First ,the weather, then the news

I know..it's been a while. My life has now been taken over by my diet and excercise program. It's all I do. It's like a tornado, just sucks me in. See, they have a website that allows you to log on when you start a workout so that people all over the country can "work out with you" Then, there's the cooldown chatroom where myself and a bunch of other sore overweight people first, grumble about the pain, then pat ourselves on the back for sticking with it and doing such a great job. Then it's off to the support club website were I spend 3 hours trying to create the perfect balanced meal plan of 1800 calories a day. Then the message boards to find answers to any questions I might have concerning certain excercises or which cereal is the healthiest. That was my life for about a week. Then I got really stressed and ate anything I could get my hands on, so happy not to have the frustration of never getting that perfect meal plan I can enjoy. I still sign in at the start of my workout. I still go to the message boards for encouragement. But now I just eat better. Stress-free eating. I've been on this 90 day program for 24 days. I haven't missed one workout (6 days a week). And I'm starting to feel a lot stronger. Can definately do things now that I couldn't do in the beginning. there's finally a calm in my storm. I'm settling into what works for me.

And now for the news. So, I'm sure you've heard mention of my adorable cat sugar. I've talked about her before. so I finally took her to the vet today to have her shots, probably a couple of months later than I should have, but at least I did it. She has a terrible flea infestation too, so I was hoping we could do something about that. When we go in to the see the vet, she starts asking me questions about sugar. Does it seem like she has a worm?, Is she in heat yet?, am I considering getting her spade. Then as she's talking to the cat and giving it a once over, she says "Well no wonder it's not in heat...it's a boy!" Oh....my....gosh. I've had my cat for almost 4 months. and I did not know it was a boy. I did not notice the testes. Quite frankly I had never really examined a male cat up close, and I thought sugar's was just a patch of brown fur. I felt...like such an idiot. She was like.."I really can't believe you didn't notice" Cuz I'm dumb! Forgive me, I just didn't realize that cat testes were so...well small. I"ve only seen big dog testes and sugar's ain't nothing like that. So..I come home, I tell me husband, and he says he already knew that. Why in the world, did he not tell me? He couldn't have saved me the humiliation of going to a trained pet professional and proudly proclaiming I didn't know the difference between boys and girls. Grrr... He said, it just didn't occur to him to tell me, we were so used to calling it she. Does that make since to any of you? Fellas...seriously if you discovered that your female family pet was actually a male...would you not mention? not even in passing maybe??

We decided to continue to call him sugar. I'm still trying to get used to calling it he. (sigh). And that was our news for the day, thank you for tuning in.

And since Nicole has been dying to see a picture of Sugar...here HE is. He's just kinda got that one arm up on james sleeping on the floor. See how he's chilling. real cool like..."Whassup?" I can actual visualize the head nod.

solo me, mi solo

I am lonely. It's so boring being in this house, alone, everyday. Still not working. My husband works all day. 70 hours last week. Not just office work, physically taxing hard labor. He puts together, by hand huge conveyors the size of a whole room and he works so hard, he comes home exhausted. Barely talks to me...just falls into the couch and kind of goes to sleep. If I cook, he'll get up and eat a little, then passes back out. Personally I think he should sleep more at night (he has to get up at 4 am 6 days a week) and eat better (skips breakfast, candy bar for lunch), and maybe even start taking daily multivitamins. I just wish he wasn't always so tired. I miss him. Making pretty good money, but I still rather him not work so much. I feel alone whether he's here or not. I guess this is proof that I would probably not make a good housewife. I just don't know what to do with myself when I'm not working. Next week, it will start back up. Our senior studios open next Monday. I'll probably be leaving on Tuesday for Altus (an hour and a half drive from here). We have a senior studio there and I will probably stay all next week, and come home for the weekend. More than likely repeating that for the following 3 weeks. A week or two breaks, then I'm off to do senior pictures on the road, stopping at various towns but still gone for a almost a week at a time. (sigh) It will be good money, but if I think i miss him now, I can only imagine what it will be like then. and most of these places have suck cell phone reception, so I won't even be able to call him for the most part. (sigh). ah well. That's life, right?

