Zobbie's Random thoughts

Following my new blog

2009-11-10T10:42:00.000-05:00

For those that are having a tough time adding my new blog to their blogger blog lists try this URL

http://www.michelleleighton.com/blog/?feed=rss2

That seems to be the one working.. Thanks to those letting me know they were not able to get theirs to work.

Decided it was time for just 1 blog

2009-10-30T21:51:00.001-04:00

So I decided to combine both my blogs into 1 new one. So update your RSS feed with my new blog which can be found HERE

I am a bad blogger

2009-10-26T23:10:00.002-04:00

I know I have sadly neglected my blog lately. Part of the reason is there is not much exciting going on here and also because I am in the process of building a new blog that will encompass both my personal blog and photo blog in one. Then I will only have 1 blog to neglect instead of two.. Stay tuned for the launch of my new blog...

When we all pull together good things can happen

2009-09-29T15:33:00.001-04:00

A couple years ago I was turned onto a photography message board. I am really fortunate to be part of this a community of photographers. I am not as active as I once was due to time restraints, the time sucker called facebook, and the whole stress of the moving thing and having ½ my life in boxes right now, but I digress. I have met several of these great people in person, but for the most part, we don't know each other in real life. However, as more and more time passes many of us have come to know and love one another.

Now the majority of this board is female and share the passion or photography on many different levels and in different manners, but a love for it just the same. It is a place we we come together to share things that are on topic, and stuff that is way off the topic of photography. We can share our latest photo sessions, get feedback on shots, and share our ever growing wish lists for gear, and often we enable one another to buy things that are photo related. In the way of off topic items there is good news shared, venting about something that has really rubbed us the wrong way, share funny stories and unfortunately we also hear about the bad news. I say unfortunately because no one wants to hear about bad things happening to our friends.

Just recently one photographer posted about how her Husband had lost his job. It was over something that was not his fault but was now unemployed as a result. With 3 kids at home and one that requires expensive medications this sweet girl who was worried about the future of her little family immediately put up some of her back up gear for sale online in order to help her family financially. It really tugged at the heartstrings of us all. Not only is she truly one of the most generous and giving people on the board, but it also meant she would no longer have back up gear and would have to turn down weddings and other photo shoots. Reducing her ability to get income in the future for her family in order to meet their immediate financial needs. It is amazing how much you can grow to care about someone that you have never met, but her kind and generous heart and the fact that she is really a talented photographer really just made the whole thing hard to swallow.

It seriously made me sick when I heard what was happening and well I sure was not the only one. Several amazing people pulled together and organized a fundraiser to “buy” this gear from her. I guess you could say we were going to buy it from her to give it back to her. So a significant sum was raised in just 4 short days (I love the power of the internet and PAYPAL) and earlier today another sweet girl from the board drove 2 hours to meet up with her and present her with the money.

So everyone that was involved is feeling a great sense of happiness today for being able to do a small part to help out such a wonderful friend. You would think we were the ones getting a gift today. It really is better to give than receive. In these tough financial times it really is hard for so many but when the masses pull together it really is amazing what you can get done. It is just another way to pay it forward for the good things that are done for us in our lives.

Ellie is looking like Great Grandma

2009-09-13T19:07:00.007-04:00

My Aunt and Cousin came in for a long weekend with sweet little Ellie... She had to meet her Great Grandmother on her mom's side of the family after all. Well we pulled out this picture of MomMom when she was a baby a little older than Ellie is now.

Then I took this picture of little Ellie today. She is looking a lot like her MomMom..

And since I am having so much fun taking hre picture here is a few more..

I even got one taken with her..

We got a 4 generation picture also. So fun..

Back from vacation and an update on the house hunt

2009-08-17T15:19:00.003-04:00

Just a quick post to let people know I am still alive. Once I manage to get through the couple thousand pictures I took last week I will post again with some pictures. Vacation was good although the time off was too short as usual.

It was great to see the friends and family I managed to see. I am super proud of my baby sister for graduating and getting into grad school which she starts in a couple weeks. Wish I got to spend more time with her then a few days here and there once or twice a year.

I was tired when I came home but had to reassemble my closet before I could crawl into bed. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to put the attic access in the top of the closet but it meant having my closet taken apart so that the mold remediation guy could crawl up there to make sure there was no spreading mold from an old roof leak. the good news ... No spreading mold, the bad news.. I still had to take a apart my closet and put it back together and we not have a hole in the ceiling where they cut the bad drywall out. Getting that repaired is next on the to do list.

The house hunt continues.. no luck yet finding a new place to live that meets our needs. It might take a while. We might have to go with new construction so we can customize something and that means most likely moving out of the ward boundaries, and the stake for that matter. Boo Hiss.

Moving.........at warp speed

2009-07-26T12:10:00.002-04:00

As I sit down to write this post I can't believe how much has happened and changed in the last week. It has really moved by pretty fast.

I am going to be moving. I really didn't think I would move out of this house anytime soon. I love it here and it is a great house. So how in a week did I go from not even having moving on my radar to house hunting and having to get 2 households ready to be put on the market and moved? My grandmother is coming to live with us.....

Last weekend the discussion came up over dinner between my mother and grandmother about what my grandmother wanted to do when she felt she could no longer live alone and she replied. "I am coming to live with you." So that started the whole ball rolling. we looked into adding onto our house which was our first choice but that was quickly squashed when we found out we can only cover 20% of our lot and we are already at that percentage, so then we moved on to the next option which was selling both our houses and finding something new to move into.

So now I am interviewing Realtors, and starting to box things up in our house to declutter it so we can get it read to put on the market. The trash collectors are going to hate us on a weekly basis, but goodwill is going to love us. In other words lots of stuff that needs to go and we will donate whatever we can. I will be getting a storage unit this week to start putting stuff in as we declutter. My mom has started the painful process of going through all her books but has done a great job so far. My first big thing to tackle is my craft room and all my scrapbooking stuff. I already have a big pile of stuff to get rid of but have lots more to go through. Then I get to move onto the prep work, you know the deep cleaning, patching and painting.

So I will have plenty to keep my busy in the next few weeks/months.... Then I will be looking for a nice padded room to check myself into.

I am still here

2009-07-12T21:08:00.002-04:00

I know I have been neglecting my poor blog. Part of it is due to a busy schedule, part is cause there is not much going on, and I admit facebook has been sucking time lately.

Today was a good day. Church was good and then I joined the youth fo their Sunday Evening discussion, which was really a mid afternoon discussion. It was a special one for the graduating seniors and I made a little slide show for it so it was fun to go and be there when they watched it. It seemed to go pretty well. I love those kids, can't believe 6 of them are graduating this year. Going to miss them next year.

Another year older

2009-06-14T18:54:00.009-04:00

Yep another birthday has come and gone....

This was a pretty low key birthday, which was fitting since graduation was just a month ago and that was not low key in any way!!

On Thursday I went with Kristin Hood to see No Doubt. Kylie was supposed to go with her but she decided to be a weenie and not go, so Kristin asked me if I wanted to go. SCORE!! Here we are waiting for the show to start.

It was a little boring waiting, so I took a picture of my shoes, isn't that what you are supposed to do while waiting for a concert? We also did a lot of people watching. Concerts are the best place to people watch.

The concert was great, I want Abs like Gwen, serious envy for those abs.

The only bad part was the tree trunk of a man I got stuck standing right behind. he was a 6'6" was that just stood there recording the whole concert on his phone, it was kinda creepy, and the guy next to him just stood there, never clapping, cheering or even slightly swaying to the music.

There was 2 opening acts, the Sounds and Paramore. Paramore was fantastic, the sounds had a couple of good songs but the lead singers profuse use of the *F* word was a turn off and her grinding up against her band mates just seemed out of place at this concert.

All in all great concert. So glad Kristin thought to ask me if I wanted to go with her.

Oh here we are in the green lights, guess a good concert changes your skin color after a while.

Friday came and I was beat but I got a little pick me up when this arrived for me at work from my friend Missy.

Saturday I didn't do much, I did go get my new driver's license picture taken, I know I live the glamorous life don't I? After that I came home amd loaded up my car with a full load for the good will, you would never know I got rid of anything looking around but it was a good start to cleaning things out. After that I let mom talk me into going to the mall, and then we went out to dinner at the Diner.

Today, my actual birthday, I went to church, came home and took a nap, I l;ove my Sunday naps, and then headed over to my grand mother's house. Then it was off to dinner with her and my mom. I have eaten too much this weekend and I am feeling it!!

As for presents I got this adorable purse from my mom and Grover and the rest was cold hard cash, since I am saving for a couple things and I got so many goodies for graduation I really didn't know what I wanted.

Thought provoking testimony

2009-06-08T15:05:00.001-04:00

So in Church this past Sunday there was a great Testimony given by my friend Elizabeth. She recently had to deal with a nasty infection in her mouth that she like many of us would do let it go for too long because it was not hurting and when she finally could not wait any longer for the surgery the lovely drugs that are used to keep you from screaming out in pain and scaring the other patients was not able to work through the infected tissue.. She did survive despite having to endure the pain she was in due to neglecting to completely take care of the infection instead of doing minor tweaks with antibiotics as soon as it was discovered.

However, she learned a big lesson from this experience and compared it to another area of her life. Now although her story of putting things off, especially when pain is involved, really rang true with me this next part did even more so. I am taking some paraphrasing liberties here and maybe not the exact point she made but it was what she shared that made me think about this. SO Elizabeth if you are reading this and I twisted your beautiful testimony forgive me please... She talked about how we let the world in or more worldy things into our lives and it slowly eats away at us, and if we do no do regular spiritual check ups and put off cleaning up areas of our life it can get to the point where it is no longer a little thing to deal with and now it is a much more complicated and sometimes painful thing to deal with. So you have to move on from spiritual antibiotics to a spiritual surgery or two...

I know this will take on a different meaning for many different people. For me this is what I personally took away from it. I have known for a little while now that life has gotten to overwhelming, and I also know it is because things of the world have become too large and imposing on certain aspects of my life. Now that I am finally done with school I am seeing it even more so. While in school I had tunnel vision to get done with classes and other things were sliding but I really didn't realize how much till I was starting to try to get some order back in my life. So I have the goal to get things back in control but I also know it is not something that can be done over night or with just one or two changes, it is going to take several areas of change.

First up for me is getting rid of some of the physical things cluttering up my life. So far I have 5 bags of clothing/shoes/purses, 4 boxes of misc knick knacks and a couple pieces of furniture for the good will, and lots more to be added to that I am sure. I have not even thought about going through everything in the basement yet, or my scrap booking supplies. While I work on that I am also going to work on getting some sort of a routine back, to help manage my time better, since i have so little free time still.

Lots more to do and lots to think about, but I am glad I am thinking about it and working on it all.

What I have been up to since graduation..

2009-05-30T18:56:00.003-04:00

Taking pictures and LOTS of them..

First there was pictures of the Perry Family

Second a 6AM trip to Philly with the just Matt and Chelsea

Third was some quick family and kid pics for the Braodbents

Fourth I got to sneak in some pics of Zach and Kate

Fifth was the sweet Cole Arthur.

Sixth was pics of the equally sweet Hall baby.

Seventh was some quick senior pics or Breckyn (Which I will finally have blogged tomorrow)

Since then I have been trying to take some more pics of the M&M's I got for graduation for a wall picture but have given up and decided to just eat them!!

Aside from all that just lots of working, and editing all those pictures and thinking I really need to redo my blogs, but have not gotten to far on that...

Oh this is soo true and sad!!

2009-05-29T12:20:00.002-04:00

There is not much that has to be said about this. Just watch!!

Graduation day

2009-05-19T18:49:00.003-04:00

Phew, graduation weekend was a whirlwind but now it is time to get the blog up. Since my cousin Ryan refuses to get facebook I have to post this blog so he can see the pictures and stop bugging me about when I am goign to blog them.

It was great to have a few out of town guests, my Dad and Bobbi made it for the weekend from Maine. Plus my cousin Ryan and his girlfriend Michelle also made it from Boston. Jamie, Aunt Lois and Ellie didn't make it, which was a bummer but hopefully they will come visit later this summer.

My Dad and Bobbi arrived Friday night and we went out to dinner at the cheese cake factory. It was just them, my mom and I which was nice.

Saturday morning was when my graduation took place and I was just glad the rain had held off. It was really warm and humid but no rain which was good. Things started right on time. Since they give the evening students their diplomas first we had to sit through the rest. I admit I was really pretty zoned out most of the time during the speakers, as were most other people. I even started snappign pictures with my little point and shoot to pass the time.

The funniest thing was when the fire alarm at the fire station literally right next to us went off. They usually ring the siren 2 maybe 3 times but today they rang it 9 times. Then the 1 fire truck that drove by had sirens blaring even though the road was closed for graduation and no one was on it. Yea you might say they are not big fans of the dean or the college in general. I just thought it was funny , but it was loud and hard on the ears.

I was spoiled big time this weekend.

My Aunt Lois got me the Blythe doll I wanted. She swore my mom was pulling one over on her when she told my aunt this is what I wanted. Here is a quick snap shot of Penelope Paprika… more photos to follow.

My Aunt also got me personalized M&M’s I am not sure if I should be flattered or disturbed that my face is on these. While Penny helped her regaina favorite Aunt status after bailing on graduation, these disturbing portraits almost made her lose it again. But hey chocolate is choclate and they still taste great.

My dad is extremely proud of the fact I graduated with a 4.0 Check out the hat he got when we were walking around the mall. He finally got a hat I would not be embarrassed to see him wearing, of course he gave it to me so he will still be wearing the dreaded cheerios hat. I am thinking I should wear it to my sister’s college graduation this summer. You know to just remind her that even though she is the tall, thin, pretty sister, I am the smart one. :-)

Aside from the hat he and Bobbi got me this very pretty bracelet and matching earrings. I love it…

My cousin Ryan and the other 4.0 Michelle gave me cash, yep that went right into my fund which will be used for either a laptop or the “zebra” lens I really want. I was so happy they were able to make it down. I can’t wait till the next time they visit so we can see some of the sites in the area. I got really lucky Michelle came because she was able to take some pictures for me of graduation. They will be at the end of this post. Thanks again Michelle for doing that for me. I love them.

From Jamie, Jeff and little Ellie I got this very cool clock. It was once a camera that was turned into a clock. It is right up my alley that is for sure. I still have to decide where I will keep it. It still didn't bump her or Jeff up to number one again but you know it kept them from slipping any further.

My grandmother got me a right angle view finder. She had no idea what it was used for but knew I wanted it thanks to my mom getting something from my wish list for her to give me.

Speaking of my wish list from B&H my mom went crazy shopping from it. I was expecting my ipod that I picked out 2 months ago and the speakers I got for it. Which I did get but she also got me a lens I wanted, and a bunch of other accessories I had on my wish list. I was seriously stunned, and very thankful. She also treated everyone to dinner at the William Penn Inn.

