Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Wait.... Summer is over??

It cant be after Labor Day...school just let out a few weeks ago & It was just 4th of July like last week... Where did the summer go? I am already booking photo sessions for Oct & Nov.... WOW!

I figured since I was in here dorking around with colors & layouts I better post before grandma calls me to see if I am ok or if I drowned in the ocean... Oh did I mention we went to the BEACH...?? We just returned from vacation. We went to Williamsburg Va(& to Va Beach for a day!)
It was great just like any time I spend with John. I have the best-est husband ever. I love him more & more every day. Not just because he lets me buy $165 Coach purses when we are on vacation, but just 'cuz he is awesome! :) I love him.
We had a great trip. We were so smart about this trip I am so proud of us. We saved cash starting back in April when we started planning this trip so we had spending money. We used or recently paid off timeshare so our "hotel" was paid for. John is a genius & got our rental on priceline so we got a smokin' deal! Then we upgraded once we got there(for no extra fee may I add!) Our airline tickets paid for, because our last big trip(Seattle/Canada this time last year) we were bumped on one of our flights so we were given vouchers on Delta.
Our groceries(since we stayed in the timeshare we had a full kitchen) we purchased with our normal grocery money for the week & our eating out money was provided from Visa, a gift card that is! :) I get reward points for my visa. I havent cashed them in for a LONG time so I had enough to get a $75 Visa gift card... more spending money! Then when we got to the resort the offered us $100 in Visa gift cards to go listen to their sales pitch( 90 minutes of them trying their darndest to pressure you into buying MORE) we said NO but still got the $100!!!! Re- read that...WE SAID NO! Dave Ramsey you read that again! Dave Ramsey you read the whole blog again! We KICKED Cheetah butt on this trip!(thats a Dave Ramsey term for those who are not following the budget!) We deserve two pats on the back for doing so good & not bringing a load of debt home!
Ok so I put a tiny little bit of that super cute coach bag on the discover card($40). But lets discuss the Coach bag & get it out of the way! Its is terribly cute. You have to admit! Its a Maddie bad, its brown with a pink lining! HeLLo C>U>T>E!
I asked permission, i agreed to put all my blow money toward paying it off (for the rest of my life it feels like!) Its a $310 bag, it was on sale, then I got 40% off.. I got it for $176 after taxes. Really it was a smokin' deal! Because I am pretty serious about the DR debt reduction plan I did go back in to the Coach store to look for a bag that was as cute but maybe cheaper after John said it was ok to spend $165(before taxes). I figured if I was allowed to spend $165 he would be estatic if I only spent $145??? Didnt happen.. sorry babe!

Now lets move on from the coach purse...

Photo business is rockin'! I love it I cant wait until the day I can stay home & do this for real. I had a great session with our friends the Prekels this weekend we went to Westport. Funky little part of KC that I have never ventured out to. They love their pictures & that makes me super happy! I have done lots of sessions since my last blog post, it has been a MONTH since I posted anything... UGH where does my time go!?!?
I dont have vacation pictures loaded yet... I have a few on my flickr page but none on my computer(I used Johns laptop from the hotel/airport).
However, I have been saving images from several months. I have a new website coming soon! VERY SOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I worked on it all weekend & personally I think its fanastic! I love it! Thanks to a flickr friend Amanda for creating a funky fresh logo & Many friends(& their families) for posing for photos!

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Pictures, Wedding Dresses, Brides & Breast Cancer

Hello friends!
nothing to exciting going on at the Puhak house this week... all the normal stuff work, pictures, school, church, & pictures...
We purchased a new template for my website so it will be new & improved soon! very soon! I cant wait! I am working on new pictures this month to post on there so when you go to the site the first time you will see fresh stuff!
It would however be nice if it wasnt so stinkin' humid here so that when I go out to do these pictures I wouldnt melt. I think the weather man said it was going to be hot with a chance of hot & a slight bit of hot today. He also mentioned heat advisory so I guess that means maybe I shouldnt take people out at 2pm (the heat of the day) to go shoot pictures?? That isnt very nice of me. Tomorrow I am though, I have plans to take a certain 3 yr old birthday girl out to do some pictures!! Not sure where we are going yet but we will figure that out when the time comes!

I did something fun yesterday... I donated my wedding dress to Brides against Breast Cancer.
Before I get a bunch of hate mail asking why I did such a thing read the website...its for a charity
http://bridesagainstbreastcancer.org/
Brides to be buy donated dresses at a fraction of the new cost, the money is given to breast cancer research & best of all I dont have to store this dress any more... its a win win for everyone!
I never want my future children to be plus sized & wear my dress, I have pictures & our memories of the dress, I never plan to wear it again, why keep it? It takes up all kinds of space. I have wanted to sell it but this way it goes to help more than just one person.
I ran over on my lunch break to drop off the dress, I dropped it off & filled out the form, then I had to leave. It was bitter sweet . I was ready to give the dress away but at the same time it made me sad. So of course I cried. (Did you expect anything else from me?)
On the donation form you could elect if you wanted to donate in honor or memory of someone. My best friend Jerilyn who lost her mom Carolyn to breast cancer the year before I lost my mom was who I put down to donate in memory of. Though I didnt get to know her very well before she passed away I have gotten to know her through stories from J. Because of those stories I know she was a wonderful strong woman.

I also have signed up to volunteer to help with this event next time it comes to town! I cant this weekend because of Molly's birthday & other things I have going on this weekend, but If I had 2 hours to spare I would so be there this afternoon! So next year I will! I wanted to take a picture to post today but I didnt even bring the camera with me to the hotel when I dropped off the dress, so you will have to wait until next year to see photos! :)

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Adoption update....

Ahhh… it’s been a while. The adoption journey has been bumpy. We are certainly on that roller coaster ride. We didn’t share our latest news with many until we knew more details but now that we are over that hill & moving on to the next we are ready to share!

July 14th I received an email from my friend Bentley & then a text message telling me to go read my email. Bentley is also in the process of adopting & actually had just returned the day before from meeting the birthmother that they are going to adopt a baby girl due in Sept!! (See adoption does work!)

