Memorial Day

  Yesterday I was taught not to say "Happy Memorial Day" because it is a sad day of remembering all of those who died in order to help keep our country safe. However, I am happy and proud to have such generous and selfless and brave men and women risking and sacrificing their lives to help make America the way it is today for us and Emma.
  I feel like Emma looks younger in these first pictures because I squeezed her into this 3-month size floral overall that was still hanging in her closet for some reason. It's definitely the last time she will ever wear it. Right now/ in this picture, Emma is just two weeks and four days shy of turning 3 years old!!

   Today was really great because both of us had off, and we stuck to the plans that I made. I was surprised that Michael's boss at VAMP still let everyone off for Memorial Day after they had been off for six weeks from the end of March to the beginning of May due to the Corona Virus. A few days prior I told Michael that I wanted us to use one of our Darden gift cards and order food from Bahama Breeze, since that is his favorite place and we probably hadn't been there since his birthday.
   The morning was really great and then in the afternoon we hung out in the house as Michael sewed some Boba Fett gloves that he is working on to sell. He also made the first blaster that he is selling on The Dented Helmet. He first 3D printed the pieces, then made molds of those, so now he just fills up the molds each time a new buyer contacts him. Here is the blaster almost finished, and then completely finished with dirt and rust painted on. Skillz! He has even had two buyers from France and Norway!

   While he was working on the gloves I was looking through Blood Widow pictures for my previous post I just added, and then I watched (and he listened to) the video we made of baby pictures and growing up, until we met each other in 2009, and then videos from Full Sail. He put that 18 minute video together and it was played at our wedding reception on Friday, May 6, 2011. Shortly after watching that yesterday, I did my hair and makeup and then drove to pick up our dinner from Bahama Breeze. The employee who helped me was wearing a mask over his mouth and nose. I forgot to put mine on while I was in the restaurant for that one minute. I changed into a black dress when I got back.
   The day I got this black dress at the end of November 2017 was also a really nice "shopping date" at Kohl's in Clermont. We wanted new outfits because one of the doctors at Winnie Palmer was going to be taking Christmas card photos for the families with babies in the NICU. Michael picked out my dress and shoes (black velvet ankle boots with a thick heel that I rarely wear) and I picked out my matching necklace and earrings, which I also wore yesterday for our home date.

   Another really nice date that I remember, but was sad to find out that I never posted about was went we went to Corelli's Italian Restaurant for pizza, which is also in Clermont. I believe I wore the dark green sundress with a small floral pattern on it. I don't remember what Michael ordered, but I ordered the small stromboli (or maybe it was the calzone?) filled with meat and cheese. It was not small at all! It was huge!! I remember laughing in disbelief and could not imagine the size of the large. I definitely have a picture of it somewhere. I assume the picture was from 2014 or 2015, and if I come across it one day, I will add it into this post.
   Here are some pictures of us/ our meal at "The Dining Room". My only complaint was that the manager in the living room had some "Happy Bear" song on repeat! Haha.

Spinach and artichoke dip, house salads with island vinagirette, I ordered the Mahi Tacos 

and he always gets the jerk chicken pasta. I have a bad habit of ordering foods that 

get soggy easily or don't taste as good when you heat them up the next day. 

   After dinner we joined the manager in her quarters to all watch The Rise of Skywalker. Michael has had this movie since it was released in stores, maybe in March? Michael said he and Emma had watched it a few times, but until last night, there was not a two hour and 20 minute block of time that we had available for me to also watch it. It was a good movie and I did not think any of the parts got boring. Michael asked what my favorite scene was, but I just told him I liked all the parts that made me laugh. I remember the first one with these main actors (The Force Awakens) had a lot of funny lines in the first half. I almost want to watch that one again right now, but Michael might be sad if I watch it while he is at work. It would be more fun to see it with him. I'm pretty sure we saw that one in theaters because it came out in 2015 when it was just the two of us and we weren't parents yet. We did not see The Last Jedi in theaters, because that came out while we were in Michigan for Emma's big surgery. We had time to go on the days Emma was resting (aka sedated and on paralytics), but Michael worried that a nurse or doctor would need to suddenly reach us and we'd have to leave the movie and run back in the snow. The theater was about a 20 minute walk from the hospital.