Dinner was great. My friend Missy joined us which was great. I was really happy to have her there. She gave me this very cool snow globe, with a very nice engraving. She didn’t even realize it plays pomp and circumstance. Good thing she didn’t realize that because Bobbi would have started crying at the dinner table had she known.

Here are some of the Pictures that were taken at graduation. Thanks Again Michelle K.

A big suprise as a thank you for a friend.

2009-05-13T17:48:00.003-04:00

I have been wanting to write this post for almost 2 weeks now but I needed to wait until today because I didn't want to spoil the big surprise.

You might remember a post I made a couple weeks back about wanting a Blythe doll. Well I also have a friend that really wanted one also. Her name is Heather and I have never actually met her in person but met her through an online photography forum, and until today wen I called her to tell her to go get a package off her front porch I had never even spoken to her. She is one of those people that is always willing to help out and share with others. She makes little items like hats, just to turn around and give them away, she is always giving stuff away to people on a regular basis. She is very talented in the craft department. Looking for a fun or unusual gift, then her wee me doll s might be the perfect thing. She started a penpal list for the photo board and we worked on matching people up for that. She is one of those truly genuine, caring giving people.

When she mentioned she really wanted a Blythe doll but that she would not even consider asking for one because of the price and is not the type to spend that kind of money on herself I came up with an idea. I knew I have wanted to do something to thank her for all she does and knew I was not the only one. I mean it is beyond apparent how many appreciate her. So since Heather is not on facebook, at least not yet, I put a message out to all the other people that are part of the same photography forum to see if anyone would be interested in chipping in some money to get her a Blythe doll as a thank you and to let her know she is appreciated. The response was amazing. I know if I could have reached those not on facebook it would have been more so but there just wasn't an easy way to do it. Roughly 30 people donated to the cause allowing me to get more than just the doll from the group. I got to pick out some cute outfits and a yellow bob wig for her.

Now I felt great about being able to get something for Heather that I know she would love and cherish, but more than that, the response I got from others being so happy to be part of this was amazing. With money being so tight for so many it was great to have something they could donate to as a big thank you. The notes they sent along for the card I made were really sweet. The love and appreciation for Heather was evident. I felt really good about being able to do something for someone that does so much for others, but even more than that it felt great to be able to facilitate something that allowed so many others to do the same. I hope they all know how happy I was to organize and do this for Heather from us all.

Here is a quick picture I took of the doll and some of the stuff we sent her.

So today was crazy waiting and waiting and waiting for UPS to deliver it to her. My facebook status has tons of us posting about waiting for the package to be delivered. We started posting random threads on the 2 peas message board to pass the time and all share in our anxiousness.. You would have thought we were the ones getting a present. I was stalking the UPS site like crazy to see when the package was delivered.

For anyone who wants to see what how this all progressed here are the notes I posted on facebook

Checking for interest
Status
A quick update
A quick Picture
Sent
Soon to be delivered

And finally the thread where she gets it n the message board 2 peas in a bucket.

The mother ship has landed

And yes I could not stand the waiting anymore so I picked up the phone and called her once I tracked down her phone number. She probably thinks I am some sort of lunatic. I was like "Is this Heather? This is Chell from 2 peas you need to go to your porch and look for a package right now and then you need to get on 2 peas after you open it. Okay bye." Lunatic sure but hey it worked. LOL and we were all going crazy with anticipation...

This has been an amazing experience for me and I am so glad that so many were able to participate because it clearly meant a lot to them also. It has also reminded me how important being thankful is, and the importance of even just saying thank you. You don't always have to make grand gestures, just the simple acts can lift someone's spirits too and boy does it make you feel good to see someone else so happy. I honestly was so touched as I assembled the card for her, it really wasn't about money, it was about saying thank you to a dear dear friend, someone we love and appreciate, someone who makes our lives a little brighter by just being herself. You always hear about paying it forward, well this was about paying it back for a change in a small way!!

I am going to try to start posting at least once a week about things I am thankful for. I may not write down every little thing but enough to remind me that there are good and happy things in life to be thankful for.

Heather if you are reading this I want you to know how much I enjoyed putting this little surprise together for you and how happy I am that you are so happy with your new girl.

Let the great clean up begin

2009-05-12T17:42:00.000-04:00

So My friend Val has a very inspiring blog. It has things from thrifty craft projects, to fun recipes, gardening tips, healthy eating tips, cute pet pics, A great idea for thrifty cloth napkins and the latest thing that caught my eye is her cleaning challenge. She has already attacked her linen closet and bedroom closet with pictures included in other posts, so be sure to look for those. I confess I would be happy if my closet looked as good as her before pictures.

I have been trying to weed through things but without much luck and very little purpose behind said cleaning and purging. But last weekend I did pull out all my purses and bags and managed to get rid of about 1/3 of what I had. Ideally I should have probably gotten rid of 2/3, but it is still a tiny step in the right direction. I have other bags in the basement I need to go through too, but decided not to drag them up and will attack that when I get tot he basement cleaning. So each week I am going to tackle a new project or area of the house. I won’t be able to do everything I want since my mom lives with me and she is worse about holding onto things then I am. Although to her credit we did manage to get rid of 10 bags of clothes of hers not too long ago, it hardly made a dent in what she still has left but it was a great stride, and it took us hours to do. We also managed to throw away a trash bags worth of kitchen gadgets and such that were broken or just of no use any more.

So each week I will venture forth to clean out things, condense and organize. I might even take pictures from time to time of the before and after when I remember.

I think I need my cousin-in-law Jeff to come out and work his magic, that man can clean and purge like nothing else.

Just call me Leighton 4.0

2009-05-10T22:25:00.003-04:00

AHHHH Grades have posted and I some how managed to get to graduation with my 4.0 intact. I have never been a huge fan of school, well the homework aspect of it in particular. So next Saturday when I graduate it will be Summa Cum Laude with my 4.0. I am a bit in shock honestly. I am not sure it has sunk in I am actually done with classes.

My sister was kind enough to let me know I am sick fo getting a 4.0. but you know seeign as she is a crminal it is hard to take her seriously. (Long story on the criminal story, pretty funny actually.)

So next Saturday is graduation, so that means I got to spend a good portion of this weekend doing yard work and house work. a portion of that included 7 loads of laundry. Still LOTS to do before the family gets here next weekend. I think I need a house cleaner.. Still feeling Bummed that my aunt Lois and cousin Jamie with baby Ellie are not coming now but we skyped today and got to see sweet little Ellie. We will Skype next weekend for sure.

So this week will be pretty busy with getting ready for family next weekend. Then I am determined to do some major purging of stuff that I have been collecting. Time to get rid of stuff. I feel like I have a ton of tings to get caught back up on now that I am done with school.

Thanks to everyone that was so supportive and encouraging while I finished up my degree!!

Oh my Twitching Back

2009-05-07T14:32:00.002-04:00

I have been having muscle spasms on the left side of my back for a few days now. It is making me crazy. I suspect once I get through my last final exam tonight and my stress level reduces some they will subside but until them they are more than a bit annoying!!

Tonight is my last class and the final group project that stands between me and graduation. Have I mentioned how much I do NOT enjoy group projects. Did I also mention this project is also all that stands between me and a 4.0 GPA at graduation.

I have lots of blogging to catch up on once school is done and I get caught up on yard work and house work before the family comes next weekend for my graduation. However, since it has rained for like the last 9 days and my yard is swamp like I might not be worrying much about the yard work part. Plus since my cousin and aunt are not longer coming we skip the white glove test on the house cleaning, now it just has to be presentable, or at least I hope I can get away with presentable.

Busy Busy Busy

2009-04-26T09:48:00.002-04:00

Yep the title pretty much sums up the next few weeks and probably months for me.

School is winding down and I will graduate on May 16th from the evening program at Ursinus. However, before that happens I need to finish up my two classes which mean lots of homework, and preparing for finals.

I also have a few photo sessions coming up. Next weekend I get to attend the First communion of a coworkers daughter and take pictures of her afterwards. I got to go for her big sister last year so I am excited to get to do her pictures this year. These girls are just adorable.

Then the following weekend I have a couple of appointments in the morning and actually have a free afternoon which I am sure my mom will snatch up if something doesn't get booked. She has lots of yard work she wants me to do....

The following weekend is Graduation and i am so excited for it. My cousins are coming in for it, as is my aunt. My Dad and step mom are making the drive from Maine for it also. My friend Missy also wanted to be part of the festivities so she will be spending a good portion of Saturday with us. (She has no idea what she is getting herself into.) I guess everyone just wants to witness the miracle of me finishing school, finally.

That brings me to Memorial Day weekend and I get to take couple pictures of the Perry's down in Philly on that Saturday before they move on out to Kansas. We are also going to do family pictures of them. Man am I going to miss them.

Plus I will have other sessions I am doing during the week after work. I know of at least one little boy that will be born in May that I will be taking pictures of.

Before I know it June is here and I have a family session the first weekend in June and a wedding to shoot in Florida the last weekend in June, and I will turn 36 some where in the middle there...

Busy is good though, it keeps me out of trouble, well maybe only a little.

Spring Photo Sessions

2009-04-18T21:27:00.009-04:00

So I got the chance to do two photo sessions this weekend and I have to admit it made me a little sad.

First I got to Take Emily over to Valley Forge to do some maternity pictures. Isn't she beautiful? You can see more pictures here.

Then I got to take Chelsea and her girls over to Ursinus campus to get some spring pictures of the girls. You can see more of those here.

So why did this make me sad? Some might think it is because I am still single and as much as i want to be a mom I have no kids but actually that isn't it at all. It is because both of these families will be moving in the next bit as their husbands graduate from Dental school. This time of year is always tough as the friends you make over a 4 year period graduate and move on. But I wish them all the best!!

Is 35 to old to Play with Dolls???

2009-04-14T22:39:00.007-04:00

Okay I confess I am slightly obsessed with Blythe Dolls. I really want to get one of these dolls, she would be a blast to photograph. Now for any of you old enough to remember the original she was a short lived doll back in 1972 (Her color changing eyes kind of freaked kids out) but she has a new following and has started to be made again in 2001. You read about her history here.

I think she would practically be the perfect subject since I won't have to chase her to get pictures of her. You can buy all sorts of Wigs, hats, clothes,Stockings/Tights and other accessories for her. Of course the dolls themselves are hard to come by especially in the states even with Hasbro owning the rights to her.

Maybe one day I will have one or maybe even 2 of these stylin' dolls in my possession.

You can see more pictures of these unique dolls here.

Spring colds and Easter Don't mix

2009-04-12T21:54:00.002-04:00

I managed not to get a cold all winter long. (I had other sickies but no colds). Well the Easter Bunny decided to bring one to me this weekend and man do I feel icky. Hopefully it will run its course quickly.

But to cheer me up I pulled up some pictures of the little Ellie Bunny that I took a couple weeks ago. Can't wait till she comes to visit in May!!

Why I don’t like to travel with my mom.

2009-03-30T19:28:00.002-04:00

I love my mom but she has the worst luck when it comes to travelling!!

We just finally made it back from Indiana and let’s just say the trip home was quite eventful. The trip out was pretty smooth. Flight left on time, got the rental car with no problem, TomTom took us slightly out of the way on the way to the Hotel but we made it fine and then we got to the Rice’s home and got to see sweet baby Ellie. Fast forward to Sunday.. We get to the airport and turn in our rental car just fine. Then we get through ticketing and security without any issues, the lines were pretty long but moved fast. So by now you are wondering why I would hate to travel with everything going pretty smooth, but here is where things changed.

The plane we were supposed to fly out on was late, then it finally arrives and there is no one at the gate to meet it so its sits there for 15 minutes waiting for the ramp to be moved over. Then the woman finally shows up and it takes her another 10 minutes to move the ramp over, they unload and are ready for us to load and of course the lady at the counter is not ready. Once she is finally ready she announces we have a wheels up time 15 minutes from that point and we need to hurry and load the plane, so we rush, get on the plane taxi away from the terminal and then park… 10 minutes of sitting and they finally announce we have been grounded by6 air traffic control because we missed out wheel’s up time by 5 minutes, they would have an update for us in an hour. Yep we get to sit in the sardine can of a plane on the runway for an hour. An hour and 20 minutes later they come on and tell us our flight has been cancelled. UGH!!!

So we had to unload, walk down to ticketing and rebook our flight. That process wasn’t too bad. However we were right behind the most obnoxious passenger on the plane who was talking so loud to whoever was on the other end of his blue tooth the whole plane could hear and was swearing and cursing up a storm. Just flat out obnoxious. The poor guy sitting next to him was like please let me know what flight you are on for the way back cause I want 6o make sure I am not on the same plan with you. I felt the same way. Then when we were in line rebooking the flight there was a woman carrying on about the time of the flight they got her on. It was ridiculous the way she was carrying on and acting like someone just told her she had 2 weeks to live. Most everyone else handled it pretty well.

My cousin’s dear Hubby, Jeff, said he would come to the airport and get us and we could stay with them. We felt so bad having them do that since he had to go back to work today and has been tired with all the commotion of having a newborn in the house. We really appreciated it. I love my family!!

So fast forward to our flight today. Plane is there, good sign, boarding time comes and they can’t board us because the flight attendant is a no show, bed sign… we wait 20 minutes then they find a substitute to at least get the flight loaded. So we all get loaded, the flight attendant finally shows up and we start to pull back from the gate, and then all of a sudden we start pulling back towards the terminal, and I can see out the window that the walkway is being moved back to the plane. Not a good sign.. Well long story short they had to remove a passenger that was getting a bit out of control from an apparent anxiety attack. Then we finally start to pull away from the gate and then we start driving around the airport for 10 minutes then stop and park AGAIN!! So we sit there for 15 minutes before the pilot finally comes on and tells us we should have a wheels up time in about 20 minutes, and luckily we took off about 15 minutes later because I don’t think I could have handled having another flight cancelled.

But in the end what made it all more than worth it??? This little face.

She was such a sweetheart and I have lots more pictures coming to share.. I mean I took over 700 so I am sure there will be at least a few I feel I need to post!!

Welcome little Ellie Elizabeth Rice

2009-03-23T14:03:00.004-04:00

Well my cousin had her first child today. A little girl. She had to have a C section since the little peanut was breech, and did not have any desire to turn. Both mom and baby are doing well and I can't wait till Friday when I get to go visit and spend a couple days taking LOTS of pictures. My Aunt is over the moon happy at being a grandma and my grandmother has finally accepted that she is old now that she is a great grandmother.

Here is a sneak peak at the little cutie till I can get out there and take some pictures of my own.

A Baby shower for Emily

2009-03-19T21:54:00.003-04:00

A baby is a special gift but it is even wore special to those who have been waiting and hoping for one for years. That is why When I heard E & D were expecting their first child I just had to offer to help with the baby shower. Now Chelsea really did all the work, coming up with a great theme, food and so on. I just provided the venue. It was a lot of fun... Chels did a Wonderful job!!

