the castos

Seize the Day

2011-11-04T21:56:00.000-07:00

The weather's finally cooling off around these parts... I'm actually feeling surprised that we'll be spending another winter here. I guess I didn't really think this Austin thing would last longer than a year. I'm happy it is... I mean, I love this city. I do really really miss my family, though. But we do okay.

It's been a rough year, but it's also been an amazing one. Jake and I are closer than ever before and we've grown up a little bit through all these adult-sized trials we've been facing. My birthday is coming up this next week (the big 27) and this is the first year where I'm literally cringing every time I think of the number. Not that it's old.. I know it's not. But it's that age where I'm almost forcing myself to ponder all the things I've done in the last 27 years and if I've done them well, you know? Have I seized opportunities? Have I accomplished anything? I tend to have automatically negative responses in regards to these questions... but I really shouldn't be too hard on myself. I've had some pretty incredible experiences and have met amazing people along the way. I have so many different friends scattered around in so many different places. I have the ability to relate and communicate effectively with people... something I didn't do very well in high school, but something that I've forced myself to learn since. I have a husband that I adore. I moved halfway across the USA to TEXAS (seriously... Texas? I never would've imagined I'd move to Texas one day) on somewhat of a whim... without a job. And guess what? We were able to find jobs and an incredible doctor very quickly.

Sure, I don't have a baby yet... and I ache every. single. day. because of it. I never wanted to be having kids into my mid 30's (even though everyone's doing it these days), but will now be forced to because, if it's up to me, I'd rather my kids be a couple years apart from each other. I have had so many different plans throughout my 27 years... involving different destinations, different careers, different people.. But this is where I've landed at this moment in life. I don't know what my feelings are on it all. I know there's more in store... and I have no idea where we'll be a year from now... but I guess I'll do my best not to get frustrated over certain plans not panning out.

And through all the different courses I've taken through life thus far... I can't say that I regret one.. okay, well at least not more than a few. It's landed me in the situation that I am in right now. Which at times, may seem dark and sad... but even still, I have someone that will be by my side through it all. And that feels great and gives me the strength to carry on every day. We have a thirst for adventure, a good sense of humor, an incredible taste in music, movies, and food... :) Like I said, we do okay.

I have many different aspirations I hope to achieve one day. I feel like I've put some of my passions on the back burner while I dwell on the lame grown up stuff this last year. This next year will be different... and I'm going to try very hard to be more positive and find the inspiration to create and be the artistic person I used to be.

Maybe another birthday isn't so bad after all... another year to achieve something glorious, perhaps?

Racing Trains

2011-09-14T18:37:00.001-07:00

a little fun.

Another Black Cloud Rolls In

2011-08-28T19:46:00.000-07:00

FYI: this is an incredibly depressing post about the realities of life..

It's hard to imagine too many worse things than the frustrations and heartache of dealing with infertility...

Except for maybe dealing with a miscarriage after years of infertility.

It's not something I really even want to talk about. But I feel like I almost need to in order to start moving forward again.

To keep the painful story short, let me just say that we found out we were pregnant about a month ago. I had conceived naturally the month after my surgery. We were absolutely thrilled. After two years of trying, we were finally going to have a baby. I can't even describe the happiness I felt for exactly one month. We got to tell our families in person when we were in Las Vegas earlier this month... we bought a couple things for "baby" just because we finally could. It was hard to get me down.. even though I was nauseous most of the time, I welcomed it with open arms.

Well not everything wonderful is meant to last... or at least that was the reminder we received last week when we got the news that there was no heartbeat and that I was in fact carrying a blighted ovum. I didn't take the news well, of course. The day I found out, last Tuesday, I called in sick to work, took a xanax, and basically tuned out for the day. I had the D&C procedure on Friday and I actually felt okay that morning. I thought I had come to terms with everything. Until I woke up from the procedure.. felt the bleeding and the cramping.. and knew it was really over. I've just sort of felt empty ever since. I'm working on it, though. I think it's normal to mourn, right? Like everyone says.. at least I can get pregnant. So there's that.

So I sort of just want to leave it at that. I wish I had something really inspirational and beautiful to say.. like how I've learned through this tragedy some amazing thing that'll change my life for the better. Maybe I have.. I just haven't realized it yet. I guess I do know it will all have been worth it one day. When I have my baby in my arms, finally. I do have faith that I will still have that dream.

For now it just sucks. Loss sucks. Unhappiness sucks. Trying to find reasons to keep positive when life just keeps kicking you with muddy boots.. you guessed it.. sucks. This post sort of sucks! I'm sorry.. what a total downer. I'll be okay guys, I promise. Just hang with me for a bit. Maybe I need you to feel bad for me (again.. cuz wasn't I just bitchin a few posts back about infertility?!). Cuz I sorta feel bad for me. I'm strong, though.. And I have incredible people in my life who help keep me smiling on the super dark days.

I'm so incredibly grateful for that.

Bug has been by my side every day this last week.

Jake is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me. He's my lifeline right now.

Ooh-blah-dee... Ooh-blah-dah...

2011-08-13T20:28:00.000-07:00

Some days (most days) I wish I were on an episode of House Hunters International...

We had a wonderful visit home last week. Oh my.. we are so flippin far away! What were we thinking?! JK.. I'm glad we moved to Austin. It's been a really great experience for us. BUT.. it IS far away. We just had to go home, spend a week with family and BFFs, then say goodbye again to realize it.

It was fabulous, though.. to just relax and hang out with our favorite people. I even made a trip up to my beloved Zion's National Park with my family and enjoyed a day of hiking in my absolute favorite place in this world. Oh man, it was perfect.

Well, we're back to every day life again and hoping to make some big decisions soon.. perhaps moving back out west? Who knows what life will bring.. it's so rarely something you can control anymore. You need to go where the jobs are, ya know? It's sort of depressing if you really start to think about it... so I try not to that often.

I have a really adorkable cat, though. Have I told you about her? Many times, you say?? So what.. maybe if you had a cat as cool as mine, you'd wanna brag about her all the time.

I'm feeling very random this eve and should probably go rest up and read a book or something. Pretty sure I won't be getting a suitable blog post out of myself tonight. Oh well.. here are a couple photos to make it worth your while perhaps.

The Scope of it All

2011-06-28T19:56:00.000-07:00

Well my mom is flying out of Austin in about 4 minutes...

I hate saying goodbye to family. It's never easy and always emotional. Way to be.. way to be. It was great having her here, though. Even though I was tired, in pain, and super needy the whole time. I wonder why she wanted to leave so quickly?! Jk. jk. She was actually able to come for a good chunk of time... I'm very lucky to have a mum who loves me enough to travel all the way out here.

The reason behind her visit is due to my date with the scalpel last Friday. You guessed it... I was lucky enough to have Laparoscopic surgery! Woot! Na.. not that cool. I promise. So I decided I'd let y'all know how it all went just in case, ya know, you need to get a Laparoscopy or Hysteroscopy one day. (I really really hope not!)

So the appointment was on Friday at 1pm. I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything after midnight Thursday night, which actually wasn't too terrible. I was surprised at my lack of appetite. I'm always hungry. Guess I was pretty nervous. Honestly, I've never had to have surgery before.. I've never been "put under" by general anesthesia... or had to think of possibly never waking up..

Anyway - so Jake got off work at 7am.. came home and slept for two hours and then took me to the surgery center at 11:30. Once there, I signed some paperwork, waited until about noon, then was called back for more paperwork. After that I changed into the super sweet hospital gown and was shown to my waiting/recovery "room" (that was separated by all the other "rooms" by sheets... nice). The nurse attempted to start the IV, took one look at my tiny, child-sized hands and decided I had tiny, child-sized veins as well. So she had to get a smaller needle and got to work fixing it into my hand.. (puke..) So it didn't go super smooth, but she wasn't really hurting me too bad, thank goodness. Apparently the little rubber IV thingy didn't want to fit into the hole made by the needle in my skin, so it got a little messy.

It looked a lot worse than it felt.

The nurse put a clean sheet underneath so i didn't have to almost faint every time I looked down at my hand.

After the IV was figured out, I started feeling a little sleepy. I met the anesthesiologist and the nurse anesthetist. My doctor showed up around that time and tried finding the lab results of my Pre-Op appointment in my chart.. specifically the pregnancy test. Unable to track them down, he had to get on the phone to his office. In the meantime, the nurse there who had previously taken a urine sample from me, remembered why she had actually taken the sample and ran off to do a pregnancy test. She came back with the stick, waiting for it to turn either Positive or Negative, all of us waiting with bated breath... me hoping that, even though I knew it was impossible, I could somehow actually BE pregnant and wouldn't have to go through this hideous surgery after all.. but then the idiot nurse (she wasn't really an idiot nurse, her next statement was just idiotic given my situation, I thought..) said, "Oh, it's one line! That's good!! That means it's negative!" I of course had to reply with, "Well some of us don't really think that's such a good thing..." I think I repeated that a few times, actually, because by this time I was really sleepy and anxious..

Well, after that, the nurse anesthestist told me that he was going to give me something to relax me and that they would then wheel me into the surgery room. He said I would be talking the whole time they were wheeling me in there, but that I wouldn't remember any of it. So I said goodbye to Jake and they shot the drugs into the IV. Jake says I kept trying to stick my arms out through the bars in the side of the bed as they wheeled me away, and they kept making me cross my arms across my chest, but I don't really remember doing that. It's sketchy, but I do remember the surgery room. I saw a big, blue light and then it went black.

