Elizabeth Kearney Photography

It's made. Still a work in progress, though. Let me know what you think and how it could be better before I let the whole facebook world know about it.

http://elizabethkphotography.blogspot.com/

yay!

Elizabeth K Photography

So a few days ago, I decided to look up what it takes to get a Nevada business license, and how much it would cost. While I was on the website, I decided to actually fill everything out and then wait to file until I could afford the $200. But as I was filling it out, it asked if any exemptions applied to my soon-to-be business. I read through the exemptions, and apparently, you are now exempt from having to file and pay for a license if you are a home-based business making less than 66 2/3% of the average annual wage, which, as of 2010 is less than $27,000 a year.

So I filed, without having to pay, and I have a business number, or something like that, and I can now legally take pictures, charge people, and not worry about someone finding out. :) Sometimes it pays to take the dive.

Anyway, I looked at tons of different combinations of my name, Bobby's name, our initials, etc., to try and find a good name for my photography business. I didn't want "Elizabeth Kearney Photography." It seemed long and boring. I finally just decided on "Elizabeth K Photography" hopefully with a really cool font.

Anyway, my whole reason for writing about this is because I'm going to start working on another blog just for that, and I think it will be something like elizabethkphotography.blogspot.com or something similar. I will also be setting up a facebook page that I would appreciate if you all wouldn't mind sharing with all your friends once it's up and running.

If you can't tell, I'm very, very excited, and I feel like this is a great thing for me and my family. I will need a little bit of help getting this off the ground, but I'm willing to pay back with free pictures anytime any family wants it.

Thank you! And look for the next few posts that give more details on the new photography blog!

A New Direction

Still excited about staying healthy and keeping the pregnancy weight gain to a minimum. But recently I've gotten very passionate about something new: photography. I started taking classes in high school and some in college. I worked at a school photography company for 2 years. I just never took the plunge and spent my money on a nice camera. I just put everything on hold when I got married.

When I worked at the credit union, there was a girl that I worked with. She was barely graduated, and barely married. 18 years old, trying to have a baby, ended up with twin boys. Right after I had Andrew, I decided to stay at home, and hadn't heard from my coworker in over 3 years.

We met up again on Facebook, and I found out that she had started doing some photography and even had her own business going. I was a tiny bit jealous, but mostly I thought, "Good for her! That's awesome! I wonder how she got that started with 2 little toddlers? And I haven't done anything in the same amount of time." I kind of filed that away for a while, made some goals to get the camera I wanted and started planning out the business I wanted to start. Almost 2 years later I finally have a nice enough camera to get things started. Bobby even bought me Lightroom for our anniversary (it's a smaller version of Photoshop) and he got me another lens for Mother's day. I'm finally taking the steps I need in order to make this dream a reality and I'm still working off of this excitement high. I'm hoping that by September, this business will be up and running and hopefully off to a great start!

Blech...

I kind of stopped trying to eat so healthy. I was so happy to be able to eat almost whatever I wanted, that I didn't try as hard. I'm not doing anything extraordinary as far as exercising goes. Just normal walking and cleaning and child rearing. I can feel my clothes getting tighter. A few of my things have already had to find storage. I weigh myself maybe 2 times a week in the morning, and the number floats around the same. 236 lbs. I was feeling somewhat discouraged because the numbers are now going up instead of down, but when I really thought about it, I'm 16 weeks pregnant today. I looked up the average weight gain and it was 5 pounds from your starting weight. I'm still down 2 1/2 lbs from my starting weight. (Not for the competition, but for the pregnancy.) I have at least a pound of baby stuff right now, and if I can still say that I'm down a few pounds, that makes me feel pretty good. Not great, like if I won the contest and the prize money, but good, like I'm making good changes and they are still working in my favor.

One of the most frustrating things about being pregnant during a Las Vegas summer is that it's already hot, and my body is working overtime, which makes me hotter. When I'm hot, I don't usually eat very much. I do a lot of water, juices and fruits. Usually. While I'm pregnant, that isn't enough to sustain me. If I don't eat enough or often enough I get sick. If I eat too much in the summer when I'm so hot, I get sick. It's a horribly uncomfortable catch 22. If I could afford it, I would keep the A/C blowing constantly. But that's not really an option with NV Energy. They are ridiculously overpriced. I have to settle for cold showers, (they feel so good in the afternoon) and having a floor fan follow me around all day.