Now I know how Garfield felt

2009-03-19T10:18:00.004-04:00

My favorite cartoon character has summed up how I am feeling today perfectly.

Guess sometimes hardwork doesn't pay off. Lets hope next week is better or I will be right back to doing this.

Not much to report - still here

2009-03-17T12:32:00.002-04:00

I realize it has been over 2 weeks since my last update so I figured I better post something so people do not think I fell off the face of the planet. Things have just been busy with work and school. The good news is I will be done school in about 8 weeks and I am looking forward to that. I took a very quick trip out to Indiana in February for a couple days to visit with my cousin and take some maternity pictures for her. You can see a few here. I will head back out in about 12 days to meet her little girl who will be arriving on the 23rd, and of course lots of pictures will be taken.

I got to help my sweet friend Chelsea host a baby shower for Emily. I could not be more excited for her to be expecting, and I look forward to getting to take her maternity pictures as she gets closer to her due date!! Of course I took pictures at the shower but have not had a chance to get them from my camera to my computer yet. That is on the top of my to do list, right after I finish my take home quiz for class.

Other than that I am enjoying the more days of sunshine we have had lately and the slightly warmer weather. I am ready for spring to officially arrive, and the flowers that come with it so I can take pictures of the flowers..

Yes I confess I am trying to to take better care of myself and lose weight

2009-02-28T14:00:00.000-05:00

Confession time..

So I really had not bothered to mention too many people that I am trying to lose weight this year. Why? Well my past attempts have failed miserably for one reason or another. Plus this time it isn’t so much about getting thinner as it is about getting healthier, with the side benefit of losing weight. However now that my secret is out here is my update..

I started the year weighing 220 (which is my heaviest weight), I ate fast food 3-4 times a week, drank 2+ diet sodas a day, my only source of working out was walking to and from my car every day and lifting my camera gear, ate way too many sweets and processed sugars, ate too many fried greasy foods, and avoided anything that resembled a vegetable whenever possible (Unless you count French fries as a veggie..…)

I am happy to report that here I am at the end of month 2 and I have not had any fast food in 2009, I drink 1-2 diet sodas a week (And I am drinking a ton of water and using those crystal light packets in its place), I think I have eaten more fruits and veggies in the last 2 months then I did in all of 2008, I don’t think I have had any candy this year, but I might have and don’t remember since I am not really tracking that, I have eaten way less sweets in general (I even bought 4 boxes of girl scout cookies and didn’t eat 1 cookie, I just gave them to others to eat), Avoiding the fried and greasy foods as much as possible, I exercise for at least 30 minutes 4 times a week usually a little longer, and I have lost 18.5 pounds and 12 inches. I have beat my goals for January and February. Plus I am able to wear pants I could not even button at the start of the year.

It took about 6 weeks to kick the majority of my cravings and about 5 weeks before I didn’t feel hungry all the time. Yes I was eating enough my body was just used to me over eating. I guess it took about 4 weeks till I was able to exercise without feeling like I would die after 10 minutes, now I feel that way after about 30 minutes.

So what’s next? Well now that I will soon have class twice a week and I will be graduating in May so my biggest goal till mid May is to keep doing what I am doing. I would really like to lose another 13 pounds by May 16th, but more important is to keep staying away from the fast food,(my goal is no fast food before I graduate in May) watch my portions, limit the diet soda intake, keep eating the fruits and veggies (heck I might actually start enjoying the veggies at some point, then again maybe not) and exercising at least 4 days a week. I am dealign with some signifigant back pain right now so I have had to slow down and limit the exercise.

My weekly accountability check is an email to my sister with my progress, and another friend that is also trying to lose weight and needs the accountability check also and of course my mom is always asking(She has a vested interest since she promised a new wardrobe if I reach a certain goal). I can’t bring myself to blog about it on a regular basis because my life is already pretty boring to read about but I might do a check in every other month or so if I don’t think people are too bored by it..

Who knows when it gets a bit warmer I might even drag my road bike up from the basement and actually ride it? I have had it for 3 years and have never actually ridden it, sad I know. (I blame Cat Hunt) I might not win any biggest loser contests but hopefully I am on my way to feeling better in general.

Yes I still have a job

2009-02-18T12:36:00.002-05:00

I have had a few people ask if I was still employed after reading things like the following article about layoffs where I work.

Employee Layoffs

I was not one of the many that were let go on Tuesday, and for now I am still employed and happy about that fact. It has been a rough couple of weeks knowing that the layoffs would be coming and not sure exactly when. It caused me a whole new kind of anxiety, as if I needed anymore. Now that it is over there is still a lot to deal with as we figure out who is gone and how it impacts those of us that remain.

And for those wondering what is up with school for me, well I have 2 classes left to complete and I gradute this coming May. One class I am in now and the other will start up in a few weeks. Yes I am happy that I am almost done.

You know all those tags you get...

2009-02-10T13:51:00.003-05:00

Well here is my effort to get a few out of the way all at once. For those that are also part of the facebook crowd you have probably seen these..

New names

1.YOUR REAL NAME
Michelle Marie Leighton

2.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother and fathers middle names)
Elizabeth John

3.NASCAR NAME:(first name of your mother's dad, father's dad)
Francis William. Or Bud Bill since they both went by nick names

4.STAR WARS NAME:(the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name)
LeiMi Yea that’s just wrong It should be my stripper or porn name

5.DETECTIVE NAME:(favorite color, favorite animal)
Red Tiger

6.SOAP OPERA NAME:(middle name, town where you were born)
Marie Wolfeboro

7.SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd fav color, fav drink, add "THE" to the beginning)
The Black Dr.

8.FLY NAME:(first 2 letters of 1st name, last 2 letters of your last name)
Mion

9.ROCK STAR NAME:(current pets name, current street name)
Grover Firethorn

10. PORN NAME: (1st pet, street you grew up on)
Holly Clonmel

11.YOUR GANGSTA NAME:(first 3 letters of real name plus izzle)
Mic-izzle

12.YOUR IRAQI.. NAME:(2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your last name, first two letters of your middle name, last two letters of your first name then last three letters of your last name)
Iimaleton

13.YOUR GOTH NAME:(black, and the name of one of your pets)
Black Joey

14. STRIPPER NAME: (name of your fav perfume/cologne, fav candy)
Don’t really wear perfume - just use my star wars name

25 Things times 2

1. I hate having to come up with random things about myself on the spot.
2. I HATE grocery shopping. I get panic attacks just thinking about it. Guess that is why I prefer to eat out..
3. I’m a Canon girl, and prefer canon brand lenses for my camera over 3rd party brands.
4. When I was a little kid I wanted to grow up to be a race car driver in the worst way.
5. I tend to drive to fast most of the time, see number 4.
6. My dog is pure evil. Sweetest natured dog but 100% naughty.
7. I still miss my cat that died last year, and want to get another one at some point.
8. I finally caved and bought a Nintendo Wii
9. I tend to be pretty sarcastic.
10. You need a road map to follow my family tree, yet I am an only child my parents had together.
11. My favorite color is Red.
12. I collect too many things, and they are really random collections like shot glasses and I don’t drink.…
13. I enjoy driving, except when there is traffic, refer to number 4
14. I am a packrat.. see number 12
15. I only have 2 classes left till I graduate, the next 3 months will be the longest of my life!!
16. I am the only female on my team at work
17. My favorite seasons are spring or fall. I am not a fan of extreme heat or cold.
18. I ran away from home and dropped out of school my sophomore year of HS (I went back about 4 months later)
19. I enjoy reading but don’t have enough time for it lately
20. I used to walk and talk in my sleep, nightly.
21. I concentrate better when I doodle
22. I love tracking down so many old friends on facebook
23. Peanut butter is one of my favorite foods.
24. I am allergic to chocolate but I still eat it…
25. I love sci-fi movies, TV shows, and books…
26. I used to be obsessed with Wonder Woman.. Need proof check out this blog post http://chells-blog.blogspot.com/2009/01/wonder-woman.html
27. I can’t stand hearing people chew, it makes my skin crawl.
28. When I was a kid I got in trouble more than once with the local neighborhood kids for throwing ice balls, and eggs at cars
29. On one of my many trips across country the strangest road kill I saw was a cow on the side of the road, Dona do you remember that?
30. I had Kawasaki Syndrome as a kid ( no it is not an obsession with motorcycles)
35. I love the show myth Busters
36. I deal with bouts of insomnia several times a year.
37. I tried to learn to croquet, it didn’t go so well.
38. I am fat..
39. I am one of those people that did NOT love the twilight books
40. I once helped my roommate die his mohawk pink, well okay the die said electric purple but it looked pink.
41. I love to cook, but rarely do it since cooking for one means way too many left overs
42. I love left overs but not 3 days in a row.
43. I like to bake also but it doesn’t go well with trying to lose weight (see #39)
44. when I was little I thought Vanilla Ice cream was the nastiest tasting stuff n the planet, my parents had to break up adult sized asprin in it to try to keep a high fever in check.(see #30) So that is what I thought it tasted like. I also thought I was sick again anytime anyone offered it to me..
45.I am NOT athletic
46. I like peanut butter and pickle sandwiches
47. I fractured my foot on day 2 of a 4 day back packing trip. I also lost my big toe toenails on that same trip. Oddly I had a great time on that trip and would do it again in a heartbeat
48. I used to be so allergic to poison ivy I would get it just walking by it, man that was the pits.
49. When I was in middle school I was on a first name basis with the principal. Yea that is NOT a good thing.
50.I still like climbing trees

Scattegories...

tag 10 people. Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real . . . nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.

Have Fun!!

1. What is your name : Michelle
2. A four Letter Word : Mail
3. A boy's Name : Michael
4. A girl's Name : Missy
5. An occupation : Movie star
6. A color : Maroon
7. Something you wear : Mu-Mu
8. A food : Mashed Potatoes
9. Something found in the bathroom : Mascara or if you don’t clean Mold and Mildew
10. A place : Mall
11. A reason for being late: Moped wouldn’t start
12. Something you shout : MOVE IT
13. A movie title : Mask
14. Something you drink : milk
15. A musical group : Maroon 5

Wonder Woman!!!

2009-01-30T22:40:00.007-05:00

Since Chelsea asked to see the Wonder woman pics here you go. When I was little I was just slightly obsessed with Wonder Woman. I was convinced when I grew up I was going to be just like her, invisible jet and all. She was my idol, I mean she was patriotic in her red white and blue complete with stars, And since I was born on Flag day I liked that even more, She knew how to accessorize, Loved her Huge Bracelets, and they were bullet proof to boot, she was a princess and got to wear a tiara, I mean what’s not to love right? I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on that Lasso of Truth either..

I had Wonder Woman Underoos, a wonder Woman Bathing suit, and I dressed up like Wonder Woman for Halloween.

Here are a few pics of the Wonder Woman bathing suit for your viewing pleasure..

Look at that diving form

Look at me Fly

I Loved to play with my cousin Jamie in the pool, yep this is the same cousin that gave me the nick name Zobbie.

My Aunt Lois was like a second mom to me, I even stopped listening to her just like I did to my mom.

and she liked to try to steal from me.. (She used to bite me too but that is another story)

After a tough day of swimming this Wonder Woman didn't have and Invisible jet to fly away in, she preferred a motorcycle ride.

Looking back at some ward members

2009-01-19T19:07:00.008-05:00

I recently got some more negatives scanned by scan cafe and when I was looking through then a few shouted out to be shared!!

The Chavous Family, Can you believe Dominique will graduate HS this year...
The Bringhurtsts short a few kiddos..
Dave and Aubry with little Emma...

Margie and Abby...

That fun Fultz family

The Kneelands

That crazy Low family....

The Crazy Cox family, I still miss them..

The Hinchman's before their last daughter joined the family

The Pope's from the first time they were in our ward. Can you believe little Jaclyn is getting married this coming February???

I got a kick out of seeing these pictures again.. (although the ones of me when i was about 5 in my wonder woman bathing suit had a bit higher comedic factor... Maybe I should post a few of those.. thoughts?

Why do I bother??

2009-01-15T18:44:00.004-05:00

So I decided to give the online dating thing another try. I actually have profiles on a few sites but let my memberships lapse, it doesn't take long to remember why I let them lapse.

Now I will preface this with the reminder that I am 35, and I would say a young 35.(at least I don't act 35. LOL) Of the 10 or so people that have sent "flirts" or a message online 5 are over 60(seriously people 60???, guess they can't afford to retire so they are looking for a sugar momma) 3 were a little closer in age in the mid 50 range and the others were all Nigerian scammers (yes they flood online dating sites, even the LDS ones). Yes now I remember why I don't like the whole internet dating thing. I am sure there will be more interesting characters before long..

Oh and before anyone says I should make an effort to contact people I have sent at least 25 messages to guys on the site and guess how many have responded..... Zero. Yep and i even paid for this kind of rejection...

So if anyone is wondering if this will be the year my love life picks up I am going to go out on a limb and say probably not, but at least I can say i made the effort... Why do I bother?

The Holiday recap

2009-01-11T15:47:00.024-05:00

SO I have been neglecting my blog for a bit and decided to do a holiday update. Yep my sister finally made it to Maine then I headed up a couple days later for Christmas. Luckily she finally got her luggage the night before I got there because she would have begun to stinketh after having been with out fresh clothing for 4 days..

However before heading to Maine and the Day i got back from my unexpected trip to Boston I had Christmas with my mom, grandmother, and little Grover. I took then out to our traditional dunner at cheesecake factory and then it was time for presents..

As you can see Grover was most pleased with his presents.

MomMom was very excited about this 5 ft Santa she got for the holidays. personally he kind of creeps me out...

Then I was off to Maine...
Poor Dad fell asleep just like every man wishes he could with a remote control in hand, but alas we felt the need to take pictures and then take the remote away from him...

Christmas Eve meant lots of family and friends as did Christmas day.. We won't discuss how incredibly bizarre things are on this side of the family. We really do put the fun in dysfunctional... That happens when you have so many sets of exes..

Our special Christmas Eve presents, and yes all 3 girls were coloring that night while watching Christmas movies..

Here are our tiny stockings, no need for overflow bags this year.

Christmas morning fun..

The only picture proving I was there Christmas morning.. Attractive isn't it..

Can you believe there was only 5 of us opening presents..

After the Christmas hoopla was over we headed to DC for my brother's wedding, yep more driving in the car. This is how my sister and I passed the time, when we were not talking about boys, and she wasn't being texted. Yep pictures of each other and self portraits. And yes I hate my sister for how cute she is even when we had to get up at 3 AM to start this drive..

Oh and here is one of dad's car following me... He was driving like a little old lady so I finally passed him and let him follow me for a while..

The wedding was great and since there is already picture overload on this post.... you can see more pictures from it here. Josh's wedding

Then since I was not feeling well I decided to cut my vacation short and head home. nothing special done for New Year's and before I knew it 2008 was over and 2009 had arrived..

