Camera Critters

"What the Pug"



I was having fun today taking pictures of Phoebe and her new t-shirt! I was surprised I got her to pose like this!

Scrapbooking fun!!

I had a great time at the scrapbooking meetup last night! I enjoyed being able to scrapbook and meeting new friends!

I ended up going without any pictures. I was attempted to print some photos before leaving and for some reason it was taking about 10 minutes a photo! My printer has never taken that long before. It makes me wonder if I had a different setting selected that made it so slow. I need to start printing my pictures about once a month so this isn't an issue anymore. I need to go through and find pics for the LO's I did do. I was able to get 3 page kits done that I had brought. One was a Scrapjammies kit and the other two was from Scrapbook Generation. When I got home I added photos to the SJ kit I did but still haven't done the journaling.

This is the Exuberant kit from SJ and I thought it needed pics from Paris! These are all from the Eiffel Tower. I do miss the Eiffel Tower!



This is frustrating!! I cropped this image in photobucket but it keeps showing the original. If I go to photobucket, I can see the cropped image. It is what it is! :-)

I am having a hard time typing as I have a puppy that wants my attention! She keeps digging on my legs wanting me to pick her up. Then she cuddles in my arms and lays her head down. It is a little hard to type like that! I hope the weather will hold up today for a bit so I can take Phoebe out for a walk around the neighborhood.

I am off to get ready for my day!!

Spring . . .

I went outside this morning about 8am to put the trash by the street. The wind was blowing and it felt good. It wasn't to warm but wasn't too cool. It was refreshing!!! After getting the trash out, I was going inside to have some breakfast, check the MB, enjoy a Frappucino that I had in the freezer and then go back outside!! By the time I did all that, the wind had turned cooler and wasn't as refreshing as it was earlier. Clouds had moved in and I realized that it was going to rain as predicted by the weather man. Rats!! I was hoping that it was going to be nice like it was at 8am.



While I was outside, I noticed that with this warmer weather we have been having, my flowers are starting to come up. I know that it is going to get colder and they won't make it. That makes me sad. This happens every year. I made that my POTD! At least some of the flowers wait till it is really warm out and do survive! My fave is my iris. I planted a whole row and only one came up.

A nice surprise when I checked google reader this morning was that Phoebe had a blog post just about her!! I had her pictures done last month at UTurn Studios for pet modeling as she posted some of the pics on her blog. You can check them out here!

Now it is about 4pm and the rain has stopped and the outdoors has a nice welcoming feeling again. I don't have time to enjoy it as I am getting ready to head off to meet some new scrapbooking buddies through meetup.com and do a little scrapbooking. I am really enjoying going to crops and meeting new people! School was sucking the life out of me and I am enjoying doing what I want to do! :-)

Wild chewing puppy!

Yesterday, Phoebe was a wild and crazy puppy! She was in trouble every time I turned around!! The biggest trouble she got in was chewing on my Blackberry Pearl! I had taken my phone with me to my bedroom and had it on my headboard. I had forgotten about it when I got up. When I went into my bedroom later, I found my phone on my bed and when I picked it up it was all chewed up and missing the back cover!! I found the back cover and was able to get it to fit again. Then the phone wouldn't unlock! I kept pushing the keys to unlock it over and over and finally it unlocked!! It appeared to be working. Phew!!

I made this my POTD for February 7.



I made a phone call on it and everything seemed to be working. I went to AT&T to find out what my options were just in case it stopped working. I am unable to change the volume on my phone. It seems to be at a good volume. If the volume gets turned down, then I would be unable to turn it up! In the store, I had opened the back of the phone to show the damage on the inside of the phone and he pointed out to me that it has had water damage. More like slobber damage!! The white sticker was now red. I have no insurance on the phone as they wouldn't let me get insurance on it. I find out yesterday that they allow insurance on my phone now but it is too late for me!! I could have upgraded but only get half the discount or I can wait till mid-May and get my full discount. Since I did get my phone to working again, I decided to wait. If for some reason the phone does quite working, I will have to go back to my old phone.

