I Do!

Happy Weddingversary!

Honey, it's been the best 7 years of my life, and I wouldn't change a thing. I love you with all of my heart, and I can't wait to marry you again tonight!

We're Going To The Maslin's And We're...Gonna Get Married...

As a wedding photographer I've shared my client's special days with you, but I don't believe I've ever shared the story of my marriage to Hot Husband.

We got married on June 27th, 2001, on the beach in Jamaica. I wore a white bikini, and Hot Husband wore a white shirt and his swimming trunks, lol. (It seemed like a good idea at the time.)(Thank God our photographer shot film and I don't have a scanner, or I'd feel obligated to post a picture, lol.)

Anyway, we'd always planned to renew our vows in front of friends and family, but we lost Hot Husband's parents within 18 months of our wedding, and for a while I don't think we wanted to do it without them there. We also couldn't make any decisions as far as planning went...we never wanted it to be a "big" thing, but I did feel that I wanted to wear a dress this time. That brought up more questions...should Hot Husband wear a tux? Should the boys? Should we have a cake? Where will this all take place? How many people do we invite? Who will take pictures?

Rather than answer all of those questions, we've kept putting it off. That is, until, we bought the Charger.

See, when we returned from Jamaica I tried to get a new driver's license, but they wouldn't accept our Jamaican marriage certificate as a form of ID. I was able to change my social security card, and with that purchase 3 houses, file tax returns, open bank accounts, etc., but my driver's license still does not say Lisa Walsh. Now the DMV is on my case and won't let me register the car in my married name. After 7 years I'm finally tired of it, so yesterday Hot Husband and I went down to the courthouse and got a home-grown, USA marriage license.

Tomorrow, on our 7 year anniversary, I will marry Hot Husband all over again. It's going to be slightly bigger than our last ceremony, but it will just be the boys and Thelma's family in attendance. Her father is a minister and will be performing the ceremony in her Mother's garden. I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to wear...Thelma and I are going shopping tonight.

I don't have a photographer on such short notice, so I'm going to do the best I can. I'll be sure to post up pictures as soon as I can!

The Glenn

Hot Husband had a list of things he wanted to do for Father's Day, and it included sleeping in, having a yummy breakfast, going hiking/fishing/canoing, a possible nap, and a yummy dinner. So while he was sleeping in Sunday morning, The Youngest and I decided we were going to take him to Watkins Glenn State Park for a hike.

We woke him up at 8 am so we could head out (Sleeping in. Check.) and we stopped at Dunkin' Donuts along the way. (Yummy breakfast. Check.)

The Youngest hadn't been to the Glenn before, and Hot Husband and I realized we hadn't been there since before we got married, which also means I hadn't shot there before.

I didn't expect to get anything spectacular since it's always so crowded, and I don't have some tools I need for landscape shots with mixed lighting conditions, but I did the best I could and ended up with a few keepers. I can't wait to go back in the evening when I can get some silky waterfall pictures!

Hot Husband had prepped some short ribs the night before, so I threw them in the oven when we got home, whipped up some mashed potatoes and baked beans, and opened up the last bottle of beer for him. (Yummy dinner. Check.)

He never did get his nap, but all in all I think it was a great Father's Day.

A Blustery Day

The weather man has warned us that we may incur some damaging winds this afternoon, which doesn't seem too out-of-the-ordinary lately. It also seems to be par for the course in June. (Get it?) Last Tuesday we had a huge storm while I was working at the gym (which I missed, because the gym is in the building's basement).

So you can imagine my surprise when I returned home to see this. That's our 12x10 (or so) gazebo in the pool. See those chairs? They normally sit in front of a bar. You can see the glass top of said bar on the concrete in front of the chairs.

I'll give you one guess as to where the bar itself was.





Of course, this was also the day my peony's started to open, lol.



Please pardon the awful state of our yard, I had no intention of showing it to the world until we had it cleaned up!

Yum!

Even though my weight-loss challenges are done, I've still been trying to get in shape. One of my friends and personal trainers, Marissa, asked me if I wanted to join her when she works out with Ozzy, another personal trainer at the gym. With our hectic schedules we're only able to work out together on Tuesdays.

It's been 3 or 4 weeks, and it's been an eye-opening experience! I had him do my body fat percentage the first week, (it's lower than I thought) which explained why I was having such a hard time getting to my goal weight. It's really helped me re-evaluate my priorities and decide what's more important...achieving a specific weight or just plain looking good. (It's also taught me that doing jumping jacks for 2 minutes straight is rough, lol!)

Anyway, Ozzy recommended these homemade fruit parfaits to me one week when I was hungry, and I've been hooked on them ever since. They're soooo yummy and good for you! (Plus they look decadent in the huge glasses Thelma bought me last year.) :)

All you need to make one is low fat vanilla yogurt, berries of your choice (I think blueberry is my favorite), and some crunchy healthy cereal. Layer the yogurt and the berries, and sprinkle some cereal on top. (I use Kashi.) That's it, and you have a low fat, chock full of protein, sweet and crunchy meal that will fill you up for hours!

Enjoy!

Jillian & Nate's E-Session

Jillian and Nate are getting married on August 2nd, and will be kicking off my (much anticipated) wedding season. Last night we finally had a chance to get together for their engagement session. Ithaca is a great place for a session...there's no shortage of waterfalls, gorges, and parks. It's also home to numerous artists, and we decided to make use of many of the interesting murals that are painted on walls all over the city.


Nate suggested we head over to the inlet, and when we got there we found a beautiful pool of light. These are my favorites from the evening.


Making use of some harsh sunlight while we waited for clouds.


More yummy backgrounds.



I love this picture of Jillian.


I love it when my couple's don't question my crazy suggestions. Jillian knew exactly what I was going to ask them to do as soon as I opened my mouth, lol. (Of course, this was after the shopping cart race.)



Last, but not least...a couple of "Wild Things". I've been patiently waiting to use this location for months!


Thanks for such a great time, you two, and thanks for being good sports!