Operation: Get Susie Home for Christmas

2008-12-22T12:25:00.003-05:00

Time to start the Christmas 2008 Story

Please turn to Susie, Chapter 1:1-19
1. And it came to pass that on the 20th day of the 12th month in the year 2008, The young uber stylish girl Susie was on the arduous journey home to Portland Maine from the Great Salt Lake City. When she should have been filled with Joy, she found herself wrought with frustration and anger.
2. For it came to pass that her journey into the wilderness of Maine caused a lay over in the kennedy airport in NY where she now found herself stuck.
3. Susie lacking of sleep, was greatly distraught when her flight was cancelled by unholy delta airlines, sought counsel from her wise and loving family.
4. Susie went in unto the long lines of Delta, and she talked with many unhelpful people, and distraught found she was now stuck in this great and spacious, yet over crowded airport, And she began to be exceedingly sorrowful.
5. Susie found herself being humbled and with a lowly heart as she called the great Chell to asketh her to come save her from the Great and spacious, and highly over crowded place she now found herself trapped in.
6. Now I being born of the same Father as Susie, felt compelled to go forth and helpeth to rescue my baby sister from the great and spacious airport in which she was now trapped for what would be days on end.
7. Faithfully, but without proper preparation I jumped in the car to start my journey northward. I having faith that I, my cellphone, and my trusty GPS would be able to located the distraught Susie in the overcrowded area called Kennedy Airport in NY.
8. And it came to pass that, the Great Chell was able to locate the distraught Susie in said airport. And whilst Susie was freezing and lacking energy after many hours of being stuck in line due to before mentioned Unholy delta airlines, and with nothing more than the clothes on her back there was a little rejoicing as she climbed into the warm car. But it came to pass that sadly her luggage was trapped in the immovable belly of the beast known as an airplane. Being exceedingly tired, but full of faith Susie continued her journey northward by car.
9. And it came to pass that the traffic in NY was great and there was numerous others on the road. Making our journey progress slowly.
10. And it came to pass I and my sister were able to rejoice in each other’s company and share many stories about boys and life in general.
11. And it came to pass Susie found herself exceedingly sorrowful that she had no garment which to wear to church the following day. Susie knowing that only the store known as WalMart would be open to purchase such a garment, when she finally reached Maine became increasingly concerned for her own vanity. And she made an oath not to allow her pride get in the way of her finding something to clothe her body in so that she could attend church the next day.
12. After some time traveling, Susie having been traveling for many hours, and not wanting to spend $7 for a cracker found herself to be starving.
13. I not wanting my sister to suffer any longer than she had found the great golden arches where we stopped for a much needed potty break and more needed “nourishment”.
14. And it came to pass Susie, after filling her belly with greasy food from the great golden arches, was over come with sleepiness and drifted off to slumber, only to be interrupted by the texts from friends… and the GPS system we nicked named Mikey, who was very annoying at some parts of the trip…
15. As we drove further into the land known as Connecticut it became clear that the people of this once great land had either lost favor with mother nature or were being punished for some unspeakable act and had all their snow plows taken away. The roads were covered with that white stuff known as snow, and causing traffic to move increasingly slower. And it came to Pass Mikey continued to be frustratingly annoying.
16. Whilst there was No weeping, wailing or gnashing of teeth, there was some Slipping, white knuckling of the steering wheel and heavy use of windshield washer fluid.
17. We eventually passed through this forsaken land and still journeyed unto the car of our father which was waiting in the parking lot of a holiday in Express.
18. And it came to pass weary and slightly tired of driving our travels brought us to that Holiday Inn. There was rejoicing and hugs for the 33.3 seconds I saw my father and stepmother whilst we swapped the precious cargo known as my baby sister.
19. And it came to pass they tarried on northward to the home of our father in the place known as Augusta Maine, and I journeyed to my cousin’s apartment in the place known as Cambridge Mass, where I would welcome some much needed sleep.

Now let’s turn to the Book of Ryan Chapter 1: 1-8

1. And it came to pass that even though Susie had completed her journey to Maine I still needed to complete my journey home.
2. And it came to pass I was able to see the wise and wonderful nugget head living in Cambridge, also known as my cousin Ryan.
3. I arrived and we journeyed around the streets to find a parking space in the snow that had fallen and covered the ground. It was exceedingly difficult but we finally found one.
4. And insomuch as we searched the channels for something to watch we settled on a rerun of SNL.
5. And it came to pass I soon found myself very sleepy after much driving and drifted off to sleep in the warm and comfortable bed my cousin prepared for me.
6. I awoke in Cambridge to find they had more snow then when I had gone to slumber the night before.
7. And it came to pass I decided I had better get back on the road and journey home.
8. Wherefore Ryan and I tarried to find my car which was covered with snow, I returned his parking pass and started out on my journey home.

And now please turn to the book of Chell Chapter 1:1-8

1. And it came to pass as I journeyed out of Cambridge I came across the campus of Harvard, it was exceedingly white from the snow and exceedingly beautiful. I was sorrowful I did not have my camera with me.
2. It came to pass I made my way through the streets of Cambridge and made my way to the highway.
3. And it came to pass after many miles in Massachusetts I entered the forsaken land of Connecticut once again and conditions had worsened from the evening before and it SUCKED!!!!
4. Many cars in this land lost there way from the road and found themselves stranded and often upside down. The snow plows from this land were still missing and a blizzard had commenced.
5. And it came to pass I tarried long to return home, and it was no fun. Once leaving the forsaken land of Connecticut things were uneventfull.
6. With much rejoicing I made it home in time to celebrate an early Christmas with my family.
7. I was exceedingly joyfull to see Santa had shopped at B&H for me this year, and brought me a shiny new lens.
8. Wherefore it is with a conflicted heart I prepare for the dreadful return to those same roads again tomorrow…

Yep I have no patience.. But its live finally

2008-12-17T23:01:00.002-05:00

As noted in my post below the Hosting site I decided to go with never purchased my domain name so I just ate the $10 and purchased it myself. So that means my website is finally live!!!

Zobbie Photography SO feel free to check it out if you are bored... It is still very much a work in progress but I wanted to get it published!!

Frustration!!!!

2008-12-17T20:46:00.002-05:00

So I have been slowly building my website for the last few months and I was finally ready to launch it and it has been delay after delay. I went with BluDomain and they are well known for having all sorts of customer service issues so I should have expected this, but I am still frustrated. They have a great product but need a serious overhaul in the business end of things. So I am still waiting for them to get things made right, like purchasing the domain name I paid them to purchase 6 months ago, seriously refund my money and I will get it myself.....

Sometimes I forget I work with all guys

2008-12-11T15:12:00.004-05:00

With the economy the way it is and the Christmas spirit a little low I sent my supervisor the suggestion of having a Potluck for the team since our usual festivities would not be happening this year.

I got an email back stating that he did not know what a Potluck was. Now for me that seems completely odd since at Church even the guys know that potluck means Bring Jello, or Brownies.... :)

Just as well we didn't do one here now that I think about it we would have had a potluck that consisted of Chips and beer, light on the chips..

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T13:30:00.002-05:00

One of my favorite holidays is Thanksgiving. It is about food, friends and family. Who could ask for a better combination. There is a lot to be thankful for and way more than I have time to list here but here are a few things.
I think the thing I am most thankful for is my knowledge of the Gospel an the love of my savior.
I get to have dinner with my mom and grandmother, even if my grandmother is in a cranky mood at least she is still with us.
I am thankful my cousin is having a great pregnancy and that her little girl will be here in March.
Thankful for my great friends and family.
Thankful that I am almost done with school.
Thankful I am relatively healthy.
Thankful for a roof over my head.

And today I am thhankful we are goig out to dinner so I don't have to do any cooking or cleaning. It is nice to have a day to really rest..

Just had to share!!

2008-11-14T12:04:00.001-05:00

Came across this on a friends blog and thought it was too funny not to share. I found it got funnier as I kept watching it.

Keeping busy

2008-11-09T20:34:00.003-05:00

I have been keeping busy which is part of the reason for my lack of blog updates. I have had the chance to do a bunch of family portraits for friends if you have not had a chance to see them hop on over to My Photography blog.

School is almost done till January.. so that also means I will only have 2 classes left till I graduate. Hopefully I get to work on my website now.

Work is work, not much new or different there.

Get out there and vote today!!

2008-11-04T11:16:00.004-05:00

No matter who you are voting for exercise the right you have to do so.

The best part is the dozens of prerecorded calls a day will stop, and no more of those "I approve this message." Commercials!!

Biz gets Baptized

2008-10-27T18:03:00.000-04:00

So this past weekend my foster Sister’s “baby” got baptized. Can Biz really already be 8? Man time flies.

I can’t believe she is so grown up.

No denying whose kid she is, she look just like her Daddy.

She was fortunate to have both sets of grandparents there for her big day.

She was just beaming as we took a few family pictures beforehand.

She was very excited for her big day. She informed me she woke up at 6:13 AM when she came down to give me a hug that morning. (Perhaps that is why she needed a nap in the afternoon before we all went out to dinner.)

Sam and Hannah spent the day hanging out also. I got to take a few snapshots of their adorable children Erica and Aaron. Sadly it was raining like crazy that day so I didn’t get to do as many pictures as I would have liked. But there is no denying how cute these two are.

I did get to take a few pictures of David and Maddy and as I was going through them I could not believe how grown-up they look. Makes me a little sad but at the same time I am so proud of the young adults they are both becoming.

My visit was very short, I had to head home after dinner, and I ate way too much. Thanks again to my Mautz family for inviting me to be part of this special day.

Busy and loving it!!!

2008-10-20T18:58:00.001-04:00

I am the first to admit I was beyond excited when I realized I would have NO school work this past weekend since I finished up my classes and my next doesn’t start till the 28th. However, I was just as busy, if not busier. Here is the recap so far starting with Thursday night.

After work on Thursday I got to take pictures of the adorable little Miss K. I knew I had to get them edited that night so I didn’t fall too far behind.

Then late Thursday night I got a call from one of the fabulous youth in my ward who was looking for another adult driver for a trip to Dorney Park they were taking. Notice I didn’t say they were looking for a chaperone cause clearly despite the age on my driver’s license I do NOT act that age. So I quickly made a mental list of things I needed to rearrange so I could do it and told him sure I would be happy to help out. Plus I love me some roller coasters. (stayed tuned for a blog just about that trip)

Then Saturday Morning I got to sleep in since my early morning session had to cancel.

After that I had a session with my friend Missy who I convinced to let me take her pictures. She is a good sport about things.

There was also a mini pet session. Even with one eye this guy is a cutie.

I then got to meet up with one of the women from a photography message board I am a part of and do maternity pictures of, Hello beautiful!!

Then Sunday I had two Family sessions. First up was the Perry's who could not have looked cuter. And we won't talk about the small incident with the car, keys and kids all in one location and the locked doors. (My Bad)

Then that afternoon I got to click some pics of the Marostica family!!

Make sure you swing by my Photography Blog over the next couple of days to see more pictures from the sessions I did and will be doing this weekend.

3 is my new favorite number

2008-10-16T15:37:00.003-04:00

Why is 3 my new favorite? Because that is how many courses I have left to take till graduation. I finished up another 2 this week which leaves me with 3 more. Graduation is May 16th, 2009.

Just my luck

2008-10-15T13:07:00.001-04:00

I got this in the mail today.

Due to recent budget cuts, and the rising cost of electricity, gas and oil, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off.
We apologize for any inconvenience.

That figures doesn't it. :)

The dreaded self portrait

2008-10-12T15:51:00.005-04:00

So it is no great secret that I hate to have my picture taken… Probably why I enjoy photography so much, I get to be behind the camera instead of in front of it. However, every now and then I feel like I need to update my picture on my blogs or online profiles so I drag out the camera and start clicking away doing my own self portrait. Now for anyone that has tried to do this you know things like making sure you are in focus, lighting, and trying not to chop off the top of your head or chin are not always easy. (and when you have several chins like me that is a lot of chins to make sure get captured. Then there is the making sure you are in the frame at all that takes a little work too. I am not sure I got what anyone would call a great self portrait but at least I had a little fun…

Anyone have a favorite? I think the first one captures me best...

It has been a good day

2008-10-12T14:13:00.002-04:00

As I sit there today breaking my fast with a delicious gourmet meal of Fritos, Blueberry light and fit yogurt, and coke zero, I reflected a little on my day. Today has been a good day. The weather is gorgeous with the colors of Fall starting to really show. Great for picture taking. Church was great and I really felt the spirit strongly and I even drug myself self up to bear my testimony which is never an easy thing for me. I was glad I did it though.

That is all for now...

I was tagged again

2008-10-11T06:44:00.000-04:00

This tag from my friend Breezi
it is called the Brillante Weblog-Primio 2008 Award. Beats the heck outta me too.

The rules: Answer the following questions with one word answers and pass it on to seven others.

Here are the questions:
1. Where is your cell phone? shelf
2. Where is your significant other? Who?
3. Your hair color? Multi
4. Your mother? sleeping
5. Your father? Maine
6. Your favorite thing? Naps
7. Your dream last night? Nightmares
8. Your dream/goal? graduate
9. The room you're in? craftroom
10. Your hobby? Photography
11. Your fear? blindness
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? family
13. Where were you last night? home
14. What you're not? fabulous
15. One of your wish-list items? Canon 5DmarkII
16. Where you grew up? PA
17. The last thing you did? TV
18. What are you wearing? Sweats
19. Your TV? on
20. Your pet? evil
21. Your computer? annoying
22. Your mood? blah
23. Missing someone? always
24. Your car? paid
25. Something you're not wearing? shoes
26. Favorite store? Target
27. Your summer? short
28. Love someone? nah
29. Your favorite color? Red
30. When is the last time you laughed? yesterday
31. Last time you cried? Last night,( I am such a loser)

I pass the award to: Anyone that feels like doing a tag blog

Baby showers, conferences and other things I have missed

2008-10-10T14:00:00.004-04:00

So Thursday night there was a baby shower for Aubrey from church. Sadly I had to miss it because the night got switched from Friday to Thursday. But I did still want to drop off my gift. I made a Diaper cake for her, it was not my best work but still liked the way it turned out.

Saturday there is a Time out for Women Event here in Philly. I was all set to go, and was thankful when Cindy ordered my ticket through her group buy. However today I decided I am going to skip it. I admit that the thought of driving down by myself and sitting by myself for the day really didn’t appeal, no matter how wonderful the conference would be. It is an anxiety attack just waiting to happen. It seems that everyone already had their carpool groups, or train ride group and admittedly I am not a part of any of these groups so it would have been a fabulous day of me myself and I, and really they are not all that great of company. So I just opted not to go, and instead might spend a little quality time with my camera tomorrow since the weather is supposed to be nice and I really have not been able to get out and take many pictures lately. Of course it is more likely I will spend most of the day working on homework since next week is my last week of the semester. Which means only 3 courses left…..

