Fitness Shoot ~ Danielle

This week Danielle and her family are vacationing in Kissimmee, FL (about 40 minutes South of Downtown Orlando) from Birmingham, AL. I met Danielle when we worked together at Massage Envy last year. She texted me on Monday and we set plans to hang out today for a photoshoot and power walk. Since I have been in a great exercise mode since Tuesday (prepping for the Glitter Run next month) -by riding bikes 9 miles with Michael before work, and 10.7 miles by myself yesterday- and knowing Danielle had been working on her health as well, I suggested a fitness photoshoot. Another style to add to my "photography resume"! Tonight I was able to navigate around Photoshop enough to edit the photos just slightly, to make them pop.

Danielle says she has weighed around 274 for the past few years and has lost 40 pounds since this spring. (She gave me permission to post her progress numbers.) She began working out on and off since early this year, but started exercising seriously on June 1st in order to be fit and healthy. She hired a trainer who inspires her with outside running and weight lifting using 30 pound dumbbells. Danielle and her mom began their diet with Shakeology breakfast meal replacements, but it was pricey, and now she keeps her meals balanced to include, salad with grilled chicken, fish, yogurt, wheat bread, and a lot of veggies and water. Danielle is going to keep up the great work, by participating in the 8k Battle Frog obstacle race (a 5 mile mud run) in November in Atlanta, and another run in January which takes place in New Orleans. Once she reaches her goal weight of 200 pounds, which is better for her height of 5'10", she will continue to exercise and eat healthy to maintain this new lifestyle change. She wants to encourage and inspire others, and show them that if she can lose weight, they can too.

Of course we had to take a few model-y and silly pictures too. Danielle is very fun to work with and I loved that she let me throw cold water on her during our walk, after I doused myself. A walk is so much more enjoyable that way! I also laughed really loud when she showed me "before" pictures on her phone from the past few years and exclaimed, "I was so fat! Why didn't anyone tell me I was so fat?!" Laughing is all part of the heart pumping side effects. Getting our energy up by walking the 3 miles around the lake gave us epiphanies about how beneficial exercising is and how the word "diet" shouldn't exist because when someone is on a diet, they are simply eating healthy and exercising and taking care of themselves-- which is what we are supposed to do all of the time anyway. There should be a word for everyone who is not dieting. I was proud of her though. She told me this would be her "2-A-Day", meaning it was her second work out for the day since she ran this morning near where her family is staying. I'm proud of her for making it too, and gave her my granola bar and raisins to refuel. But the best part was right by where these pictures were taken. A bunch of kids were playing and for some reason, when we walked by, half of them began clapping. I believe it was all for her, so I clapped too.

Here is a link to the post for the first photoshoot I did for Danielle in July 2014: http://rachel-wildphotography.blogspot.com/2014/07/portraits-danielle.html. She loves having her own personal photographer! Michael and I are celebrating early Christmas in Birmingham mid December and I'll probably meet up with Danielle one of those days for a further progress shoot. Stay tuned! ;)

Fountain of Youth

Yesterday while I was visiting my family in Gainesville, I went to St. Augustine with my mom, sister in law (Jacquie) and her almost 10- month old daughter (Peyton). I'd like to go back with Michael another weekend and take pictures around the historic sites, including the oldest wooden schoolhouse in the United States! After walking around the town with our cartoon map, getting lunch and ice cream, we went to the beach. I wanted to be there for her first trip to the beach. Last time she was "at the beach", Jacquie was 5 months pregnant with her. So she needed to really see it and feel it with her little body. My laptop has gotten older since the last time I blogged, and my computer skills have not grown, so here are six cute horizontal pictures. The program I used to edit and combine vertical pictures will no longer let me access it without Flash Player, which I have not yet figured out how to download..

St. Augustine Beach, 9/19/15.
Love from, Peyton's Aunt Rachee, future cousin birther! (TBD.)

