Untrained Monkeys

My Favorite Boys Going Off To Hunt...

2011-11-18T16:00:00.002-09:00

Today was Vincent's second attempt at deer hunting. They didn't see or shoot anything, but he was still and quiet, which was a big improvement from last year. Or so I'm told. To celebrate we had venison salisbury steaks with home made gravy and noodles. It was tasty, but these boys better get on shooting something if we're going to have it many more times!

And Another...

2011-02-28T15:15:00.001-09:00

Police in Northwest Indiana arrested 76 people and confiscated almost 200 roosters after raiding a cockfight near North Judson.

Authorities said a passerby noticed an unusual amount of traffic around the property Saturday morning and called police, who found a large crowd gathered around a cockfight in progress in a corn crib when they arrived about 10:45 a.m.

The spectators scattered when officers arrived, and police found men and women hiding in ditches and wooded areas, including some in hollowed-out trees and logs. Some were children, including one who was wearing no shoes.

Police arrested so many people they had to borrow a school bus to take them to the Starke County Jail. Twelve were charged with felonies, and the rest face misdemeanor charges.

The birds, some that had been fighting and were dead or bloodied, were taken to the Starke County Humane Society, where they were destroyed, police said.

Police found 13 guns in the home on the property, and plan to seize the 20 vehicles and money found at the cockfight.

Score One For The Good Guys...

2011-02-23T05:27:00.003-09:00

What an exciting day at the office! Can't really go into detail about how we assisted in this arrest all the way from Lowell, IN as it was happening, but let me tell you, technology is pretty cool. Good work everyone, and so glad no one got hurt...

Man found in creek after police chase: wlfi.com

Onward and Forward

2011-01-29T09:43:00.004-09:00

As if I don't have enough living creatures at this house, I'm going to add more. I've always wanted to try and maintain a saltwater fish tank, so I'm taking a stab at it. After putting a fresh water tank in at the office and remembering how relaxing it is to watch, I decided to take the plunge (well, not literally). As I was shopping for stands, I was noticing the poor quality 1/4" chipboard that they were constructed from. Since salt water weighs 8.5 pounds per gallon, and I'm figuring I'll have at least 70 gallons or so after all the rock and stuff is in, plus the weight of the rock, and the tank... I'm looking at a pretty heavy load. And I'm pretty sure I'd have to freak right out if I got it all up and running only to have the stand collapse.

Looking at the price of those cheap stands, too, I was pretty sure I could build my own for less or at least close to what the stores were charging. I did some online research to get some ideas and the project took off. I figured I have about 15 hours invested in this thing, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. There are a few spots that I resanded that I need to touch up with paint, but I think it's looking good. It's pretty sturdy. I'm feeling like you could probably park and elephant on it and it wouldn't break. Now to start collecting all the stuff I need to get this thing set up. It's amazing, with the research I've been doing, how involved this saltwater thing is. It's basically like maintaining a really complicated hot tub. With living things inside.

I'll keep the progress posted!

Camp McDonald

2011-01-02T06:12:00.003-09:00

To celebrate New Year's, we decided to venture out in the COLD (sheesh!) to Hobart to go see "Gulliver's Travels" at the theatre. The other option was to set up camp in the living room and watch a movie at home. Turns out we did both. So, prior to going to the show we stopped at WalMart and got this little tent.

The movie was good and everyone had stellar behavior the whole night... good way to start off 2011!

After we got home, we set up camp. Vincent and Jade had fun staying up late and pretending we were in the wilderness. They even slept, in the tent, till 9am this morning! Amazing! They're still in it right now watching "The Neverending Story." I love that movie...

So happy...
Life is good :)

Even Horses Love Christmas

2010-12-25T09:44:00.005-09:00

Thought the horses would like a little extra treat for Christmas this year.

I crushed up a bunch of peppermints, cooked up a huge bowl of oat bran, and mixed in apples and carrots for a warm winter afternoon treat.

I think they liked it!

Winter Fun

2010-12-19T21:30:00.005-09:00

It's so nice to not have a schedule full of stuff to do. Today was kind of warm (as warm as northwest Indiana gets in the winter anyway) so I decided I'd take the kiddos to a real sledding hill. We attempted this a few years ago, but Jade was too little and freaked right out the first time she catapulted down the hill. Needless to say, we didn't stay long that year. This year, however, was different. We stayed there for about an hour and had a great time. I successfully got a picture of us when we first got there wanting to get it out of the way should there be a galactic meltdown at any point.

There were a few near misses...

and a little friendly competition...

and all in all we had a fun time. I was asked when I launched myself into the shrubbery why I didn't steer... well, duh! Because I was too busy filming on the Blackberry to steer! We thwarted any major injury, despite a small collision with a 10 year old for me and a major collision with some other sledders for Jade - and the kids had a blast. This is definitely something we'll have to do again soon. Or maybe we'll just take them skiing. That is... if I survive my first ski trip (in who knows how many years) that is in the works...

Hooray for winter fun.

Taekwondo

2010-12-04T06:47:00.004-09:00

Yesterday was the big belt test day at ATA. Jade was going for her orange belt and Vincent is looking to move to camoflauge (a pretty significant jump). I also participated, but there is no visual documentation of that (haha).

Everyone did a pretty good job. There were so many people there cheering and clapping it was a really stimulating environment. The kids did a great job concentrating on the job they had to do. Vincent got selected as "most improved" over the past 8 weeks - based not only on his Taekwondo skills but his attention, leadership, and behavior in class as well. Surprisingly, on an unrelated note, I also got a note from his teacher that he has really stepped up his behavior in his class over the past couple weeks. Worthy of an atta-boy of some sort I think...

Enjoy the videos and pictures from last night's festivities - and if you're going to watch the videos, I recommend muting your volume or turning it way down... just saying.

Thankful For... Dinner!

2010-11-24T16:07:00.003-09:00

I thought I'd add that image to this post for all of you who feel the need to comment, "Awww, Bambi!"

But before you feel too bad for the pretty deer, consider the number of car/deer crashes that happen every year and the massive amount of property damage and personal injury they cause. Yes, I know, it's our "urban sprawl" that is pushing them into areas they don't usually inhabit... blah blah blah. Regardless of why they're there, they cause problems. On to the story.

Tonight was the kids (well, and really my) first experience with a venison roast. I've had deer brats (thanks Schnick) in the past, but I've never had just plain old deer. Luckily, this particular roast was completely prepared by someone other than me - as I have no idea how to make venison roast not taste gamey...

Another cool little factoid is that this was the preparer's first attempt at actually butchering said deer himself too. But that's a whole 'nuther story. Yoy.

So I told the kids what they were going to be eating, and surprisingly there was no protest. The thing sat in the crock pot for a good long time, and when it was dinner time, I was surprised at how lean and tender the meat was. The kids hesitatingly took their first bite, but after the first taste, devoured the entire plateful. I have to say, it was pretty darn good. I was pretty proud of them for being open minded and trying something new.

So not only was is so tasty, it was kind of cool to be eating wild game with some healthy fresh veggies on a cold and icy Thanksgiving Eve. And with Thanksgiving still being my favorite holiday, things are so just right. Cheers to warm and fuzzy feelings... :)

Fire Tower Expedition

2010-11-07T16:03:00.004-09:00

Ever since we went camping last summer the kids have been gnawing at me to take them back to the campground to return to the fire tower there. When we went camping, it rained in the morning and brought out so many mosquitoes, I was pretty sure they'd just carry us away if we attempted anything resembling hiking and/or fire tower climbing.

So we bypassed the fire tower experience, much to the dismay of my company.

This weekend was probably one of the last of the nice ones we'll have for the year, so I decided to suit up and take the gang back today. We climbed to the top and back down not once, but twice. I'm pretty sure I about fell down the stairs the second time my legs were so weary from the 115 or so *very* steep stairs. Didn't help I had to carry Jade halfway down the first time either (sigh).

After the trek, we did some additional hiking, playground playing, and outhouse visiting (double sigh). But we all made it home alive, and I even got the boogers to cooperate long enough to get a couple of cute pics ;)

Ninjas

2010-11-04T17:59:00.003-08:00

Vincent's been involved in Taekwando for about a year now. He's improved so much, and I've noticed a big improvement in his self confidence and behavior since he's started. His coordination and balance has improved too and he has good role models to look up to in his class. He's learning personal achievement, self discipline, perseverence, and the value of hard work for reward. Jade and I have spent many many hours watching him - and she's been asking for months to join too.

Today I let her, and she was stoked. She entered her first "Tiny Tigers" class full of gusto. She did so well and picked up on what she was supposed to do so quickly. She had great focus, followed the rules, and did a fantastic job. She was so tickled about her new uniform and how she did that she insisted on calling Auntie and Grandma right then and there to tell them about it before we could even leave for home.

Here's to hoping eventually I'll have two black belts, who can use the skills and values they're learning today to better themselves as adults (helps the resume too!)

Good job guys!

I Finally Did It...

2010-10-23T15:03:00.004-08:00

It's a dream I've had for years and years - to own my own Harley. I almost did it when I got my job and moved back to Valparaiso, but apparently the stars weren't in line for me at that point. The motocycle got put on hold indefinitely. I went through periods of wishing I had one, to periods of being perfectly content that I didn't. I've seen friends get hurt on them, and I've seen friends have the time of their life on them. I've spent a considerable amount of time on the back of one this summer...

And then it happened.

I was passing the car lot in Demotte that always has more than a few Harley's for sale. I always turn my head and glance, and then something caught my eye. I saw this bike and instantly fell in love. I couldn't help but think about it all day, and after work, decided to stop and take a look. I figured it would be unaffordable, but I still had to check. Turns out it wasn't.

So today I became the proud owner of a 2009 Harley Davidson Super Glide Custom. And I'm elated.

Party Success

2010-10-11T04:48:00.005-08:00

Well we pulled off the big 0-5 for Miss Jade this weekend. We had family and a lot of friends over to help celebrate and the kids had a ton of fun ~~trashing my house~~ playing and being perfect angels.

Jade cashed in big (way to go girl), I didn't even burn the cake (what 5 year old wants a home baked cake? *sigh), and everyone ate and laughed and had fun. Thanks to everyone who took time from their weekend to help us celebrate and make her day so much fun; Mom, Auntie, Mike, Rick, Combs, Baileys, Schnicks... and, Great, you were sorely missed -

Jade, you are getting so big and the things you do and say just crack us all up. I haven't quite figured out where you get your goofy attitude from just yet, or your sass, or your strong will... but it fits you well. You are so smart and so pretty and so outgoing and caring. We love you to pieces and hope that you had the bestest birthday ever!

<3, Mom

Blue

2010-09-20T18:08:00.004-08:00

Hope you catch many tennis balls, take endless rides in the box truck, and enjoy friendly pats on your head from great grandpa... rest in peace good buddy.

Summa!

2010-08-28T15:23:00.003-08:00

So lately I've spent some time on the back of a Harley. Both the four legged and the 2 wheeled type. I finally broke down and went out and got some stuff to actually ride safely - a helmet and some riding glasses...

We had a good time today at the dealership, looking and admiring what they had on the showroom floor. I took a particular liking to this one! Sedona Orange, a totally hot color...

None the less, I think I actually prefer being on the back as an accessory :)

Chicago

2010-08-08T15:28:00.002-08:00

Awesome! That's all I'm gonna say about that!

Yeah Babe!

2010-07-26T16:22:00.004-08:00

Hellooooo!!!!

The kids thinking they were gonna have a brush with stardom...

But this was as close as we got (his motorhome is the one with the door open behind the white van...)

So after I 1) got called out for work exactly 45 minutes before I was hoping to leave for the concert, and 2) finally made it home in a hurried haste and then got stuck in traffic moving only 1 mile in 1 hour... we made it to the Jason Aldean concert! *sigh

It probably was for the better though that we were fashionably late. We got there when the opening act had one song left to play before Aldean made his appearance. I think by the end of the "real" concert the kids were pretty much cashed and would have never made it had we been there an hour earlier.

I was able to get a few decent pics despite the folks' heads in front of me. The kids had a blast, singing and dancing and otherwise being cute. For "Big Green Tractor" Jade got to sit on my shoulders where she proceeded to sing every single word, much to the awe of those around us. Yes, we were a 3 man entertaining crew, as usual :)

After the concert in order to avoid sitting in traffic for another hour (oy!) we met up with a few guys from the Sheriff's Department who were working the concert area. We were gladly escorted to the bus area, where George and Steve did their best to convince Aldean's crew that he really needed to meet Vincent and Jade (well, me too... ) Unfortunately what is shown in these pictures is as close as we got to meeting anyone, but it was hilarious to watch Jade giddy in the thought that she was going to meet him. Vincent hung out at the gate with Matt while onlooking fans thought that Vincent was Aldean's son - too funny - and funnier is the fact that Vincent totally had them convinced he was.

When we finally decided to try and brave the outbound traffic, just before getting in the car, Jade bellows, "I love you Jason Aldean!" Good girl... me too!!!

Morning On The Farm

2010-07-19T05:17:00.003-08:00

What a great morning! The sun is out and it looks like its going to be another hot one... time for a quick post...

I got up this morning and fed the horses. Vincent came out and started playing with the cats right away, and somehow everyone ended up in a tree out back. I got a chance to snap a couple of quick shots amidst all the action...

Holy Cow! That Was Fun!

2010-07-17T06:15:00.003-08:00

Yesterday we had plans to grill out and go to the county fair... until I got a call from Rick at 2:15 that went something like this...

"Hey whatcha doin tonight?"
"Uh, I thought we were going out... grilling..."
"Well get over here now. We're going to see Brad Paisley and the bus is leaving in 45 minutes."

