a dress for $15.

It had some snags on a few of the frills, but I snipped them off and it's perfect!  Now I just need a reason to wear it!

Another thing on my mind is Anna's birthday.  I had previously decided that I'd put on a super simple party for her since it's going to be a fairly busy month for us.  Turns out, I'm just not happy with that.  Go figure!  I'm still not planning on doing anything too fancy, but I just can't leave well enough alone.  I worked on her invitation the other day.  I would go ahead and make them, but we're unsure about the location and time as of now.  I'm thinking that I'd like to have it at our house since the kids could play on the swing set in the backyard, but I'm not sure if there's enough seating.  We'll figure it out.

I glittered up an A for her!  It'll be hanging somewhere for her party.

Alright, now I need to go be productive.  I see vacuuming in my near future...and hopefully some cleaning of tables and desks.  This place is cluttered!

Stuff and Things

I keep meaning to write a new entry, then I remember I never have anything to write about.  So, this time I'm going to post some pictures!

Okay, so something I've thought about possibly pursuing is real estate photography.  Most of the pictures of the houses for sale in town are terrible, so I thought it'd be a good thing for me to learn and maybe one of these days I can try to make some money off it.  I took some photos of our house the other day as practice and I think I'm happy with them.  Of course as far as photos go, they're not too exciting, but I'm still posting them!

Our terrible kitchen.

The living room - please excuse the mess.

The living room pt. II - again excuse the mess.

So in the pictures of the living room you can see the lights are on, right?  Well, I found a video that shows how to take two photos, one exposed for the natural light and one exposed for the lamp, and merge them to show both forms of lighting.  I like it!  The bad thing about these photos is that since I have to do long exposures all of the dust and dirt in my camera shows up, so I have to edit that out.

That is just Anna being cute.

And our backyard.

I'm really wanting to take pictures of big fireworks this year.  I don't think I'll be seeing any huge displays, though, so that's a bit of a bummer.  I also want to go to some waterfalls for photos.  We are lacking waterfalls in the area, though.  Maybe I'll just have to take a trip to Rochester Falls very soon. 

Anyway, it's Sunday.  Ever since we've moved into this house last year we always got a paper on Sunday.  Now we've never paid for the Sunday papers, they've just always shown up.  Well apparently our subscription is up.  No paper today, bummer.  I like to see if I know anyone that's getting married, divorced, or has gotten a ticket.  I guess it'll just have to be a mystery today.

My Baby Won't Sleep

So, here we are.  It's 1:45am and Anna won't sleep.  Oy vey.  She went to bed around 12:30 and was almost asleep when I laid her down.  Usually when she's like that she'll fall asleep pretty quickly, but apparently she wasn't up for that tonight.  I would let her just ride it out and fall asleep on her own, but Miles has to work tomorrow morning so she can't just sit up there and talk for half an hour. 

Since it's technically Thursday, this evening I'll be going to IHOP with my mom and possibly my sister.  We're going to get the potato soup because it's delicious.  Usually I'd get the chicken fried chicken with the soup beforehand, but I never eat much of the soup since I have the chicken coming.  This time it's just going to be the soup, and I'm stoked.  So stoked that I'm writing about it.  After I leave IHOP I'll be going grocery shopping.  We are out of just about everything.  Well, not really everything, but all snacks and things that don't take forever to make. 

Friday I'm starting the 30 Day Shred for the second time.  Hopefully this time I get some results and stick with it longer.  Last time was in January, I think, and I didn't get any kind of results.  Maybe it's because my diet didn't change at all and I was only using one pound cans of beans.  Yeah, that's probably why.  Now I have 2.5lb weights and I'm planning on cutting down on the junk food.  Hopefully that will help.  I have apples, bananas, grapes, carrots, frozen strawberries, frozen blueberries, and lettuce on my grocery list.  Granted the lettuce won't be touched by me, it's still a pretty good list.  I found some recipes for strawberry slushies, so I plan to make those.  Hopefully the fruits will replace random sweet things I would usually be eating.  Now to find something to replace the salty things.  That will be tougher.

