Portraits ~ Alana "Ashley Anna" Grace

We had been trying to plan a 3-day get together for ourselves (Alana, Cody, Michael and I) since January, however, our schedules didn't work out until this past weekend. I drove up to Tallahassee on Friday after a lunch date with Michael at Panera. He couldn't come with me because he was working all day on Friday. & I should note that although I called my mom on the drive up "with nothing to say", we ended up talking for over an hour! I felt a calm, mature sensation during our conversation. 
Friday night Alana and I spent a couple hours chatting and picking out outfits for the photo shoots. On Saturday, we spent three hours in the hot afternoon at the barn while Alana got the horses ready, then went back to her house for second showers and lunch, before making our way back to the barn for photos.

Although I took over 1,000 photos, we narrow it down to about 500, then me picking out my personal 60 favorites, these two are my very favorite. In my next posts I will show off photos of Alana and Cody then give her horses their own post.

Don't Step in a Poodle

I don't remember if I mentioned that on June 10th, on Michael's sweet way home from buying 25 blown up balloons to put around the house for my birthday (I wouldn't let him pop the big cupcake shaped one that is currently floating next to me), without noticing, his phone fell out of the pouch clipped on his belt and landed in a puddle outside. He didn't find it until 30 minutes later and even after drying, it wouldn't turn on. It has been raining so much lately, but it is hurricane season.. So the next day he bought an iPhone. Here are Michael's Instagram pictures that I have been meaning to post:

*please click the photos for larger versions! =)
The first four pictures are from when we went to the new mini golf course at CityWalk/ Universal on my birthday (two weeks ago)! We did the "Alien Invasion" half. There was a haunted house one too, but I told Michael I would prefer to do that one during the day. The fourth row is showing off the current project Michael is working on, which is related to the bottom left picture from Thursday last week. We were in Good Will trying to find a female version of the Penguin outfit for me. (From "Batman Returns", 1992.) Then tonight we had dinner again at Bob's Potatoes.

25 Candles

Such a shame that my last two posts have been added one week late. But as always, better late than never. I wanted to post a couple pictures of my "cake" for my 25th birthday - I can feel the wrinkles forming already! We had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. I don't think I've ever had a bad slice of cheesecake. This one is Oreo, but we got a slice of Snickers too - both were delicious. This is definitely something I would splurge calories for to try more often. The carrot cake cheesecake sounded good too, but most of the time I'm in a chocolate mood, especially at night.

Perception of "Normal"

We have eaten out quite a few times lately and haven't mentioned the delicious foods that I have recently tried. Still continuing with my "resolution" of ordering different foods even if we go to restaurants that we are very familiar with. I don't have pictures of the foods since the camera on my phone is quite less than fantastic.

   *After we got my new car, a bunch of Michael's family was in town (who I hadn't met before - the 8 of them had gone to Disney and Universal the days before, celebrating a couple birthdays) and we all went out to dinner that night. Fortunately for Michael, we went to Bahama Breeze. I got the Buttermilk Fried Chicken, which was laid atop my mashed potatoes "island" with a lemon sauce and black bean/corn salsa "moat" around it. 

    *Sometime ago - two weeks ago, I think? - we used a $5 coupon at TGI Friday's. Michael normally orders the NY Strip (steak), but without noticing, I have been ordering pastas and chicken a lot. That night I got the Bruschetta Chicken Pasta. The balsamic glaze was different. We also shared a piece of Chocolate Peanut Butter pie. It was soooo good.

   *Last Monday, we celebrated our new jobs by going to Uno's. I had a $10 off coupon that night. Michael got steak and I got the Herb-Rubbed Breast of Chicken with cranberry rice and mashed potatoes. It wasn't as much as I thought it would be, but both of our meals came with a breadstick that made me wish I was eating spaghetti. I bet they would get even more business if they gave a free breadstick basket to each table. Their breadsticks were different from Olive Garden though.

   *During the week I received a romantic text message from my sweet husband saying "Shnooks, I love you. We need a good date night. How is Saturday for you?" (Oh, how I blushed!) So last night we went to J. Alexander's. I thought about getting the salmon, as I did last time - I recommend it - but its a tad pricey, so I ventured out with the Rattlesnake Pasta (shown in photo & including chicken). It was an unnecessarily large amount - not even one of those menu items that has a "half or full" portion option. I ate until my jeans felt tight and my plate still looked like it hadn't been touched. The waitress even told me "oh yeah, they did recently increase the portion size to some of the meals". This paragraph here is what the title of this post is based around. The upside is that I will have pasta to keep me full for the next few days!
   *In the "Oh Happy Day" Paris blog that I was obsessed with last week, she told a story about how a girl who had lived in Paris her whole life, went to America for about a month and gained 25 pounds! Simply because the portion sizes here are outrageous.. I'm glad that I am now able to control myself most of the time.