Biggest Loser and A Heavy Dose of Sarcasm...

I'm not even going to lie... I should not even be allowed to call myself a competitor in this Biggest Loser contest!  I'm not sure why it has been so difficult, but this time around I have not really taken the steps to eat better or work out more.  In fact, I think I've gotten worse!  I could list a million excuses (sick kiddos, Mother's Day, our MomSource event, etc.) which have kept us incredibly busy and offered opportunities to gorge myself on sweets, but it really comes down to a lack of commitment.  I set a goal weight to hit before our beach trip this July and now realize that with five pounds (and some major toning) to go, I'm never going to get there if I don't focus and start today.  So after I get rid of this last piece of cake that has been lingering at our house (because obviously it would be wasteful to just throw it away!) I'm back to reaching for a piece of fruit instead of chocolate and getting my rear end back to the gym (or at least out the front door for a little jog).  Somehow the scale numbers continue to drop little by little (probably due to stress more than anything else!), but I know it's going to catch up to me if I don't make some changes.  So, hopefully I won't be as embarrassed to report my progress next week.  If you see me eating a cookie this week, please slap it out of my hand and then show me a picture of Heidi Klum on the runway four weeks after giving birth to her fourth child.  And I'm suuuuuurrrrrrrrre that there was no tummy tuck involved.

As for this weekend, I should be able to squeeze in a workout because we finally have next-to-nothing on the agenda!  The movers were at my parents' house this week so I'm sure we'll be over there to lend a hand (or make it more difficult by adding two kids into the mix!) at some point.  We also have family photos tomorrow with my uber-talented friend, Cory, from Wilkes Photography and this time I'm setting my expectations very low as to how the kids (and by kids I mean Jake) will do.  Here lately he seems to suddenly become shy (which he is NOT) at the sight of a camera, so hopefully he'll at least look in the general direction at least once.  

As a parent, I've learned not to have some idealistic image of how something is going to go because more than likely I'll end up disappointed.  If you want proof, I should post a copy of the baby dedications at our church last weekend.  In my mind, we would stand there and everyone would "ooh" and "ahh" over my babies as Josh blessed them and presented them to the Lord.  Instead, Lilly screamed every time I tried to hand her to anyone but me and Jake rolled around on the stage because I wouldn't pick him up.  Oh it was a sight!  Thank goodness for my sister who saw my "get up here NOW!" look that I shot her because she swooped in to the rescue... meaning she grabbed Jake and ran out of the auditorium while we wrapped up!  Yes, sweet, peaceful moment indeed!  The good news is that at least we'll color coordinate!  I think I have finally mastered the art of coordinating outfits for family photos, which is really based around finding < BRIGHT! > colors that match and using them in different ways.  You can even use clashing patterns as long as there are some solids to balance it out.  Here is our color scheme:

Now if I can just figure out how to accessorize, I'll be all set.  I for one was not born with that gene.  If anyone has a suggestion or two please throw it my way!  And Josh may end up in a yellow shirt if he chooses.  I give my man options.  Only two, yes, but options nonetheless.  :)

I also plan to hit up the neighborhood yard sale tomorrow in hopes to find some treasures for our house.  We recently rearranged the upstairs and I basically have three new rooms to decorate.  We're really trying to stay on a tight budget, so my plan is to find some goodies and also recycle some of the stuff we own and make it new.  All blogs make it look easy, so I'm sure it will be a piece of cake.  Especially since I'm so darn crafty.  {to be read with a heavy dose of sarcasm}

Other than that it's another Sunday at TurningPoint... and I've lost count at what number this one is, which means that we're not quite so new anymore!  I love Sundays because it's a weekly reminder of why we do what we do.  Each week since launch we've seen new faces, people who swore they'd never step foot in a church, and several salvations.  When our weeks get jam-packed, when my days with the kids seem long, when it feels like we have something scheduled for every night of the week, and when it seems like there is never time to just rest, God makes sure to remind me every single weekend that it's all more than worth it.  What I also know is that when I cry out to Him and beg for rest, He gently whispers, "soon."  I don't know if "soon" means tomorrow or if "soon" means three years from now (which in comparison to a life span, would be soon!), but that's the answer I get every time.  Soon I will find rest, but not today.  Today there is still much work to be done for His kingdom.  I guess I'd better get to it.

Have a great weekend, blog land!  Any fun weekend plans on your horizon?

