But wait! There's more!

If you haven't heard the news (and you probably haven't if you're not local) the New Nodaway Humane Society is having a little bit of trouble. They have been a no-kill shelter for many years, but the economy has not been a friend to many of us, including the shelter.

I've always been an animal lover, probably more than I really should - this is why I don't volunteer there, I'd come home with so many kitties it would be against the law. So I wanted to do *something* to help them out. Yes, I gave them a donation (there is a link at the top of their main page), but I felt like I could do a little more.

Christmas this year, I made as a gift to several people, a little 4x6 photo calendar (above). I ended up making a few extra of these calendars which are all nature related photos. How does this effect you? Welllll.... here's how. I had a few extra of these calendars and I decided that rather than just give them away here, I would offer them up to those that have made donations.

I only have a few, so the first TEN people that donate $10 or more to the shelter (that's 2 coffees at starbucks!) and forward the paypal receipt to me (along with their mailing address) to lana at ceasefirestudios dot net ... I will send you this little calendar for free!

See how easy it is to help little critters?

{Pulling out the big guns - sad puppy dog eyes}

This is wrangler, isn't he adorable? I want this dog!!

Even if you can only give a couple dollars, it would be helpful. I have hundreds (thousands) of readers, if each person could even send $2.00, this would cover there operating expenses for more than a month!

My goal? To make sure that this does not become a kill shelter!

THANK YOU!
{and spread the word!}

Parenting sucks

Two sobering reminders that I'm getting old and just "Mom" no longer "Mommy"

Story #1.

Seth (21 years old, just for the record here) called me on Sunday and asked me to stop by his house after I picked up Tanner that he had some egg cartons for me. Dutifully, I stopped on the way home and lo and behold, he wasn't there but his roommate Tony was. Tony was cleaning the dining room and *drinking a beer*

ACK.

He called Seth and told him to come home (he was across the street). Seth comes bounding in a couple minutes later bringing me a garbage bag full of egg cartons. He also brought with him beer breath.

*Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo*

My little boy... that little boy that would wear a fire helmet everywhere he went, just walked in and I caught beer. on. his. breath. Seth, I apologize for going all "mom" on you and talking about drinking and driving.. blah blah blah.

Parents, this is a reminder to you to unfriend your kids on facebook. This will save you from seeing them tagged in photos where they are holding beers, drinking, and well... smashed drunk.

In the meantime, I think I'll go curl up in a ball and visit my other child.


Which reminds me of:


Story #2

Tanner has taken to having me pick him up from school. I don't have a problem with this *once in a while*, but driving 10 miles one way, battling school traffic (which is crazy!) and then trying to get home while battling all the factories getting out at the same time.... yeah... notsomuch.

However, he talked me into it on Monday and I got there fairly early. The bell rings and kids start to pile out the door. I'm watching (as Tanner is never first out the door. EVER) and I see this kid. He's tall and gangly. God that kid looks like Seth. (he gets closer), Gee the poor sod even walks like Seth.

*o.m.g.* It's Tanner!

(now please revert to story #1!!)

Poor kid, looks like his brother right down to the scraggly long hair (but no goat beard). He looks even more like him when he has is braces off (which are now back on - long story).

To add insult to injury, he just left, doused with cologne, wearing the nice leather jacket he never wears and driving MY CAR. Ugh. That's not a good sign. At least he's going to church.

oh god.
I've heard about church camp tho! *my eyes.. they are bleeding!!!!!!!*


I'm now confident I'm never going to make it through parenthood.

How Humiliating!

Yes, for just 3 easy payments of 19.95, you too can be a proud owner of box cat. Yes, a cat, in a box.


(I want the record to reflect he went in on his own)

Favorite photos - 2010

I take THOUSANDS of photos a year. Crazy amounts. Many will never see the light of day. Heck I might have some gems sitting on my harddrive right now that would be incredible if I spent some time on them.

However, there are always a few every year that just jump out at me and make me love them for random reasons. These are those photos in 2010

Baby chicks. I can totally tell NOW that we there are 2 roosters sitting there.

Roofing the chicken coop, as fast as he can before the storm comes.

This was the sky on the opposite side of the house that very day.

Fight fight!

"I'm so dissapointed in you."