moooving right along. I have been asked by the choir director of my church to sing a solo at our annual musical in August.(gulp) I'm so nervous. I used to sing in my choir when I was younger, not since I was sixteen, and was perfectly content to not sing there again (except when the whole congregation sings) But every so often, well first i should probably explain that at my church we have sunday school and BTU (Baptist Training Union) before church starts every Sunday. after a 30 minute BTU within our respective classes, the entire congregation comes together to give an overall of the lesson and to have an activity, like a bible drill or quiz. A few months ago they thought it would be nice if everyone sang one verse of a church song they liked. No one had heard me sing in years, and had forgotten that I even could. ever since, everyone and their mom has been trying to get me to join the choir. No offense...but the average age of the members of our choir is about 58. more than twice my age. I know it sounds crazy, but I really just don't think I would feel comfortable there. In case you haven't caught on, my church is very small and to be perfectly honest, my husband, his sister and I, are the only active members between 20 and 40. At any rate, I won't join the choir, but it seems the director is determined to hear me sing anyway. I've never done a solo. Ever. I'm so nervous. I even have to pick out my own song. I have no idea where to even look. I'm feeling all sweaty just thinking about it. I won't be singing in front of a lot of people...but still. I am the featured guest soloist of the Annual Musical (scream!!) pressure....

oh, and a somewhat related story, my paster has been absent from our church for several months now. He got sick and was moved to Fort Worth. Most of his children live in that area. He went from hospital to hospice to rest home, but he's not doing well at all. His pastor anniversary is coming up soon and most are sure it will be his last. His children came to us a couple of weeks ago and asked to go ahead and motion for his retirement and begin looking for a new pastor. He will have been pastor of the church for 29 years. I think he was only the second pastor there since the church started. It's all very sad. His wife passed away a couple of years ago. Please pray for his strength and that of his family and church family. Pray for our new pastor whoever who will be. Pastor Williams has been my pastor since I started going to church, and I actually think that me and my husband are the last two people who married, and my husband, the last person he baptized. Just keep our church in your prayers. It's upsetting to think that he will be leaving us, but I'm sure he's happy to be going home.

a place to call home

I decided to go to findyourspot.com and find out the top cities I should live in like jeremy. They are hilarious... Never would dream of living in some of these places. I'm pretty suprised my on hometwon didn't show up. You guys should get a kick from that list.

Abilene, Texas
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Clarksville, Tennessee
Hickory, North Carolina
Hampton, Virginia
Amarillo, Texas
Enid, Oklahoma(my best friend lives here
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Greenville, South Carolina
Raleigh, North Carolina
Durham, North Carolina
Jackson, Mississippi
Greenville, North Carolina
Rocky Mount-Stony Creek, North Carolina
Lubbock, Texas
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Lynchburg, Virginia
Springfield, Missouri
Augusta, Georgia
Joplin, Missouri
El Paso, Texas
Norfolk, Virginia
Athens, Georgia
Tuscaloosa, Alabama

guessing I was just meant to live in the south. anybody have any favorites from the list?...please not the first one.

death by diet

ok..for everyone who cares not about the weight-loss roller coaster and the insecurities of a typical female..by all means, by-pass this entry. Check back next week, perhaps i will have moved on.

Now for you brave men, understanding women and...well husbands who are used to complaints about our bodies, I have gone on a diet. first of all, there is something I don't understand. I've been...let's say..beyond average since I was in 7th grade. I didn't care then. All through high school and college I was genuinely content being a fat happy woman. I was not, as my mom predicted, boy crazy and did not attempt to starve myself to lose weight to catch men. I didn't care. The women in my family were brought up to believe that they were beautiful no matter was physical shape they were in. That was how I saw myself and that's how I saw other people. But why is it, that every other woman in the world supposedly maintains girlish figure to attract the opposite sex but once marriage is acheived, man sufficiantly caught, and family is started, proceeds to let themselves go, when I am quite the opposite. I eat up to my little hearts content before I am attached, all through my engagement even, but now that I am married, it's like suddenly I realize I'm overweight. A veil has been lifted, a fog removed from my mirror. Now I am concerned. Not I want to be smaller and have a beach body and cut abs....