Enough complaining, Elizabeth. Time to look for solutions. Duh, fresh salads. They are filling, especially with a little chicken or eggs, and they are still light enough that I don't feel sick after eating a plateful. Stir fry and rice. Very filling and pretty light. Lots of good veggies, not a lot of fatty calories. I know there's options, I just need to find them. If you have any ideas, feel free to share. All in all I'm pretty happy about the lack of weight gain in comparison to my stage of pregnancy, and I know once I get serious about walking and exercising in general, things will get so much better. :)

Back on Track!

These last two weeks I did not do very good on eating or exercising. I didn't make any menus, and when I went shopping, I wasn't thinking about me. I was thinking about meals that Bobby could take to work, or that I could feed the kids quickly. Neither of which was healthy enough to give me the right kind of energy. Two weeks ago, I was preparing for a trip with my hubby so I cleaned (with lots of help from Nicole) the house, and that was a lot of energy. When I left, I put it into my head that I wanted to keep eating healthy. That a vacation is no excuse to eat poorly. For the most part I did good. There was a salad at 2 out of the 3 lunches/dinners we ate. I had fruit at each breakfast, and there was very little junk food. There was, however, an emergency Panda Express dinner where I ate way too much and way too crappy. That was enough to throw me off. Last week, I was feeling particularly exhausted, so I didn't even do any cleaning, which Bobby took upon himself, and that didn't do anything good for our marriage. I went into a slight depression, which made me not want to do anything or eat anything good. Yesterday, I woke up to breakfast in bed, and Bobby made me lunch, and Mom made us dinner. Everything was pretty healthy so I got back some of the energy I had been missing. Today, I woke up and, after breakfast, started cleaning. Nothing too strenuous, but enough that it made me want to do a little more. So long as I drink 2 cups of water at very regular intervals, I feel better, and I have energy.

I think I lost sight for a short while of what this was all about for me. This isn't just to lose weight and win money. This is to get my body in order and prepared for this child that's going to come. I need to keep the bigger picture in mind.

I saw the video last night of our SFFD in the park. You don't ever see yourself fully in the mirror. It's the 360 degree view from a video camera that really lets you know what you look like. That was more motivation for me.

Anyway, my rambling is getting weird now. Maybe next post I'll write about the kids.

My secret's not a secret anymore

Ever since April 13th, when I found out that I was finally pregnant, I've tried to be very good about what I eat. My last few posts are evidence of that. I found that my desire to lose weight and be healthy was strong, but my desire to give this baby the best chance I can was even stronger. And my nausea was even stronger than that. I have so many reasons to finally eat right and exercise that it doesn't even seem hard. I've been feeling nauseous almost every hour of every day, so much so that there is no food that I have found that I actually want to eat. I look at salad and feel sick. I look at cookies and feel sick. Since I know I have to eat, my choice becomes so much easier. The only downside is that I'm also feeling so exhausted that I haven't been doing much of anything, much less exercising.

Now, I don't actually have much hope of winning this competition, but I do have a lot of hope that this is the perfect opportunity to get healthier and in shape. Whether or not I even lose 1 pound. I'm excited to see and hear everyone else's stories about what they are doing. This is such a great idea.

By the way, my starting weight for the competition is 235.2 lbs. Only 75.2 lbs to go!

SUCCESS!!!

So, for a little over a week now I've been trying to get my body in a good routine, so as to healthify(is this a real word?) myself. Every day is a struggle. Every day I think of sugar and how good it tastes. Sometimes I give in, but the majority (yes majority!) of the time, I say no. I feel empowered every time I walk past a cinnamon roll from cinnabon, or only take a few small bites of cheesecake, or see the 3 sleeves of oreos in my cupboard still there after 10 days. Each time I decide to eat right I feel like I can do it again, and it's easier each time. I've been taking advantage of spring break by keeping myself active. Walking around a mall or store, walking to Grandma's house with the kids and/or the dogs. I knew it would be very slow going, but at least I was going. Today I weighed myself and found that I had lost almost 3 lbs! This is a very healthy pattern to keep for someone doing only a few changes at a time like I am. I'm excited to start this competition with everyone this weekend and see how far we all can go! Yay!