So I made record time (and that's no joke) getting ready and getting over to the house - we jumped on the party bus and were off to Chi town for the concert! We had a great time and hung out with some really cool friends. I think partially what added to the excitement was that I didn't even know where we were going until we were actually on our way there but I figured I was hanging out with a bunch of cops, what's the worst thing that can happen, right? (ha)

Darius Rucker opened the show and even that was awesome. Paisley played and played and we danced and danced to the point that I'm actually sore today from it. But anyway, if anyone was wondering why I disappeared off the planet for oh, 18 hours or so, thats what happened to me! Thanks everyone! I had a wonderful time! :)

Camping, Take One

2010-07-13T11:50:00.003-08:00

Well we broke out the trailer for our maiden family camping trip - to a real campground - and had a great time. We just went local to save the miles, but enjoyed ourselves none the less. We brought Tori with us, which turned out to be a good thing because she was instrumental in getting the awning on the trailer out.

The campground was quiet, just a few other families there, but there were other kids so Vincent and Jade weren't totally bored. We were going to go to the fire tower this morning after breakfast, but it rained a good portion of the morning and the mosquitoes were awful once the rain cleared. We'll get back to do that next time perhaps. Last night was fabulous though, and the tv and DVD player in the camper turned out to be a nice relief. Gave me a little mom time alone by the fire - enjoying the cool air, twinkling stars, crickets singing, oh yeah, and an ice cold beer. Or two...

So here's to summer. Here's to good times with the kids. Here's to lovin livin. :)

What A Weekend

2010-07-12T05:52:00.002-08:00

So I made a hasty decision to go ahead and go to the horse show on Sunday on, uh, Sunday morning. Got up Sunday morning feeling pretty good so I figured why not. Funny thing is the horse was no where near ready (no bath, no clipping... no... nothing, really) so I got him kind of presentable, loaded, and went.

I decided to get a little extra practice (since we weren't really there to be serious about it) and showed in the English and Western classes. He did great - we ended up with a 2nd in a class of 27 (!) and 1st in a class of 4 (not so stellar, but had a great ride none the less). The last class I think he'd just had it and was done. I disqualified myself with our not so subtle attitude adjustment, but at least he didn't get away with it. Better luck next time.

It was a hot day but I had good company. And it's always interesting to people watch at those things. The cold home brewed celebratory beer after the 1st place wasn't too bad either! I'm off for a few days with the kiddos because the sitter is on vacation, so I'm thinking after I get this place in order, I'm gonna pack them and the gear and hit the campground for a night.

Report to follow! This could be interesting!

I'm Taking A Day Off... Mostly

2010-07-04T07:49:00.003-08:00

Last night I took the kiddos to the fireworks at Hebron. It was a pretty short, but it was a decent little show. Much longer and I think the kids would've probably melted down right there. In all my brilliance, I didn't take my good camera with the cool lens, but I was able to get at least one kinda ok shot with my phone... haha. Go figure.

This morning I got up bright and early and started to shovel the 4.5 tons of gravel that I had delivered yesterday. I got one stall mostly done, and the other leveled before it got just too darn hot to do anymore. I guess I have all day tomorrow to have fun with that, too, so no rush. With that, I think the kids and I are gonna just take the day off. Chill, go to a barbeque and enjoy and actual holiday. Things have been so busy around here we haven't had a day of nothing at all in quite a while.

On the topic of busy, Tory finally found a horse in Michigan that used to be a collegiate polo pony for Harvard's polo team. The price was right and we tripped up there on Thursday night/Friday morning to get the horse to bring it home. He's a nice little guy, and hopefully I can talk Tory into letting me do a little stick and balling (it's a polo term) on him! Pics (of me breaking my stupid neck I'm sure) to follow. I'm pretty excited actually. Harley's top speed is just past stop, so he's not much of a polo pony. To say the least.

So here's to relaxing! I'm getting on to my day of nothingness!

Well So Much For Extending The Project...

2010-06-25T12:49:00.006-08:00

It was my goal and intention to extend this project into the fall/winter... but alas, that didn't happen. Carrying water across the property and working in the dark got old sooner than that... so it's done.

I'm so happy with the final results, and pretty darn proud of how the stalls that I built turned out. Not too bad for a rookie! Now just to get some of the other, less fun projects around here going! Oh yeah, and I threw a couple extra obligatory photos of the kids doing what they do best around here... Jade looking sassy, and Vincent mowing the grass, yoy...

Stolen, But Still Funny...

2010-06-04T17:16:00.001-08:00

How's this for irony? This was from a Facebook post of a friend of mine, I just thought it was too ironic not to post it...

A sign seen at a BP Fueling Island...

Today's Status

2010-05-31T16:47:00.004-08:00

Today is the day of the big move! Due to the rain in the past few weeks, the fence guys got behind on their work, so I don't have a fence yet. They'll be out first thing tomorrow morning though, and will be completely done Wednesday, so hopefully they'll at least start at the dry lot at the back of the barn so that Har doesn't have to spend the whole day inside tomorrow. Yesterday my BFF came up and helped put up the planking for the back stall walls and the side walls. It was a project, but we took our time and got it done. The original plan was to get all 3 sides done, but I would have settled for half - none the less, we kicked ass and finished.

Today we're moving the horse here, which is sure to be a stressful event for all involved, including the four legged type. It's so awesome to watch this all unfold - and to see all the hard work pay off that this is actually happening!

Now just for the darn fence people to get here!

A Barn!

2010-05-28T12:18:00.004-08:00

It's hard to believe that just Wednesday, there was nothing here. By 2pm today, this is part of my property. Amazing. The barn is done, now I have another boat load of work in front of me getting ready for move in day on Monday. All the wood is here to build 2 sides of my stalls (the sides that don't have metal grates or doors) and I'll be getting going on that after the wedding this weekend. Shouldn't take real long, really, it's just nailing planks to the walls, right?

So if there's anyone out there dying to nail planks to walls, let me know. I'm working Sunday and Monday if needed (hint hint).

What The Heck Is This Thing?

2010-05-23T17:11:00.003-08:00

I was cleaning up my pasture area this afternoon, slowly patrolling the yard with the John Deere in low gear, when I rolled past this thing. It was the only one that I saw in the whole yard, and I'd really like to know what the heck it is.

I thought of just trying a bite to determine if it was good to eat, poisonous, psychadellic, or otherwise, but figured that probably wasn't the best idea. For now, I'm going to leave it rooted. I'll dig it up soon if someone doesn't make claim to it as some rare delicacy - so if you want it or know what it might be, let me know.

More Progress

2010-05-18T20:48:00.005-08:00

Aside from the progress in my life, things are progressing on the home front as well. The barn is finally delivered and I'm just waiting on Morton Buildings to get out here and get this thing put up! I am so excited, and the kids are bouncing off the walls to see how it all works. Funny how what exists now (basically a big pile of stuff) will turn into an entire building. I can't wait to have horses here, to let the kids experience what it's like to have the ability to ride whenever they want, run in the pasture, and all the other stuff I remember so fondly growing up... just no riding bareback, facing backwards, at full speed through the field with only a halter at best, please ;)

Guess symbolically, this means something too. Right now I have all the pieces to make something great. They don't look like much to the casual onlooker, mostly just a pile of stuff, can't even really tell what it's supposed to be just by looking. But to me these pieces are much more. They represent a dream, and when they are all put into some kind of logical order, some kind of sense, they'll be the foundation for good things to come. It's going to take work, a little help from some friends, and a lot of determination to make it great, but great it will be. I'm sure during the process, there will be a miscut board, a broken nail, perhaps a smashed finger or couple of bruises, but in all, the minor bumps in the road will be worth it.

It might even rain. The workers might call off. Progress might skip a day here and there, but this thing will be complete in the end. It might take longer than I hope, there might be more roadblocks than I anticipate, but if we just keep building, the work will eventually be done. Then I can sit on the porch, enjoy a cold one, kick my feet back, and smile as my life unfolds in front of me...

A Day In History

2010-05-17T17:57:00.003-08:00

I realize I really haven't said a lot publically about my divorce and the situation I have been involved in since I filed. Today, the final decree went to the courthouse for approval. It's been a very rocky, very turbulent, very ODD journey to say the least. Those of you who know me best know the details - and I'm not going to hash them out here.

I guess the purpose of this post is that today, finally, I feel like I'm taking a step forward. After 10 years I'm leaving a jaded past behind me. 10 years of my life that are filled with memories ranging from fabulous to downright the worst ever. 10 years that blessed me with two of the greatest kids I could ever ask for. 10 years in which I have learned so, so much.

It's time to get on with things. Explore the relationships I've made with new people, and embrace the ones that I've kept. I've learned in this process who the true friends are in my life, and who I know I can depend on. I know that I've been trash-talked to just about everyone I can be trash-talked to - and I owe a big "thanks" to those of you who have had the honor, guts, and integrity to ask me before passing judgement.

I guess as I go through just about every emotion today that has hit me throughout this process; pride, truth, success, failure, hurt, anger, hopelesness, lost, happy, relieved... and so many many more... that those of you who care, those of you I know I can depend on, wish me a little peace, finally.

New Stuff Is Cool | Bodybugg

2010-05-13T04:43:00.002-08:00

Even though I don't have a ton of weight to lose, I just can't bring myself to do Weight Watchers again. I just don't have the desire, and the thought of it is unpleasant, and thats definitely no way to start...

So during my most recent visit to my uber-cool friend, Wendy, I was introduced to her Bodybugg, that little widget thing that they were (are?) using on the Biggest Loser... click on the photo to see more about it.

Actually, she told me about this thing months ago, and I researched it a bit then but couldn't quite bring myself to drop the coin for it. So when we went to Dayton, she was telling me about her and her husband's AMAZING success with the system, and how easy (and accurate) it is to use. She showed me the online program, and the relative ease in which one enters their calories/foods intake. I looked at her little graph on the website and it showed a "better than goal" decline. She swore by it, so I figured I'd give it a run. I just got the whole thing hooked up and running last night so today will be my first full day on it. This morning, I actually measured my coffee creamer, which I didn't love, but I'll get used to coffee flavored coffee I suppose.

I'll keep updating to let you all know how this goes... right now I need to get showered and ready for work. Hope everyone has a great day!

Off This Week

2010-04-27T04:43:00.003-08:00

My friend Jen is training to do Census work this week. She isn't around to watch Jade this week and I have a squajillion things to do, and I have some time at work that I need to compensate for. I figured it'd be a good week to chill out at home. I got the grass cut again yesterday (that's checked off the list!) so basically, it's just playing catch up with some of my photo stuff, as May REALLY marks the beginning of a busy 3 months with that for me. I'm also trying to get an album FTP'd - and the darn computer keeps timing out, which is neither here nor there, other than the fact that I have 43 MB of info to send in what's turning out to be 0.5 MB bits... *sigh.

Well anyway, we're getting an early start off to the grocery store, and a list of other places today :)

Earth Day

2010-04-22T05:06:00.003-08:00

Let's take today to live a little cleaner, and make at least one "green" effort as we pass through our day. Think of the little things you can do, and carry those thoughts with you! If we all made one "green" change, then made that a habit and did it every day, think what a difference we could make!

An Outing.

2010-04-18T06:03:00.002-08:00

Today I'm gonna break out the horse trailer, get Harley tacked up, and go for a trail ride with Dorothy. We're going to try one of the local parks here that has horse trails, additionally, it'll be Vincent's first experience with riding on back and not complaining!

I'll post back to let you know how it goes! Yay!

Sadie...

2010-04-09T09:35:00.004-08:00

Please pray for this angel, the daughter of an acquaintance of mine and a friend of a good friend. Faryl and Nick, it was great to see you a few weeks ago, and please know that my deepest thoughts are of you and your family. Your story makes us all take a step back, and appreciate the blessings we have in our lives every day...

Work Pays Off!

2010-03-27T06:15:00.003-08:00

This is the view from my front porch of my project from yesterday, and what is soon to be my new outdoor riding arena! We've been on the John Deere for several days non stop, bush hogging, grading, picking up stumps and logs and junk...

The property is starting to shape up, and I'm quickly realizing just how SANDY the soil is out here! There's actually a section on the south side of my lot that I am having a hard time getting the tractor through, it's almost like trying to grade the Dunes State Park or something. Good thing is, it's where the prospective barn is going to go, so that'll be good for drainage and everything else that goes along with horses and barns...

I'm really excited to get this project kicked off, because when May, June, and July hit, it's going to be wedding extraordinaire. Today we're having the Schnicks over for corned beef and cabbage... which I cook every year but didn't get around to on actual St.Patrick's day. Therefore, we're having a delayed celebration and are gonna let the kids play and stuff. I imagine Lee and I will get into the wine, at least a little :)

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! Stand by for some B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L weather next week! Yay! So stoked for spring!!!

Saturday Morning

2010-02-27T06:26:00.002-09:00

I love lazy Saturdays. I have a few picture orders to organize and get done, an album to edit, but essentially nothing else to do today! I made the kids some french toast this morning with that yummy "Texas Toast" bread that you can't always find, we laid around a little, I'm cleaning in bits and pieces, and other than that, we're chillin! It's little Lauren's birthday party today, so we'll head to Valpo later to celebrate with them... yay!

Anyway. I think I'm gonna get busy checking my internets, sipping my coffee, and enjoying this relaxing day!

SUN!

2010-02-06T07:38:00.001-09:00

We (I) have been waiting patiently around here for some gosh darn sunshine, and this morning it's here! I think I'm officially feeling the winter blahs so the weather today is a welcome break from the gray. Not only that but in my yearly mini celebration whereupon I hit "e-file taxes now" on my Turbo Tax program, I was boldly informed by the same that my taxes are not e-fileable. I guess it's worth it though to qualify for that homebuyer credit. Crap.

In other news, I think there needs to be a committee somewhere to tell the people who schedule the superbowl that a 5:30 kick off time is going to hurt viewership. Not only do some people have to work the next day - which is fine if you're NOT going to a party, or if you're not going to enjoy/celebrate... but a lot of us have these things called kids? Yeah, and their schools don't consider the day after the big game a holiday. Therefore, parties that would otherwise assemble will not. Not only that, but it'll be right about the middle to the early end of the game when it's time for supper (away from the tv), snack (away from the tv), bath (away from the tv), and other bedtime ritual stuff (away from the tv). And who likes to watch a DVR'd football game! Good thing the commercials are entertaining...

