As You Wish

I know I've been missing in action for a while, but I thought I would stop by and let you know I'm still alive and kicking. If there is even anyone still out there.

I'll give a bullet list of things that have been going on to catch you up...

• Looking forward to moving to Santa Barbara.
• Getting ready for a trip at the end of the month with my mom and Andrew to Santa Barbara to check things out.
• Thinking about financial aid, but still not applying for my loans. Loans kind of freak me out.
• Fighting off bronchitis. Being sick can suck it.
• Watching Sydney White on repeat because I absolutely love that movie.
• Patiently waiting for my hair to grow out. It's a long grueling process and I hate it.
• Reading "Eat, Pray, Love." So far so good.

Anyway... that's all I have to say for now. I just wanted you all to know that I haven't disappeared, I was just taking a break. See you again soon.

I have been trying to figure out for a while now what I want to be when I grow up. I decided that I wanted to pursue photography seriously, so I figured the best thing in my case would be to go back to school.

A while back Ashley posted on her blog about the school her father attended and when I clicked on the link to see the school I instantly fell in love. I guess you could say it was love at first sight.

Ever since that day I have been going back to the school's site thinking about how awesome it would be to become a photographer professionally. I've "met" so many fabulous photographers here on the internet that are for the most part self taught. It kind of makes me jealous that they have learned so much by just going out and doing it. I am more of a hands on, show me and I will do kind of girl. If that even makes any sense at all.

Well...I applied for the professional photography program at Brooks Institute and I found out I was accepted! You truly have no idea how completely overcome with excitement I am.

I finally feel like I'm going to do something productive with my life, finish school, and move to a place I've never even visited before. Brooks is in Santa Barbara, CA which is approximately 11 hours (with out traffic) from where I am now. In some ways it seems like a long way, but when I think about the fact that people travel from all around the world to attend school here it makes my commute seem a little insignificant.

Aside from being completely ecstatic about my acceptance I'm also a little sad. Moving to California means leaving behind my family and Andrew. Of course I will visit and I'm sure they will too, but it will still be incredibly difficult to be away. The photography program at Brooks will take me 3 years of intense work to complete, but it will be so worth it.

I better go, I have a ton of paperwork to fill out and financial aid to find. Wish me luck!

Good morning all! I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend whether you were celebrating your love for your special someone or just celebrating the love you have for yourself (because you should totally love you... you are amazing and I said so).

Anyhoozle... I think for this post I'm just going to recap a little bit of each day and call it good.

Friday the 13th, cue spooky music. I had a doctor's appointment in Reno with a neurologist, so we packed up for the weekend and made the 2 hour drive. After the appointment we went to the theater and watched Slumdog Millionaire. It was a really good movie and I'm glad we made it in time to see it.

We made it a semi-early night by checking into the hotel, Summit at Grand Sierra. The Summit rooms are fabulous.

Saturday, Valentine's day, we took advantage of not having any plans and we slept in. It was so nice. The beds in the Summit rooms are so comfy, I wanted to steal one and bring it home with us, but I didn't think we could get it out with out anyone noticing.

Andrew made reservations for dinner at Dolce. The atmosphere is modern and the food was great. I even bought a new dress for the occasion, which I just realized we didn't take any pictures at all over the weekend. Sad.

Sunday we didn't have plans other than driving home, so we slept in once again. It really was a fantastic weekend. Thank you Andrew! You're the best.

My only complaint is that when we got home the heater for some reason decided to stop working, so the house was freezing. Somehow after jiggling some wires and replacing the thermostat it started working again. I hope it stays working because I don't particularly like being cold.

So that's it. I hope you are all having a good Monday. I know that's an oxymoron, but a girl can hope, right?

Side note: I went to the neurologist because for several years now I've been having headaches/ migraines and I was hoping he could give me some answers. A little over a month ago when I first went to see him he told me he wanted me to get a CT scan of my head and do some blood work. At my appointment on Friday he told me the scan looked just fine and he prescribed me some medicine to take when I get my migraines. It was bittersweet to hear that everything is fine with my head. On one hand I'm glad I don't have to have some crazy ridiculous surgery to fix my head, but on the other hand I wish there was some explanation for my head pain other than just because.