So when I woke up, I was back in a recovery "room" and as soon as I opened my eyes, I was nauseous. They kept trying to give me crackers and I was trying to eat them, but my mouth was so dry and my throat hurt from the breathing tube they'd had in... and I just wanted to throw up. I knew I was going to react badly to the anesthesia. I don't do good taking a pill on an empty stomach, let alone a whole stew of drugs. I guess I kept falling asleep, too. Jake says I would fall asleep in the middle of sentences. He and the nurse had to dress me and I honestly can't remember much of that. They loaded me into the jeep and Jake drove me home and put me to bed. I was so nauseous the whole time... I kept trying to make myself throw up, but nothing would happen because I didn't have anything on my stomach! It sucked. That wasn't a very great night. My mom did arrive that evening and Jake picked her up from the airport. I was awake when she got there and munching on graham crackers. I was nauseous still, but once I had some food on my stomach, I started to feel better.

So the results of the Laparoscopy: I have Endometriosis. Well, I had Endometriosis and it may come back. The doctor put three incisions in my stomach, the most painful one being in my belly button. He went in with a laparoscope to see what he could find... he found Endometriosis on both ovaries, behind the uterus, and on the bladder flap (whatever that is!). There were also adhesions, which are like bands of scar tissue. He decided to remove it all as well as the cysts that we already knew were on my right ovary. He also did a Hysteroscopy where he flushed dye through my tubes (same thing I had done last year, called an HSG. It hurt like hell. I'm so happy I wasn't awake for it this time!)

I haven't spoken to the doctor yet. I go in for my Post Op next week so I'll know more about what stage of Endometriosis this is considered as being and what our next plan of action is. I spoke to the nurse a little yesterday and she doesn't think I should take any Femara this month. I'm okay with that. My body needs some time to recuperate. The worst side effect I had to deal with over the weekend were the ache in my back, shoulders, and neck.. everywhere, actually. During the procedure, they fill you up with carbon dioxide gas so they can get a better look inside. They try to get as much gas out as they can after the procedure, but they can't get it all out. So it took about 3 days for the gas to seep out through my joints. (ouch!) I took the pain pills mostly because of that, honestly.

Now, 4 days later, I don't feel 100% at all. Maybe around 60% my normal self?! And I have to go back to work tomorrow. :( My incisions are still painful. And they call this minimally invasive surgery?? I can't imagine having anything bigger done! Blah.. well, I guess it was a little more than a Laparoscopy since they had to remove all that "gunk". So yes.. not the most wonderful experience, but I did have my mom and Jake here to take care of me. They cooked meals for me and kept me hydrated and comfortable. I'm so happy I had them here with me. I was able to get out of the house on Sunday for a little bit and we headed downtown to do a short riverboat cruise on Lady Bird Lake. It exhausted the hell outta me, but it was fun. Monday I took my mom to see the peacocks in Mayfield Park and we were able to go shopping for a little bit. I was ready to go home after a little while, but it was really nice to get out of the house for a while.

Anyway, so that's that. I guess we'll see what the future has in store. It's scary to think that I have Endometriosis.. and in the olden days, I may not have been able to get pregnant at all. But I've read that the best way to combat Endo is to get pregnant. So let's hope that we've helped that process along... and that we can have a happy ending yet! I know I'm not losing hope..

Lauren xo

pretties.

2011-06-17T23:19:00.000-07:00

Hello.

So I've only done two actual photo sessions since I've moved to Austin. Terrible? Yes. Totally. Pathetic, really. I tell ya, this whole infertility thing has changed me a bit. I still have a great passion for photography, it's just a bit misguided at the moment. I have a difficult time wanting to photograph other people's kids, or other families... I just want to photograph my own babies. Watch my own kids grow through photos.

This isn't how I feel all the time, thank goodness, but it's caused my motivation for photo taking to slack a bit. It upsets me. I honestly don't want to work at Nordstrom the rest of my life. I want photography to be my number one job. Focus, Lauren, FOCUS! I'll get back on track. I'm beginning to try harder, at least.

The thing is... once I actually DO a session, I am so happy to be back in the game. I LOVE being behind the lens.. and I love the excitement of going through images on my computer after I get home from a session and seeing what magic is hidden away in there. Often times there's at least a little magic... :) This is how it worked out earlier this week..

Although I do have an entire website devoted to my photography, I have yet to put a post together for it with photos of my latest shoot. Laziness, I tell ya. That and I've worked every day this week so far.. and still have two more days to go. Erk. I'm still editing the session anyhow, so I shouldn't rush things, right? Right.

I am sort of in love with a few of the photos, though, so I thought I'd share a few with my favorite blogging friends.

{click on the photos to see them a little larger}

Weekend means busy work days for me... but I wish you a happy weekend regardless, my friends. xo

late nights and later mornings

2011-06-08T09:47:00.000-07:00

life has been weird lately. facebook statuses have been a little more "sad"... i think i can accredit this to the missing as of late, but mostly to the things that've been going on in my little life.

i wrote up a very long blog post about a month or two ago outlining the details of recent goings on.. but was completely crushed when i found that the save function on blogger had malfunctioned and i lost every word of it. ouch. it's taken me this long to recover and sit down for another go. from the looks of things, "Save" is working correctly this time.

I'm going to go ahead and write out a few of my journal entries... lay it out there. I've learned that there's support everywhere. I've met friends online, whom I call "stranger friends", who've gone through this same thing or something close to it... and it helps so much to know other's have felt your pain. ***(I'll warn you, this can be a little detailed, but I'm over caring. I can't tell you how many doctors have now seen my lady parts up close and personal...)

The Rocky Road to Momhood May 23, 2011:
Well, it's been a long one... and it's still winding about taking detours over hills and lowly valleys. It's weird, but when I think back, I believe I knew this would be my trial (a trial) through life. I don't think I could have consciously explained to you that I knew this, but I just don't feel 100% surprised with the situation. Granted it hasn't made the infertility any easier, but I've just never admitted that I could've possibly fathomed this. But I have. So there's that. I'm pretty surprised to see that written out, actually. It's been about two years now since we've been trying for a baby and the insatiable need inside me for a child has grown incredibly. My insides just want to scream "BUT I'M READY!" so often that it's exhausting.
Events thus far include:
July 2009 - Begin to try to conceive
May 2010 - After 11 months of trying, we decide to get checked out by a doctor. See if there's anything wrong. All of the wonderful testing is done. Anything wrong? Nope! I feel frustrated at this as I'm hoping there's a problem with my body that could just be "fixed".
June-August 2010 - Clomid and HSG. Turn into a crazy, heat flashed person with the Clomid. HSG hurts like hell. Worse, probably. Vow to never go through this procedure again and decide to never attempt natural childbirth.
September-March 2011 - No insurance = no Clomid or any other fertility treatments. Continue to attempt the "natural way." Not missing the Clomid actually as the side effects sucked and I ceased to "surge" 2 out of the 3 months I was on it. During this time I also started spotting more frequently.
April 2011 - Insurance! Go see new doctor (Dr. Phillips). He's the first male OBGYN I've seen, but is also a fertility specialist. Does an exam, sonogram (the "fun" kind.. including a "wand"), has me do blood work to test hormone levels. Instant connection, I'm super happy to have found a new doctor so willing to create a POA to get me pregnant. A week later, his nurse calls to tell me about the PCOS they think I have. I have cysts all over my right ovary. Confident that I'll get pregnant regardless, I take two rounds of Femara this month.
May 2011 - Pregnancy test = Negative. I also get off my anti-anxiety med per doctor's suggestion and start taking pre natal vitamins again. I do another round of Femara and on day 16 of cycle (yesterday), I go in to clinic to get another sonogram and measure follicles. They look good and ready, so I get an HCG shot in my hip. Doesn't hurt at all actually... On day 17 of cycle (today) I go in for the IUI procedure. It hurts like the HSG did last year, but didn't last as long so I survive. Maintain my stance against natural childbirth...

in the waiting room before the IUI. jake had worked all night long and hadn't been to bed yet.

In between the journal entries, let me just say that post IUI, I was very convinced that it would work. My doctor was also convinced that it would work. I was consumed with hope and positivity... until..

The Punch That Keeps Punching June 2, 2011:
So I'm not due to take another prego test for another couple days, but this morning at work a giant >>PANG<< of realization hit me in the pit of my stomach. I felt irritable, anxious, bloated and crampy.. all the wonderful things I feel a day or two before my . comes. At the moment of the >>PANG<<, I knew that yet again, i was not pregnant... that, like every month before for the last 23 months, my body had failed me. I was an emotional wreck all day.. and it's continued all night. It's not effing fair! Why can't I just get pregnant?! I started spotting again today, so my hope feels squashed.. even though all of this could still be pregnancy symptoms, I don't think they are. Jake's working all night for the next 4 nights (at least) so I get to deal with this alone. I don't even want to talk to people on the phone. They don't know how I feel. I can't tell you how sick I am of hearing people say "it'll happen exactly when it's supposed to." I don't care! By no means does this make me feel better!! I know they just don't know what to say.. they feel sorry for me and love me. I'm sure it's difficult for them to watch me go through it...

sono machine..