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Update from Aunt Rachee on 10/21/20 ~ 

Spoiler, Peyton! I birthed you a cousin.. over three years ago. Too bad you still haven't been able to meet her yet. Also, what the heck, 2015 Rachel. Why does it matter if the pictures are in portait or landscape format as long as they are nice photos? Post them anyway and don't waste time putting them together as a "collage" in Photoshop. Just lemme see these dang cute baby pics!.. Look at that- you took almost 200 pictures and you only posted SIX?! My goodness.. Here are my other faves:

You and Me, Forever

   I kept joking with Alana about how I would never make a new blog post because I always wanted her Dorothy and Toto photo shoot to be the first thing people see when they found my page. But this is even more important than my favorite movie ~ my marriage to Michael!! After four years of being together (almost six years total, counting from when we met and began dating), at times it still felt like we didn't really know what we were doing a lot of the time, as if we were still learning how to be married. But since I remembered "the secret", I wanted to write this down so I don't ever forget. It's about communication and compromise.. duh! And continually praying to God for thanks and guidance. It's loving so fully, and being silly, and having fun, and not worrying about the future or how we may feel about a certain topic in three years, and about not arguing over all the dumb stuff that the devil creates to ever argue about. (Duh! again.) It's about keeping close, holding hands, truly being best friends, and using our bodies the way God intended married people to use them.

   This past weekend is the best I can remember us having - together - in a while. We have had some fabulous days (going to Clearwater Beach in March, Easter Sunday was really great, hiking in Ocala was pretty fun last month). But this was a **WEEKEND EXTRAVAGANZA**. Possibly because it also included my family, friends, Pioneer times, the beach, and road tripping. I'm already hoping for another weekend extravaganza in two weeks to celebrate my 28th birthday!!

   I talked to my dad on the phone last week, which was nice. I usually ask my mom for all of my marriage advice, but it was good hearing his "man opinions". Michael and I had a few long discussions about what needed to change, what we already liked, better ways to listen, how to spend more time together, etc. My mom found the Groupon for the Zoominations Light show at the Lawry Park Zoo in Tampa, which is what we did Friday night. (I had the whole weekend off from work!) The drive down was good and being with family is always nice. The lights were cool, but I just like spending time with my family. It always puts me in a good mental state. Calm, loving, caring- more than my regular amount. =)

   I found out about the Pioneer Village and Museum in Dade City a few days before, and told Michael and I would really like to go there in the morning on Saturday, on our way down to Siesta Key to meet up with my friend, Tonia. He agreed to that. Hooray!!!!!!!!! It was super amazing. We got out the door just before 10am, stopped by McDonald's for my favorite sausage, egg, and cheese bagel (super healthy!) and hash browns, then arrived to the Pioneer Village about an hour and ten minutes later. It was wonderful. And now I shall post many beautiful pictures about it:

   I loved all of the compromises, although I told Michael that I felt like his were of a higher volume (going to all of these places with me). He still told me that he loved all the little things I did (taking Sasha out a bunch so he didn't have to, pumping gas, giving him back scratches while he drove, unloading the dish washer). This afternoon he wanted to go on the bike ride, so I agreed to that. Lately I have been preferring to walk, but wanted to do what he picked out for us. Then he came with me to work for a few hours and sat next to me while I answered 911 calls to cover a friend's overtime shift. Michael had a headset so he could listen to everything that was being said- or he watched movies on TV. We ended the night with a late date at Sonic before we got home and he went to sleep since he is working today through Universal.

   I know I tend to not write much (or at all) when things are so good, even in a regular journal. The closest documentation is via beautiful Instagram squares. But I really want to remember this time and remember how it was so easy to get along and even though we still had quick mini-tiffs (mainly still getting through the "having really good communication part"), we were so happy and lovey and we had a lot of fun. Michael even said he would like to go back to the Pioneer Village for the Scarecrow Festival in October, and seems to enjoy the beach more lately. Siesta Key was amazing! We first met Tonia for lunch at Yoder's Amish Restaurants. Michael loved seeing all the mansions on the way to the beach. The water was kind of clear and not very cold = perfect. The sun wasn't even too hot and there was a nice breeze the whole time.

   Hopefully everything will continue to go smoothly. And I will update more when we have super amazing times, but I wanted this to be a photography blog displaying my talents with a fancy camera (hence not wanting to post anything after the Wizard of Oz shoot with Alana), not a "here is what I have been posting to Instagram lately"/ iPhone photos blog. Anyway.. have a great week! Xoxox.

