Life by bullet points

Let's catch up on the "news" shall we? I'll do it in one fell swoop since I don't want to bore you with endless details.

1. Figured out that LWC (little white chicken) is...... A girl! She's the layer of the white eggs. I also found out that she's full sized and a leghorn.
2. A raccoon (I think) pooped about 4 inches from my back door. Maybe he was waiting for breakfast and got tired of waiting? Maybe he was making a political statement of the ramifications of global warming and how it pertains to our economy? Or maybe he was just saying "neener! I was here".
3. Gene and I committed to a booth in an antique store. I'm kind of excited but annoyed because I've seen some good stuff and passed them up at garage sales because I didn't have space for them. Dont worry, I'll be able to fill the darn thing!
4. I have mild hay fever. It gets worse every year. This is the first year I'm having a hard time breathing. Sufferers, can you tell me what you take to relieve symptoms? Besides a frost?
5. I gotta bust my hump this week! I have a ton of photos to get edited, prints to get ordered, a couple shoots coming up and...
6. We're having a garage sale next weekend. I'm really not prepared for it. It will probably be a bust.
7. FINALLY got a tow package on the jeep, now I'm in search of a good yet cheap trailer. No, I won't move you, or you, or anyone I share DNA with.
8. I also am dying for a vintage camper trailer. Completely unrelated, but I just wanted to share. :p
9. I have a storage unit I'd like to make disappear. After this garage sale and moving a motorcycle to a shop for repair (I'll tell you about that someday), it could in theory happen. Or I could be living a pipe dream - kinda like a garage. sigh.
10. We went swimming again! No really. It was colder than last time, and Gene stirred up all the muck before I got in. I was annoyed.
11. I'm worried I won't have enough space for all the chickens through the winter. I don't have any place to move them. This might be interesting.
12. Made it to Weston again today. Took our deer mount to Cactus Creek for sale. Gene is ready for it to find a different home and a new life someplace else. Reminds him of stuff he doesn't wanna be reminded of. I just keep thinking that now I can finally decorate that wall!

I'm sure there's more pointless news, but I can't stand the thought of you running around scratching your own eyes out from boredom.

To read more posts that are actually INTERESTING... click here.

Wth? What just happened?? He's what??

Today, my lil "baby" turns 16 years old.
That's right, Tanner, who used to be this lil' helper is now my big helper and stands a couple inches taller than me. I'm officially the shortest person in the family!!

I've shared Tanner's birth story before, but because it's is super sweet 16 (LOL) I'm going to share it again!

I have 2 boys.
There's the good one... then there's Tanner.
LOL. JUST KIDDING!!!

16 years ago today, well, 16 years ago yesterday evening, I was plenty pregnant. I mean a lot.. I was miserable. So out of the blue, I get this "leak". Now for the record, when you're 8.5 months pregnant, having to pee a lot is not a big shocker. I thought, I didn't make it to the restroom or something. Eventually, I had to change my clothes... THREE TIMES, but still did not put 2 and 2 together.

Soon, I had this pain, but I didn't think anything of it, but I happened to look at the clock and it was 5:11. It came again at 5:22 then again at 5:33. Then around 5:44 I said to myself... "wait a minute.. that's regular" (Thank god it was on the even double numbers because it would have taken me a bit longer to notice lol).

Now for the record, I hadn't finished packing my bag for the hospital, see, Tanner wasn't due for another 3 weeks or so. October 4th if I remember correctly. So I just quietly went upstairs, finished packing my bags, changed my clothes *again* and paid attention to the clock.

I came back downstairs and said to my ex "I think it's time to go to the hospital" and he does NOT BELIEVE ME. LOL. *girls know things btw*. So finally I explain that I think my water might have broke (which fyi, sometimes it's not a big gush of water), and I was having regular pains. So we packed up Seth, who was almost 5 years old, and went to his mom and dad's around the corner.

The window was down on the car, as it was a nice day, and the windows were open in their house and I heard him say "She thinks she's in labor, but I don't think she is."So off to the hospital we go, and he drops me at the end of the sidewalk to the entrance with my suitcase while he parks. It's a good 75 feet into the building and no where to sit. I'm standing out there on the curb waiting patiently when BAAAAAAAAAAAAAM.... the first big one.

He gets back, we walk in and I think he's starting to believe it now too. Whe get inside and go to admissions. He stumbles around with his words.. "she is.. she thinks.. Umm.. she's..."

I say, "I'm in labor"

They smile, and get a wheelchair, send me down to maternity where ... surprise.... they confirm that I was indeed in labor.

So there.

Around 3:35 in the morning (the same time *I* was born btw) along comes this little screaming bundle of energy. Tanner had to spend an extra week in the hospital, he was jaundice and had a pneumothorax so he had get that cleared up, then the jaundice oh, and he didn't want to eat. And he never stopped being a pain in the butt since day one.

Forever and ever amen.

Oh damn, that's not true. He's a great kid. In fact, I use him as a prime example as proof that I do NOT suck as a parent. Ha HA universe!!

He's:

• Pretty quiet
• but argumentative because duh he's 16
• Smart
• pretty cute but I'm biased, but he is cute
• likes gadets
• is pretty good at computer stuff
• likes to build things
• likes to drive and would love a car for his birthday
• bhahahah..
• has to be told occassionally via facebook chat to go to sleep
• reads my blog almost daily
• loves animals
• will clean his room without me asking
• hates to fold laundry tho
• does well in school
• has grow about 9 inches in a year!
• plays the trumpet
• has already said he's going to school at NWMSU (local)
• Has turned out to be a pretty awesome person.

