December 13th, 2009 | by admin
I just want to thank every single person who bought the online book over the past couple days. If you ever have any questions you are always free to email me!
Just in case no one could get to their computer by yesterday, I’m leaving the code up until Monday. The code is thankyou
On another note, I have been looking all of you guys up on Facebook and I’m pretty surprised at how many of you don’t have Facebook. This for me has been an excellent tool for me for marketing. I get about 90% of my seniors from Facebook. I upload photos to my page and tag them and then their friends see them with my name on it. Facebook, for me is probably the best marketing tool I have. I don’t spend much money on advertising etc. I get a lot of word of mouth clients but seriously, if you don’t have facebook, I would tell you to get it!
Weight loss update. I’m now down 21 pounds and I’ve just bartered with a personal trainer that’s coming into my home. She’s coming into my home 3 days a week to help me do resistance training. I’ve never been so serious about being healthy and losing weight. I am so determined to get the weight off! Thank you for all the emails and stories of weight loss. I’m here to help anyone in their journey to lose weight too. I know it’s hard so lets do it together!
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December 7th, 2009 | by admin
My husband just came home from work and told me he had to pay $900 for his truck today. That was completely unexpected so I decided to help my husband pay for it that I’d do a group buy on the online book.
10 people 75.00
20 people 50.00
30 people 40.00
Please EMAIL me at ali@rockthatocf.com with the subject line Group Buy.
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December 4th, 2009 | by admin
Here are a few photos from New Orleans. Since I’ve been home I’ve been inandated with work. I haven’t had much time for anything!
I hope everything is well with all of you guys and that your Christmas season is coming to an end. I know I need a break!
On the PLUS side of things…… A lot of you know if you’ve been reading my facebook my husband was offered a job the other day back in the field he’s used to working in. It’s been a year and a half that he was laid off of his job from of 10 years. He’s meeting with the boss today to talk about everything but my husband and I are incredibly excited because he will have paid vacation, a company truck that pays for his gasoline, sick leave and health insurance. We haven’t had any of that and it’s been very rough!
Also, on the weight loss topic. I have been working literally my butt off! haha Seriously, I’m almost at -20 pounds. I’ve been very frustrated b/c my goal was to have 20 pounds off by tomorrow but I don’t know if I will make it. As of two days ago I was -18 pounds. I have been working out almost every single day for a minimum of 45 minutes up to 75 minutes. We have a exercise bike and a treadmill.
A fitness gal, Wendie Pett, who I photographed not to long ago that I’ve also become friends with. We talked yesterday on the phone and I told her about my progress and was telling her I was frustrated but she told me I was doing more than good at the rate of losing weight. I started October 5th and tomorrow it will be 2 months. Hopefully, tomorrow when I get on the scale it will be -20!!
Since, I’ve been doing all of this the confidence that has always been shoved way deep down is finally emerging. I’m having more confidence in myself and I can’t wait till my jeans are too big and I can go shopping. And if you know me. I absolutely hate shopping. I’ve despised it for years. When you are a bigger person it’s very hard to feel good about oneself especially when you see all these awesome clothes out there and you know you’d look terrible in them.
As promised, here’s a photo of me in New Orleans. I was at -15 that weekend. Normally, I’d completely say absolutely no photos of me but with this new confidence I was just messing around with Renee when she took this photo of me by giving her a funny look.
Here’s a list of the upcoming dates again for the workshops.
St. Louis: February 5-7th 1 spot left
Houston: February 19-21
Chicago: April 23-25th
Michigan April 30th to May 2nd
Canada (Ontario) May 14-16 (Full)
Salt Lake City June 18-20
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November 25th, 2009 | by admin
This weekend was very interesting for me. Honestly, if something could go wrong it went wrong. I literally walked in my house last night at about 8:45 after about 26 hours or driving. I will explain. Friday, I flew to New Orleans and we got the workshop started no problem! It was great to meet everyone. Then one of the girl’s got sick and went home. She was so sick she couldn’t come back. :( Then all day Saturday it rained. That really stinks when you are supposed to be shooting outside.
