Year-End Post!

It's that time once again... Time for me to wrap it up. I'm such a bad blogger... lol
Well,
We've had a VERY busy year. It started with my second semester of nursing school in January and I was swamped until, well, NOW! Before finals were even close to over I was swamped with photography appointments, sometimes up to 3-4 a week! I did a few more weddings this year than I did last year and loved it!

This summer Max got a job with Harmon's and has been loving it ever since! He finally was able to quit working at the lonely, boring post office remote encoding center and is thrilled about it! Just 6 weeks into his new job a couple advancement opportunities presented themselves and Max decided to go for them. And in the end it paid off because he now the Payroll/Benefits person (along with his boss) for the entire Harmon's Company. He works Mon-Fri 8-5 and I couldn't be more proud of him! He loves the work and it keeps him challenged and learning all the time! Not to mention he got an office with a window!! :D

This fall was just as busy for me with my third (and roughest) semester of nursing school and busy photography schedule. But this fall was also very wonderful because we discovered just before Thanksgiving that we're expecting!!! That's right! Max and I are going to be having a baby next year! The baby is due July 26th and we can hardly wait to get out of our condo and into a home where we can start building a nursery! Max is a proud daddy and I'm a very happy (sometimes weepy ;) ) mommy. It's so fun to go to ultrasounds and see our little peanut growing! I'll be sure to keep everyone up to date on the latest with that.

I went to Florida just a week ago to watch my best friend graduate from college and the time has just flown since I've been home. I cannot believe we're through yet another year so quickly... We have been blessed in so many ways this year and are eagerly looking forward to what this next year will bring us! Love to you all!

Max, Callie & Baby Allen

Summer Wrap Up ~ Where did Summer go?!

WARNING: Forever long post with lots of pix!

Jeeze! I need to not be such a slacker when it comes to my blog! Sorry! Been SUPER busy this summer! I did 4 weddings from April-July and just booked another one for December! My photography stuff has really taken off this year and I'm so glad! I've had a lot of opportunities to photograph a lot of different people and I've loved every minute of it!

My summer started off (technically) back in April with my finals, just three days after the first wedding of the season! Phew! Before Finals were even over we started remodeling our condo to get it ready to put on the market. We got new doors, new carpet, painted the walls, etc; you name it, we did it! It looks fantastic! We are so pleased with it and if it was big enough, it would be a pleasure to stay here for awhile longer, but we can't! We're selling our condo so we can move in with the parents (yes, again...) so we can save some moneys and get into a new place when I graduate school in the spring!!! The sale is going S-L-O-W... But we kind of knew it would in this market so we're glad we got it up on the market when we did.

After the remodel I was swamped with 2-3 photo shoots a week! I did babies, families, bridals, engagements, etc! I shot at some new places and have added a lot to my portfolio! (www.candidsbycallie.com) That kept me busy for most of May and June.

At the end of June I went to Seattle to photograph the second wedding of the season, my cousin's. It was SO MUCH FUN! She put us up in this FAB hotel on the 11th floor overlooking the beautiful town of Bellvue! We went out for drinks every night and just played, played, played! It was fun to see my mom's side of the family. We realized all 6 granddaughters hadn't all been together in 10 years!! So we took what used to be the annual granddaughter picture to commemorate the event! :D It was a great vacay with my sis and I'm so glad my cousin asked me to be her photographer! I took a short road-trip back to Spokane to spend not enough time with my dad's family over there before I flew home.

I came home just in time for the annual New Twilight Movie Premier Girls' Night! Eclipse! We had 40 women this time and the movie and dinner were a blast as usual! Love my Twi-hard Girls!

That week ended with a WEEKEND full of weddings! I did my friend, Leslie's beautiful wedding that Friday and wrapped up the week with a 4th of July wedding up at Millcreek. Gorgeous venues, beautiful weddings, LOADS of pictures! :D

July wrapped up with my sister coming home for TEN DAYS!!! We saw each other almost every day, went to a bees game, family bbqs, and then the trip wrapped up with the Mary Chapin Carpenter concert at Red Butte with my mom and Larry. It was great! We had wine and salmon and great bread with oil and vinegar. Ahhh... SO much fun! And then I was completely bummed when she left the next day. Like more bummed than usual. I cried myself to sleep the night she left. I think it's because we've seen so much of each other in the last 4 months and I knew that it would be awhile before I saw her again. It's hard when your only sibling lives so far away. :( But hopefully we will be able to make it up to Washington for Turkey Day!

And of course these loaded all out of order! But here's what I've been up to!