The email was a forward from a “birthmother” who had contacted Bentley. He replied to her told her he had just recently been matched but asked if he could send her info to us.
She later responded & agreed. Bentley again texted messaged me & said it was a go & I could call her if I would like. My first thought was… oh great now what do I do. What do I ask, What do I say, I have never talked to a birth mom before….. I was sick I was so nervous. I waited until I got home to call. Once I got home I called. I spoke to Tiffany for about 20 minutes. In our first call she told me she was 16 weeks pregnant, she was married, she was a substitute teacher, she asked if she could come visit us here in KS, if we wanted her to deliver here or where she lived in Oh. WOW that’s a loaded question.. I still wanted to get to know her.
I asked her things like if the baby’s father knew she was considering adoption. She told me “well its not the typical pregnancy”. I said OK… not sure what was coming next.
Tiffany then told me that she was originally in a Surrogacy arrangement that went bad. She immediately said she had proof of custody of the babies that she had been to court & in the courts eyes the babies are hers & her husbands.
Did you notice that… I said BABIES… with an S… As Tiffany & I talked she mentioned she was having more than one baby… even more than two babies… yep she was having TRIPLETS…. WOWZA! I don’t remember much after this point. For a few minutes all I could think of was John freaking out when I tell him that there were 3, I had to think of a cleaver way to tell him it was going to be ok & that we would figure it out. But I had to convince myself first!
I continued to talk to Tiffany; she told me about her “big Greek family”, her husband Brian, more about the Surrogate story; we talked like we were old friends. It wasn’t awkward or anything like I was expecting.
She wanted to call me back later… I said that was fine… She called back & we talked later that evening for just a few minutes.
Between her calls I ran up stairs to tell John what was going on. The look on his face when I said triplets was awesome… why I didn’t bring the camera I will never know.
We spent the evening talking about finances, me staying home, triplets, praying, diapers, triplets, finances & triplets! Did I mention that we were both a bit nervous by the triplets thing? But we also booth agreed that if this was God’s plan for us then this is what we will do & we will figure the rest out later! We were doing fertility treatments there was a chance we could have had biological triplets!
The next day we emailed back & forth & with John through out the day about various things. Just getting to know each other, nothing really exciting. She mentioned her husband was getting ready to join the military, Marines to be exact.
July 16th I started to wonder how much of this was true, it was all sinking in & I was thinking clearer (the triplets thing was wearing off). The same time John spoke to our pastor & Ken said to pray for wisdom. We definitely got the wisdom we prayed for. I found many many many posts on various websites about TiffanyM & the email address she was using to contact us. My heart sank.
The more I Google searched her name & email address the more I found. I spent several hours looking online & found enough to convince me this wasn’t real & there were plenty of people online questioning her story. We had also contacted our attorney by this point who had given us some advice & agreed that some of the things we thought were a bit suspicious were indeed red flags & typical “scammer” signs… Yes we were in the process of being scammed. We asked Tiffany for the items our attorney asked for, then we suddenly stopped hearing from her… she removed me as a friend from her MySpace page, she wouldn’t reply to text messages, phone calls, she obviously figured out that we have figured her out, or at least that she wasn’t going to get anywhere with us.

I was angry. I was so angry for a few days, lucky my husband is a better person than I am & told me that being angry at her gets us nothing. I wasn’t emotionally attached to the idea of finally being a mom to these babies yet so I wasn’t heart broken like I thought I would be but I was angry bitterly angry.
She didn’t get money from us, she wasted some of our time but that is really all. So why am I so angry?… Adoption is complicated. It is an invasive stressful process involving lots of time, money, emotions, there are laws & policies that make it complicated. So for someone to make up a story like this makes me so angry. She is adding more complications to it than is needed. There are children waiting for loving families, there are families waiting for babies to start a family.

Then we had a sermon at church last Sunday about being angry vs being forgiving… once again I think God told Ken that I needed a talk! I so needed that sermon. I need to get over Tiffany & her fake triplet story & stop wasting my time & energy being so angry at her. I guess I am still angry about the fact that there are scammers that do this to people. But I am over our situation. I still pray for Tiffany. I have just changed my prayer for healthy pregnancy & healthy babies. Instead now I pray that she does something more productive with her life. I hope the next family is knows to research & dig as deep as they can.


Moving on to fun stuff in my life...
My friends are AWESOME! I had a fantastic weekend last week the girls & John planned a surprise birthday margarita party! They came over John made Margaritas we hung out & chit chated & had some good quality girl time. We missed a few of the Crazy 8 but we still had a good time!

John & I purchased my new photo website last night!!! I am so excited to see how it looks with my images on it I cant wait! the new website will be up as soon as we can get it together but the prices wont change until November 1st.
For my birthday John got my Tax id number for the business! Not very exciting bday present for most people but this is something I was so not wanting to sit down & do... I am so glad he did it. :)
August is booked solid friends! I have mulitple photo sessions, we go on vacation to Virginia (Wiliamsburg area) & with school starting again soon I will be back at church thursday nights with the Teen mops girls. Its been great having an extra night every week, but I miss the girls & the kids!

Bigest looser is going ok... not as well as I hoped but its going. Today I got up early so that I could make sure I had time to walk sometime today. I did 25 minutes on 5.5 I was pushing for 30 minutes but I was so hot I couldnt stand my self for 5 more minutes!
I am determined to get into a new wardrobe by Sept 1 so I am really working on this now! I have a box of super cute clothes sitting in my closet that are all soclose to fitting. I want to be in them by Sept 1 Darn it!

Ok... I have done enough venting for one night... John has already given me a warning yawn.... meaning he is going to leave me in this freezing cold basement & go to bed with out me if I dont hurry it up! So good night friends!

Monday, July 21, 2008

7.21.75

33 yrs ago I entered the world... :) Yep its my birthday & I am 33...& I am ok with being 33.
Ask me in 2 years how I feel about being 35 & we will see how that goes!
It was a great birthday weekend, a great birthday. My girlfriends came over we hung out & had a few margaritas & great snacks & just some good quality girl time! Every birthday should be spent like this!

John & I were going to go out to dinner tonight however I had a big lunch at work... my co-worker & I share the same birthday so we had lunch at Mi Ranchito (the best mexican food in Johnson county!) It was so good I couldnt eat dinner.... so we stayed home. However I found room for ice cream cake John got me!! I love him & I love Ice Cream Cake!! :)

Then I found time for the tred mill... all this celebrating this weekend wasnt good to me! The scale was up 1 pound this week... totally the wrong way!
I need to fit into a new wardrobe(that I already have!) by Sept so my birthday is done, no more excuses time to be serious for the rest of biggest looser Puhak edition round 2. Its only for another month. Think I can bust my behind enough to loose the 15 pounds I want to loose by August 24th? Then keep it off while on vacation the end of August? Not to mention I lost the last round & I am sick of putting $5 a week in the jar darn it!

The wardrobe I have is from when I worked at Bank One in Az, our dress code was much tighter than where I work now & I have a full box full of dressy work clothes alot that I never wore! I have black suit that I cant wait to wear! There were slacks that had tags on them! I have so many cute things in there! (things are changing at work but I cant disclose anything yet!)

When my mom passed I delt with it by shopping...I was a basket case. Didnt matter what I shopped for as long as I could go shopping I was happy. I had a serious shopping addiction, but the good thing is I am motivated to get back into these clothes some of them get into for the first time. I was also in denial that I had gained more weight when my mom passed. Obviously I have figured that one out also & working on it!

My friend Lindsay was over this weekend & pointed out that I have MAGIC shoes!! :) Atleast that is what I called them... Nike+, its something that links my sneakers to my ipod nano to my computer! John checked it out, understands it( thank goodness someone in this house is technical!) & I think that is what I am buying with my birthday money! Hopefully it keeps me moving on the tredmill!

Still taking the month off for pictures, for the rare exception of a newborn shoot(they are only newborn once!) & Savannah, Nancy, Jeanne & Sheri were here(along with Jennifer, Savannah's mom) & we did 3 or 4 session in one weekend! I am not sure who had more fun being silly me or Savannah! It was great to see them again, its been way to long!! Next time bring Josh so John isnt so out numbered!

Well as my dad would say thats all the news that is fit to print!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

July 9 2008

The latest news at the puhak house!

We are starting round 2 of Biggest Looser Puhak edition(John won round 1)
No news yet on the adoption front, however I have heard that our profile has been shown to a few birth parents! So that is a start!!

Photoggraphy is keeping us/me busy! That leads me to the reason for my post!
I am "published" kinda?? I have an image on a billboard off I35 southbound at mile mark 234.

Thanks to our friends the Heard family & their work with March of Dimes, they are on a billboard! They used a family picture I took of them last fall. Exciting! Thanks L & M!!

Thursday, June 26, 2008

June 26th....