Pretty much I have been disconnected from everything other than work and school. I am thankful to be employed though and to be finally able to finish my education. (Weel at least part of my education, the jury is still out on going for a master's degree or not) So I have more than enough to keep me busy. Just wish I didn’t feel like such an outsider at church…

Philly Temple Location announced

2008-10-08T07:55:00.003-04:00

Well it looks like the Philadelphia temple will be built in downtown Philadelphia, at North Broad Street between Hamilton Street and Noble Street. They have also announced the sites for the other four Temples that were announced over the weekend. Exciting times...

Almost done another 2 classes

2008-10-06T19:07:00.002-04:00

With 2 classes left for each of my classes I admit I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the work I have left to do. This has been one of those tough semesters, partly because there is a group project for both classes and partly because there has been a lot going on at work.

Luckily this past weekend was a refresher with a great general conference. Now I just need to get through the next 10 days...

A Glourious Announcement

2008-10-04T12:47:00.006-04:00

Philadelphia is getting a TEMPLE!!!!!!! The exact location and specific details have not been announced but it is still very exciting to know that in the future we will have a Temple close so that we can enjoy those blessings without the 3 hour drive to DC. I can't wait till they announce the design of the new Temple and the exact location. Hopefully we will learn more sooner rather than later.

A new look

2008-09-28T20:05:00.002-04:00

My blog was needing a face lift in the worst way so here it is. The new and improved blog look. Some will also notice I changed the name. Partly to tie in to my photography website and partly because I felt it was time to retire Newtie...

Well my weekend has been a lot of homework with a little regular work peppered in so now it is time to kick back and relax for the last few hours of my weekend.

Mr. Piquant Blaze Rufescent Toots aka Bobbie

2008-09-20T18:49:00.006-04:00

The first Adventure for Bobbie

Not to be confused with Bobbi

Bobbie missed his other little chili pepper friends when he first parted ways with him but quucikly settled into his new surroundings.

Here is Bobbie hitting on Strawberry shortcake. She was very nice when she turned him down explainging she liked her guys sweet and syrupy vs Hot and Zesty like him.

He then hung out with his 2nd cousin once removed on his mom's side, Pepcid, and the local gang of Pez dispensers, don't wory they are friendly, I mean they dispence candy afterall.

Bobbie then decided he needed to unwind and relax, so like any man he hopped up in the chair grabbed the remote watched Myth Busters..

Fisrt annual Chili cook-off

2008-09-20T10:05:00.001-04:00

So last night we had our first annual Chili cook-off and dance for our ward. The main goal was to have an adult social for people to be able to mingle. The Bishop even made it to the event despite his allergic reaction to ward Parties.

Although our group was fairly small (30-35 people) it was a lot of fun. If you ask me it was ALL about the music, but I might be a bit biased. Course the music did make the clean up go faster, and help a few burn off those chili calories.

Our small but highly efficient activities committee really pulled together a great night. The chili's were all great and all very different, which made it really fun. I tried them all and lived to tell the tale....

Our chefs were naturally overwhelmed when it came time to hand out the awards. Just look at Margie Beaming with her little Chili Pepper award.

and a few of our other big winners.

I might have not made any chili or cornbread for that matter but I still managed to come away with my own little chili Pepper. I am pleased to introduce Mr. Piquant Blaze Rufescent Toots or Bobbie for short.

Stay tuned for further adventures of Bobbie.

Memories.....

2008-09-18T12:47:00.003-04:00

A couple of my friends have this on their blog so I decided I would play along...

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew us a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Try to keep it clean folks...

Can Body Odor kill you?

2008-09-16T12:59:00.006-04:00

Have you ever had the unfortunate circumstance of having to be in close quarters with someone that has clearly forgotten what soap and deodorant is used for? I am not talking just a little bit of body odor you get an occasional whiff of but the kind that permeates through walls, wilts flowers when they walk by them, has small children running away in terror, turns you green from the potency of the odor, or causes birds to just drop out of the sky when they are flying above. That my friends is what I have been faced with, and I have lived, barely and with little help from my “friends”, to tell the tale.

So in my hour of need I email a friend, Missy, to let her know if I stopped responding to her emails it was because I had come to an untimely end from the smell. I promised her I would leave her my sticker collection, and my mini collection(Which includes my strawberry shortcake minis, smurfs, and littlest petshop to name a few). She quickly responds back and tells me to hang in there. I am thinking she’s a great real and true friend. Then I slowly peck out on my keyboard that I am fading fast and to please send Febreze, a gas mask and chocolate, cause we all know chocolate can cure anything that ails you.

I had thought to request a diet coke also but didn’t want to press my luck being that she is one of those Pepsi drinking types.

She responds back, I am off to run an errand.. WHAT??? I thought she was my friend. She was bailing on me while I was clinging to life, breathing in this noxious smell. There I sat, barely able to remain conscious, desperately trying to keep my lunch down, turning a lovely shade of mountain Dew green, and she was off to run an errand, and calls herself a friend. Sheesh.

At least Promise stood by me, she even suggested a glade plugin, a fan to blow the smell in another direction, but sadly I am not sure that would even help, unless it was one of those big fans that they use on movies to simulate a hurricane coming through.

Then she pointed out the smell would probably just get blown around and while not as strong and concentrated it would be everywhere with no place to escape it. Then she tried diversionary tactics like telling me about the latest book she read, but then mentioned she gets motion sickness if she reads in the car which made me think about vomiting again. I am reevaluating her friend status at this point because of that. But at least she didn’t abandon me in my hour of need, and pointed out I was lucky that it wasn’t mid August with broken AC.

That’s Promise for you always looking on the bright side of things. Of course she was probably secretly hoping along with Missy the noxious fumes would do me in so that she could have all my unfinished craft projects, why the unfinished ones? Because she wants to build a memorial to me showing I had so much left to do in life, as evidence by all my unfinished projects, and her husband called dibs on my music and DVD collection.

As evidence of this blog post I have survived this latest encounter but I am not sure how many more my weakened body can handle. So please for those of us with a sense of smell, take that shower, and live on the wild side and use some soap, and if you are feeling very adventurous slap on some deodorant. Anyone with a nose will thank you….

Not much to report

2008-09-15T12:35:00.000-04:00

I realize my blog has been lacking. Sadly there is just not that much going on to write about.

I did get a really awesome gift in the mail a couple weeks ago that I can’t wait to use. It is a cream colored baby afghan that is going to be perfect for new born shots, just need to find me some newborns to photograph. Thanks again to Jill for making me such a wonderful gift.

Lets see what other exciting things can I update all my readers on. Oh my baby brother got engaged this past weekend. No other details to share though, other than it will most likely be in DC since that is where her family is from. I got a text simply telling me he was engaged. So I am sure there will be details coming on that, and no I am not going to be his photographer, he is flying a friend from college out to do it.

Saturday night I went to the adult session of Stake conference and then joined a large group that made the obligatory stop at Zwahlen’s http://zwahlens.com/ afterward for ice cream… There was the big table of people and the smaller table. We nicknamed the tables the adult table and the kids table, I am sure you can all figure out which table I was at. Yep I was at the kids table with the Stratton’s and the Latey’s, and I am convinced we had the most fun by far. Oh and Dave Vagnoni was suffering an identity crisis and ended up at the kids table after a stint at the adult table.

Missy and I have been getting caught up after not seeing each other for 30 years. See the below post if you are not sure who Missy is and why we have not seen each other in 30 years. We are both having fun reliving the highlights from our youth, like Strawberry shortcake dolls and scratch and sniff stickers. E-bay is a dangerous place when it comes to looking for things from your childhood. I should take some pictures of my finds and post them at some point… Maybe next post will include pictures…

See I told you not much going on in my little area of the world. Everything else is school and work, and trying to decide if I should go for my masters degree after I finish up school in May..

A reunion 30 years in the making

2008-08-22T22:20:00.007-04:00

So I think most of us are aware of the evils that can come from sites like facebook, myspace, and the like. However, there are some good things about them also. Case in point, a little over a month ago I got a message on facebook from someone asking if I had attended the North Penn School district. I replied letting her know that other than Kindergarten nope I had not been in the district. Well it turns out I was the person she was looking for.

It was my old friend Missy from Kindergarten that I had not seen in close to 30 years. She was someone I played with a lot that year in school and went to her house outside of school, fell down a big hill in a bicycle accident, and helped her pick on her younger siblings.

If you can say you have a best friend in Kindergarten Missy would have been mine. Sadly we moved int he middle of the year and even though I finished the year out there after that summer we lost touch. That is until she tracked me down on facebook.

Here we are in August of 79 probably one of the last times we saw one another.

I cropped her brother and sister out of the picture so you can focus on the beauty that is us.

Fast forward 29 years and here we are from tonight, almost 30 years after we first met.

It took a couple weeks to get our schedules to mesh with school, work and vacations but we met for dinner tonight and it was like we had never lost touch over all those years. Things were completely cool, laid back and fun. I see many more night's out in our future as our schedules allow. We have a lot in common still and are looking forward to getting to know each other all over again. Oh and how cool is it she still has her sticker book and a collection of Strawberry shortcake dolls. Us children of the 80's have to hang together....

Bobbi Moments

2008-08-22T09:30:00.003-04:00

In our Family we have what we call Bobbi moments. So I thought I would track a few from my last vacation and document them. Now I must also say I adore my step mother and I am very thankful to have such a great stepmom because trust me I have had the opposite and it was not pretty, and have friedns that have had bad experiences so having such a wonderful one is something to be thankful for.

Bobbi Moment #1

While we were at dinner on Thursday night at Chili's Bobbi had the epiphany that Chili's is a Mexican themed restaurant. Yes she has eaten there before and noticed the little chili pepper, just didn't realize it was a Mexican restaurant. We love Bobbi. It was Josh's first Bobbi moment since being home for a whole hour.

Bobbi Moment #2

While having dinner Josh mentioned how his mother sent his birthday card tot the wrong address and gave his brother the wrong address also. Fast forward to the car ride home. She mentioned wanting to send Josh's girl friend a graduation card. and we said she could also send it to Josh and the comment was made she could get it from Linda, Josh's mom and we all started laughing, and Bobbi didn't understand why which only made us laugh harder at her. Finally we reminded her about the conversation about the wrong address but only after laughing for a bit..

Bobbi Moment #3

Do you see mountains like that every day? This comment came when looking at pictures of Utah. The comments continued, there is mountains like that on both sides? Oh that is why they call it Salt Lake Valley, Utah Valley, etc.. because it is in the valley of the mountains? She is very taken by the mountains, she just could not get past it. The going on about the mauntains continued for a good 20 minutes seriously in awe. We can't wait for her to go out there to see them in person.

Bobbi Moments #4 and #5 both had to deal with technology. First it was a USB memory stick, ahe was amazed that all the data that could be stored on one, next up was the ipod nano and how little it was and all it could store on it. Then when they showed her pictures and video on one intead of just listening to music she was blown away.

We also have what I like to call Bobbi-isms my favorite of the trip was .....
Suzy cream cheese - translation good two shoes.

This is how she felt about my birthday gift to dad. Probabl;y because he thought it shoudl be placed on the mantle...

One more down 5 to go

2008-08-21T11:10:00.002-04:00

For those following my educational journey another class can be checked off the list. I wrapped up a class last night and that leaves me with 5 till graduation. I will have 3 this fall and the final 2 in the spring. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

China is making its move in more than the olympics

2008-08-18T12:13:00.001-04:00

Will there come a day when historians will write about how the United States globalized the world, but forgot to globalize itself.

I am sort of deviating from my normal blog entry, which I admit have been slow to come lately and I apologize to those that stalk my blog that there has been nothing new and exciting to read. I will get back on track I promise.

So yesterday I was working from home and flipping through the channels to see if I could find something good to watch. I came across the CBS news show called Sunday Morning and they were talking about China’s rapidly growing economy.

Here is a link to the entire article: Coming soon a Post-American World

And here is the Carnegie study they mention: China’s Economic Rise—Fact and Fiction

I found them an interesting read and some of the estimates they give are staggering. Such as in one economic model they show that China’s economy will be as big as if not bigger than the US by 2035 and by 2050 it will be twice the size of the US economy.

And here are some quotes from the Sunday Morning transcript of the piece by Martha Teichner

” And it's happening right under our noses. America's beverage, Budweiser beer, is now owned by Belgians.

The government of Abu Dhabi last month bought a 90% stake in New York City's iconic Chrysler Building.

And isn't the United States supposed to be the place with the biggest and best of everything?

The tallest building in the world isn't in New York or Chicago anymore. It's in Taipei.

The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, once the world's largest, isn't even in the top ten now. The biggest one's in - surprise, surprise - China.”

My latest vacation to Maine

2008-08-01T08:37:00.002-04:00

So I realize I have been neglecting my blog lately. I promise some new posts though from my latest vacation. The pictures will have to wait till after I get home though..

So I woke up at 4 AM yesterday and was on the road by 4:20. Since I was able to avoid a good amount of traffic I made good time I arrived in 7 hours 10 minutes..

The drive was fairly uneventful, well except that stupid rock that hit my windshield and left a divot in it.. grrrrr.

Saw some rather interesting things, as always. One thing that amazed me was this guy cruising along on his motorcycle going about 70 mph with a ball cap on. No it isn't that he didn't have a helmet on because that is a personal choice, but that he was able to keep that ball cap on his head at those speeds. I mean was the thing super glued to his head, velcroed, or maybe stapled on? Seriously I was amazed, and kept waiting for it to fly off but never saw it leave his head.

The other thing that is worth mentioning is also related to a guy on a motorcycle and oh how I wish I had a picture of this one cause it was special. There was a rather large man riding on a motorcycle. This individual was wearing a pair of denim overalls. You know just your typical denim overalls, however he had on no shirt and he had a super dark farmer's tan. So here is a guy cruising along with no shirt, but his pale skin against his farmer's tan looking like a hairy skin shirt and his old beat-up overalls with his hairy fat rolls just a flapping in the wind as he cruised down the highway doing about 80. I know my description just does not do it justice but it made me do a double take.

Other than that it was pretty uneventful. It was clear with no rain till the last 20 minutes when it started to pour. AFter I arriced we went out for lunch, then I came home and showered and changed so we could head down to the airport to pick up my siblings, Josh's flight was delayed but he finally made it, but poor Susie had her flight cancelled so she comes in at lunch time today. poor kid. We went out dinner wating to hear from her, dinner was eventfull. It took forever to get our food, and some of it was not all that good. We ended up getting some of it comped and got 2 free deserts. We finally got back home and I was beat so I was in bed by midnight...

Stay tuned for more updates and pictures once I get home.

Got Hoops?

2008-07-18T17:46:00.002-04:00

Okay so I was checking otu some blog posts of a friend, I am so far behind on reading blogs, it is awful... Anyway I came across a great post on my friend Sarah's blog about a new exercise she is hooked on, called hooping. It is like hula hooping for adults but there is more to it. Instead of trying to explian it and getting it all wrong I will link you to her blog so you can see what it is all about since she has video of her hooping.

