Yes, I went on a Blind Prom Date

Yesterday I shared some photos that I took of Kellie, a future JMU Duke, before her prom!  After seeing her get ready and in her beautiful, colorful gown I decided to try to find a few of my old prom photos!  Sadly, my prom was at the beginning of the digital camera phase so I could only find a few for you, which is probably an okay thing.  (It's amazing how I look back on these photos and think "GEEZ I was skinny!" but at the time I would've never have thought that!  I can't believe how much "growing up" I have done in just nine years!  Sit back and have a good chuckle at my prom memories, then reminisce over your own!

Here's what I remember...

Finding THE dress.  I actually purchased two other dresses before this one (both on clearance and neither of them were over $25 each - I was a tightwad even in 12th grade!)  When I wasn't really happy with the other dresses, my mom and I went out looking again.  I actually fell in love with this yellow one, with a shear side and a ton of sparkles but it was well above my budget!  After much discussion, my dad decided a girl only goes to prom once and he paid the difference! :)  Let's just hope he has the same motto when it comes time for a wedding dress! ;)  

Since he paid, we HAD to take a father/ daughter photo! :) 

And again, since he paid... I was required to take a "Pretty girl with the business dump truck photo!"  Only in Hickory!!

And then I remember my date.  I am pretty embarrassed to admit that I went on a Blind Prom Date.  We actually met up once before when our mom's set us up.  Desperate for a date I agreed to the nonsense.  Despite his HORRIBLE top hat, cane, and gloves, he was a nice guy... but I never called him again after prom.  Woops!  

I just ran through a few files on my external hard drive and sadly I cannot find any of the photos from the school's after prom party, but it was a lot of fun.  Our high school had a party at the school with tons of games and food and prizes.  We stayed there all night riding tricycles around the building, bouncing off and sticking to a Velcro Wall, trying our luck at the money machine, and having a pudding eating contest.  (Why I remember the pudding thing beats me!)

So there ya have it!  A quick trip down memory lane... How about you?  Do you have any crazy prom memories?  Share them below in the comment section! 

Sneak Peak at Prom Photos!

Oh the good ole days... What do you remember from your prom?  Was it your smokin' hot date?  Dancing the night away with all your friends?  Or maybe the after party?

Last week I had the chance to take some photographs for Kellie before her prom.  I used to babysit her and her older sister back in the day, probably the same year I going to prom myself!  Erin, her older sister, called my sister to ask if Leslie could come take some photos.  Leslie had to work, so the job was defaulted to me.  I was excited because I am a rookie with my camera!  I was pumped to have the chance to take some photos, learn more about my camera and new lens, and have an actual model... not Chloe!  

The photos look very amateur but I have a few that turned out okay.  She had a beautiful, colorful dress that was even more fun when she fanned it out!  Take five seconds and check out a few of the photos I took of her.  I would love some feed back from any photogs out there!  I'm a rookie - I will take all of the advice I can get!

Getting ready!  Her mom and sister were there to help with her hair!

Showing off the colors of her dress

How great is this peacock dress?! 

She's so pretty!  She will fit right at JMU! :)

Of course, like at most of our proms, the mom helps put the boutonniere on the date! It's tricky! 

So we did a fake photo :)

There is another similar shot like this, but I LOVE the expression on both of their faces in this one!

So what do you think?  Did I do an okay job?  I would LOVE to have some more models to shoot in hopes of learning more about my camera!  Wanna be a volunteer?  Need some family photos?  Or want a couple shots of your kids?  I wanna learn and you need some new pictures... great combination right?? Send me an email if you are interested! :)  

Third Grade Autobiographies

Last week I wrote a little something about my scrapbooking days...   Today I thought it would be super cute to show you something that my roommate and I laughed over recently.

I met Caitlin in first grade in Mrs. Stillman's class.  Even though we were polar opposites we have some how stayed friends through all these years.  A couple of weeks ago she came home from visiting her parents' house and brought the autobiography she wrote in third grade.  We were also in the same class that year, with Mrs. Ward as our teacher.  How I remember all my teachers' names is well beyond me.

When I saw her autobiography, I ran upstairs to my old scrapbooks and year books to find mine!  Of course, me being the pack rat that I am, I still had it!

I remember making the cover with my mom.  Too bad some of the ribbons fell off!

Yes Ma'am... I used a type writer.  So ahead of my time...

This photo was in my autobiography!  Caitlin is the one with short hair in the far right!

Here are a few photo's of Caitlin's autobiography... 

Notice the date?  1992!  I wonder how high tech the autobiographies of third graders look like these days!

I love that her's is hand written!

I didn't get a photo feature like she did in mine, but I did get a shout out!  "Susan Benjaminson was in friend. Susan sat at my table." :)  Love it!

It's so cool that all these years later we are still friends, and both still have these autobiographies!  To be completely honest with you - they are both now sitting on our coffee table, right next to my digital album of 2010.  