Thankfully, we try to have back up plans and went and shot in this warehouse area that ended up being very cool. But even before the workshop started Saturday morning, I called my mom to check in on my daughter to make sure everything was good. After I hung up with them, my mom called me back a few minutes later and told me my uncle had passed away a few hours before.
My uncle lives North of Dallas and Thank God, it so happened that one of the girls was from that area that came to my workshop. Sunday after we finished shooting, I rode with Melissa 10 hours to my aunt’s house. Melissa, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for going out of your way to helping me be with my family.
My parent’s decided to take my 3 year old daughter and drive from Minnesota to Texas. I spent some time with my aunt and family. The funeral lunch was at noon and my parent’s arrived at 11:30. We left after the funeral at 4:30. We drove to Oklahoma City and spent the night where we lost my daughter’s stuffed puppy Dot. We can’t find her anywhere and my little girl has been upset about it. Thankfully, my mom went back to the store she bought it at and found a new one but it’s not really the same. Hopefully, my daughter won’t know the differnce.
Anyway, this weekend was like I said, interesting. The workshop was really good. I haven’t even downloaded photos yet but will be doing that once I try and get back to all the people who have emailed me. If you are waiting for me to respond please be patient. I’m trying to get caught up.
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I’m going to spend some quality time with my husband and daughter with out being in a car!
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November 15th, 2009 | by admin
I posted a photo a little while about with a girl on the track and I said to watch out for what I was going to talk about. Well, I’m finally getting around to it. It’s taken me a while to get the gusto to say what I am gonna say and put myself out there.
Here goes. I have been a bigger girl much my life. I grew up with a very skinny mom, dad and brother. All were very nice, tall and slender and here I was at 5 feet 2 inches and have never been skinny. I remember being teased relentlesly growing up as a kid. I have had such a poor self esteem for so many years. The summer before I got pregnant, my husband and I were incredibly frustrated because we had been trying to have a baby for over a year. I went on a mission to lose weight. I lost about 45 pounds and I was on top of the world.
Then, I literally lost 7 friends of mine due to death. One of my closest friends ever passed away. It was not expected at all. It was so horrible for me to lose my friend Camille. The last time I saw her alive, I told her that when I got down to a certain size, I would buy a skirt. If you know me, I never wear skirts or even shorts. I am a jeans girl. (hopefully, that will change) But, I got down to that size and I ended up wearing that skirt to Camille’s funeral. Her death was very hard on me. She was a mom to me. Always there.
About a month later, I finally got pregnant. I was so sad about everything that was going on around me I was determined to be happy because we were finally pregnant. Well, as time went on the weight crept back. I was still trying very hard to work out but I was so sick I just couldn’t do it. I had morning sickness up until I was almost 6 months. Day and night. It was awful. Then, I was put on bed rest b/c I kept having preterm labor. So more weight. Once I had my daughter, I was so stressed out. So when I’m stressed I ate. I used to smoke and drink but I realized that I didn’t want that in my life. Anyway, I was so stressed, I used food to cope with everything.
I have crept way back up to my highest weight over the last few years and it started freaking me out. I have been so unhappy with my body. I know so many people are too and I know that’s why I’m writing this.
5 weeks ago I started to take charge of my life. I’ve quit drinking pop, my yummy coffee’s from starbucks that are only 500 calories for one cup of coffee. I have quit eating at my favorite ice cream shop. Seriously, I never liked ice cream until Culvers came to where I was living. I have just really started eating a lot less but more often. I’m not doing any one program. I am just really watching what I put in me now and how much plus I’m working out for 45 minutes a day as soon as I wake up.
I have a goal to lose a certain amount of weight. In the 5 weeks that I’ve been doing this, I’ve lost 15 pounds so far. I’ve always had excuses to not work out. Oh, my daughter will never let me. I hate waking up so early, I never have time…..etc etc.
Well, enough was enough. I got so tired of being the way I am that I have had to charge of my life. I feel so good now. I still have a long way to go before I reach my goal but I am so determined.
