Fill it in....Summer Fun.

Time to fill it in.  And today's prompt is:

Write about anything...

Oh boy!  Well I love summer. Texas summer's are hot and humid and get a terrible wrap but I LOVE LOVE LOVE them.  Sure being hot and sweaty can be annoying when the sun is blazing down mid-afternoon but if you are at the pool you don't mind.  And I love the mornings and evenings so perfect.  Not a goose bump to be had which means it is perfect.

Here are a few things I love to do in Summer:

Shakespeare in the Park

Dallas Summer Musicals

Kayaking

Laying out at the pool

Being on the lake

Vacationing

Celebrating my Wedding Anniversary

Fashion Trends

How do you know what is hot?  Do you care about what styles are in store for the future?  Are Euro and New York runways a top concern of yours?  I'm guessing that your answer is probably no!  I like to think I somewhat care to know what is going on especially when it comes to color. But in reality I don't have the time, money or energy to care about what is truly on the forefront of fashion. And when I saw the latest post by a color expert I follow and value incite from I couldn't help but feel as though the fashion industry is as sick of itself as we are.  I mean seriously there are a lot of things that walk down the runways that I just don't "get" but this one seems like a designer just gave the bird and moved on.

Who done it?

Today's Fill in the Blank question is:

It seems as though most of the linked up bloggers and Lauren herself have taken this question with an imaginative grain.  Which leads me to wonder do people not have dinner parties any more?  Well the hubs and I love to host people at our house and dinner parties are indeed something we are known to do.  So this question isn't really a matter of if but when or what should be next.  SO  I'm changing the would(s) to will(s).

CHALLENGE!

This week I have realized that I like challenges, just not too many at one time.

This cleanse I am on is a challenge...
First let me start with the facts, I started a 24-day challenge.  The first 10 days are a cleanse specifically and the end is just training you to get in a habit of eating well.  So Day One you measure and weigh yourself, list accountability partners and goals.  Funny thing about accountability partners is I'm my biggest accountability.  I don't worry about someone else knowing if I "cheat"( or whatever an accountability partner is for in this) I worry about disappointing myself.  The directions on the cleanse say to be 80-90% true to the plan... for a person like me it probably should have said be 100% and I would have been.  But in the end it said 80-90% so that is what I set out to do and that's what I'm doing.  Coffee with a dash of milk in it are my 10-20% leeway. I don't suppose a cup of coffee is really even 10% but it's my "cheat".  I could have given it up... but I don't want to.  I like it.  So the upside in this adventure of 7 days so far, is that I have stopped taking my allergy medicine (hope it's not a fluke but so far so good). Woohoo! The first two days of the cleanse I had a wretched headache but now I feel pretty good.  The thing about the challenge is I don't really feel like it's a challenge... maybe cause I distract myself with other things like finding awesome recipes that I can eat and trying them out.  As long as you are having fun it can't be that bad! Also, I can eat all the veggies I want so I'm not hungry.

Zucchini - Turkey Burger

Last night I made the best Turkey-Zucchini Burgers (patty wrapped in lettuce - not a bread bun) that I found on the Advocare website!  Ummm delish!  YAY for new awesome meals.  So far in 7 days I have had two adventures with "eating out" the first was Phil wanted sushi delivered so he ordered his rolls and I ordered stir-fried veggies (spicy), of course they aren't really fried and brown rice came on the side so I just ate the veggies and since brown rice is an accepted complex carb I had a couple bites of it but put the rest in the fridge for another time (success I think).  Then Sunday I went with a couple I was doing an engagement session for to a little cafe for brunch and they had breakfast al-a-carte and so I ordered a hard boiled egg and sliced apples!  SUCCESS!

So you may be thinking what do you not eat.  Well I'll tell ya.  No sugar (unless it's already naturally in the fruit), no cheese, no pasta, no breads, no chips, no mayo or ranch, right now no chicken or beef, no lunch meat, no soda, no cereal, no yogurt.

What I do eat:  salad, fruit, veggies, tuna, salmon, good ground turkey, sun flower seeds, almonds, almond butter (small amounts - no weird extra ingredients), pickles, olives, spices (pepper, sea salt, garlic, onion, cayenne, basil, oregano), lemons and limes (flavors so much so wonderfully), hummus (homemade...no weird ingredients mixed in), frozen fruit for smoothies (no weird preservatives or sucrose), meal replacement shakes from Advocare

I mentioned last week that fill in the blank Friday was changing and that I wasn't sure what form it would take.  I threw out a few ideas and at the same time committed to take a photo a day throughout June.  I'm not very good at taking a photo a day apparently because I keep forgetting.  Yesterday was supposed to be a drink and the day before a hat.  I didn't take either.  Such a shame.  But I did take the first couple and I do want to continue.  Today is 6 o'clock.  I missed the AM version of this because I got to sleep in a little today so I will have to try at remember at PM.
So adding the challenge of a photo a day I think was a bit much.

