Oh the weather outside is frightful, me, I got... a rifle.

I woke up this morning to my usual crazy dreams. I really prefer just to not dream as the ones I have are so *out there* that they stick with me, or wake me up.

This morning there were two. First one was of me giving painless birth to a baby in the back of my old dodge caravan. yes it was Gene's. LOL. An insurance agent was driving us someplace - the hospital I assume, and I assume it was her.. you know... because of the tornado that just picked up the van and shook it about a bit and sat it back down.

I was looking out the back window and saw her drive over a briefcase and MADE her turn around to get it. I got out (remember it was a painless birth) looked at the briefcase and it was full of papers that had been written by my dad, and the first one i picked up said how babies were blessings sent from god, so I sat in the middle of a hilly rural highway and started crying.

So Dad, if that was you, you should know now that I can't have any more kids. *clip clip*. Let me direct you to Amber's house, she's about an hour away up in Lenox. I also hear that Torrie has an available uterus.

Just sayin.

The second dream this morning was at my parents house. Dad was alive now, and mom and dad had some sort of business where they hired lots of ppl. Many of them lived in their house, which seemed big in the dream, but it's really not a huge house.

They needed to hire a Santa Claus and I was asleep when they hired him. Then when I went to sit in the basement (near his room that he rented from my parents) at my sewing machine, when I sewed a long piece of fabric it was all oily.

I went to Santa and he did a back flip out of bed. I said "Did you oil my sewing machine?" And he said "no". I said, "I know you did because I saw you there when I woke up." He finally admitted to it and said that it needed oiled and worked on.

I ripped Santa a new one telling him how the oil has to be cleaned up, and now the work I was working was RUINED.

Man was I pissed.

Somehow those 2 dreams in my sleepiness went together. LOL. Now you get a glimpse into the inner workings of my nighttime head.

SO ANYWAY....

When I did get up this morning, it was because there was a "knocking" on my window. That knocking was the wind rattling the windows. I got up, came into the kitchen and it was snowing big time.

{Speaking of Santa}

The falling snowflakes were so pretty, don't mind the dirty car, I live on a gravel road.

So I really wanted a pic of the tree in the winter time, remember the fall leave pic I took of this tree? Well, I want to do one for every season, and since it was snowing big fat snowflakes, I thought now would be a good time for his winter shoot.

This is the shot I was going for, only in vertical. Since I shot off about 10 pics as fast as I could this one is going to have to be it, only cropped. Gene would probably kick my butt for taking out my camera on a super snowy day, so I took myself, my camera, a towel to lay on, a towel to wrap my camera in, a hat, scarf, coat, gloves.

In all the may lay, I forgot to set my iso AND my white balance. DOH. It turned out VERY BLUE, but since it looks cool, I'm leaving it. Probably better than if I'd done it RIGHT.

I need to put Tara Whitney's 4 rules on the back of my camera until it becomes a habit. I get in a hurry or distracted and forget. Oops. Good advice there.

Mom gave me some $$ for a camera "something" for Xmas. I can't decide if I want a new flash (very boring but needed) or a new lens (very fun but how bad do I need it? and should I kick in more $$ for a better lens?)

Then there's part of me that wants an inexpensive studio kit complete with stands and lights. I might wait til after Xmas to see if I get anything camera related so I don't overlap. LOL.

*hint to my husband who never reads the blog*

Oh, and kittykitty went to the shelter yesterday :( I hate to see him go and felt kinda like I abandoned him. He was so sweet and loving. But I'm sure he appreciates a warm place to sleep, especially today. I hope that someone gives him a home soon.

I have to go to town today. I sure don't want to. It's going to end up at walmart, which I suppose if I have to go, a good day to go is on a snow day, in the middle of the daytime when ppl are supposed to be at work.

I'm also going to decorate the tree some more. I worked on it a bit last night. it's taking a while because I'm sorting ornaments as I go, that and I'm not super into it this year, and also, where are my garlands? The tree doesn't look "right". I might have to go buy some. Did I ditch them last year for some reason??

I'll share my all pink Christmas tree - maybe today, maybe tomorrow. It rocks.

Latest flickr inspiration...

1. .tis the season., 2. Seasons Greetings, 3. One step at a time, 4. Henna + Snake, 5. Adam&Ashley-4, 6. P A S S I O N, 7. MV2G2376, 8. little monkey, 9. Burnin for you, 10. j o y, 11. The Midnight Snacker, 12. Aiko, 13. IMG_2828_edited-1, 14. just enjoy the show...., 15. hair, 16. To Truly Live, 17. Get me off this ride, 18. pack...back, 19. Conscious Freedom, 20. Color, 21. Untitled, 22. little birdie in the window, 23. pink bokeh, 24. legs, 25. OtherWorld, 26. chaffinch, 27. The Return Home, 28. blog6, 29. Lucy, 30. IMGP5798, 31. Untitled, 32. Day 90/365 : Autumn symphony, 33. Untitled, 34. the handsomes, 35. Whispers, Giggles, Make Believe and Fairytales, 36. Kimberly & Chris Wedding

Kickin' it Old school

{Jingles - last night as he was "helping me" print photos}

I actually got to check a lot of things off my to do list yesterday. My nails got done, which was good because when they get too long, they hurt and it's hard to type, and dude, you don't want me not being able to type do you???