Mixed Up June 6, 2011:
Well, the . officially started today. I went to my doctor's appointment so he could do another sono and check the status of my cysts. Guess they don't look so peachy, so I'm on birth control this month instead of the Femara. The Femara is feeding the cysts, so we need to blast them down before I can continue to take it. Dr. P is also concerned about all the "pre-spotting/bleeding." That's not normal, I guess, who knew? Even with the cysts. My body has done it for a while. Well, I guess I'll be getting a Laproscopy and Hysteroscopy done the end of this month. Which is a bummer because I have to do it the Friday we were going to go to Santa Fe to see Luke, Chelle, and Carter. :( Breaks my heart.. I want to see them so bad. Dr. P is nervous that I might have Endometriosis. It's an outpatient procedure, but I do have to be put under for it. They have to cut an incision in my belly button and go in to see what's going down inside my uterus. Super fun stuff. Can't wait. I'm feeling really overwhelmed today and don't really know how to make sense of all the thoughts going on in my head. Jake was off tonight, thank goodness. I don't know how I would've gotten through the day without him. It's a weird time for us right now... struggling to figure out a career, the baby situation, and being so far from our families.. it's making us stronger, I know, but it's all just so... heavy. It exhausts me. I feel like there's a very long road ahead of of me.. and I can't give up now. Mandy said that Parker (my 12 yr old niece) asked her how I was doing tonight.. Mandy told her I'd been to the Dr and have a few issues I need to take care of. Parker looked at Mandy and said, matter-of-factly, "Aunt Lauren will get pregnant. I just know it. I don't know how I know.. but it will happen." I thought it was the sweetest thing. I adore that girl. This reminded me of the positivity I need to hold on to. Life's been pretty good to me, right? I really need to remember those good things...

So this is where I am. It has been really hard. Especially lately. Most days I feel like I'm laying face down in the dirt and getting these occasional kicks to remind me that life's just not fair. BUT... I can take it. I'm blessed with an incredible family who's supported me from the start. Granted, they're 20+ hours away by car.. but I know they're there.

Well now you know. I guess now I can just "keep you updated"? Maybe some of you have gone through this? Like I said, I'm always looking for new friends to shout "this sucks!" with.. I'm not looking for people to feel bad for me. I just wanted to reach out and bring the issue to light.

Wishing you all the best this week.

Lauren

what i miss most:

2011-05-13T14:49:00.000-07:00

there are a few things. in no particular order...

cafe rio- oh. so. bad. my memory can almost taste it.. but not quite. and it kills me most days. never thought i'd miss it this bad!

fried pickles from lucille's- they were the first, therefore they are the best fried pickles eva. and i'm living in the "south" (sorta)! so this says a lot about lucille's!

lunch dates with the sisters & mum- i just miss our girl time together. so much.

mountains- MOUNTAINS!!! i miss thee so terribly much. they don't believe in mountains here. just hills.. and they're pretty gorgeous, too.. but i miss the smell of higher elevation and the majestic, jagged horizon. {sigh...}

speaking of mountains.. ZIONS- my favorite place on earth. if you haven't visited.. you're missing out on a whole different kind of WOW factor. giant cliffs of red rock. they're just... amazing.

friends- sure, we have a few friends here... but we also have incredible friends back on the western side of the states.

sunday dinner- every sunday we'd gather with the casto family and eat a wonderful meal. the best meal of the week, usually. jake's mum is a wonderful cook.. and his family is fabulous company.

family- this is numero uno on the missing list. why is transportation so costly?? i wish we could visit with our most favorite humans in the world more often. i'm realizing more now than ever just how important family is. i'm so grateful that we have such amazing families.. both in-laws and out-laws alike.. to miss. very blessed indeed.

there are more things, but not a whole lot more. i do love austin and all the many wonders it has to offer. it's greeeen... and full of amazing fooood... you've heard me list them before. i'm sure i'll have a laundry list of things i miss about this place, too, once we leave it one day.

cheers to you!

enjoy your FRIDAY THE 13TH! {we'll be watching nightmare on elm street to celebrate}

from our going away fiesta back in october. taken with disposables!:

...hello? is this thing on?

2011-05-01T14:38:00.000-07:00

{cricket}

{cricket}

...{cricket}

i know. it's a common sound around these parts.

remember when i was like, "hey, i have this really awesome blog, you should ch-ch-check it out."
then you were like, "hells yes, you're super interesting, i love following your blog entries about your insanely interesting life."
then i was like, ".........."

ya, that was about how it went down. sorry folks. i'll give you a few details on the happenings. let's just say that austin is still amazing. we sorta love it. there are these hidden communities right off the highways that have trees all around them, and cute ranch houses with huge yards...
there's incredible food and i feel like i've successfully gained ten pounds since moving here. texas bbq is truly spectacular.
the people are kind... genuine. they mean it when they ask you how your day is going.
bug seems happier here. there are 7 cats that live downstairs... bug isn't allowed to go outside to hang out with their flea-ridden selves, but she watches happily from our windows. she's also made friends with the bluejays and squirrels that frequent the branches just outside our door.
i'm working at nordstrom... some days i love it, somedays i wish i could remember what it was like to look forward to a friday.
we're both still looking forward to hearing back from the airforce soon. it's been a long process... budget debates aren't helping matters either. {get it together, gov't.}
we.miss.our.family. we're far away. texas is far away. airfare isn't cheap. asking for time off is close to impossible between the both of us. one day we'll get home to at least say hi for a day to those we love most. one day!
it is beautiful here, though. so many rivers and lakes... and downtown is so clean and interesting. we're wondering what the future holds. if we're meant to stay here for a while or move along. just waiting it out and enjoying life along the way, i guess.

i promise i'll try harder at blogging. although most of you follow my life on fb, so at least i don't suck at all realms of social networking.

for now, i'll leave you with a few photos... hoping i can make up for the "lost time".

I was afraid...

2010-11-17T11:42:00.000-08:00

"I was afraid... I'd eat your brains.... cuz I'm evil..."

:)

Oh hey, look...

2010-11-15T08:07:00.000-08:00

...I found one!

At the longhorns game. :)

why.. hello.

2010-11-12T11:55:00.000-08:00

lauren who?! yes... i know. i'd say i've just been too incredibly busy to post, but really that shouldn't be my excuse. i did have a month off from working... but i must say, i was looking for a job that entire month.. and have been sight seeing, of course.. exploring our new city.. so.. i was busy. i landed one, though.. a job.. and so our bills can now be paid. yippee!! jake too. we're responsible adults contributing to society again! well we're here in austin...

and it's A W E S O M E.

someone please tell me why i wasn't born here?! okay.. maybe that's because i was too busy being borned out on an island in american samoa. ya ya whatever... there's a saying here that goes something like this:

'i wasn't born in texas (austin), but i got here as soon as i could."

that sort of applies to me, i guess. except that i'm 25... er.. 26 now.. and i hummed and hawed through those first few years of my twenties. i could've moved out here sooner. but then i wouldn't have met the man of my dah-reams.. and austin wouldn't be as cool without the guy.

the trip out here was sooo loooong. sooooooooooooo looooooooooooooooooooong. and we were in separate vehicles. me being stuck with the meowing bug-cat. she chilled out after about the first 8 hours. uh huh. we arrived at our new condo and to our horror, the place was SO DIRTY. :( it's a pretty nice complex.. older, with a ton of trees and squirrels everywhere... but the owner had not cleaned the place! we were pretty disgusted. we had driven 11 hours that day (on 3.. yes THREE.. hours of sleep the night before) and then we had to head to the grocery store that night and pick up cleaning supplies. there was no way i was sticking my hiney anywhere near the toilets as they were. um ya... it was bad. but we conquered! and it's our home now.. we sort of love it. :)

every time we venture off to look at something new, we're in awe of just how cool this place is. the people are so incredibly nice, it's contagious.. and i've already picked up on all the 'ya'll talk' and bbq. let me tell you, they are serious about their bbq here.

we miss our family.. and friends, of course.. and i think it makes it harder knowing how much they'd all absolutely LOVE it here (and in my head i've been scheming of how i could get them all to move out here..). it's sure been difficult missing the big events that've been going on back home, too. this has been a really amazing experience for us, though... already. we depend on each other a lot more. it makes us appreciate each other a lot more, too.

so all in all, life is pretty darn good... jake has had a phone interview with the usaf and will be flown up to hill afb in a couple weeks for some tests. the possibility of the military is great and we're pretty excited. we knew that our time here in austin would probably be short lived, but now that we've been here, we know that we'll want to come back one day. so who knows what the futures holds.

hopefully a few more adventures... :)

**so i haven't taken too many pictures with my good camera... don't ask me why. i really have been busy, okay?? but i stayed up after writing this post last night and put all my flip video clips together of our trip out here and whatnot. well, it isn't loading. guess it's too big. so i'll work on that. but sorry i don't have any pictures for you! maybe i'll get some on here soon..

jealousy & all that...

2010-09-23T11:06:00.000-07:00

so the husband is in austin at this moment... finding us a place to live.

i've requested pictures at every juncture of his travels throughout the city... so i can live vicariously through them as i sit, confined to this desk of clerical drone-ism. dramatic? na...

it's a cloudy day in the wonderful, exciting, and weird city of austin. with humidity in upwards of about 90%. doesn't seem to bother jake much. he says that it isn't miserable as long as there's a slight breeze. so there's that. we won't have to worry about getting the ever present bloody noses of desert living. hooray for that!

i'm actually quite excited for our little texas adventure. it's an expensive little adventure (as in, we could probably move to europe on this same budget.. plane ticket included), but it's the right choice for us. who knows where we'll be in a year from now. probably in the military. so WHY NOT take off and enjoy life austin stylee for a little whiley?

anyways, all of that out there, i am feeling broad pangs of jealousy for the spouse's mini vaca without the wife. i know he misses me soooooooo muuuuuuuch.. he's got to, right? but i truly wish i were there with him. taking tours of possible future condo-homes.. having the first look at our new city.. having lunch at the south austin trailer park and eatery.. sounds delightful. soon, though. oh so soon. we'll be unpacking and nestling into our new place about three weeks from now.

so i guess i can survive until then. oh and i should probably insert somewhere in here that i do actually MISS my husband.. we've never quite been this far away from eachother before. when i got home from work yesterday, i found a note that he had left me. it went something like this:

going to miss you, sweetie.
i'll be thinking of you...
do some independent stuff and listen to all the music that i don't like.
love you lots,
jake

sweet, hey? ha ha. i never knew i had music he didn't like.. maybe i should run out and buy a lady gaga cd for just such an occasion.

cheers! xo lauren

ps. i started a tumblr account.. just to add one more thing to my pile of time consuming social medias. i sorta like that i can just have a random 'i feel like saying this today and posting this picture.. or i like this picture that i found while searching tumblr.. save for future use' outlet. link to it on the right side of this bloggity.

