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Here’s a little random fact list about me and Miss A (the next segment of Wacky Wednesday isn’t about her, so if you want to skip down past the baby stuff, skip to the next division line):

• I am very proud to say that the official weight gain for this pregnancy is only 8 pounds.    That’s a “net” figure… I lost a lot of weight during the first trimester (well over 10 pounds) due to nausea / lack of appetite, so I’ve gained that all back plus 8 pounds.  But if you look at my starting weight and my current weight, the official number is 8 pounds.  I’m pretty proud of that and it gives me hope for getting back in shape after she comes.
• Miss A is still cooking… although we weren’t sure she would be at this point.  Mikel and I thought there might be a possibility they might induce today after my check up.  They’ve been watching me for sporadic signs of pre-eclampsia (I even spent an afternoon in L&D 2 weeks ago being monitored for blood pressure, contractions, and the baby’s heart rate), and thought that since I will officially hit “full term” – 37 weeks – this week, they might go ahead and decide it’s time to induce just in case.  Luckily, it seems that most of the symptoms I’ve been having have calmed down and they’re just watching me closely for the time being.  They did mention today that there’s a chance they may move my scheduled induction up to August 3 from August 10 just because she’s measuring ahead, so that’s exciting.  We may be less than 2 weeks from baby!  Ack!  Luckily, our bags are packed as of this morning (we were wanting to be as prepared as possible if they decided to spring an induction on us at the appointment).  We’ll find out next week when the official eviction date is.
• At last check, Miss A was weighing in at 6+ pounds, according to the sonogram – take that with a grain of salt because they’re known to be off.
• I had a major cooking day on Monday to get some meals in the fridge so I wouldn’t have to cook too much after Miss A makes her appearance.  I split several recipes into 2 smaller disposable pans so we’d have less leftovers and more meals ready to go.  I ended up with 2 pans of Chicken Taco (my family’s version of King Ranch Chicken), 2 pans of Chicken Spaghetti/Tetrazzini (whatever you like to call it), 2 pans of lasagna, and a batch of the Pioneer Woman’s “Comfort Meatballs” – they’re in a homemade BBQ sauce instead of a marinara sauce and promise to be good as sandwich material.
• Mikel went to “Daddy Boot Camp” last night at the hospital.  It seems he got a lot of good information, but it kinda cracked me up.  We’ve gone to a bunch of classes at the hospital (childbirth, nursing, baby care, car seat…), and most all of them ended on time and we were out of there at a reasonable hour.  It seems the men were eager to talk without their wives around last night because they went an hour and a half past the advertised end time!  I didn’t mind at all (I had Cake Boss episodes on DVR that I hadn’t watched), but I just found it funny that they decided to be chatty when at every class I went to, it was the wives asking questions!

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Sunday night, Mikel and I went to the Michael Buble concert at the AAC.  It was amazing!  Michael’s voice is just as incredible in person as it is on recordings and he’s so charmingly personable during the show.  You felt like he was your friend (your foul-mouthed friend, by the way… it wasn’t like he dropped the f-bomb every other word, but he definitely didn’t censor himself – I’d call it a show for the 12 and over crowd, if you know what I mean).  What Mikel and I are were most surprised about was the opening act.  We’d never heard of them before and actually weren’t concerned about showing up for the concert on time (we had dinner reservations beforehand).  We figured if we get there to see them, great!  If not, oh well!  I am so glad we go there on time because they were simply amazing – they’re a group called Naturally 7 and they’re out of NYC.  They are AMAZING – every. single. thing. about their show is a cappella voices.  Absolutely zero instruments, but they sound like they have a full orchestra going on at times.  Here’s one of my favorites (and how they opened the show we saw… long, but worth it!):

They were so much fun to watch and Mikel & I were both continually amazed by what they were able to do!  I must remember to go hit iTunes to get a few of their songs before long…

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My favorite commercial right now:

Is it wrong that I want to find a way to work the phrase “Jack Wagon” into normal, everyday conversation these days?  It probably is, but I think it might be my new favorite phrase.  I love R. Lee Ermey.