She was in a chewing mood yesterday. She got ahold of my wireless mouse and chewed on it. Now the scroll wheel seems to get stuck on something but will still turn. She loves her blue nyla bone but I couldn't find it yesterday. I finally found it late last night stuck inbetween my waterbed mattress and frame. She has been happier today with it!

It seems as today she has been making up for yesterday trying to be all cute! She does this funny thing with my covers and gets underneath them. Then she will poke her head through and lay all covered up on my bed! I was able to get a picture of it today!

I made this the POTD for February 8.



She wasn't listening to well to me today when we went to our pet training class though! I also had her nails done after class and she had a fit!!! I took her in December to have them done and she did good. This time she had a fit and they weren't going to do it. It took two of them but they did get it done. I really would like for her to let me use the pedi paws on her to save money. I have slowly been introducing her to tool but haven't worked up to actually using it on her.

I am at the Mudhouse and my allergies have decided to act up. I need to get home, relax and take some allergy medicine! :-)

Lion Kitty!!

Three years ago I took Chloe to get groomed and she had some tangles in her hair. They warned me that day that they may have to shave my cat. I didn't want them to but they said it might be the only way to take care of her tangles. They said that they would try to get the tangles out but they may shave her. They called me before picking her up that they did have to shave her and that I had a lion kitty. I vowed that I was never going to have her shaved again! That was tramatic for me and her!

Well, in December she was ill and I didn't realize it. She had a UTI and eleveated liver enzymes. I had to give her medicines for a month. The antibiotic three times a day for a couple of weeks. She wasn't a very happy kitty but it was to help her. I had taken the time to get her hair all combed out about the time this all happened. In a months time, she had gotten tangled on her belly. When I took Chloe to get her check up to see if the medicine was going to work, I was told that she may have to be shaved. I was determined to get these tangles out!! I realized her tangles were a little too much and decided it was best to get her shaved again. I couldn't believe that in a month's time her hair had gotten that bad of shape. She was mad at me for giving her medicine and she didn't want to be near me. I wasn't able to keep on top of her hair and keep it tangle free.



I took her in to get her shaved - a lion kitty cut! The last time they left her tail all fluffy and forget to tell them to leave it fluffy again this time. I went to pick up my kitty and she was so tiny without all that fur!! She was pretty mad! I didn't notice her tail right away but they shaved her tail all but the very end! It is cut like a lion! I just love petting her as it feels like velvet now!



After I picked her up at the vets, I took her to Petland to get her a sweater. They were still on sale and she was going to need one with the cold weather still upon us! I had Chloe on a leash and I took my lion kitty to Petland! The girl in the boutique loved Chloe and her lion kitty cut! She seemed to be more calm and I even had a cute sweater on her.



She wiggled out of her sweater later and it has warmed up some so I haven't put the sweater back on her. She has been sleeping real close to me some nights. I feel asleep last night and woke up with Chloe on my neck! It was funny and she was just happy! I am going to do my best for this not to happen again as I like my kitty best with all her fur! The groomer did tell me that they could shave her belly as that was were she was tangled the worst and she will stillhave most of her hair. I might consider it when her hair grows back.

Pet Hotel

I never made it back to talk about the Pet Hotel at Petsmart. It was interesting and I enjoying being able to tour it. I got a free overnight stay for touring it. I am going to have to try it out!



I brought Phoebe with me thinking she would get to go through the hotel but they had a room with people watching our dogs while we went through the hotel.

The cats have a room with kennels and a TV. It is a small room and I wasn't able to get a picture of it. I really like a sign they had that said "Cat Diva's". The group was moving to fast! Then we went into another room that the dogs get to stay in. Some are bigger kennels and other are smaller. I am sure Phoebe would get a smaller kennel if she stayed. I thought it was cute the telephone they have inside! They call it the Bone Booth! The picture I have isn't good but it is the best I could get!