{ Divas and Dreams }

2010-09-13T13:29:00.000-07:00

Have you ever visited this website? She has the most beautiful, girly, vintage, lovely and inspirational posts. I love them! She's currently doing a giveaway. The winner will receive an incredible gift box that'll include these little lovelies:

Yes, I'm entering to win it and you should too!

Hope everyone's having a great day. It's Monday.. but I'm happy. Oxymoron type-o-day.

xo Lauren

Keep Austin Weird...

2010-08-25T15:25:00.000-07:00

So a fellow blogger friend of mine recently moved to Portland, OR and posted an image of a sign there saying "KEEP PORTLAND WEIRD".

Austin, TX also has this motto.

And this is why we are moving there in October.

Okay, so maybe not THE reason we're moving there.. but it has something to do with it, I'm sure.

Most of you know about this move already, but I wanted to make the "official" blog announcement (even though I suck at updating this and surely everyone has given up on it..).

So....

here we come!!!

If anyone knows of anyone out there that would want to either employ us or lease a condo to us, please let me know. :)

Alaska {continued}

2010-08-11T17:17:00.000-07:00

The most incredible part of the trip was in Juneau. We took a helicopter and landed on a glacier!! I can not tell you how giddy we all were... walking on that ginormous chunk of ice took our breath away. Looking down crevaces 100's of feet deep stunned us into silence. It was the most amazing thing I've ever done.. and should be on everyone's 'Top Ten Things To Do Before I Die' list!!

I'm in a lot more pictures... but they're on my FIL's camera. :) Jake took this one.. ha ha.

It was rare for us, but Jake and I both enjoyed dressing up a little for dinner aboard the ship a couple of the nights. The food was INCREDIBLE... every meal was delicious and we overdid it every day with the desserts. Ohhhhh the desserts. I want to go back....

Relaxing with my honey was so nice... just being. Enjoying everything about Alaska! It was lovely to get away and have the freedom to let our minds relax. We had such a fun time being with Jake's parents and they did so much for us which I am truly grateful for. I will miss the 10 hot chocolates a day! Ha ha.. We will definitely do this cruise again one day. And you should do it, too!! :)

xo Lauren

Alaaaaska... {phoootos}

2010-08-11T17:07:00.000-07:00

Sooo...... our vacation we had back in JUNE was amazing!! So beautiful, so relaxing, so adventurous, so blissfully happy, so ready to go back to Alaska now.. sheesh. Sorry this post is coming to you in AUGUST..

We flew to Seattle first and oh. my. goodness. how I love this city! The old buildings, the eccentric people, the farmers market, the GREEN... sweet perfection. We had perfect, sunny weather so I'm pretty sure people are lying when they say it rains nonstop in the Pacific Northwest. :)

The cruise ship was great... loved our stateroom! We were surprised to find that they upgraded us to balcony rooms and I about peed my pants when we walked in and I saw that.. :) I am missing that comfy bed and all of the hours I was able to spend reading for pleasure whilst cruising around.

Alaska is an incredible state.. and we only saw the Southeast part of it! Lush forests, tall mountains jutting right out from the sea, incredible glaciers.. and the wildlife! We didn't see any bears or moose, but we saw WHALES! Grey &Blue Humpbacks, ORCAS, and dolphins galore! Also saw some sea lions and seals swimming right up to the boat. One of my favorite things we did was visit an Eagle Rehabilitation center in Sitka, AK. We saw bald eagles up close and personal as you can see in these photos.. along with a Golden Eagle, Hawks, and owls. Amazing creatures.

{ to be continued... above. :) }

exhaustion

2010-07-16T10:05:00.000-07:00

so i can barely keep my eyes open today. literally, they're burning to close...

.........zzzzzzzz.........

see!? i just feel asleep for a seccond!

haven't been sleeping great the last couple nights.. don't know what's going on. making some big decisions these days so maybe the fact that my brain is working double time has some relevence to the problem. all exciting decisions, though.. mostly..

i'm doing a photography workshop with some incredible ladies and learning from a huge inspiration of mine, sheye rosemeyer. i took her first course last year and this is the more advanced workshop. i am loving it.. feeling overwhelmed with the amount of talent i'm surrounded by there, but i'm also feeling the drive to achieve my dreams.. and it's wonderful. it's so easy to get complacent in life and just drift on through. one day, we'll look back and wonder where all the time has gone.. why our dreams were always pushed to the sidelines. jake and i are trying hard to change this in our own lives and will disclose our plans for the future to you all soon enough.

for now, i need to focus on the present.. go drink a diet coke. wake up. try to enjoy the fact that it's friday instead of being irritated by every person in my office today. yes, tired equals moody when it comes to me. at least i just shut my mouth and hide in my cubicle.. could be worse. : )

ya'll enjoy yer weekend. xo

musicality

2010-07-07T11:10:00.000-07:00

i've been MIA.
i apologize.

been crazy the last few weeks. i can't believe the 4th of July has come and gone already.

the cruise was kind of a blur. an amazing & incredible blur.. but a blur all the same. that post will come soon.. it's actually already been written, but pictures need to be inserted and i need to be home with an extra 20 mins in order to do that. so patience please.

i've been overwhelmed with the urge for musicality lately. i always listen to music... every second i'm in the car, all day at work, while editing photos.. i'll be at bbq's eating delicious food with perfect company, but am annoyed that there's no music in the background. i've been like this for as long as i can remember. i want people to ask me what new music they should buy.. or who my favorite bands are.. can they hear that song i've been humming all day.. it makes me happy. jake's been playing the guitar a lot lately.. learning dropkick murphys songs and mumford & sons. its delightful. i love hearing him strum.. while biting his lip in concentration. :)

so i just wanted to share with you some tunage i'm listening to these days. some new, some old.. all incredibly awesome. do yourself a favor...

check em out.

Alexi Murdoch

Angus and Julia Stone

*photo courtesy of viaductpromotions.co.uk

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

*photo courtesy of laist.com

I just really really really love Radiohead. All albums.

there are so many more.. i knew this was dangerous territory..

Stabbing Sensation...

2010-05-17T17:11:00.000-07:00

'That's so Dexter of you, Lauren'. Okay so the title of this post has nothing to do with serial killers that can't help themselves when it comes to bad guys...
It's just been a day.
And really I was referring to the knot in my back that decided to take up residence on some nerve.. pinching it to death and causing me extreme pain. A frequent stabbing sensation every time I tried to move.
This was resolved on Friday, but the ache is still there to remind me of how utterly useless I was most of the day on Friday. Love those things that're completely out of your control... and just happen to suck. Bad. And on my day off with perfect weather.
End complaining.

The day has been busy, but productive and I'm wishing I could go home and play guitar for a few hours tonight.
No, I don't play the guitar very well and no, I don't play it very often.
But I'd like to.. and I wish I did. :)
Would be a good evening for it...

In other news, I'm reading an interesting book called The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. Mum suggested I read it (she made me).
She isn't a weirdy (not completely..) so when she visited last week and kept mentioning this book and how it impacted her... "If I hadn't read this book I'd look around this place (full of old memories..) and feel angst and a little sadness... but now I can look around and remember what great, positive experiences I had and how funny, sweet life is" (Yes.. this continued for most of the weekend) I thought, why not? I could use some positive reinforcement when it comes to my thoughts.
I used to really be into books like The Four Agreements, The Mastery of Love, etc.. this book is similar as it helps you look at life a little differently.

I've been going through a few rough spots the last year or so... and have watched family members go through some as well... and I find myself getting down quite frequently. But lately I've had this feeling that won't go away.. kind of like the stabbing sensation that was too strong to ignore... to re-evaluate my life and how I should go about living it.
The book is just kind of fun, interesting to read... I know I'm the one who really needs to let go of some things and choose not to let stress get me down. No book is going to magically make the stress disappear (oh how i wish).. but it's nice to have a reminder that it's up to me to change things. Or to change the way I'm interpretting things.
Anyways.. just wanted to share some words on this subject. Have a lovely week, okay?

xo Lauren

Graduation = Vacation!!!

2010-05-03T14:12:00.000-07:00

Well.. my husband boy is growing up. :) He's graduating college on Saturday and I'm SO proud of him.. and SO relieved that at least one of us did it right.

(Reeeeeeeeeeeeally hope we see one of these. Not up close.. of course. But don't you kind of want to hug him?)

After five years of rugged scholastic-ness, we've decided to celebrate by heading up the Pacific to ALASKA.

Pretty ding dang excited! I'm not even sure if the reality of the gorgeousness we'll be seeing has even set in yet, actually. We're taking off in about 6 weeks- flying up to Seattle and cruising out of the Seattle port. I've never been to Seattle and we'll be spending a day there... so that in itself ROCKS.

So ya.. just had to share the awesomeness with you. Hope everyone is having a great Monday. {um.. is that even possible?!}

My Love

2010-04-23T14:36:00.001-07:00

Have I ever shown you this photo of Jake? Have I ever told you how much I love it? Rarely are his hair and beard ever this short at the same time... hehe.

i love us.

Earth Day!

2010-04-22T10:19:00.000-07:00

So most of you probably DON'T know that I'm a hippy at heart... I am... I'm sorry, but I really am.