Do you have things like this from when you were a kid?  Or are you the parent who is keeping all of these treasures?  Keep it up!

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!

Oh man, I love traveling and vacationing more than almost anything.  Who doesn't though?  I just got a nice compliment from my dear friend Caitlyn... she is leaving for Australia on Monday (yes, I'm jealous).  Here's how the gChat convo went:

Caitlyn:  ps do you have any traveling wardrobe advice? good clothes for a long flight?

me:  comfy.

but something you won't feel frumpy in

because if you feel frumpy, you will feel crappy anyway

know what i mean?

comfy pants, definitely pants. i hate when i wear a skirt or capris and my legs get cold

and layers.

the air gets cold and stale on the planes

you may even want to bring a change of clothes, just to make you feel better after the LONG trip. might be a bit more refreshing

Caitlyn:  this is all super helpful!

you're the pro 

me:  haha

good

if i'm good at one thing in life, traveling is it. 

Michael and I just got back from our 5 day camping trip in Charleston, South Carolina.  Let's see if I can quickly summarize the trip for you!

We packed up the car and drove 7.5 hours to Charleston.

Our Campsite looked like this.

 It was slightly roasty and humid out, but it was so wonderful.

 We saw a ton of cool, southern, older buildings around downtown Charleston.

Along the battery we saw these fun houses.  And our tour guide showed us how to take the photo without getting cars in the way!

 

 Rainbow Row houses! 

  I just really like that photo.

I was SHOCKED to "run into" my b.f.f.  Best surprise ever.

 Then we went to the beach and wore silly hats.

 And had some delicious pina coladas. <3

Did I mention we were camping?

 And that it stormed a couple nights? It was really pretty after the storm in the morning though.   

We found some cool shells on our tour to Morris Island with Adventure Harbor Tours. Go visit them and tell him the girl that found the GIANT shark tooth sent you!

Then we played with the camera back at the campsite.

 

We saw some pretty flowers...

 ...and some palm trees. 

  We did some shopping.

Did a little bit more sight seeing, then headed home.

By the way, do you want a close up to the shark tooth we found?!  Check it out! 

All in all, it was a WONDERFUL trip and I can't wait for our next one!  I hope you enjoyed the pics!

Scrapbooking Gone Digital!

Let's talk about how we preserve our memories and photos for a quick second.  I remember when I was a kid how excited I was to look through my mom and dad's old photo albums.  My mom was young with long hair.  Wait, scratch that long hair part... that was my dad.  But I remember looking back at photos of them camping and hanging out with their friends.  I loved it.

Now we all have digital photographs.  What in the world will my kids grab off the shelf to look at?  I do have a ton of scrapbooks from the past, which you will hear about in one second.  But seriously!  This is something that bothers me a little!  Are our children going to say, "Hey Mom, where is your old external hard drive?  I want to browse through a few files of photos from when you were younger!"  Doubtful.  The only reason I looked through my mom's old photos was because the albums were there.  It makes me sad that things like photographs and memories have all gone digital.

As I just mentioned, I was a scrapbooker.  I think I can say that I have exceeded my scrapbooking days.  I used to be very into the hobby of cutting card stock and using fun stickers to display my photos in an album that eventually became super fat and could barely close.  Every vacation I would take, I would grab odds and ends that would look cute or have just the right touch for my scrapbook.  I did them annually, and for certain events like vacations or graduations.  I loved it. The cost didn't really matter to me.  I don't think I ever really realized how expensive that hobby was.  Scrapbooking was definitely my creative outlet for many, many year.

But now I have a ton of scrapbooks on my bookshelf that are simply collecting dust.  I will occasionally look through them, smile, and reminisce, but these albums are big and bulky.  They take up tons of space!  If only they were thinner and smaller I think having several shelves of them wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Which brings me to my next discovery.  It's not new, by any means.  I have had friends making these books for years.  Actually my Swiss family has been really good about creating one for every vacation or event they go on.  I just created my first digit (iphoto) album!  And I love it!  I decided I wanted to make an album to summarize the year 2010.  Since I am a Mac User and I love iphoto, it was so incredibly simple.

In the end my book was well over the allotted 20 pages but with the number of photos I take in one year, there is no way I could summarize 2010 in just 20 pages!  My page count wrapped up at 46.  The finished, hard back, large book, including shipping, was about $60 (through Apple).  I know it is probably less expensive through other companies, but it was so easy to use iphoto since all of my pictures were already there.

When I first finished my photo book, before ordering it, I was a little set back about the price.  $60 is a lot to display photos isn't it?!  Then I started to ponder how much scrapbooking actually cost me.  The album?  Probably $15-ish.  Each colorful background page?  About 50 to 95 cents each.  Printing the photos?  Maybe 10-ish cents each.  All the extra odds and ends that went into the book?  Goodness... beats me.  Oh, and don't forget the plastic page covers that you put the pages in!  It adds up just as quick!

The front cover of my book.