Saturday is the day of my mini-sessions at Krug Park.  I have a total of three people signed up.  Their times are 2:00, 3:30, and 5:30 and they are half hour slots.  Seems as though there will be quite a bit of standing around.  It seems that people aren't so interested in me for mini-sessions.  Maybe we can try again later, or maybe we should just do it this one time and forget it.  I guess we'll see.

This post is looking super boring with out photos.  Maybe sometime soon I'll update again and actually have something to look at....if I remember.

My Actual Day Off

Last Thursday I had a "day off" for Mother's Day.  There wasn't really anything specific that I was wanting to do, so I just got ready and headed out. 

First I stopped at Salvation Army.  They usually have a few cute things for little girls and they're the cheapest thrift store in town that I know of, so I picked up a few things for Anna. 

Second I went to Old Navy.  Mainly, I was on the hunt for an outfit for Anna for family pictures.  I found a couple of cute things there, but nothing that was simply perfect for the pictures.  I ended up buying a pair of jeans for myself for $12 and a pair of striped pants for Anna for 97¢. 

Third I made my way to Target.  I found a tan shirt and flowered skirt for Anna there.  The skirt featured the same red as my dress so it was perfect.  I bought those and a box of strawberry fruit snacks then headed out.

Fourth I stopped by Taco Bell and picked up a double decker and a crunchy taco...both without lettuce.

Fifth I drove to Wal-Mart.  I ate my double decker in the car before going in.  Our freon needs to be recharged, but we can't do it ourselves since the car is a '94, so it was pretty toasty in there.  After I ate I got some more shopping done.  My list consisted on diapers, hand soap, lunch for Miles, straws, and cereal.  You know, the typical things you buy on a day off, ha! 

I had planned on stopping by Jesse James Antique Mall, but I had nothing specific I wanted there, and I was running out of time, so I headed home.  Anna was sleeping when I got home, but after about an hour I went upstairs to see her.  We played on the bed for a while, then I brought her downstairs.  After a bit Miles packed her up and took her to my mom's so he could go to work.  Anna hadn't been feeling great last week, so I was worried she'd be a bit cranky.  I texted my mom and told her that if Anna wasn't agreeable it'd be fine to bring to over to me.  Around 9:30 I got a call from her and I could hear Anna in the background just crying and saying, "Mama!  Maaamaa!"  Talk about heart breaking!  Needless to say, my mom and dad brought Anna over.  She was happy to be home.

While Anna was over with my parents I edited some photos, did some laundry, and washed the dishes.  So, all in all it was a pretty good day off.  I've realized that I just like my baby too much to be away from her for that long.  We're friends!

Anna was not excited to be taking pictures.

Now I should wash some dishes.  Bleh.  Dishes are simply the worst.

My Day Off

This Sunday is Mother's Day, so Miles is giving me Thursday all to myself.  He has to go into work from around 9:30 to about 11, so sometime after that I'll be heading out.  That makes me happy.  The problem is that I'm short on friends.  I thought about going to KC to see Cassie, but she'll be in class until 1:45 so we'd only see each other for about an hour before I'd have to head home.  So far my to do list for Thursday looks like this:  get some Taco Bell (dreaming big!), walk around Jesse James Antique Mall, Target, and Old Navy.  We're planning on doing family pictures Friday so I'm going to look for an outfit for Anna.  I also need to pick up diapers and hand wash while I'm out.  Yay!

Tomorrow should be pretty good.  I'll be doing engagement pictures around 4:30, then we have a volleyball game at 7:30 (I think).  Anna likes to play in the sand so she does pretty well out there.  Our team rotates out so my dad watches her and whoever is out sits by her.  She's a cute one, that girl.

I curled my hair today to see if I could.  It worked!