Today being Earth Day and all, I thought I'd share a little post with you all from a favorite photographer, Tara Whitney. She shares some great ideas on what we can do to make even the smallest difference. GO HERE.

Now, I honestly am quite sick of the expression GO GREEN, but the intention behind it is something that everyone really should be aware of. Why not help out the other living, breathing creatures residing on this earth with us?

I bet it'd make you feel better to at least try..

xo Lauren

{ FREE Mini Session! }

2010-04-09T08:53:00.000-07:00

Hey friends!

So it's warming up here in Las Vegas.. and to celebrate the time between cold/windy weather and hot/miserable weather, I'm giving away a FREE mini photo session over on Facebook!

Become a fan on Facebook and then refer me to your friends to become a fan and be entered for a chance to WIN the session with a $60 print credit!
Go check out the complete details on my facebook fan page.

Hope to see you all over there! (Better hurry! I'll be drawing the winner's name next Friday, April 16th!)

xo Lauren

{ photography website LAUNCHED }

2010-03-16T09:48:00.000-07:00

Yay! It's finished and all live to the internet!

Please visit www.laurencastophotography.com to see my little piece of the photography world.

Okay...

I'm going to try really hard now to focus on the day job...

And not just walk around with a perma-grin.

=D

two years down...

2010-03-01T22:54:00.000-08:00

and 60 some odd more to go!

remember when it was jake's birthday last month (last post) and i was like "ya.. i'm not gonna get all sappy and do the '26 things i love about jake' thing". well.. today's our second anniversary and guess what? i'm not gonna do the two greatest things about our marriage post either! so ha! just kidding. :) no really, i'm serious. i'm not. there's way more than just two great things about marriage. especially our marriage. it rocks. i wouldn't trade it for the world. in fact, jake rocks my world. and so does our little furry child we've been raising named bug. life is great and i'm happy to be living it.

for the sappy anniversary post i decided i'd overwhelm you with a bunch of photos from our wedding because it's always fun to reminisce and such.

we were married in the saint george lds temple. it was an incredible experience and such a beautiful day. we had a great time at the reception.. filled everyone's bellies with a nice pasta dinner and danced the night away. drank mini cartons of milk to wash down the delicious chocolate cake. i even sang to my beloved... in front. of. everyone. but you know what? i'd do it again if it meant i could publicly profess my love for him. :)

happy second anniversary rj, snake, jakers, babes, my love...

fantastic days

2010-02-15T22:21:00.000-08:00

this past saturday was jake's 26th birthday. i'm not one to write corny blog posts listing the 26 greatest things about him because... well... he'll never read it. just know that he's an incredible man and i love him way too much. :) for his birthday i got our family together and we went out to the valley of fire about an hour outside of las vegas. it's very beautiful... full of red rocks and petroglyphs. we bbq'd and enjoyed eachother's company... also hiked around a bit. it was perfect. i love my family so much for driving all the way out there to celebrate jake's big day. and by my family, i mean, both mine and jake's family. i love them all and it was so fun having them there.

before we went out for the day, though, i got up and whipped together some breakfast for jake. i decided when jake and i got married that i wanted to continue with the tradition my family had whilst growing up of breakfast in bed on your birthday. so jake was a champ and let me feed him french toast in bed.

{i posted a picture of the perfect breakfast in bed for jake.... but he made me take it down because he had bed head. :( so.. here's bug.}

on to the great outdoors. i realized that i don't post too many pics on here... not as much as my photo blog, obviously... but i DO have about 427 to post today. so... hope you enjoy.

and although i looked pretty terrible... i was there... see??

jake and i went out to dinner on saturday night for a happy valentines/birthday bash. valentines day was pretty lovely too. sunday afternoon we went on a picnic and grilled up a delicious steak dinner. the weather was perfect and it was just us..... and everyone else at the park. but it really was perfect.

my arms aren't long enough....

and to end this long post....

bug wants to say hi.

jeep!

2010-02-10T09:09:00.000-08:00

so jake and i bought our very first vehicle together... and our first 4-wheel drive, too!

a 2006 jeep wrangler.

it's so fun. we went out to the desert the day after we got it and it'd been raining all day, so it was nice and muddy. :-)

we sold my mazda 3... which was kind of sad. it was a great little car. but i've wanted a 4X4 for a loooooong time so i'm not tooo sad. it definitely eats up more gas than the mazda, but i love everything else about it. so guess we'll just have to deal with that minor detail.

i love that it's orange...

anyways, just had to share this bit of news with ya'll. not much else is going on with us. just work work work for me and work school work school for jake.

hope everyone is enjoying 2010 so far!

{ photography website }

2010-01-20T17:14:00.000-08:00

so it's too hard to conceal my excitement about the upcoming launch of my photography website... it's giving me a headache.. all the smiling and planning i've done the last week. :D

but i'm SERIOUSLY excited!!!!!

the site is still under construction and my wicked awesome web designer friend travis neilson is turning it into a masterpiece i'm sure. how can i be so sure, you say?? because i've had a glimpse! and it's oh so pretty...

so go.. right now... scoot on over to laurencastophotography.com and leave your name and email so you can be the first to know when the big launch happens!!!

and for your viewing pleasure, here's one of the many fun images that were captured during saturday's photo shoot with my brother, luke, and his gorgeous little family:

cheers!

a looong reflection...

2010-01-05T10:45:00.000-08:00

It's the first week of the year 2010 and as I sit here staring at the computer screen all day at work, I find myself reflecting back on this last year...
2009 was a bit of a hard year... Jake has been in school every month. Spring. Summer. Fall. It's all for a great cause... he should be graduating in June. So this next year will definitely be more positive in that aspect. Maybe we can actually enjoy a summer together! Who knows.. real life will be starting then... but it's not like we haven't both had full time jobs this whole time. That's real life.. paying bills, etc. Finding a job should be interesting, though, for Jake. He's planning on joining the Airforce and we're really hoping that works out. Because we don't exactly have a plan B at this time. Airforce is the most difficult branch of military to join. And although he has a great GPA and is super intelligent and ridiculously goodlooking {he has to make the uniform look good afterall}, the Airforce may not be recruiting officers for what he's interested in. Just hard to tell right now... with the economy BS and all. He won't go in if he can't be commissioned as an officer, though. So at that point we'll set up a plan B. Let's hope he can get some more info in the next couple months. When he tried speaking to a recruiter, they told him not to come talk to them again about going in as an officer until he has his diploma in hand.. buuuuuuut we kinda need more info nooow. So he'll do his Jake thing and get the info outta someone. :)

Anyways... this is supposed to be a reflection post, not a 'what 2010 will be all about' post.

So... 2009 WAS positive in a handful of ways and I will list them below:
1. Jake and I have grown so much closer. The first year of marriage was different... and getting to know the pros and cons of it can be a rollercoaster. This was our second year and we were able to focus more on building eachother up and being supportive. It's amazing how selfishness can just vanish sometimes.. when you love someone enough. :)
2. I really feel like I've grown into my own photography style over the last year. I took a photo course at the college and then had the amazing experience of taking an online workshop with Sheye Rosemeyer. Not only did I learn so much about myself and my love of photography, I also met so many wonderful and inspirational friends from around the world. They have helped me along the way as I've made decisions of where I want to take photography in my life. We have developed a relationship where advice is instantly available and never denied. I will forever be grateful to them for helping build up the confidence that will allow me to create a business out of what I love.
3. My neice, Blake, and my nephew, Carter, were born in September. It is incredible how these new little baby bodies just instantly magnify the love right out of you! They are adorable and I've been so grateful to be right here in the same town during their first months of life.
4. Also, on the same subject- watching my brother and SIL become brand new parents was a wonderful experience. I've had two older siblings that had their first babies years ago, so I've been surrounded by them for quite a while. But watching my brother Luke, hold his baby boy.. and knowing that his life would be devoted to that child forever... is something I will always remember.
5. Our trip to Arizona. Just Jake and I. It was the only camping trip we did this year {which is sooooo not like us} and it was so much fun. We left after work on a Friday- it was Memorial Day weekend, I think.. so it took us a while to get there. We stopped in Flagstaff for dinner and then kept on going into the Coconino National Forest. By the time we got to where we were going, it was around 11:00 at night. We drove around for 2 hours {!!!} trying to find a camping spot. The idiots we are forgot about the fact that it was Memorial Day weekend and the place was packed. Not to mention it was POURING outside. We even got Jake's truck stuck in the mud and had to push it out in the middle of the night. But guess what?! Just when we thought we were going to be sleeping in the cramped truck, we pulled into one last campground and there was our campsite. A FREE campsite, too. Weird. Had a perfect place for our tent and a picnic table and a short little walk to the bathroom. It was great. The weekend was uphill from there. We had such a great time. Except for me waking up in the middle of the night on the second night to Jake looking out of the tent door with his gun in hand.. that was a little scary. I literally thought there was someone trying to kill us. I was looking around for anything I could use as a weapon after Jake was bludgered to death by the murderer... which of course didn't happen. I guess Jake thought it was a bear or something. Paranoid much? I guess it was bear country, afterall..
6. Sorry this has turned into a novel.. I'm having fun..
7. This year was kicked off with the birth of my bestie Rayni's baby girl, Aurora, in January. I can't believe she's almost one! She is such a gorgeous, happy baby. I have loved watching her grow over the last year. My other bestie Kirsten's baby boy, Connor, was born last month. We were able to go visit them and meet the handsome little fella. It was a beautiful thing to see Kirsten and Ben with their baby boy. He's so loved already!
8. Chase and Shalesa's brand new baby girl, Elliette! {yes... twas the year of BABIES!} She's breathtakingly beautiful and can be seen here and here.
9. The friendships we've made over the last year are irreplacable. We will definitely miss our friends here once we move away... but one thing I've learned over the many years of my life {i am 25.. that's a lot of years..} is that it is possible to keep friendships going whilst long distance. If they mean enough to you, you'll make it happen.. and you mean enough to us, guys!
10. Going to Philadelphia to see my aunt, uncle and cousins. Such a rad trip! They are the coolest family and definitely took care of us while we were there. We love Philly and will be going back one day.. hopefully soon! We also took the train ride into NYC for a day and that was amazing. What a beautiful city..
11. Spending some good, quality family time with... er.. the family. :) I love having Jake's parents and siblings so close by. Seeing them every Sunday is so comforting and I am going to miss that later this year when we {HOPEFULLY} move. One of those things where I can't wait to leave, but it's going to be SO hard to leave family. And I love having my sister and my other awesome siblings here, too.. Mandy is my BEST friend and has helped me through a lot of the rotten times this year. I'm so grateful for such an amazing family!
12. So I'm realizing I could probably go on with this for quite a while.... and it's made my day better just reflecting back on the positive things 2009 really did bring. Even though there were some hard spots, I know I was never alone.. and one thing that was absolutely never lacking last year was LOVE.