Well that's my mini rant for the day. Time to prepare my LAST wedding album from last season and start my planning for fast all the approaching weddings this year!

I finally got off my lazy butt...

2010-01-24T11:30:00.001-09:00

Well, I think I'm *mostly* done getting the house together, finally. Yesterday I replaced my hideous plastic faucets in the bathrooms with ones I could tolerate. I've been working on photo stuff all weekend, but took some time to snap a couple of shots of the ol' casa in the midst of my busyness. Sorry about the poor quality. I reserve my best work for my customers :)

Here's a teaser, more can be seen on my facebook page!

Another Week Another Dollar

2010-01-19T15:53:00.002-09:00

My friends from Dayton made a somewhat planned, somewhat surprise visit the the new crib this past weekend. Wendy called me up one day during the week and asked what I was doing on MLK weekend. I had remembered thinking that I didn't have anything to do on MLK weekend so I advised her accordingly. Little did I realize that MLK weekend was in a couple days! It all worked out, though, and it was a great visit, as always. We decided to meet halfway in Indianapolis for the day with the kids on Saturday. Figured we could indulge in a little "no so cheap" entertainment at the Children's Museum before journeying home.

We killed that... and the kids got throughly worn out. Of course, mine don't sleep in the car EVER so instead of sleeping away their exhaustion they just decided to fight the whole way home instead. Oh well. I'm used to that. By the way... where did these kids come from that won't sleep in the car? I don't get it.

We got home, had a super pizza, let the kids play, put the kids down (thank god) and then enjoyed a little adult conversation and adult beverage. They brought along their new baby, too, and it was great to see the youngest Young. So cute, and I've never seen such a non-crying baby.

We had a good visit and filled the weekend with fun stuff for all. Hope everyone else had a good weekend too!

Progress!

2010-01-14T20:26:00.003-09:00

So, pics of the new house are forthcoming. I finally got my microwave installed and the television wires are run behind the wall (Thanks, Les!). Tonight I got some of the final pictures put up on the wall. I have a boat load of cleaning to do, and a few more trips to the crawl space, and I think I'm d.o.n.e. At least with the inside of the house, till spring hits. Then I will definitely have my work cut out for me out doors...

Until then, though, things are starting to look like a real actual house around here! I have guests coming from far away lands this weekend (Dayton, OH) so I figure I'll do a good cleaning after that's over, and get some decent pics taken.

Oh yeah. And I ordered my blinds, which is a good thing. Whomever said something about living in a glass house was right. I'm actually getting used to the thought that I'm exposing my home life to any interested party traveling down the street here. Scary. I hope those babies come in soon. By the way... blinds are expensive! Sheesh! Not only that, but it took over an hour to get them ordered and squared away at Lowes. And I thought I was making it easy by only ordereing one style, one brand, two different colors.

So that's my progress. I'm super excited about the microwave and my jump back into modern living. I can't even tell the number of times I actually prepared an entire plate of food and turned to put it in the microwave that wasn't there... lol...

Anyway. I'm gonna catch up on the internet that I've so been neglecting, listen to a little music, and enjoy this glass of wine I just poured... night all!

Too Funny!

2010-01-03T10:55:00.002-09:00

I know I've spoken many times about my friend Amy, and how brilliant of a writer she is. Her blog always makes me laugh whether she's ranting or being funny... her words always seem to have something somewhat "magical" about them...
She directed me to a poem she wrote about post-holiday family life that I just HAD to link to. Check it out, it's worth a good chuckle.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T06:47:00.002-09:00

Welcome 2010! We had a small (very small) get together here at the house last night. All 4 kids stayed up past midnight and celebrated with us. Their treat was some *amazing* Meijer Birthday Cake ice cream in a wine glass. They digged it and secretly so did I. Yum.

We made some appetizers and had beef sandwiches - talked and watched the official Chicago countdown. By the time we got cleaned up and everyone was organized it was nearly 1:00. Got the kids teeth brushed and they disappeared off to bed on their own while I was saying the goodbyes. By the time I found them (LOL) they were all tucked in and nearly asleep already! Nothing like a late night for bedtime cooperation!

So here's wishing everyone a happy and prosperous 2010! I know I'm looking forward to the changes to come...

Some Changes...

2009-12-29T19:07:00.002-09:00

If there's anyone still interested in what I have to say here, if you're here and have been before you probably notice that there have been a few changes to the ol' blog. A few changes to the blog and a LOT of changes in my life.

Brian and I are getting divorced.

It came as a shock to a lot of people, including me, really, but it's happening. I'm not going to go into a huge dissertation about why the bottom fell out, I'm not going to erase old posts that show us as a family, I'm just going to carry on as this is just another challenge, another chapter in my life and in the lives of the kids that is now part of who we are and who we will become.

My friend Amy brought up a good point that I'd like to reiterate here... in that a lot of folks will call a divorce a "failure" of sorts, because the expectation of a "successful" marriage is till one of the two involved people dies. After all, it is "till death do us part.." isn't it? She brought up a good point, however, as we were talking the other day in that a marriage doesn't have to last until eternity to be successful. We had our success for sure without a doubt. And for a long time, we did have what I would consider a "successful" marriage. But those success began to fall apart and what was successful and fulfilling turned otherwise.

So, I guess the moral of the story, and probably one of the driving forces to cause me to rekindle this blog - and only make minor changes to it - is the thought that even though it has become unsuccessful, for a time (a long time) is was a success, and that I and we are not failures for this outcome.

This, too, shall pass and life will go on. I've been busy rebuilding my home, my life, my family, and myself. I'm fine (because I know that's the next question), and I will be fine. It's just gonna take some time getting used to this...

The End!!

2009-10-20T18:26:00.002-08:00

My wedding season is officially over until at least March (as of now with my current bookings). I have a TON of pictures to process and post, a ton of albums to do, a ton of prints to order... but as far as generating more pictures - I'm pretty much done. I had a infant session scheduled tonight which went amazingly well, and have a family shoot scheduled for next week weather permitting. Then it's crunch time.

I plan on locking myself in my office for at least a week. Maybe more.

Hopefully now that the chaos is subsiding, I'll be able to get back to blogging and posting a little more frequently. So far next year, it looks like mid-year (May/June) is setting up to be my busy time *sigh*... at least I'm as busy as I want to be!!!

Well, I'm off do download some pics... and so it begins...

Happy Birthday, Little Miss!

2009-10-11T13:41:00.002-08:00

We celebrated Jade's birthday early, and I'm posting this late, so I figured I'd even it all out that way! Actually, I have no excuse for posting this late... other than I've been crazy busy finishing up the last of my weddings and engagement sessions for the year.

Anyway, we had Jade's birthday party here at the house. Had a good time eating and visiting with our families, and Jade had a good time with her brother and her closest friends eating cake and enjoying her presents. She decided she wanted a "My Little Pony" birthday this year, after what seemed like hours of sitting online looking at different possibilities. It made it easy though, because My Little Pony stuff is pretty plentiful round here...

Here are a few pictures of the day - despite the little sty or whatever she had on her eye that week... I think they turned out pretty cute!!

Well, At Least I Won Something

2009-10-05T10:53:00.002-08:00

I didn't win Powerball. Not the first time, or the 2nd go round either. Oh well. As my last post clarified, I'm really not all that bummed. But it would have helped...
I had my last (probably - unless I get really motivated in 2 weeks to do a show and pictures on the same day) horse show of the season on Sunday. It went well. I used the new Crosby, which apparently was the secret ingredient. I showed in a few hunt seat classes (Harley doesn't do hunt seat - it requires work...) and did great! We got a 4th in our first class out of 19 and a 2nd in our 2nd class out of 21 horses! After the break I switched to Western, and ended up getting a 1st in Western Pleasure out of only 7, but 7 of some of the most recognized names in the area. In fact, I won against a guy whose entire family trains horses and shows horses on the big Quarter Horse circuits... yay Harley! In all, I won about $100 dollars to boot. Minus the $37 I spent to enter, I actually came out ahead! And thanks to Brian for the snazzy new western show shirt. The one that was supposed to be my Christmas present :).
Here are a few pics of my new all-arounder!

Where The Hell Are My Salt and Pepper Shakers?

2009-09-28T12:51:00.001-08:00

If you don’t hear from me or my family after Wednesday night you’ll know why. I am gonna be the next Powerball winner. The people here at the office and I entered an office pool and figured at the current cash payout, that we’ll each be looking at about $12.5 mil come Wednesday.

This got me thinking about gambling, and the disappointment that comes with losing. I think I finally figured it out. My thoughts were that if I didn’t win the Powerball (but we all know that won’t happen) I probably wouldn’t be all that disappointed or surprised. You see, I don’t think any one actually expects to win the Powerball. Sure, we’d all like to. And it’s pretty fun to sit around and daydream about what the hell you would do with that much money, but when it comes down to the drawing and you don’t win, are you really that shocked? Probably not.

On the other hand, if you enter, say, a 50/50 raffle. Or if you enter a Superbowl pool or something of the like… the possibility of winning is actually pretty good. So when you have good odds and don’t win? Yeah, that sucks. It’s even worse when half the people that entered win something even if it’s not the “grand prize”. You start to get a bit smitten over the fact that you didn’t get your Chicago Bears salt and pepper shakers…

Of course, none of this applies, because it’s already in the master plan. I’ll be on a plane to Colorado first thing Thursday morning… oh, I meant on my private jet. Happy playing!

Too Complicated For An Appropriate Title

2009-09-27T12:36:00.009-08:00

I will begin this post with a few disclaimers:
1) I am NOT an expert on this topic, nor do I claim to be, nor do I want to be. I do, however, speak from personal experience.
2) If you are usually in disagreement with me or with my opinion on "hot" topics, you should probably hit that little "back" button on your browser and find something else to do.

I'll preface with the fact that I like to give most people, on first contact, the benefit of the doubt. I know it's hard to believe, but most people really do have to earn my opinion of them. So anyway. As I was uploading pictures today from my wedding last night, I took some time and browsed through some of the posts on a photography forum that I visit occasionally. I was just glancing through the photo sharing section and clicked on the "show us your best dog shots" or something to that effect. It had 80 some pages of posts, so I thought I'd look around and look at other people's pets and the pictures they take of them (by the way, yes, that's where my FB status came from about people naming their pets stupid things like Oreo and Rusty). So I got to the end of the posts, and a few pages from the end noticed this picture:

It was from a user who titled his/her post "Turbo, my 8 month old Staffordshire Bull Terrier pup"
A cute shot, indeed. This particular user's avatar was this picture:

I thought to myself, hmm, probably not the dog I'd have chosen as a pet in a home with a young child, but that's assuming a lot I suppose so I moved on.

The next few posts were from a somewhat vocal user about his strong feelings about "bullies" aka: American bulldogs, pit bulldogs, Straffordshire bulldogs...

The exchange (edited) went something like this:
User 1: A bundle of solid muscle and jaws that can (and have been known to) tear a child to bits in seconds.
Have you warned the neighbourhood families with kids?

User 2: Yes. I also tell my children to be careful when they put their heads in his mouth. He has already savagely mauled the neighbors and everything else that moves within the neighborhood. Our Maltipoo has also tasted the sweetness of blood and awaits the kill.

User 2: He only goes after helpless children.

User 1: Pray that you never look back on those words with sorrow or regret.

User 2: OK. I'll kill him in his sleep tonight.

Annoyed, I continued to read on. I was thinking, yeah, just another opinionated person. It's the classic "nature" vs. "nurture" argument from there. This all changed when I clicked on a link posted by User 2 (the bulldog's owner), and after reading the comments posted below the "YouTube" video... watch for yourself.

And here are a few comments that followed:
"HaHaHa!!! A cloud with teeth... cute!"

"that was funny!

"Yeah, the poodle is cute and they are so cute when they start growling like ferocious attack dogs...I have a toy poodle myself and Loki is fierce! :D"

and then my comment, "Real cute till it bites your face off... are people really this ignorant of a dog's cues? Seriously."

So herein begins my commentary. In college I bought a beautiful male Akita puppy from a very reputable breeder. I raised him on campus, socializing him and doing all the things you were supposed to do with a male Akita puppy. He was everyone's friend. Never bit anyone, never even growled at anyone. He was a happy, fun loving, loyal, and intelligent pet. When I got married and kids came along, he was great. Took to my husband without even a mere challenge, sniffed the baby a time or two, and then watched him cautiously every time he was in the room. Never once (within reason and common sense) did I ever fear this dog or have any indication that he would hurt me or anyone in my family including the baby. He ended up having a genetic condition that ultimately was his demise, and at age 7, we made the decision to put him down.

Shortly thereafter, I began my quest to locate another Akita. I was in love with the breed. I found another breeder who was actually familiar with my former dogs breeding line and the problems that cropped up with a few of the dogs later than normal, which caused the spread of the problem because the dog carrying the "bad" genes was bred before anyone knew he had issues. Anyway.

The breeder was great. We went to the kennel, met the sire, met the mother. Met her other dogs. Not one of them acted skittish, vicious, or mean. We waited upwards of 6 months for a puppy from her. On a happy day, we went and picked up "Patton." He instantly fit in. A cute, cuddly, sweet ball of fur. He was quick to learn, and was introduced to us and our kids immediately upon coming home. He followed the rules. I socialized him just as I did my first Akita - I thought I was doing everything right. Till he bit my husband.

At about age 1.5 he decided he no longer wanted to be at the bottom of the food chain, if you will, in our household. We dismissed the first bite and made excuses for him. This was a $600 dollar dog! He was socialized! His parents never bit anyone - he was bred for temperament, right? And then he bit Vincent, and my husband again, and then me.

Now don't get me wrong, these were not vicious "attacks." But they were intentional and well placed on his part. I knew what had to be done. I contacted a trainer, and for a short time followed some of her suggestions to remind him that he was not the "alpha", I called the breeder, I even took him to the vet to make sure it wasn't something related to his health. But at the end of the day, I knew I had a problem and my husband and I made the heart wretching decision to have him put down. He was a beautiful dog - had every physical aspect of a "perfect" Akita Inu. But he thought he was in charge and 130 pounds of nasty just doesn't work in this house.