I was at a party last night and one of the gals, has lost over 50 pounds and now she is very skinny. She looks incredible. Her and I were talking as I was leaving last night and I was so insprired to keep going. There have been days when I just want to quit. But, I’m going to keep on doing it and this blog is also going to help keep me be accountable.
I hope that I can help anyone who wants to lose weight too. I am here for anyone who wants to talk about it.
So - 15 pounds so far. I am going to keep updating as I lose this weight! If you are friends with me on Facebook, you can see my updates! When I was in Salt Lake City, one of the ladies took a photo of me. I think I had only lost about 7 pounds then but I was going to post the photo on here so you could see who I really am with no liquify. Unfortunately, her camera was stolen and so was the photo of me. I will be in New Orleans this weekend and I will have one of the ladies take a photo of me and I will post it.
So please, if any of you guys want to talk about losing weight, I’m totally here. I would love to help encourage you and help you and you can help keep me accountable as well!
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November 10th, 2009 | by admin
Here is a list of workshops that will be going on. Please contact me if you want to come. You can read more about them on the workshops tab.
There are other locations as well but have yet to determine dates. I will announce them as soon as I have more info!
New Orleans: November 20-22
St. Louis: February 5-7th
Houston: February 19-21
Chicago: April 23-25th
Michigan April 30th to May 2nd
Canada (Ontario) May 14-16
Salt Lake City June 18-20
If you are interested in attending any of these please contact me as soon as possible to hold your spot. Places will fill up fast!
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October 31st, 2009 | by admin
I had an absolutely wonderful time in Salt Lake City last weekend. There were 10 photographers there and they were amazing! I have met so many wonderful photographers in SLC area!
Here are the ladies blogs from this past weekend:
Heidi Walker
Ashley McKnight
Suzie Oliviera
Jennie Slade
Kacey Torman
Leah Ferguson
Angela Liddle
Brittany Hale
Amie Bayardo
Kerry Sundahl
If you go to Heidi’s blog, you will read something very tragic that happened this week. I feel so awful about it. Her car was broken into and almost all of her gear was stolen. She had around 15 sessions she was working on plus a wedding and plus the images she shot at my workshop. If you want to help her out by giving her anything, anything at all even 5 dollars anything would be higly appreciated. Her paypal address is: heidijwalker@comcast.net
I know she lost around 20,000 dollars worth of gear. I can’t imagine having that happen. So, please if it’s on your heart send her some money to help her out. Photography was helping them so much with her husband being laid off from his job. She is a Nikon shooter so if you have anything you would like to donate to her or even borrow to her let me know. I will get you in touch with her or just give you her address.
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October 26th, 2009 | by admin
This weekend I spent the most amazing time with 10 wonderful photographers. Oh man, did I have a fun time! We had so many laughs and now a few insider jokes too!
I seriously just had an awesome weekend with these gals! They were all so nice and all so beautiful and super talented! We had a ball!
For anyone in the Salt Lake Area we are already working on coming back this Spring.
We are also working on coming to VEGAS! Not sure when but we are looking at dates and possibilities.
Please keep close eye on my blog for announcing of dates. And when you see it on my blog contact me if you would like to come.
New Orleans is next month and now I’m even more excited about going there. I know I’m going to meet some amazing women there!
Also, Canada (Ontario) is in the works for May of 2010 too!
Here’s the second image I have edited from my weekend. It’s so far my new favorite image!
We went into an abandoned house and it was perfect timing because it started to rain for a little bit so we dodged the rain by going in there!
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October 21st, 2009 | by admin
This should be a lot of fun! I will be away from my computer for a few days so if I do not get back to you, I will once I get home.
When I get home I’m going to post about something that’s been going on with me and if anyone wants to join in. You will have to wait to hear what it’s about. 
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October 12th, 2009 | by admin
I went to high school with Sara the beautiful bride. This is my favorite photo from the entire evening. I was going to write something but I will save it for my next post. Just because I love this photo and there are no words needed.
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