Oh and while I'm here typing away I might as well add that when I got my CT scan I had no idea what to expect. When I was taken into the room with the machine I was told lie down on the table. The nurse then proceeded to give me an IV. It then became apparent that she was new to giving IV's and she was unsuccessful on her first attempt on my right arm. I don't know if you have ever had an IV, but it's not the most comfortable feeling having someone poking around in your arm with a needle. She moved to my left arm and was able to get the needle in the right spot. They took the first scan and the nurse came back and told me that she was going to inject some die into the IV and do another scan. She also said that sometimes people get a warm feeling all over or they itch. As soon as she injected me with the die I felt like I peed myself. No kidding. I thought to myself oh great how embarrassing most people feel warm or itchy and I pee myself. No worries I didn't actually pee my pants it just felt like it. Weird.

Everyone welcome my new niece Kendal onto the scene. My sister, Amber, and her wife, Erin, adopted Kendal around Christmas time and I am so happy for them. She is just a doll. Amber emailed me these pictures of this precious little bundle of joy. I hope we can make a trip to see them sometime soon, I really want to snuggle her.

Everyone needs to have goals. I've decided I am going to come up with a monthly goal for myself that I will attempt to accomplish within that month.

My goal for February is to drink more water. I need to become a healthier happier version of myself and what better way than to start hydrating myself with water? I'm not saying that I don't ever drink water, but I don't do it near enough. I'm not going to count the ounces I intake in a day and I'm not going to hold myself to 8 glasses a day. I know that drinking more water rather than sugar packed soda or flavored drinks is going to be way better for me.

I'm also not saying that my goal is to give up these other drinks. I have tried too many times in the past to give up drinking soda or other good tasting drinks. I would like to someday stop drinking soda, but for now my goal is only to drink more of the good stuff.

I'm also going to take this opportunity to give a shout out to the 20 Something Blogger's Biggest Loser site. I have joined and was placed on the Red Team. I expect good things to come from joining this group of bloggers in trying to reach our goals and becoming happier and healthier. My goals for joining this group are to lose 10 pounds, get healthier, and drink more water. Hey look at that I'm going to try to accomplish one of those goals this month. I know that my goals are a bit vague, but I don't want to set my sights too high. Once I have a handle on these things I will re-evaluate my goals and set more. I think this is going to work out beautifully and I'm really looking forward to the outcome.

Here's to living a happier, healthier year!

Please bare with me as I try to fix the mess that is my blog! mmkay! Thanks!

Hi everyone! I'm back. It's been about a month since my last post. I have several reasons for my absence, but I'm not going to bore you with them. Instead I'm going to talk about football. Now ladies before you go running for the hills I guess I could elaborate a bit and say it's a bit more about dance than the actual game of football. Are you still with me? Ok good.

Yesterday as I was watching the pregame coverage of Superbowl XVIII with Andrew I noticed for the first time that it was being held in Tampa, Florida at the Buccaneers stadium. I know this doesn't mean much to most, but exactly 8 years ago Superbowl XXXV hosted the Ravens and Giants. The Ravens beat the Giants with a final score of 34 to 7. You know what else happened that day? I was chosen to perform in the pregame and halftime shows of that game.

Thanks to American All-Star I was chosen as a dancer that was invited to perform in London, England and at Superbowl 35 in Tampa. It was an amazing experience.

When I was in high school I was on the Varsity Dance Team for all 4 years (don't judge). Each year we held a summer camp at the beginning of August and we invited American All-Star staff to come out from Louisiana to conduct a week long camp teaching us several routines a day. At the end of the week we would have a "show off" day for friends and parents to perform the routines that we learned throughout the week. After the performances the staff would give out awards and a select few would be chosen to represent American All-Star as a goodwill performer to travel to whichever destination they chose for that particular year. When I was a junior the location was London, England. (I will save London for another post.) Then from the goodwill performance team they would narrow that number down and invite those young ladies to accompany them to the Superbowl to perform. I was lucky enough to be chosen twice (my junior and senior year).