I was always a FIRM believer of the "nurture over nature" argument about animals. Until now. This dog had no reason to turn the way he did. He was trained in obedience, socialized, and never allowed to be the "dominant" family member. Dogs were bred to do jobs - until we brought them into our homes and put costumes on them and gave them spa days and plush beds. Akitas were/are a guarding breed. They were used to hunt bears. BEARS. Takes a pretty bold dog to hunt a bear.

Bull terriers were bred to fight. It's written in their own history. And the reason they were chosen as fighting dogs is because they were built to fight and were good at it due to their structure, instinct, and host of other reasons. Didn't see too many Collies (for example) in the fighting pen, I'm sure. Not that Collies, or other herding dogs (to which I'm quite partial, now) don't hurt people. But I think without doing a lot of research, it's pretty safe to say they're probably a lot less likely. I believe one of the main reasons for this is they were bred to herd. To help man. To be obedient and follow their master's command. In other words, they were never expected to challenge a direct order.

This argument came up with a very close friend of mine and her mother. I can't find her blog post or I'd link to it. In a nut shell, her mother refused to "pen up" her dog when my friend came to visit with her small kids. The mother's argument is that the dog was lonely and sad in his pen. This is despite the fact that this particular dog has bitten people, growls at people, and has no concept of the fact that he's not the alpha in the household (to my best analysis of the situation.) This dog is "king shit" if you will at his house - a truly dangerous place for your dog to be. Point being, people can be so thick skulled about their dogs and their bad and dangerous behavior that they actually put the dogs perceived "happiness" over the core safety of young - under 4 - children. Gimmie a break people!

Let me say here that I don't trust ANY DOG fully. At the end of the day, a dog will be a dog - enough said. I think it's just hilarious to see these people who think their dog actually loves them. Loyal, maybe... but love? I doubt it. I'll give that your dog probably really LIKES you - after all you supply its food, shelter, and pretty much control every aspect of it's life (or at least you should). Are dogs loyal? SURE! Do they protect their owners? Save people's lives? Work their tails off for people? Absolutely. But when it's all said and done, when they come to lick your face, or sniff you while you're sleeping, they're probably just trying to determine if you're dead yet so that they can take over the pack.

I know it sounds harsh, but remember what my job is. As nasty as it sounds, there are stories of a person's beloved pooch eating off their face as they lie dead, undiscovered, in an easy chair. Again, it's a matter of instinct - gotta keep the den clean! Death brings parasites, and parasites bring disease, and disease brings more death. Believe me. Dogs understand this VERY WELL and no matter how much they "love" you, they're still a D O G.

So back to the forum. I found it appaling that a person with a new Straffordshire Bull puppy would find THAT YouTube video humourous. I quickly changed my opinion of this person. If I could address them in person, I think I would say just what User 1 - who I was initially so annoyed with - said. In this instance, I'm thinking he was spot on. Especially as it relates to anyone who thinks the cute little ball of fur, "cloudlike" poodle in the video is funny.

To conclude. I think "nature" does preside over "nurture." But when the person in charge of the "nurture" aspect has no brain in their head, and doesn't deal with the "nature" problems BEFORE those problems becomes someone's nightmare, the only one to blame is the person who excused the animal's behavior and let "nature" prevail. And to anyone out there thinks that poodle in the video is cute? Let me tell you that dog is trying to give you a very clear message - and I sincerely feel sorry for anyone who is subject to your stupidity.

Too Cute

2009-09-17T15:51:00.004-08:00

I think I posted a few years ago about what pleasure I get out of looking at the drawings that kids make. I just love the stage where everyone is just a big head with arms and legs, eyes, and a smiley face. Jade's totally in that stage right now, and she just loves to fill up the page with pictures of people. I guess only she knows who it is she's drawing, because they all look the same to me. Here's one of her most recent creations, titled "Family Portrait".

This is one of Vincent's recent school assignments, which I found particularly amusing because of ALL the things he's said he's going to be, the one thing he's never mentioned (or at least hasn't mentioned very much) is that he's going to be a police officer. Translated, it says, "When I grow up I want to be a policeman and catch bad guys and take them to jail." Just love the drawing with the little red and blue "lights" on top...

I'm In The Dog House

2009-08-30T07:40:00.004-08:00

August 7th was really my last post? Oops :)

School is finally started again *thank GOD!* I've been threatened with bodily harm if I don't post up some pics of the boy getting on the bus, so here you go family. I really need to get around to taking some studio shots of the kids. Isn't it crazy that I use all my good stuff for everyone else's pictures, but when it comes time to take my own pictures that I grab my point and click (it's ok I guess, but not nearly as capable as even my real back up)?

According to reports, he likes his teacher and is enjoying the work. His homework looks good - mostly review stuff right now, but it appears as if he didn't lose too much brain capacity over the summer. I'm just glad they (Jade and Vincent) have a little time apart. They get along so much better when they aren't around each other 24-7. A little reprieve for parents I guess!

We have our second Brown County trip planned for next weekend. The kids are staying with grandmas and we're out of here Friday morning. Taking the horses and the new trailer camping again... I'm really looking forward to it. Another perk is that we got our primo-favorite camp site, too. And with the new awning on the trailer and the DirecTv satellite ready to go, we should be roughing it in style.

Well, looks like the official number is in... I took 1166 pictures yesterday at the wedding I was at. 14 hours of shooting and I am SORE today. I think this was my longest wedding to date. I started at 10am with the girls at the salon and didn't leave till midnight. The ceremony was at 6pm, so things ran LATE LATE LATE.

In other news, my horse is doing fabulous with his new found ability to pick up his feet. I know that means absolutely nothing if you don't know horses, but it's a big deal for me. He's the epitome of "lazy quarter horse". His favorite thing to do is to stand around with a dumb look on his face. His second favorite thing to do is sleep. So when it's time to actually work (ie: pick his feet up) he's a little bummed. He got into a pattern in which his feet literally DRAGGED the ground as he went, and his gaits meshed in to a distinct shuffle. Anyway, we got him working again - and to reward his new achievements he got a new saddle!

It's a Crosby Hunterdon (which, again, means nothing to most of you) but trust me when I stay it's the BMW of english saddles - not quite a Ferarri - but Pretty. Damn. Nice. And I got a hell of a deal on it.

I'm pretty stoked that football season is upon us. Today is my Super Bowl of sorts. Denver is playing Chicago in Denver - and after Denver's quarterback/coach debacle, it'll be a good game to watch. I think it's pretty funny that a lot (read: all) of my friends think I'm a Bears or Colts fan - nuf said. I'm not expecting greatness, but it'll be fun to watch. I tried to convince Brian to take me to Denver to actually see the game, but he kept saying something about money or something like that.. oh well.

Anyway. I have a ton of stuff to do today from pictures to kids to getting the horse trailer ready... hope you all have a relaxing Sunday!

Insomnia Strikes Again

2009-08-07T00:38:00.002-08:00

I don't think I've slept more than 3 or 4 hours in one night in the past week or more.
This is getting seriously old...

How Grown Up...

2009-08-02T15:23:00.001-08:00

Vincent: Hallie is having one of our classmates from school over. She's going to come over and try to kiss me.

Me: Cool!

Vincent: This is big time.

*sigh

I Just Can't Motivate

2009-07-29T19:40:00.002-08:00

I don't know what the hell my problem is. I just have NOT been motivated to post to this blog! Is anyone even still reading? I post so seldom any more, I'm sure I've just about bored all my faithful followers (yeah, all 2 of them) to death. It's not that I haven't had time. Brian's back to working midnights, so a lot of my evenings are free. Photo business has been busy, but that's not an excuse. I could always post while converting files, processing, uploading, whatever.

Anyway. We braved the county fair tonight (Brian's second trip). I got some fried cheese cubes... hmmm. I remember them being much better tasting last time I didn't suffer guilt from dropping $7 on cheese. Needless to say, maybe it's what I needed. I won't be craving fried cheddar cheese anymore. Actually, it was pretty gross. The elephant ear was good though, and it was nice to let the kids do all the rides "sans parent" now that they're tall enough to handle them alone. Vincent went on the upside down-y one by himself. I was pretty proud of him. He said it was cool. I'm pretty sure I would have puked. He also did the gravitron - the spinny, stick to the wall gyroscope - you remember - by himself and walked out on two feet. Atta' boy!

Tomorrow is Emily Pinkerton's folk concert at Taltree Aboretum. Emily is a long ago friend (high school era) who was brilliant and talented in the early 90's. I can't imagine how awesome she is now. She actually has an album now, too, titled "Emily Pinkerton - Valparaiso." I'm sure I'll get a copy after tomorrows concert. Not only that, but I'm meeting up with some old friends, namely Cate from Alaska who I haven't seen for YEARS, but who I rode with all through high school in 4H and beyond. I'm pretty stoked.

Anyway. My "partner" at work is headed out to Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota tomorrow morning with another good friend of mine. Wishing them a safe trip out, a good time there (BBBOOOOOBBBSSSSS!), and a safe trip home.

Hope everyone is having a good week. BTW, comment if you're still reading me... ;)

Anddddd, We're Back!

2009-07-19T18:49:00.021-08:00

It's been so long since I've posted that I actually had to think about my blog log-in. Hmm. It's Sunday night and I think it's the first Sunday night in a long time that I've actually had nothing to do. Kids are in bed. Dogs are fed. House is tidied up. I've had a glass of wine. Perfect time to catch up.

After our fun and exciting Brown County weekend (already a MONTH ago) we headed out to Colorado. It was the kids first time there so it was exciting, at least for the grown ups, to see their reaction to the west and all its grandeur. We started out in Denver the first night. We decided on the brand new Jeep Wrangler for a rental car to get the full experience. We went to Coors shortly after we got there and did the customary tour/complimentary tasting.
US AT COORS - PICTURE NOT TAKEN BY ME

After dropping about $60 in the gift shop (as usual) we found our hotel in Denver. We ate at a disgusting place called "Casa Bonita" that serves cafeteria style mexican. And it tastes about as good as it sounds... but the draw was that there is a "variety show" of sorts going on at all times in the restaurant. There's a big pool, with a big fake cliff that has cliff divers, actors that come out and do a show to include an escaped gorilla that runs through the crowd (a big hit, let me tell you), fire jugglers, mariachi bands... you get the idea. It's definitely more about the entertainment for the little ones than the food. We went back to the hotel and swam in the warm and surprisingly CLEAN hotel pool - I found the SAUNA!! YAY - and we dropped.

The next morning we got up, went to Red Rocks Ampitheatre to let the kids run around for a while. Here's Vincent and Jade in their usual form in the seating area. It just amazes me how the whole mood in Colorado is so much healthier than it is here in the armpit of America. If you've never been there, the ampitheatre is used by the locals as a free outdoor workout area when there's not an event going on. People run the bleachers, do stairs up the many rows of seating, and otherwise take advantage of the natural challenges there. There was a "yoga chick" I'll call her on the stage that was doing some amazing shit. In fact, it's what inspired me to start up with the whole yoga thing again. Here are a few more pics at Red Rocks...

The kids, behaving as usual

Brian, in deep reflection

Jade, practicing to be Hannah Montana on the stage

The stadium to include the amazing yoga chick (bottom right)

After we hung out there for a while we packed up and drove down to Colorado Springs. We thought since we didn't make it to the actual summit last time we were there due to weather that we'd go up Pikes Peak again. This time the road was open all the way to the top. It's an AMAZING drive if you've never done it, I highly suggest you do. The weather was pretty warm (low 90's) at the base but there was still measurable snow at the summit. What's super cool is it makes you an instant cheap date. Just stepping out of the car, you're light headed due to the thin air and altitude. I was walking into stuff and tripping around like I was drunk. Pretty cool. That in mind (cold all the time, no air) I managed somehow to get attacked by a bee. It stung me 3 times right on the chest. I think I'm the only person in history to be attacked by a regular honey bee at 14 thousand feet. If you know of anyone else whose had this experience, please let me know. Trees don't even grow at that elevation. What the hell is a honey bee doing there? Who knows. All I do know is that it hurt. Bad. Oh well. It was still worth the trip. And the donuts were good...

Another one NOT taken by me

Pikes Peak donuts - world famous YUMMM!!!

The view looking down, above the timber line

Kids, not killing eachother for once

That night we had reservations at the Flying W Ranch, a Colorado Springs must do. There's this cool little western town incorporated into the whole experience (where you hang out before dinner) and then they ring the dinner bell and you find your place on the picnic table. It's a chuckwagon style meal, complete with tin plates, tin cups, and the works. BBQ chicken, beans, honey biscuits, lemonade.. again, another slightly better than mediocre meal, but a lot of fun. After dinner a western band plays live (and they're actually really good - plus, they played a Chris LeDoux song - bonus points in my book).

Flying W after dinner

We slept good that night and started out for the Garden of the Gods in the morning. Another "must see" in the Springs. The kids had a good time playing around on the rocks, we burned off a little morning energy, and then headed out to the property.

Self explanatory

Kids holding up "balanced rock"

Purple baby holding up balanced rock - too cute

My favorite people

My favorite boy

It was good to go out to the property again. The sign was still there, which I thought was exceptionally cool. Even cooler was that I was able to put the camera on the hood of the Jeep and get this picture of all of us...

We got to drive to the resevoir for the first time, too. You can actually see it from the property, but we'd never actually gone and looked at it close up. It was really beautiful, and it was a nice enough day to be able to splash around in the clear, cool water for a while before heading out to (beautiful) Vail for the night.

We stayed at a resort/condo which turned out to be super cheap because it is off season. This was the view from our balcony. Note the ski lift in the upper left corner. It looked out to Vail Mountain, Peak One, which was super cool. There was also an amazing river running just behind, which gave off an incredible sound - so relaxing.

We found a great little steak house in Vail Village for dinner. It was exceptional and we got like 20 or 30% off, again because it was off season. I highly recommend going to one of these resorts in the off season. The 2 room condo with a fireplace and balcony, full kitchen... was under $130/night. Quite a deal if you're just going out there for the scenery.

