A Most Wonderful Weekend

We had a perfect weekend.

First, we went up to the lake. We pretty much just relaxed. Read a lot and watched a movie we gave up on half way through. Inglorious Bastards. It was too slow. And we got bored.

But we did take some time to do some portraits together. We had a great time. The weather was perfect. And the rain held off till we were done!
































This was our favorite one.


When we got home we started to get Hubster ready for his trip to Ireland (still jealous) and then we went off to see Boy J and his new Baby G. Isn't she just the cutest lil peanut!



















We also got caught up on some of our favorite shows. Eureka, Dr. Who, Being Human.

Now I am sitting in a very empty house missing the hubster way too much. He just left 3 hours ago. Sigh................I am quite pathetic.............

What the???

On the way home from work we had to stop by Target. As we were driving past Lowes we noticed a tow truck, a police car, a group of people standing around, and a car with it's front right tire up on a rather large landscape boulder.

How do you turn into a driveway, immediately jump a curb, and manage to put the front of your car up on a boulder?

We would love to know the story..................

11 and still hugging

Hubster and I celebrated 11 years as hubster and wife last month. Of course we went to Mama Maria's in Hudson Wisconsin to celebrate.

I am thankful for all the wonderful things we still are.

We still hold hands
kiss each other good night
call each other to say I love you
save messages just to hear the other's voice
email each other for no reason but to say Hi
laugh together
support each other
work together on projects
work together to make decisions
play

I'm a lucky girl and he tells me he's a lucky guy.

And we are thankful for every day we spend together.

Sum up

So, it's been a while, here's a quick recap:

All the dogs are great. Lily and Caleb are awesome. I even get Caleb to jump in my lap and snuggle now. They are far more social and accepting of strangers. When our friends come to the cabin they will hang out with them, snuggle in bed, and cuddle on the couch with them.

The cats are all doing just as well............

The hubster is at a new job as of this spring. He's enjoying the new opportunities. And is in fact headed for Ireland for two weeks. I am quite jealous...

Last fall I had the opportunity to travel to Spain, Italy, and Germany. It was a dream come true.

We continue to enjoy life in Minnesota as well as our lake house in Wisconsin. Up at the lake we have a bald eagle that lives on or near our lake, and we have spotted the black bear that we were told lived on or near our land.

We also have a family of Loons on the lake. Mom, Dad, and baby happily swim around all day long.

The list of books I have read is much longer. But the list of books I want to read is still even longer. My newest author that I adore is Brandon Sanderson. He's been hired to finish the Robert Jordan series and deservedly so. He's fantastic. I have gotten three other people completely hooked on his stories.

My family is all well. My friend Boy J recently became a father. His baby girl Grace was born on July 3rd. And we are so very happy for him.

For better or for worse life has been wonderfully, peacefully quiet during the hiatus from blogging.

I have of course added to the shoe collection. Would you expect anything less?

That's about all for now. Happiness to you all.

Catching up

I realized over the weekend that I miss blogging. It's been too long.

I haven't been up to much but the usual. Work, puppies, the lake.........

I have decided to enter a photograph in our fine arts show at the fair. I only have a 1 in 10 chance of being selected for the exhibit but you never know till you try.

It was an interesting process to choose the photograph. I sent the photos to my parents as well as a few friends and asked them to pick their favorite. Everyone picked something different. So I expanded my viewers. I narrowed down the choices to the favorites and then printed them so that the next group of people had the actual photos. Two of the people I asked were avid photographers themselves. Their feedback was very helpful but also a little difficult. They were my first true critics of my work. They were very supportive and they gave me great feedback. But it was also a little humbling.

I have the photograph chosen so the next step is framing. I found what I hope to be the perfect frame so now it is a question of matte, no matte, etc................

Regardless of how this turns out I am so glad I did this. I put myself out there like I never have before. And I feel like I can be a better photographer for it.

Much like any target shooting I have to learn to breathe, I have to learn to be patient. Quantity is not always quality.

I recently took family photos for some close friends of ours. I got some great shots but I know I could have done better. I learned a lot of things about my style when I reviewed the shots. And I know I need to work on my staging. I don't do a good job of taking my time and waiting for the perfect framed shot. I just shoot like crazy and hope that one of the shots is a good one. That for a good photographer it does not make.

A few of the photographs that I am not entering for the fair I am going to submit to the Smithsonian photo contest.

More to come......................