They have play areas for them which is the doggie day care. You have to pay for them to have extra playtime. They have some play areas in the front so the people in the store can watch the dogs play. You can also purchase your dog to have a special treat. I couldn't believe the size of these treats! My pup would be in doggie heaven! She would end up being a pudgy pug if she had those treats all the time!



It was a great time touring the hotel. The prices are a little high compared to my vets. If I was to go out of town, I would use my vet. I might have Phoebe involved in doggie day care to some so she can play with other dogs.

What happened?

I have been in a blogging hiatus! I didn't mean to be but it happened. I am also way behind on answering emails. I don't know why these things get behind anymore but they do.

Since the beginning of the year I have taken on the quest of taking a picture everyday (POTD). This has all come from Becky Higgins kit Project 365. I am still waiting on my kit but I am ready!! I have been able to keep up so far but need the kit to be able to scrap them. I had a hard time coming up with a picture yesterday and finally just took a picture of Chloe and had some fun in Photoshop with her pic. Here is the result:



I used Courtney's actions that I got off flickr and they are nostalgia and pink nostalgia. I would like to learn the different steps on how to do this myself. I have a few books on Photoshop and really would like to work through them to see what I can learn. You can also google some things and find online tutorials.

I am taking my pup Phoebe to the grand opening of the Pet Hotel at Petsmart. I am curious what it is going to be like! Phoebe has attended pet training in the new area already. I really like it. I can let Phoebe run around in the area as we are doing the training class. I plan to bring my camera to make this my POTD! I hopefully will have pics later.

I am going to get busy with my day!

A nice, relaxing warm day

Today has been an awesome day! I haven't had a good day like this in a long time. I am so glad that today worked out like it did.

I was woke up early by my darling pup. I really wanted to sleep longer but I took care of the furbabies. I stayed up and was catching up on my fave MB's. I took the time to read two others that I haven't visited in a couple of weeks. It was nice reconnecting with others on those MB's today. Then while I was enjoying my chatty time on the MB's, Phoebe was downstairs destroying another box of tissues. Silly pup!



This box of tissues wasn't shredded as much as what she did a couple of weeks ago! I can't take my eyes off her for to long or she is in some kind of trouble!

I got in the shower earlier than I normally do and was ready to leave the house by 1130. Very unusual for me! I called the LSS to take a class this afternoon and made 3, 2 page LO's. They are so adorable and they always have such create ideas! I can't wait to add photos to them. I had lunch at my favorite resaurant before going scrapping also.

Then after having a relaxing time at the LSS, I went home to get Phoebe and take her to the dog park. I figured there would be someone at the dog park and there were actually lots of little dogs today! Phoebe had a blast! We even saw 3 other pugs! I believe 2 of them Phoebe has meet before. We stayed there for about an hour and went back home.

I am now enjoying frozen coffee at my fave coffee shop while cruising the internet. I am starting to feel a little tired and thinking about doing my grocery shopping and heading home for the evening.

Work has been nuts lately. Last week the census was low because of the holiday but this week we are back to normal. I ended up with a suicide/detox pt that wasn't being very nice and was difficult to deal with. I had about had it with everything! When I went back to work a day later, I had a family member be a little difficult. I have got to have a better night at work!! I really hope that the next time I work, it will be better. I am looking forward to my 4 day weekend that is in a couple of weeks! I really need it!

No sleep . . . . .

Family can be so inconsiderate at times. I have always had them not call me when something is going on as they are afraid to wake me. Today, they weren't afraid to wake me!!! I lost it when they came over to my house and started tapping on my window!!!!

On Christmas Eve, we always have gotten together at my Grandma's. I seem to have to work which I do again this year. I really wanted Dec. 23 off but didn't get it so I could at least spend the afternoon at my Grandma's and then go to work. It wasn't going to happen that way this year as my family was getting together at noon. We had drew names this year and I had my cousin's name. I wasn't able to deliver the gift but just thought I would mail it. No big deal to me but my family thought they needed it . . . . . . so here are the events leading up to no sleep!