The next morning we got up, took our time, and headed back into Denver. We went to the natural history museum there (not the best part of the trip, but something different) and met up with some old friends for a BBQ and some cocktails at their house. Chad and Katie are friends from YEARS ago. In fact, I'd been out to Colorado with Chad and some other friends back when I was in college... but that's another post. Anyway, they graciously invited us to stay with them the night before we flew out, which was fabulous. We had a great time visiting, catching up, eating, and enjoying wine. The weather was awesome, and I think we sat up drinking and talking on their rear patio till almost 2 am. It really was the perfect ending to an almost perfect vacation (vacation is a term I'll use loosely - with two kids in tow, well, if you have kids you get it). We flew out the next morning and said good bye to the beautiful Rockies for another year!

Hope you enjoyed this vaca-dissertation! Have a good week everyone!

Brown County, Episode 1

2009-06-15T16:43:00.012-08:00

We had a great weekend at Brown County. It was also the maiden voyage for the new horse trailer, which proved to be damn handy during the major down pour at about 4am on Sunday morning. We’d been pretty lucky in years past, as far as rain goes, but our luck ran out this trip. It had rained a ton prior to our arrival so the trails were pretty sloppy and mucky compared to how they’ve been in the past. One thing that made it cool, though, was that the little river beds were pretty full of water so we had some interesting water crossings and some decent scenery.

Things started off a little rough. The new trailer equaled issues getting one of the horses in. He’d never been in a trailer like ours before, which has an area in the back for saddles and stuff, and therefore allows for only a half door in the back. The trailer we used to have had one large back door that went the entire width of the horse area. So Sam the dummy wouldn’t go into the new trailer. It was my *brilliant idea to put Harley in first, so Sam would be more apt to go in if his friend was already in there.

*brilliant is used very figuratively here…

With a little fuss from even my easy horse though, Harley was in the front spot. A little more fuss and Sam was in, and we were off. About 45 minutes away from home Brian asked me what boots I brought to ride in. I had already realized this but had failed to 1) verbalize it or 2) come to terms with it… I had left home for a weekend of HORSEBACK RIDING with no boots. Zero, none at all. In fact, the only shoes I had were the ones on my feet, and they happened to be probably the worst possible option for a weekend of riding, in the mud. That’s where the new Black Berry came in handy. I googled a nearby Tractor Supply and after getting bad directions and going 8 miles the wrong way, we stopped and got some decent riding boots. It was actually a good thing, because I bought hiking/riding boots so they can serve a dual purpose. And I needed hiking boots anyway.

So without further ado, besides the 40 minute traffic jam, we got to Brown County. We got the trailer backed in relatively easily, and it was time to get the horses out (clears throat). Putting Sam in last wasn’t so brilliant after all. You see, besides doing that and forgetting my boots, I apparently left my brain at home with my morning coffee that I never had. I forgot entirely that Sam doesn’t know how to back out of a trailer. Remember that rear tack I was talking about? Yeah, that makes it literally physically impossible to turn a horse around and walk him out forward. It simply wasn’t going to happen. And he clearly was not going to back out.

Needless to say, we got him out… I was nerve racked and drenched in sweat, but he came out. It wasn’t pretty but no one (me or the horse, or Brian) got seriously hurt. Harley was much easier. He just backs out no problem. I think he was a little flustered from the whole experience. The first ride that evening was ok. The horses were a little obnoxious – not as calm and easy going as they usually are there. But it was still ok. Somehow Harley slipped out of his halter after we bedded him down for the night but it was no big deal. We caught him and immediately put the backup halter over the other one.

We had a few beers that night and got a good night sleep on the new matress. The next day went much smoother. The horses were still a little jumpy the first ride out that morning but settled into the regular mo-jo by afternoon. We returned to camp after about a 2 hour morning ride. Had some peanuts, a beer or two. Then we went out for an afternoon ride. Another 2 hours and we were back. We hung out for about another hour or so, and then went back out for an evening ride. When we got back to camp, we got the horses fed and cleaned up. Then we set up camp for the night. The Porterhouses went on the new campfire grill and dinner was on! Aside from the camp breakfast (eggs, sausage and hash browns all mixed up and cooked together), the Porterhouse dinner is another highlight. We had a really relaxing evening, enjoyed eachothers company, hung out by the fire, and went to bed.

At about 4am, we woke up to a tap tap tap on the top of the trailer. I layed there for a minute thinking, “Was that rain?” Just then, I figured it was definitley rain, and it actually started to rain quite hard. We ran outside and moved a few things around at the campsite and made sure the horses weren’t going to freak out. They seemed ok to stand in the rain – I imagine it probably felt good after 7 hours on the trails. So because there wasn’t a lot of lightning or thunder, or hail, or anything but just a lot of damn rain, they stood outside through it. We sure appreciated a dry place to sleep. With the amount of rain and the manner in which it was coming down, we were positively glad we weren’t in a tent at that point.

Sunday morning brought some mud and a little drying out, which was all bettered by our egg/sausage/hashbrown breakfast. We took the horses on quick easy trail ride (which was significantly muddier than the day before) and packed up camp. The ride home went pretty well (with the exception of the 40 minute traffic back up) and we made it back to the barn. This time Sam was in the front spot, which turned out to not really matter because he still couldn’t turn around. He still wouldn’t back up, but now we had more knowledge, more help, better ideas and more weapons. We ended up hooking two long longe lines to each side of his halter and pulling back on him from outside of the trailer, which was decidedly safer than going at it from inside the trailer, with the horse. He came out a little better than the first time. So it’s something we need to work on.

What did we come away with? A new pair of boots, more knowledge than I ever cared to have about how to get a stubborn (read: stupid) horse out of a trailer, a satisfied appetite, and another memory of a *successful trip to Brown County in the books.

*Figuratively speaking.

So I Suck, What Can I Say?

2009-06-10T15:51:00.006-08:00

So, really. With the 2 weddings last month and our decision to purchase a horse trailer that lets just say needed a little "reconditioning" we've had our plates full. Is that not the story of my life or what? It seems like I'm complaining, but if you ask anyone who knows me in real life, sitting idle just kills me. That's part of the reason I went from my sometimes idle nursing job to police work, I guess. I'm a bit more idle sometimes that I would have originally thought, somewhat due to the fact that I'm an investigator, but sometimes things get pretty exciting. So, no, I'm not complaining. I just love to be busy.

After hours and hours of online searching, I finally found a trailer that I thought would suit our purposes. We had some money set aside, and definitely did NOT want to go into hock on this purchase. The initial plan was to wait till next year, but the more we (I) thought about camping at Brown County and getting rained out and how bad that would suck and how over Labor Day it sure would be nice to have some A/C and all kinds of other things I started looking. So we (I) decided that if there was any possibility that something was out there that we could do this year, we (I) would. You see where this is going?

So after we (I) found the "perfect" trailer *mind you there are NONE in existence that were between 10 and 15 thousand dollars - it was either 10 or 15 period* we set up a good deal that we (I) could live with and arranged to go pick the thing up in Seymour which is about a 3.5 hour drive. When we got there, we actually saw the thing in person. It was a little rough. Ok, it was a little more rough than we (I) thought. BUT, looking past the fact that they hadn't even tried to clean it up prior to the sale, it was really an ok trailer. But it was empty inside. By that I mean that the "living quarters" concept we (he) had in mind at this juncture was not quite what we had in front of us. After an initial reaction by him of, and I quote, "No way...we're not taking it" we hung around for a few more hours. You see, part of the deal was that they were going to install the needed hitch in the bed of the truck while we waited, so at this point there was already a 3" hole in the bed of our new truck. We had no choice but to stay.

So in the meantime we looked around at all the other trailers, new and used, compared and contrasted. We were most impressed with the $375,000 Sundowner "Luxury Liner" but unfortunately the bank just didn't give us that much money that day. We finally came to the realization that if we weren't going to go into total hock at this point, we'd better stick with what we (I) found. Just put it this way - it was a long ride home.

We spent the entire next day power washing, painting, steam cleaning and otherwise defunking the new trailer. Additionally we sold our "old" trailer in the meantime. We worked our butts off with the help of our amazingly handy neighbor, and finally came out the other side with something quite liveable! Check it out!! So, the new trailer makes its maiden voyage to Brown County bright and early Friday morning...and I can safely say at this point that WE, yes, WE actually are pretty impressed with how nice it turned out.

Vincent

2009-05-31T07:15:00.001-08:00

Vincent McDonald, this morning, and I quote:

"I'm tired of playing outside, I'm tired of playing in my room with my toys, I'm tired of playing in the sandbox, I'm tired of riding my bike. I need a vehicle to drive."

Sigh.

.............

2009-05-27T04:10:00.001-08:00

Let's just say I officially hate computers.

Busy Isn't The Word

2009-05-20T19:13:00.002-08:00

I think I titled my last post as busy, busy, busy. Little did I know! My schedule has been overtaken with work, photography, meetings, and family responsibilities - unfortunately, pretty much in that order...

I just posted a new bit on my photo blog. This is actually only one session of three waiting in line for posting. And I have a wedding and an engagement session still to shoot within the week. Stand by for some frequent posting there!

I have to work the Indy 500 again this year. Gate 1. If any one is gonna be there, feel free to come over to that area and give me a shout out. I've worked that Gate for several years now, and we have a new officer in charge there this year (not me) so I feel I may be giving some advice about how things work (and don't work I suppose) at that VERY busy and complex location. So there's a 20 hour day, roughly. At least we'll get a free turkey sub out of it - and maybe a bottled water or two...

I have an engagemnent session scheduled for Monday (if I survive Sunday) at a very beautiful location that I haven't had the opportunity to shoot at before. Yay. Some new stuff to explore is always fun.

So I guess this is the calm before the storm. Tomorrow is pretty open except for work, and I have to go to the rehearsal for about an hour on Friday, and then it starts. I plan on being non-existent in the life of my friends and family till about noon on Tuesday....

Let's do some kind of dance or something for good weather, for my sake!!!

Me: 1, Washing Machine: 0

2009-05-14T19:25:00.004-08:00

Did I mention in a previous post that my washing machine took a crap on me? I thought of a great solution; I'd ask my Grandma if I could buy, at a discount, her barely used front load Maytag set. Since she's soon going to be moving into my aunt's house (which is equipped with a fully functional washer and dryer), I thought maybe I'd luck out. She agreed (and there was much rejoycing...) until my mom told me that she thought the washer had issues. She and my aunt both told me that after the machine is done with its cycle, you can still see several inches of dirty water under the wash tub... and that Maytag said this was "normal" for that model. That model happened to be a Maytag Neptune.

So I googled "maytag neptune" and was unhappy to see that there was actually a recent class action lawsuit settled on this EXACT model for mildew and/or black mold problems. Maytag's solution? Run empty loads of bleach water on a weekly basis. I read a ton of testimonials from people who thought it was just ludicrous that you had to spend so much time washing your washer, just so that your clothes weren't infiltrated with mold spores and mildew. So I then started looking at Neptune alternatives. Like fixing the one we've got, instead. I researched the problem we were having, found some diagrams, took the washer apart last night, sent Brian on a part hunt today, and fixed it tonight.

And it actually works! For a few hours on the internet, an overwhelming desire to have clothes that don't smell like mildew, and $7, our old washer is new again. I just had to replace the "cam dogs." Like, duh?!?

So they say good things come in 3's (or is it pairs...for my sake let's say 3's). I found out as well that I overpaid my Nipsco bill by $125, and my bill this month was a whopping $40, so Nipsco still owes me $80. Guess that means no Nipsco bills this summer! Yay.

I know Good Thing #3 is that there's a check for a million dollars on it's way to me in the mail right now...

Finally!

2009-05-12T16:11:00.001-08:00

We finally got our spring landscaping done, despite the fact that I've been just about as sick as I've been in my most recent memorable past. I guess you don't need a voice to landscape...
So here are a few pics and a quick video clip of the final outcome...now it's time for a grilled onion cheeseburger and a glass of red wine...

Laryngitis Is Cool; At Least According to My Kids

2009-05-11T16:58:00.001-08:00

Well, I called that one! This morning I woke up with ZERO voice. That was real interesting calling into work, they were like, "Who is this? Prank call! Prank call!"
Anyway. I'm really ready for this swine flu to go elsewhere. The kids are enjoying it, though. All they have to do is act like they can't hear my desparate whisper pleas for them to behave and follow the rules...

Oh well.

Mothers Day and H1N1

2009-05-10T02:22:00.004-08:00

So I'm pretty sure I have the plague. Or something. About a week ago I leaned over to my fabulous husband and whispered these sweet nothings in his ear, "I think I'm getting sick." Well I was right and what started as a very mild head cold as far as head colds go has turned into a raging plague. Or the swine flu, I'm not quite sure yet. I think I'm gonna die. The really cool part is that I think I'm about to lose my voice. For anyone who knows me, that's pretty funny really. I'm really quite puny...

It doesn't help that I have a million things I'm trying to get done around here, either. Actually a million minus one, as our trusty washing machine has officially crapped out on us. That's a good and bad thing. As you can imagine, I'm pretty stoked that I haven't done one stitch of laundry this weekend, however, all that means is that I'll have double the amount when we get the situation rememdied.

Happy Mother's Day to all those mothers out there, too. Mom, Grandma, Auntie, Sis, Amy, Allisa, Wendy, Jessica, Molly, Cate, Ginnifer... and anyone else not specifically mentioned because it's too early for my brain to work, here's a shout out! Hope you guys all have a great day. I was listening to the radio the other morning and they featured "Mommy Confessions." It was hilarious. If you have any "Mommy Confessions" I'd love to hear them... leave them in the comments section. I think the funniest one I heard was lady who said she's told her mom that she was going to have a really busy day at work so her mom watched the kids, she took a personal day from work, parked her SUV in a forest preserve somewhere and slept in the back all day. That's so damn funny. And I'll have to admit, my knee jerk reaction on that was, "What a great idea!"

