STOP THE PRESSES !

I have VERY exciting news!!! I received an email from Jen Hendershott yesterday regarding 2011 PHAT Camp and I am in a whirlwind of excitement about it!!!

As soon as things are confirmed I will fill ya'll in!

Until then keep your eye on http://www.getphatwithjen.com/

for the new 2011PHAT Camp Tour Dates and CITIES! ;)

New Neighbor!!

Meet Rico!!

Hi, my name RrrrrrrICO! We be friends!

This past week we have had new neighbors move in and they seem like great people!! Very happy about that . . let's just say the last neighbors were not so nice . . .

They have 3 young boys and our kids get along great, including our furry babies LOL! I was delighted to see they had a YORKIE!! He is adorable and I love him like my own! He is so CUTE and I LOOOVE his tail!! He is so friendly and happy and gets along great with my dogs.

Hi! . .sniff. . what's . . sniff . .your . . sniff .. name? . . sniff

The dogs are constantly back and forth between the yards

(the fence is all but falling apart . .to be replaced next spring $$$)

Rico even comes in our house and runs around and chills out with my dogs, they share food, steal toys from each others yard etc. It is so hilarious!

Rico has a little bell on his collar. Yesterday we were eating dinner and my dogs were on the couch and we here *jingle jingle jingle* both my dogs perk right up and want to go outside and play. Then Rico appears at the sliding patio door , peeks in the window, perks up his ears as if to say " HI! can Tucker and Wally come out to play?"

Rico chillin' on my couch.

Look at those huge furry ears LOL!

Seriously! He could fly with those things . .so cute!



He looks like a cartoon, or bobble head, or stuffed toy. He makes me chuckle.

I feel like we have adopted a 3rd dog. He is quite the little character and my dogs also love the neighbor boys too. They get all excited when they get home form school and they run out to the back yard to meet them.

I think it is so wonderful :)

That's Right 1000

So a few weeks ago . . one of the last and few times I actually made it to the gym this summer I wanted to try something the gals over at the Muscle and Fitness hers Forums had been talking about 1000 Body Weight squats!! that is 10 sets of 100 reps.

WHAT?!!!

Yeah, don't let the no added weight thing fool ya. It is ALOT harder than it sounds . . . oh, you did think it sounded hard ?? :P

I wanted to quit after my first 100, lol Then I told myself to get to 500 and gives myself something to work up to. Then I told myself you better finish this darn thing cuz you ain't gonna wanna do it again!!!

Long grueling story short. I did it. Felt like wet noodles walking out of the gym . . and then I had the worst ouchy legs for 4 days and could still feel soreness 7 DAYS LATER!!!

So, what do I want to try today?

1000 Lunges LOL!!

BUT, I am wanting to do alternating lunges, so really I am only doing 10 sets of 50 per leg to add up to 1000 total . . . so I am thinkin' it may be easier ????

I'll let ya know how that goes LOL!

Man Prop.

I did another photo shoot with a local photographer Cristoberly Bustamante - Progressive Edge Photography on Sunday.

I have wanted to do a "Trash the Dress" shoot for awhile now. I had some definite ideas in my head I wanted to do. I chose the locations and dreamed up my images I wanted to capture and the photographer did more than awesome in making my dreams a reality!!! I had to drag my hubby along to be my "man prop" LOL!! He won't admit it, but by the end he was havin' fun.

I had a BLAST!!! I fought off hoards of red ants, the photographer got bitten when one climbed up into his pants! . .ooops! . . Actually I can't believe I got only one tiny little bite. I was walking around the swarms of ants BAREFOOT!! I had LOADS of them all up in my crinolin. Even the NEXT DAY after swimming in the river and letting my clothes sit in a big wet heap overnight, then hanging my crinolin for a day in the bathroom I was folding it up to take back to the bridal shop I rented it from and there was another red ant in there STILL ALIVE!!!!

Climbing a tree in a wedding dress with loads of crinolin and tulle and organza in the way . . challenging and oh so funny!

I live in Central British Columbia Canada so the water here is now just a weeeee bit chilly!!!

But I braved the cold waters cuz I really wanted to do the water shot. All along the guys are like " that is gonna be so cold" . . . "are you sure?!!" . . . " that is gonna be so cold!"

The dress actually helped keep me warm like a wet suit. OMG it weighed a TON when I got out of the water!!!

The water shots are my absolute FAVE!!!

I didn't actually "trash" my dress. I got pretty dirty when I climbed up the tree. It had been raining and the ground was kinda muddy and the tree was dirty. BUT by the time I took a few dunks in the river it was pretty much rinsed clean LOL!

