My Jam List-Uno

I am always looking for great new tunes to help me get motivated & stay motivated during my workout. I've decided to share a few of them in hopes to help get you motivated. Here are some songs that are currently helping me burn the calories. (not in any particular order)

FOR RUNNING

"Rolling in the Deep" Adele This isn't your traditional workout song. However, It's about being pissed after ending it with a guy. Which is a great song to work out any aggression you have. And not to mention, Adele has an amazing voice!

"On the Floor" Jennifer Lopez It's hard not to jump off the treadmill and start dancing to this one.

"Born This Way" Lady Gaga Ok, this song may be about a few controversial subjects but it's a fun song to listen to and makes you wanna keep running. It reminds me of something Madonna would perform.

"Fader" & "The Science of Fear" The Temper Trap Probably the BEST two songs to listen to if you are going for a run outside. LOVE THEM!

"Till the World ends" Britiney Spears I understand that I take the risk of you questioning my credibility by placing this on my list because Britiney as a person kinda sucks. However, I will give her a little credit for this song. But only a little. No matter how much I like this song...she still sucks at life.

"Breathe Me" Sia Perfect for when you wanna run to a STRONG mellow song.

"Sex on Fire" Kings of Leon One word Amazing. If this doesn't get you motivated to move, just give up. There's no hope for you. Ha!

"We Break the Dawn" Michelle Williams This song is kind of clubbie, but it pumps you up on the tread when you need it.

"Hologram" Katie Herzig Good song for running intervals.

ELLIPTICAL JAMS

"The Cave" or "Little Lion Man" Mumford & Sons Both of these songs are a little too slow for running but have a fabulous beat, which I have found is perfect for the elliptical machine. Try it, it's crazy how well the beat matches your strides.

"Sombody to Love" Justin Beiber Again, running the risk of you thinking I'm crazy. Justin B may only be 16 but he knows how to get us moving.

"Sweet Disposition" The Temper Trap This may be my FAVORITE song to burn calories on the elliptical to. Check it out...it will change your life.

"Electric Feel" MGMT Great band and great song to pass the time on the good ole elliptical.

FREE MOTION MACHINES

"Higher" Tao Cruz Good song to listen to while working on the free motion machines.

"Something Good Can Work" Two Door Cinema Great song to rock out to on the free motion ab machine.

"Sleepyhead" Passion Pit Another good song for either the elliptical or free motion.

"Ambling Alp" Yeasayer Love this song. Love this song in my car. Love this song at work. And yes, I love this song at the gym.

WARM UP/COOL DOWN

"I Run to You" Lady Antebellum Listen to for a warm up jog.

"Closer" Kings of Leon Another good choice for a cool down.

"The Greatest" Cat Power Excellent for catching your breath.

And finally, last but not least. Drum roll please...

"Life" Becka Shae This is THE song that I play close to the end of my run or any other workout when I need a push to make it a little further. It is perfect for giving you the last bit of energy you may need.

A Wanna Be Skinny

p.s. Suggestions for new jams are welcome. :)

Boudoir Shoot

My friend, we will call her..."Barbie", has been married to her husband, we'll say "Ken" for almost a year. I had the pleasure of helping her come up with an anniversary gift for Ken last weekend. We had so much fun shooting some hot shots for her lucky hubbie. Of course I left out the really hot shot for "Ken" to admire. Take a peek...

Little faces that fill the void.

Like I said in my "About" page, I'm not married and I don't have any kids. I'm not going to lie, the not being married thing kinda sucks. Well actually, the part that sucks isn't really about not being married. It's more about being alone. A cute boyfriend would do the trick in filling that void juuust fine. Anyways, not having kids has never really bothered me. I want kids some day but it's not like I'm desperate to have any right now. (like I am to have a husband) Just kidding. kinda. Well I started thinking recently, why aren't I desperate to fill the the kid void. I came across my answer today. I had lunch today with my good friend Tiffany and her 2 daughters Keegan (3) & Addison (6mo.) When I met Tiff Keegan was 6mo old so I've been her Auntie Jenn for quite a while. I realized today that I am fine with not having kids of my own because.........
I LOVE being "Auntie Jenn"! Even if we aren't related by blood we sure are related by love. The following photos are the little faces that fill the "kid void" in my heart.

This is Keegan. Keegs for short. I am in love with her. Seriously. I get excited to see her, I have a great time when I'm with her, and I am so sad when I have to leave her. I never thought I could love a little person this much. I love her so much it's hard for me to even fathom having a kid of my own one day and loving them anymore than I love Keegs. I think that part of why I love her so much is because she gets soooo excited when she sees me. She gets a huge smile and screams "AUNT JENN!!!"

Introducing...Delaney!! She really is my niece. She belongs to my step sister Heather. And she is FEISTY!! I love her to death. She is 6 now. She is REALLY into craft and projects which I love! She lives in California so sadly I don't get to see her as much as I would like. She is SUPER smart, and really down to earth. She's not a little diva or anything. She is just a normal adorable girl who loves to sing & dance! I hate missing her. :(

These two cuties are Christian & Isabelle. I'm miss Jenn to them. I've worked with their mom, Jennifer, for 8 years so I knew them in her tummy even before they were born. Christian is the silliest little boy I've ever seen. He is FULL of life. When he was little he was a HANDFUL, but now that he's a little older, he's calmed down a bit and is really sweet & funny. Isabelle is 7 going on 17. She is really smart (Jennifer would tell you too smart for her own good). She got an ipod touch a few months ago and became a texting queen. I got texts all the time saying "I love you miss Jenn." That is until she recently gave it to her brother who was in the bath tub. Let's just say she has nothing to text on anymore. I'm looking forward to babysitting these two soon!