So for those of you who are real observant, yes, I am posting this at 5:30 in the morning on Mother's Day... SUNDAY... when I should rightfully be sleeping. This damn H1N1 is preventing me from obtaining any restful sleep. Or maybe it's the bottle of Shiraz I met last night... the jury's out ;) None the less, I just took 3 Advil and a half gallon of water, so hopefully I'll be back asleep soon. Brian has agreed to bring us McDonald's for breakfast (yay) so that situation is handled. Now if I could just find some NyQuil....

Since You Won't Look There, According To Sitemeter...

2009-04-21T17:36:00.002-08:00

I put up new pics from last weekend's wedding on my photoblog. You can click on the "My Business Website" link over there >>>>>> (isn't that cool?) or you can just click on this link.

Happy looking!

All Stones, All The Time

2009-04-19T07:05:00.009-08:00

Hi everyone. So how long has it been? 2 weeks? I know, I'm pathetic, but it's been all I have just to keep up with the daily stuff lately and be in bed (or at least sitting down with a glass of wine) by 9:30 or so. You see, I have a whole laundry list of excuses as to why I just can't keep up with the blog here... I'll start with reason #1 and reason #2.

So we woke up this morning and Vincent asked for something that I wouldn't give him. When I told him "no" he went over to the couch to pout as Jade broke out in song...

"You can't always get what you want. You can't always get what you want. But if you try sometimes you just might find, you get what you need. Yah, oh baby."
It was hilarious.

So other than the constant child induced headache and high blood pressure, I'm also training (we'll use that term lightly) for the triathlon in Valpo in July, and trying to get 2 horses ready for a horse show the first weekend in May. I had a rehearsal Friday and my first wedding of the season last night, and I'm still doing Body Safety - but we're just about done with it this year, thank God. Other than that, things are quiet :)

Brian stained the deck this weekend with the nice weather, and got a bunch of other stuff done around here. I haven't cleaned in a week and we have no food. My mom just came and got the kids (yay) and I think we need to hit a few places in town. I'm uploading the wedding pics as I'm typing this... hopefully I'll have some time tonight to whittle through them and pick out some of my faves. I'll get them posted asap on my photo blog - check it out if you haven't yet! Especially with the photo season officially started, I'll have a lot of cool stuff to look at there!

Hope everyone had a good weekend. I should probably go get dressed. After all, it is 12:30 already...

Fabulous

2009-04-05T17:17:00.004-08:00

I spent the weekend with a very very good, very very old friend of mine. I reacquainted with her this year on Facebook, and this is the second time we've been able to get together since then. The first time, the kids and I traveled to Dayton to visit her and her family. This time, she's come to NWI to visit us (oh yeah, and her family, too :)). It was totally weird traveling 4 hours to meet up and stay with someone you haven't talked to, nevermind SEEN for roughly 18 years. No joke. She and I were BEST friends growing up. We were virtually inseparable and most of my most vivid childhood memories include her and/or her family. In fact, I think her parents were so much my "second set" they were the only people who had full permission to treat me as one of their own, in good times and bad.

Seriously. I hadn't even spoken to her for so long, I was totally unsure of what to expect when I arrived in Dayton, bag in hand, like "Here we are!" And it couldn't have gone any better. Even after 18 whole years, it was like we hadn't missed a day, we jumped into conversation, and were up till 2am reminiscing. It made me realize why we were such good friends in the first place... there were so many parallels in our lives it was almost scary, and we were still so similar in thought in our adult lives that it is hard to believe we ever lost touch for so long. Even our kids match. Don't they say that a mother knows her child's cry? Well, not in this case...in fact, the word "MOOOOMMMMMMMMMMIIIIIIEEEE" is indiscernible whether it's coming from hers or mine... no joke. Neither of us can tell the difference.

Her husband is in the Army, and it's quite likely that she'll be moving further south in the next few years. This totally bums me out, as I feel I have rekindled a true, lifelong friendship that I don't even mind the thought of driving 4 hours one way just to hang out. Anyway, she is here for this week, and I'm so excited to get to spend more time with her. As most know, I don't have many true "girlfriends" with a few exceptions (Amy, Allisa...) and I am so stoked to have found her.

I'm hoping that at some point this week we can stop talking and actually get a pic of the two of us and of our families together. I know I've posted about this before, I'm just so excited that she's here! Here's to a fun week!

Taxes

2009-03-29T10:04:00.002-08:00

I. Hate. Taxes. Especially. When. They're. Not. My. Own.

No, I Didn't Get Lost

2009-03-25T07:29:00.000-08:00

I haven’t gone on vacation or anything cool like that. I’ve just been totally ignoring this blog. Sorry. I know that’s a GREAT way to keep people clicking in regularly, too. Post randomly, maybe once a month or so. Pretty soon people will just say, to hell with her, and delete me from their favorites. So anyway. Here’s what we’ve been up to!

My corned beef dinner went off without a hitch. A few of my yearly “regulars” couldn’t make it this year, so we had a few new people over. The menu was the same – 12 pounds of corned beef brisket (yum!), cabbage, onions, carrots, and red potatoes slow cooked for ever in Guinness, cheddar bread (that I finally got right this year – put a glaze of butter, garlic powder, and sugar over the top), and the standard “grasshopper parfait” that I make every year. It was good and I had report that the next days gaseous emissions were indicative of – well – enough cabbage (sorry, TMI). Gee, I wonder who that came from…

We rocked out to Guitar Hero for a while, had a few beers, and enjoyed each other’s company. Speaking of Guitar Hero… I finally got the new Wii hooked up to the internet (stupid easy – I don’t know what I was waiting for) and realized that you can battle other players or play along with them “band style” via your online connection. This is a devastating discovery. Truly. It is So. Much. Fun. And remember, this is coming from someone who on a 1-10 scale of Video Game Tolerance is at a like 2 or 3. Really. Typically, I really don’t understand people who play these things addictively. Well, maybe now I do. At least if it’s Guitar Hero. Going back to the online connection… I played someone who was playing the same song I was on expert (I was on medium) and he/she totally kicked my butt at it. By like 10,000 points. I felt very puny after that – clearly I need more practice.

I’ve been running still in preparation for the Valpo Triathlon in July. What I really need to do at this point is get my bike tuned up and get on that, too. I enjoy biking so much more than I do running. I should probably find a swimmable body of water, too. Needless to say, I have a lot of training to do before July. I’ve made a commitment to riding the horses more this spring than I did (or didn’t) this winter. Show season is approaching rapidly (my first is May2nd) and I’m too fat to fit into my show clothes, and the horse is too out of sorts to even think about being competitive. So it’s crunch time.

The kids are on spring break. It was actually pretty warm here yesterday but super windy (that always ruins things). Today it’s sunny and calm but not as warm. I think the kids are spending the night at the in-laws Thursday night. It’ll be so weird to get up in the morning and get off to work without kids to feed/dress/or run somewhere… and Brian will be at work already, too, so I’ll have the whole house to myself when I get up. Weird.

We have two trips planned in June. We’re going to Brown County with the horses and the kids are going to Arizona. A few weeks later we are planning on heading out to Colorado for about a week together. It’ll be the kids’ first trip out there, so I’m excited to share something I love so much with them. We have plans to visit some old friends while we’re there, too, so it’s a bonus. It’ll be the beginning of the spring season there so it should be really pretty with all the wildflowers blooming and endless mountain sunshine and blue skies. Hmmm. Remind me again why I live here…

Well, that’s my update. Be sure to check out my photo blog if you have any interest in some other stuff I’ve been up to…

My First 5K This Year

2009-03-14T11:07:00.004-08:00

Today was my first 5K race for the year. It's a race I ran back in '02, just after Vincent was born. It was a really cool race, called Runnin With the Irish. It had a cool St. Patty's day theme, and was definitely more healthy way to celebrate St. Pats than green beer. I ran my best 5K time yet, too; 31:twenty-something (the results aren't up yet). That's not blazing fast, actually, it's really not even kind of fast, but it's an accomplishment for me.

I ran with two great friends; Sarah and Allisa. It was the first 5K for the both of them, so that was cool too. So this is all in preparation for the sprint triathlon I am planning on running in July. It's the Valparaiso Triathlon, and I ran it in it's maiden year in 2005.

I actually feel pretty good today. It was a sunny day and the scenery was great. The couse went through the Dunes State Park, and up to the beach and around the big pavilion there. It was a little chilly at first, but once we got going, we were fine. I imagine all the cookies and brownies at the end cancelled out all the calories I burned during the run, but oh well. We had a good time and it was good to go back to the run that was the first 5K I ever completed. Hooray!

An Interview With Vincent...

2009-03-08T10:44:00.002-08:00

I put this on my Facebook page, too. I thought it was pretty cute, and I'm not feeling very creative today...

A conversation with Vincent, age 6.5

1. What is something mom always says to you?
“Don't be wild.”

2. What makes mom happy?
“When I follow directions.”

3. What makes mom sad?
“When I say I don't love you.” (That is, when HE says I don't love you to ME...)

4. How does your mom do to make you laugh?
“Scratch my back."

5. What was your mom like as a child?
“I don't know.”

6.How old is mom?
“48." (Uhhh...)

7. How tall is your mom?
“17." (After touching random points on my body)

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
“Sit and do the computer.”

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
“Go to the barn”

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
“For taking me out to dinner."

11. What is your mom really good at?
“Building things and being a police officer."

12. What is your mom not very good at?
"That one's hard. You're not good at building showers."

13. What does your mom do for her job?
“You catch bad guys”

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
“Pizza."

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
“When you help me clean my room up."

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
“Tom the cat."

17. What do you and your mom do together?
“We go to the park sometimes."

18. How are you and your mom the same?
“We both have the same colored hair.”

19. How are you and your mom different?
“We have different colored eyes.”

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
“Just because."

21. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
“To Burger King." (What? I hate Burger King...)

The Coma Cometh

2009-03-05T19:10:00.005-09:00

Despite the fact that it's beautiful outside, the fact that I've been VERY VERY good about running and eating right, the fact that I've successfully de-cluttered about 40% of my house, and the fact that I've even gotten a reasonable amount of sleep in the past few nights (all you need, ladies, is a husband that has to get up before o'dark thirty, and you get to go to bed by 9:30!!) - I feel like total dog crap.

My symptoms are mild at worst, I just have a general malaise today. And I'm SOOO not in the mood for it...

So tonight after the customary hot tub soak (yay!) I took a shot of NyQuil, a melatonin, and a Leingenkeugels Honey Weiss...

"NyQuil, NyQuil, NyQuil we love you, you giant f-ing Q..."

If you don't know what that last thing is about, you can no longer be my friend. Just kidding.

I'll see you when I come out of the coma... probably Saturday...

The Auto Assistance Ownership Amendment, As It Applies To Your's Truly...

2009-02-19T06:58:00.005-09:00

Can someone with more patience please answer me this question? In the typical fashion that I tend to get HOSED out of all things good, in Obama’s new stimulus package it was my understanding that under the Auto Assistance Ownership Amendment that taxpayers would be allowed to deduct sales tax paid on a new vehicle purchase between November 12, 2008 and December 31, 2009. I think one can actually read the bill itself at readthestimulus.org - yeah, not even the lawmakers VOTING on this read it. I can assure you that I will not either.

There are conflicting reports, however on the dates of eligibility for this deduction. Some reports say it begins on February 14th (or thereabouts, not sure on the specific date) and some say it’s retroactive to the date above. Naturally, this matters to me because of course, we bought our new truck smack dab in the middle of the “grey area” in the dates. January 23, 2009, to be exact. I am not linking to any information I have found on this, because, again, they all contradict each other.

Rest assured, we did NOT buy a vehicle costing more than $49,500 and we do NOT make over $250,000 per year… so no problems there. It’s just a matter of the dates.

A big hug to anyone who can definitively answer this question – if I do qualify, maybe I’ll cut you a check for $5 when I get my tax refund from 2009!

What's Up With the Ears In This Family?

2009-02-11T14:20:00.001-09:00

What the hell? Vincent woke up last night screaming, “Mommy! Mom!” (and so on and on and on) around 4:30 this morning. I was in the middle of a dream, and Brian came to before me so he actually went up and checked up on him. He said his head hurt, so Brian gave him an ibuprofen, and we all went back to sleep. So today, at work, I get a phone call from home. It’s Brian asking me where the ear drops from Vincent’s last ear infection are. Apparently, now, Vincent is complaining of ANOTHER earache, in the same ear as before.

This kid has never had problems with his ears before. I wish I knew what was going on…

Three Cheers for a Springlike Day!!!

2009-02-10T07:17:00.000-09:00

It’s going to be in the 60’s today!!! I know this is just a “spring teaser” but after this weather we’ve had this winter, that started in NOVEMBER, I’m ready for a taste, even if it’s just that, of spring.

It’s supposed to snow again on Thursday, so I’m sure this will be short lived; as in like, less than 24 hours. None the less, it’s exciting. I got to go for a jog outside yesterday afternoon, and I’ll probably go de-mud the horses tonight after we get the kids. Speaking of horses, they’re actually starting to shed – which in the horse world means that the worst part of winter is probably over. I remember being a kid and knowing that when the horses started to shed out, we were on the downward slope of winter. Yay!

I’ve got that spring cleaning fever, too. I just can’t wait to open up the house, move all the furniture and dust and vacuum under and around things… and to turn the DAMN FURNACE off for a few minutes! Geez! I’m not kidding to say that the gas company owes me a steak dinner after this winter! That thing has been running non stop.

Well, enjoy the nice weather, if you’re getting any of it wherever you are…

Schnauzer! Schnauzer!

2009-02-06T20:44:00.003-09:00

If you're wondering why I have a picture of a Schnauzer on my blog with no further explanation, call me. It's a pretty funny story...

A New Adventure in Blogging

2009-02-04T07:04:00.006-09:00

I've decided to expand my business footprint and add a blog link to discuss business happenings. Subscribe to me! Help me be more visible in cyberworld - all the cool people are doing it! Here's a link: http://www.jenniferlynneventphotography.blogspot.com/

I'm hoping to discuss photo related topics there. If you have any general photography questions, or have an idea for something for me to discuss, feel free to make your suggestions!