February Photo Ops

I saw that a friend of mine is doing this and think I'll join in the fun.  I'm a failure at Project365, but surely I can take one picture a day for a whole month, right?  Especially since I've been given a topic and have my iPhone on me at all times now!  So here's the challenge, originally brought to you by Chantelle:

I'm not going to post them daily, but in spurts since that's kind of how I roll on this blog anyway!  So here are days 1-3:

[February 1 - My view today]

For a lot of my day, I sit in front of my laptop as I sell golf trips to a resort in Miami.  Pretty random for a gal who lives in Kentucky, right?  But it makes sense if you know the whole story!  Notice the jump-a-roo in the background... baby gear has pretty much taken over every room of the house!

[February 2 - Words]

For the first time this week, I started my day off with THE Word... which is always the favorite way to start my day.  Even though I hate getting out of bed early, I love being up early.  And when I do this and spend the first part of my day with Him, I feel like He rewards me with more time that day.  Weird I know, since every day has 24 hours in it, but somehow He makes it work.  [As a side note: I have no idea why this uploaded upside-down much less how to fix it!]

[February 3 - Hands]

I love photos of hands.  I have no idea why, but I feel like they can tell so much.  We have three separate pictures of just hands hanging on our dining room wall.  I didn't even realize it until I put the third one up, but they really do tell a story.  The first is a picture of mine and Josh's hands on our wedding day, the second is our hands on my Jake-belly bump, and the third is a picture of Lilly's tiny fingers clutching her daddy's hands just moments after she was born... quite possibly my favorite.  So as I said, they tell the story of our family.  But in this project I am committing to taking all new pictures, so here are my favorite pudgy fingers in my life these days:

I know we're three days in, but it's not too late to join up!  I think it's a fun idea and you can link your blog to her blog if you participate.  Tomorrow's does make me a little bit nervous as I feel a bit awkward taking a photograph of a stranger, but I'm sure I'll figure something out!  Happy Friday everyone and here's to more more blogging (I hope!) this month!

Newborn Photos

When we lived in Illinois, a great friend of ours was a fabulous photographer (you can check her out here) and took gorgeous photos of Jake as a newborn.  She did them in our home and I thought, hmmm, maybe I could do that someday.  Since we've moved and she was not available to drive all the way here to photography Lilly (c'mon Jan, it's only a 9-hour drive!) I set up a little area in our house and did what I could.  The first batch were taken on day 13, and Jan suggests that newborn photos are done before the baby is two weeks old.  Honestly, I cut it a little bit close.  She was pretty much mad the entire time, but I did manage to get one or two:

I was hoping she'd sleep so I could really position her the way I wanted to, but she wasn't having it.  This girl loves to sleep, but she does not like to be messed with while she's snoozing!

A week later I couldn't resist and tried again.  She was still wide awake, but in a much better mood.  Here are some of my favorites:

This one makes me smile!

My "money shot" of the day came out a teensy bit blurry, but it will end up in a frame somewhere anyway:

I am still learning a lot... I'm finally pretty good with the functions of my "fancy" camera and have lighting pretty much figured out, which is half the battle I think, but there is plenty of room for improvement.  I can't wait until Jake is older and will actually cooperate and follow instructions so that I can use him as my guinea pig.  And if I could just learn how to edit in Photoshop I'd really be in good shape!  *sigh*  Guess I'll add that to the list of "things to do when I have some free time."  So basically I'll get around to it in about 18 years!  In the meantime, I need to get back to playtime with the little ones!

The Cutest Subjects

I think I've mentioned on here before that I love photography.  No, I'm not going to attempt to ever start a business with it and I definitely have a ton to learn, but I'm always excited when I get to use the knowledge that I do have to take pictures for a friend or family member.  So when my sister, Mindy, asked me to take some pics of her son, Adam, when she was in town this past weekend, I jumped on the opportunity!  Jake was with me, too, and thank goodness our oldest sister, Angie, came along to help us "herd" the kiddos... they were all over the place!  The pictures were taken at the Kentucky Horse Park, which lent us so many beautiful places to shoot.  It took me a little while to get my settings correct (like I said, I'm no professional but I do always try to shoot in Manual mode so I can practice) but by the end of the day (and about 500 shots later), I think we got some good ones!  None of these are edited (aside from making a couple of them black and white) as my sister is the Photoshop expert, but here are a few of our fav's:

Such a serious face, but I thought it was so sweet!

Yes he is holding a shoe... it made him smile, so we went with it!

Despite my efforts, his Mommy ended up getting the "money shot" of the day:

I love this one I took of Adam and his mom... her hair comes out so beautifully in photos!  Then again, it's incredibly beautiful in person, too:

Of course I took some of my favorite little man, too.... but mostly just got his back as he ran all over the place!  That boy loves to go go go!  I actually liked the shots from behind though as this captures his personality at this age:

My favorite: 

And how did we keep the kiddos occupied and smiling for the hour + that we were out there?