I don't remember the name of the photographer that took our official pictures, but look at how young I look. Wow 17 years old and thinner. To think that I wanted to lose a few pounds at that time makes me laugh now. That's not how I did my hair for the performance. This was an at the last minute kind of thing, so my hair isn't nearly as cute as it could have been. I was 17 at the time too, so who knows what I was thinking.
Pretty snazzy outfit right? We performed in the pregame show to Sting's song "Roxanne" wearing this outfit. I had no idea until I was on the field practicing that this song was about a hooker. Talk about naive. I remember the girl who was placed right in front of me in our formation was quite large and always had the look of death on her face. When we had our dress rehearsal I noticed that she had her skirt on backwards, so the slits that should have been in the front were showing off her rather large behind. I wasn't about to tell her for fear that she might eat my head.

One of our less attractive outfits would have to be the full body white sweat suits that we had to wear while the National Anthem was being sang by the Backstreet Boys and America the Beautiful by Ray Charles.

Ray Charles was quite funny from what I remember. There was some sort of delay and he was standing on his platform waiting patiently. Finally you hear him say into the microphone, "Can we get this damn show on the road?"

After our dress rehearsal with the Backstreet Boys we were told we could change back into our street clothes. At that point in time I wasn't one of those screaming fans that was absolutely in love with the boy bands. I heard some girls screaming over by one of the tunnels, so I figured I would check it out. You know I was curious. It turns out that they were escorting the Backstreet Boys off the field one at a time with about 10 bodyguards per guy, so the screaming girls wouldn't hurt or attack them. I decided instead of screaming my head off I was just going to go into the tunnel and change my clothes. I bent down to drop my bag by the wall, and stood up to pull my pants off. When I turned around about .25 seconds from dropping my sweats I saw this guy right behind me...Needless to say I didn't undress, I just stood there in shock, first at the fact that there were people there, second these people were men, third most of them were gigantic bodyguards, and fourth I didn't want this guy to think I was trying to undress just for him.

All in all it was nice watching the Superbowl yesterday. It brought back some pretty awesome memories. I need to go through pictures from back then because I didn't have a digital camera. I'll have to scan them and hopefully have some more pictures to blog about.

Good job Steelers! I do have to admit though that I was routing for the Cardinals. After hearing their story and the fact that their franchise has never won a superbowl in their history, it made me want the underdog to win. I was happy with the fact that it was such a good game though. I also decided I need to invest some time in learning the rules of football because sometimes I just don't understand and don't want to bother anyone with my questions.

It feels good to have a post finished and ready to publish.

As You Wish - Sorry for ignoring you. I'm back, I love you, and I will be posting more often I'm sure of it. xoxo

La Tua Cantante translated means "your singer" and implies being irresistible and enchanting. This line comes from the book New Moon in the Twilight series. I can honestly say that I have found my singer. His name is Andrew and I can only begin to describe the way I feel about him. Today is our 3 year anniversary.

Dearest Andrew ~

I like bullet points, so I'm going to count the ways I love you with bullets (haha kinda sounds like I want to shoot you):

• You know I'm nutty and love me all the same.
• You make me feel smart (even though we both know I'm a little less than brilliant).
• You laugh with me when I do silly things.
• I think it's super cute that you are happy with your alone time, but you miss me when I'm gone. (Absence makes the heart grow fonder!)
• My parents love you (it wouldn't be a deal breaker if they didn't, but it's definitely a plus... although sometimes I feel they like you more)
• You listen when I want to talk about my blog friends.
• You listen when I want to talk about random nonsense.
• You let me rant about my bad day, bad mood, or anything else less than happy and you hug me and tell me it's going to be alright.
• You don't judge me (too harshly) when you catch me dancing or looking in the mirror when I think I'm alone.
• You're not a liar.
• You always kiss and hug me before you leave.
• I knew you loved me long before you had the words to say it.
• You like to take silly pictures of me.
• I like to pose for the silly pictures you take (most of the time).
• If there is something wrong, you try to make it right.
• If I can't reach something on the top shelf, you gladly get it for me with that adorable smile on your face.
• You watch chick flicks with me.
• You make dinner.
• You go to McDonald's for cheeseburgers and coke if I'm not feeling well.
• You save me from myself on a regular basis.
• You call to make sure I made it to work safely if the weather is bad.
  
• You give me the cookie that looks more appetizing.
• If you know I'm leaving before you, you put my key in front of your key on the hook.
• You help me with the decisions I don't want to make on my own.
• You are adorable in all of your fantastic nerdyness (I just made up that word).
• You think it's funny when I make up new words.
• You love me for me.
  