I worked all night last night and got off about 0715. I came home and let the pup play and got ready for bed. I also needed to give Chloe her meds but she was hiding. In the meantime, I finally got lights on my tree. Then she finally resurfaced and I could give her antibiotics and head to bed. By this time it was 1030. Way past my bedtime for having to return to work that night!!

Then around noon I was sleeping and the phone rang. I hadn't been alseep that long and didn't realize it was the phone, just an annoying ring!! It stopped. I got up and put my phone upstairs so I couldn't hear it anymore. I had a message but went back to bed not listening to it. About an hour later, I had barely fallen asleep and my doorbell is ringing. I wasn't going to answer it since I was trying to sleep. Then there was tapping on my window!!! I lost it . . . . I opened the door and it was my sister and just went off on how I have to work again that night and that I didn't appreciate being woke up like this. She was coming over to pick up the gift for the person's name I had. I hadn't wrapped it yet since I wasn't going to be able to make it to the gathering. It really made me mad that no one could have talked to me about picking up the gift before hand. I had talked to my Mom a few times the night before and no mention of trying to pick up the gift. They wait till I am asleep and decide to call and then stop by my house.

In the process of all this, the puppy was awake and wanted out of her crate.

I have had 1 1/2 hours of sleep and have to get up in one hour and 10 minutes to get ready for work. This is going to be a long 12 hour shift tonight!

It isn't nice to steal things that aren't yours!!

I have a rude awaking today. It is Sunday and my bank is calling me to verify a charge on my debit card. It was for a large amount through a paypal account. Someone was using my debit card number in a paypal account to make purchases. I was lucky that my bank caught all this before it went through. Everything has been cancelled now. I just wish people wouldn't be mean and do things like this. This had happened to my sister a while back with her credit card. She was lucky also as her bank caught it before they went through. I hope they are able to trace who did this and get them.

Anyways, I am at the Mudhouse and a back door is open when we are having negative wind chills which is making it FREEZING in here!!! They are closing early today so they can have there annual Christmas party. I wish we could close the hospital to have a Christmas party with everyone! That will never happen! :-)

I took my furbabies to see santa at Petsmart this afternoon. It isn't easy to get 3 cats and 1 puppy loaded up and into the pet store! I did it! I got two pictures done this year. One with the cats and one with my pup. I would love to have them all together but didn't think that would work out very well. I saved santa from getting smacked by a cat!



Phoebe enjoyed santa! She instantly gave santa lots of puppy kisses! It took her a while to get calmed down to finally get the pic we got. Then she was finally sitting on santa's lap when they were printing the picture I choose!

After her picture, I took her to the grooming department and had her nails trimmed. I really didn't think she would let them but was going to try. The last time she had her nails trimmed, she acted up quite badly! I was surprised that when I got back to the grooming department after paying for the nail trim, she was done! Her nails are so much better! I need to get me the pedipaw system to learn to do this myself to help save money.




The cats weren't to thrilled about this experience. Chloe is on santa's lap and was just being calm. Pandora (the blonde kitty) was doing pretty good but could tell she wasn't to sure about this. Felix is always the one to act up which he did good but was making these low meow's to let us know he wasn't happy! He kept slipping out of santa's arm and I would have to reposition him. We finally got a pic with all of them looking! That was a task!

I am in love with the art of photography!

I have really been enjoying my photography classes that I have taken so far. I am sad that next week is my last portrait photography class. I have learned so much and looking forward to taking intermediate photography and then the lighting class to learn even more!

I have also started reading Popular Photography & Shutterbug to pick up on other tips. I picked up a Digital PhotoPro magazine today as it was the masters special of great photographers. I have also been saving lots of photographers blogs to watch and learn what they are doing in poses and composition. I got some fun ideas today in class watching a video of a photographer doing a senior portrait session. I wrote down some ideas and want to take my nieces on a photo shoot now! I just wish the weather was warmer. I can't wait for Spring!