I am looking forward to all of the lovely things 2010 will bring, though...

bitter...
sweet...
whatever gets handed to us, hopefully we can take it in stride and move forward in life with love in our hearts.

Wishing you all peace, love, and happiness in 2010!

And because posts are always better with a photo,
here's a tie between my favorites of 2009:

Holidays...

2009-12-31T19:28:00.000-08:00

we hope yours have been filled with
love
and
laughter.

today...

2009-12-29T10:26:00.000-08:00

today i am grateful for my family... and for their health.
although it appears to be kind of screwed up at times, i know i am blessed to be in the situation that i'm in.

siblings, parentals, in-laws, out-laws...
they all shine a lovely afternoon light into my life that i couldn't live without.

{Happy Christmas}

2009-12-17T10:59:00.000-08:00

okay.. so life hasn't really eased up on the stress since my last post.. until recently! yay! my sister and i kind of started a large project for my dad and mamacita vicky and it took all of my time after work to do... but it will be SO worth it and we're very excited to give it to them.

also, tis the family portrait season, my weekends were full of taking family portraits for family, friends and clients {aka new friends!} galore. I LOVED it. LOVE having a creative outlet and LOVE seeing what comes from a session with these lovely people. If right now you're asking yourself "what?! she's a photographer?" well my answer is simple "yes, yes i am." haha. ok, so i'm working on the confidence of actually calling myself a photographer. but ooooh how i love the sound of it! :) go on now, go check out my photo blog here.

i'm excited for christmas. now that stress is behind me.

can't wait to give my incredible husband his christmas gift that i'm sure he hasn't quite figured out yet. love surprises! we're spending this year with the casto family and i'm excited for:

*the good company
*tasty brunch
*crowded movie theaters
*time off work
*the feeling of giving
*children's smiles... and even their whineyness from being tired since they woke up too early. it is christmas afterall.
*bug eating all of the wrapping paper the second it's unwrapped. i've even seen a few kitty bite marks in the wrapped gifts already under the tree.
*knowing what the holiday is truly symbolic of..

what're you guys doing to celebrate the holiday?

and just so you know i wasn't lying about the whole photography thing.... this is me. with my camera:

stress level: high

2009-11-20T09:48:00.000-08:00

so it's been a rough week.

we all have em, right? not just me?? week after week after week??? i think it's this city.. i always blame it on the city, though. and working all day.. then going home and editing pictures (working some more). then looking at my house.. with piles of clothes begging to be folded and put away.

but when?

i'm grateful that i'm so busy... because i really love doing photography and my weekends are devoted to that right now. just need a clone sometimes?

and there's other stuff.. always other stuff going on to try to throw me off kilter and be mad at life. but i LOVE life.. i don't want to be mad at it. :) so i'm trying to learn how to manage my stress... deep breathing, a little yoga maybe.. where's benja when you need her?? oh... in st. george.

i'm blessed to have a husband who loves me so much. we can get through these holidays together.

my loves

2009-11-14T23:38:00.000-08:00

haven't posted in a while. sorry about that, internet. i've been super, insanely busy with the photography biz the last month or so. (which totally rocks, by the way, no complaining here..) but i wanted to say what up ya'll to my peeps and post a photo or two of some favorites in my world. hope all's well!

Presenting Baby Blake!

2009-09-25T23:51:00.000-07:00

She really is gorgeous... and I love her name, too- Blake Tristan Gornichec. She is my oldest brother and his wife's fifth child and we are so excited to have her here! She arrived this afternoon at 1:58 pm. 8 lb. 1 oz. Yes, it's been a crazy week.. and I've loved it. :)

Carter is here!!

2009-09-23T22:14:00.000-07:00

Carter Lucas Gornichec is HERE!! and so handsome... He came via last minute c section because his heart rate kept diving during labor. He came out just as perfect as can be, though! Don't believe me? I have pics to prove it. :)bun in the oven....

6 lbs. 13 oz. 20 in. long 3:45 pm

I am in love with my new little nephew. :)

AND I get a brand new little niece! Megan is being induced on friday! Can't wait to meet Blake!! :)

THE summer vacation

2009-09-10T17:02:00.001-07:00

so for those of you who don't have facebook, or are not fortunate enough to be my friend on there at least... :) i wanted to post our idaho pics so you could see them! also, to tell you a little bit about what we did... SO we went up to idaho the beginning of last month to a little place called island park. SO BEAUTIFUL. loved it. while we were there, we got to enjoy some marvelous huckleberry pancakes & huckleberry cheescake (YUMMMM), the amazing wonders of the very first national park in our country- YELLOWSTONE, did a little fishing, saw the GRAND TETONS, and cruised back home through the ever loverly Wyoming! A big, grand THANK YOU to my gorgeous sister-in-law's family for having us and to jake's family for being there as well and making it a wonderful trip. without further ado.. presenting...... the pics. :)
p.s. they WILL be a little scattered because i really hate trying to organize them on this thing.. just know it was all on the same trip ok??

OLD FAITHFUL
so the pics are posted backwards. so if you want to watch it 'go off' you have to scroll down, then scroll back up. sorry!

check it...

2009-09-04T09:39:00.000-07:00

check out some new photos by {yours truly} here .

St. George

2009-08-25T16:28:00.000-07:00

we traveled away to st. george a few weeks ago to see my family... especially to hang out with my aunt and cousins from back east. it was pretty enjoyable to hang out with everyone and meet a couple of the new babies we've now got in the fam. we had a big family bbq, a mini photo session with little baby {P} and went to the lake to enjoy the sunshine and lay out on the sandstone rocks. here are some shots of the weekend:parker and heidi enjoying girl time.

chase. love the goggles.

aunt heidi's bonding time with ty.

our camp for the day.

mandy found these flattened coins in her pocket. they're from Matsumotos Shave Ice in Hawaii!

court.

this is my mum's kitty, Bella. she's the strangest little thing... but LOVES jake. :)

my gorgeous aunties.

my cousin's wife and their sweet baby girl.

aunt kelly, grams, whitney, baby p.

mandy and scott lookin like teenagers. ;)

p.s.

2009-07-23T22:02:00.000-07:00

oh, and....

I PASSED THE P&C TEST!!!!!! YEEEEEEEEEAH!!

meet murray... our little man fish.

2009-07-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

some eye candy for ya.... bug & the newest addition to our fam- murray. :)

okay!!

2009-07-22T16:51:00.000-07:00

okay okay!! i know you're all very upset about the lack of 4th of july pics... so i stole these babies from an undisclosed location {cough} [rayni's blog] {cough} so you can see how cool, yet HOT, we are at the dam. the dam pictures if you may:

(jake looks pretty good with a stroller, huh? ...wink!)

its been awhile

2009-07-22T15:48:00.000-07:00

SO i should probably say "whats up" to all my fans. ;) well its been a stressful few weeks... jake is in summer school... still... his second session of summer school actually. blah. he'll agree with me there, too. and i'm going to be taking the state property & casualty insurance test tomorrow to get licensed to be an insurance agent. really, i'm just trying to secure my job... as i'm not planning on being here for tooo much longer... we're still in need of my income for a little bit. i had to go to insurance school for two weeks. monday, tuesday, thursday, friday from 4:30-9:30. sucked since i still had to work all day on top of it. and its SO much information to retain. but hey, i did it and graduated. :) i reeeeally just need to pass the test, though. and its stressing me out big time. my company is paying for it.. but if i don't pass on the first try i'll be paying for every time after that. talk about pressure.
we had an awesome fourth of july with jeff, rayni, & aurora coming down from st george and jake's cousin clark and his friend stephanie coming down from slc. went to hoover dam and played in the sun.. watched the best firework show ever in boulder city. man it was great to have some favorite friends here with us. they are seriously the coolest people ever to want to come see us. the oddlings that we are. jk! (right?)
vegas is hot. like the blazing pit of hell.. which it can definitely be comparable to in many other factors besides the temperature. but hey, we're healthy! haha... na, i mean life is crazy right now- yes- but we're doing good. going on a trip to island park, id the weekend of the 31st, so that'll be a FANTASTIC break. jake and i are going to sneak off to yellowstone on saturday to see the sights- it's 35 miles from the cabin we're staying at. so talk about heaven for us..... we'll get to see BUFFALO and MOOSE and OLD FAITHFUL.. everything anyone could ever need in life! so i'm hoping to take a plethora of images to display to the world of cyberness. so stay tuned.

and since everything is better with a picture, i'll share these images with ya'll. (i'm not at home, so i don't have any of the 4th of july or "goings on" pics..) but a lot of you know this gorgeous gal... jena asked me to take some prego pics of her and these are a couple from the session. isn't she beautiful?! she had her baby boy, kade, a couple weeks ago! seriously good looking family. :)

um... photos.

