Me 2013

I was practicing with a couple small flashes tonight and there was no one else around to practice with so I grabbed a teddy bear and he did okay.  His eyes are glassy enough to show catchlights.

I decided to brave it and get in front of my camera.  What a mess this was.  First my batteries were dead on my remote so I had to run around my camera and get in the right spot within 10 seconds, run back, look to see what effect my flash was getting, go back set some other stuff, run around..... Then I knew since I wasn't in front of my camera it wasn't focusing on me and my face/eyes were blurry but at that point I didn't care, that's not what I was after.  Then I remembered seeing a photo on pinterest as an inspiration to getting healthy and I wanted to recreate it.  {As I was mad at myself for eating the chocolate left over from Christmas}  Well to get the camera to focus on me without me being able to be there was a bit tricky.  So I have this free-standing antique birdcage that I used to put where I needed to stand, position the part of the cage where my eyes would be when I stood there and focused the camera.  Then here's the brilliant moment {ding, ding, ding} I put the camera on manual focus.  Moved the birdcage, hit the shutter and ran to the exact spot the birdcage was.  It might not be perfect focus but it's better than I expected and worked for me to recreate my inspiration for 2013.

It's been very hard to get up and go to the gym since the holiday's started and even harder to not eat all the junk that is still in my house.  This morning Jenn at the fitness center gave us a brutal work out for Boot Camp.  Just because she's leaving in less than a month she feels the need to whip us into shape before she's gone.  After the repeaters, lunges and glut lifts that went on for like 15 minutes she said "I hope you all can walk tomorrow".   This afternoon I e-mail my sister......... "tightness is setting in already, can't wait to see how sore I am tomorrow morning".  If you hear a loud pitched screaming sound about 4:40am it's me trying to shut the alarm off for another morning of torture.  You would think after almost 3 years of this I would no longer be sore.... yeah right!!  Come try it I'll show you how sore your muscles can be.

Now if I would stop eating the chocolate around here the work-outs would be more effective.... but my thought on that is.  

The more I eat today the faster it will be gone.

FAMILY has company

One of my Christmas gifts was a print of our family picture.  Well it wasn't really a gift but it came the day before Christmas so I feel like it was a present from ME.  I ordered our family pic in a humongo size for the dining room wall.  The FAMILY decal has been there with nothing under it for over a year.  One thing we should all do is have prints made when we get our photos taken.  I don't care if you don't like your hair or you weigh an extra 20lbs more than you want to, Maxwell is sleeping, Garrett isn't smiling, or Mallory isn't looking directly at the camera......  All those things are real and our family is real.  This is who we are there is no fluff put into them, no photoshopping to make me look plastic, no swapping heads with one that Garrett was smiling, this is keeping it real, this is us.  Get your family picture printed in a humongo size and hang it up.  I love it and look at it everyday when I walk in the door.  I put it in this old beat up frame for now but I'm not sure it's going to stay in that one or if the frame will stay that color but right now it gets it up on the wall for me to enjoy everyday.

My favorite family

We had a family baby shower this last weekend and it was Shannon's birthday so I decided it was time again for a big family photo.  I didn't care if anyone was posed, smiling, looking at the camera and they didn't even have to smell good.  I just wanted us all in the same photo.  So after weeks of preparing the boys that this was going to happen the day finally came and now I'm not sure why I would ever put other families through this.  Taking a family photo is hard work and I'm not talking the actual time in front or behind the camera I'm talking prep time with many people in the house taking showers, changing clothes, needed to eat, wanting a snack, I need a juicebox, where's my shoes, I can't find my belt, grandma can you paint my nails, why do I have to wear this, Adam you're taking a shower, I gotta go potty, Grandpa I want a four wheeler ride..... 

Wow I'm not sure how we pulled this off but here are the photos 

in what we like........ everyday us, at our favorite summer hangout.

The hunting shack was too beautiful to pass up with the backlighting so we did some more photos, even though I told them I only wanted one location.   I lied!!