   The movie ended right around 9pm and then we moved Emma into her bedroom, like we do every night, for her treatments and trach care. She was swinging her legs back and forth in a direction that they don't normally go -behind her-, although she has had hip dysplasia since birth. She didn't just sit like that. She swung her legs back to the front each time. Apparently (according to my mom and another mom whose children had types of primordial dwarfism) this is just Emma's version of the W sit. Where kids sit with their knees bent so the bottom half of the legs are right next to the top half on the floor. I remember I used to do that and my mom would tell me to stop because it's bad for my knees. I remember it being specifically on a Christmas morning too.

  Click HERE to see photos from last year's Memorial Day when we were able to go out to eat. That was a long, full month update, so the part about that specific day is pretty far into the post.

The $1,000 Weightloss Challenge

   I don't think I have talked about the weight loss challenge that Alex and I started a little over two weeks ago (on May 10th). We both started super close to 136.5 pounds, so that is the starting weight we used. I was actually 136.8! My highest ever!! I was 135.0 on the morning Emma was born, which makes it pretty terrible that with all the breadsticks, pizza, and ice cream, I weighed more than I did when my uterus was filled with baby, amniotic fluid, and placenta. I was reading some other posts on here under the search categories of "skinny" and "vegan" and found that in 2017 I lost 17 pounds in 100 days (14 weeks), going from 129 pounds in the beginning of June to 112 pounds at the beginning of September when I met my parents at Daytona Beach for my dad's birthday. The following year I was able to go from 127 pounds to 119 pounds in 40 days. I came across a journal note recently (that I no longer have) that said I weighed 118 pounds in October of last year, but I don't really believe that because this first picture was from them & check out that thick upper arm cellulite! Other than that it is a nice family photo. 

   I really love this photo of me and Emma on December 23rd, 2019 and feel like a lower weight is more believable then, but I don't weigh myself unless I am trying to lose weight, so I assume I was still/ back up to around 127-130 pounds at that time.

   The money part of the challenge comes in when Alex felt like earning money or the whole "not wanting to lose money" threat would finally be something to motivate both of us, and so far it has been working. Our goal is to lose 5 pounds every month between May 10th and September 30th (that equals 20 1/2 weeks) and we are both hoping to get down to 110, our final weigh in being October 1st. My main talk of motivation -not counting the money- is wanting to be "slim and trim" for Greg and Britt's wedding the last weekend of September. I hope that is still happening as the Corona Virus rules are letting up and now some of the non-essential stores (junk stores like Home Goods and Ross, as well as restaurants) are opening up for customer business at 50% capacity. Seems too soon for me, but I guess the stores were going to completely lose their business and go bankrupt if they didn't open again? Even Universal Citywalk and Disney Springs are opening up again, but not the main parks yet.
   Another exciting motivation thought I have came to last night when I got a message from AJ Prescott saying he and Mabel are planning a Full Sail reunion later this year in Orlando!! I was skinny most of our time there, so of course I have to be skinny (and toned) again for the reunion.  But, going back again to the money part of this challenge with Alex, she said if one of us loses the five pounds and the other person doesn't, then the winner gets $150 from the loser. This goes for each month! And if neither of us lose the five pounds, then we both have to donate $200 to charity.

