Dinners by Design

So some of you already know but last Thursday I went with the 3 friends pictured below to Dinners by Design. I cant speak for the other girls but I had the best time! Let me explain the premise and then you will understand what was so great about it.

You go online and pick out your meals off of a menu (that changes each month) and you schedule your appointment. What I did is I went in with Ashley and we did half meals. So we ordered 12 full entrees and split them. So when you get there they have a print out of the meals you will be preparing. They have stations set up to create everything on the menu. You find the station for what you are going to make and follow the recepie. They tell you step by step what to get out and what goes into what. It is very orderly. They even have the correct measuring utensil in the container of ingredient you need. so if i needed 2 T of chili powder they would have a Tablespoon measurer in the chili powder. Pretty cool, huh? Anyway, the best part... when you finish making that dish they come along behind you and take all your dishes away! It is awesome! You never have to clean anything up at all! You put a sticker on them that tells you how to cook it and what sides would be good with it and the ingredients that were in it. Anyway, you leave with all your meals and then you freeze them. You get them out and cook them! it is that simple! your kitchen stays clean and you prepare all your dishes with friends. The 12 half meals i got ended up costing me $117 and then tax. But that equals out to be $4.89 a person per meal. very reasonalbe! also they have a point system... for every dollar you spend you get a point. once you rack up 1000 points you get $100 in free food! also for referring someone you get 100 points and they get 50 points for being referred. which reminds me... if you go in to do this... i referred you!!! :)

anyway, check out their website and see if you like it... it really was very cool! www.dinnerbydesignkitchen.com

Latest Photo Shoot

I waited so long to post these pics up because I wanted to double check with the mommy that it was okay but here are a few shots from my latest photo shoot. They were twin boys - 18 months old. Cute as can be! There were so many cute shots that I had a hard time deciding which ones to show you! I kept it at 10 although I wanted to show you more like 20! Would love your thoughts... you know, i like for you to be critical!


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Dawn's Long and Silly Journal - Read only if you are bored!

So I dont know if any of you ever experience this but I have had the hardest time accepting what I am known for here in Huntsville. What I mean by that is when I lived in Indy I was only known as a photographer. Well that and the fact that I worked in marketing. But everyone knew me as an artist. I went back to school after getting my degree in Photography and Computer Graphics to get my teaching degree. I didnt start teaching until I moved to Huntsville. Well, what do you think happened? Everyone in Huntsville knows me as a teacher. Which let me stop right here and say that I am glad to be known as a teacher and it is the most difficult thing I have ever done but also the most rewarding... and who wouldnt love the time off? So I love my job more than anything and am very proud to be doing what I do. I just dont want to lose who I was and still am.

When I went to Indiana Wesleyan I changed my major to art two weeks into my freshman year and had to declare a specific major during my sophomore year. I chose Photography and Computer Graphics because I felt like the two complemented each other well. Also I found out that year that I wasnt that bad at Photography (compared to drawing which I sucked at big time!) Out of all the art students they only give one photography scholorship out a year to who they deem the most promising photography student. I recieved this during my sophomore year - which was a shock but a huge honor. Anywayt, I then became a teaching and technical assistant in the photo lab where I worked and helped students for the remaining two years of college. During my summer breaks I helped a prominent wedding photographer i was his assistant during weddings. I began doing some weddings on my own here and there and honestly never have loved doing them... it takes your whole weekend... it's high stress and hard work. not my cup of tea! anyway, I also worked in a portrait studio in the town where my parents lived as the senior portrait photographer. I did a ton of graphics work for my jobs after college. I havent done that much since coming to Huntsville because I have had to work up to getting programs, cameras, equipment... all of that stuff! But I am slowly but surely building up the things I need and hope to start doing more and more with it again. I have to say that I really miss all of my artist friends up in Indy and miss the critiques on our work and getting together to brainstorm ideas for artwork. I went to an awesome church filled with amazingly talented artists and we would create artwork for messages or just for the beautification of the room or whatever. We dreamed up more than we created but it was a blast! I hope to move back to that a bit more in the future. I do have great artist friends here but we are all getting older and dont have as much time to sit around and dream up art projects!
Some other things I like to do... well, I also like to do stained glass, oil paint, weave if i had a loom, and draw if i am in the mood. Anyway, I guess I am just feeling like no one really knows me or what I enjoy doing and who I feel like I am. Since teaching I have learned so many other artforms that I never would have imagined doing. I like to create things - that is it in a nutshell! Sorry for the rambling waste of your time! I hope you stopped reading a long time ago. I am mostly just thinking out loud. Maybe someone here in H'ville feels like they know me better.... who knows?

The Wet Dog Triathalon and Our Little Laci

Today was jam-packed! We started out this morning at 5 am going to do our first triathalon. I ended up doing great. I finished 5th in my age group and was very pleased to start out so strong. My time breakdowns were roughly a 7 min swim for the 400 meter, around 33 min 15k bike and a 27 min 5k. That put my total time at 1:08:58. Throw in some transition times and there ya go! Allen did extremely well too. He finished in 1:10:23... no gloating from me... he had longer transition times due to bike shoes and running shoes and his swim kicked my swim's tale... around a 5:50 swim for him... rediculous! Oh, did i mention that it was raining more this morning than it has all summer combined!?!?! yuck. It did cool things off so that was nice.

Anyway, on to the really exciting news... muggsley got a baby sister! Her name is Laci. So without further adou... here she is: