OAKLAND TEMPLE!


Yay, so yesterday I went to the Oakland Temple to take pictures with a couple and i ran around for about an hour and looked at everything and took pictures. I am so pooped out. I left Sacramento at 1pm, was there by 3pm, the couple got there at 4pm, we took pictures until around 530pm, then we drove to a golf course by the Oakland airport, ceremony started at 630pm and then I was there until around 1030pm, I drove off, and then I realized i forgot mysweater at the reception! So I drove allllll the way back to get it.

THen when I started driving again, I realized i had not idea how to get back the way I came because I had followed someone from the temple to the golf course. So I was like driving around, I got on some freeway I didn't know where it was going, little freaked out, and then I saw the temple all lit up in the dark on the hill! Phew! Because the freeway I took to get to Oakland was right by the temple. So I get off the freeway and start driving around looking for it. I am driving up and down this hill in this residential neighborhood and I was getting really frustrated and then I would think I was lost, and then I'd catch a flimpse of the temple again, and I was OK! go that way!!! Whoever is in charge of the night lights deserves a big hug because if it wasn't so well lit then I would have been really lost. As it was it took me 40 minutes!!! to find it, and then I did and then there was the freeway home. YAY!!!

So here are some pictures. Obviously I took the one of myself, myself! lol

MY TUMMY HURTS

I have a belly ache. This is why I have a belly ache.

lol Meeet... MY DINNER.

So I invented food and since everybody I know who has a blog writes about food I am going to jump on the ol' bandwagon here.

So, I made whole-wheat fusilli pasta (210 calories) and I steamed broccoli, drained and rinsed (really, REALLY well) sundried tomatos (packed in oil), artichokes (packed in water) and sauteed some onions in Pam. I threw it all together in a bowl, and then tossed ( and had to reheat so it would be melty) some parmesean cheese, rosemary, caneyn pepper, garlic salt and pepper, and them some almond milk. I use almond milk instead of regular milk because it is only 40 calories a glass, has all the same nuturional stuff, and since I am dieting that is a good thing. It's a little more expensive- $3 a carton, and you have to get it in the health food aisle ( usually not refridgerated, but you have to refridgerate it after you open it) but I think so worth it! Plus it never appears to spoil!!!

So anyway, it tasted kind of like Kristin's FABULOUS rosemary chicken that I got hooked on, but it was totally diet. Because of how I made it, it was only around 400 calories and was packed full of veggies.

My tummy hurts, it tasted too good!!

SPECIAL, SPECIAL DAY for my KIDS.


April 17th was my kitty's "Special Happy Day." My Dad's girlfriend's kids are adopted and in her family, they celebrated both the kid's birthdays, and the day they adopted them- or rather the day they came to live with them.


So April 17th is the one year anniversary of my kitty's Special Happy day! YAY!


I found Amelia Mae on Petfinder.com. My cat Mary had passed away on February 22nd, and I had obsessively looked for another cat that looked like her because I loved her and missed her so, so much. Amelia was living in NORTH CAROLINA in a shelter at the time and I was crazy enough to have her flown out ( which was actually really cheap). She flew out of Norfolk, VA, had a stop over in Chicago where she changed planes (!!!) and then I picked her up at the American Airlines office at JOhn Wayne/Orange County Airport! She was in heat when I picked her up and was a happy, happy girl to have a Mommy. And Mommy promptly took her to the vet to get spayed because she was driving Mommy CRAZY with the being in heat thing. AHH!

When I decided to get Amelia, I thought about getting a kitten. In fact, i had hoped to find TWO kittens, but Amelia looked just like Mary and she was a grown up, and that was perfect, so then I didn't want her to be alone when I moved ( I moved to Sacramento 3 weeks after they came home) and went to school, so I looked for a friend. First I found a gray tabby named Thumper who looked just like Ian, which was Mary's biological brother/littermate who had also died the year before. (They were almost 17 years old when they died. We got them when I was 7, so I was VERY ATTATCHED. ) But then I thought, I am not going to have a kitten again for 20 years until these cats die, so I better get a kitten. It was really early in kitten season (which is summer) and there weren't alot of kittens, and I had to do ALOT of applications and really kind of audition to adopt. They wanted to know everything from the amoutn of time I would spend at home to my income to what food I would feed them.. on and on. My experience with owning animals.. I used to be a vet assistant for rice and bean's sakes!!!!


Anyway, so Friends of the Orange County Homeless Pets (FOCHP) approved me, and had a bunch of kittens. SO I drove like 1.5 hours out somewhere between OC and San Diego like towards Riverside? I have no idea where I was. And they had like 20 kittens in an empty house with no furniture. Just cats. It was like going to the orphange. I really wanted an orange tabby, and I found one, and he was a boy, but then I saw Tootie, who looked JUST LIKE AMELIA and MARY! And when I picked him up, he sucked on my thumb! Awwww, so i got him. He was a good boy and didn't cry at all on the way home. He loved my sister's doggie, and then that night I went and got Amelia from the airport. YAY.

So that is where my family came from. Here are some pictures of them as they grew up over the last year. YAY!

This is in Grandpa's backyard, Tootie is on the leash (so I wouldn't loose him, he was so little!) and Amelia is in the house, watching. I had to keep them separate for the first month

And then here is when they met each other. THey got to meet each other and become friends just a few days before we moved!

Oops, this first one out of order, Amelia is snuggling my sister's doggie. :)

Aren't they so cute? Tootie is like a MINI ME! Awww!