Sarah's hooping Blog

And if you decide you want to try it out here is the link to her Etsy shop where she is selling them.

Hoop soup Shop

For my Peas

2008-07-11T23:54:00.003-04:00

I saw this painting on a wall while we were in Phoenixville tonight for BlobFest and had to take a shot for my fellow peas.

More on Blobfest later!!

Vacation Part 3 - Get out of the way moron

2008-07-11T18:07:00.000-04:00

Friday was the 4th of July, my mom's birthday (Don't worry I called her) and raining so perfect outlet shopping weather. I know, I know MORE shopping?? Yep Jamie, Jeff and I headed to the outlet mall for a day of shopping. See when I am around Jamie something happens and my dormanty shopping gene becomes reactivated. Oh and yep Jeff actually likes to shop.

I would have to say it was a great success for all of us. Jamie made out the best but when you are as cute as her it is tough not to find cute things to buy! We were all tired from shopping when we got home and took little naps.

Jeff then went to hang out with some friends and Jamie and I drove downtown to see the fireworks. (The downtown thing is not Jeff's thing) We used Jeff's parking pass from work and went to the top of the parking garage for a great view of the fireworks. Right before they started a bunch of people who had been out to dinner made their way to the top of the garage to see them too.

Now these are not the greatest shots since I was hand holding my camera but I had to take them just the same. It was a fun night till the finale when we had ash and paper raining down on us. LOL

Driving home there was a lot of traffic as people tried to leave the city. We were driving down a narrow side street when on the other side a cop had sirens blaring and this little hatchback was in front of him was just putting along but not pulling over in any of the numerous spots he could have, Just as the cop car was next to ours the officer gets on his loud speaker and yells to the little car. "get out of the way, Moron." We were cracking up all the way home after that. It really was pretty funny.

Ernie decided to be a traitor and sleep in my room that night. He is such a funny little guy. I gave him the nickname of Ernesto in honor of his mexican heritage since he is part Chihuahua.

Saturday was sadly my last day there, can't believe how fast the week went. Jeff headed out to a friends house and Jamie and I ran a few errands (Like shipping some of my purchases home) then went over to her classroom to work on it a bit more. It was hot though because the AC was not on. She is going to have some super cute bulletin boards this year.

She was really happy to see her new iMacs had been set up, too bad she didn't have a username or password to log on and play though.

After that we went for some Dairy Queen to cool off and then headed home and crashed for a bit before going to 5 guys for dinner. After that we went to pick up Jeff and his car and headed back to the house and played a little Wii. Yep Jeff let us play with the Wii. I did okay at bowling but stunk bad at Darts!! Pretty fun toy, and I guess I am lucky I don't have anyone to play with at home or I would want one!!

I of course played ball with Ernie again and he decided to sleep in my room again. I think he started to forget who he belonged to. *sigh* I miss the little guy.

Sunday I was up early and headed home. I am ready to go back already, even if it was not the most glamorous vacation it was fun just to kick back and relax. (well that is when my slave driver cousin wasn't making me work on her classroom, be her personal assistant, forcing me to be creative or play ball with her dog.) LOL

Vacation Part 2

2008-07-11T15:33:00.001-04:00

So Tuesday was another great day weather wise.

So since the weather was so nice what did we do? Errands of course and a little fun shopping.

We wne to Hobby Lobby so Jamie could find a frame and Mat for another one of her wedding pictures. It turned out great looking.

I swear Jeff has Radar for when Jamie spends money. Like 30 minutes after she bought some adorable Coach sunglasses from TJ Maxx he was on the phone asking her what she spent money on at TJ Maxx, Uncanny I tell you. I managed to find a cute jacket at TJ Maxx also, so it was a good stop. We also did some other little shopping it was a productive day, I of course managed to find some little things to use as props in pictures!! It is an illness I tell you!

For dinner I treated Jamie and Jeff to dinner at the Mellow Mushroom for pizza. It was great BBQ chicken pizza. After dinner we stopped at a couple stores then it was home to veg for us girls and Jeff retreated to the man cave to play his Wii "the Godfather" game. We tried to watch the one movie we rented but as I mentioned it was horrible, so we just took it back. We did have another good malt night thanks to the Magic bullet...

Wednesday - Another nice day weather wise but a little on the warm side. The started with Jeff heading to the dentist for a root canal. Yep they both went to the dentist unexpectedly while I was visiting, what are the odds.

We went to Jamie's new school so I could help her start to unpack all her boxes and get the room set up. Man does she have a lot of stuff to sort through and get organized. I don't envy her having to go through it all. We made a lot of great progress though. I could just unpack the bozes and hand stuff to her to put away. Wasn't it sweet of her to put me to work on my vacation, she is such a slave driver!! Actually I had fun helping her pick a theme for her room but don't let her know, or she will want me to come back out next summer to help.

Wednesday night we went to a little demonstration party someone she knew was having and then we headed back home for Jeff's famous spaghetti and meatballs. In the end Jeff retreated to the man cave again, hmm maybe I didn't use enough deoderant while I was there since he kept bailing on us and hiding in the man cave.

Thursday - this is where the weather took a turn, it rained all day and ruined the plans to go see Weird Al in concert. Total Bummer. How cool would it have been to seen Weird Al? We did manage to get some adorable pictures of her friends baby Miss B. Yep I can't even go on vacation without finding a sweet baby to photograph. I love it!!

After that we did a little running around then headed back to the homestead so I could play ball with Ernie again. LOL

Since the concert was out Jeff and I convinced Jamie to go see "Hancock" at the movies. She is more of a chick flick kind of movie goer, so this was really out of the box for her but she ended up really liking it. I didn't know there was some major twist in the movie and guessed it early on.

Before the movie we went out for Mexican food. The food was great, despite them having some staff issues with people getting up an walking out on the job!! But hey we got our meal comped so I say I treated them again for dinner since I left the tip!! Okay so that is slightly cheating but I will take credit where I can.

Of course after the movie Jeff retreated to the man cave and Jamie and I vegged for a while and Ernie wanted to play ball. See I told you it was a kick back vacation!!

Okay that's all for now. Only one more vacation post after this one I swear. Next time I need to try to keep up with my blog while I am away!!

Vacation part 1

2008-07-08T21:06:00.002-04:00

So I have been back from Vacation for a few days but have been so busy I have not had a chance to update my BLOG...

My first day out there was very kicked back. We ran to Blockbuster to pick up a few movies, Dan in real life, and "My mother's new Boyfriend" . Now Dan in real life was hysterical, the other movie which the lady at blockbuster talked us into getting was TERRIBLE and we shut it off 1/2 way through!!

Then it was over to Walmart to pick a few things up. We of course all got sucked into the vortex of the $5 movie bin, and each picked one out, we had "fools rush in", "Airplane", and "The Toy". Jamie and Jeff needed some curtain rods which they got, a new toaster, which was sadly out of stock, and some food for dinner. As we were checking out we all took a stab at the total for the purchases. I naturally won with my uncanny ability to guess totals. I was off by a whopping $.99 and as a prize I get to keep the $5 DVD of the Toy.

So we headed home and Jeff being Jeff had to hang the curtain rods right away. I would have left them hang around for weeks before I finally got them hung up.. Although I was shocked he hung the curtains up wrinkled, completely shattered my image of him. Naturally he was multi tasking while doing this by cooking the Bratwurts on the grill while hanging curtains. Both turned out great.

Jamie and I put the magic bullet to use and tried to make salsa, Try being the key here. It looked like Vomit at first and the onion we used was way to strong so it was like cold onion soup. We did recover the look a little by adding tomatoes, but sadly it never really did work out right. So magic bullet attempt #1 was a bust!!

Now our WW mac and cheese recipe was a much better success. It was great with our cheddar cheese bratwursts.

Jamie and I watched a little HGTV, and then popped in Dan in real life while Jeff was playing on the Wii in his Man cave down stairs.

Then was use #2 of the magic bullet. Jeff made Malts. This was a much bigger success than our failed salsa.

On Monday Jamie ran to the Dentist and I watched Ernie, well okay I wore Ernie out by playing ball with him for close to an hour, and did a little photo session with him!! He is only slightly more cooperative than Grover.

Then it was off to Panera for lunch(love it when you have a gift card!), and then off to the zoo.

I took way too many pictures as you can see but it was fun. I would have gotten a picture of the visiting koala's but they sleep 18-22 hours a day so they are not all that entertaining, but with that sleep schedule I think in my next life I want to be a koala.

This little guy was totaly posing for us while I took his picture, don't you love his smile??

Someone was having a really bad hair day!!

The butterfly exhibit was really cool and Jamie and I were determined to get pictures of the blue butterflies, and it was a challenge!!

Finally a blue one

The weather was perfect, and we ended the day at the Dolphin show.

After that we headed to the store to get stuff to make tacos, and pick up wine for Jamie's bachorlette get together with friends. I am no help in picking stuff like that out so I just agreed on the fact the bottle looked really cool, which it did!!

Dinner is where magic bullet attempt #3 was made and sadly it failed again. Jeff tried to dice tomatoes in it, they were more like pureee instead. After Dinner Jeff retired to the Man cave to play Wii again and 2 of Jamie's friends came over for the bachelorette.

Okay since this post is already too long I will end for here and update more on my vacation later in the week.

Enjoying Vacation

2008-07-01T09:19:00.003-04:00

I realize I have been neglecting my blog for the last few weeks. I had a crazy schedule between work and school but I survived it all and now I am enjoying a week of vacation in Indianapolis visiting Jamie and Jeff. I arrived on Sunday and am here till next Sunday. I promise there will be pictures once I return and can download them all and go through them!!

As a recap of what was keeping me busy I had work, as usual, school rapped up so I had 2 finals. So now i just have 6 classes left till graduation. And I had 4 photography jobs, 2 of which I will have to finish editing when I get home! Not much else to report. Promise lots of updates when I get back next week!!

Happy Birthday to me

2008-06-14T15:26:00.001-04:00

And Happy Flag day to the rest of you..

So I am now 35 and am having a hard time believing it. I don't feel 35 and I certainly don't act 35..

I would have to say it has been a very Photography related birthday for me which is OKAY in my book. I mean who can complain about getting things you drool over on a weekly basis.

My mom gave me money a couple weeks back to help me buy my new camera which I LOVE, and she also bought me a Background stand and some clothes. We then got up and left the house at 5:30 am to head to Rices Flea market which was really fun.

Now I didn't want to have to carry my good camera with me all day but I did bring the point and shoot so I could snap a few shots.

We got an early start! Even the sun wasn't fully awake yet.

It gets pretty crowded but it isn't too bad if you get there before they open.

I wish I had my good camera to get a picture of some of the pretty flowers they were selling!!

If you get the chance by all means GO!! Here is a quick snapshot of some of what I got. Yes I got 4 pairs of sunglasses I couldn't pass it up at less than $5 a pair. Only bummer was I didn't find any photography props...

Oh and anyone remember banana clips from the 80's? I saw some and had to grab them for the next 80's party I go to!!!

Then on the way home we swung by the coach outlet where I got these little treasures.

Then we hit up costco. I got a couple of movies and another 4gb CF card... This is more shopping in one day than I have done in the last 6 months combined!!

From my aunt I got a monopod I have been wanting... It will come in handy when I don't feel like dragging the big tripod with me but feel I need a little extra stability. It is a welcome addition to my gear.

My grandmother (with the help of my mom) got me a lens pen, CF card holder and the new tripod head I have been wanting for a while now!! (My current one is starting to show some serious wear and is not always locking and staying in position.)

My dad and my other grandmother sent me birthday cash which is going towards the new lens I am hoping to purchase this week.

Even The dog, Grover, bought me a present. He got me three books. The digital photography book #2, Layers, and Understanding exposure. What a good little dog, now if he would only pose for pictures!!!

Well my mom and grandmother are taking me to an early dinner at the cheesecake factory so I should wrap this up so I can get ready to go.

I guess turning 35 wasn't so bad after all.

A quick visit and a BAD storm

2008-06-12T20:36:00.002-04:00

So Tuesday night my cousin Ryan and his adorable and always charming girlfriend Michelle stopped by on their way to Boston, where they are both relocating for new jobs now that they have received their Master’s degrees. I had school but was looking forward to spending some time with them afterward. So I am sitting in class and it started to get really dark. Then the wind started to kick in and we heard something crack and heard a lot of noise and the lights started to flicker. So our teacher let us all jet out of class when the winds kicked up and lights started to flicker. On the way out we saw downed trees around campus and all started to run for our cars before the rains started. The sky looked very menacing and the winds were strong. The sky was completely lit up from the continuous lighting flashes. I even had my camera with me and thought about stopping to take some pictures of the damage on campus or even trying to capture some lightening. But I decided I didn’t want to risk hurting my camera if the sky decided to open up and start to pour which it did the minutes I shut the car door. Phew that was close!! (Yes I was more concerned about the camera getting rained on then I was about being struck by lightening or having a tree land on me)

(I did go back the next day and got a few shots of a large tree that was snapped.)

So as driving home listening to tree branches hit the roof of my mom’s convertible and praying that the stuff I was running over was just tree branches and nothing else I was thinking “mom is going to kill me if I hurt her car”. While driving and dodging trees I saw a huge bright flash right in front of me and thought, “this is it, I am about t see my life flash before my eyes.” No worries, it was just a bright flash from several downed power lines and some flames on the tree that caused the power lines to go down. Nothing like the smell of electrical based tree fires to get the heart racing while trying to drive in Hail and pounding rain. It took some time to get home finally because so many roads were closed or blocked by downed trees and power lines and no traffic lights were working.

So I finally make it home to find my mom is NOT home, which means she is out in my car so I no longer felt bad about any damage I might have inflicted on her car since mine was out there having its own damaged inflicted upon it. Hmm I realized a slight problem as I pulled into the driveway, well actually several slight problems. No power meant no working garage door opener, which meant no way to get into the LOCKED house, since I didn’t have a key with me. The next issues had to do with a missing gutter, which was located across the street. Next was a giant piece of siding missing from the front of the house, yep found that in a different neighbor’s yard.

So now I am sitting on the front porch with various pieces of the house around me watching the storm and giving my mom directions via the cell phone since she could not get home any of the normal routes either. She finally got home safely with Ryan and Michelle and as far as I can tell both cars managed to make it unscathed from their outing.

The bummer was the power being out since it meant no getting to show Michelle the Video tape she has been anxiously awaiting to see of a little lip-synch routine Ryan, myself and Jamie’s friend Cathy made over 20 years ago. The words humiliatingly funny come to mind. Next time Michelle, I promise next time you will see it!!!

Also this meant no pictures were taken since we were without power till sometime in the middle of the night. We had a lot of battery operated candle light though.