First off, Auntie Angie was essential!  Thank you for coming along and entertaining them both! 

And the real secret?  Oh yes, our kids love the iPhone.  Here's our geeky children with their gadgets... too funny:

My sister was also sweet enough to take a couple of prego-pics of me and Lilly, but I'm saving those for another post since this one is already pretty picture-heavy.  Besides, I am way behind on a belly update, so I'll have the hubby take one today and let you know how it's going tomorrow.  I have a doctor appointment later anyway.

Apparently I passed the test because I get to take pictures of this whole family in the fall!  Yay!  And luckily I won't have a big belly to work around since photographing toddlers takes a lot of bending over, laying on the ground, etc.

I hope you enjoyed your daily (double) dose of cuteness today!  Thanks, Mindy, for letting me practice my favorite hobby on my super-dooper adorable nephew!  Oh how I love that little guy!

MIA

Well it seems as if December is flying by and we have been nowhere to be found! As it turns out, we did ditch our laptops and cell phones for a few days and headed north for a retreat with all of the Crossroads' pastors and their wives. It's a rare occasion that we are all together in one place, so we just soaked it up and truly enjoyed the company. God did some amazing things to restore and refresh us all as we look forward to the new year and it was just what everyone needed.

On another note, the house that we stayed at was UN-believable! A very generous family allowed us to stay in their (very large) home and it was like stepping into the pages of Pottery Barn. And even though I meant to take more pictures of our beautiful abode, I guess I was too wrapped up in relaxing. Oh well. But I did manage to get a couple of shots of my favorite room in the house... how much would you love to be the kid who sleeps in this room???


And yes, those bunk beds are on both sides... 8 in total! I'm thinking my parents need to build this in their future retirement home when all of us kids bring our kids over for family vacations. Hint hint!

Our other favorite place in the house was the basement, complete with ping pong, pool, shuffleboard (kind of... I'm not really sure what the table version is called) and a play room full of toys that Jake certainly enjoyed. And while the boys played, I took the opportunity to have a little bit of fun with my camera!

Here's one way to look at this game...

And here's another, more fun way...
And here is where I had the most fun! We learned a group version of ping-pong where everyone circles the table and hits the ball, drops the paddle, and circles to the other side. You're constantly running around and around and everyone gets a turn. In a still frame it looks like this:

But I slowed down my shutter speeds and captured these:

Oh the things that entertain me! Anyway, that's my excuse... that's where we've been. And quite frankly, if I had my way, I'd go away like that at least once a month. Being disconnected in this ever-connected world sure is nice sometimes. And then I come home and blog about it! Ha!

Project365: September 12th - 18th

I did much better this week with the whole picture taking bit. Granted, I have already forgotten to take one today so I'm already behind for next week, but I'll worry about that then. And I guess if I really wanted to I could take a photo of something random in the house tonight before bed. But anyway, here was our week:

Sunday, September 12th... I took many pictures of this spider web, most of which are not worth sharing. I did enjoy playing around with sunlight just to see what it would do. For this one picture, there are about twenty others that did not come out at all! Learning is so much easier with digital film!

{Nikon D3000: ISO 100, 55mm, F/6.3, 1/320s}

Monday, September 13th... See Josh's birthday post below. These two pictures were just taken with my Sony Cybershot which stopped working later on in the week.

Tuesday, September 14th... My mom will recognize this gal. Meet Lindsay. She and I were the best of friends when I lived in Mexico City in 10th and 11th grade. You heard me right, we lived in Mexico City. I forget that a lot of my new friends don't even know that about me. Anyway, it has been seven years since we last saw each other and she would be passing our exit on her way from Iowa to Wisconsin for a business trip. The visit was only an hour long, but it was so wonderful to see each other and catch up. If you had been there, you would have thought that we had just hung out last week. That's what I love about her.

{Nikon D3000: Automatic. Thanks to my father-in-law for snapping the picture}

Wednesday, September 15th... I snagged this picture from my friend Kristie (thanks!) because Wednesday was when I realized that my Sony point and shoot was not working. I really wanted it to work, too, because we went and saw the Power Team and it was awesome! I had never heard of it, but it's a group of men and women who perform amazing feats of strength and then preach the Gospel. If you ever have the opportunity to see them, make sure you don't miss it. It's well worth the trip!

{Whatever camera Kristie used. Great shot!}

Thursday, September 16th... I can't go a week without a picture of my favorite little guy! He has recently started smiling for the camera. I'm loving it.