After tonights class, I came home and started to google ways to make your own lights. I ended finding not only that but how to make a ghetto photography studio from things you would find at the hardware store. I even added some of this to my Christmas list and looking forward to making my own affordable photography studio. I even have a perfect spot in my living room to set this up. WOOHOO!!!

I learned recently about bokeh. I have the perfect lens to make bokeh and learned something tonight on how be more creative with this. I have a great idea on the use of Bokeh and my puppy! I need to get all my Christmas stuff out and I can give this a try.



Today before class, I finally took time to merge three photos I took of the Diana Memorial Fountain in London, England. It turned out pretty good. I thought one part was to dark but my instructor told me that it actually matched the trees and didn't notice it till I pointed it out. Yeah!! I am glad that I thought about doing this while I was there!! I had found panorama photo paper for $3 at an office supply store just recently! I hope to print out some of my Eiffel Tower photos as panorama's! If you click on the photo, it will take you to my flickr photostream and you can see this pic in panorama. I made the photo fit my post and it is squished now!

I am going to finish watching Grey's Anatomy and then head to bed.

Tagged . . . . .

I have been tagged by a couple of people for the same thing. I am going to be a rebel and just link to something a did a couple of years ago! Instead of 6 interesting facts about me you will get 100!!!!

100 things about me

Friday Fill-in

1. My stomach __aches___.

2. _Stuffing__ is what I ate the most of on Thursday.

3. The yard __is full of leaves___.

4. __The beach____ is where I'd rather be at any given time.

5. The smell of __MK new perfume warm ambers____ reminds me of __sugar cookies_.

6. __To be able to keep fluids down___ is what I need right now!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _Nothing, working__, tomorrow my plans include _sleeping but woke up and couldn't stop vomiting__ and Sunday, I want to _feel better_!

Friday Fill-Ins

1. The last band I saw live was __a random band on Halloween____.

2. What I look forward to most on Thanksgiving is __taking pictures__. (if you don't celebrate thanksgiving, insert your favorite holiday)

3. My Christmas/holiday shopping is __non-existent____.

4. Thoughts of __student loans___ fill my head.

5. I wish I could wear __Sandals (I miss warm weather!)_.

6. Bagpipes __at the bridge near the London Eye/Big Ben in London__.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _nothing, I am working____, tomorrow my plans include _going to the grand opening celebration of the dog park with my pup Phoebe___ and Sunday, I want to _not go to work___!

Sneaky Mohela

A few months ago I got a letter from Mohela stating what my payments would be with different plans they offer for student loan repayment. The 10 year plan showed that my payment would be about $122. I thought not bad and decided to leave it alone and not do the other plans. I found out last week that my student loan payment is actually going to be almost $400 a month on the 10 year plan. They want the first payment in December. I am not happy with this payment that they want!! I am having to make cuts in things to be able to afford this. I only got a 50 cent raise when I graduated - not enough to compensate for a $400 student loan payment!!!

I am actually still paying for RN school. I am closer to paying that one off but I still have a payment with them. I am hoping to all Mohela tomorrow to see what is up with this and what can be done. I must have misunderstood something in that later I got a few months ago. I still have a copy of it.

I did google loan repayment for RN's and found something that should become available again at the beginning of the year. I could get 60% of my loan paid for if I agree to work where I am for 3 years. I am really considering it! I am going to see what other options are out there to see what I can do. It is time to redo the budget and cut some things that I can do without.

I was going to work on my budget while at the Mudhouse today but can't find my Quicken 2007 disk. I have it on my desktop so I will have to work on that later tonight. Instead I have been working on my photography homework. I got my wireless remote out and did some pics outside this evening. Here is my fav of me:



I was having a hard time figuring out where to stand! There were times that I was out of focus but the background was in focus. Kinda cool but not what I was going for!

