SITS Challenge: Spring into Action Day 2

I've decided to join the SITS Spring into Action Photography Challenge.

I really haven't done enough on my own with my photography since I got my new camera in Feb. I am hoping this will help me take more photos, and get better about posting them to my blog. I have a few posts that are photoless, which well is not so much fun. I have photos that are uploaded for posts, but never quite make it to the blog. I need to get better about that.

I took a few photos last night. In horrible lighting, at 11pm. If I had better lighting in these, I would have been happier with the photos. But I didn't, so I went outside today right when I got home from work and took a few more photos. It was freezing, my dog was so excited that I was home that he wasn't being very good at sitting still, and my battery was dying. Not a good combination. But I will share a few that I was happy with from each session. Hopefully as Spring really starts to appear, taking photos outside will not seem so much of a chore.

A few from last night's shoot.

And then from today. Much better lighting.

I really wish I had better subjects outside. There wasn't much outside to photograph yet since it's still been too cold for the flowers and plant life. Hopefully soon though. I would love some better subjects. Hopefully this weekend I'll have a chance to be outside. It will be much nicer weather.

Overall this was a great challenge. It really got me thinking about the composition in the camera which is much needed. I also really loved learning about the online photo editing tools. Though I own Photoshop, sometimes I just don't have the energy, and want to do something quick.

Letting go...

I had actually planned to post about this subject sometime soon. Well today is the perfect day. Today the ladies over at SITS are hosting a link up to Let Go.

There's something I haven't yet talked about here, at least not in depth. It's something I am ashamed of, so I try not to let people know about it. But I really shouldn't be ashamed of this. I know there are others all over the country that are in the same situation that my husband and I are in.

You see, my husband and I , live with my parents. We moved in with them about 3 months after we were married when my husband lost his job, then I lost mine. We've now been with them for almost 2 and a half years. We both have jobs now, but they are contract jobs that don't come with benefits. Couple this with the fact that we unfortunately had accumulated a fair amount of Credit Card debt, and you get a not so pretty financial situation.

I grew up with this ideal in my head, as most people my age do, that you graduate high school, go to college, get a job right out of college, get married, buy a house, and have kids. That's what is supposed to happen. Well, it didn't. I didn't get a job right out of college. I don't live in my own home, and we aren't planning on kids for another few years when we can be financially stable. I don't have a fairy tale life that I always thought people were supposed to have. I have a real life, live like most of the rest of the country does, and that is ok with me.

When we moved in with my parents, we thought it was only going to be for a few months. We had been living out of the area, and we thought that when we moved back home, and got jobs, we would be back on our feet in no time. Well, that would of been the case in a perfect world. However, all this happened during one of the biggest financial crises our country had seen in years. So, getting back on our feet was going to be much more difficult.

We have made the best of a difficult situation, afterall when we moved in we were newlyweds. It has certainly not been easy having 4 adults in one home, each with their own opinions, ideals, and THINGS. The logistics of how to fit all of our stuff was the hardest. We had to get a storage unit which is where our larger funiture lives (except are matress we brought that with us). It was hard at first for my husband especially to adjust to living with my parents and being comfortable at "home". We wanted to respect their space. Afterall they were nice enough to welcome us and our dog into their home. But it was, and still is difficult living with your parents. Logistics of who is cooking, who cleans what room, and how the cars are parked in the driveway were something we had to figure out.

It's taken me a long time to become comfortable talking about a lot of this with people other than my close friends and family. I feel like a lot of people look at our situation and assume we are irresponsible and lazy. We both work hard, and hopefully will both have permanent/stable jobs within a year. We will be paying off the last bit of our credit card debt within a month or two. We have worked hard to get that done. And we're thankful an inheritence was able to help us out with the last push. We now plan on staying with my parents so we can build up our savings so we will be ready when we leave to hopefully buy a home of our own. We are so thankful that my parents were able to help us. We are very grateful that we do have wonderful support system.

So today I am letting go of hiding, and saying hello to sharing my life.

Today is only the beginning.

Catching up...

I'm really trying to get better about posting. I think I may need to write posts, then add pictures later. I would love suggestions to help jump start my frequency of blogging.