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Ok, I know this hasn’t been the longest of Wacky Wednesdays, but I feel like I’ve been talking your ear off!  Ha!  So, I’m going to leave it on that note.  That’s right.  The note I want to leave you on is “Jack Wagon!”  Don’t hate me.    I should be back tomorrow with more riveting posts… now to dream up something to post about!

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Speaking of lots to do… this should be a 4 shoot weekend (I usually only book 2 shoots a day for my own sanity and to be able to provide the best possible service for my clients).  I usually don’t shoot on Sunday mornings, but thanks to the random weather, we have shoots that have been rescheduled.  So, long story short – watch the blog next week!  Lots of goodies coming your way!

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Care for a random note?  Yesterday, I saw a huge Red Tailed Hawk right outside the school where I work.  It was insane.  I tried to get a photo with my iPhone, but it flew away before I could get everything going.  Something you don’t see everyday in the ‘burbs.

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Scheduling Note:  May is booking fast.  Really fast.  June is starting to go as well, and I’m having inquiries about July.  And then… August I’m off because, you know, I’m having a baby and stuff.  Holy crap.  May, June, July… that doesn’t seem that long until Arabella is here!  I expect July to go quickly because I will be offering a Christmas in July special soon as an incentive to get your holiday card portraits done while you’re in swimsuit shape and tan and stuff!     Well, that, and my Christmas season will be abbreviated this year due to my maternity leave… you’ll want to get on the schedule early.  Last year we were booked solid + (in other words, we were squeezing people in at the most random of times) – this year’s schedule won’t be quite so flexible as we figure out this whole holding down a full time job, running a business, and raising an infant combo thing we’ll have going on.  FYI

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I wish I had more exciting things to report, but we’re just trying to keep everything going until school lets out and we have a little more time to work on everything – our house, Bella’s room, the natural light studio, etc.  I’ll keep you updated of any exciting developments of course.  Now, to go try to get some sleep… if Bella will stop kicking me for a few minutes, that is!

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Part of my May schedule is a fundraiser for a couple of equestrian drill teams which is really exciting to me!   I’m also a little nervous… the plan is 14 mini-sessions in 1 day when I’m going to be 27 weeks pregnant.  No biggie, right?  I will have Mikel there assisting me and probably several gallons of ice water at my side.  I’ll be fine!  At least, that’s what I’m telling myself…  hehehe

If all goes well, I’ll be adding fundraising opportunities for your group to my offerings!  All session fees and a portion of all print and product profits will go to your group.  If you think you may be interested, let me know by dropping me an e-mail!

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Tonight’s dinner consisted of this recipe with this on the side.  It was absolutely delish, but while I was getting everything ready to be served I forgot that the baking sheet I had thrown some bread on was still fire hot (I had just taken it out of a 425 degree oven about a minute before).  I totally grabbed it full on with my left hand and burned the tarnation out of all of my fingers except my pinky.  Hellloooooo blister town.  Yikes!  They thankfully have become somewhat numb (not scary numb, just not stinging like crazy), so I can actually type with both hands now.

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We got the fabric for Arabella’s bedding last weekend!  Hooray!  1 step closer to getting the nursery closer.  We’ll actually take it in to be made into bedding in the next week or so.  Hopefully, we’ll get her room cleaned out completely soon so we can get her furniture!

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Speaking of Miss Bella, she is definitely having her active moments these days.  I can tell she’s getting stronger, too.  Her kicks are definitely getting more pronounced.  I’ll do a belly shot (the maternity kind, not the drunken college kind) soon so you can see her progress!

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OK, I think I’m going to go ice my poor, blistered fingers a little more.  Stay tuned this weekend – I have a couple of fun shoots on the books!