Phoebe was having a blast running outside! I was running and playing with her which got her even more wild! I think she loved playing in the leaves on the ground!



Today she was going to be graduating from intermediate class. I had miss one class because of Phoebe's hip surgery and another couple have missed some too. We all decided to work on what is going to be on the test and graduate next week. I need to work with Phoebe on heeling. She does pretty good but yet she likes to take off sometimes! We have homework to do this week!

Next Saturday the dog park opens here!! I plan to go to the grand opening celebration with Phoebe. I am looking forward to see what the dog park will be like!

I am off to go home and work on my budget and things I need to get done.

Getting back into the groove!

It has taken me a while to get back into the swing of daily life. As soon as I got back, I ended up sick! I had taken a few days off before having to return to work and ended up needing those days to get better. I need longer than what I had but I am finally feeling better. I had a hard time getting back on my night shift schedule and felt like I might have had jet lag all week!! I had a hard time staying awake at work and then falling asleep in my car before pulling out of the parking lot. Last week was much easier and I felt like I did before I left for vacation.



I have an update on Phoebe. I had posted a little on what happened before I left for my trip. Just two days after I picked her up from the vets, she ended up dislocating her hip again. The vet gave me two options to either do another closed reduction or to do surgery. He told me he would be unable to do a total hip replacement since Phoebe is a small dog and didn't have enough bone to work with. He suggested FHO - Femoral Head Ostectomy. I have taken care of hip pts before and know that when a hip dislocates, it is easier for it to happen again. I opted to have the FHO surgery. The vet told me that small dogs do good with this surgery and normally recover in a week. After he performed the surgery, he called me to let me know how it went. It turned out that Phoebe had actually broken the ball of her hip and this was the surgery she needed. I felt better that I made the right choice!! Other than that, she was doing good. I wouldn't be able to take her home for a few days. I have had to do Physical Therapy to her leg and she hates it! I don't blame her for not liking it. Tomorrow will be 2 weeks since the surgery and she is doing much better! I am looking forward to seeing what the vet thinks of her recovery. I hope he doesn't have to sedate her but we have had to every time so far.


Here she is holding her leg up. She is finally using her leg a little more but still favors that leg.


I can tell from this pic that some of her hair has grown back. She still has a way to go!


I hope to start updating my blog more often. I never meant to be such a blog slacker but I also don't spend as much time on the computer since I got done with school. I am loving the relaxation and free time I have on my days off though!

Back home :(

I was actually sad to be leaving Paris and London to go back home. I wasn't done seeing everything I wanted. Paris and London are huge and it is hard to see everything in a few days! I really believe I need to go back and see more!! I hope that the value of the American dollar gets better. It was quite expensive. I was looking at my bank statement this morning seeing how much I actually got charged. I had an idea but the banks go off the current exchange rate. I had a pretty good idea!!

I got home last night and was looking forward to actually checking my email and my internet isn't working. My wireless router won't connect. I tried to connect directly and still couldn't get on the internet. I spent some time this morning calling tech support and finally got internet working but it isn't wireless. I need to figure out what is going on. Things were working just fine when I left. I even turned all my electrical things off. Why that has to mess everything up I have no idea!!

My flights too and from Paris and London were good. I did have a little issue with a lady on my long flight home. It was a huge plane with two seats, an isle, three seats, an isle and two more seats. I was sitting in a window seat on the way home enjoying the view. About 4 hours into the flight a lady asked the flight attendent to ask me to close my window. This lady had been asking her to close other peoples windows also. It was kinda dark in this area of the plane because of all the windows shut. The flight attendent said to me that she realized I was looking out the window but if I could shut it a little so I could still see out but then it would be darker. I did do that. Shortly after that this lady yelled at the flight attendent, "She said NO!!". I was in ear shot but sitting like I wasn't hearing anything. I heard the flight attendent tell the lady that I was wanting to be able to see out the window so she shut it halfway. This lady is sitting with a piece of paper over her face after this. I put my headphones on and started watching TV shows from my ipod touch and continued to enjoy the view from my window! I was sooo ready to get off that plane and her attitude towards me. I kept my mouth shut and didn't say anything.