I finally ordered and received my new P&S camera. I LOVE it. I did a lot of research, Mostly on Consumer Reports, but some other reading of consumer reviews as well on Amazon and other sites. I finally ended up pulling the trigger and buying the Panasonic FH20 in black. I am loving the camera so far. The zoom is amazing, and I happy so far with the flash and the stabilization. I haven't had too many opportunities to use it since it arrived. The camera is compact and perfect for sticking in a pocket or purse to bring along. It is a little heavier than some I have seen, but it is all metal exterior which is a nice feature.



My wonderful husband arranged a horse drawn sleigh ride for us as part of my Christmas gifts. We didn't go until the first weekend in Feb. due to scheduling conflicts and weather. But it didn't disappoint. It only lasted about a half hour, but it was such a different experience. My only complaint was that the park the ride was in was too familiar to me (we go to this section of the part about once a week, during the summer, much more). I wish that there was somewhere else local that we could take the ride that I would be more into the scenery more as it would be new.



We also went out to a wonderful dinner that we called our annichristine's dinner celebration. We had originally bought a certificate from Restaurants.com to use for our Anniversary in Oct. But, with the holidays and my husband's class schedule at the end of the semester we never used it. So, we thought it was a great night to use it. We went to The Grill at the Strathallen. It was absolutely delicious and I highly recommend it for a nice night out.

I think that's all for now. I'll make a separate post for my bakathon for Valentines Day.

Happy New Year

Well it's a new year which gives me the opportunity to maybe start blogging with a little more regularity. I have been meaning to do much more blogging, but I just keep putting it off. But I would like it to become more of a priority.

I think part of the reason I have problems is that I have trouble finding things to blog about. But I think I will start blogging more about everyday things and stop trying to come up with specific things to blog about. At least to get me started into the habit of blogging.

Not much has happened this year. Nothing exciting at least. Both my husband and I continue our quest to find permanent jobs with benefits. We are both employed as "temporary" employees or as "contract". Which is great, it brings in money to pay bills, but still doesn't provide us any decent benefits, nor quite enough money for us to move out of my parents house. Hopefully this year brings a permanent job to at least one of us, if not both.

I plan on buying a new point and shoot camera this month or next using Christmas money we received. It was something that we both want and need, and I've found what I think will be a great camera at a very good price. I hope to start getting back into my photography and posting more pictures here. I am going to shoot for at least a photo a week one I get the camera.

I don't really "do" New Years Resolutions as I really have a hard time keeping them. But I do like to set out a few goals that I would love to reach this year.

• I would like at least one of us to get a permanent job.
• I would like to try to blog more often. Once a week would be great, but I'll even settle for once a month.
• I would like to do more in the evenings. By this I mean try to accomplish something more than sitting watching TV and absentmindedly surfing the net. I would love to do more sewing projects, finish that darn afghan for my cousin's wedding (I would love to have this done by the time her baby arrives in April), get more into my photography, take the dog for more walks at night ect. I know this isn't easy since most nights I don't get home until 8pm, but some nights at least I need to devote to doing something to help me feel more accomplished.
• Save up money for something fun. Even if it is something not very expensive. I would like to save money for something that isn't needed. It's very hard for me to do this since we still have debt to pay off, but I think in order to feel happy sometimes you need to do this.
• Go on vacation, even if it is only for a weekend. Since we live with my parents, there is always someone else home. It would be nice to have a weekend of just us.
• Get on a gym routine. I had been doing great when I got out of work at a normal hour. But now not getting out until 7:30, the evenings are kinda shot for gym time. I need to get up early and get to the gym. I had been doing great with my weight loss, and am still doing great with eating well, but without the gym, it's very very slow going. I would like to be back to under 150 by the end of the summer (that's 15lbs from where I am currently). It would be even better if I could get back around 135 where I was through High School and most of college.

I really hope this blog can serve as an outlet for me. I was never good at keeping a diary or journal as a kid, unless I was forced to do so. But it think even if I can get an entry every couple weeks, even if it's short. That will be great to hold me more accountable and hopefully help me feel more accomplished.

Hopefully 2011 will be a great year for me!

Wishlist Wednesday

I thought I'd start a new tradition here that I have seen elsewhere. This will be especially good for me since we are still trying to save money, so buying things on this wishlist will be a rarity.

