Baby Sayers is on the way!

Our oldest niece Gail and her husband Tristan will be expecting their first child in late January. Last weekend was Gail's shower and of course I captured some photos to remember it by.
Gail and Tristan have decided not to find out the sex of their baby so it will be a surprise for all of us.
I am very happy for these two. After almost two years of dealing with infertility (they were wed in November of 2007, three weeks after our wedding)- all their hard work and patience has paid off. The baby looks healthy and everything is right on schedule. Unfortunately Gail does have Gestational Diabetes, so she will have to watch certain things she eats. But, all and all things are going well.

(Teresa and Elaine)

We also found out our youngest niece Teresa is expecting her first child next summer...who would have thought...the youngest and oldest sisters pregnant at the same time!
In 2007 at our wedding our other two nieces, Elaine and Debby were pregnant - apparently in this family, babies come in pairs!

Happy Birthday Amelie!

Last weekend we celebrated my beautiful new cousin Amelie's very first birthday! She is such a joy to be around and so goofy and funny! And stubborn too- which makes me laugh just that much more LOL!
Here she is while opening presents, that huge smile on her face is what I love most and while I'd like to claim full credit for it...I have to admit Elmo had something to do with it : )

The yummy cake she dug right into...made by Uncle Jason...so cute!!!

Happy Birthday baby girl, I can't wait to celebrate many, many more...although I wish you would grow up just a little bit slower! It seems like yesterday I was holding you the day after you were born!

Two Year Anniversary

My husband and I just celebrated our two year anniversary this past Monday. To commemorate the occasion we had a wonderful weekend. Since I am the wife, and I am sure not the only one, I do most of the planning. So this year I told my husband it was up to him! He had to plan the entire weekend- where we would go, what we would do.

So, he did- and it was wonderful.

Friday night, we spent the night in- watching movies, ordering take-out and relaxing. Then Saturday, after attending a family birthday party hubby surprised me with tickets to the Fox Theatre in New Center Detroit to see David Copperfield! I had never been to a real magic show before, not even during my trips to Vegas, so I was very excited! The show was pretty good, and surprisingly funny!

And then Sunday we visited Yates Cider Mill and took a long walk along the river. Unfortunately I started feeling sick Sunday night and have been sick most of this week. But I am feeling much better now thankfully.

I am thankful to have had these last two years with my husband, he really is an amazing man and he loves me and takes care of me, what more could I hope for.

pouty because I couldn't find a good spot to prop the camera for a photo together....

yes....a spot at last!

LOL- this is the look I get when hubby has had juuust about enough of my antics....haha love it!
I told him his forehead looks like a Shar Pai when he does this....LOL!!!!

New (er) Car!!!

Finally, after years of driving "the death trap,"- the nickname I gave my 1997 Contour, I have a new(er) car!!!!

It is a Saturn L200 V-6, and it is fully loaded. The car was a special order so it has a lot of features that do not normally come on the L200- like heated leather seats, moon roof, electric seat adjustments and automatic lights.
Even though the car is 8 years old, it only had 60,000 miles on it and I got it for a very, very good price. It is way comfy compared to my other car and it actually makes me not mind driving so much (well, not too much anyway). And being that I have a sometimes hour ride to work and back everyday, comfort makes a world of difference.

Time to Trash It !!!!

So, since my husband and I have our second wedding anniversary creeping up I wanted some sexy-type gift to give him. And after seeing how amazing my friend Lori looked in her "Trash the Dress" photos, I thought that would be perfect!

I contacted my friend Rachel of August Tea Photography and last Sunday we trashed it! The session was so much fun- first we started behind a vacant building, then we moved on to a local beach and finally I took the big plunge and got my booty in the water!!! It was a blast! I always loved being in front of the camera when I was younger- and lately I've been spending most of my time behind it- so it was nice to step out in front again for awhile and feel sexy.

Here are a few of my favorites...so far...

Update

So, let's see- not too much new going on. I passed my State Boards Exam for my full Social Work licensure- so that is super exciting! The test was a killer and I am so glad its over!

I am settling into my new position at work- and liking it for the most part. It is a bit crazy right now with the start of the school semester but for the most part faculty are staying sane...so far.
My new job mostly entails managing all of the research projects that come through the School of Social Work. Whether its government contracts on health promotion with the elderly or assisting faculty in running statistics for a large survey conducted with the population of Haiti- I manage the processing of it all. I also help faculty in writing, and editing, manuscripts for professional literature and preparing course work for students. I guess you could call it the managing all the busy-work involved in the research process. LOL. But, I like it.

Hubby and I have started to look for houses, but in this market and with how the banks are reacting to potential buyers who knows if anything will come of our search. I am hearing horror stories from almost everyone I know trying to buy bank-owned properties- so we'll see. We're trying not to get our hopes up too much- if it happens, it happens. If not that it wasn't meant to be.

Other than that nothing too new is going on. My momentum with P90X has slowed a bit. I am still managing 4 days a week but the program demands 6 days and I really need to step it up again. I noticed results really quickly but its amazing how those results can start to slip if I don't keep at it. Plus I really have to buckle back down with my diet. Its just so hard for me. I can work out until I am blue in the face but I have a really hard time resisting the foods I like. It is probably the thing I struggle with most. Ah well- I need to love myself the way that I am and realize my body is what it is. I will never stop trying to improve it but maybe I will be much happier if I can just accept it for what it is and realize no one is perfect- everyone has flaws.

I have a Trash the Dress session coming up on soon and I am very excited about that. I hope it will be a chance for me to play model and feel beautiful again. Ever since I got sick last year its been very hard for me to see myself as anything but flawed, broken and sick. I feel like I've been battling my body in one form or another my entire life. Maybe for a few hours I can feel good about my body again- that would be so nice.

P90X Killer!

So as most of you who follow my blog know, my husband and I are constantly in the battle of the bulge. It would be nice one day to not have to worry about what we put in our mouths, but I don't know if that will ever happen. I wonder what its like for those people who have never had to watch their weight- they just "naturally" don't eat a lot. Or they could take food or leave it.
Seriously? I think they're aliens.
Anyway, at the beginning of this year hubby and I really got down to business and I lost about 15 pounds, hubby lost 25. Well as summer went on and we attended BBQs and weddings and parties...I've put 7 back on and so has hubby.

Enter- P90X.

We knew our gym membership would be expiring soon- so after hearing how wonderful the P90X program was- and how intense...we thought we'd give it a try!
Well the first week was PAINFUL- I mean, can't walk and want to cry painful! ...and mind you I work out regularly and was still this sore...
The second week was a bit more tolerable but it was still kind of hard to walk, and as we finish our third week, true to what Tony Horton claims, our bodies are starting to get used to the workouts...and we are kicking some ass!
I've been diligent- doing the full 50-90 minute workouts, 6 days per week. Hubby hasn't been quite as good, but he has still managed about 4 days per week- not so bad.

I thought once I started working full time I really wouldn't be able to do it- but I am and I am proud of myself. Its just a top priority for me. I hate having this extra weight on. I once got down to my goal and I remember how good it felt. It was easier to move; easier to breath and I felt so much better! Now I know I am not morbidly obese or anything, but I wanna be fit. I wanna be- damn look at her abs!!! kinda fit- so I'm working on it. I probably always will be.

But I honestly recommend the P90X program. If you don't want to pay for a gym membership and prefer to work out in the privacy of your home- but you don't want some whimpy workout where you don't see results and its easy to slack off. I started noticing a huge difference by day 7 !!! And now we're on day 20 and I can't believe how my body is changing.

Let's hope I (we) can keep it up.