Alana & Scarlett ~ Oz Portraits

My life requires at least one Dorothy Gale/ Wizard of Oz photo shoot per year. It's how I was raised. ;) And what better time to dress up than around Halloween. You can see the one I did with Sasha in California last October here. While Michael and I still lived in Birmingham, I got a text from my dear friend Alana in July sending a photo of a scruffy gray dog that she and her husband were going to adopt. At that moment I became excited letting her know that we had to have a Dorothy photo shoot when we moved back to Orlando. When they got their dog, Scarlett, the rescue center had shaved her hair, so we waited until this past Tuesday while her hair was grown out more. Scarlett did a pretty great job and other times we just had to let her run around and "play all day" as doggies do enjoy. We took over 500 photos and I have narrowed it down by 75% and, out of those, these are my favorites.

 Originally I wasn't planning to get her horses in the pictures until I remembered the horses in the movie. The Kansas farmhands make the horses run out when the tornado is coming. And I noticed tonight when I watched the movie that there is a horse in the background at the beginning of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". But it was my first time noticing that there is a water pump in their yard. The horses run behind it. I had to turn the movie off halfway through because I wasn't getting any work done. I was simply watching the movie. Fancy that!!

 Aside from the lovely photo above that shows how much dogs love their owners, I think the Kansas barn photos are my favorite. Alana makes such a beautiful Dorothy!! I had not noticed before that their stable for the horses had windows on the back. It was my favorite part of the structure. The photo directly below on the right may be my super favorite of these bunch.

 **Of course, thank you to my mom who sewed the dress for me during high school!!
But aside from the photoshoot, I am back to loving the 911 shifts- work two days, get two days off, etc. On my days off I have been making small purchases to craft stores so I can binge watch "Bones" on Netflix while creating handmade mailing envelopes out of scrapbook paper until the wee hours of the morning. They are quite beautiful. During the sunshine hours I split time between hanging out with Mia and Alana. And Miriam too, but our schedules don't match up as well. I start answering 911 calls without a trainer on Monday and have had conversations with my superiors about becoming a certified trainer myself. Next week is the last week of Halloween Horror Nights at Universal. Michael has enjoyed being a make up fx artist Lead again and is looking forward to working Grinchmas in December. We have been getting along very well since I watched the movie the Pursuit of Happyness starring Will Smith. It really put life and money issues into perspective. We go walking on trails when we can, but have very few days off together when Michael works HHN. Hopefully we will have a lot more chances next month. I'll need it after eating all this chocolate candy!! ;)

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

 I staged this one due to the behind the scenes picture of Judy Garland that I had seen multiple times of her reading the Wizard of Oz between takes on set (maybe 1938 since the movie premiered in 1939).

Our Lives in Instagram

While writing a letter to my cousin (Lindsey) last week, I was telling how how I loved keeping myself busy and how "I don't have time" to blog anymore. I guess I couldn't be one of those fancy ladies who gets paid to blog and take cool pictures and promote products in different cities and such because often, to me, blogging can feel like a chore. Especially after I do lots of fun things and then it takes 10x as long to write about it since I haven't updated in a month and a lot has happened since then.

On August 17th (Sunday- the weekend Sharanya drove down), Michael was able to get us free tickets to Universal so we could check out the new Harry Potter/ Diagon Alley area. It wasn't incredibly busy, considering at that point the park had only been opened 6 for weeks. But it was incredibly fun. We decided to ride Gringotts first, which was a 2 hour wait. It didn't seem like that long, but I probably wouldn't ride it again unless the wait was around 45 minutes or less. Then we got lunch at the Leaky Cauldron. Oh my goodness those bangers (sausages) were sooo good!!! We went into all the shops and towards the end rode the Hogwarts Express to the Island of Adventure side, bringing us back to Hogsmeade. We walked to other areas as it got later in the day, Mia and Sharanya made me so happy by going on the Popeye water ride with me!! Mia had gone on it with me in December, but that was my first time. Michael doesnt like getting his regular clothes wet, but says we can plan to go to Typhoon Lagoon in November!!!!!!!!!!! Yessssssss.