Shaddup!

I spent 1/2 hour hitting all the houses in the area, cept one, looking for the owners of the cat. Now mind you, I'm kinda suspicious that the cat belongs to the neighbors down the road. Sadly, they have a trillion cats, all of them some shade or variation of black and all cold and hungry. *sigh* I pulled into the driveway, and then refused to leave him. I just turned around and left. Life would not be better if he got to stay. So, I hit a few other houses just in case, no takers. I took him all the way into town to go to the shelter, pull into the lot, and DAMMIT, they are closed on Mondays.

He hates the car, and doesn't like the cat carrier much either. Good luck getting him into that AGAIN. Sigh. He'll go into town today.

While digging for a small plain photo album, I found these pics in an older album that I had. I forgot that I had stuck them in there:



Probably circa 2002. I can't quite remember what year, but I do know that the barn is now a John Deere dealership in Maryville. LOL. The soybeans around the barn were all dry, and it was so perfect. I bought these overalls on the internet and had our own little "shoot"

Seth {now 19} I think would be around 11-12, which would make Tanner around 7. I feel old.

This is probably one of my favorite pics of all time. I told Tanner to look down, and for set to bend over and tell Tanner a secret. All film.

Sometimes I really miss film, I do think that they are less work in the end, and when you do it right, they just look better than digital.

I've been searching for this pic for about 2 years! I knew I had it, but couldn't find it. I found the negatives the other day, but couldn't tell which pic it was. I'm planning on getting a big 20 x 30 gallery wrap canvas to hang in my house of this pic. I *love* it.

Have a few things to get done today, we have a few surprise xmas gifts to work on, I will probably decorate the tree today, at least a little bit of it anyway as it's sitting there all nakie with nothing but some white lights. I also need to finish cleaning up around here.

Vacuums are our friend.

The Season is here...

Now that I got that out of the way, Happy December.

Today it really feels like the holiday season. I'm itching to wrap presents, listen to christmas music (cept I sold my stereo lol), decorate the tree. But instead I get "fun" stuff to do, you know, like buy tires and go to the bank.

General type sucky-ness.

Guess what new toy I got?

I've been needing a new computer for going on about 3 years now.. maybe 4. I *hate* with an absolute passion, setting up new computers, transfering files from the old to the new, saving bookmarks so I can find them again, getting programs from my old computer to the new on (which I think is going to majorly cost me big).

Gene just wants to go on the internet without pages lagging. 1/2 of that is computer, the other half is my slow dsl via {embarq embarq embarq} lol. Dude I'm not asking for a T-1 connection, but something better than the absolute lowest connection would be kinda nice.

I'm considering switching to satellite.

We have snow. It started on Saturday (i think, I can't remember now) and didn't stop all day. Just enough to cover the dirty looking ground. This was taken from the back door. I'm not a huge fan of the snow. That and I only had on pj's and flip flops.

And look what other "special gift" I have:

He just showed up about 4 days ago. Ran up to us when we got home and was like "oh thank god you finally got home". He adopted us. He has a flea collar, and is INCREDIBLY friendly. He was also super hungry. So either he got lost, or someone ditched him. I'm hoping he's just lost.

At first I was cool with him being around because he is so sweet and it never hurts to have less mice outside (which with no corn for cover, the critters come out), but then it snowed, and I really felt super guilty.

He made a nest in some cardboard boxes next to the dryer vent. *guilt mode ON* So today, we travel to all the neighbors within a mile or so, I'll leave a note if I can't find his home, and then he's going to the pound. No worries, we have a no kill shelter and I am so confident, that he'll find a home because of how loving and friendly he is.

No, I don't want to keep him inside. I have 2 boys inside now, and they barely tolerate each other let alone some different colored man cat stranger.

Need a kitty?

He loves to sit on your shoulders and buzz around your head in a big circle. And he hugs.

Sunday we went to Mom's for Thanksgiving. Almost everyone was there - mom kicked some serious ass on dinner. We were ugly stuffed, think ppl laying in the floor taking naps. Nope, I didn't take one single photo

Other things to do today:

Get my nails done, edit a couple sessions - I'm hell bent on getting them FINSIHED, Buy a christmas pressie online, buy provisions - seriously, where we'll put them I don't know, we're overwhelmed with food, email some proposals for pics, pick up a check from a client... busy busy. But mainly, find a way to shake the weird dream I had this morning. I had a dream that a friend from high school, broke into my house while Gene and I were in Canada at a conference (for what I don't know). She called me from my house to threaten me with things she found in my house from 2002. WTH? LOL.

*that was one of the more normal ones I have*

Think Salvador Dali and Melting Watches kinda crap.

Would you crush the soul of a child for 99 cents?

No really.

Yesterday, while talking to my son, I heard someone bite his head off over an item that cost probably a dollar.... an adult.

seriously.

I find it funny that ppl that claim to love and help others, can be so effing hateful to a child.