Tomatoes in October?!

Started off with just 4 small tomato plants back in July 2008. All homegrown from seed. Now my bald cypress is hidden by our overgrown tomato plants. So we have tomatoes in the middle of October. The question is will they reach maturity. Lets hope we don't have a freeze shall we?

I thought I would show some puppy love while I am at it. Apollo loves his picture taken, however maybe it's because I had his frisbee up high where he couldn't reach and was completely distracted. Helix on the other hand doesn't like photos. He never stands still.

He is smiling for the camera.

See I couldn't even fit his ears in this picture. ;)

Wedding Planning

So today I was talking with of my favorite cousins about her up and coming marriage. She is marrying a great man. I haven't met the man but I am told he is a real stand up guy. I like those type of people. It got me thinking about how great my husband really is. He takes such good care of me and I am his spoiled queen. I think back to when we were planning our wedding and all the stuff we did. I remember all the work we put into and it was perfect. All the details and the planning paid off. I found the below video when I was telling my cousin about the wedding video. I told her it was one indulgence that I would not hold back on. So worth it. I am getting so excited about her wedding. Mainly because I get to see my family but I also can't wait to take her wedding pictures. She will be a beautiful bride.

http://www.ourtimestudios.com/juric.html

Things are looking up.

So I had to go out to lunch with work because our out of town boss came in from Chicago. As I paid for my food I ended up paying $7.77..I thought to myself wow..that's my lucky number. Could this be my lucky day? Well not even a hour later after lunch my boss asked me to come to his office. For sure I thought I was in trouble. So I come in and he asks me to sit down and close the door. Of course my heart starts to race and I try to recall what I had done. This is not normal for him because he doesn't ever close his door to talk to me. Ha! Anyways...it wasn't what I thought. Actually it was good news. He told me that he has seen great improvements in my work and that I am managing my clients really nicely..also that I was getting a 14% raise. This is the first time in my adult career life that I got a real raise. Especially in my new chosen field. I couldn't believe it.

I can't believe I found a job that I am good at. It was a real self esteem booster. I have always had problems realizing my potential. Ever since I was little I was told that I would have real difficulties succeeding in life. That I had a random learning disorder and that I was way to emotional for the real world. Well comes to find out people were wrong about me. There isn't really anything wrong with me. That I am really just like everybody else. I just have to try a little harder. So my luck has changed. For the better.

Also, I have come to realize that I really enjoy my life. That there is nothing wrong with my waiting a little longer and slowing things down a little. I have a much better outlook now and I feel positive lately. I just hope this positive energy continues.

2nd Anniversary

So yeah it's technically not to the 16th however we decided to celebrate on the weekend because we are so busy during the week. We really wanted to keep it low key and inexpensive. Sandro ordered a cake from Texas Star Bakery in the flavor of our wedding cake and it was amazing. He had told me that it was $90 dollars when he ordered it several weeks ago. At first I was like no freaking way can a cake cost $90 dollars but we budgeted anyways because I really wanted some cake. Well turns out that the lady actually said it was $19 dollars. ( big difference) I think it's time I got Sandro a hearing aid. Since the money was already budgeted Sandro took me to lunch at Cheesecake Factory. It was nice to have a day out. Thought was raining a lot because of Hurricane Ike.

Sandro already gave me the sweetest card. It literally brought tears to my eyes because that is exactly what I wanted. Sometimes Sandro is known to go overboard and spend to much money. This year just a simple beautiful card with a long hand written note about how much he loves me in his life and he wouldn't change anything. It really touched me because he really wrote such wonderful things. He conveniently put in a little gift card for Starbucks..since he knows this is my favorite treat on the weekends. What's bad is that I haven't even got him a card yet. I feel like that bad wife at the moment. But I will get him something small this weekend. He is such an amazing patient man that I am so happy to be married to. I am so thankful that I found that person I really connect with on so many levels. He wrote in the card I hope we have 100 more years together. As if we could live forever right. Gosh...I am so thankful and blessed to have him in my life.

The best part of this weekend I have to say was spending time with Beth. She came over to have some cake and to just chat it up. It has been so long since I had seen her but it was so fun talking and enjoying cake together. She is such a good friend and the strongest person I know. She really is part of my family. I am so amazed with her ability to be so positive and strong going through all this craziness. The last time I had saw her she was going in for her first chemo with a small nagging cough. Now the cough is finally gone and she seems so alive and happy. Probably from no longer being a IBM employee (that death trap) but still I so am so happy I got to see her. Zdenko of course had to get his picture with her. He loves his Beth.

2nd Weight Loss Goal Started

Since I am officially down 26.7 (10%) I thought I would go ahead and begin the second goal weight loss goal. I find it pretty funny that I gained 50 or so pounds after getting married. I blame nothing but myself and my stupidity to think that I could eat whatever I like regardless of how many calories or exercise that I had. Dumb me! After marriage I just let me self go, Sandro never said anything or complained. But I started to get sick all the time. I got all the way up to a size 18. I was depressed with my weight and how I felt all the time. So my next big goal is getting down to the weight I was when I got married almost two years ago. I already feel so much better at my current weight. I want to prepare my body for pregnancy since I know I will gain a lot but I don't ever want to be over 200 pounds again. So in order to meet that goal I need to lose the next 25 pounds. Then If I have the time I can focus on what I like to refer to as Vanity pounds. But those pounds aren't as important as long as I am in a healthy BMI range and I feel healthy in general.