But hey despite it all they came bearing gifts from their recent trip to Ecuador. Wasn’t that sweet of them? I was totally surprised and LOVED mine, even though I had to pick out the color scarf I wanted in the dark... Here are some pictures of my treasures. I am already using my little change purses and the scarf will get put to good use in the winter. The thing that impresses me the most is Ryan actually did some shopping/bartering and enjoyed it. The Boy HATES shopping!!!

Thanks again for the treasures and I can’t wait to come see you in Boston.

UGH!!!

2008-06-11T21:31:00.002-04:00

Yea I think this about sums it up. I really can't believe how much the price of gas has risen the last several years.

Just last night this same station was $3.99.

Not much happening

2008-06-08T22:56:00.002-04:00

So this weekend was filled with a lot of homework and some housework. It has been beastly hot here and I am just not used to it. I have to say one thing I am very thankful for is AIR CONDITIONING!!!!

But I did make a brief trip to the park to do a few pictures and when I look at this picture you can't help but smile, despite the heat and humidity.

It doesn't get much cuter than that. They were such good girls.

So another week starts. Amongst the usual stuff of work, and school my cousin Ryan and his girlfriend will be making a brief stop on Tuesday on there way up to Boston. Then Saturday is the all important holiday of Flag Day, or as I like to call it my birthday. Ugh I can't believe I am going to be 35. When did I get so old??? I think we are headed to Rice's flea market in the morning where hopefully there is a good bargain or two waiting to be found. Plus there is usually dinner out for things like birthdays.

Dinner out with the work crew

2008-05-30T22:16:00.000-04:00

So tonight we all went to Bawarchi in Chesterbrook for some Indian food. Everything we had was really good. The occasion tonight was not the usual to say goodbye to anyone or welcoming in new group members. Tonight Ramana wanted to celebrate the birth of his little girl with his coworkers.

We also joked that it was a liberation celebration for Prashant to finally be free from that Tyrant Ashish that he had to work with.

Just kidding Ashish we really do still love you. But it is good to know Prashant really does have a voice and can talk to someone other than Baboon (Anshuman, Sir). Now we just need to seperate those 2.

We had all sworts of yummy food but I can't rememebr what 1/2 of it is called, even with a take out menu. The one I really wish I could remember is the Cauliflower dish we had as an apetizer. It was great!! My kind of vegetable all the way. Some stuff I do remember (Or at least I think I remember) that we had was Aloo Tikki, Aloo Choley, Chicken Vindaloo, Chicken Biryani, shrimp Biryani, yummy breads and a few other dishes. Oh and I had a Mango Lassi to drink per Ramana's suggestion and it was very good. (Hey guys feel free to leave a comment and fill in the other dishes we had that I missed)

Some of the food was very spicy and Jeff was bright red so they kept asking him if it was hot, as a joke.

They were kind enough to pick a night I could actually join them and didn't have class. Thanks again Ramana and congrats on your precious litle girl.

Oh and one final note. Don't get into a car with this guy, he has his red and green lights confused.

Good Luck Ashish

2008-05-29T21:29:00.008-04:00

So on top of a whole bunch of friends moving from church which has really been rough... Well yet another co-worker is leaving. Ashish is going back to India this weekend. He will be missed.

Today we had a little send off for him at work. A special opening of the crow's nest in his honor.

I am guessing you will not miss this crew too much...

I think Bill has summed things up nicely here.

And maybe you will come back to visit us all and this pile of dirt will finally be a building..

Clean up day

2008-05-22T19:33:00.004-04:00

So every year or every other year we have a company wide clean up day. They make it a big contest to see who can get rid of the most stuff. points are awarded for bags of recycling, trash, old desks and chairs, computers , monitors keyboards etc. Plus they give us free lunch.

Our floor never wins because there is one floor that always wins, they have a distinct advantage because they are house the data center and the help desk so they have oodles of hardware they can get rid of each year that has been decomissioned through out the rest of the year.

Our floor made great strides today to clean up though. Here is a picture of about 1/2 the old gear we ended up getting rid of. We got rid of a lot of paper and trash also but not anywhere near what other groups do because we just don't keep that much lying around.

Some really got into the spirit of the cleaning. Here is Joydeep cleaning his desk.

My weekend fun..

2008-05-11T14:28:00.007-04:00

I have never been a fan of homework. I had a ton of it to get done this weekend. Luckily there were a few things I got to do this weekend that were fun.

I got to get some fun pictures of these two. Love the expressions we were able to catch.

No worries I did get to snap a few shots without the silly faces that can be seen here. Cute kids.

Then there was that saturday evening "fun" I had. I mean what could be more fun than making one of your best friend's kids cry for 3 hours almost nonstop?
I really felt bad i could not comfort her and oddly I took out the camera and she stopped crying for a few minutes.

Then it was back to screaming...

I have such a way with kids don't I? Does it make me a bad person that I took pictures of her screaming??? Oddly enough I preferred my time with little Ali over doing homework.

Then on Sunday I got to spend time with my mom and my grandmother for Mother's day. Less crying that's for sure..

2 more classes done and 2 more started

2008-05-07T22:24:00.002-04:00

I just finished up 2 classes last week and I have started 2 more this week. Counting the 2 I have now I only have 8 more classes to complete before graduation. So I am still on target for Graduation in May of 2009. Now I just need to get through it without a nervous breakdown..

Not much else going on. Looking forward to my road trip to NC next week to see Nugget head Graduate.

My Photoshoots from this weekend.

2008-05-04T18:44:00.000-04:00

So when not working I got to enjoy my favorite hobby and snap a few shots. I tend to stick more pictures on my photography blog than I do on this one but thought I would share a few from this weekend.

There was some 1st Communion shots for a co worker's daughter

Here little sister was a huge helper to me and her mom that day..

Then there was My dog Grover's photo session that he wanted no part of. He is worse than a toddler when it comes to getting pictures of him.

I had no idea dogs could glare at you like that.

I knew little kids were good at sticking their tongues out, appareantly dogs are too.

Then I also got to take some shots of a classmates kids. Toddlers are tough and this one was no exception but she is so dang cute..

Her older brother was a great subject

and I even talked mom into a few family shots.

The oddest little things make me happy

2008-05-03T19:50:00.002-04:00

As many of you know I ordered a new camera and fish eye lens last week and just love it. Look at how gorgeous the combo of the two make my pal Ginnie and I look.

Well Today the camera straps I ordered came. I love them both and can't wait to try them out on my camera..

Happy Birthday Cole

2008-04-21T20:43:00.019-04:00

So some of my best friend's had a get together tonight at Zwahlen's for their son's 2nd Birthday. A good time was had by all who attended.

Here is the Birthday boy can't you just see the joy pouring out of him.

The whole place broke out in song but poor Cole looked like a deer in the headlights...

Here are the Flinder's, Aren't they silly???.

The Flinder's brought the stripper for the party, Sir O.

Here is Cole's cake that Emily Flinder's made for him. Pretty sweet huh?

Dad filmed the auspicious occasion

Mom stayed close to help him celebrate

Ali was the best baby sister you could ask for just kicking backing and soaking it all up

Lets hear from some of the guests...

Let's start with Cole's cousin Trey.. So how is the Ice Cream Trey?

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

How about you Camden what did you think?

Zach Attack how do you like your rainbow sprinkles?

Eli are you disappointed you didn't get Ice cream?

Guess not..

Umm no comment from this one as she tries to climb out the window..

This is one of Cole's neighbor's Ginnie, she is going gangsta in honor of moving back to Utah.

Abrie is trying out some new 'Tude too

Macie How do you feel about your mom and sister's new persona

Happy Birthday Cole. We all love you and I am sure going to miss you...

Another funny one from You Tube

2008-04-19T17:03:00.003-04:00

This has to be one of the funniest and worst commercials I have ever seen.

And if you missed the one from the other day make sure you check out my bost below with "Charlie bit my finger"

My mini vacation to VA

2008-04-17T21:14:00.018-04:00

I am so excited that Aaron has decided to go to Mica next year which means the family is packing up and moving east for at least 2 years. This means a much shorter commute to see them. I can’t wait. I have really missed spending time with Carrie and the rest of her family. I got to spend a couple days with Carrie and the kids while they were in Virginia for spring break. So of course I had to blog about it.

Biz is a seven year old with an infectious laugh, eyelashes to die for and the cutest dimple. She is a sweet loving little girl with a great sense of humor.

When I hear her laugh I can’t help but laugh too, she has a great laugh. Oh and she has some real skill quoting lines from TV shows or movies. The one that cracks me up every time is “I said Good Day , daddy” Can anyone name what that is from.

Watch out for this one when she gets really tired though. There will be tears and tattling if you keep her from her precious slumber land. No talking when this little munchkin is trying to get to sleep. Shhhhhhh.....

Maddy is 11 going on 30 and has preteen attitude mastered.

Maddy cracks me up. For example we were all just chatting and Maddy asked if she could check her email. Jokingly I said “who is going to email you, you don’t have any friends?” Her response, completely serious was. “Yes I do.. Target, my points and JCPenny all email me.” I think there was even an eye roll as if to say "Sheesh of course I have friends emailing me".. We were all rolling at this. Then she gets on her email and what do you know the top message is from her buddy JCPenny, she also had an email from Home Depot, but sadly her friend Target chose not to email her this week.

On our way to the natural history museum she was dancing around at the front of the train with Biz, and when we pointed out everyone was staring at her she was quite happy with herself. There was also some mention about throwing some money their way for tips to help Daddy pay for 2 years of school. What a silly bunch tese three are.

Don't you love the static hair she has going on?

As you can see David was not as into the whole floor show his sisters were putting on.

My sweet little carwash buddy David is 13. I can’t believe he is a teenager. Of course he has to deal with teenage boy things like younger sisters. How does a teenager deal with his frustrations and get out of a grumpy mood? He farts in his sister’s face of course. Yep sweet little David let one rip in Maddy’s face while she was in bed. Is it bad we all laughed at that? hey at least it cheered him up some.

This look speaks volumes... The joy of being a big brother

Poor D was a bit out numbered by the female population this week since his dad was not able to make it this trip due to work. D was finishing up in the bathroom after his shower and on the other side of the door there was a discussion about bra’s happening and he was like “Hey I can hear you.” Poor kid. Thankfully there is technology that allows for face to face chats over the computer though when a boy needs to talk to his dad. Aaron is a great father and husband so I can understand why the kids missed him so much.
D you are going to be a heartbreaker one day. Just look at those eyes...

I can't wait to spend more time with these kiddos

Poor Aunt Marit better rest up though

That really hurt Charlie

2008-04-16T20:59:00.002-04:00

Sometimes you just need a good laugh and this You Tube video is one of those funny moments..

Hope this holds you all over till I get my blog updated with my Trip to VA.

Off to VA for a few days...

2008-04-12T22:17:00.004-04:00

Well I am headed to VA for a couple of days... It will be a nice little break and I will get to see that wacky Walser family that I have been missing terribly. I am just glad I will have more willing photo subjects than this one...

Apparently he was trying to play Peek-a-boo here or something...

For a treat he would reappear for a second

An Alternative to PAYPAL???

2008-04-04T13:09:00.002-04:00

I just signed up for my free account and got my $25. Hey free money ois free money right? So I thought I would share it with the readers of my blog...

The account is free and it is free to send and receive money unlike paypal which takes a chunk when people send you money. It is easy to use and you get $25 free when you sign up.... Just wanted to pass it along.

Finding the leak

2008-03-30T21:04:00.004-04:00

So we have a leak some place in the roof, and I ventured up in the attic space today to find it.

Now the attic is only accessible through an access panel in the closet in my craft and hobby room. As seen here.

Now to be able to fit the ladder in the closet to get into the space I had to empty out the closet. I now have this mess to deal with.....

So I finally venture forth into the attic and despite knowing where the leak should be I could not find it. So now I have a huge mess and still have a leak I will have to go in search of the next time it rains.

I did notice we might have an electrical issue though so now we have to find an electrician. Oh the joys of home ownership.

Mandatory Fun

2008-03-28T21:07:00.005-04:00

So you are probably wondering what exactly Mandatory Fun is. That is what I call Team outings for work. Some are more fun than others and some are more mandatory than others. Last time we had Mandatory fun it was the entire team and we went bowling. This time was a smaller group and we were not given any heavy objects to toss at each other. This time around our Mandatory fun involved eating WAY too much. We went as a team to Shady Maple Lets just say I skipped lunch knowing this is where I would be having dinner. For those that have never been lets just say it is a Behemoth of a buffet. Where else can you have mac and cheese, cheese fries, salad, Purple cheesecake, perogies, pizza, fried shrimp, and sweet potatoes on the same plate...

It really is in the middle of nowhere but worth the drive out.

I of course took my camera along so I could get some shots of this crazy group. Of course a few were later than others, you know you are late if you arrive after Bhaskar....

Some just can't tear themselves away from their email..

We even got a little accordian music mood music.

Don't worry Ashish I will brign you in a copy of all this pictures and any others I have from work ouings..

Love those Cheeks

2008-03-28T14:13:00.005-04:00

How can you not LOVE a chubby baby. My good friend Lindsay came over this week so I could get some shots of her little 6 month old cherub. Isn't she precious. If you want to see a few more shots of the session I have them posted on my Photo Blog. next up I will attempt to capture the elusive big brother to this little angel. He is very mobile so it is an on-the-go shoot with him... Who knew Photography could be counted as exercise...

Bad hair is just my signature look

2008-03-24T21:25:00.009-04:00

A while back my friend Ginnie posted a Blog about her husband's sweet hair in HS and her less than stellar hair style. I told her that mine was far worse and decided it was time to finally get my bad hair pictures up for all to see.

Not sure which is worse here, the glasses or the really short hair. Gotta love the glasses from the 80's.

This is the first day of school my Junior year. This is what I called a good hair day back then. Clearly I had no idea what good hair was but hey it was 1989 so I should get a little break right??? I rarely had "good" hair days.

What is with those bangs, I have a hat on for crying out loud, I could have at least shoved the bangs in under it.

Gotta love the fro I have going on here with the mushroom style cut.

Not that you can really see it in this picture but I have one of those stretchy hot pink head bands on. Man I wish I had those sunglasses now. They are kinda fun.. Sadly I just came across those shorts in my closet. Why I still had them 18 years later is beyond me. I promise as part of my therapy I will place them in the goodwill bag as soon as I am done with this post.

I could go on for dozens more but I think I have made my point.. Oh and I don't think my Foster sister Carrie reads my blog so I am safe from her wanting to kill me for posting pictures with her in them with me.

Of course not much has changed other than I now have way too much grey hair I have to color to hide. It is still unruly and unstylish but at least now I know it and own it, that's half the battle.

Bright Orange vests, The new Fashion fad for Egg Hunts

2008-03-24T20:48:00.018-04:00

So this past weekend our ward took part in a service project followed by an Easter egg hunt for the kiddos. The service project was to help pick up trash in a local park, so not too stressful. It is something they do annually in the park before they release the trout for fishing season.