4th of July Wedding
Bride with her dad

4th of July Wedding
They wanted a couple fun pix to show they got married on Independence day!

Leslie's wedding!

Leslie's Wedding!

Leslie's Wedding

Weirdo we picked up at the MCC concert in August. He was nice til it was over and then he and his friend we're just freakin' creeepy!!!

Barefoot Muscato! My FAVE!!!

Me, Mama, and sis @ Theresa's Seattle Wedding in June

Sis and I waiting for the gates to open @ Red Butte for our Concert! It was so blasted hot!!!

One of my absolute favorite pictures I've done this year! (and overall)

One of Leslie's bridal pix from the Capitol Building. It was the first time I shot there and I loved it!

Another Capitol Bridal Picture of Leslie's

All 6 granddaughters on my mom's side!

Theresa's Wedding Cake. Beautifully Simple!

Theresa's flower girl and ring bearer

One of Leslie and Jordan's engagement pix! Love it! They were so fun to shoot!

The couple that is SOOO in love! They are so sweet to each other and love each other SOOO much! Never seen such a doting fiance/husband before!

One of my BFF's little sisters.

Max's best friend's son! LOVE this baby! :D

Sweet little newborn! Loved this shoot!

Another fave from the little newborn shoot I did in April

New paint in the bedroom!

New paint in the kitchen!

New carpet, new paint, new plant... Completely redone living room!

New entertainment center to go along with the new living room!

My April Wedding

My April Wedding Bride

More of her!

And here we are in August! Where did the time go? I'm all caught up with photo editing and just have one more shoot before school starts on Monday. Had orientation (if you could call it that... whatevs) last night and then today I reunited with a dear, long-lost friend (Torry) and tonight I'm going out with one of my best friends, Erin, to ride a mechanical bull at a trashy bar! Woot! Tomorrow I'm supposed to be going boating with Erin and her Fam and then it's getting ready for the real world to hit me hard, in the face, on Monday. I'll try to be a better about updating more often so you don't have to read such a crazy long post about 4 months' worth of things!

For Better, For worse. Four years.

Four years ago, today, I married the love of my life. He's the most wonderful man. He's kind, thoughtful, strong, supportive, funny, good-lookin', and the list goes on.

As I sit here tonight thinking about all we've been through in the last four years I am so grateful that I've had him in my life to help me get through it all. He's been there for me with death, sickness, my only sister moving away, my acceptance into nursing school, and much more. And likewise, I've been there to support him in dealing with death, his mom getting cancer, illness, and I've had the opportunity to celebrate with him in his brother's missionary homecoming, the end of his mom's cancer treatment, getting through school, and much more.

I think back to the vows we made, "For better, for worse. For richer, for poorer. In sickness, and in health; until we are parted by death. All that I have is yours, all that I am is yours." And I realize, even in the short four years we've been married, we've been through ALL of that. And I know we'll see much more of all of that over and over in the years to come and I know that we can get through anything together and I know, even more than I did four years ago, that there is no one on this earth that I'd want to share my life with, except Max. You are the love of my life and my best friend, and I love you more than words can say.

Today, baby, I vow to you again, For better, for worse. For richer, for poorer. In sickness and in health; until we are parted by death. All that I have is yours, all that I am is yours.

Fighting Hard!

Nope! Not this week! =D

I did NOT cry when I stepped on the scale this week! When I weighed on Saturday, I was down to 172.4 lbs! I stepped on and off the scale 3 times to be sure and then I took a picture on my phone so I could send it to my mama! (We're losing the weight together!)

So I'm down 4.1 lbs in my detox week. When I got on the scale after work this morning I was up to 174, but it was after a 12 hour night shift and I'm day 3 of that lovely monthly thing we women do so we can make life! So I am hoping that all that was playing into the weight this morning and I have to always remember that a person's weight can fluctuate up to 2 bls per day, so maybe I didn't really gain 2 lbs in two days. I think I need to NOT weigh on mornings that I come off graveyards...

So the battle continues.

My food restrictions are lighter this week and so tonight I treated myself to a skinny cow ice cream bar after my grilled chicken ceasar salad. I have my delicious fresh fruit to get me through the night and then I'm off for a couple days so lots of gym time (which I actually look forward to now)!

Thanks again for all the encouragement and support! It means the world to me!

Update on the Diet...

So I haven't updated ya'll on the diet front because I got a little discouraged.

The week after I made my big resolve to get in shape I had finals weeks and it was the week of our extreme home makeover, Callie-style. So I didn't end up going to the gym at all that week. Our house was such a disaster that we didn't have any room in our "one-bum kitchen" to cook anything so we ate fast food most days. So needless to say, I gained back the 2.7 pounds I lost and then some. :( Boo.

