At this moment 5 years ago...

...Blake was asking me to marry him after only dating for 6 months. We had talked for a while about getting married, and I knew he had already purchased my ring, but I was totally surprised the night he actually proposed! Here are a few photos from that day. (This was before we had a digital camera, so these were taken with a disposable camera and scanned into the computer - yuck!)

Re-enactment :) Boy were we skinny!

I have to explain the ridiculous outfit I was wearing: I was living with Blake's sister at the time, and her oldest son Will was about 4. I stopped at their house after work on my way to see Blake. It was raining when I left, so I borrowed Will's jacket... None of us realized I still had it on until AFTER we had taken all of these pictures! Haha.

Thanks to Channing for taking these for us!

Here are some of the professional engagement photos we had taken a few weeks later.

Can't believe it has been 5 years!

Haaaaave you met Swarley?

Remember Blake's flooded backseat from my previous post? Blake wasn't really happy with his car anyway so rather than dealing with getting it fixed, we got this on Friday:

(Photo from the dealership website)

A 2006 Equinox. Blake took my Malibu and I get the Equinox :) This is by far the brightest vehicle I have ever owned! Haha.

Blake decided we should name it Swarley because "It's a little bit classy and a little bit flashy."

(Any HIMYM fans out there?? I probably just butchered that quote.)

Today I...

-Made our ridiculously expensive car insurance payment. (Gotta love having 2 drivers that are under 25 and 2 wrecks in the past 2 1/2 years.)

-Stopped at a store that was going out of business and was disappointed that things were only 25% off.

-Visited my favorite little shop in downtown Georgetown - that recently opened an online store! - to spend a gift certificate I won. Got a certain sweet girl some presents for her 1st birthday which is approaching way too quickly. (Had to send a photo to her Mom for approval.)

-Made a return at Target

-Did a little shopping at Target and spent MUCH more than the amount I got back for making a return. But I got some really great stuff! :)

-Added my new Christmas wrapping supplies (from Target) to my already embarrassingly large stash

(In case you were wondering: I have over 30 rolls of Christmas wrapping paper. I have another 10-15 rolls of paper to use for non-Christmas gifts. Yikes.)

-Made a return at American Eagle and didn't buy anything else. Does that make up for my Target splurge?

-Met Blake at Olive Garden for dinner. We've been doing so good about cooking/eating at home!

-Came home

-Went in the garage to see Blake's flooded backseat (Well, just the floorboard)

-Wrapped my first 3 Christmas presents of the year :)

The wait is over

In my post yesterday, I forgot to mention one tiny thing :) I've been waiting for over a year to get an iPhone, and I'm not a very patient person. My account was eligible for an upgrade on October 7th. I got paid for a week of babysitting on October 8th and promptly drove to BestBuy to pick up this beauty:

16GB iPhone 3Gs - I'm not sure how I survived without it! Blake is quite jealous, but I'm much better about sharing the computer now :)

Lazy & Productive - who knew?

It's been a lazy and productive week, all at the same time. Not sure how that happens, but I like it! I've tackled a mountain of laundry, several loads of dishes, multiple errands and an entire season of Grey's Anatomy. My errands included going to the bank and post office two days in a row because I'm not aware of major(?) holidays. And, ok, if you want to get technical... we watched ALMOST an entire season of Grey's Anatomy. I forgot that Denny died in the last episode of season 2 and I didn't want to be sad for the rest of the week :) Ha! I'm such a dork.

So much has happened between my last post (September 11th!!) and now - my plan to be a better blogger clearly isn't working out too well. I think my blog is feeling neglected. Sorry, blog.

Procrastination at it's finest :)

I'm supposed to be cutting out millions of giveaways slips. (Maybe not quite a million, but it sure feels like it!) There is a huge local consignment sale this weekend, and I got a booth for my photography business. This is the first time I've done anything like this and I'm nervous/excited. We went last night to set up and I'm happy with how my table turned out. Here is a super quick snapshot:

I felt dumb taking a picture, but I knew my Mom would want to see! Still a few little things we forgot at home that I will add when we get there tonight... Including the mountain of giveaway slips mentioned above :)

I saw this on LuvInTheMommyhood - one of the many blogs I follow - and thought it would be a nice break from cutting. I'm not going to 'tag' anyone, but if you'd like to fill it out, consider yourself tagged. Be sure to send me a link to your blog if you do fill it out!