Random Thoughts

2009-02-02T11:31:00.002-09:00

Well, the Super Bowl dessert was a hit… I decided to wing it and made my own creation. I came up with this: Pressed a ginger snap crust (like a graham cracker crust, only with ginger snaps) into a casserole dish. Mixed light cream cheese with cool whip and added pear juice till it was fluffy and put it in the crust. Sliced pears and put those on top of the whipped stuff. Chopped up some more ginger snaps and sprinkled them on the top, with just a dash of cinnamon and VOILA. It was really good!

It worked out especially well that someone else brought dirt pudding, so it complemented that well. Same idea, totally different taste. The only thing about the Super Bowl that kind of sucked was that Arizona didn’t win. Not that I really root for either team, but I tend to shoot for the underdog in these situations. Oh well. It’s true (statistically, that is) that if I’m A) Watching a game, B) Wearing a team jersey, or C) Rooting for someone specific, that team is guaranteed to lose. I’m not kidding. I’ve quit wearing my Bronco’s jersey because of this (not that it mattered this year… but anyway…). Seriously.

In other news. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I have a general feeling of malaise lately. Kind of like you feel a day or two before you get sick, but I haven’t gotten sick and I’ve felt this way for a week. This morning, my stomach hurt. Not like nauseous or anything – like someone punched me. I can’t recall a time that my stomach actually hurt. When I was running, it felt like a sore muscle or something. But my stomach. Weird. I’ve also had a moderate to severe headache just about every morning for the past week, too. Maybe I’m dying. I can’t think of any other logical explanation. No one else in the family is reporting symptoms…

Anyway, I hope every one has a good week. I’ll catch up soon, if I’m not dead by then…

Help! I'm Not Creative!

2009-01-28T05:25:00.002-09:00

I'm going to a super bowl party this weekend (big surprise!) and have been asked to bring a dessert. Usually, I'm really good at desserts - but I want to take something that is super bowl-esque. I googled "super bowl dessert" and got a bunch of suggestions for cupcakes decorated like each team, 7 layer bars and other standards. I'm thinking something a little more original, and also something that's easy to grab (or scoop) and go. I'm thinking... cute. What was your biggest superbowl dessert hit?

Maybe TMI, But I'm Concerned

2009-01-26T16:38:00.003-09:00

Vincent got sent home from school with a fever and vomiting last Wednesday. He's had a fever kind of on and off and has been complaining of ear pain (in varying degrees) since then. I've always heard lots of times ear infections will just work themselves out, and that a lot of times antibiotics aren't the solution. I held off taking him to the doctor until today, due to a majorly bad day yesterday. He really went downhill, so I kept him home from school today, too. We went to the MedPoint clinic and saw the nurse practitioner. He's been mostly complianing of pain in his left ear, and hasn't really even mentioned his right at all this whole time. The NP told me his right ear drum was red and inflamed but said she couldn't really even see the left due to the wax that was in his ear.

Nonetheless she prescribed some analgesic drops and Amoxicillin. Oh yeah, he's been saying he was dizzy, too. I put the drops in his ears twice today and he's now had two doses of the antibiotics. He has pretty much stopped complaining of the pain, and looks to be feeling better than he did yesterday. My question is this...

After I put the drops in the 2nd time, I put clean cotton in his ear to keep it from leaking out. Tonight, when I was getting him ready for bed, I noticed the cotton ball was really wet. I took it out and saw A LOT of crud inside his ear. It didn't stink or anything, but I got a bunch of watery stuff, pasty whitish stuff, and what looked like small wax fragments out with some Q-tips. While I was pulling his ear back to clean and while I was using the Q-tips, I could actually hear his ear popping from where I was sitting. It sounded just like it does when my own ear pops, but it was his and I could hear it. Also, he said there were funny noises in his ear (whistling that he said sounded like music) earlier after I did the drops. I'm concerned that his ear drum has ruptured. If so, what would I expect to see as far as drainage? Why did I hear the popping? Has anyone had any experience with this kind of thing? The web says that "minor" perforations heal on their own... any one out there ever had a kid with a perforated ear drum from an infection? If his ear drum actually perforated because of an inner ear infection, wouldn't you think the "crud" would be stinky, or otherwise more remarkable than it was?

25 Random Things

2009-01-22T19:00:00.001-09:00

My friend Amy tagged me on a 25 random things blog game.

I'm supposed to tag 25 people to play along, but I only know like 5, so if you want to participate, participate at will! I'd love to hear about you! Hmmm....

1. My husband and I just took a huge leap and bought a very expensive new truck. I said I'd never buy another new, new vehicle, but, oh well!

2. I'm really hopeful that President Obama does well and at least partially lives up to the expectations we have of him.

3. I'm training to beat my best time in a 5K and am running my first of the season on March 14th with my friend Allisa, and maybe Sarah and one of her friends.

4. I have met up with some very very old friends of mine recently on Facebook. No, they're not old and friends. They're old friends... you know what I mean. This has opened my eyes to the value of TRUE friendship. Some of these people I haven't even spoken to in YEARS, and I find that we have eerie similarities in our adult lives.

5. I am eternally cold. No matter what.

6. I have horses and believe it's an illness set upon me by the devil. It costs a ton of money, no one but other horse people understand, and I can't help it.

7. I can't even believe how much I love my kids. I love them so much, it hurts.

8. The majority of the problems I have in my relationship with my husband revolve around the fact that we are so much alike.

9. I admire my grandma more than any other person on this planet.

10. I really like to drink Diet Coke for breakfast. It makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong ;)

11. I really, really like beer.

12. One of my only regrets in my adult life is that I didn't move to Colorado the day I graduated college.

13. My favorite holiday is still Thanksgiving.

14. I love photography, and am elated that my photog business is taking off full blast.

15. My favorite movie is Seven.

16. I don't understand fireworks and my husband's obsession with them... not even for a minute... but they are fun to take pictures of.

17. I'll probably never own another dog that's not a border collie.

18. I could care less if I ever visit the Dunes state park again.

19. I actually like snow, I just hate the scenery here that comes with it.

20. I'm perfectly content to sit home every night with my family and watch the news till I go to bed.

21. I'm one of the few Americans that can actually boast that I love my job.

22. I have 3 tattoos.

23. I'd rather eat a plain cheeseburger value meal from McDonalds than most anything else.

24. I think Richard Daley is really cool.

25. I'm on the Denver Broncos season ticket waiting list.

That's all I can think of... YOUR TURN!!!

It. Is. So. Cold.

2009-01-15T17:55:00.003-09:00

I'm over this. The ACTUAL temperature is minus 15 degrees. It's been cold here before, as most of you know, but this is REALLY cold. The wind was blowing last night and they said the wind chill was like some 35 below...

With that, it's a great night for the hot tub! I'm planning on heading out there as soon as I get this post done... I hope I don't freeze essential parts before I hit the water. Brian told me tonight that in the kids rooms (where we have humidifiers running) that there is actually measureable ice on the INSIDE of the windows. Not to mention that, but we got totally slammed with lake snow last night too. I was driving the little Taurus home from getting Jade from the sitter at about 20 mph with, at times, literally ZERO visibility. Hell, we may as well be in Colorado - at least there's something nice to look at when you're snowed in!

On another note, isn't is crazy to hear about that plane in NY? Wow, talk about a lucky day for those people! I'd say it's that pilot's day to retire - right now. I'd be giving up my wings like, "They're all yours. That's all the flying I need for now..."

Other exciting news is that I found an old friend of mine on Facebook who lives in Hooper Bay, Alaska. I BET SHE CAN SEE RUSSIA! Hee hee. I had to put that in there. But no, really. She has two beautiful kids she's raising on the tundra (Hooper Bay is in western Alaska). She was/is one of the smartest, most interesting people I have known. She has a blog... so whenever you're feeling chilly or like you're roughing it, check out her daily life. She and her family are pretty amazing, in my book anyway...

Stay warm!

Finally, The Missing Christmas Pics!

2009-01-02T16:33:00.006-09:00

I finally got around to picking the favorite pics of the season and converting them from my camera RAW format to jpgs so I could actually share them! I chose a few of my holiday favorites to share here, there are a couple more on my Facebook page for those who follow there...
The kids got all the stuff they wanted from Santa. Vincents key gifts were a Nintendo DS (which was against my better judgement), a new soil plow and New Holland tractor to pull it, headphones so I don't have to listen to the DS, Wall-E, and tons of Lincoln Logs.
Jade's favorites consisted of a Nintendo DS (REALLY against my better judgement), an iPod Shuffle (another thing against my better judgement, but I was tired of holding my breath every time she wanted to listen to mine), a huge dollhouse, headphones (so we don't have to listen to the DS or the iPod), and some Disney princess dolls.
I got some new boots, a laptop stand, some Carhart coveralls (yay), some horse things, a North Face vest, a few new hats and scarves, and a really cool head massager thing.
Brian got his rangefinder so he can shoot fireworks from a safe distance without guessing, new boots, a few new outfits, a new belt and buckle, ... I can't even remember what else.
Overall, it was a pretty enjoyable holiday... we had a good time visiting with the family, eating a few nice meals, and watching the kids experience the magic. They had so much fun playing with their new stuff, showing it all off to their cousins, and just enjoying the time with the family.
I figure we'd better enjoy it before its all over. Already, Vincent is starting to question "how does Santa go to that many houses in one night" and "I think Santa's too big to fit down the chimney, and how does the bag of toys fit, too" all things that we finally figure out just arent' physically possible. I hope we get at least a few more years before he knows the truth... for now it's my favorite part of Christmas...

Ouch

2008-12-28T12:20:00.002-09:00

I never knew the non-dominant hand pinkie finger right. on. the. tip could possibly hurt this bad.

I fell off of Harley today (don't worry, Auntie, the only injury I have is my finger and my back's fine!). It was slow motion, as most things like that are. I had time to think, alright, this could be bad. Let's not land the wrong way on the ol' back. In my intense concentration to NOT hurt my back on my way down, I apparently really forgot to remember what I was doing with my left hand, because whatever I did, it wasn't good. I don't think I've ever posted a blog with so many w's or s's!!! It must be a conspiracy.

I think I broke that teeny tiny little dinky bone right on the end of my pinkie. I've done a lot of things in my life that hurt... but no joke, this is right up there on the list of All Things Painful.

I'm trying to post some holiday pics... hopefully they'll be up soon...

A Story of Survival!

2008-12-26T07:12:00.004-09:00

Historically, Christmas around my/our family has been insane. For my entire life, my memories of Christmas encompass a lot of food, excitement and waiting for the adults to eat to go open presents, and when we got there, so many presents we couldn't hardly stand it. Another tradition that we always had was at the family Christmas to open gifts one person at a time. The good years, we'd open them from youngest to oldest. The bad years, the oldest person would start. That often left us youngsters with elevated blood pressures and insane desire by the time it was our turn. Luckily, I don't remember many of those.

Nonetheless, there were always so many presents we could hardly open them all. Our little fingers were bloody stumps from opening by the time we got to the bottom of our stack. And that tradition, apparently, is continuing. Years ago, like when I was still to little to be bummed out about it, someone said "we're not doing Christmas like this anymore - it'll be one gift a piece..."

Again, that was definitely at least before I could drive... probably earlier. And it still hasn't happened. Now don't get me wrong - I appreciate all the time, effort, work, headaches, shopping trips, and late night wrappings that go into such a celebration - but it's crazy! The kids love it (obviously) because it's as if Santa dropped a Toys R Us satellite store right there in the middle of Grandma's living room. This year, my best gift was the photobook I made for my beautiful Grandma using Shutterfly's album design site. Here's a link to it if you're interested... it really turned out nice. If you ever need a meaningful gift for someone who has all they need, this is the way to go. It took a total of about 12 hours to finish from scanning the first picture to finally ordering it, but it was worth it...

Anyway, we had a lot of fun, everyone's exhausted, and we get to do it again, today, if the inch thick ice ever melts on the roads so we can make it to Chesterton... I'll post pics when it's all over...

Hope everyone's holiday was filled with memories as fond as mine...

Turkey Frying and Power Outages

2008-12-21T06:57:00.003-09:00

That title just about sums up the last 12 hours of my life. We had some friends over for dinner Saturday night. We weren't sure what to make, and tossed around the idea of doing some mid-winter grilling. Turns out it's a good thing we made other plans - it was freezing cold and snowing at dinner prep time. Luckily I had the fabulous idea of frying a turkey earlier in the week so that's what we did. This time I got a reasonably sized turkey (only 12 pounds) instead of the 22 pound super turkey we had for Thanksgiving. In about 30 minutes, we had a yummy fully cooked bird ready to be carved. We didn't burn the outside quite as bad this time, either. The Thanksgiving turkey would probably have been perfect if we'd cooked it about 10 minutes less than we did. Some of the meat close to the surface was a little tough. This time, the skin was still burned a little, but the meat inside was fine. We'll fine tune this thing just in time for the holidays to be over, I guess.

So we ate (a lot!) and had a soak in the hot tub, hung out for a while after that, and went to bed. The weather man said the already bone chilling cold weather was going to take a downward turn, with more wind, snow, and ice. We listened to the wind ripping past the house all night and finally it happened. The power went out. The first time was at a convenient 2 am. It came right back on but the problem is now that the kids' sound machines, on which they heavily rely to sleep, we set to a cheery, morning "woodland forest" instead of the sleep inducing "white noise." They were screaming, so I got up, fixed the machines, found the cell phone, reset the bedroom alarm clock, and lightly dozed off to sleep (again). About the time I got comfortable and just about asleep, it went off again. Brian took on the sound machine resetting duties this time. The darn power went off probably 3 or 4 more times before it was really time to get up. It only went off for a few seconds - you know - just long enough to screw everything up. REMC owes me a babysitter, a quiet house, and at least 4 hours of pure uninterrupted sleep. I imagine the problems are coming from the fact that the power lines have like 200 pounds of ice on them and the wind's blowing at about 100 miles an hour...