2009-05-09T23:56:00.001-07:00

So i have another lovely spattering of images for ya... since I'm just now getting around to showing you the pics of our CA trip, I thought I'd throw in a few more so ya'll can see what we're lookin like these days. First we'll start out with the most recent of Lauren and Jake pics... then a few of the "Gornichec Sibling" photoshoot.... then we'll be on to the second star to the right and straight on till morning............ (what?)..........

Wishing all of the wonderful mothers out there an exceptional Mother's Day!!!

Vacation!

2009-04-13T22:13:00.000-07:00

California was SO GREAT. Fantastico!! Went to San Diego where we hung out with my dad and mama ganda for a minute. They worked all weekend, though, so we didn't get to see much of em this trip. :( Both Saturday and Sunday we went to the beach and just laid. It wasn't super warm, so half the time we were bundled in our clothing, but it was still absolutely perfect... just laying there, listening to the repititious rumble of the waves... birds chirping above... children digging in the sand and laughing... all whilst we drifted in and out of a slumber. Awww..... Vonderful.. Monday morning we drove up to Anaheim to our happy spot. DISNEYLAND. It was pretty busy all day, it being spring break and all, but it was just Jacob and me so we had a blast. Soaked it all in. Didn't have to do too much rushing around... just enjoyed the perfection of that place. I mean, sure the lines totally suck, but there's something about it that makes you breath a little easier. I might not completely mean that one day when I'm dragging my own kids around.. making them enjoy themselves damnit! Sorry... jk. Monday night we stayed at the Convention Center Hilton. It was really nice... the bed was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo comfy. Especially after walking around all day long. Tuesday we woke up and went to California Adventure for a few hours and rode all the good rides before we had to come home to this stupid desert. Far cry from Disneyland, that's for sure.. boo. It was a very nice vacation. I love hanging out with Jake. Sometimes we get so caught up in our work and school lives that we're stressed and forget how much fun we can have together. That's why we try to vacation often. :) Alright, well I tried to add a couple pics from the weekend, but apparently the format they're saved in is too big so its not loading. Always bloody something. So I'll add em later. Sorry, I know you were all on the edge of your computer chairs just a waiting for some California images of your two favorite people... CHEERS!

St. George + Photography

2009-03-30T19:27:00.001-07:00

Hello my friends... Jake and I popped up to St. George real quicklike this weekend to surprise my mum who's choir had a big concert Saturday night. (sorry SG friends... didn't really tell anyone we were coming.... family trip I guess. Catch ya next time for sure.) We drove up Saturday morning and went hiking in Snow Canyon with my sister and her kids that were up hanging out with my mum for the weekend. (they're from Vegas also) It was a gorgeous day!
For those of you who don't know, I'm finally taking a photography class and learning a ton.. I LOVE it. I have an assignment due tomorrow, so I decided to walk around downtown St. George on Saturday afternoon, after hiking, to shoot some photos of a town with character. (Vegas has a lack of that.... well, classy character anyway..) It's pretty fun to learn more about what I love to do. I'm seriously loving every minute of it.
We're heading to San Diego on Friday! Can't WAIT! Jake's spring break is next week so we're taking Monday and Tuesday off work and making it a long weekend. Going to see my pops and mama ganda and enjoy the beauty of Southern California. We Pricelined a really nice hotel in Anaheim for Monday night. The Convention Center Hilton, I think. We got really lucky.. it was our first time with Priceline. So ya, we're hanging with Disney both Monday and Tuesday so life is good. I'm really just feeling anxious to have some beach sand between my toes...
-----Some shots of the weekend-UNEDITED-----

Lauren.... who?

2009-03-20T22:00:00.000-07:00

Er... yes. I'm here. I suck at blogging. I sit in front of a computer all day so I don't feel much like sitting at one once I get home. And I know I could at least write something when I'm at work.. just to keep ya'll updated on our ridiculously crazy and exciting lives... but we all know these suckers are just better with pictures. So I guess I'll post a few. As for an update... welllll, I'm still working.. Jakes still working and going to school. I'm taking a photography class which I'm loving and Bug is getting pretty big. She's so stinkin cute... It's pretty nice weather down here in Las Vegas.. but I wish there were actual parks with big trees and lots of grass where we could go enjoy it. But alas... there isn't really. So I enjoy it from my car. :) Oh, I know something cool... Jake and I had our FIRST anniversary on March 1st! So hell yes for us, right?! We spent it in Zion. Stayed at the Desert Pearl, which is so rad.. Hiked Angel's Landing and it was amazing as always. So ya.. nice trip. And that's about it, I guess. We enjoy our everyday lives.. I mean, apart from the whole "work 40 hours a week or else starve" thing. That kinda sucks and gets old by about Tuesday. But ya know.. such is life! Hope my lovely family and friends are diggin the spring weather and I hope to maybe see you soon??
Oh! How could I forget... my amazing and INSANELY good looking husband turned 25 on February 13th! So yay! This is Bug celebrating a little with a balloon...

Aw sweet.... she loves him.

Jeff & Rayni had their beautiful baby girl!! This is Aurora Kimberly Dean with {Auntie} Lauren...

And these are Aurie's feet...

This is little Hailey Sue Casto. She just turned one on Monday. Isn't she beautiful?

Valentine's Day, Jake and I went to Red Rock and hiked around a bit. It was pretty incredible with the snow.

I apologize for the spatter of random images..

E.T.

2009-01-21T14:19:00.000-08:00

So I've been terrible at this blogging thing the last month or so. And I'm still not going to give you a very good entry myself.... I'm going to give you the link to my brother and sister in law's blog as they have documented our most recent brush with extraterrestrial life. Please refer to the link below for the 411:

http://deepthoughts-lak-n-chelle.blogspot.com/2009/01/getting-in-and-living-to-tell-about.html

I'll post soon.

SNOW

2008-12-18T08:30:00.000-08:00

In Las Vegas! It was pretty amazing, actually. Biggest storm here since 1979!! They let us go home early from work, although we probably should've left earlier... You see, down here in good ole southern Nevada, they don't have plow trucks or vehicles that drive around and salt the road.. So you just have to kind of make your way through it all. My car handled quite well, and I made it home in one piece.. I LOVED IT actually! Made this place look quite beautiful! :)

Jake took this picture yesterday afternoon- He took Bug out to see how she liked the snow. Don't think she did, really..

To Zion We Go...

2008-11-19T21:53:00.000-08:00

Well... to Zion we went, rather. Jake and I headed up to St. George a few weekends ago and had a blast! It was Rayni's baby shower, so I was able to get up there in time to take part! It was a lot of fun and Rayni is just about the cutest pregnant woman I've ever seen! Afterwards Jake and I headed up to Zion's for a night of camping! It was a little chilly. But ah... it was gorgeous!! So here are some photos of one of the most beautiful places on Earth!!

View from our campsite

He's so hot right now...

Jake is cooking. Look at those trees!

See.... I was there....

We couldn't get over how amazingly beautiful it was. I mean, we've both been to Zions like a million times before.. but I guess it was just a particularly incredible trip. That's what happens, I guess, when you're spending time with the love of your life... :)

Halloween! Finally....sorry.

2008-11-12T22:17:00.000-08:00

GHOSTBUSTERS!!!

That's RIGHT everybooody.. we were out bustin the ghosts this Hallows Eve... And yes, our costumes are homemade (for the most part).. INCLUDING those mad rad looking proton packs!
We're battling the Fairly Odd Parents! (Luke & Michelle..er.. brother and SIL)

We threw a Halloween party at a park for all of our family. It really was a lot of fun...except I didn't get to bob for apples. Which is really what I wanted to do the most... Still, the kids had a blast!!

The Best.

2008-10-30T15:07:00.000-07:00

So Jake made me some acorn squash last night.

It was really good... and i want everyone to know how much i adore my husband. He's my sunshine & my shelter when the sun is too scorching! I can't tell you how much better my life is now that he's my other half. I'm in love with him. And most likely, he'll never read this... but I just wanted you all to know that. Haha....

Halloweens a comin

2008-10-23T22:33:00.000-07:00

Evenin ya'll. So I just wanted to check in and give all of my daily readers some eye candy. ha... er... Jake and I made a last minute trip down to Disneyland last weekend due to the very much appreciated invite from his parents! We spent all day Saturday playing at the happiest place in the universe! My mom and stepdad were down there as well, with my little brother Kaden. Kind of crazy that we'd all decide to take a Disney vaca at the same time. Kirsten and Ben even showed up for the day!! Of course, they live like 10 mins away, so how can they resist, right? Lucky punks. :) I was really excited to see em, though. This weekend we'll be searching madly for the completion of our Halloween costumes.... you'll have to wait for those photos to know what we're dressing up as. (only because if we can't find the entire costume essentials, we'll have to change ideas at the last moment...) Well other than all that, life is pretty much the same as usual. Jake's been studying madly and writing a paper. He's a much better student then I... although I am getting through my class okay. Yay me! Hope everyone's doing GREAT and I want to talk to you guys so call me or email me when ya can k? Miss my people.
Love ya, La.

I've decided to have a bit of a showcase of our Bug....

Bug.

Ain't she pretty?

And a few others for the helluvit....

Ty and "Butch"

Ew... kissy kisssy!

Soldier's Angels!

2008-10-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! This is pretty cool... and is a good way to help out our country's soldiers...

http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/194264.php

Love you all! Will post a good one soon!!

