Atlanta, Pt. 1

On Monday morning, I woke up with such speed, after only two hours of sleep. I was racing the clock since I had to be out the door by 9:45am to make it to McDonalds for their greasy yet delicious sausage, egg and cheese bagel. Plus I tried the Mocha Frappe, which I ended up liking a lot. I took a nap before my mom and I left for Atlanta. But I first found these amazing tiny pictures of my Grandma & Grandpa from 1977 and then my dad and his brothers working on something manly.

I was surprised that I was able to drive the whole way myself. I was fine and able to stay awake pretty easily since my mom was talking to me the whole time. That kept me talking and my brain functioning, etc. Same with why I don't fall asleep at work. I was impressed with a "fancy" Burger King that we stopped at as it got dark. We got to Jessica's house around 8:30pm, unfortunately Jonathan had to leave for Marine training before we got there. I was so anxious to see Jordyn, but had to wait until the next afternoon when we picked her up from pre-school.

 

This was the first picture I was able to get of James before all the batteries died, so I spent the rest of the day charging them. Jordyn opened some Halloween presents and did a Princess puzzle and a "Cooties" game with my mom. I gave Jordyn and James a bath after dinner. Oh- Jessica has been making delicious dinners this week. They all seem pretty simple, but I love how I am eating less and being healthy. Which is exactly how I plan to be once we move to LA. However, I did tell Michael that I should start practicing with dinners now (only on my days off) then spent quite some time on Pinterest saving dinner ideas that looked especially yummy!

Two Girls, One Camera

On Thursday afternoon, after Michael left for work, Miriam texted me to plan out our next photoshoot. Since I have already made plans for a lot of the days I have off before Christmas, I went ahead and mentioned that I was free that evening. So we decided to be spontaneous and push past our comfort levels, due to us both being avid planners. Life is too short not to fly by the seat of our pants!! Miriam also invited her friend, Brittany, but unfortunately she already had plans to go to a Magic's basketball game. We had a few different ideas going, but somehow all of the Halloween decorations were pulled out from the garage and it went from there.   
While I was at her house, Miriam showed me how she rearranged her bedroom since I last saw it in July. Although she had bought a big new dresser from IKEA, it did not make her room look any smaller. The dresser is not only beautiful, but also very tall and spacious. I think Michael would like it too since it was a dark brown wood. Miriam also has a lot of pretty jewelry in different places around her room and also in the attached bathroom. However, it doesn't look cluttered or junky. A lot of her more delicate necklaces were hanging from a stick. She had a few earrings hanging from the rim of a cup, a few rings were in a small wooden.. "thing" (not sure how to describe it). And in the bathroom there were some racks specifically made to hold jewelry. I could have - and now think maybe I should have - done a whole post about her decorating skills! I was even impressed with her organized (horizontally, by size) magazines and book collection, including a biography of Lady Gaga. And did I mention that when I got there she was cooking spaghetti for her boyfriend? While wearing high heels! I am really looking forward to all the changes I plan on making in my/our life once we move to Los Angeles. (More blog posts each month is also on that list. Hooray!) But I can wait and be "lazy" for a few more months. Right now, with God's grace, I'm continuing to keep up my wonderfully positive attitude adjustment.

 This last photo was kindly taken by Miriam's boyfriend, Garth.

Lego Us!

These super cool Lego versions of Michael, Sasha and I will have to do for now since we haven't taken any real pictures together lately. I wanted to give a quick update about his 24th birthday:

We celebrated this past Wednesday since that was a day we both had off. I sure do love those days! We went to the mall where Michael got very excited to buy the movie Silent Hill for only six bucks. I feel like he does have some of my "Amish charm" in him and it makes me extra happy. The DVD had a lot of cool behind the scenes, that even I didn't mind watching- since its a creepy movie. We had lunch at Sweet Tomatoes. (My body needed salad.) Then walked to a Halloween store to look at possibly getting me a Red Hiding Hood costume to wear to work on the 31st, although these days its hard not to find something extremely skimpy. I'm blanking on a 4-hour time period before we dressed up a little and had dinner at J. Alexander's. Michael mentioned wanting to see Hotel Transylvania, (which I hadn't seen a trailer for until right now to link it) but we were too late by the time we checked for showings. We saw Looper instead. It was interesting; Michael liked it a lot.

Yesterday (I still count it as Thursday) evening, I went to Miriam's house and we had a last minute photo shoot. I'll plan on posting a few of those for you this weekend. & I'm hoping to have a lot of wonderful family photos to show off in just over a week. My mom and I are going to visit my cousin Jessica in Atlanta and will get to spend time with her kids, Jordyn and James. Yippee!!