Missed me?? Its been a month wow! Long time no post...
Lots going on as usual at our place. We finished the clases (thank goodness!) They were long. We learned so much but they were long. We also met some wonderful people! We have stayed in touch with some in our class & had a CPR class this week with a few of them it was great to see them again.
We are now CPR certified, not cure I ever want to use that certificate but its done & off th eto-do list. I think its scary.

Today being June 26th is a sad day for me as it is every year for the last 6 yrs. 6 yrs ago today is when my mom passed away. Time has made it easier, the first year I was still a basket case on this day but today it didnt hit me until I wrote the date on a form at work. John & I went to Iowa last weekend to see the family & we of course went to Rake to visit the cemetary & I usually get sick to my stomach as soon as I can see the treeline of the cemetary, then as soon as we pull in I start crying. This time I was ok until we got ready to leave. It always hits me hard when I leave because I never know when I will be back to visit.
This trip was especially hard being that we had to go through stuff at the Grandparents as they will be moving to Arizona for good this fall. All the cousins got together to split the Fostoria & what ever else we wanted that wasnt going to AZ.
My stinkin' uncle got the secretary desk that I think would be awesome in my house... hopefully he will remember that one day I want that! :)
It makes me sad that they will be so far away now. We wont see them twice a year as they pass thru heading north or south (depending on what time of the year) They wont be 6 hrs away, we will have to fly out to see them. Which is way more expensive & way less convienient than a weekend road trip to Iowa!

Enough of that...
Photo business is busy... its slowed down a bit but it was busy for a while... I would like it to pick up in Sept when its not so hot!
I cant wait to get some time to work on my website & the business side of things... July is coming & that is my plan for July to work on my business.

Biggest looser John is winning... its stinks for me but its awesome that he is doing so good!
I have done well also but he has kicked butt! :)
We- well I am, taking a week off & starting over. I need a break from stressing over so many things.

Adoption.... its going... we are just waiting.
I thought the waiting would drive me bonkers, its not. We have enough going on that I am cool.
Our friends the Bestwicks just brought their baby Quincy home from China, the Millers are in process of adopting Miriam, we are the third family at church that is adopting & it happens in 3's right?? :)
Our link is online now check it out! http://www.adoption-beyond.org/JohnJennifer/john&jennifer.html

We had the opportunity to host 2 teenage girls this week from a youth choir, their from a church in Iowa & they tour to church in the midwest & perform a show. It was a fun time. They were the best kids ever! They were well behaved, poliet, neat. I went up to gather towels in the guest room, thinking when I was a teenager I would have left the towels in the bathroom. These girls had folded the towels neatly on the bathroom sink. Left us a a note thanking us for letting them stay with us. Made the bed. They were perfect!! To think I was worried we would have crazy teenage kids!
Also one of them gave us the name of someone at her church that has a connection to adoption!! God is good! He had us host those girls for a reason!! :)

Ok, I need to get back to work...

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Wow time flies when your having fun!

Fun I guess is what you call it... we have been busy as usual. Same ol' stuff nothing new.
Work, adoption classes, photography stuff, biggest looser, school.... thats about all that happens here at the Puhak house!

Today I think I made a break through in my photography! I think! I struggle badly with ISO & Shutter Speed... Its all a back wards crazy math & numbers game that I hate & its just to difficult! But I think today for some reason it clicked. Now I dont want to go jinxing myself but I think that this will improve my images a 100%! Now more grainy fuzzy images!?!? (I hope)
I went to http://www.opkansas.org/_vis/arboretum/ today with a friend from flickr. I toyed around with ISo a bit. I think the problem that I was having is I was confused which number was the ISO on my camera! Stupid me! That is an easy thing to figure out. Tomorrow I have a super fun maternity shoot planned & hope to get to toy with it some more. Shooting people is a totally different ballgame than shooting flowers! ( Flowers hold there smiles forever people expect suckers or chocolate if they have to smile to long!)

GO here to see some of my stuff http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenniferpfromkc/
Sorry you wont see much, I have alot of it marked private because some of my images are of friends children & for some reason people (weird perverted people) go to sites like flickr & steal photos(stealing photos means if you didnt capture the image with your camera & you dont have permission by the photographer to use it ... thats stealing & its against the law! pubilic service announcement over) so to prevent that from happening I have to set to private to protect the images I have on there. I share with other photographers to learn from them. man they have all taught me so much!

I am going to spend my free time this summer re-vamping the website. I have ideas in my head but its a matter of translating them to the website that I have an issue with. It works in here but to get it all out & on paper is where we loose some of the quality! :) ok even that doesnt come out right but I know what I am trying to say.

Ok its dinner time, I have updated you on whats up here. Im hungry & in need of a shower. Its only 75 but the humidity was nuts at the park. Nuff said.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Quick post...

Quick updates..
Jasper is fine. Went back to the vet blood work is fine no cushings disease, no thyroid issue, vet thinks its an allergy.
Went out of town for Mothers day weekend was a short trip to Iowa & back made for a short weekend but it was good to see the Bishop side of the family.
Biggest looser... well we lost but it wasn't much! We are both doing better this week!

Check out the link at the bottom of my blog to get to our adoption blog to see where that is at!!

Now back to your regularly scheduled programing... I have to get back to work!

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

May 5th Biggest Looser

Hello friends!
John won again.... this is getting old... I still lost but he lost more.
I dont remember the numbers but what matters to me is the scale is going down for both of us!
So I have to put yet another $5 in the pot....
I said I was going to kick butt this week & really make him work hard to win next week however he is traveling so he wont be able to work out, I am busy everynight this week (again) so I wont be working out. So as of today (wed) I will be happy if the scale just goes down.

Yesterday I took Jasper to the vet. Her coat looks funny. I noticed about 2 weeks ago that her fur is really short on the sides & kind of clumpy on her hips. So I finally took her in. Dr Beggs is wonderful & explained the worst case scenario to me (Cushings Disease)& then what he thought it might be Thyroid problems. Then discussed dental cleaning that Jasper needs & has needed for a while. I guess dogs need their teeth cleaned every 2 years(I didnt realize how important this was) she has an infection in her teeth that could cause bigger issues. If left untreated could spread to her heart, liver, lungs, ect.
So by this point in our meeting I feel like the worst person every that I havent taken care of her & now she is sick, I dont know if she is in pain because of any of this. I am stressed beyond believe & broke down in tears. Not only because I feel like i havent taken care of Jasper but because vet bills are NOT cheap! I had to run out to the car to get my check book & called John to tell him I was going to be spending $300 on Jasper... thinking he wasnt going to be thrilled & we would have to move money around but he was as usual the best husband ever & said so what do you need to do & dont stress over the money.
I love him. He keeps me sain when I feel like my world is falling down around me.

I got a call this morning that the blood work they did yesterday came back & that Jasper doesnt have the Cushings disease but that the thyroid work isnt back. Everything else is fine she is in excellent health other than the thyroid issues. So its an easy treatment.
What a relief. Treat that & get her teeth cleaned & she will be good.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

May 4th The WALK!



Yes, today was the March of Dimes walk! It was a blast. Great weather, great friends, great fun for a great cause! This picture is of Lindsay & Michael Heard & there once preemie babies Eryka & Josiah! They are this years Ambassdor Family!!

We walked on the Zander's Zoo team! Which included the Fread's(of course)Curry's & Angela's mom Pam, John & Myself! We stayed together for most of the 3 mile walk but in the crowd going down then back up one of the hills we got seperated. It was a fun walk.







There were TONS of people!







