Happy Thanksgiving

To all of you who follow my blogs; sometimes they are boring, they are my every day. To my dystonia family, my Southpoint family, my Shutterfly family, photography buddies, and everyone who has checked out my blog. Thank you and thank you for encouraging me to go on and keep up the fight. I wish all of you a blessed Thanksgiving with your friends/family.
Be safe, drive safe (its snowing here), and eat lots! Take tons of photos too!

Albuquerque 2010

Click here to view this photo book larger

Cards Cards & more cards

Below is an example of a card I made for my niece Madeline who turns four on December 19th - almost a Christmas baby. She said she doesn't like Santa because he comes too close to her birthday.
Anyway, if you share your card on your blog and send them the link to shareproject@shutterfly.com you'll get 25 free prints. Pretty cool, huh!
It only took me half an hour to figure out what my blogger user name is. Its different than what i thought it was - but thankfully i now have that baby written down! So share your cards on your blog!

madeline bday

Birthday Cupcake Birthday 5x7 folded card

Birthday party invitations and cards by Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Pushing through

Today at gym/PT I was hooked up to the Lite Gaite. I was at a speed of 2.5 and I went for 3 quarters of a mile. Getting a little higher each time. This time I had a sharp pain in my low back but I just tried to ignore it and it eventually worked itself out. I didn't get the shooting pain in leg this time. I went for almost 20 minutes. Next time we will try for a mile. By May, I'll for sure be ready for Marathon if I keep up the way I am. I feel its improving my overall walking. I did squats too. Got stretched. Now I'm raring to go!

Keeping up!

I have been going back to PT, I have found it really helps to have someone work with me one on one. Its encouraging, although everyone at gym seems to be encouraging which is so nice.

Scott started me doing the Lite Gait (picture in the previous blog) and I believe today was my 3rd or 4th time. When I walk on it I'm all strapped in like I'm going Bungee Jumping! At first he had a strap that gave me a wedgie, I didn't like it so now I have the straps on my thighs. I mean, who likes a wedgie!!
Today we started out with the manual therapy where Scott twists me around and cracks me. I love the popping sounds! Success! It always makes me laugh for some reason. Then we did a 6 minute walk around the gym. Scott said I was walking better and took longer strides which the Lite Gait is helping me to do. I think today I was faster then the first time I did the 6 minute test. I was tired at end, but not nearly like before. So I rested a bit, then we went and did the Lite Gait. He got me started and then Terrance came in and scared the crap out of me. My goal was to do 15 minutes at the speed of 2.3 (I think), i just kept plugging along and then towards the 11 minute mark my back started to hurt and I thought i could finish - i didn't have much time left, but I just couldn't. I was getting a shooting pain down my right leg. Terrance thought it was from doing too much. I did do squats after, I was still hooked up, and the idea is to bend down in a squat position and come up slow. Those went fairly good and a couple of times i lost my balance - but thats the nice thing about being hooked up, is if i feel unsteady, the harness will catch me. He asked if I wanted to be stretched out and I said Scott already did it, but he said its no problem. So I got a double stretch. YAY!
Then I went in the gym and took a nap (kidding!). I was practing my planks and doing some squats - I did them not holding on to anything but there was a table behind me - so i felt more at ease. I for sure felt I got a good workout. I need people to ship me into shape and I'm willing to try anything. If I can't do it, then at least I tried!!

I'm off to continue working on a wedding book in Shutterfly.

Happy Tuesday everyone. Until next time....keep on keeping on!

Last night Twitter held an hour where we could tweet about #Famphotoday and @shutterfly and @resourcefulmom. We were to talk about the cards and new things Shutterfly offers for getting in gear for the upcoming holidays. I was 20 minutes late to the party but it was loads of fun - a lot joined in and a few people won prizes. Super fun! Thanks shutterfly and resourcefulmom.

I had a family shoot yesterday. It was my second one and it was a lot of fun. We shot indoors as it was a bit chilly out. The sun was out but was still cold to be sitting outside. We got plenty of shots and i hope the family likes some. With my previous shoot, we did it outside and I had to fight with the sunlight, shadows and lens glare. Its all a learning experience and I hope to get better the more i practice on my willing participants.

I didn't even know this weekend is the busiest weekend for taking those holiday photos until an hour before I was to go to this family.

I'm still keeping up with exercises/PT and am planning to do the 5K in May 2011 with my Uncle, granted we both feel well and nobody gets married that day.

I am looking forward to it.

Hope everyone is well. I've been bad about keeping up with my blog.

Above photo is of me after I walked on the Lite Gait Treadmill - I'm hooked up and when i got done, I just decided to hang there and swing!!

Happy Holidays!

Holly Jolly Christmas Holiday!

Holly Jolly Christmas Holidays!

I started using a Shutterfly card for Christmas over 4 years ago. At that time, I did the classic 4x8 cards. Each company I tried, it would only allow a certain amount of text. Then I came upon Shutterfly. First they had all kinds of fun designs that none of the other companies had. Plus I could write more text; kids ages etc.

Last year I did my first 5x7 flat stationary card. I LOVED them. Plus the response I got from everyone was so positive. Such great quality and wonderful designs. I always do a photo of my nieces & nephews and I, the cards turned out so cute. I was so excited to see the new 2010 collection. I looked at every single one. This year I’m using a photo of the kids and I. I also used a couple of photos of myself when I was in Albuquerque at the balloon festival. I like the different layouts. So many to choose from and I like they have some for Christmas and also for Hanukkah. The quality is superb. Once you try them, you’ll love them and so will your recipients. They’ll keep these from year after year!

I have not only used the 5x7 cards for Christmas but also for invites. I used them for my sister’s 40th birthday and everyone thought they were so fancy.

I also discovered a new product called the desktop plaque – I ordered the 5x5 size and it is just perfect. Perfect for upcoming gifts! Once again the quality on these is beyond superb. I just love them and am tickled pink about them.
Here’s the link – I guarantee you won’t be disappointed:
http://www.shutterfly.com/home-decor/desktop-plaque

I have done calendars every year for my parent’s office and now this year they have added new designs. I can’t wait to get started on those.
http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars

Here’s a link to some of the new Holiday cards. There is such a huge array to choose from. You can click on Christmas to see those cards as well.
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards

I’m very pleased with the quality of Shutterfly, I don’t think I could say that enough. They keep getting better and better and make it exciting for the customer to keep coming back and checking out their new products. Thank you Shutterfly for making our holidays brighter.

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly, follow the arrow à http://bit.ly/sfly2010

The above photo is from last years 5x7 stationary card

Happy Holidays everyone.