Legoland

Well, good news ~ I sure didn't have any trouble taking lots of pictures today! Over 200 actually. Yesterday my mom came to stay with us again. (She was here towards the beginning of the month too.) We ran errands with Michael so she could see the artsy Sam Flax store I always talk about. I did really like that sparkly cupcake picture holder. I might have to go back and buy that.. or just try to make one myself. Then we had dinner with Michael at Bob's Potatoes then walked around half of Downtown Disney, stopped for ice cream at Dairy Queen and watch The Hunger Games.

Today, Michael had to work both jobs, so he couldn't come to Legoland with us, but it was a lot of fun. And although we were initially bummed that the park was only open today from 10am-5pm, it gave us the perfect amount of time to do everything! I didn't bring our Canon T2i, but I felt that this picture I took with my mom's point-and-shoot had enough depth of field to make it appropriate for my blog. Plus, I really need to get back into the habit. I'm all caught up with printing out pictures from our time during Full Sail, so its time to start documenting more memories!

**& Michael started his own GoreFX special make up effects blog! Check it out. 

Spirituality & Hope

I will admit, I have not really had any urge to take pictures within the past five weeks. At one point I began sewing together a travel journal for our trip to Los Angeles in November, but didn't like the pictures enough to show them off here. However, I have been working on something much more important ~ self improvement. After realizing that we only had five months until we moved (now only three and a half!), I absolutely knew that I had to take some drastic measures to ensure I do not start off yet another year with a negative mind and bad attitude, especially at the title page of our "new wonderful life" in LA. I'm not sure if the sun will always shine as bright as I imagine it will, but these past few weeks have greatly improved. Michael sometimes refuses to agree, simply because he doesn't want to jinx it, ha. I have begun reading (and taking notes from) Christian books about marriage and spirituality and hope*. And listening to Joyce Meyer seminars on CD help a lot too. As does praying. In fact, you can pray for me if you want!

Silly Engagement Photo By: Adea Kleinota and/or Andrew Prescott

Cocoa Beach, Florida - Fall 2010

I'm not sure how much longer I will be on my photography hiatus. Hopefully, no longer than another month- especially if my mom and I are spending a week in Atlanta with my cousin, Jessica and her kids. I have to take lots of pictures of them. That's not really an option. They are just too cute.

*Books I've Read:

Things I Wish I'd Known Before We Got Married ~ by Gary Chapman

Spiritual Stuff You Can Get from High School Musical ~ by Steve Russo

90 Days in Heaven ~by Don Piper (I'm in the middle of this one!)

Portraits ~ Cassandra & George

Michael and I have known George for three years now- he was in our film program all through Full Sail. He moved back to Pennsylvania after graduation last year and six months later, proposed to Cassie. Michael and I only met Cassie last week when we went on a double date to Ruby Tuesdays, after they drove down for a week to play at Universal and Disney! Cassie is very nice, and currently studying to be a teacher for preschoolers with Autism, while also working part time at a children's museum.

George told us about how he proposed to her on Christmas morning last year. They agreed there wasn't much to the story, but it still sounds very romantic. I was lucky enough to take some pictures of them at Cypress Grove Park on Saturday (where Michael and I have had our picnics). It was very hot outside, as it has been every day lately, on days when it doesn't rain, but Cassie and George were such troopers!

The most funny/random part of the shoot was when we saw a rooster running through the grass. I wasn't quick enough to take a picture though. Oh! I should mention, George let me use his camera (thank you again!) for the shoot: the Canon 60D, which is a few steps up from our T2i, but thankfully similar enough that it didn't take him too long to explain the process. However, since the files are a tad bit different, they don't conform to my computer's standards. I will have to find a new download link to properly edit the photos. But for now, these are my few favorite edited screen caps taken from the Image Viewer!

 

~ ✩ ✬ ✭ ✬ ✩ ☆ ✩ ✬ ✭ ✬ ✩ ☆ ✩ ✬ ✭ ✬ ✩ ☆ ~ 

 Updated August 2016: Again, the photos were all still in the RAW CR2 format, but luckily I was able to use the Image Viewer again to get the rest of the pictures that were nice of these two lovely individuals:

Zombielicious

How dare I be so behind on my blogging! Not even sure what my excuses are - not counting the days that I work, which includes the past 3 days. I have been keeping up with these two beautiful blogs, by a couple other girls you may know: Pinterest Princess (cousin Jessica) & Something That We Do (friend Lindsey). 

On Wednesday of last week, I mentioned that I wanted Michael to let me put a prosthetic on him. I said I wanted to do all the work, but have him walk me though each step. It took about an hour to complete (though it didn't seem that long) and I had the same "this looks terrible" attitude he usually does, but I suppose it was good for my first time. Then Friday while I was at work, Michael's new best friend (Chris, from Metropolis) came over and Michael did a full face prosthetic on him. I think it looks really good - and a little silly because of the facial expression. Michael took that photo since I was gone.

Also, here is a short zombie video that Michael did some make up for a few months ago! Never mind, Michael says its password protected because its not completely finished yet. I'll keep you posted!