Today my ears are bothering me and my allergies just a bit. I had a headache from the flight and my sinuses. I was so ready for bed last night!! I went to bed and brought my cell phone and placed on my headboard. I had forgotten that I still had it set for Paris time with the alarm set to wake me up at 7am. So at midnight my time, my alarm went off! I did get to sleep till about 0630 and I started getting ready to go pick up my puppy.

Right before I left for my trip, Phoebe dislocated her hip. I found out while I was in London that her hip was back in place and the vet only had to do a closed reduction. She keeps walking with that left up. They told me she has been doing that and it is okay. I have puppy class with her today and afraid!! They said I can walk her on a leash but she isn't to be running for at least 3 weeks. I hope we will be able to finish our intermediate class! The trainer I have been working with I won't see till next week. She has been on vacation too. Another trainer will be teaching today. I brought Phoebe home and she was soo excited!! She kept wagging her tail and looking at me! All my babies were happy for me to get home! The cats kept purring and wanting my attention last night.

I think I might need a nap! I am going to have to readjust to the time change again. I hope to be able to finish uploading pictures and adding post about my trip. It was an AWESOME trip and would do it all over again!!!

London!!

I meant to make a post before I left but time got away from me. I have been in London for a few days and going to be in Paris in a couple of days. I have lots to tell but not the time to sit in an internet cafe to update my blog. I am currently in an internet cafe uploading pics. I am unsure how long this is going to take as I selected 232 MB worth of pics. I hope it doesn't take too long!



I have been using the London Underground the last few days and it was scary at first but not to hard now that I figured it out. The very first time I used the underground, I got on the wrong train! That is typical for me! I realized it before I got outside the zone my ticket was for! After that I learned to watch the board on where the trains was going! :-)

Then today I decided to take the red line and I had to go down 3 very STEEP and LONG escalators!! That freaked me out and realized that this train was truely underground!! I did snap a picture of the long escalators and then got told that no pictures were to be taken in the underground. Not sure what taking a picture of the stairs/escalators was going to harm. I was glad those were there or I would have passed out from climbing the stairs!

Today I started at a tube station near my hotel and got off to see the Marble Arch. I walked down Oxford street where there were tons of shops! I ended up in the Soho neighborhood with very posh stores. I went to a few stores but the prices after the exchange in US dollars wasn't worth it! Much cheaper in the US. I really enjoyed Muji which had some stationary items that would be good for altering. I did get a couple of blank notebooks for making scrapbooks out of! I asked if they had any scrapbook stores in London and I got looked at like I had three heads!! So, I have given up on that!

I have realized that sparkling water is a big hit. I have some crystal light packets with me and have always thought it would be good in a fizzy drink. They have my hotel room with sparkling water so I tried it and it was good! I don't like it plain very well though.

About 25% of my photos have uploaded. I have some already uploaded and hopefully I will get these uploaded. I am not going to take the time to describe the photo fully till I get home I believe. Takes to much time!

I am off to send some emails!

Camera Critters!

This is my pup, Phoebe. She was taking a little nap on her pillow!

Rockin' Sunday!

Yesterday didn't go quite as planned but it ended on a fun note!! A friend I hadn't seen in awhile called me - which I missed her first phone call. I got up early yesterday but decided to lay back down till my alarm went off at 10 am but slept through it till 1412!!! I was disappointed on seeing how late I woke up as I had a list of stuff to do. I went ahead and got showered and dressed to at least accomplish some of this list. I actually got none of it done but it was all good!!

