Introducing Paisley

So John thought Dakota needed a friend. She's been here about 2 hours and he seems to like her.

Merry Christmas to Me!!!

My Christmas present to myself finally arrived. :)

The platters and large bowls arrived in January.

Conserving Energy

The kittens are conserving energy and using body heat to keep warm.

RIP Sam

We lost Sam at 7:01 am today. Cancer sucks!!!

Muffin checks his Facebook page

POTD 1/1/10

Trying to keep up with a photo a day challenge. For 1/1/10, here is Gymbo hanging out in the kitchen.

Dogless no more

We lost Buck last Christmas and Critter and Angel just 3 months ago. John just couldn't imagine any more time without a dog....so here is our "new" addition...

He's a 9 year old lab that is very well behaved - except he likes to swim. He's jumped in the water garden 4 times - 3 were within his first 15 minutes here.

His former owners were moving to a smaller house and sadly didn't think there would be enough room.

You Knew I'd Get Attached

Muffin helping me check emails. He's become my shadow.


Muffin and Scone taking their Sunday nap.

Moving A Mountain

Mulch Mountain

Lauren climbed the mountain and declared herself queen. She then laid down on top of the mountain and said it was her swimming pool. Later, it was a living room and she sat down to "watch tv".

And then there were none

We have to face the overwhelming task of putting our 2 remaining dogs to sleep this afternoon. Earlier this week, Critter was unable to use his back legs. The vet said his degenerative back disease left him unable to feel his feet. He received a steroid shot, but never responded. He uses his front feet to pull himself along outside, while dragging the back legs. Until you see him try to move, he looks fine - and his tail still wags.

Angel's arthritis ramped way up, unfortunately at the same time as Critter. It's in both her left legs and her compensating has caused issues in her front shoulder, tendons and ligaments. She now appears to be in pain. For the past few weeks, John has been carrying the dogs in/out.

Seriously, what are the odds of having both of them deteriorate and pass on the same day? We just lost Buck six months ago, so we are not handling this well at all. We've done everything we can, but we can't get the quality of their life back. So...we love and let go.

Thundersnow

I'm tired of this weather.

Twenty Years ago....

I got my first credit card during my first semester of college in 1989. John got his first card a year later. Both of us have had credit card debt ever since. I was introduced to Dave Ramsey in May 2007 by my friend Mindy and her husband Jeff. (Man, do I owe them dinner)

We started FPU the last week of May and have never looked back.

The most exciting thing is as of last week, we have NO credit card debt!!! It's all gone, gone, gone. We have no car payments and only owe on 2 things - my education and our house.

Two houses down, a family moved out a few weeks ago. This makes the 5th foreclosure on our street alone. Even with this economy, we are better now than we ever have been. I want to scream it from the rooftop, but it's cold out there. Sorry if others feel like I'm bragging, but we have worked our tails off to get to this point. We were used to buying what we wanted, whenever we wanted.

Now I look at my Citibank card that says member since '89 and have decided I don't want to be a member of that club anymore. I'm also spreading the excitement. Three of my staff are now on the Dave Ramsey plan. They've all borrowed my FPU and TMMO books. One is in FPU now. We will change the world, one family at a time. We don't need a bailout, we'll do it on our own thank you.

You've Been Mooned

I saw the 2Peas post that tonight's moon was going to be fabulous.

Here is my first moon photo. My editing software keeps locking up my computer, so this is SOOC following similar settings from the Moon Thread (ISO200 SS 1/640 F/5.6) Since I only have 2 lenses, I used my 75-300mm lens.

More Practice

I tried taking some pictures of the rest of the clan, but I've found I'm not very good at manual focus yet. So, these are straight auto focus. Obviously, more practice is in order.

Sam

Tater

Start..Ready, Set, Go

I started the 12 week photo course at 2Peas. I just took pictures using the Av mode on my camera and 3 different f/stops. It's a grey day outside and the sun was setting, so my tree pictures are not exciting at all. You have to start somewhere, so here I am.

Room for Another Hobby

John bought me a Canon Rebel XSI for Christmas, so now I've added another hobby. Now I have scrapping, cooking and photography. In addition, I'm trying to finish up a baby quilt before Alexis arrives.

Miles continue to fight his MRSI (like MRSA in humans). The vet thought he might take the stitches and drain out tomorrow. It's been a roller coaster and we didn't think he'd pull through. It's been emotionally draining, especially since we have lost 4 pets in the last 15 months - Buck was just last week.

I was in my office/scraproom talking to a friend when I saw the sunset below from my window. I raced outside to get a picture. I'm completely unfamiliar with my camera, so I just used the auto setting. I have printed out a lot of stuff and am going to spend 2009 learning as much as I can about photography and my camera.