We were entertained by the Marching Cobras, a marching drill team from KC. They were so fun & energizing! What a way to start the walk!








Here are a few more photos from today! Thank you to every one who supported us with donations & prayers!







Joshua with a fresh painted face!












Molly & I getting our faces painted! Next image is the start of the walk... see the lady in the blue shirt & tan hat... :) She shows up in a few random photos ! (Just kidding thats Angela... not sure why I didnt get any real pictures of her or Pam today?)


Marching Cobras starting us off! (Notice There is Angela's back to me again!)... that Short Route is for wimps! We took the long route! The long 3 mile route! It was easier than I thought it was going to be. I think I was remembering back to when my old roommate & I did a 5K for breast cancer & the after effects of the walk about killed us! I was worried I was going to feel like that again. I feel fine tonight other than a small blister on my foot. (Someone has a BRILLIANT idea to wear new sneakers for the walk!) Also I am so tired I could sleep for a week. I have been getting up early & staying up too late for about a week now. So with that being said good night friends! Thanks again for your support! I will check in later in the week for Biggest looser Puhak edition!














Thursday, May 1, 2008

May Day!!! 5.1.08

Last night I went to the bellies & babies tour with Sandy Puc' (this translates to super awesome photographer) It was fun! I met 3 new contacts. I had time to chat with Rae from RG photography who I knew from KC meetup, Janie (Janie Jones Photography) who doesnt have a website yet but I know her from a photo class we both did at different times & still chat on the forum for the class. Also met Jennifer Leiker from Lasting Images Photography.
Last but not least I briefly met Susan Robichaud! She is havnig a UrbanSafari workshop in KC in May!!
I learned alot! Most important thing I learned... next time remember the note book!!I took lots of notes & Sandy talks fast so I had to write faster!

This is what else I learned.
1. I need a business license & I need to figure out the sales tax thing. I thought since I wasnt selling much I wouldnt need to worry about it yet. Honest, I really didnt think about sales tax, I thought about income tax. I am not making much so I thought it wasnt a big deal. Todays agenda is to find out what I need to do to get a business license & deal with sales tax/income tax.
2. I learned some new marketing that wont cost me much. Every image that leaves my "studio" should have my name on it that is free advertising. Then I have to spend a little to make alot. So Each order as a thank you gift will include a little something. (Are you excited to place your order to see your little something!?!?)
When Mom hands little Johnny's picture to her friend, her friend now has my info, on holiday cards or baby announcements when grandma or aunt susie get the holiday card they have my info. When someone gets a graduation annoucement they have my info... ect (I am sure your bored to tears by now huh)
3.I learned new EASY no prop Poses. However I dont really like the studio feel, I really like the home-y feel.... but I learned that also. I dont know that I ever want a real studio but I might be interested in testing the waters. I learned that last night also!
4. I learned I LOVE these seminars!
There is another workshop (mentioned above) in May that I asked John to let me go to(lets just say he was less than impresed at midnight to discuss a workshop that costs $275! But said I can go I asked how we will afford it (the whole Dave Ramsey thing) & he sid dont worry he will find the money for me to go. Isnt he the bestest husband ever! Which leads me to the best thing!!! ******* # 5***********
My husband is amazing. I love him. Pretty simple. For many many reasons I love John but this week he has taken the Best Husband award many times for not once giving me crap about being out or doing something every night(which means not seeing him). He has cleaned our house top to bottom pretty much this week(I am still secretly hoping the toilets magically get cleaned but if that is all I have to do I will GLADLY do them Friday morning before I go to work??). Though everything we have read & been told says we dont need to white glove clean the house ... John has done it! Its kinda cute he is the nervous new dad already! :) To get ready for our home study he has sprayed for the ants that tried to take over our kitchen(one thing I hate about Spring), he has kept up with the yardwork, he CLEANED HIS OFFICE!!! While I stamped monday night with the girls, he cleaned our bedroom he dusted, vacumed, PUT AWAY LAUNDRY! AMAZING I say!
*~*~*~* Well the cake has been topped~*~*~*
I came home last night (remind you at midnight!) I pulled into the drive way wiped my eyes to clear the dust out, the yard was beautiful he had cut it again! Then as the garage door opens slowly the heavenly garage angels from above start to sing a glorious song & a bright light appears & I am surprised to see My garage, MY GARAGE where I park My car, at MY house, CLEAN... Not only clean but Swept out, things neatly stacked up, my photo props neatly on shelves, patio cushins neatly stacked on a shelf. I had to back out of the garge & check the house number. I really thought I had pulled in to someone else's garage. I pulled back in & looked around, amazed. I put the car in park & looked around amazed. I got out & looked around amazed. (did I mention it was midnight?) I thought I might be dreaming. I shut the garage because I was worried the neighbors might laugh at me for hanging out & "viewing" my own garage. Then I remembered I had 7 hours until I had to be up & at 'em again so I had to go to bed & I still needed to check email.... But I was so happy about the garage!!! Now just to get the cabinet built to put my photo stuff in it to keep it organized & clean! I love you John & your magic fairly garage cleaners! Thank you for all your hard work this week....

Friends I am still collecting your donations for the March of Dimes walk. The walk is THIS WEEKEND!! YEAH! I am super excited! I even have new sneakers to wear for the walk. They were suppose to get broken in on the tredmill but I havent been home enough to walk...
On that front( Puhak Biggest Looser...) John won this week but I still lost... sorry Monday was to many days ago for me to remember how much I lost but I lost & that is what is important!

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Catching up! 4.24.08


We are still swamped with things going on here at the Puhak house! We are back from St Louis & things are still nuts around here!


March of Dimes walk is coming soon!!!! Thank so you much to my friends & family that have donated online or sent me checks! I am so excited to have so much to turn in on May 4th! I am over 1/2 way to my goal (HINT HINT any one else want to donate to the walk!?!?! Click the purple widget on this page!!)


The photo business is picking up now that the word is getting out more! I have even been brave enough to approach strangers & ask if they will model for me! Ok really I want their business. But if I cut them a deal its a win win for everyone right!?!? I have several friends getting ready to have babies! which means several friends who want maternity & newborn pictures! AWESOME! Even better news today we discussed where this money goes in the budget, John says I get to decide what to do with it! I can save it for new gear!! Gosh my husband is awesome!


Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University is actually kinda fun. It makes you open your eyes a bit wider to what your spending but its not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. Now ask me how it is in a month. We start the real "Envelope System" May1st! I hate carrying cash around. I dont feel safe but I hope to get use to it.


Puhak biggest loose, was a wash this week. Thats all I am going to say about it! We are back on track & doing great this week! We will get some extra walking in tomorrow!


Adoption... its all moving way faster than I expected. We handed in our paper work for the homestudy on our way out of town friday April 18th(Our 5th Anniversary) Wed I got a call at work & we set up a homestudy for May5th!


We are in the MAPPS class, a foster & adoption class that the state of Kansas offers & part of that class you have to have a home study also. We have that one set for May 2nd. WOW!

So tomorrow morning John & I are going to go to the neighborhood garage sales & look for baby security stuff, gates, plug covers, what ever else we can find! Exciting!! :)

We will keep you posted! There may be a Puhak adoption blog coming soon but who knows I cant even keep this one up! Maybe I will get John to do that one & link it here!


Friends & Family*** I have a new email address jenniferpuhak@gmail.com

(Grandma I cant get emails thru to you, but I am going to call this weekend If I dont hear from you!)



Saturday, April 19, 2008

Special edition! Posting on a weekend!??!?!