Last but definitely not least, this is Oliver John. I call him O. He's the newest edition to my heart. His mom is my cousin Elizabeth. He hasn't called me anything just yet considering that he's only a week old, but I'm hoping "Auntie Jenny" follows ma-ma & da-da. And I haven't met him yet (because he lives in Oklahoma), but I already love him. I'm looking forward to snuggling with him very soon!

A Modern Maiden's Tuesday Night

So because I am so domesticated, nights during the week are pretty routine. I usually go to the gym after work. Either to play racquetball or do cardio with my bestie Lindsey. After the gym I usually come home, grill a little dinner, walk the dog, shower, and sadly that's pretty much it. Your jealous of my wild lifestyle, I know. Well, tonight I decided it's time for a "Modern Maiden Manicure". It's really no different than just a regular old manicure, I just thought it sounded cute. So for those of us who don't have time to go get a manicure every week. And frankly don't want to pay for a manicure every week, we resort to having a girlie nails night. This is the thing. I like getting a manicure at the salon. However, if I'm going to get my nails done, I might as well get a pedicure while I am at it. This brings up another point...two things I don't enjoy regarding a pedi. 1. Your legs must be freshly shaven. It's not that I don't shave often, because I do. But sometimes I'll go without for a few days when I wear pants to work. The little Chinese ladies DO NOT like giving pedicures to chicks with hairy stubbly legs. Trust me, the leg massage is much shorter when you have stubble. When your legs are nicely shaved they take their sweet time and let you enjoy your 5 min leg message. Seriously, test it out. 2. They laugh at your calluses and make jokes between each other in Chinese about how horrible your feet are. You know this is true! And then they try to use that razor instrument to shave off your calluses. First off, do you think they sanitize those things? Second, I usually reply "No thanks." Call me frugal if you must, I'm not going to pay 5 more dollars for you to cut off my skin and laugh at me. It sounds so exciting but I'll pass. Anyways, back to my manicure night. I usually go through phases when it comes to the color of my nails.Usually I find a color I love and stick with it for at least 3 or 4 months. Right now I am really into OPI "You Don't Know Jaques!". It's kind of a grayish dark brown color. You've got to try it! See the following photos of my Terrific Tuesday Night! ~

Roommate Diaries: volume I

I recently ventured out on my own. Well, technically I've been "out on my own" since I graduated high school. Which I'll admit, the gap between then & now seems to keep getting larger & larger. Any who, ever since those post graduation days, I have had to live with a roommate or multiple roommates. Mainly because I've never been able to afford a place on my own. I've had some time recently to sit back and reminisce about some of my...interesting (that's definitely the word) roommates & my experiences.

In college there was dorm #1 which included myself and 3 other girls. There was the artsy roommate who was constantly "composing" music on her keyboard (constantly= till 3 am), the unfortunately unattractive roommate who was a drama major and tried to compensate her bad looks by acting and miming (yes, like mime in the box and all) and the third roommate who was well...we'll say...VERY friendly with the residents on the 1st floor of our building (the boys lived on the 1st floor). Just a side note: Roommate #3 was obsessed with this one guy who I had to hear about day in & day out. A few years later I ended up dating the same guy for 4 years. Who knew. After one semester the girls decided to gang up on me by saying they wanted another roommate. They said that they wanted someone who would hang out with them more. To this day I am pretty sure they were just jealous because I was the only one with a boyfriend. :) Anyways, I moved out and into dorm #2 which is a whole story in itself. To keep it short, I moved in with 3 hilarious black girls. I quickly learned how to install a weave, that those girls loved to sing traditional hymns very loud early in the morning, what a 900 square foot space smells like after someone boils collard greens, and the most important thing I learned...that the word "bootleg" isn't always a term describing an illegally recorded movie (that's what I thought it was). Nope, in dorm #2 "Bootleg" meant bad or disgusting. For example, someone might say... "Collard greens are bootleg." And then I would agree with them.
More to come... -M to the M

More pics of Princess Sarah

Sweet Baby Sarah Michelle-Take 1

I had the pleasure of shooting newborn Sarah Michelle Rizzo. People who know me, know that I am not "into" babies. I don't like the way they smell, I don't enjoy thier coos, and I definitely would be fine with never seeing them spit up. I LOVE kids, just not babies. So, when my friend Phil asked me to take a few photos of his brand new baby girl, I hesitantly agreed. Because I love Phil & his wife Shannon so much, I thought "How bad could this baby be." Well, I was in for an unexpected surprise...I actually fell in love with little miss sweet Sarah. She is the sweetest and most peacful baby I have ever had the pleasure of photographing. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I'm ready to just dive in and have my own right now or anything, but she definetly made me think that my "baby phobia" may be slowely subsiding. As you can see in the first set of photos she is on her way to being a model. Oh Phil's gonna love that! More pics to come.