{Nikon D3000: ISO 1250 (auto), 34mm, F/5, 1/30s}

Friday, September 17th... Jake and Ollie's second date. Jake definitely leaned in for a few kisses. She definitely pulled his hair and smacked him in the face. I think it's love.

{Nikon D3000: Automatic mode}

Saturday, September 17th... Jake enjoyed some couch time while watching football with his daddy and Pawpaw.

Another week gone by... where does the time go? This week should be pretty uneventful so the photos will probably be a bit lame next week (that is if I remember to take any each day). Sometimes uneventful weeks are the best kinds. I hope yours was as good as ours!

Project 365: August 29 - September 4, 2010

So I'm still not completely on top of this whole Project365 thing, but at least I have a post this week even if it's not every day. It's progress. And don't judge me that some of these pictures are not even from this week and that on 2 days I couldn't pick just 1 picture. It's my project, so I can do it how I want it. Right? Right??? Work with me here, people.

Sunday, August 29th... Actually, I have no photo for this day, but I have two from the previous Friday (8/27). Again, it's my project so I'll do it my way.

We took a family trip to the Home Depot. It was Jake's first time riding in the seat of the cart as well as his first (and probably last) time in his cute little boots. Looks like our little beefcake is already outgrowing his size 3 shoes!

{Sony Cybershot}

Monday, September 30th... Jake loves his new swing that Daddy bought for him! I was only going to post the second picture (what is it with me and pictures of his fee today?) but I loved his face in this first one so much that I just couldn't leave it out. Again, 2 pictures... and again, I know that's breaking the "rules." I think I just threw the rule book out the window.

{Nikon D3000: ISO 400, 18mm, F/4.5, 1/320s}

{Nikon D3000: ISO 400, 42mm, F/5.3, 1/200s}... LOVE this!

Tuesday, August 31st - A sweet family from church gave us a bike and a trailer like the one we used when we were out in Colorado. This time we tried it without the car seat. He's still a little too small, but we took a short ride and he seemed to like it alright. It's a nice alternative to walks in the stroller and next year we'll be able to take this one with us when we go to Colorado.

{Sony Cybershot}

Wednesday, September 1st - A beautiful butterfly was stuck in our kitchen all morning. I tried to shoo it out, but it just fluttered around this window. I had lots of fun taking many (good and bad) photos and trying out some tricks.

{Nikon D3000: ISO 400, 55mm, F/5.6, 1/30s}

Hmmm... apparently after Wednesday I just totally forgot to take any pictures. Oh well. At least I had a couple of days with double doses to make up for it and at least I did a post this week. Hopefully I'll improve, but I am enjoying the fact that this makes me unload my pictures every week and file them. I need to move them all to a thumb drive by date and start on a book for Jake. He's going to be SIX MONTHS OLD next week... where does the time go??? On an exciting (for me) note, I'm signing up to take a Photoshop class at the community college here. It's only the basics, but it's long overdue since I'm not smart enough to figure out all of the effects myself, which is rare for me and a computer program. I'm still not going to edit any of my Project365 pictures, but hopefully I'll be able to use some of the things I learn to make my photography even better. So far it's probably the favorite hobby that I've ever decided to pick up... especially now that I have such a cute subject available everyday!

Project365: August 8-14

It's been a busy week in Mauneyland (as usual) so here are some of the highlights:

Sunday 8/7 - We went to the Refresh Event at the campus up in Freeport. Josh baptized a couple that he had the pleasure of marrying back in June as well as a few others from our campus. This is the same event where I was baptized last year.

{Sony Cybershot}

Monday, 8/9 - Someone LOVES cereal! Yum!

{Sony Cybershot}


Tuesday, 8/10 - It won't be long now! Last year our apple trees were never sprayed, so our apples weren't any good. This year we'll have more than we'll know what to do with! I hope we have some friends who love apples!

{Nikon D3000: ISO 200, 42 mm, F/7.1, 1/30s}

Wednesday, 8/11 - This is something that should never be in our house. Somebody needs to stop me!

[Nikon D3000: ISO 800, 24 mm, F/9, 1/2.5s}

Thursday, 8/12 - A little rawhide seems to keep her in the yard!

{Nikon D3000: ISO 400, 40 mm, F/5.3, 1/125s}

Friday, 8/13 - Both of my boys love their SportsCenter

{Nikon D3000: I cheated... Automatic (no flash) Mode}

Saturday, 8/14: Jake loves weekends because he gets to flirt with his girlfriend, Ollie, in the church nursery. Hopefully he'll be okay with an arranged marriage.

{Sony Cybershot}

So that was our week in a nutshell. Next week should be interesting... expect a lot of photos (and an additional post I'm sure) that involve our impromptu Extreme Home Makeover project.