Are you confused? I am posting on a weekend & shortly after my last post...
We are in St Louis Missouri this weekend. We have had a great time doing a bunch of NOTHING! Its nice to just relax. We went to a few scrapbook stores yesterday, the NIKE store(MY FAVORITE!!) At the hotel last night I even walked on the tred mill. Only for about 15 minutes but I still did it!
Todays walking was done at the ZOO. St Louis has a FREE Fantastic Zoo! We had a great time!
We walked a lot, I mean a whole lot! We did the entire zoo(except the bug house & snake house). Then we went to lunch & came back to the hotel & took a nap! It was great! Look for pictures soon on my flickr page! :)

Tomorrow we are back to eating healthy! We have enjoyed our 2 day break. We even went to JACK IN THE BOX! I love JITB! I love it when we travel & there is a JITB(the last time we went was Seattle) since we dont have them in KS. All I like there is the breakfast sourdough Jack. So that is what I had for breakfast today. YUMMM & the lady working there was super nice, she gave us 2 free Jack balls! Made me pretty happy today. Ok so it doesnt take much.

Well with all this talk about food, we are going to go find some dinner. :) I will post photos later.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

April 15th

Did you do your taxes?


Tonight was week 2 of our adoption class thru the state of Kansas. I am not enjoying it to say the least. I leave very stressed out. I think the class is more focused on foster care than adoption. I am overwhelemd in all the information we are getting & it doesnt pertain to us. I really try to stay open minded & learn something that might help me in the future but its tough. Its a long 3 hrs that we are there. Then we have homework.

I think it we have too much on our plate right now & though its all just as important as the next item on the list its just getting to be alot to take in. I am going to try to stay positive & rememeber that in 10 more weeks all of our classes will be done! Also we will be done with our Puhak biggest looser (ROUND 1).
I bet your dying to know the details on that huh...
I won this week. I lost 4.5 John lost 5, but I lost more percent wise. Because we are following direction from our Dave Ramsey classes rather than eating out we had a "cheat meal" at home. However, it was fairly healthy & we did go out for ice cream (& Used a buy 1 get 1 coupon!!).

We are learning alot from everything we are doing. We have been very successful with all we have going on! John has lost over 40 pounds, I have lost over 20, we have paid some things off, made some changes to make things work better for us. We have a long term plan for all the things that are going on. Adoption, Weight Loss, Paying off Debt... its all going to take time & we have to stick to gether & stick to the plans that we have laid out to get to our goals!

On the adoption home front, we are done with the homestudy packet we just need get a letter back from the Dr(its been a week where is it DOC?) then we will turn it in & wait for the agency to prepare the info & conduct the home visit. In the meantime we have a reading list, we have the tuesday night class, & a nursery to prepare! :)

For those who read & are curious how the photography is going... I have several sessions booked this spring, I have a client interested in discussing a wedding even for 2009! After we get through our classes I am going to focus on getting my business "legal" & getting the paper work in order to protect myself & the business. I might even make enough this year for to invest in new gear! NIKON D80 here I come!

Good night friends! Its late.

*** John if you really are reading this, I love you! I am so thankful every day that I have you by myside. It has been wonderful to be your wife for the last 5 yrs! Happy Anniversary!! YSW.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

whoops!

Long time no post huh... sorry life has been hectic a little bit...

Lets get the WW stuff out of the way, week 2 I lost 6 pounds, I was the winner & for cheat night we went to Mi Ranchito! YUMMY We were still smart & didnt go crazy, she ordered soemthing we both liked & shared it! I still had left overs to bring home.
Week 3 John won! I lost 2.5 but he lost more! I am down a total of 12+ pounds(but down about 18 since november) this past week we went & had pizza we had both been wanting to have pizza for so long. Since we lost we went! We have a deal if we have a week we dont loose we dont cheat!

Next piece of business to blog about. I shot another wedding. I was the 2nd shooting but I still got some awesome shots. I really enjoyed it. Though I HURT after shooting over 1800 images I still enjoyed it! Now for the part I dont enjoy editing!
I know understand why the pros say that its atleast 2 wks until you can see images online! Its takes that lonmg to edit & post them all.

I may have another wedding butnot until next year... I will talk to thebride to be in May! I will keep you posted!

The adoption front is coming along I plan to get my stuff done this weekend. I think I am driving my husband nuts by not having it finished yet! We have gotten our reference forms to almost everyone. Its a step in the right direction.

Well I am cutting this short. Its late I am tired & I have images to finish working on.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Week.... who knows... Just be happy I blogged!

Take the long way home....
Is in deed what I did today! It was gorgeous outside today. My favorite time of the year weather wise is any time I can open my sunroof & windows & crank up my radio! Tonight I jammed to Barlow Girl on the way home. I love taking this back road home any time I can, less traffic, things to see & tonight an amazing sunset!
I seem to think alot on this road, tonight I was coming home from our appointment at the adoption agency. Things went well! We absorbed a TON of info I fell a bit better about this a little more stressed but in a good way not in the OMG I cant do this way! Because we are open to any race either gender, once we get our paper work done it could be 3 to 6 months & we could be parents!
That is the part that stresses me! It scares me a bit, but I'm ready for this challenge!
Good nes is there are only 2 or 3 other familes waiting for children who are open to any race! I think that is awesome. I am very excited to get this started. I am so glad we went to this appointment instead of trying to figure this ll out on our own!

The biggest looser Puhak edition has begun! John won week 1, I lost 3.6 but it wasnt enough to beat him! I have however walked more this week even ran a bit on the tred but it hurts my shins to much to run still. I did crank the speed on the tred mill up as high as I could to still be walking. 6.2 is the highest speed I can walk on & let me tell you walking that fast for very long & I am sore! So I turn it back to between 5.8 & 6 that seems to be where I still can get a mile done pretty quick but I can still stand when I am done with my 25 minutes (or 2 miles which ever comes first!)

Big news for those who dont already know. I was asked to go to a photo shoot with Dee(I hope you hear this name more often in the future!) Dee was my instructor of a class I took last summer. I am so excited to do this. I took tomorrow off to go to this shoot to help her with a portriat party! Cant wait!
She siad she has several things coming up this spring summer she will need help with! I hoep that means I get to continue to help her!

Well with that said folks I have things to get ready for tomorrow!

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

week 11

Hello blog Friends, Family & Stalkers,

Nothing exciting to report this week... John has been in meetings most of the week so I miss him terribly. I see him every day but not long. He leaves before I wake up & gets home very late. I am looking forward to having dinner with him this eveving. I might even cook! :)

We havent started our $ project officially yet but we have cut many things. Eating out, we cut back to just once a week. We lowered the 300+ cabel channels we have down to 200, cnceled the paper & we stop at QT on the way home from church & get the sunday paper. Thats the only one we read so why bother with the rest of them? John canceled a few other misc things & found about $150 a month we can apply to bills. Fun times!

Last weekend we had GORGEOUS weather here in Olathe. It was almost 70(I think) on Sat! I took Joshua to the park to do his 5 yr old photo session it was great fun! Then since he was pretty cooperative we went to Culvers & shared a kids ice cream!

I hope to get together with some local flickr friends soon to go take pictures. I dont like going shooting by myself & John thinks its boring so I hope to meet some new friends who love it as much as I do!
I am starting to tell more people about my business in hopes to meet more clients which will make me more money! Thats what its all about right? I cant depend on my friends to grow my business much more than they all have! So I have to reach out of my circle give my cards to others.
I would love to be out of debt & be able to stay home to do photography full time next year!
We'll see how realistic that is.