   This is a nice photo I found from our engagement pictures, which AJ and Adea took for us. We needed engagement pictures, they wanted the photography experience. Win/win! I do believe I was maybe around 110-113 here? I didn't have a scale at school, so I only got to weigh myself when I went back to Gainesville to visit my family and friends.
   I don't want to jinx myself by writing all of this too soon, while only being on Day 17 of this 145(?) day challenge. Although, I say it actually goes for the next 21,000 days because I never want to get up to 137 or even 120 pounds ever again after this!! I told Alex that our "giving each other money if we fail" agreement flips after we reach 110, and for a full year after October this year, if either of us gains back more than five pounds, then we owe the other person who stayed under 115 pounds $150!!
    I get so disappointed in myself for stopping once I previously reached 118 or 112, even though I got tired of eating healthy. Maybe this time has been easier because I'm focusing on intermittent fasting and eating less food at a time, but more often to keep my tummy satisfied throughout the day. Or maybe it's because I have been upset with myself for the past two years and am tired of constantly failing.
   Usually I would eat two packs of oatmeal for breakfast at work. Now I just eat one at a time, with two hours in between. Or sometimes I only eat one, and then a couple hours later eat something different. Most days I have been able to wait at least four hours after getting up before eating (that's where the intermittent fasting comes in to play!), which means not eating until 9am on work days and holding out to 1pm on days I am home, if I am able to without getting a headache. It is not worth it to get what will most likely turn into a migraine. Alex has also been getting me to do small exercises when it is not busy at work, including calf raises, high knees, and wall sits. I also found a 3-minute arm video that I like by Boho Beautiful on YouTube.
   Other things I have enjoyed recently are: Greek penne pasta from the Publix deli, cinnamon raisin bagels (only 1/2 at a time), banana-peanut butter- chocolate smoothies, Chipotle tacos (never order it again with the red sauce!!), steamed broccoli, I like the Green Giant seasoned and cheese bags. My first official splurge was yesterday when we ordered spinach dip and chips from Bahama Breeze. I'll talk about that in the next post because it was a really great family day. ♡♥♡

   Now here are some more pictures from our Blood Widow behind the scenes filming that I was looking through yesterday. I am mainly using the ones of me and my hot June 2011 bod. I assume Michael took all the pictures that I am in, but I was the main BTS photographer. Sadly a lot of the pictures I got are blurry, as if the shutter speed was not set fast enough. Obviously I didn't post those. These were all taken the month after Michael and I got married. He was stressed on our Honeymoon because that was a full week he did not have to use in order to prepare and create the special FX pieces for the movie (fake legs, hands, and heads to be chopped off by the killer)!

   ^^ I was nervous to meet the main characters, Gabbie Henry and Danielle Lilley, even though they were not (yet) A-list celebrities as I was treating them like. I had no reason to be nervous and my nerves went away quickly as I began treating them like friends within a few hours of meeting them.

   ^^ my favorite. Supa best friends for 2 years!! We still talk sometimes now and I was 

very, very glad that Ryan got to visit last summer and meet Emma.

      ^^ Recreating a pose for my mom that I did when I was maybe 2 or 3 years old.

^^ When I got to dress up as Blood Widow because that day they only needed and over the shoulder shot and Gabbie didn't want to have to drive all that way (almost 2 hours each way) for one shot. 

She gave me permission to play the part that day since we were the same size. She was a few inches taller than me so I think I had to stand on an apple box, but cant remember for sure. 

My over the shoulder shot is at 37 seconds in the official trailer!! 

   ^^ with Julie, Love, the costume designer. Also a good Full Sail friend! 

Now the rest of these are more promotional, with Gabbie Henry as Blood Widow.

 ^^ Jeremy Buckhalt, the director. And in the second BW picture I posted at the top you can also see Chad Coup, who was the producer. This stray dog that found us was named Hugh McSwaggs by Michael Mowen who was the sound guy and my husband's best friend during the shoot!

   I am sooo happy and thankful that Michael and I both got to be in the same group as Jeremy for our Final Project in December 2010 and January 2011, because a lot of the people who worked on his short film, Gruff's Bridge, also got to work on Blood Widow after we all graduated. A lot of us had the same jobs on both projects, including me as 2nd AD, Michael as Special Makeup FX, Rebecca Wise as 1st AD (assistant director), Ryan as the UPM (unit production manager), and Julie Love as costume designer. Chad, the BW producer, played the part of Gruff six months prior. I really loved the 2nd AD position for those few months, but in real life it is a really hard spot to move up to, and I didn't love it enough to start off as a barely paid PA (production assistant) in California for 10 years, getting people coffee, etc. Plus I am big on financial security, so I was/am fine with working at the Sheriff's Office for a steady paycheck, helping save lives on 9-1-1, confirming felony warrants over the radio, and other important things within our community. 