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Speaking of Spring, it seems to have hit the middle school crowd HARD.  Now, I can’t tell any specific stories due to privacy laws, but let’s just say I’m seeing some truly silly, wacky, and unexplainable behavior right now.  Luckily, since they’re 13 and 14 year olds, they are still fairly shy about public displays of affection – so at least I’m not seeing too much of *that* kind of spring behavior.  However, everyday there seems to be a moment where I just have to shake my head and laugh because some of the things they say and do are just so random!  Love them, though!

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Major progress is being made on our natural light studio!  I think the painting will be done very soon (maybe even tomorrow!) which is a MAJOR step in the right direction!  The other major step will be to rip out the carpet and stain the concrete, which is actually a project that will encompass the majority of our house.  We’re leaving carpet in the bedrooms, but that’s about it.  We have yucky, white, low grade builder’s carpet that seems to keep every. single. hair. from Max’s body.  We go over it with the Dyson all of the time and just can’t seem to get it all out of this stupid carpet.  I’m concerned about it being a health/allergen problem when the baby gets here, so out it must go!  I *love* the stained concrete look and feel it will fit our lifestyle SOOOO much better.  I can’t wait for that project to start (and be completed!)

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Speaking of studio plans… if you’re a Twitter follower or Facebook friend, you saw that a couple of weeks ago I taught myself to “knit!”  I put it in quotation marks because it’s the round loom style of knitting which isn’t exactly rocket science, but I’m pretty pleased with myself nonetheless!  I took up this little hobby to not only outfit Arabella with some majorly cute homemade hats, but also to stock our studio with cute, cuddly knit items that can be used in newborn and baby shoots!  I’ve purchased some knit items from the “pros” on Etsy, but I’m excited to be supplementing my stockpile with things I’m making myself!  I’ll post some photos soon when I finish up a couple of projects that I’m currently working on!

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Okie dokie… I think that’s all for tonight.  I have about a billion and one projects that I’m working on / thinking about / thinking about thinking about these days!  I’ll be posting more random thoughts soon!

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If you’ve been checking out the baby’s blog, you know that we have some major home reorganization and renovations under way.  Namely, we’re moving our office into what was our guest room (actually, that happened today!) and we’re converting what was our office into a natural light studio perfect for newborns and small children!  I am so excited to have a set up in our house that will allow us to provide a fabulous setting for our clients’ sessions.  Of course, we’ll still be happy to travel to your home for these sessions, but it gives us a whole new option to offer you.  I am soooo excited and will share photos soon!  We’ll also need some little models to try out the new studio in the coming months!

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Ever seen a 2 day old llama?  No?

Now you have.  Her name is Lacey the Llama (or, so says my 5 year old niece, Madison).  You’re welcome.

Here’s one with her Mama – you remember Dolly Llama, right?!

I think there’s a family resemblance there.  I really do.

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Only 11 weeks of school left!  Hooray!   I am ready for this summer and all that this summer will bring!  The kiddos were starting to get that spring-fever-we’re-done-with-school attitude right before Spring Break – I can’t imagine what it will be like starting next week.  And whatever it’s like next week, it will be 10 times worse when TAKS testing is over at the end of April.  Say a little prayer for my ever-less-mobile self as I try to keep up with them!

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Don’t forget to schedule your bluebonnet / wildflower session.  They’re coming up soon!

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I’m pondering a change for the website.  I’m thinking of converting it into a “blogsite” – basically, all of the information you need is included in the blog with galleries available in the menu bar for those interested.  What do you think?  Please answer the poll below:

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Thanks for hanging in with this random Wacky Wednesday!  More soon…

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Speaking of the baby… here s/he is (as of yesterday!):

If you’re interested in keeping up with my foray into motherhood, you can check out Tater’s blog:  Waitin’ on Tater.  I’m trying to not post *too* much pregnancy stuff on the DRP blog because I know some of you are just here for the photos!  I would love it if you would visit Tater’s blog if you’re interested though!  Coming soon – the nursery adventures.  Tater’s room is jam packed (I’m not exaggerating here… some days we can’t get the door open) with 3 years worth of furniture we’ve decided to replace and all kinds of assorted randomness that we need to sift through before we actually start turning it into the baby’s room.  The (oh so shameful) before photo will be taken soon and you can follow our progress.  We should find out Tater’s gender in March, so we will be good to go then!