Well since I am blogging from work I am cutting this short... really there is nothing exciting going on at the Puhak house this week so this is much longer than it needed to be!

*********** Dont forget to sponser us for the March of Dimes walk!!******************

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Week 10 ish

Hey blog friends... its week 10 of this journey called 2008!

Lots going on at the Puhak house! Lots of fun, lots of hardwork, but still lots of fun!
We are getting ready to start some big "projects" for lack of a better word.

First is John is going to join me on my weightloss journey, seriously this time! We are going to start our own little version of The Biggest Looser-Puhak edition! Awesome right! How will we do it? What will we play for? I know your all dying with excitment to find out but first I have to tell you about our 2nd project...

Dave Ramsey ever heard of him? http://www.daveramsey.com/ He has a program called Financial Peace Univeristy. Well John & I are going to get schooled on how to get out of debt! We are both so excited about going on a budget we cant stand it! We have been reading & doing little things to help us get ready since we went to the meeting sunday. So much that we have already both paid off a credit card each! Ok so it was only $20 for mine & $700 for his but its a start.
Both of them were our highest rate cards.
We have an adoption to save up for if we want to do that we need some structure in our life! We have to stop being so frivilous with our cash.

Now back to our biggest looser game... on the show biggest looser the losing team has to eliminate a team member. Well I love my husband too much to kick him out (plus I'd be lonely & its no fun sleeping single in a king size bed.) so instead we decided that the person who looses the highest percent of weight for the week is the winner. The looser has to put $5 in to the pot. At the end of 3 months the person with the highest percent lost wins the pot! This is especially fun since we will be on this budget thing & wont have much fun money this will be an bonus for June extra fun money to reward us for loosing weight! I am super excited about this also! Look for updates how much cash John has lost cuz I am gonna beat him. :)

Last weekend I had a day of fun with Molly. After our fund raising meeting for March of dimes Angela had things to do & wasnt sure if she could get them done with Molly tagging along. I had nothing to other than a few quick errunds so I offered to take Molly with me. We had so much fun! We went to Legends (a shopping center in KC) She was the best behaved 2 1/2 yr old ever(her parents dont believe me) She named off ever color of the rainbow as we went from store to store. She showed me all the things that she liked & a few that she said "these not pretty" (she is 2 1/2 how does she have a sense of style?) Each store she asked if we were going to buy something for Mr John or Joshua. After we made our way through many stores she made out with the cutest chucks(pink & silver, watch my website for photos soon) & a few clearence outfits from OshKosh! We got Joshua a Tommy tshirt & Mr John some WW friendly candy! She was happy & we could go home. Then we came home to get Mr John & he took us to Red Robin for lunch!
Since John & I had so much fun with her- wait were we suppose to be entertaining her??
We are taking Joshua this weekend & taking him to pick out his birthday present & then to dinner. Its fun having kids you can spoil & then send back home to mom & dad!

OK its late.. I have to go to bed... tomorrow is WI day but I wont be able to blog so I did it early.
I have changed wi days to thursday but will be changing again soon as soon as John joins me... hang tight we will get it worked out!

Did you get this far?? Leave me a comment let me know someone out there in the blog world is reading the non-sense I put together each week!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!!!!!

Saturday, February 23, 2008

What is this!??!

I just let Jasper out.... guess what its snowing AGAIN! I am so tired of winter & snow & being cold!

Week 7, 8, 9?? I'm lost...

Ok so I missed a few weeks no reason just didnt feel like bloging... there really isnt anything new to report with us. I'm good, John is good, Jasper is good. Jas had a vet visit this week just shots & an exam she is fine, over weight but fine. Vet says she needs to get out & walk more. Think they make tredmills for cocker spaniels? I am still doing great on WW(down another 3 pounds). Another head cold come & gone for me. I blame this last cold on thekid who attempted to help me at wolf camera. Once I realized he was disgustingly sick I left. I touched nothing, purchased nothing just thanked him for his time & walked out thinking I am so going to catch that.
I am going to contact an agency this week regarding a home study to get this adoption journey started! Now that we have our tax $ coming back I feel better about making this step. Its a huge step. I am terrified but lots of prayers will get us through!
Our weather stinks, but then again it is Kansas. **I do have a public service announcement for those who feel the need to drive mock 90 with their hair on fire when the roads are icy in rush hour... KNOCK IT OFF !! I also have a public service announcement to those who feel the need to scrape their windshield while they drive... KNOCK IT OFF! Turn on your defroster & sit still for 5 minutes & it will work itself out!

The photo business has been slow but I hope that changes soon I need a Nikon fix! Yes I am addicted to shooting! No I dont need an intervention. I have failed in my quest to do a personal photo every week... Maybe when it warms up & there is more to do I will take more personal shots? Not promising anything folks!


Lets take a minute to chat about something that is worth bloging about! Chat? Ok not really I guess- I am gonna type, your gonna read(I HOPE!)
March of Dimes. Heard of them? ... well they are an organization who help babies.
(
http://www.marchofdimes.com/) Babies, Sick babies, Family of babies, Families who have lost babies. They are in the helping babies business.
We raise money for them & usually walk in the annual walk. This year the walk is changed names to March for Babies. New name, same great event, same great cause, same needs.
This is where my friends, family, strangers, lurkers, stalkers, who ever you are reading my blog chime in & say "Thats awesome I would love to donate to March of Dimes & help you reach your goal!" (Its for babies, who can say no to babies!?!? Its tax deductable!!)
So this is why John & I are doing this.
We do this for my mom who passed away June 2002. She was diagnosed with polio at 9 days old. She was in an iron lung, she had countless surgeries, she used braces to walk, crutches, of course needed medication. I remember seeing pictures of her when she was in school she had funny prizim glasses that let her stay flat in bed(after she had back surgery & was on bed rest) & still see so that she could still do school work. Sorry thats all i know of the funny glasses & school work story.
Long story short March of Dimes helped covering the cost of braces, crutches, surgery, medication for my mom all the way up to her college years. Something that in the 50's my grandparents wouldnt have been able to afford. I am thankful that they provided the help my family needed.

We are doing this for our Baby J who we lost May 7th 2006 when I was 14 weeks pregnant. March of Dimes doesnt just help babies who are born sick, but researches premature babies & infant mortality.

We are doing this for our friends the Freads & the Heards who have children who spent many weeks in the NICU. The March of Dimes helped them in their time of need. They now have healthy thriving children who will walk May 4th to give back! We will help! (You can see these kids on
http://www.puhakphotography.com/ )

We are doing this for future babies who may need a little help from the March of Dimes.
Please help us in what ever way you would like to reach our goal.
Sponser us, walk with us, form your own team & set your own goal, forward my blog site to everyone you know so they can help, pray for us, pray for the babies & families that March of Dimes helps. Click the link that says sponsor me on this page or email me if you want to mail a check to me made out to the March of Dimes. jennifer@puhakphotography.com

Thanks! See ya next week!


Thursday, February 7, 2008

Week .... 6?

I cant remember what week I am on...
Of course there is no picture again this week... because I am busy as all get out. I have had something to do every night this week.
The fun doesnt stop there I am booked with things to do right through sunday. UGH! I cant wait for next weekend to have a 3 1/2 day weekend so I can chill a bit. I am going to turn off the phones & just spend time with John UN-INTERUPTED!