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!

Sorry. can't even keep a straight face thinking about me with a six-pack. Never mind. hehe....hehehe..

ahem. anyway. so since I've been married I've tried all these diets for all of two days, and the 6 months of daily excercise I've committed myself to dwindled down to 30 minutes that one day. I spent $160 dollars on a diet and exercise plan. After I failed of course I sent it back for refund minus shipping, but who does that??

Bad habits are so hard to break. I told my husband once that...my eating habits are like an addiction. I seriously believe people can become addicted to certain types of food that are bad for them. Eating right for me would be like a smoker quitting cold turkey. It's agony trying to reverse bad habits. Sometimes I want to cry when I think about how weak my will power is. If I'm craving a brownie...well it's a brownie I'm getting. and I sure could go for some french fries.. But seriously...one diet said I had to eatskinless boneless chicken breast 5 meals a day and had to swear off salt and butter. can you imagine five helpings of meat with no salt. it doesn't sound bad now...but you try a completely salt free diet and see how long you last.

You know, now that I think about it, my desire probably comes from the fact that my husband is so skinny. 5'11. 135lbs. I think his waist is smaller than my leg. ew. Nothing's creepier than a woman wishing she had her husband's body. bleahh.

Anyway, I have, yet again, purchased some new gimmick exercise program. fortunately only 20 bucks this time...but we will see if it works. Who knows. Maybe I'll go back to looking like my 6th grade self again. Wish me luck. better yet..pray for me

by the way. My friend nicole says hi. Have you ever notice her bright glowing blue eyes. check out her blog. she's a princess. well..not really. But she has great imagination:)

Have I mentioned that I'm lazy?

you know...not working is really starting to bug me. I mean, really, it's nice to have the time off. But I'm bored and my laziness is really starting to set in. You know what I've done today since I woke up 6 hours ago. I ate a frozen waffle and finished up Harry potter and the order of the phoenix (for the second time). Then I stared at my cat for half and hour...wow. That's not nearly as interesting as I thought when I first started to write.

So I put new batteries in my flash. It charges up in all of two seconds now as opposed to the 15 seconds it took last weekend. But it's over now. Moving on. Besides, I didn't realize my flash could charge that fast with a fresh set of batteries. It's kind of cool. Of course I now realize how quickly that flash burns through a set of batteries. I bought a twenty pack to be kept restocked in my camera bag at all times.

I'm very excited about senior season starting back up. That is when we start taking senior portraits. It's always nerve-wrecking dealing with seniors and their parents. You get the kids who don't give a crap and won't smile or do what you tell them with the evil parents who threaten to have you fired when they see their child's expression-less, forced photographs. It's never the child's fault. Always the photographer. We were taught that in training. And you also get the girl so obsessed she constantly changes her hair and practices her smile while her mom rearranges the shirt collar umpteen times making a 45 minute session into a 3 hour one. But those are the extremes. Usually you get pretty normal kids who are nervous about playing model for an hour, so they just do as their told. I have a couple of new ideas in my head I want to try this summer. Anyone going to be in the area? Come model for me for a couple of days? but eh...dont' expect to be paid, I've been working like 10 hours a week avg. That's another reason I'm excited for the season to start. We are just so glad that God has blessed my husband with a good paying temp job, so we can keep paying our bills although I'm not working much.

Well I suppose I could get off my butt now. You know. I think I'll run to the store real quick, pick up some supplies...and paint the kitchen:) That oughtta be fun:)