I took it home and hung it in my shower and rinsed it with some hot water and VOILA! All clean! My daughter may want to wear it one day, I will get it professionally cleaned etc. if she so decides.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the shoot . . .

Wrap It Up

Let's wrap up the catch up ! I can't seem to go forward until that is done.

June 12th Northern Classic . . . .

My awesome friend Deidre.

She is my first figure girl client!


I GOT FIRST PLACE!!! And my first figure girl client and best friend Deidre placed SECOND!! How incredibly cooooool is that?!!?! This was D's first figure show!!

AND . . her baby was just turning one year old !

The hotel we stayed at had a big container of individually wrapped fudgeos at the check in desk. I grabbed a couple packages cuz I knew I was gonna want those later. Fudgeos dipped in Kahlua OMG sooo GOOD!!

MMmmmmmm !

We went to Boston Pizza for our celebration dinner. WE took our trophies with us OH YA!! I had a huge berry smoothie and chugged probably 2L of water!! LOL! The waitress brought us a jug after we did 2 refills in quick succession.

I ordered southwest potato skins and natchos. I could only eat 2 potato skins and basically only ate the natchos that had the cheese on them.

The waitress was a bit concerned for us and asked if we were gonna need a barf bucket for the end of our table LOL! Both our husbands had to tell us to slow down, be careful !

Rum and coke ! The taste of victory!

Ok, that was a short and sweet re-cap :P Now D and I are both qualified for the Provincial Championships. We had the option to go this summer or next summer. We both want to take a year and really hit the gym hard and bring our best!! We are very excited we get to train for provincials together !

Next July . . . a whole YEAR until our next comp !!

Fast Forward

I need to hurry up and get all caught up with the updates so I can post new stuff LOL!

So I was preparing for my 3rd competition in June. I had never done a photo shoot before a competition before. Either I did not know who to ask, or did not have the money, or I just didn't feel ready.

This time I got an opportunity I could just not pass up!! A wonderful photographer, an unbeatable price, and a great friend to shoot with me !

Cristobery Bustamante - Progressive Edge Photography.

I had an awesome time. I even got to do some lingerie pics for the hubby !! Always wanted to do that.

You can see most of the gym pics I did in the slide show to your right.*

DISCLAIMER:
*None of those photos have had ANY photoshopping or special lighting. They were taken under fluorescent lights at the gym. They are just the raw images before any real touch ups.

Where's The Cake ?!

Back in May I was traveling to Edmonton once again, for a friends surprise 10 yr anniversary party.I was the cake maker, and party decorator :) very fun.
The kids were also having a party of their own so I made a special cake for them as well.

These 2 cakes were some of the best reactions to my cakes so far. People didn't know they were cakes!! LOL!

When my all cake - no ice cream - ice cream cake showed up at the kids party the host wanted to put it in the freezer !

The "ice cream" was vanilla cake with rainbow bits in the batter.

The "bowl" was chocolate cake with Oreo cream filling

Even the cherry on top was made of marshmallow fondant

Now, the Anniversary cake. This couple has been drooling over my cakes on my facebook for quite some time and always made comments like " I want to create a special even the next time you come to Edmonton just so I can have one of your cakes " So this was going to be a great surprise to give them!

Once again no one could tell it was a cake, even when they were standing right beside it!! When the couple showed up they were elated to know I had made them a cake! I told them they could eat their cake if they could find it, they looked ALL OVER and then stood right beside it all distressed they couldn't find their cake LOL!

Hershey's Best Chocolate Cake with Kahlua Fudge filling

The whole thing is cake and fondant. The flowers on top are fresh flowers, and there is a saucer supporting the top layer of the urn, other than that entire urn and the handles are edible.

The best part of the evening is chatting with the couple and they ask

" So, why are you here"

I am kinda confused by the question

" I mean what brings you to Edmonton? (it is a 7 hour drive) You must have happened to be here for some reason?"

I reply " I came to bring you a cake! YOU are the reason I am here!"

They couldn't believe I would drive 7 hours just for them, LOL! They thought I must have had some other business in Edmonton or been visiting family.

They were confused tho because I was just down for PHAT Camp 3 weeks before. Then I drove down for their party, then my Brother In Law was getting married in another 3 weeks, meaning ANOTHER trip, and then July long weekend I had to drive down again with an Elderly deaf friend to accompany her to a convention. ALOT of trips to Edmonton this Spring/Summer!!