Ok thats totally not true either but its certainly fun to dream! I am taking some much needed time on friday to go stamping with my friend Patti! (Cant wait!)
Then Sat we will celebrate Valentines day & Jennifer's Day. YIPPEE! One of my favorite holidays is coming! Jennifer's day!

Ok enough non sense, what your all reading my blog for.... WW Did I loose or gain want to take a guess??
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Well last week I gained 1.4 stink! But I was still having headaches & not motivated to walk. So what do you do. This week I watched better what I ate, drank more water & walked a few more times than I did last week. The good news is I lost 2.6!!! I Rock! thats what I gained last week & then some! So I am motivated to do good this week. Today I went to WW at lunch. I didnt get to stay for the meeting for a few reasons 1 being I ran over at lunch & only had 30 minutes. 2 I dont really care fot the leader that was there. Silly I know but that is important to me.
So I think I will continue to run over at lunch time what ever day I have time I think thursdays work well for me. Then if I need/want to go to a meeting then I will go after work. I haev to do what works.

Big plans for this weekend! After work tomorrow I have a friend coming over to hang out! Ok so she is 2 1/2 but it should be fun! We havent hung our since she was about 8 or 9 months old!
Her mom has a grown up date so E will be hanging out with us! Then tomorrow I work (YUCK) then tomorrow evening my friend & I are going to teh Casting Crowns concert! YIPPPEEE! Super excited! I love them(google them if you dont know who they are!)
Of course a big event like this calls for a new outfit right?? Ok atleast a new pair of jeans right??
We'll see what I find sat afternoon when I go shopping! Shhh dont tell John that I plan to buy a new outfit. John is on the we have to save cash kick again!

Next subject.

Barack Obama! Love 'em!
We went to Caucus Tuesday ngiht! Obama won our Caucus! Then when we got home we watched the news to find out he won the Kansas democrat delegates. Then he won Georgia, Minnisota, Missouri, Arkansas, Utah, COlorado, Idaho, Conneticut, North Dakota, Alabama, Delaware & Illinois! Man he Rocks! I cant wait to cast my vote in November!
Check out my flickr page for pictures of the Caucus & the rally I mentioned last week! http://flickr.com/photos/jenniferpfromkc/

OK folks, thats it for this week... sorry its late but its been a busy week! Chat with you Tuesday!

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Wow what a night!

Its Tuesday Ladies & Gents... I had a FABULOUS date with my fantastic husband!
So your probably going to think this is nerdy, weird, odd what ever... I had a blast... Ready to find out where we spent our date night!?!?

********** Disclaimer!********
This is MY BLOG! Do not turn MY BLOG into a debate of your opinions. This is MY BLOG & only MY OPINION counts on it!! If you cant say something nice say nothing at all!
*******************************


We went to the Barack Obama town hall meeting! It was so much fun! It was amazing to see the support he is receiving from KC(KC K & KC Mo) Its awesome to see the diversity of people supporting him. Young, Old, Male, Female, Black, White, Mixed, Hispanic, Asian, You name it you saw someone of each demographic. It seemed like every person in the building was 110% in support they were all so jazzed to hear him speek.
Which I have to say he is an awesome speaker. He is so genuine. There was a point in his speach that there was a person in the front row that for some reason needed a chair(I was on the 2nd level way back so I dont know why they needed a chair) but he stopped his speach & asked someone to get this person a chair & made sure they were ok once they sat down. Big deal right? I think it is a big deal it shows he cares about people.
He addresed the rumors of him being a"crazy muslim" he said " I have attended the same christian church for 25 yrs, believe in Jesus, I am not going to preach about Jesus but I praise Jesus."
He adressed healthcare FOR EVERYONE, tax changes, social security, teachers(he wants to pay them more!!!) minimum wage, the fact that no working person in America should be POOR.
He was motivating. I look forward to next tuesday's date night to go to the CACUS.

I have never payed much attention to politics. But Because John understands it, explains it to me in english- not polititian, I understand it better, I understand its importance, I understand what issues matter & what issues matter even more to me.
Sure there are issues he supports that I am not 100% on board with but there are issues to me that are 100 times more important to ME(yes its selfish) that he does support. Not only does he support them he has a plan to make changes for our country to try to make things better for Americans.


I skipped Weight Watchers tonight, BUT I am going thursday night so look for a picture & an update on how that goes! I also didnt get Tuesday's picture done... sorry...
I was so excited about my evening that i didnt think to take a picture of myself at this great event! However I took several pictures while we were there(About 100!). I was to scared to take my Nikon so I took the crappy point & shoot. The pictures SUCK! But I will pick the best ones I can & post tomorrow(I am to tired tonight!). you can see them on my flickr pages.

Good night friends!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Week 4 WI Was great!

This episode my friends is loaded with babble... lets get started!
So I have good news & bad news... lets get the bad out of the way....

Sorry there is no Photo this week(YET!!!) because I was lazy. Pretty simple huh. Well I dont want to make excuses. (wait, we'll come back to this thought in the good news part of our post)

More bad/sad news... last week the friend I mentioned a few posts ago Jerry... she lost her fight with Cancer. Stupid Cancer. I have been so fortunate to not loose someone in my direct family to cancer but I still hate it. Two of my best friends have had loved ones taken by cancer. I think its one of the worst things ever to have to go thru.
Now another friend & her family has had to deal with cancer & a loss to it. All the more reason to do the little things to support what ever Cancer fund you can. American Cancer Society, Susan G Komen, your local hospital- what ever. Even if it means buying something so that $ goes to the charity. Give a little now, you may be the one who it saves later. Ok can you tell this has been heavy on my heart all week.
My sweet friend Jer- though I have never met you here I hope to meet you in heaven.
*sorry if this is hard to read it is purposly posted in pink in honor of Jer!

I am done. Lets move on to a lighter note.
More bad news... my camera is dirty. Dangit... that is what you all say right??!?!? OK maybe some of you dont care, some dont understand why its a big deal. Some might. Its sucks that I have to send it off for 3 wks & pay $65 to clean it. The bigger deal is I have to be nikonless for THREE weeks. That is an eternity. The other option is to google how to clean a sensor & risk doing it my self & really jacking it up. Not worth the risk to me so I havent done anything yet.

Enough bad news... lets get to the good stuff... ok so remember when I started this post I said we would get back to the fact that I was(am) lazy .... well when I got some mojo (from watching biggest looser) I stepped into my nikes & walked. I walked 30 minutes. It seems like the first 30 minutes are the hardest. I was tired, ready to quit but I was very inspired tonight by the yellow team on BL. I like them. I like the guy(Paul?) He is awesome. He kicked butt tonight- no he kicked everyother team's butt tonight(with help from his partner!) So i thought if he can get up at 3 am to walk & go the extra mile, I can go the extra 1/2 mile while I am already there instead of sitting on the sofa for the rest of this show. Then I thought hmm what would Jillian & Bob say If I sat down on the sofa right now after walking for 30 minutes? They would scream at me! I dont react well to screamers so I did an extra 1/2 mile tonight! Go me right!