• You are you!
  

Happy 3 year Anniversary Love! I love you very much and I can't wait to see what our future will bring us.

Side note: Happy Anniversary to my parents! They have been married 19 years today.

This clip is from the movie Young Frankenstein, which apparently is my dad's favorite movie.



One day my mom and I were sitting in the truck waiting for my dad and the song "Puttin' on the Ritz" came on. She started singing it like Frankenstein in the clip. This really doesn't phase me because this is what she does. She then proceeded to tell that the way she was singing was because of the movie and if she sang that part to my dad he would know exactly what she was singing. There was no doubt in her mind that he would get it right away.

Well when my dad returned to the truck I reminded her to sing for my dad. She belted it out in her best impersonation of Frankenstein and my dad looked at her wide eyed and said "did you just say oompa loompa?" I died right then. That was one of the funniest things I have ever witnessed. Keep in mind that I am easily amused. She just knew he would get it and when she crooned "puttin on the riiiiitz" in that special voice of hers he DID NOT get it. I love my parents. They continually fuel my need for laughter.

Hello there! So I must know what you think about this new look? It's kind of frustrating changing things around and realizing things are missing. That being said take a look at my blogroll and let me know if anyone is missing, or if you want to be added let me know, I would be more than happy to add you.

I'm not quite sure how I'm feeling about the changes yet. There might be some more minor tweaks to be made in the coming days and maybe a complete overhaul again. Who knows? Let me know what you think if there is anything I should change (not that I would know how, but I could try).

On Sunday the 7th I was lucky enough to be asked to take the Hammond family pictures. Andrew and I are actually quite good friends with Bryon and Angela. They have pretty awesome personalities and I think we all had a good time with the photo shoot (other than it being super cold outside).

They asked that their pictures be taken on these steps because they just finished building this block wall this past summer and they are very proud of it (which they should be because they did a fantastic job).



All in all this was a pretty fun shoot. Bryon reminds me of Chandler (from Friends) when he and Monica are trying to take engagement photos. If you aren't sure of what I'm talking about watch the clip below and laugh with me because it's pretty funny. Don't worry Bryon has a good sense of humor.



P.S. Chelsie insisted on wearing those legwarmers. She loves them.

...my ass. It's snowing today. When I went out to start my work truck this morning everything was covered in snow.

My original plan was to complain about snow, but because I don't want to be a complete debbie downer I'll give a list of complaints and praises.

I'll start with complaints, so that I'm ending this post on a happy note.

Complaints:

• I don't particularly like the cold, therefore I don't particularly like snow. Right now it's 22 degrees.
  
• People drive like lunatics when the weather changes even the slightest little bit.
• I have to drive on the freeway part of the way to work and this morning the visibility was about 20 feet in front of me. The only thing I could see other than a white sheet of snow were the red lights of the vehicle in front of me.
• I hate how mesmerizing the snow is while you're driving. It's like hey look at me I'm so cool, oops yeah that would be the rumble strip you're driving on.
• I haven't been officially diagnosed by a doctor, but I'm pretty sure I have adult ADD and snow is distracting. I mean really distracting. Stupid snow.
• Probably one of the worst things ever is when someone rubs it in your face or smashes your face into it. That's rude and just plain mean, so don't do it. Alright?
• The roads get so crappy and it's hard to drive like that. I get all sweaty, nervous, white knuckled, and I clench my teeth. Those are not a fun combination in any situation, but especially when it's snowing outside.
• Ice is usually a part of the equation when snow is involved. Not only is it possible for vehicles to slide around, but I'm a big ole klutz and I have to be extra careful not to fall on my face.
• Did I mention that it's cold?
• I hate tracking snow/ water into the house and stepping on it bare foot or in socks.
• Having to drive 45 m.p.h. in a 75 m.p.h. zone stinks.
  

Praises:

• Snowball fights can be fun...if I'm in the mood for it.
• I would love to build a snowman, because I've never built one before.
• I like the crunch sound snow makes when walking in it.

Yeah so there aren't many things I can find to praise snow about, but I'm ok with it. If it could snow and leave the roads alone we could probably be friends, but because it interferes with my driving abilities we are totally not on speaking terms.