The power went out, in fact, as I was typing this...

How do they expect anyone to get any work done around here?

I Must Really Suck

2008-12-14T09:48:00.002-09:00

Am I like the only person on this planet who doesn't bake Christmas cookies? I've been reading up on all my friends' blogs and everyone but me is baking (well, almost). I made cookies for our friends and stuff one year, a few years ago (actually when I got my Kitchenaid mixer a few days early... thanks Brian) and it was so miserable I vowed I'd never do it again. Plus, I think I gained 20 pounds from all the cookie dough and other stuff I ate before the cookies were actually done...

Looking back now, I can't even remember WHY I have such disgusting memories of it. I don't think anything horrible or disasterous happened. Pretty much all I remember is saying, "I'll never do that again." Kind of like a drunken night of misery - don't remember much about the specifics, but pretty darn sure you don't want to do it again.

Maybe since the whole thing is a little foggy in my head, it's time to do it again. Or not.

A Bad Headline

2008-12-07T19:28:00.004-09:00

Am I hearing things? They were just covering the Bears game on the channel 7 news at 10. They showed a picture of one of the players sitting on the bench with his helmet off, head steaming. The news anchor says, "get your steaming hot meat puppet here."

HUH? Are you kidding me? And then, just as soon as I was recovering from that comment, they are interviewing a player who is saying something about Vaseline. What the hell is going on? This is why we don't watch channel 7.

Brian was actually reading my previous blog on our laptop, not really paying attention to the TV, and he even looked up, then looked at me, and said, "What the hell did he just say?"

It's time for me to go to bed - or change the channel!!!

Surgry Buddies

2008-12-06T07:18:00.003-09:00

Brian finally had his elbow surgery to correct his tendon problem. He'd been getting cortisone shots pretty much all year, and the doctor finally decided to go ahead and just fix it surgically. Apparently he had tennis elbow, which from what he told me is an overuse injury. I don't completely understand this as it was 1) his LEFT elbow, and 2) it's not like he has a job or does anything that is repeatedly stressing or using his left arm over and over like in an assembly line or something... oh well.

Anyway, they did his surgery outpatient, so he came straight home after it was over. He's feeling pretty good now (almost a week later) but will still be off work for the next 2 months, probably more or less due to the nature of his job. It would suck to get into a fight with someone or something and "pop" that would be the end of that.

Part B of our excitement was that Shooter also had surgery. Normal dog stuff for her - spaying - and removing her rear dew claws. She's fine, too, I just thought this was a good photographic opportunity to get the two sickies recovering on the couch together.

In other news, I'm just about done with our Christmas shopping. We have a few odds and ends to get, but the vast majority of it is D.O.N.E! What I have left to buy is simple stuff, and I know what I need. It seems that's always the problem I have at Christmas - figuring out what the hell to get people. Gift cards just seem so impersonal. I like getting them, don't get me wrong. I love what I consider a shopping spree, it lets me get what I want in the size I need, and saves me from having to return/exchange things that aren't the right size or whatever. I never mind a few hours to have to myself to go shopping. So if anyone out there was thinking "gift card" for me, keep em' flowing. :)

I'll be at Hawthorne Park in Porter today taking Santa pictures for their town Christmas festival. Another established photog in the area double booked himself today and didn't realize it till this week. He called me (to my surprise) and asked me to shoot for him today. It'll be easy - a simple light setup and I'll give him all the pictures. He'll handle all the orders, deliveries, post processing, and file maintenance, so it's a quick and easy $100 for me at a time I can definitely find a use for it. I was pretty honored, as he's trusting ME to represent his company... a pretty big deal for me!

Hope things are going well for you. I never did blog about Thanksgiving. Maybe I'll talk about the turkey frying experience after we fry Christmas' bird. Then I'll have something to compare it to. Have a good weekend!

NEW CONTACT INFO

2008-12-04T14:55:00.002-09:00

For anyone who cares, I have a new email address. Look on my facebook page and check my info if you need it, or call me and let me know you want it. In other words, don't send anything to jlrichmond76@msn.com or to jmcdonald76@comcast.net anymore!

Shopping Wisdom

2008-11-25T15:08:00.003-09:00

I had the day off today, so I thought I'd relish the opportunity to do some Christmas shopping sans kids and sans husband. I discovered a holiday marvel, that I feel I'm obligated to share. Two words:

SHOP. NOW.

I went to about a million stores today. All of them had their shelves fully stocked with the newest and most sought after treasures. Stuff was literally falling off the shelves. And because of the expected decline of holiday spending the retailers are starting all their sales that usually start on Friday, BLACK FRIDAY, RIGHT. NOW.

I got stuff for like 50% off a sale price. It kicked ass. A toy store had buy 3 get 1 free ON ANYTHING IN THE STORE. Not only that, but the stores were abandoned, as everyone is more concerned right now with buying dead, frozen birds and stale bread. I cashed in BIG TIME, avoided the crowds all together, got amazing deals, and had unlimited selection. It was like being the first person at a garage sale.

I highly recommend shopping now. I'll never wait till after Thanksgiving again...

Walmart Debacle; Take Two

2008-11-24T07:57:00.000-09:00

I had another holiday debacle with WalMart this morning. The same song and dance as last year with our picture for our Christmas cards. We sent them in for printing and Brian went to pick them up this morning. He got all the way to the photo center, waited in the line, only to be told he would need a copyright release in order for them to give him the pictures. Apparently, I didn’t have one online, so I’ll have to make a trip there to convince them that I actually took the picture.

As I said last year, I guess I’m glad that someone’s paying attention, but it’s still a pain in the butt. You’ll just have to wait to get the card in the mail for the picture…

Have a good one!

What I've Been Doing

2008-11-18T17:14:00.005-09:00

I just saw that I haven't posted since like, November 9th or something. Earlier this month, my Grandpa went into the hospital with a very grave prognosis. On November 11, which ironically was Veteran's Day, he lost his fight. Obviously, we've been busy with funeral planning, and then funeral attending. My blog, nonetheless, has taken a hit. The funeral was this past Sunday, which was also the day that we left for Wisconsin Dells for our "vacation" to Glacier Canyon Lodge. It was supposed to be Vincent's birthday present. We still went, but with heavy hearts. I'll post more on that when I can find a pic that doesn't embarrass me in my bathing suit.
I was going to write about all the things my Grandpa did and was in his 88 years on this planet. I then realized that I would need a novel, not a blog, to accurately portray his life and what he was to so many people. Happily, we were all part of the decisions regarding Grandpa's care, and most of the family was at his bedside for his last hours, holding his hand as he went through the pearly gates. We have peace knowing that we made decisions with his wishes in mind, and that he didn't suffer. Literally, this was a man who went from installing a furnace in the basement of one of his many rental homes one day, to being gravely and acutely ill in the ICU the next. My Aunt drafted a pretty impressive obituary, while it only highlights a minute part of what this man has accomplished in his long life. After we attended the burial, with a Naval presenting of colors to my Grandma and playing of TAPS, we "drank to his good life" as he requested at Strongbow Inn. Thanks for all the memories Grandpa, and rest in peace.
George Joseph Puchowski, 88, a lifelong resident of Lake Station, New Chicago and Hobart, passed away Tuesday, November 11, 2008 at St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart. George is survived by his loving wife of 66 years, Dorothy (nee Miller) whom he married on Valentine's Day in 1942: five children: Carol Puchowski and Janet Richmond, both of Valparaiso, George Michael Puchowski, Gerald Puchowski and Dan Puchowski, all of Hobart; four grandchildren, Michelle (Moises) Vallejo of Tucson, AZ, Jennifer (Brian) McDonald of Valparaiso; Michael Puchowski and Kaytlin Puchowski of Crown Point; four great grandchildren: Mya and Marley Vallejo of Tucson, AZ and Vincent and Jade McDonald of Valparaiso; and nieces, nephews and other family members, including Joanne Toigo and Lloyd Purchatzke. Preceded in death by his parents: Zachary and Albina Puchowski of Lake Station; sisters: Nina (Al) Waichulis of New Chicago and Ellen Needs of Lake Station; and brother, Theodore (Judith) Puchowksi of Hobart. George was a proud veteran of the U.S. Navy during WW II and the Korean War as a Seabee. He was a lifetime member of New Chicago Paul Leon Wolek American Legion Post #454 and was elected First District Commander in 1953 and Commander of Post #454 in 1954. George was instrumental in establishing an American Legion Post #1 in Tokyo, Japan during the Korean War and was also a member of Lake County 40/8, Voiture 470. In 1976 George retired from U.S. Steel after 37 years as a roll turner. He was a 50-year member of Mensa International. Between 1958 and 1965 George enjoyed running bi-weekly dances for area teens at the New Chicago Youth Center. One of the greatest highlights of his life was being asked to deliver the Commencement Address for the Edison Class of 2006 on the 67th anniversary of his own graduation from Edison. George was a hard-working and generous man who loved his family, made friends easily, and was often seen with his beloved dog," Blue" and later with "Blue Too." George loved reading the morning paper and wouldn't start his day until he had completed the Jumble word puzzle over breakfast at one of his favorite Hobart restaurants. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Fr. Blaney's Share Foundation with the Handicapped, P.O. Box 400, Rolling Prairie, IN 46371 (219-778-2585) or to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105 (800-873-6983).

And, We're Back

2008-11-09T21:02:00.005-09:00

We made it back from Colorado and are recovering from the aptly named "Operation Car Swap". I haven't even mentioned this in my blog or really even in detail on Facebook, unless you've really been paying attention. Anyway. Quickly because we just drove 16 hours (33 hours in a 3 day period). My sister has (had) an 05' Volkswagen Bug (a nasty, little car with a lot of warning chimes) and my mom has (had) an older Olds Alero (nice in it's day, but, uh, yeah...) Mom wanted the bug (I will admit, it's cute... just a little shocking after driving an Expedition for the past few years). So Sissy and her family met me and Brian in Colorado Springs with the bug in tow (by their new 2500 Chevy truck - much more practical). We drove the Alero, swapped cars, had a beer, and came home. Actually, the truth is not far from that story. We stopped by the property on Saturday for about an hour and a half, put up a sign (stand by - pics are coming tomorrow), visited Garden of the Gods, and well, that's about it. We found a cool little microbrewerey called "Trinity" that I thought had good ambiance (Bob Marley playing quite loudly upon our arrival), a "smoking" area with couches in the back, and a tree-hugging, dreadlock fitted waitress with a shining personality. Brian wasn't impressed - we went there primarily to try their unfiltered wheat beer, which they were out of till next month. Unfortunatley, we weren't prepared to wait a month, so we settled for a Belgian wheat that was mediocre. Sissy, that's the call you missed from me. I wanted to rub in the fact that we were dining at a place called Trinity with all kinds of stinky beers and an abundance of incense, Bob Marley, and dreadlocked hair.

I'll put some pictures up tomorrow. I'm in a funk from driving a mini-car till my brains popped right out of my head...

A Prayer Now Would Be Nice

2008-11-03T18:30:00.002-09:00

My grandpa, who is almost 89 years old, was admitted to the ICU today. He has literally, never been sick a day in his life. We went to see him tonight and he looked sick. They say he's just kind of shutting down - I guess he's just finally gotten tired. This is a person who at his age is/was still laying carpet, remodeling bathrooms, and fixing leaking roofs. This is the same person who had to retire from the mill because he was getting death threats for working too hard from other union members. This is a person who has never bought anything with credit in his whole life. Just a week or so ago we were cleaning out one of his storage barns. He actually thought that we were all at the hospital to see my grandma, and was insisting that he get heading home about the time I finally left the hospital tonight. I'm sure he thinks there's some bolt that needs tightening, or maybe he had a poker game scheduled with "chili Bob". One of the smartest people I have ever met, a true Mensa genius, lying there with no idea what the hell was going on. One doctor said it'd be a miracle if he makes it 24 hours. Another seemed to think he'd be going home in a few days... either way, we could use a prayer, or whatever you do, sent this way...

Ok, that was funny

2008-11-02T12:15:00.001-09:00

Vincent just saw my last post and asked, "Mommy, did you let that little girl borrow my sister's costume?"

He was referring to the fairy picture. How cute.

Halloweenies

2008-11-02T12:00:00.006-09:00

Well, we survived another Halloween. We have about 399 pounds of candy upstairs, but couldn't have had a better night for trick or treating. In years past it's either been 20 degrees outside and/or 20 degrees and snowing. This year we got lucky and were able to go out in sweatshirts only. Score one for global warming. We had big plans to fill the cooler with um, soda, and drive the golf cart around, but the thing was DEAD DEAD and wouldn't move. It was only the day AFTER Halloween that we discovered a broken battery cable on one of the 6 batteries. No wonder it wouldn't move. Oh well. We walked off the calories from the sodas so I guess it wasn't entirely a bad thing...

Here are a few pics of us at the pumpkin patch and two of the kids in their costumes. I have a few more on my facebook page for those of you who are priveleged enough to be my friends!

Shooting Horses (Schnick, this one's for you!)

2008-10-27T20:38:00.008-08:00

I recently moved our horses to a new barn. If anyone's been reading this blog, you'd already know that. As a sort of gettin' ta' know ya' ;D (Palin-ites, eat your hearts out) at the new place and to try something completely new, I offered to take pictures of horses and/or their owners. A few people actually agreed to be my guinea pigs (as I was a creative-horse-shot virgin, believe it or not... not about the virgin... nevermind...)
So here were a few of my favs from the day - it was like 30 degrees out and the wind was blowing about 50 miles an hour - but we had fun anyway...

Laughing at Other People's Misfortunes...

2008-10-27T17:58:00.001-08:00

This was too good not to share with everyone...

Worst Best Man Ever @ Yahoo! Video

Some New Baby Pics from Today

2008-10-23T20:20:00.006-08:00

I thought these turned out pretty cute...
Any thoughts and suggestions welcome!!

AND THEN I FOUND THIS ONE!!!

2008-10-16T20:05:00.001-08:00

W. T. F?????????
See previous post...