One thing harder than getting everyone to look at the person taking the photo is getting everyone to look at a camera on a tripod with no one standing there.  I keep telling the kids to look pretty while clicking the remote.  This family is getting big, the last time we had a family photo taken I had a 16x20 made and when it came in the mail it made me cry.  Then I knew it wasn't just me cuz when John got home and seen it on the table he had tears in his eyes too.  This is us, all of us and it couldn't be more wonderful.  

Crazy kids, I might not have gotten them all to agree to sitting down but at least they are all in one spot.

Once again Shan you had gorgeous weather for you birthday.  Hard to believe we had 2 inches of snow the year you were born.  Happy Birthday Sweetheart.

Ouch! Excuse me while I pass out

I would pass out but my legs hurt too bad that I can't.  Seriously I've been going to the gym for 7 weeks and by now my leg muscles shouldn't hurt so bad, but they do.  I have to stop doing the squats, step, knees, or whatever else she shouts out that we do over and over again.  I grab my legs, make a stupid face that I see in the mirror while I try not to pass out and then I think about Friday morning and the 1 milliontrillionzillion squats we will have to do..... I'll save the passing out for then. 

So after class I ask Jenn why my legs hurt so bad and when that will go away? Being the nice person that she is standing there all sweaty asking me lots of questions about my hurting legs she politely beats around the bush until I finally get it and I say "I'm weak, my legs are weak". Are you kidding me? Somehow our conversation goes into what I eat..... well that may be the problem. Jenn says I need to eat fruit and vegetables, who has ever heard about that? Like eat them everyday??? Like apples, oranges, broccoli, and carrots..... who eats this stuff? And...... yes there is more.... I should eat lean meat, more than just meat on pizza and add whole grains. I know I eat wrong (I didn't think it was that wrong) but this morning Jenn somehow made me believe that I need to change some of my everyday eating habits. I seriously eat the same thing all the time. Last week when I went out for lunch the waiter said "ohhhh Connie going out on a limb today" when I order a Chicken Taco Salad, it wasn't my usual Chicken Ranch Wrap.

Tonight for supper I had turkey, broccoli & cauliflower and then this for dessert.

along with about 7 others.  We'll give this eating lifestyle a try but the day I pass out during squats someone please prop me up and feed me a Special K Bar because I am probably going through withdrawals, I've eaten 1 every morning for breakfast for the last 3 years.  : )

Feel the burn

So today as my alarm is going off at 4:50, yep in the AM, I throw my body out of bed and when my legs hit the floor they scream in pain.  I lunge for the snooze button and throw myself back in bed for a beautiful 9 more minutes.  4:59AM again the alarm screams at me to get up, I stretch, moan, stretch some more and drag my body out from under the warm covers.  I eat a half a banana, pee, pluck my eyebrows, brush my teeth, throw on some shorts and a t-shirt and try to control my blonde mess in a ponytail holder just so I can go to the gym and be tortured with Boot Camp.   My muscles are screaming with every move I make, my legs are burning and I can't breath and Jen says "can you feel the burn"  Are you kidding me I felt it 35 minutes ago on the drive here while pressing the gas pedal!!  I love the gym but haven't gone for over 2 years so getting back into muscular and physical shape is hard work and I said I would never go in the mornings since I am NOT a morning person but here I am going to the gym in the morning and secretly liking it.  My muscles have gotten stronger or I've become numb to the pain.  I can now move from a sitting position to standing without saying "ouch" so we're making progress here.  Tonight I laid on the lawn to take my POTD and had flash backs of all the push ups, squats, jumping jacks and lunges we did this morning and broke into a cold sweat.  For those that have not had the pleasure of joining a gym class it's something you must try once in your life, it's like a drug that you have to have everyday and the days you don't have it you feel guilty. 

I feel so good I may just tell John to sell the lawn mower and I'll trim the grass with a scissors...... see I told you it was like being on drugs!