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I know I keep saying this, but I am working on getting the blog all spiffy and up to snuff.  The fab guys over at NetRivet had to help me out when their new version of their ProPhoto blog template had a disagreement with my hosting service!  The new template is officially installed (finally) and has a bunch of spiffy new features that I’m hoping to start working on tonight (Gee… where have you heard that before?!).  Seriously though – I actually have energy these days, so I have great hope for things getting done!

P.S.  Tech support from NetRivet is awesome!  If you’re concerned about whether or not you’ll get the help you need if/when you purchase ProPhoto – don’t be.  They were quick (they even responded to me on the weekend when their standard message said I would have to wait ’til Monday to hear anything) and got me up and running in no time.  Love. Them.

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I haven’t folded laundry and put it away in at least 8 weeks.  There, I said it.  It goes from the dryer to the basket to my body and back in to the laundry cycle again.  Maybe this should be another project I begin to tackle this week now that I have energy…

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I think that’s about all I have for this Wacky Wednesday – life has been exciting with all this being pregnant business but it has also given me an 8:30 bedtime.  Really.  I was at my parents’ house hanging out last night until 10:00 and I thought I was going to have to sleep on their couch, I was so tired!  Excitement and adventure await me, Mikel, our business, and this blog though!  I have a lot of things cooking, samples of new products to show you, and all kinds of fun stuff coming your way in the VERY near future!  I can’t wait to get everything up here!

Waitin’ on Tater

(the name will be explained when you get there!)

I am so excited for 2010 (as you might imagine), and I will have bunches of fun things coming in the next few days on the blog – new stuff for the biz, etc.

Oh, and things are more fun with images… here’s our Christmas card this year (ok, so more graphics-y than image-y):

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Have you checked out the Giving is Awesome post above? I hope you have! I would love to give away a fantastic gift this holiday season to someone in need who deserves it! Please open your heart and nominate someone you know!

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I’m very boring with my own holiday wish list this year: sheets that fit my ridiculously thick bed, some new towels and one of these cool Kitchenaid Mixer thingys (it’s a technical term – don’t hate):

It scrapes the bowl as it mixes. It’s brilliant! Why didn’t I think of that?! I could have been a millionaire. Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda. In any event, as you can see – my list = boring. What’s on your holiday wish list this year? Anything interesting?

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Speaking of the holidays, anyone have fun plans for New Year’s yet? We went to the Stars game last year, which was oodles of fun, but I’m not sure if we’re going to do it again this year. We will probably end up just staying in, watching the game, and enjoying being in our jammies. But, I’m open to ideas!

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I know I owe y’all a winner for the November comment contest – I am woefully behind. Let me get past this weekend (uber delivery weekend) and I’ll get on getting a winner selected! Thanks for your patience!

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I’m working on so many fun things for 2010 for DRP – a VIP program (ooh ahh… some of you have already achieved VIP status too… oooh ahh), specials for teachers, specials for military personnel (in addition to my partnership with OpLove), some AWESOME products that will blow your socks off – the list goes on and on. I’ve been so inspired by all of the fun clients I’ve had this fall, many of which you will see again soon (lots of Baby’s First Year plans going on right now!) – I can’t wait to get everything perfect and roll out all of these great things!
OK… I’m sleepy. Thanks for hanging in there with me over the past few weeks. I know blog posts have been few and far between some weeks! I promise to return to our regularly scheduled blogging soon!