The biggest difference in my current lifestyle is I am not depriving myself. I am not giving up anything just watching my moderation. I think losing weight has a lot to do with rewarding yourself and setting goals that are attainable. I try to have my treat day/meal once a week and on occasion I still indulge pizza or ice cream, however I don't make this as part of my daily diet. I use sparkpeople to track my intake (sometimes I get lazy here) and I make sure I workout in some fashion 3-4 times a week. Sometimes it's just walking the dog others it's training for a 5k (which I am on week 5 of 9) also making sure I do some weight training and I LOVE swimming. This weekend Sandro and I went went on a 3 hour hike (close to 7 miles) I was really exhausted after that.

Will we ever get there?

Lately I have been really depressed. I didn't meet my want and need to be CC debt free by August. It's likely going to be November before I meet this goal. I feel sick of having to living on such a tight budget. I feel a tremendous amount of guilt about spending more than we should. Like I have to justify everything. Today I got into a fight with my mother. Mainly because I wasn't coming down for her Birthday (she is Austin). I guess I had it my head she was coming up to Dallas instead. So I had her gift shipped directly to her. I had two birthdays this month which hits your budget really hard when you trying to focus on debt. So I bet you are wondering why I am doing this all. Why does it matter? Plenty of Americans have debt. Plenty are drowning in it and it doesn't bother them. This is no way to live. I want to live within my means regardless if I should or not. There are plenty of reasons that I am doing this. First, I want to be able to save as much as possible to get us a good cushion. There is always that what if. I am about to go in to our savings to take a huge junk to pay off as much as possible. This was part of the original plan...but that means I have to get it paid off for good so we can get back to saving again.
Another big thing is that Sandro and I want to start a family. Well my insurance isn't the best and I will have a automatic 3000 deductible. This doesn't take into account the amount I am going to pay if I happen to have our baby out of network (shit happens right) or if there is something wrong with our pregnancy. Then there is this whole problem with paying for daycare. I have no intention of being a stay at home mom. I have career and I want to keep this career and have a family. Daycare for babies is close to $800-1000 a month. So once we have a child we won't be able to save very much (except for retirement)
So it comes down to this. How can we afford all of this? I can't even afford to decorate my house or get much needed tools that are necessary for home ownership. I either need to get a better job or Sandro will. But I love what I do. I love my job. So anyway...my head is swimming today. Maybe it's the PMS talking maybe it's me just feeling the challenges of married life. Do we just become like everyone else and drown in debt. Or do we focus on our goals?
I feel like every time there is a obstacle it will keep us further away from having a family. I feel like every time something that pops up that isn't on our budget that it derails our plan even further. I wish I could just be happy and not have to think about all of this. I wish I could just win the lottery. Well overall I know I should be thankful for having amazing supportive husband. I know we will one day make our goals. Hopefully this depression will subside soon.

SJ Photography Website now Published

I haven't blogged in a while so I thought I would write this one up. For some of you who know me you know that I am huge on photography. Love it, love it and love it so more. Even when I was younger I would be the type to always want to look at my mom's albums. She collected so many pictures. I would spend hours and hours looking at pictures, one by one. I love seeing history. I even would dig out my grandmothers albums and look through those. I always love looking at the expression of people faces and thinking about what possible could have been thinking. I was always consumed with it. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be able to pick up a camera and perhaps a little bit of talent. But hell I went for it. I received my first real camera for Christmas. It's a 35mm SLR Canon. While film is definitely not popular anymore I am surprised on how beautiful the pictures turn out. I have so much to learn though. Mainly about lighting and proper use of a flash but I am totally willing to keep trying.

This last month I had the opportunity to take pictures for my BIL and SIL wedding. Here are the top ten things that I learned.

1) Slow down. Take a break and really pay attention to the shots that you want to take. Don't rush yourself. Your the one in control.

2) Trust your first instinct. If you know a room has good lighting and would be better for pictures tell the bride. I wish I had used a different room because the lighting was just off during the groups shots. Also, the the fact so many people where in the room while you were taking the pictures make you really nervous and rush the whole process. In retrospect I would have used the room with the better lighting and less distractions.

3) Don't waste to much of the film during the pre-wedding pictures.

4) Have three sets of replacement batteries. I loaned mine out to fred not thinking I might actually need the other set. Oh well.

5) Take more guest shots. I feel like I missed the mark on this. I didn't go around and ask to take pictures of the guests. While I got quite a few I feel I could have gotten more.

6) Taking pictures in low light is just hard. But the black and white film looks beautiful in this setting.

7) Having an assistant (Thanks Mom) is very important. I couldn't have done it without her.

8) A photographer can't always take pictures every time. (believe it or not) There will be mess ups. I need to learn to live with that and love the pictures I do take.

9) I should have taken a break. Didn't even get any stinky cake. :(

10) Watch for slippery places and try not to step on the brides Train. hehe...I nearly died twice.

Here is the link to my new photography website. Randi's pictures are password protected but if you want to see them let me know or let her know. This will basically be my hub for storing and displaying all my photo shoots. Enjoy.

http://photography.sandroandstephanie.com/

The photobook:
share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AYuGrdkzcNWLzQ