Happy Birthday Peach.
We love you!

now.. get a job dammit. :p

The future's so bright - I gotta wear shades

{this photo has nothing to do with this post. Sorry}

So something kind of exciting happened the other day. I won something! Something worth a LOT OF MONEY.... but first let me explain.

Look over there ----------------->

See that ad? It's from Blogher. Blogher is a network of women bloggers, or blogs written mainly for women. That alone makes it pretty cool. I've finally found my "voice" after a couple years of writing (yes sometimes it takes that long!). I feel like my blog has turned from something like a long status update, or a tweet on steroids, into stories. Short stories, or long stories. Some make you laugh. Some only make ME laugh. Some make us cry. Some make us think. But mainly, they are there to have fun.

Once this site morphed from that thing to this thing, and my hits started to increase, I realized I could network with more women, and more bloggers, and in the meantime, we might as well put a little ad over their too no? So I applied for the blogher network ad system, and darn it if I didn't get accepted almost immediately! I was impressed considering some people have to wait a long time. (thanks blogher, you're awesome).

Slowly I've built up a little money in there. No, I can't buy a car, but I might be able to buy a few meals. Hey, free meals are good. I'm just sayin.

So something that they do, is to frequently send out surveys and such. I know a lot of ppl probably just hit delete, but because I'm pretty excited and thankful to be part of such a cool group of people, I always fill them out.

The last one, took a while. I thought 3 minutes and it ended up being almost 15-20. At one point I almost closed the window and said forget it. If I was married to me, and installed glass for a living, that's exactly what would have happened.

ahem.

So a couple days ago, I get an email from the blogher gals telling me I'd won something for filling out the survey. GET OUT! *push* No way?

Yep... what I won, was a full 2 day pass to the Blogher convention in San Diego next year!! This doesn't include airfare or hotel, but still the pass is worth quite a bit. I can pretty much go and see anything I want to do for TWO WHOLE DAYS. The blogher convention is one of the biggest blogging conventions in the darn world, and I'm gonna get to see it all. Maybe that even means I can stalk Pioneer Woman from up close instead of just afar like I have been!!

It's almost a year away - 11 months. So this gives me plenty of time to "get ready" and go in with a plan. I don't know for sure what the "plan" is, but I'll come up with something. In the mean time, I have a few goals for myself that I'd love to accomplish so I can have a really enjoyable trip.

1. Come up with a plan.**
2. Total revamp of the blog.
3. Hammer out this domain problem I'm having if that means spending the money with a tech in India to fix it for me. I can do that ya know. It's pretty cool.
4. Lose 50 pounds. I know we've heard that one before, but dude I feel like crap lately and shooting when I'm overweight is hard, and my feet are killing me, and my back hurts - especially when you add a camera that weighs about 12 pounds and hang it out in front of your face. ugh.
5. Get more involved with the blogher gals - it'd be nice to know someone there!
6. Monetize more! ***

**plans are important. plans are cool. put something here that denotes 2 asterisks. learn how to spell asterisks on the first try. yes I typed this all on purpose.


*** Monetizing your blog means that you ad advertisements to it in hopes of generating a little income off your site. So, if you visit a blog you like, one thing you can do to thank that person for having a cool blog, is to click on one of their ads. How awesome is that? And easy!

What I plan on doing, is adding static ads from other businesses that might be interested in a little extra exposure here at Mz-Cellaneous. That might be a type of camera lens, or poultry feed, or crackers for the kids, or maybe even a local bar. Please contact me for rates! I promise, you are looking at VERY GOOD prices. Think less than $25! I'm very excited about this plan. Do it NOW! What if I'm a huge success someday and you can say "yeah, I advertised on Mz-cellaneous back when you could get an ad for less than $25". Bragging rights dude.


Thanks for following along as I rambled. If you are still with me, I award you 12 interwebz. Spend them wisely.

Bekah - the senior portraits

Bekah is another of my senior spokesmodels locally! She is one of those sweet girls that you would have a hard time not liking. She's kind, yet out spoken. Tough and yet sensitive. Determined and smart.

So in a nutshell... she's exactly like me.
Only a LOT skinnier, 3 years younger :p and her hair is naturally that color.

Yes, it's ok to hate her for that bit.

Bekah is also my son's best friend's fiance and roommate. She's had it a little rough at times, but she handles it well. She's very mature and like I said before, determined. Ever since she was a little girl, she's wanted to be a plastic surgeon, but admitted that she doesn't think she can handle the yucky parts, so she's going to school to be a nurse.

(I'm not gonna tell her they probably have worse yucky parts.)

Bekah and I met a few weeks ago, before her session and talked about what kind of portraits she'd like to have. I explained my vision to her, the direction I was trying to take my seniors and she whole-heartedly agreed!

You'll see some traditional here, but you'll also see some very non-traditional. Both have been a hit!

We about ran off the road when we saw this patch of flowers along side it! We had to stop. Turns out, yellow is Bekah's favorite color. Isn't it funny how things work out sometimes?

You could sit and analyze this picture all day long about this or that... or, you could just appreciate that it's really cool and different and not something you normally see in a senior pic.

I prefer the latter.


Congrats Bekah for .... well... being you.
We like you that way. Keep doing it.

Never forget

The ninth month brought the end to many,
The eleventh was a day of testing
Nine one one a call for help from any
It left no time of resting.

True warriors dressed in red suits
Navy blue or yellow
They called in all the recruits
to rescue ailing fellow.

What senselss acts of violence
Rain down on us today
what path will cross with terror
and cause us great dismay?

This is the world our children face.
Their lives are being molded.
The acts of hate, time won't erase,
Like a shroud it has enfolded.

What can we say?
What can we do?
As time whirls swiftly by
Let love be instilled with a family view
So our values never die.

Poem by Ray2003