Dang. He missed. But at least you got to see a random photo I took a couple of years ago at the Stars game. I love shooting at the AAC. The top dog photographer (probably the NHL photog or the AP Wire photog or both) has a “flash” network of lights integrated into the ceiling that they can remotely fire at any point in the game. If you are shooting at the same time they are, you can “borrow” their flash and end up with some pretty amazing photos even if you’re far away and have brought your crummy zoom (*ahem*). If you have any kind of SLR, take it to a Stars game sometime and play around. You’ll end up messin’ with your camera more than you watch the game! It’s addicting! (How’s that for some random photo advice?!)

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Has anyone started their holiday shopping yet? I feel like I should, so I can spread the expense out a little bit, but I just can’t get in the mood quite yet. Most years, I don’t entirely mind when they start setting out Christmas stuff in November (occasionally it irks me, but it always irks Mikel. His battle cry right now is “Give Thanksgiving a Chance!”), but this fall has flown by so flippin’ fast that I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that we’re in November already. I guess that’s good because it means Thanksgiving and Christmas (and Thanksgiving Break and Christmas Break!) are just around the corner.

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Tomorrow I’m making a couple of recipes from one of my favorites, The Pioneer Woman. Her cookbook came out last week and Mikel has requested a recipe. I would love to be so organized as to shoot photos of what I’m cooking like she does to share with you, but alas alack, I’m 87% sure I’d drop my camera into a pasta pot.

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I need a week time-out so that I can catch up on my DVR’ed shows. I *refuse* to declare DVR bankruptcy and delete it all (after all, it’s DVR’ed for a reason!). I have the entire series of FlashForward DVR’ed, but I haven’t watched a single episode yet. Is it good? Should I jump in? Likewise, I keep forgetting to DVR the Amazing Race. Luckily, they’re available on iTunes. I’m like 5 weeks behind now, though. Hmmm.

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Still no photos of my new car (sorry Jen!). I need to get my car cleaned first. It’s had its first accident already, though. I don’t mind it, however – here’s what happened: On Halloween, Mikel and I were headed to my mom’s house (we went to dinner with them and some of their friends). We were in their neighborhood, and had just made a left turn. There were a couple of kids on their bikes on the street. Mikel was going super slow because they weren’t paying attention, and low and behold, they swerved right in front of us. Mikel stopped in time and we didn’t hit the kids, but a sport biker on a racing bike behind us slammed into the back of our car. He had seen what was happening, but couldn’t stop in time and hit our car with such force it threw him off of his bike. We just saw legs flying in the rear view mirror. Luckily, he was ok and was able to get on his bike to head home. The new car has a little scrape on the bumper from his bike, but I’ll take it if it means no one was injured in what could have been a really terrible incident.

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That’s all I got tonight – I have orders to fill and package! Things are getting crazy around here – everyday is like Christmas because we get what seem like daily deliveries from UPS and FedEx! Max is having a field day barking, I’m sure!

*snaps out of it*

Back to Wacky Wednesday!

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Mikel and I enjoyed (well… sorta…) a free Stars game thanks to Razor, the color commentator for the Stars. Why, you ask? Well, before the first Stars game of the season (which Mikel and I attended), Razor promised a Stars win for the first game or he’d buy everyone in attendance tickets to another game. Well, the Stars lost that game, and he made good on the promise – so off we went! The Stars lost, but here’s an iPhone pic of the warm up before the game:

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In honor of UT beating OU (Texas Fight!), a little funny featuring Mack Brown, coach of the Longhorns:

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Anyone else out there a to do list person? I am totally a to do list person. I’m working on one right now that is ridiculously long – there’s everything on it from “get caught up on client galleries” to “clean up house” to “reorganize recipes.” It’s kind of crazy. I kick it old school to – even though I have an iPhone app that is designed for to do lists, I always do mine with pen and paper – there’s just something so satisfying about crossing something off of the list!

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Speaking of the to do list, I better get back to it! So much stuff to do, so little time at home each night!