Peyton at the Park

A couple of months ago I made another plan to visit Grandma Belva (my dad's mom) this past weekend in Naples, and took off an extra day of work to stay with her a little longer. I told my brother and, since he hadn't seen Grandma since probably my wedding over 4 years ago and she hadn't yet met Jacquie or Peyton, they decided to come along too. It was a really good time. Here are pictures taken on the Canon T2i from when we went to the park across the street last Saturday.

 (Distracted by shiny jewelry, her favorite. She almost ripped Grandma's earlobes off!)

She is 10 months and 1 week old in these pictures. I cried on the way home Monday because I missed and love Peyton so much. I can't wait for Michael and I to have a baby, but hopefully a lot sooner than 4 years, which was the outrageous time frame I kept using. Actually I need to wait a little bit. My patience has been in short supply lately. Michael says I seem to be rushing through life. And I agree. I get so frazzled and worried about everything from 2 years ago to 52 years in the future, but just need to breeeeathe and take life slowly, one day at a time. Yesterday when I was riding my bike (10.5 miles ~ wooo!) I kept repeating, "Today is a good day. Today is a good day." It was.

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).