Yesterday I had my appointment with my ONGYN to talk babies! Everything looks good except the WEIGHT! My doctor told me she'd really like to see me drop this extra weight before I'm pregnant. (My thoughts exactly) I've got the time to do it and I'm more determined than ever now because Max and I are beyond ready to start our family.

So. Here's the scoop, again.

On Sunday I weighed again. I've hit a new high, 176.5 lbs. UGH!

I got on the scale on monday Afternoon and I was at 175 lbs. Perfect! Down one lb, I'll take it.

Today at my appointment, the MA weighed me and I think she wrote in my chart as 174.5 lbs. WOOT!

So I'm dramatically decreasing the carbs in my diet. That's what my doc wants me to do and I'm going to the gym at least 5 days a week. I'm focusing on eating a lot more fruits and veggies and lean meats, and lots of eggs! (I've discovered a new love for eggs!)

I'm done with my "I gained the weight back" pity-party and I'm moving on to bigger and better things. If I want a baby I NEED to drop this weight. Done. There's my new motivation. I actually feel a lot better eating all this fresh food instead of the processed stuff and I feel like I could take on the world when I come out of the gym all sweaty and gross.

And so the war continues!

It's TIME!

Ok, ya'll. I've decided the time has come for me to stop being fat! Yes, FAT! I'm way beyond what "they" say I should weigh for my height. And I know the BMI doesn't take muscle and all that into account, but I still do not like the number I see on the scale and I know it's not healthy for me to weigh what I weigh right now. And since Max and I are hoping to be pregnant in the next year, I'd like to start at a HEALTHY weight. I look back at pictures of me from my wedding day and our honeymoon (back when I thought I was "fat") and I came to the realization that I looked pretty damn great and that I would kill to be that size again. So that's my ultimate goal. I weighed 133 lbs on my wedding day (I know because I was desperately trying to lose weight before the wedding and I lost 8 lbs the week of my wedding because I was so stressed about my mom's emergency, exploratory bowel resection surgery she just "had" to have so she could have all the attention on her that week... ;) Kidding mom! (she lost 15 lbs that week, and not in a good way...)) Anyway... SO I'd like to get down to 130 lbs by December of this year. That's 45 lbs in about 8 months. I don't think that's an outrageous goal, especially because I'm setting smaller goals along the way. Little half-way goals, I guess. My first goal is to be down to 155 by our wedding anniversary on June 9th. I started all this on April 6th so that's 10 lbs a month, broken down to 2.5 lbs a week, a healthy pace.

With all that off my chest, here's the scoop:

I started Weight Watchers last week and now that I'm almost out of school (two more lectures and two finals....) I'm going to go to Zumba 5-6 days a week because I love it so much and it makes me feel good when I go! I get 26 points a day with WW currently but as soon as I lose a few more lbs, that will go down. And I earn about 5 points a day when I do Zumba.

Here's my progress so far. I only made it ONE Zumba class last week but I was pretty good with the points. And this is what I have to show for it.

Starting weight: 175.4 lbs
Goal weight: 155 by June 9th (our anniversary)

Weight today (one week in): 172.7
Loss: 2.7 lbs
Weight to lose: 17.7 lbs

SO, here it goes. I'm doing this for real this time. No more messing around. I want to be the healthiest, happiest me I can be! :D

Just a little cat nap...

This is me and my sweet kitty, Icabod. He's taken a liking to the back of our new recliner because it has a perfect little spot for him to sit with us (not on us, he's not a lap-kitty). So this is his new favorite spot.

And our little cat nap. This is where you can usually find me lately. If I'm not studying or at work or school, I'm asleep. :)

V-Day.

Nothing fancy to report about Valentine's day this year. My husband got me a couple very sweet cards and we had two glorious nights to ourselves with no distractions, no homework, nowhere to be. Just us. Perfection. We did have our parents and Max's gma over to our house last weekend for Max's homemade lasagna (DELICIOUS!) and I made bouquets for our mom's and gmas. Overall, nice weekend, and now it's on to finish the rest of the week!

Take that V8!

This was my dinner tonight. How's that for getting my servings of fruits and veggies for the day. A homemade, all fruit smoothie and these fresh veggies! mmmmm!
I'm trying to be better about what I'm eating and I read about this girl who keeps a food blog so she literally shows anyone who wants to look exactly what she's eating and she holds herself more accountable for it. Good idea huh? So we'll see if I can find the time in my life to show you all how "healthy" I'm trying to eat... Here it goes! :)