So simple!  You just click how many photos are on the page
and it gives you several different layout options!

So if you are anything like me, and you LOVE to be creative, you don't have the time or space to do the scrapbooking anymore, but you still want a way to display your photos... I highly recommend you check this out.  If you don't use iphoto, check out shutterfly.  I always get coupons in my email box from them!  

Next year I think I am going to try to create a calendar with iphoto.  Has anyone ever done this?  I am leaving tomorrow for my vacation in Charleston, SC.  We are doing a photo tour of the city, so maybe when I get home I will have to create a book just for this vacation!! :)

Chariot Wine and Healthy Pizza!

So I have a confession to make.  I'm not ready, at all, for swimsuit season.  I hurt my knees a year ago and haven't been able to do much at the gym other than upper body exercises.  When your lower body doesn't do much for a year, it totally shows.  I'm thinking a wet suit will be in order this year, just to hide the parts of me that I don't even want to see!

Anyway, my boyfriend has been preaching the paleo lifestyle to me for several months now.  From what I gather, the point is to eat like a caveman: meats, fish, veggies, fruits.  From what I've read, you don't eat anything that is not natural or things that have been processed.  No extra sugars.  No bad carbs.  (Which means no pasta or bread or peanut butter snickers.)  I'm not doing this 100% legit yet, but I'm working on it.

In college one of my roomies and I did the SouthBeach Diet together.  It was crazy.  I think we stuck with it for a few months.  All my friends began calling me The Incredible Shrinking Woman.  None of my clothes fit me.  I went down a couple pants sizes.  I didn't have a scale in college so I have no clue how much weight I actually lost.  (Which was probably a good thing because now I am slightly obsessive about checking my weight, just incase it decides to do anything crazy on me!)  But the issue with it was as time passed, and I began to reintroduce myself to carbs, the weight started to come back. *Womp Womp*

So I took photos and measurements of myself last week.  Just incase I stick with this long enough to see actual results.  (How awesome would that be?!)  I don't plan on showing these photos to anyone, unless of course, by some crazy chance, I totally rock this and look awesomeee in a few months!  (Then you will see a blog post containing "the photos" I'm sure!)  In the mean time, I have lost 3 pounds and have had very few bad carbs.  It's tough.  I'm not going to lie, I had a small bowl of popcorn tonight.  But overall, a week and a half in, I'm pretty proud of myself so far.

The best (and worst) part about doing this whole "eat healthy" thing is that I have to cook!  It sucks when I'm looking for a quick meal or snack because I've learned that very few things that come from a box are good for you.  I have been forcing myself to make breakfast, or eat fruit.  And I'm getting a bit more creative with dinners.  I hope you don't mind if I begin sharing some of them with you here!

Two nights ago I had the biggest craving for pizza.  A cheesy, delicious pizza.  I am not sure where I had originally seen this idea.  I'm pretty positive it was on the Today Show at some point, but if it was from your blog you deserve the credit so take it!

Here's what I did:

Portabella Mushroom Caps!  I washed them and dried them really well.  They get a big soggy, so make sure you get them good and dry.  I only used two and put the others back in the fridge.

I put some foil out and sprayed some PAM on there just to make sure they wouldn't stick.  This also allows super easy clean up too!

Since my trainer is always preaching organic everything, and I'm trying to stay away from added sugars and salts I decided to go with these organic diced tomatoes with italian herbs instead of spaghetti sauce from a jar.  The flavor was probably a bit more plain that I would've normally liked, however, if I wanted to put more time into the meal I would've just used the tomatoes to make my own sauce.  In the end this tasted just fine though!

Cover the mushrooms with the diced tomatoes.  I used a ton because I love tomatoes. :)

I added a bit good handful of cheese to my "pizzas."  I don't believe it's "paleo approved" but with the SouthBeach you can eat cheese and since I'm making the rules... what's a pizza without the cheese?!  Then I used turkey pepperoni for my extra topping.  I'm sure it would be great with just about any topping.  I think next time I am going to try ham and pineapple! 

Above is a photo of what they looked like before they were sent to the oven.

I set the oven to 350 degrees and let them back for about 12ish minutes.

Red wine (in small doses) is allowed!  So while I was waiting, I began sipping my all time favorite red wine - Chariot.

The finished product, sitting on my coffee table!  

Now, my real opinion?  This was good, and filling, but it definitely didn't replace pizza.  I think next time I might try cooking (or grilling) the mushroom for a few minutes before I bake it with the toppings.  I would've preferred the mushroom to have been a bit less chewy and maybe a bit more seasoned.  About half way through the baking process I realized that I was a fool and I totally forgot extra seasonings.  So I pulled it out of the oven and added a little garlic and italian seasoning.  Maybe seasoning the mushroom and grilling it for 2 minutes beforehand would've been a good option.  I still have two more in the fridge!  I will let you know how they work out! :)

What do you think?  Have you ever made these before?  What should I try next?