Making : myself crazy cutting up 40 sheets of giveaway slips
Cooking : nothing for the 3rd night in a row :)
Drinking : grape juice
Reading: Departures - a book I found on the clearance rack at B&N. I don't love it just yet.
Wanting: a new camera
Looking: at my messy living room
Playing: Farkle on facebook because I'm addicted!
Wasting: time
Sewing: nothing at the moment, but several things on the to-do list!
Wishing: Florida wasn't so far away from Kentucky
Enjoying: the quiet
Waiting: for my hubby to get home from work
Liking: how productive I've been the last few days
Wondering: what I should make for lunch
Loving: that my internet is working again
Hoping: for a good turnout at the sale this weekend
Marvelling: at how quickly time has flown by
Needing: more sleep
Smelling: my new candle
Wearing: Pjs!
Following: way too many blogs on Google Reader - I can't catch up!
Noticing: how ruffles seem to be everywhere and on everything this season
Knowing: that's its going to be a busy but fun weekend
Thinking: about going to get my eyebrows waxed today
Bookmarking: nothing yet today - give it time, it's still early
Opening: my photography magazine that came in the mail yesterday
Giggling: at Maggie trying to get comfortable in her blanket
Feeling: excited

Chattanooga sunset

Blake and I are in Chattanooga for the long holiday weekend. We were able to leave Thursday night and don't have to head home until Monday! Tonight we were driving around and ended up in a neighborhood that was up a little hill. (Blake said it was a mountain - ha!) When we turned around to head back to the house, this is what we saw:

Unfortunately, I left my camera in my aunt's car when we were shopping earlier in the day so the only camera I had with me was my cell phone. This picture doesn't even begin to do it justice! The sky was gorgeous pinks and oranges (and not nearly as blue as the photo makes it seem) as the sun was setting behind the mountains. It made me want to build a house in the exact spot we were so that I could see that gorgeousness (new word??) every night. *Sigh* I can dream, right? :)

Catching up

-I keep forgetting about my 101 things in 1,001 days list. I was pleasantly surprised that I have crossed several things off the list! All updates are made on the original list which can be found here.

-Blake and I are heading to Chattanooga for Labor Day weekend. We'll drive down Thursday night and head home sometime Monday. Blake is actually on call on Monday, but one of his co-workers said he might be able to cover for him. We'll know later this week, but I REALLY hope he can! I travel a lot, but it's not often that Blake gets to come with me. We're excited!

-The weekend after Labor Day, a local Mom's group is having a big consignment sale. I've signed up to have a booth in their "Mommy Mall" the day of the sale. I've been getting everything together the past few days and I'm anxious to see the final product! I won a 24"x30" canvas from my gallery wrap company and absolutely cannot wait for it to come in. It was great timing! This is the photo I had printed:

-I would really like to get back on a normal sleep schedule. It's 1:45am - I should be in bed!

Slacker

I've been a blog slacker - again. Posting on the Project 365 blog takes much less thought (and typing!) so this blog kind of falls to the back burner. I'm really proud of myself for sticking with P365 so far! I only missed one day, and in my defense it was the day I drove from Florida to Tennessee by myself :)

Not much has been going on since I got home from Florida. Just catching up on laundry and cleaning. I've been in the mood to de-clutter and organize for some reason, so I'm trying to take advantage of that mood while it lasts! Its been easy to do since I have no desire to leave the house. It has been FREEZING! It was below zero a few days ago. Pure craziness. Tomorrow I'm going to try and brave the cold to make a trip to the post office - I've been putting it off and the pile has gotten rather large: 1 client order, 1 CD, 1 DVD, my quarterly business taxes and one very late Christmas present.

See? My life is boring. At least I have cute photos of Maggie to share :)

Project 365

For some reason I got the idea that I needed ANOTHER blog to try and remember to keep up with... we'll see how well I do!

Project 365 is making a goal to take at least one photo every day. I'm doing great so far! :) Click here to check it out, or click the link in the sidebar to the right. Instead of posting every day, I will probably just post once a week or so - but I am determined to take a photo every day! Being a photographer, I think a lot of times I miss family moments and memories because I'm too worried about the technical aspects of the photo. The past few months I've been trying to make a conscious effort to not worry about all of that and just capture the moment. I'm hoping this project will help with that!

I don't know what is up with me lately - I guess I'm just on a blogging kick.

#41: Check!

41. Visit Florida once a year

I think I can officially cross this one off my list! I was in Florida January of 2008 for Sara & Joe's wedding, and now I am back in Florida again. I'm hoping that in 2009 I will be able to come to Florida more than just once :)

Forgetful

I keep missing 'Wordless Wednesday' - shoot! In my defense, the last 2 Wednesdays were both holidays :)

It's been a busy few weeks! On December 18th, Blake, Maggie and I headed to Tennessee for Christmas. We had a great time! Blake and Maggie went home on the 22nd because Blake had to go back to work, but I was able to stay and spend Christmas with my family. (There were WAY too many photos from our time in TN to post on the blog. If you're interested in seeing them, click here, here and here.)

On the 28th, I headed down to Florida!!! My best friend, Sara, had a baby girl on Monday. I am LOVING being in Florida! The weather is incredible, and baby Sophia is just too precious for words. 

I was planning on heading home January 7th, but decided to stay until the 11th for Sophie's dedication. Poor Blake and Maggie are probably getting lonely, but I'm already dreading the day I have to leave. It's been in the high 70's here and I am wearing short sleeve shirts and flip flops everyday. I'm not looking forward to going back to this:

I've been taking photos of Sophie since she was just a few hours old, but tomorrow we are planning on doing her 'official' newborn session. I can't wait!! I also have a family session sometime this weekend, and 2 or 3 other sessions are in the works - just trying to work schedules out. My camera will be working extra hard these next few weeks!