For some reason I just love this photo of Devil's Tower in Wyoming

A back road, nestled in the trees on the way to the river in Arkansas.

Good night Missouri

Fishermen on the foggy lake in south Missouri.

Stitched panoramic, sunset behind my home.

Tanner, holding the "Tanner" duck.

We had lots of green visitors this summer.

He changed so much in just one summer!

Captured in Wyoming. (I think I need to re-edit this one, but it's not bad)

My fav pic of me in 2010. I dunno why I like it sideways, but I do.

Our budding tree with my holga 135bc plastic camera.

Snowy "Ansel Adams" (snort) trees up the road, also with my holga.

If I had to pick one fav photo of 2010, this probably would be it. I love this one.

Fall dew. I got very wet getting to this web.

Rotten band kid I know.

Daisy chicken, modeling for our Christmas card.

These aren't all! If you'd like to see *some* of my favorite ones from shoots, go to my other blog and check those out.

I know I have many other photos that I love. It gets harder and harder each year to pick my favorites. Many are picked because of the memory, and not the technical aspects.

Have a favorite photo? Please share your links!

11 things to accomplish in 2011

I decided to make this easy on myself this year, I'm only going to have 11 "goals" that I have to keep track of.

1. Get right with my health. I feel like I've aged 10 years in the past 5. Lose some of this weight that's draggin' me down (going good so far, lost about 10 pounds in Dec) Which includes: Exercise more - blech. Find something I love and do that! I seriously keep going back to *kayaking* in my head. No really! Must investigate further.
   
   
2. Read 11 (or more) books. Which should be easy considering my new cool little Sony Reader I got for Christmas.
   
   
3. Pay off all our credit cards! Getting there.... paid off one a couple months ago, and suprise! All the sudden all my limits went up. Something tells me I scared someone.
   
   
4. Shoot 15 weddings - Well on my way! We've not even hit the busiest booking season yet. Gene would love for me to shoot 20. I could do that but I might shoot myself in the process. If I get to here, I'm gonna need help.
   
   
5. Rebrand this blog - I love my lil' blog here. (It's been 4 years almost!!), but it needs a makeover. I think I need to either hire someone to fancy me up, or take a few days off and work on nothing else. *I have ideas in my head*
   
   
6. Give more - This Christmas I had a good time doing some random giving. Not big things, but things that people around me needed worse than I needed my money. I liked it - I wanna do more of that!
   
   
7. Adventure! I promised that I would take some sort of self exploration, photo shoot kind of trip this year, and I'm still doing it. I still haven't worked out in my head when or where, but it's still there. PLUS! San Diego in August!
   
   
8. New etsy store - Gene and I have worked since this summer on building a stockpile of goodies for a cool new etsy store. Watch for it to appear this month!
   
   
9. Work on our home - There's so many things here we want to do. "other stuff" keeps getting in the darned way! Like, you know, a new furnace (sighs). However, I love home improvements and creating something exciting out of nothing. First big goals are to install the fireplace in the bedroom (that'll be done by this weekend!), finish the library/bar area and get Tanner's shower done. (I've been putting that one off a long time). Big goals down the road: a deck on the front of the house, a new garage with attached studio, a sunroom addition on the back of the house.... and chicken coop improvements! I'm thinking disco ball ;)
   
   
10. Declutter - This past week I didn't intend to take off. I have a hard time doing nothing at all so even while I'm sick, I've been packing up stuff for storage (I gained around 50 square feet yeehaw!), rearranging furniture, being honest with "stuff" and packing it up to sell or toss. My mind says "ahhhhhhh". I want more of that! I intend to be brutal with my scrapbook room. *scary*
    
    
11. Take more photos. Whaaaaa? Like 100k+ a year isn't enough? No, I mean more photos of my OWN FAMILY. How sucky is that? (the cobbler's children have no shoes!) I realized at the end of the year, I really hadn't take many of Gene, a few of Tanner and *zero* of Seth. However, it would help if Seth came around more (nagging mom voice). At some point, I'm wrangling both boys down for pics of them together, and a family pic... so get your game faces on boys.

I decided to be reasonable with my goals, nothing that's unrealistic or unobtainable. Please share your goals!

oh.... And
Happy
NEW YEAR!