Mother nature can do amazing things and be absolutely gorgeous, unfortunately beauty isn't always a pretty princess, she can be a total bitch. I'm just sayin'.

Ok that's all the complaining I will do for now. I hope everyone is having a happy holiday season and don't let my bad mood rub off on you. I'm looking forward to having next week off. I'm not however looking forward to the drive to Montana.

Recently I decided to get involved with a scarf exchange that Sarah Marie P and Talia put on. All that was required was to comment on the "Girl Get You Scarf On" post at either of their blogs and they would pair you with someone to exchange a scarf with.

There was a whopping 89 people who participated in this exchange which is totally amazing. As I write there are tons of scarves wandering around the mail system waiting to arrive at their destinations.


Well guess what? I don't have to wait anymore, I was lucky enough to be paired with Susan and look at the lovely gem I received in the mail yesterday.

Susan ~ I love it and I'm so glad we got to meet through this awesome scarf exchange. Thanks to Sarah and Talia for this awesome idea.

I can hardly believe I'm actually writing this post right now. The following pictures were taken by yours truly at my very first wedding shoot. I think I went through every emotion possible the night of the wedding (yes it was back on October 31st, sorry for the delay), but most of all I was very thankful that Kathy and Les allowed me to capture their special moment. The wedding was a small, intimate event with the bride and groom's close friends and family.

Keep in mind that I am no professional, but I'm open to constructive criticism. I know there are not many pictures, but these are my favorites of the bunch. Let me know what you think I appreciate the feedback. In no particular order (because blogger won't let me rearrange them) here are the photos...

It's the time of year again where as a country we give thanks. Miss Alyssa decided to have a crafty challenge that centers around something thankful for Thanksgiving. I decided to make some Turkey cookies to give out to friends, family, and my co-workers. Don't worry they aren't as gross as they sound. Take a look at the pictures and let me know what you think. In my opinion they are super cute.

If for some reason I don't post again before Thanksgiving I hope you all have a fabulous Thanksgiving, safe travels, and loads of good food. Take care! xoxo

Ingredients per turkey:
2 cookies
1 chocolate covered cherry
candy corn
chocolate frosting (this is the glue that holds the turkey together)

Do you remember back when I was contemplating cutting my hair off in a short pixie style? Well if you do remember that you might also remember that I decided I'm going to grow my hair out so that I can cut and donate it. Getting to the point...I was looking at my flickr last night and noticed I had an email. When I opened the email this is what I saw...

Ok so I’m sure that most of you have heard of the book/ movie Twilight by now. Can I just say…Love, love, love? Wow yeah my obsession with this book, the movie, and vampires could be considered a little loony, but I’ve resigned myself to that fact and I’m over it as you should be.

I haven’t quite finished the book yet, but I’m close. The movie comes out this Friday and I’m super stoked about seeing it. The only problem is I don’t know if it will play in Winnemucca this weekend. If they disappoint me by not showing it I will have to escape to Reno to watch it. I believe Andrew officially thinks I’m crazier by the minute and he thinks going to Reno just to watch a movie is dumb (and a waste of money). He really has no idea does he?

I believe my obsession with vampires started with Interview with the Vampire. This movie came out in 1994 when I was 10 years old. Is that young? Oh well I’m over it once again.

I loved when Kirsten Dunst’s character Claudia was turned into a vampire and her hair changed into tight spiral curls. I wanted my hair to do that. I was jealous.

Now that I've made my confession here are some pictures courtesy of Google images.

I'm not sure if you know, but I have puppy fever. You know it's kind of like baby fever, but I want a puppy instead of a baby. For many good reasons we just can't have a puppy right now. With that said a while back Andrew told me that if we get a puppy he wants to name him Beef Supreme. Why? He thinks that would be an awesome name for a dog. Also this is the name of a guy in Idiocracy. Have you seen it? No? Go now and watch it. It's one of those movies that's so dumb it's hilarious.

Today I was doing a google search of puppies and I just had to send Andrew an email that went something like this...

Can't you just imagine calling this little guy Beefy?
Isn't he the cutest? Someone talk Andrew into letting me have this sweet little beefy goodness because he obviously isn't listening to me or my super adorable email.