Update

2008-09-10T21:17:00.000-07:00

Hey everyboooday...
Been a while... and I know I said I'd post some Lake Powell trip pictures, and i'm sure you've all been anxiously waiting, as most "Lake Powell trip" photos look COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from family to family..... but I just don't have them here on my laptop and I don't feel like kicking Jake off the Mac to access em. I do, though, have some other photos from our doings lately. I will post em in a minute. So the summer is winding down somewhat here in the Las Vegas valley. Jake and I are back at school. He's at UNLV and I'm at CSN. We're both still working full time... BUT I got a new job at an insurance brokerage firm. I actually enjoy quite a bit at the moment... I do miss my people over at the old office, though. They were really pretty rad... Sometimes you just have to move on, though. So I'm on my second week at the newby and we'll see where it takes me. Our good friends Chase Harbour and Shalesa Leavitt got married over the weeked. Yes, we've been to our fair share of weddings this year. We were able to be there at the temple which is always pretty sweet... they looked pretty gorgeous, too. Both of em! So best wishes to them and all that crap. :) We know they'll have an absolutely wonderful life together. Here are some photos from the weddin:

<------- Ahh.... coming out of the temple as Mr. and Mrs. Don't you love her dress? So "Jackie O"!

Check out his blingin ring... extremely fitting for his unique personality... -------->

<----- Okay. This is Jake's friend Devon and his wife, Darcy. Devon is a little nuts, but insanely hilarious. The child he's holding by the leg is his daughter, Madelyn. Ha.. it was actually pretty funny. He was holding her on his hip and so I was like "Oh hey guys.. let me take a family pic...." and then seconds before I snapped the shot, he swung Madelyn out by her leg.. and this is what we came out with. Priceless. (Don't worry.. he really is a good dad...)

Jake, the guys and the woman of the hour. ----->

<---- Sometime we kiss. And it was the desert... and the sunset... sorry...

They're all "BRIGHT! and shiiiiiiny...." ------>

Aaaaanyway... hope you all enjoyed my photography. Maybe one day I'll be more thorough in my bloggingness. I love you all and hope life is spontaneous, exciting and keeping you in good health.

Los Angeles!!

2008-08-04T22:32:00.000-07:00

So it's been a few weeks since the big trip down to L.A., but I finally got some photos from my sister and decided I should finally pretend like I have a blog. :) So it was a pretty incredible time. We went down there for my step sister, Jaymie's wedding. She was married to rap artist, Jimmy "Taboo" Gomez, of the "Black Eyed Peas". It was a beautiful Catholic wedding in a church in Pasadena. Only family and close friends were there... of course THEIR close friends just happened to include Fergie (some of you may know who she is...), her fiance- actor Josh Duhamel, fellow bandmates Will-i-am and Apl de ap... It was crazy to see them amongst all of our family members! Everyone was very friendly, though, and just as beautiful as the movies! ha. Josh especially... don't worry, Jake agrees. The reception that followed the ceremony was amazing! They had traditional Filipino dancers there as well as an awesome mariachi band! They were combining their heritage into an incredible show. There was also a surprise appearance by Frankie J who covered the song "More Than Words" as Jimmy and Jaymie danced with their moms. And to top that, BOYZ TO MEN showed up to sing to the happy couple for their first dance together. It was pretty awesome and the food was nice, too. The reception was held at the historic Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles and we were able to stay in a suite on the top floor! It was a fun hotel.. even if the bathrooms were really small. It was so wonderful to see our beautiful family... and it was an experience we won't ever forget. Here are some pictures from the weekend. Enjoy. (I accidently just uploaded all of the unmodified pictures... so the red eye and everything is right there. I could shoot someone right now... but it's too late and I'd rather go to bed. So I'll be modifying this whole post soon.... gurr.)

Our dinner once we got into town... Johnny Rockets!

The sisters!

What can I say? the men in my family are ridiculously good looking...

Mandy and Scotty.

Luke and Michelle.

Us.

I wish this weren't so blurry. They were so damn cute...

Our table. Ya.. Jake was being difficult.

Jake was having a hard time smiling... so I guess I was watching, waiting... ready to pounce on him if he wouldn't smile for another picture! And that's my dad.

Our "Momma Ganda." Gorgeous, I know.

Scott took me for a spin on the dance floor. Practically the only white people there... be wow... we really were impressive!

Ya. That's Boyz 2 Men. AGGHH!! We bout peed our pants...

So I wish I could post more pics, but it takes too much time and I'm too dang tired. Love you all. Stay posted as I will be blogging our Lake Powell trip we went on last week very soon!

So. California Trip

2008-06-24T22:08:00.000-07:00

Last Friday we made the trip down to California for some partyin. We started by going to Costa Mesa and checking in with our lovely friends, the Tyrells. It was awesome to see them and to hang with their sweet kids Lady and Zyzzx Snowball Spazoid Furrhead.... um, whatever her full name is. We had a great time. Then we headed down to San Diego that afternoon to hang out with my family. My stepbrother, Ton, graduated from UC Riverside last week and my stepsister, Jaymie, is getting married in a few weeks to Jimmy "Taboo" Gomez (um, he's famous, you should look it up...). Anyways, my parents decided to throw them a combined party because of it all and we had a huge turn out. Great food and an awesome DJ who played nothin but the good stuff... and the company was fabulous. We're really excited to see everyone again in a few weeks for the big wedding festivities. Jake and I also were able to catch some sun rays on Sunday before we made the drive back to good ole' Las Vegas. Here are a couple shots from our weekend...

Some more photos...

2008-06-18T12:38:00.000-07:00

By request... I've finally decided to post some wedding pics.

Bug!

2008-06-17T19:32:00.000-07:00

So I'm breaking the so-called "blogging rules" and posting again today... Here are some photos of our little Bug... um, finally.

2008-06-17T17:11:00.000-07:00

So the desert sucks. A MASSIVE wind spurt from an invisible blow-dryer about knocks me over every time I walk outside. It's windy, HOT and ugly enough for aliens to want to live here. (that was an Area 51 reference...) I just wanted to voice my opinion of the great land of Las Vegas. So I'm not a fan... it's cool. At least I won't be here forever, right? Right?????

That's all.

p.s. Happy Birthday Kirsten!!

The "Anthill" in the desert

A much anticipated update!

2008-06-16T08:26:00.000-07:00

Good morning cyberspace... I don't really have any friends on here yet, so I don't exactly know who I'm talking to when I'm writing these blogs. Just opening my mind and mouth (fingers) to the blogging world, I guess. I should probably tell more people that we're on here. Hm. Well, I didn't write anything on here last month, so I decided I should put up a new post. I sit in front of a computer most of my day at work, so when I'm home I don't feel much like getting on the internet and writing about myself... but EVERYBODY'S DOING IT... so I guess I should too, ya? Well, let's see what's new... Jake and I are still happily married. He's learning how to weld just for fun at the moment and is actually quite good at it. Yesterday we were watching that Discovery HD show about the NASA space missions and we decided that Jake should find a job at NASA. He'd be really great at it. But he's great at all sorts of things... lucky chap. We've been to the lake quite a bit in the last couple weeks and I'm rockin the wakeboard. Jake's rockin it harder than me, but like I said.. he's great at most things. :) It's been fun, though. I have a wicked burn on my leggies. We're heading to Orange County to see Kirst and Benny on Friday!! Then we're off to San Diego on Saturday for an engagement/graduation party at my dad's for my step brother and sister. I haven't been there since the big engagement of our own, so we're stoked! And I keep promising pictures, so here are a couple that I have on this computer at work, but I have to be at the home computer to post the cool ones, so if I remember later on, I'll get some on here and you can see our Bug finally. Hello run-on sentence. Love you all... (again, I don't know who I'm talking to... but I'm imagining my friends who I know have a blog...)At Kirsten's wedding... yes, that's a Mickey Mouse watch on his wrist... classic.

My handsome husband. Last year in Long Beach, CA.

Bug!

2008-04-28T10:11:00.000-07:00

We adopted our very first Casto baby on Saturday. Her name is Bug and she's a tabby/bengal mixed kitten. She is so incredibly cute... we're pretty stoked about the addition to our family! So in a couple of years, when we get a house with a yard, we'll probably adopt a weimaraner puppy into the fam... then after taking care of those two, we might be ready for a baby human being. I don't know, though. : ) Guess we'll see! I'll get some pics posted on here when I learn how to do it.
Adios!

It's begun.

2008-04-16T21:38:00.000-07:00

Hello to everyone. We've joined the crew and are ready to set out on our blogging adventure... Randall Jacob Casto and I (Lauren Faletupe Gornichec Casto) met December of 2006. He lived in Las Vegas and I was located in St. George at the time. We started seeing each other every weekend after the initial meet and have been falling head over heals ever since. I decided to take the plunge and moved my butt down to Las Vegas in May of last year... I needed to see how things could work out with this Jake kid. So low and behold, it was greater than I ever could've imagined. He made me laugh and smile consistently and after a few months, I knew I could never live without him.

So in November of 2007, he proposed marriage on a sunny, Saturday afternoon on a beautiful beach in San Diego. 4 months later, we were married in the St. George LDS temple. The day was incredible. The absolute best day of my life. We were surrounded by the people we loved and we were together... forever.

Almost 7 weeks later, we're back doing our every day life kind of things and married life is pretty fun. Different... but fun. Jake is in school majoring in Political Science and working hard as an electrician. I'm over the insurance in a local dental office and hoping to become a world renowned photographer one day. We plan on being in Las Vegas for a couple more years, but after Jake graduates, we'll be on to the next big adventure. Europe maybe? Or we might just do law school... ha. You never know where life is going to take you...