Here is my picture from June 5.  Sign

I was working on creating a map for my sister's wedding invitations and I needed to create a hwy sign so I googled what they looked like and Viola!

Weekend Warrior

I thought I had a relaxing Saturday of nothing to do and completely open for my choosing but as it turned out it ended up I scheduled it into being a very busy day.

First, drum roll please.... I started the 24 day challenge cleanse.  Yay!
Then I went and met my Dad at Starbucks (my vice in the cleanse) to order and finalize the details of Leah's Wedding invitations. :)  Getting excited!

Then I headed toward the salon to get my locks trimmed up. And I headed home to grab my gear and sub in a soccer game for the Saturday team.

That evening I got to babysit  our friend's sweet girl, miss Lyla.  She has changed so much in just a few days that I hadn't seen her I was amazed at how quickly she could pull her self up to stand.  And she wasn't scared of the dogs when they came up to her which was new and pretty fun.

I call this pic. "The Stare Down"

Lyla and Arden have a funny relationship.  She is timid of him and he wants to play but then the moment she stares at him he becomes all timid and starts to whine.  Very funny to watch.

Sunday I new was going to be a busy day, I of course woke up with a tremendous headache that I'm not quite sure what to attribute it to but it nagged all day. But I was schedule for a 8:30am engagement photo shoot. That is a story all in itself, but the shoot went great and I am very excited to edit the photos.  Then it was off to Target to pick up some veggies, a b-day present and some converse tennies. :)  more on that another day Then I went to Miss Hope's 1 year birthday party!  I can't believe she is one!  I had to leave a little early cause my headache was pounding and I needed to rest a few minutes as I had a soccer game that evening. It was a good thing I took a little rest because I was the only girl to play on our team for the first 15 minutes and then one other girl showed up which didn't give me any rest for the game but at least we had a full team on the field. Anyway, enough of the run down...on to...  the...

PHOTOs OF THE DAY

My pic of the day for Saturday was supposed to be Empty themed.  I guess I'm reaching a little here but I am using this pic from Saturday because the car seat is empty and Lyla petting Buster is so cute!  They got along great and Buster just followed her around watching everything she did.  He is very protective of her.

SATURDAY, June 2

SUNDAY, June 3 (sort of)

This is actually my Monday night dinner but I forgot to take an On My Plate photo on Sunday.  Plus this is far more interesting then anything I ate on Sunday.  This is Spaghetti Squash with Salmon, Squash and Tomatoes.  Super good - cleanse approved.  Yeah I don't normally use the extra squash as it is over kill but my zucchini had gone bad and I needed a little extra filler.

MONDAY, June 4 (sort of)

This picture I actually took Sunday.  But since I am flipping my days I thought it was perfect for Close Up day.  This is the sweet little girl whose birthday party I attended Sunday afternoon.  I took these photos of her for her 1 year portraits and her parents framed them so beautifully I was so proud to see it.  I just love all the close ups of her.


well that's it for now.

It's June!

Honestly not sure how it is June, I feel like this summer just snuck up on me. I just love summer, I've probably mentioned this before but it is so true.  Long days of sun, cool (well not hot anyway and definitely not the kind of cool that gives me goosies and ruins the mood) mornings, warm (okay HOT - but I don't mind) afternoons.  Sun, pools, parties, sun... did I already mention that?  The sun is just such a happy thing, just a little sun on my skin and I instantly feel a little better.

Well today is Friday and normally I would Fill-in-the-Blanks but as it happens the girl I linked up with on this Friday tradition is thinking it's time for a Friday revamp and is considering ending the weekly questions.  And seeing as how I am no good at coming up with random questions I probably won't be able to continue alone.  But I really like the weekly challenge the questions presented and the commitment to post at least once weekly is another perk. So I have got to figure something out.

A couple thoughts I have brewing are:

• What's Cooking Wednesday (Featuring a new fun recipe that I love or want to try and love)
• Foto Fun Friday (Featuring a conceptual picture from my week - that is one photo that summaries my whole week in some way)
• Work It Wednesday (Featuring what I am "working" on... it might be a craft, it might be a diet, it might be a work out routine, freelance project, it might be a book I'm reading or a verse I'm memorizing but the kicker here is I would really like to know what others are "working" on)

What's your vote?  Any suggestions appreciated!

Since I haven't yet decided what to do specifically I found that Instagram is have a photo-a-day challenge so I thought for June I would join in (although it's TBA if I'll get an Instagram account.  For now I'll just post them here).

So here is the line up:

Here is my Photo for Today:

My morning view at work: "Good Morning" coffee mug and pear for a morning snack in front of my computer.

And that's it for now.  I know yesterday I promised to tell more about my crazy week but I'm just not in the mood... or something.

Happy Friday, hope you have a great day!