Last month when I went on a walk with Alana by a popular lake, I found a few old-toney looking buildings so we did some snooping and saw that they give tours on the weekends, so the weekend after HP, I went to church with Alana and Cody, then we had a picnic and proceeded onto the tour. I liked it a lot and thought about creating a whole blog post for it, since I took a lot of pictures, but then too much time past and I don't like starting posts with, "So 7 years ago.." There were two main houses, both with two floors, but one was blocked off. I always love the kitchens and below Alana is standing in the outside laundry room with the buckets of water and rigid wooden things that somehow cleans the clothes. I need to learn more about that.. There was also a very small school, library and World War II museum. Our tour guide was actually in the war!! He pointed to a picture of a guy and asked if he looked familiar. I laughed a bit and said yes because it looked like Elvis. Wasn't he in the Army or Air Force? But the picture was of our 75 year old tour guide, when he was maybe around 30?

The week before we went to Harry Potter, I was doing really great with following along to exercise videos on Pop Sugar Fitness. Super proud of myself of course, and feeling good with memories of being fantastically "athletic" back in California. A few weekends ago I convinced Michael to check out a trail with me- one I had always passed while driving to Alana's house. Thankfully he liked the trail a lot because it was mostly walking through walls of trees, some coming together up top to make an overhang and providing shade. He has even been online looking up new breathable shirts and new exercise pants. A couple of times I have gone to the mall with him to pick out what I like for him and he tries everything on. Too bad a lot of the pants are at least $60!! Last weekend we went to the same park, but followed the trail in the opposite direction. Michael liked that trail too and it goes into a country neighborhood. The houses spaced apart, gravel roads forming driveways, fenced in areas for dogs and we heard a rooster somewhere. I liked the blue house in the little photo above. There were some newer looking ones that Michael liked. I'm hoping that aren't crazy expensive bc they are kind of out of the way, but not too far from necessary stores. These two "trails" are paved bike paths, so bikes have jumped to #1 on both of our Christmas lists.

 I started training again at the Sheriff's Office on August 25th. (Our Orientation day was August 22nd, exactly three months after I applied for the job.) We have gotten through three weeks already and I'm looking forward to the last two a lot, since we will be focusing most on just practicing fake 911 calls. There are other smaller details we have been going over as well - policy, getting certified for different programs, and of course knowing our geography is very important as well. Our class gets along well thank goodness, but we all have similar personalities. I'm almost the "middle-aged one" this time because five of the other "kids" are between 19-21, and they all gasped when I said I was 27. There are three adults who are probably aged 40-50 and they are very nice and talk and joke with us. My friend Jonathan (who I have known since I worked there in 2012) taught our class the second week, showing us how to use the main computer program where we get the maps, phone numbers, address and type in all the information about each call. Michael and I had been excited to go on a double date with him since he just proposed to his girlfriend, Brittany, at Disney's Magic Kingdom. However, Michael's schedule has been changing more as it gets closer for Halloween Horror Nights to open to the public, so we had to reschedule the date. 

I had some lovely magical motivation this past week as well. Our training shifted times from 8am to 10am, so I decided to keep waking up at the same time and using the extra hours to run (and by run I mean mostly power walking, just also some jogging) around one of the lakes on the way to work. Sometimes Miriam and her sister meet me in the morning and a couple times I ran after work with Mia. I've still be hanging out with Mia when I can because I like running errands with her and watching Glee. We're getting near the end of Season One, and Season Two is even better!! On the weekends (like today) I'm going to church with Alana and Cody, then going back to their house so we can play Wii Fit. I have definitely been slacking on the stretching before and after running, even thought I ripped out a page from one of my health and fitness magazines that has great stretching poses on it.

I hope that helped everyone (my 4 readers) get up to speed on my life. Oh! And I didn't really take any pictures of this, but I drove down to visit my Grandma in Naples for a couple days early in the week before starting 911 Orientation. I had a really nice time with her, going out to eat and running errands with her. She even gave me some money to buy hygiene products for children in need. I plan to visit her again when I am answering real calls and have every other long weekend off.

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