 

I curled it around noon and it stayed all day.  My hair has never stayed curled very well, especially not after I curled it, so this is a step up. As of now I'm planning on curling it again for the pictures on Friday.  Hopefully it works then, too.

It's been really nice out the last few days.  Anna wakes up and one of the first thing she says is, "Swing!"  So, there's been a lot of swinging and walking around the back yard in our lives.  Yesterday I thought it'd be good to take pictures of her in her green lace jumper.  Seriously, it's adorable!

Oh, she's gorgeous.  She's also singing along to songs.  Particularly, "Somebody I Used to Know."  I love that song, so we listen to it a bunch around here.  It's ridiculously cute when she sings.  She'll also bring Miles' ukulele to him and say, "Play for me."  Of course it sounds more like "Pay me," but still!  She's perfect!

Also, on Saturday the moon was supposed to be super big.  It ended up looking more like a fairly normal full moon when I saw it.  Maybe I missed the window?

 That's cropped in a bit, too.  Eh.

Now I sleep.  It's 3:30 and if I stay awake any longer I'm just going to keep eating junk and get no sleep.

Pretty Vases from Jars!

So, my parents are having their 30th anniversary on April 23 and my sister and I are organizing a celebration for them.  Aimee is responsible for the majority of the food and I'm responsible for the decorations.  I'm super stoked to get the chance to decorate an event like this.  How much fun would it be to do that for a living?  I'd think lots...but I might be wrong.

Anyway, I've made a ton of tissue paper flowers and about 10 vases out of different glass containers to use as table centerpieces.  I thought I'd do a small post about the vases I made.  It's really not even to explain how to make them, but I guess just to show them?  Something like that.

First off, you have your jars/containers and sainted glass foiling tape.  I bought my foiling tape at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon, so it was about $3.60 for 36yds.  Not too shabby for how long one roll will last!

Next you use the tape to create a design on the container.  I stuck with vertical and horizontal stripes for mine.  I tried some diagonal stripes on an old frappuccino bottle and they just turned out kind of wonky.

And last, you just add in your flowers!  I've since added origami kusudama flowers to each container, and threw in some different shaped jars for a nice mixture of size.

I just love them!

 

I'll definitely have to remember to take some pictures of the tables all set up before the dinner portion of the party.  I'm excited to see it all come together!

 

In other news...Happy Easter! 

I've Fallen Off...Again

Yep, I've failed and stopped exercising.  Yikes.  I think it was a lack of seeing results that made me stop.  But, I've got a pair of 2.5lb weights and plan on starting back up very, very soon.  The weather is going to be insanely awesome this week, so I'm actually thinking about running a bit in the morning.  I don't know if I can realistically pry myself out of bed early enough to get out and do it, but right now I think it sounds like a good idea.  I don't live too far from Central, so I could easily drive there, run/jog/walk for a bit, then come home and shower. 

All I know is that I've got to do something.  I'm back to my feeling-like-a-blob stage and I hate it.

A couple of weeks ago Miles and I went for a walk on the parkway and veered off into a bike path.  It was more of a hike that way, which we both like more.  Neither of us knew the path was there and it was crazy pretty!  I need to get a senior girl in a flowy dress to go back there to take pictures.  It'd be perfect for that.  Miles and I took some pictures of each other since he might be helping me in the future with some wedding photography.

The shoes in the second picture look terrible.  I'll definitely need to get a new pair before we do family pictures this spring.

Oh!  I've ordered two ruffly diaper covers from a seller on Etsy (I ordered last Saturday and she just shipped this Friday...talk about making me impatient!).  They're super cute and I should be getting them tomorrow.  I think on Thursday I'll be taking some newborn (eeeek) pictures.  I'm so stoked!  Okay, I'm stoked and completely nervous.  I would love, love, love to be great at newborn photography, but it's definitely something that requires tons of practice that I just simply don't have yet.  Hopefully I'll be able to get a few more babies lined up in the future and I can get better at it. 

Now I should shower.  We'll be going to Bible study in about an hour and I am so incredibly far from being ready.