I would love to own a DSLR camera. I know eventually I will. I really like the Nikon D5000. I have always loved Nikon cameras and this one has a similar swivel screen as my current non DSLR which is great in many situations.

A new car. I still haven't decided what I want, but def something that we would be able to put Baxter's travel crate in the trunk area and have the back seat free for passengerss(children in the future)

I would love my husband or I to finally have a fully permanant job. We both have long term contract jobs, however, it still doesn't supply the stability that we really need to move forward with big decisions like buying a house or having children.

Finally crossed another barrier

It's Olympic time again. I so much enjoy anything and everything relating to the Olympics. I love both summer and winter, however, being from cold climate, I love watching the Winter Olympics.

It was unfortunate the way these games began with the death of a young Georgian luger the afternoon of the Opening Ceremonies. I detest how the media covered this incident. To show this young man's death over and over is horrible. Not to mention they played it at the beginning Opening Ceremonies when families are watching with children. I hope by the time I have my own children this is not something I have to worry about when we want to sit and enjoy the Olympics. I do feel so bad that it took the death of this young man for the creators of the sliding hill to fix the problem that caused this boy's death.

The games continued with a beautiful Opening Ceremony the displayed the wondrousness that is Canada. Such a beautiful country and they did a wonderful job of capturing the variety of the land and its people.

The first day of competition was great and ended with the US winning silver and bronze medals in the men's 1500m speed skating race. It was a great race with lots of suspense. The US also took home a Gold in the women's moguls from Hannah Kearney. It was a great opening day.

The second day was great and I got quite into the spirit of the games. There are two events that the US have never won a single medal of any other in; the biathlon and the nordic combined. Both are sports that have been dominated by Euopeans. The biathlon will continue to elude the Americans, however today was our day for the nordic combined. American Johnny Spillane finally earned us a medal. He won the silver in the normal hill 10k race.


The race was quite suspenseful until the end. The lead changing many times. And although it was not a gold medal in this competition, it was A medal. It shows that we are making progress in this sport and I cannot wait to see the future for this sport.

I will continue to watch as much coverage of all the sports as the games progress. I am inspired by the Canadian people who not only support their countrymen, but also show wonderful support of all the other countries and Olympians competing. Good Luck to all the athletes in the events to come, and Congratulations to all the winners so far!

Happy Adoption Day Baxter!

I am a day late with this post, but I feel the need to post it anyways. Two yeas ago, we adopted our amazing dog Baxter. We were both first time dog owners, and really had no idea what to expect. We had originally intended on getting a small-medium sized dog. We lived in an apartment at the time and didn't think a larger dog would work for us. But the minute we met Baxter, we knew that he was the dog for us!

Baxter was about 1.5 yrs old when we got him. We had plenty of challenges with him (he had food aggression, was not socialized with other dogs, and loved to get into trouble). The first night we brought him home, he got into a garbage can and ate something he shouldn't have (something he still loves to do if we aren't careful he'll eat all of the dirty tissues he can find). We called a 24hr vet who told us to induce vomiting to make sure whatever he did eat, didn't end up getting sick or with an obstruction. A month or so later he slipped his collar and went running through the golf course we lived on at the time. It took us almost an hour (and some pepperoni, doggie treats and endless frustration) to finally get him to come to us.

We spent many hours working with a trainer going to both individual sessions as well as group sessions with him. We worked with him at home, and spend months with him at home on the leash in the house to help him learn that we were his family and that he needed to listed to us. It was July of 2008 when things started to turn a corner. We had left him quite suddenly at a kennel to attend a funeral out of town for Josh's grandmother. When we returned as we got out of the car to go pick him up we heard him barking and saw him jumping in his kennel. We could tell that he was finally seeing us as part of his "pack".

This past year has been wonderful for him. We are in a house with a huge backyard for him to run allover and play all day during the summer. In the winter he can bound through the snow to his hearts content. We live close to a park that we frequent often. Both days this weekend we spent at least an hour at the park playing with many other dogs in the unofficial "dog park" area of the park. Though he plays with other dogs and has fun, he constantly is looking where we are and coming back to "check in" with us.

I don't remember what our life was like before Baxter, and I hope that we will eventually adopt another dog for him to play with and become part of the family.

Here is a picture of our "family" the night we brought Baxter home.



Happy Adoption Day Baxter!!!