We were a little concerned when they had everyone from our group put on bright orange vests and referred to us as "the church people". We thought it was a bit unnerving they had all the Mormons in bright orange vests. We managed to escape the whole ordeal unharmed.

We even made it to Action news.

As you can see some of the group REALLY got into the spirit of things..

However it was a very chilly day and we even had a little snow. As you can see some of the kids were happier than others.

For the Easter egg hunt some kids were very color coordinated down to their baskets

Others went a little more ghetto with their baskets..

Oh and of course there were a few that came for the food.

March Madness hits SEI

2008-03-21T15:07:00.015-04:00

Now as most of you know I am not a big sports fans, but when you work with all guys it is tough not to at least be aware of the sports hoopla of the season.

Apparently LOTS of people are following College ball, So many in fact they had to block ESPN.COM and the like temporarily because it was causing a network drain. Never fear though they were able to still see/listen to the games on computers through SEI’s Intranet and TV online.

As if watching the games was not enough we had our own little tournament here today. Since Tuesday we have had those arcade style basketball hoops set up on our floor and people have been practicing and playing against one another to see who would make it to the tournament. (Yea I knwo things are not normal where I work)

So Today the Beer was put on ice

and the pretzels were ordered

and the tournament began.

Photoshop and Photo shoots

2008-03-20T20:27:00.007-04:00

So I finally had a chance to edit the pictures I took of Aaron, (Thanks to Ginnie and her mad Photoshop skills) and had a chance to shoot another little baby all in the same day. Hanging out at Ginnie's has its advantages. To see more pictures of little KJ look here. But here is one of my favorites from her shoot.

Now Ginnie has three adorable kids, however her son was a little too mobile today to snap a picture of him today while I was there but check out her adorable little girls.
Yea you can tell their mom takes their picture all the time, natural little posers.

Man I wish I had more time to play with my photography. So much I want to do and play with and no time to do it all in.

Would you like some Preparation H with your Birthday cake?

2008-03-16T20:58:00.013-04:00

If you were visit the home of my foster brother Chris and his wife Donna you would not be offered ice cream to go with your birthday cake, nope they would ask you if you would like a little Preparation H to go with your cake. But with Chris and Donna this is not a complete shock to hear something so random. When you hear it is because their son refers to “Ice cream” as “Ass Cream” it makes perfect sense, does it not. Yep this is just one of the fun tidbits I learned yesterday when I went to meet the newest member of the Sam Mautz clan, Aaron. He was born on Wednesday evening and I went down to VA to take some baby pictures and of course visit for a bit. Oh the stories that can be told when this family gets together.

Here are a few pictures I took of the baby while I was there. I have not had a chance to really edit them yet but wanted to share what I have.

Here is Aaron letting me know.. "Enough with the pictures already, I am only 3 days old for crying out loud, cut me some slack."

Hannah being the super mommy that she is wanted to help make the transition of being an only child to being a big sister for Erica a bit more exciting. So she asked her mom to bake a cake for Baby Aaron’s 0 birthday. We sang Happy Birthday 3 times and Erica and Daddy got to blow out the candles 2 times for baby Aaron and of course Erica got to open presents.

Erica had a really good day. She loves her Aunt Marit who plays with her

And Aunt Chell brought her Play-Doh, don't worry I made sure it was okay to give it to her ahead of time.

As I was reminded in some great talks today in Church Family is very important. For me my family needs a bit of a road map to follow and my family comes in many flavors and styles, but I love them all and am thankful for them all in my life and the joy each part brings. It was good to see some of the family that really was instrumental in making me feel like I belonged to a family and that loved me for me, quirks and all.

2 more classes done 10 more to go

2008-03-13T15:44:00.002-04:00

Another 2 classes done and 10 more to go. In 8 weeks it will mark a year since I decided to tackle this beast I call school. I just finished 2 more classes (And somehow managed to pull an ‘A’ in both and this week startup 2 new classes.

So what does one do to celebrate getting 2 more classes out of the way? Well this someone is heading to VA for a quick day trip to take Newborn pictures of my Foster Brother, Sam’s, newest Family addition. Aaron Joseph was born last night and I am very excited to get to see the little peanut AND to get to take newborn pictures of him. It will be a quick trip down but it will be nice to see the family for the day. It has been too long.

There is nothing to do in PA???

2008-03-10T15:40:00.017-04:00

Sure it might seem like there is nothing to do a lot of the time and for those like me without a social life of any kind that is okay.. However, for those of you that want to find something to do you definitely can find stuff to do. Here is a list of things I came up with. Some are a bit more off beat than others. I am sure you can find something on the list to try out if you are really bored.

Amusement Parks

Dorney Park

Hershey Park

Dutch Wonderland

Sesame Place

6 Flags Great Adventure (NJ)

Knoebels

A few of the MANY Historic Sites

Valley Forge Park

Valley Forge Visitors Guide - Includes other things in the area beyond the park, som historic other just fun. Be sure to sepnd some time looking around this site.

Independence National Historical Park

Constitution Center

Historic Philadelphia

Hopewell Furnace

Gettysburg

Saint Peters Village

Daniel Boone Homestead

Mill Grove

Animal Fun

Philadelphia Zoo

Elmwood park zoo

Retired Horse Farm

Hawk Mountain

Adventure Aquarium - Just across the river in NJ

National Aquarium in Baltimore

Shopping locations of Note

Franklin Mills Mall

Philadelphia Premium outlets (Really in Limerick)

Rockvale outlets in Lancaster

Tanger Outlets also in Lancaster

King of Prussia mall

VF factory Outlets (Reading PA)

Peddler’s Village

Parks, camping and such

French Creek Park

Marsh Creek Park

Ricketts Glenn

Lake In Wood Campground

"Skiing" I use the term loosely for you west coasters

Bear Creek

Spring Mountain

Outside of PA but not too far

Statue of Liberty

Empire State Building

Times square

Niagara Falls

Washington DC

And a bunch of other things

Giggle berry Fair (Also great shopping for the parents at Peddlers village)

Julius Sturgis Pretzel factory

The Crayola Factory

Please Touch Museum

The Franklin Institute

Railroad Museum of PA

Strasburg Railroad

Crystal Caves

Philly Art Museum - Retrace Rocky's run up the steps.

Longwood Gardens - They have different events throughout the year

Herr's Potato Chip Factory Tour - Got to love yummy food tours...

Philly Italian Market

Reading Terminal Market

Shady Maple – Gluttony at its finest

Flower and craft Warehouse (Stop by and walk off all you ate at Shady maple)

Atlantic City

Maple grove Raceway

Lehigh Valley Veledrome

Grandview Speedway

Okay what have I missed?? I am sure this list will grow over time so check back from time to time.

Life is boring, nothing to report

2008-03-10T10:54:00.000-04:00

So I have not been doing to well with blogging for the last few weeks. Between work and school I had little time to do much else so really what is there to blog about. Add to that the exciting life I do not lead, no social life at all, and it makes for a very dull blog. I was excited to have no homework this weekend but sadly did nothing noteworthy. Lets see Saturday it rained, and by rain I mean torrential downpours most of the day, we had a small stream form in our side yard, the power went out for quite some time, and I discovered a wet spot on the ceiling in one of the bathrooms so it looks like we have a roof leak. Hmm guess I should be looking for someone to come check out that leak and get it fixed. Yea no idea where to start on that one so I am not in a hurry to get working on that. Oh and I did manage to accumulate a large carload of stuff that needs to be dropped off at the goodwill next time I have a chance to run over that way. Love to declutter, but it is easier said than actually done.

On the bright side I have finished 2 more classes and have 10 more to go before I graduate. Time flies when you are burning the candle at both ends. 2 of those start back up this week. No break between classes here. Actually my only break between classes will happen at the end of December and by then I will only have my last 2 classes to complete. Maybe then I will have a bit more time to work on my photography. Sadly I have not been able to get out and take many photos, which explains the lack of pictures for my blog.

Thankfully the Writer's strike has ended

2008-02-24T19:48:00.002-05:00

I have to admit I was starting to get a little tired of finding my own entertainment. I mean that is what is so gret about TV you just turn it on and you don't have to think too much about it. Well unless you are watching Lost, that show requires payign attention but it is worth it.

My schedule has been on the insane side with school, and work, and trying to keep up with things at home. So entertainent has not been on the top of the list. However, today at church you could not help but notice the fascination kids have with stickers. I sat with the Skinners again today, and this time Cole was nicer, no pointing and saying "EWWWWWW". He even gave me 2 chewed up teddy grahms to hold. Also on our row was Em, Renn and Sir O. Some of Coles best buds. He and Sir O have a love hate relationship. They love each other but they also love to fight, not share, and push each other. Yep typical toddler stuff. These two together are simply precious. Both are amazingly adorable little boys with incredible blue eyes. Sickening really. Well back to the stickers. Em brought a bunch of little stickers for entertainign Sir O and of course Cole had to get in onthe action. They both had stickers all over them. Sir O even had one in his hair and Cole had one we put on his ear. Eventually Cole decided to pull all of his stickers off him and put them on the arm of my shirt. Sir O remved his and put them onthe chair next to me.

Now these were not the only kids that had stickers today. A few rows up I saw the adorable miss Abrie playing with some stickers. She was sticking them on the back of her mother's shirt. I don't know who was more entertained, Abrie, or those of us sitting behind them. Abrie was more than happy to share her stickers and she and Macie both went to visit with their friends the Orr's. Man am I going to miss all these guys when they move. Not only will my entertainment spectrum shrink drastically but there will be some great people I will not get to see.

In Loving Memory of Joey April 1, 1993 - February, 12 2008

2008-02-12T10:15:00.000-05:00

Shortly after midnight today Joey was put to sleep. It was a VERY tough decision but it was what was best for him. Here is a recap of the events that led to the decision to let my “baby” go. Thursday night my Mom and I discovered him with a bloody nose. We took him to the vet first thing Friday and they said they thought it was just a side effect from some medication he was on for his thyroid. They said he would be fine and sent him home Saturday. Well things got a lot worse for him over the weekend. We called the vet and they said he just needed rest but if he didn’t get better to bring him back on Monday. He stopped eating(and this boy never turned down food) and we noticed him walking into things. We suspected he lost his eyesight. Although he was still able to find his way to the toilet to get a drink of water. (that’s my boy). He would get up and start walking around then sit and cry because he was scared and didn’t know where he was and we would go pick him up and take him back and lay him down some place comfy. His tail had stopped working.(it was always twitching and swaying normally, and he could not even curl it up around him.) He had stopped purring and when he tried to it sounded funny. It was heart breaking to watch. He was such a sick boy.

So Monday it was back to the vet and we found out he was completely blind because his retinas detached. They suggested taking him to another vet, an internist to see if they could figure out what was going on with him since he seemed to be going downhill so quickly. Which of course we did right away hoping there was something we could do for him. At first we were hopeful they would be able to find a way to help and get him healthy again even though we knew he would never see again. However with each test they did it got worse. By 11:30pm they called and said he was bleeding internally someplace and they were not sure where, his liver was failing, his blood pressure was dropping, he had a urinary blockage and his red blood cell count was down. They were talking about blood transfusions, a catheter and feeding tubes. A lot of aggressive treatment for our boy and no guarantees when it was all done he would be well enough to come home. Plus no matter what he would be blind.

We just decided we didn’t have the heart to put him through all of it. We would have been selfish to do all that to him. He went downhill so fast and we have no idea why and decided the only fair thing to do for him was to say goodbye. He had a good, happy and full life and it was clearly his time to go. So we drove down to the vet and held him one last time and made sure he knew we loved him. Yes I cried like a baby the whole time. He was clearly in pain and his eyes were big and vacant. The fact that he didn’t even squirm a little as we held him and said our goodbyes showed just how sick he was. The Vet came in and after we said our very tearful good byes and put him to sleep. It was quick and painless for him. He laid his little head down and was gone. They gave us a little paw print of him to take home and bake and we opted to have a individual cremation and will pick up his ashes in about 2 weeks. Oh and we never really did find out what caused all this to happen and what was wrong with him to begin with. That was another reason we decide to let him go, they could not figure out the root cause...

There are too many good memories to list here but I wanted to list a few. He was very much the comedic relief at times. He was an indoor cat but would escape from time to tome and loved to roll around on the concrete of the front porch, we called it the caterpillar. He sometimes thought he was a dog. He would beg for food(he would take your arm off for bacon or American cheese) , follow you around from room to room and come when he was called. The smallest things amused him. He loved to bat around little balls of paper, twist ties, and bugs. He usually ended up eating the bugs. He purred so loud you could hear him in the next room. He slept in some weird places and for the longest time he claimed a box lid as his very own and would move it around to the location of his choosing to sleep in it. For years he had a little pink panther stuffed animal he would cart around and play with. He was spoiled and loved but he loved us right back.

Here are some pictures of my boy from over the years. I could only find some of the ones I wanted to use.

He was a little peanut when he first came into my life.

And there was never a sock he met that he liked. (or a pair of nylons for that matter)

Bath time was never something he enjoyed so luckily he only had to have a few in his life time since he kept himself pretty clean.

He was beyond disgusted when he got a “little brother” 2 years ago. (The brother has been looking all over the house for him and crying that he can’t find him. It is really kind of sad.)

He loved the outdoors when he was able to sneak out. Otherwise he sat longingly at the front door.

He was a champion sleeper and loved to find a sunbeam to curl up in on the sofa

The latest place he claimed as his was the top of my travel suitcase. He loved it so much I let him keep it as his bed.

I will miss him terribly and there will always be a special place in my heart that will belong to only him. He was a sweetheart.

Retail Therapy, feeding an addiction and avoiding the inevitable.

2008-02-10T19:08:00.000-05:00

Yep that is how I would sum up my Saturday night. As a few of you know my cat, Joey is very sick and most like will not pull through without a miracle at this point. Most of the day Saturday I was keeping an eye on him while trying to get some studying done for my midterm. About 7 Pm I decided I needed a little retail therapy. So off the Barnes and Noble I headed. Yes I confess my retail therapy was at the book store and there was not a piece of clothing, a purse or pair of shoes involved, a travesty I know. Instead I fed my photography addiction by purchasing a a couple of photography magazines and a photography book. Now I probably would have stayed at the book store a while longer if I had not had my sense of smell bombarded so strongly. There were several people milling around that were in a major need of a shower, some soap, and had clothing that needed to be introduced to a washing machine, most were teenage boys that I am guessing were playing sports earlier in the day or rolling around in horse poo.

So after I left I was still feeling the desire to avoid working on my midterm study guide since I was finding a lot of what was said to be on the test was stuff we had not read yet and I was feeling a bit stressed over that. I thought about stopping at Lowe's and picking up some Plexiglas I want to play with and the Krylon spray paint I want to help spruce up my camera case. However I decide it was probably best in my current state of mind I didn't play with spray paint. So instead of extending my retail therapy to Lowes I headed home... Oh what a glamorous life I live. I know you are all super Jealous of me and who can blame you...