I realized about 1600 that I had a missed call and a voice mail from my friend. I called and left her a voice mail and finished getting ready. When I was ready to leave the house, my phone rang and it was my friend! We ended up going out for a drink, dinner and a movie! She told me it was all on her as a graduation gift to me! We had drinks at Ruby Tuesday, dinner at the Olive Garden and then went and saw "Burn After Reading". That was a funny movie! Brad Pitt played an airhead guy and it cracked me up!! It was a great night!!



This morning I was woke up around 0630 as the puppy decided it was time to get up!! I got her out of her crate and put her on my bed. It was so cute as she laid on my bed wagging her tail! :-) I better not let her sleep with me too much as she will expect it! She was wanting to play! She had been sleeping longer since I got home kinda late so she had rested all she wanted! I decided I would enjoy me some Kid Rock this morning, blog and let Phoebe play! We are having a nice little morning! I don't plan to go back to bed so I can get on a somewhat normal schedule!

I would love to see Kid Rock in concert and wouldn't it be cool if he was playing in London when I was there!?!?! I saw that he is going to be in London on November 30th but I think he needs to move it up a bit!! :-)

The agenda today is to mow the yard!! I have been meaning to do this for a week! I like mowing it late at night about 1900 but it is too dark then. I can do the things I need during the day and then end it with mowing the lawn. I am going to start my day so I don't have to end it short by coming home to mow. I really hope that I don't have to mow it again till next year!

I also have intermediate puppy class today. I might fit in some shopping in between mowing and puppy class depending on what time it is. I really want to hang out at the Mudhouse today. I haven't done that in a long time! I need some time to review my paperwork for my trip as it is approaching rather quickly!! I want to make a list and a tentative schedule for myself. :-)

I am going to finish the LO I started at the crop Friday night and then it might be a better time to start mowing my yard!

I am off to enjoy the day!!!

Scrappy evening!

I have been slacking in the blogging!! One reason is that it is hard to when you have a puppy eating all the paper in sight!! She is cute but oh my! She gets in trouble quickly!!

Tonight I went to a scrapbooking event with my sister. It was fun as usual. I never get that much done as they have demos and make-n-takes to do. I always have to go to all of them!! I almost got a 2 page layout done of the trip we took to Six Flags last year. I had a pic at home I wanted to add so I did everything but the pics on the 2nd page. I will have to post it later! I even won some chipboard for having a Six Flags picture!

I even learned something at one of the demos that I wouldn't have thought of. If you want photos in a smaller size but want to print other than at home, you can add them to a blank 6x4 document in photoshop. She was adding 6 photos all in 2x2 in size on a 6x4 document. Then she can upload them and have them printed for the price of a 6x4! I am going to have to try this for some small mini books!

Phoebe in September got spayed. She did great! I picked her up and she didn't even act as if she had surgery! On the ride home, she was sitting like it hurt though! It was kinda funny. I had pain medicine to give her once we got home. Once she got out of the carrier, she was chasing the cats again! She has her stitches out now and had no problems!



I took Pandora and Felix for there yearly check-ups and they did good!! Last year Felix acted up as he normally does. This year he let them do everything and the growled about it. Then when it came to vaccinations, he growled and was trying to escape! They both were champs!! Chloe will be next in a few months.

I leave for my trip in a few days!! I have been trying to decide if I want to rent a wide angle lenses. I really hoped to have one before my trip but it is a little pricey but them renting is too!! I could save the $100 and put it towards a lens. I am just trying to think what I want to do. I need to decided by tomorrow!

I did order me a crumpler camera bag and it is adorable!! I decided to get the 5 million dollar home! I already put it to use today! I hope to get more lenses someday and will need a bigger bag then. I am excited to take that on my trip!

I have lots of planning and things to do before I leave. I am glad that I have a week off before leaving so I can get these things done! I hope to be able to have computer access in the hotel. I might be updating my blog while I am gone but not sure. I won't be able to upload pics so I might wait till I get home to update!

It is late, my puppy is chewing on my chair and won't stop sooooo, it is time for bed!!