That is what my picture was going to be of tonight the screen of the tred showing I did almost 40 minutes instead of 30... but I hit the button & it erased my stats! Take my word for it I did it. Then when I was done it was to late & I was tired so the picture didnt happen at all... then Angela had a paint emergency so I went to help with that?? (We'll see if it comes out)

Lets keep the good news flowin'.
WI- I was worried about going to WI tonight... again I didnt do as good as I could. I need to stop the thought process I have of -oh I have a week, certainly what I do wed morning wont effect next tuesday... oh yeah wanna bet! It does. When you eat junk it shows regardless!
Well I went to WI, I LOST!! I would say yeah me but not I dont feel like I deserve it this week because I didnt nothing to try. But it is another 1.8 down! I am going to try for an even 2 pounds this week & see what I can do. I have a goal & to keep me honest this is what needs to happen, I need to walk. At least every other day. I need to Drink- no not rasberry margaritas ladies & gents, water. I am not doing so hot on that. Its not as easy in the winter when its cold. But its important.
I need to count my points & journal. I havent journaled since before Christmas! What a slacker!
So next week I need to make sure I can say I did these things! Feel free to ask me this week!

I have made some other plans this week.
John & I have some challenges with fertility-I have accepted that(its sucks but I accept it) I am so thankful I have a loving husband who is willing to go thru all the crap we have been thru(never complaining once) and that he has a heart big enough to open it to children who biologically are not ours. Not everyone is that awesome. So I made it my goal this week to find out what we need to do to get our home study started. I have made a few calls, sent a few emails, I am working on it.
I hope to be atleast on an adoption waiting list by mothers day. I havent really told John about that timeline but he will find out when he reads it here! :) (iluvu)

Next plan... my friends Lindsay & Kim both have children who were preemies. We had a loss at 14 wks, March of Dimes helped my grandparents when my mom was a baby/child with polio(google it if you dont know what it is) I plan to walk the March of Dimes walk & try to raise some funds for this charity. If I can spend time walking in place on a tred mill watching tv, why not walk in this awesome event to help save babies or help families who have babies to save. That could one day be our baby who needs help! ** So watch for the links to donate to the walk comming soon to a blog, a myspace page, my website near you! **

My last bit of good news goes back to my latest passion, yep Photography. I love it. It is so much fun. I dont care if I never ever can go full time professionally & make tons of money. Ok yes thats a lie, I so want to quit my job tomorrow & for the rest of my working life carry a camera around! But really, I am having so much fun.
I have a friend from one of my classes who is doing a wedding in March (an experience job not so much a paid job) but she is going to let me 2nd shoot it! Awesome. I am very excited.
Even better than that-
Desiree Hayes, she is a fantastic photographer. Serious I love her work she is so fun spirited with her clients(I only know because it shows in her work) she is casual & my gosh she is creative. Well one of the websites I chat on is doing a mentor type thing... guess who my mentor is... Desiree Hayes! Seriously, I prayed for this. Silly I know & maybe I shouldnt be so selfish with my prayers but I know I will learn so much from her!
Ok lets stop there this is sounding stalker-ish (but I really just want grow up to be like her some day!)
If you made it this far with out falling asleep.. COOL! Thanks for reading... I will try to post something tomorrow but again no promises to that. :) its 11:18 pm & im super tired. Night friends, on to week 5!





Saturday, January 19, 2008

Wow, Its um, Short!


Yeah this was my reaction to my hair cut today!
I will post more Tuesday!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Happy week 3 my friends

Tuesdays Treat... after going to UNO-where I had a wonderful personal size veggie pizza. It was wonderful! Then I had a 1/2 a small kit kat blizzard... It just wasnt as good as it sounded... but then I felt guilty so I
Walked.... 32 minutes -almost 33. While we watch American Idol I walked. Its a good show to watch while walking. I recomend it! :)

Here is my proof that I realy did walk!
So WI wasnt so good this week... it was up. At first when I left WW I thought oh gosh I cant blog that I gained, then I look like a shmuck like I didnt try. Well I gained 3 pounds! 3 stinkkin' pounds. SO obviously I didnt try hard enough. I didnt exercise one time this week- partially because I have had a head cold which has now turned into a sinus infection. I didnt have much desire to do anything but lay on the couch.
I was looking forward to pizza tonight since it is my free night to eat what I want. I had pizza, enjoyed it & tomorrow starts week#4 & I will try this week to loose those 3 pounds AGAIN.
Other than being sick, & gaining 3 pounds I had a decent week. I had another photo shoot, not sure how they feel about the pictures- they havent ordered anything but its only been a few days. I personally think I bombed it but we all have our good & bad days. Practice makes perfect & I am going to dust myself off & try again! Goodnight friends... see ya next week!

















Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Week 3 of 52

Just a cell phone picture & its a day late. I promised a photo on tuesday. I felt like road kill yesterday. So though my intentions are good, its become clear to me it isnt always going to happen.

This picture was taken this morning at work with my cell, so that I could blog while at work... Its been super slow. Well then work got in the way & I was busy. So here it is wed night & just getting around to the blog...

Good news... went to WW even though I felt like poo yesterday & I was down 1.8!!!! Yeah that is a total of just over 11 pounds I have lost in 5 wks. Ok not as good as I should be doing but I did pick a horrible time to start this... the week after thanksgiving...

Bad news... an online friend who I have known almost as long as John is loosing her fight with cancer. It makes me very sad for her & her family. I send her cards, specifically butterfly cards. She once told me her feelings about butterflies is that they are sent from God to show new life. So every time she saw one that she felt God was giving her new life. I have bought lots of butterfly stamps over the years just to make cards for Jerry... I am sad that she may not be able to enjoy them much longer. (Jerry's blog is in my sites I stalk if you would like to read a little about this great, strong woman)


So on to week 3 of 2008, i hope to clean out my polo bag so that my camera fits into it so i can start to carry it with me more often. Then I will have no excuses why I cant get my tuesday picture done! See ya next week!

Sunday, January 6, 2008

2008 Word for the Year!

fo·cus
–1.
a central point, as of attraction, attention, or activity: The need to prevent a nuclear war became the focus of all diplomatic efforts.
2.
Physics. a point at which rays of light, heat, or other radiation, meet after being refracted or reflected.
3.
Optics.
a.
the focal point of a lens.
b.
the focal length of a lens.
c.
the clear and sharply defined condition of an image.
d.
the position of a viewed object or the adjustment of an optical device necessary to produce a clear image: in focus; out of focus.
4.
Geometry. (of a conic section) a point having the property that the distances from any point on a curve to it and to a fixed line have a constant ratio for all points on the curve.
5.
Geology. the point of origin of an earthquake.
6.
Pathology. the primary center from which a disease develops or in which it localizes. –verb (used with object)
7.
to bring to a focus or into focus: to focus the lens of a camera.
8.
to concentrate: to focus one's thoughts. –verb (used without object)
9.
to become focused.


I have so many things I need/want to focus on & many other things to stop focusing on. Confused? Yeah me too! My focus needs to be on me, myself & I. I am not a selfish person. But I need to try to be. Atleast to keep myself & my goals in focus.
I need to stay focused on what I want to accomplish this year & push everything else to the side for now. I want to learn more about photography. I learn more everyday but there is still so much to learn. I love everything I am learning but its a complicated hobby!
I want to be healthy & i take baby steps toward that everyday, its going to be a long road!
I want to use my time wiser... i have no idea where to start with that. It seems like there is never enough time in the day.
With all that being said, i need to go change the laundry & not spend so much time on this computer!! :)

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Happy New Year!!!



Ok I am already behind... Its only the first week of my 52 week project... I am going to post a picture of me (or me & someone/something) every tuesday. Why tuesday because each tuesday is when I go to Weight Watchers to weigh in... I will keep you updated on each weeks loss or gain... but I really want to be a looser!

This picture was taken Tuesday, but I am just getting it posted.
John & I met (kinda) on New Yrs Day 6 yrs ago! So its appropriate to include him in my picture this week! iluvu