Almost Famous

  Okay, let's cut to the chase. The main reason I want to post all the Full Sail pictures is because I love seeing the pictures of myself! This chunk of my life - July 2009 to was so great for several reasons:
1. I finally got to live on my own (with roommates)/ move out of my parents' house after 22 years.
2. I quickly had a boyfriend, who later became my fiance, who is now my husband.
3. I had a hilarious new best friend (Ryan).
4. I got to my lowest weight I had been in a long time!
5. I was at fricken film school- a dream of mine for several years!!
6. I had bad (undiagnosed) depression and other issues, especially the whole year before Full Sail, so this new amazing experience was like a complete 180.
7. We were constantly learning new things. Nothing became boring or repetitive.
8. I could focus on school and didn't have to work/ have a job aside from being a good student.
9. I got to study things I was really interested in and had a much higher GPA there than in high school (the same went for Michael).
10. Did I mention that I had a boyfriend for more than 3 months and he didn't break up with me because I talk about celebrities too much and take too many pictures? ;) #noregrets

   These "movie premiere" pictures are from December 23 and 24th, 2009. My first big photo shoots after getting from 125 pounds to 105 pounds, which I achieved naturally without realizing at first by walking and biking to and from school almost every day, as well as taking care of Michael's dog, Sasha, which I later regretted because then he stopped taking care of her on his own, as if it became my duty just because I liked "having a dog" at the beginning of our relationship.. . Our apartment was only one mile away from school, and my Gainesville body was not used to all the frequent exercise, so it came off easily even though I wasn't eating any differently. However, at the beginning of November, I weighed myself for the first time in four months and saw I was 112. Then I began to eat healthier/ less fast food- there was (and still is) a Taco Bell, McDonald's, Wendy's, and Chick-Fil-A in the Full Sail parking lot areas. With these quiet easy tactics, I reached a very happy weight of 105 by Christmas!

And now for a change of wardrobe because they have separate premiere in New York and LA! 

    The London premiere the next day ~ celebrity life is busy!! 

The tattoo that started our relationship. ☆

I like this picture because you get a better look at the 8 bracelets I was wearing.

   A quick history of movie premieres: The first red carpet movie premiere took place in 1922 at the Egyptian therater on Hollywood Blvd in Los Angeles. Organized by Sid Grauman, the event was not only celebrating the opening of the Egyptian theater but also the release of Robin Hood starring Douglas Fairbanks. Info from redcarpetsystems.com.
  And the history of mine: My first home movie premiere- which surprisingly do not almost ever involve actually watching the movie we are "promoting"/ the posters we are standing in front of- was in January 2004 for Dumb and DumberER: When Harry Met Lloyd and done with my cousin, Jessica. We were actually in this movie, which came out in 2003, as unpaid extras! But we got to meet Shia LaBeouf, Eugene Levy, and Eric Christian Olsen, among others, which was pretty amazing! My first home premiere with friends was in February 2005 for Napoleon Dynamite with Sharanya, followed by Thin Obsession, with Mia, Tonia, and Sharanya, which was a 4-minute movie trailer that we made the year prior as a class project I made for TV Production in my junior year of high school. The most recent friend photo shoot I did with my friends was in front of the house, no posters on the garage door, not technically a premiere, at Christmas 2015 --> in the middle of this long, beautiful post.

   I have always wanted ("always" in since after June 2011) to have a Blood Widow premiere. I was hoping there would actually be a real one when the film was finally released in select theaters and available at Redbox in June 2014, but that never happened. I figured a lot of the actors would still possibly be in the Orlando area at that time- I know Jose Miguel Vazquez - who played Mark now lives in Atlanta. I think Gabbie Henry, who played the main character, still lives in Orlando. I should definitely invite her over for the six year belated "premiere"!!! It would be cool to see her again! However, I love having movie posters on the garage door and for some reason the Blood Widow posters online basically do not exist, and I don't have a high resolution photo to get made. That would probably be expensive anyway. I could always be old school and print out a bunch of pages that just say "Blood Widow" on them, all ghetto like, or expand the main picture from the DVD cover to fill a regular 8x11 printer page, which is what I used to do when I couldn't get old posters from the movie theaters or get the current popular ones from Wal-Mart for five bucks each. We'll see.. :)