This is Amelia at Grandpa's when she first came home. She was petite then, she only weighed 6 pounds. Now she weighs 12~!
And then this is when we moved! All three of us drove int he car for 8 hours! They each had at least TWO accidents. It was so not fun throwing away all of their pretty bedding but it smelled so bad I couldn't keep it in the car for all those hours! ICky! So here they are in the new house, and Tootie decided to crawl inside the fridge when it got installed. I didn't have a fridge for at least a month after i moved in!

And obviously, this is the day they put in the dryer, cause Tootie is inside it!

Don' t forget the day the washer was put in too! Tootie crawls in everything... including the bread box. He drives me CRAZY!

<3 I LOVE MY KIDS/KITTIES!!!!! <3

My Big BIG BOY!

My baby Toulouse is getting so big! He turned Happy 1 in March and look how big he is! I was worried I got him fixed when he was too little ( he only weighed 4 pounds!!) and he wasn't ever going to grow up or have a head the correct size for his body! LOL But look at him, he is becoming a BIG BOY! :D

Here is Tootie ( Toulouse=Tootie) snuggling under the very first quilt I made when I was 12. isn't he so cute?

BIG NEWS

I have officially created a photography blog so I can separate my personal stuff from the work stuff. All of the competition has blogs and I love to look at them so it's about time I joined the club.

Check it out!

www.eheizerphotography.blogspot.com

And yes, I am posting this at 330am. I have insomnia. :(

Weight Loss!

Today is Wednesday and Wednesday is my weigh-in day for my Craig's List weight loss group. YAY! So I stepped on the scale today and I am down 2.4 pounds this week, YAY!

I started last summer at 233 pounds, and now I am 196.8. YAY! (I weighed 199.2 last week).

So that's a total of 36.2 pounds, and I buttoned a pair of size 13 Anchor Blue pink pin striped slacks today. WHEWHOO. But the pants are only ankle length so I'll probably never wear them again anyway, even though they fit. I wear heels with everything now so I don't want to look like I am wearing floods!

Spritiual Blondeness


I was walking outside the new gym, heading for a lounge chair to set up shop in my bathing suit in the sunshine by the pool when I saw the hottest guy I have seen in a long, long time. Not only the hottest guy, but the most adorable toddler with chubby cheeks and oh-so-happy to be jumping from the side of the pool into her daddy’s arms. It was ADORABLE. They should be in a commerical together!

So I am gawking at the hot man and his adorable baby and walking, with my head looking behind me as the baby jumps in the pool, when BAM!



I walked into a flag pole.



I was staring at a guy, and I walked into a pole. Are you kidding me? LOL

I have a HUGE bump in the middle of my forehead and I am still waiting for it to turn black and blue. The area is so tender I can't even really wash my face because just lightly running my fingers over it is painful, but the bump is barely visible and there is no color yet. I did it on Monday afternoon. I still have a slight headache. How come I can't see the bruise yet?

I actually had to call my sister to ask her if I had a concussion. (I don’t, just a "hematoma" she happily told me. LOL)



In the words of wise person..." Blonde is a state of mind, not a hair color."


THis is so funny that it ties into Kristi's post about her new blonde hair!!! lol

If I get a big bruise I will take a picture for you.

I AM TAKING WEDDING PICTURES AT THE OAKLAND TEMPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I AM TAKING WEDDING PICTURES AT THE OAKLAND TEMPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! (Screams) (Am I lame or what?) AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!


I am going to be taking pictures at the temple in Oakland on April 26th for a client I already have and guess what? The couple is not even Mormon, which I already knew, but why on earth did they email me to tell me that's where they want to take pictures?! LOL They are getting married in Oakland, and they decided there wasn't anywhere good to take pictures so they called up the Oakland temple to see if it was ok to take pictures on the grounds and guess, what? I am doing a pretend LDS wedding. LOL


I think everybody knows I really, really, really wanted to do a wedding at at least the Sacramento temple before I "retired" from wedding photography, but although I made up a bunch of flyers to take to the Institute, I never actually had the time to go and put them up. And now I feel like it's practically too late, but I will have more time in July, perhaps I can go then and maybe someone will be getting married in the second half of the year where I can do a real wedding, instead of just a pretend one.

But I am SO EXCITED.... am I lame or what? And only in two weeks!! Practically instant gratification! I hope it is pretty, I haven't seen that one before. Hmmm... Must find a picture so my blog looks pretty. Ok, here we go:

This is where Emily will be on April 26th, oh-so-proud. SAY CHEESE!

THREE GENERATIONS OF STRONG WOMEN

Isn't this what this makes you think of? I took these pictures this morning at the State Capitol's gardens. I had one engagement seesion from 730am - 10am, and then I met this gal from class, her mother and her grandmother for another couple of hours. Whew! I was pooped. But I loved these pictures so I had to share. I think they look so powerful. I want to frame them, but it's not my family!! LOL

MORE WEDDING STUFF

Ok, ok, I know I have been piling on the wedding pictures but I like this stuff!

I shot these yesterday!

BRIDAL PORTRAITS

I did my first bridal portrait session this week! Although I have been offering bridal portraits as part of my wedding packages for over a year now, not a single person has known what they were or wanted them until now. Honestly before Kristin had them done I had never heard of them either and don't know anyone who isn't LDS has had them done. So I am guessing it is a Utah trend, but I am doing my best to make it a universal thing!

I took these at Daffodil Hill near Jackson in Gold Country out here.

I haven't done ANY edits yet, these are just raw images, but let me know how you think I did.