Closin' her down

I've decided that I will no longer be keeping up this blog. I've decided to devote my time and energy to my business and my business blog www.sweetdaisyphotography.blogspot.com I hope you'll hop over there and join me. I want to combine my life and my photography into one blog. It just seems more efficient for me and my readers...which I'm not really sure if there are any left! Anyway, for those still checking in, I appreciate you reading my crazy thoughts and hope you'll keep on reading them...just in a different location!

Merry Christmas

It seems these days that I only post on holidays. Nevertheless, I hope everyone has a joyous Christmas and that you get to spend the day with the ones you love.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know I haven't been on here in forever--details on that another day--but for today, I'm thinking of all the blessings in my life, all of the things (and most importantly, people) I am thankful for and of course, pecan pie! Hope your holiday is filled with blessings, good food and good people.

Doggone crazy

What the...?

Sorry for the lack of blog posts of late. Honestly, I haven't had much to say. My well of creativity for blogging has apparently dried up. Here are random thoughts I have today:

--Kanye West is an ass. It's kinda redundant to say this since that's what everyone is talking about right now so I'm just throwing my hat in there, too.

--I had no idea Beyonce was such a class act. I know nothing about her, really, so her invitation to Taylor Swift was such a wonderful gesture.

--I get to spend time with little B today, who isn't so little anymore. He will be 1 in 24 days. I love spending time with little fellers. There's just no way you can NOT be in the present moment when you are with little ones.

--Planning a long trip is a pain.

--Getting a business started is hard, especially when you have to deal with the government.

--Naps are good.

--Dogs who eat their poo are disgusting, especially when you have one in your own family.

--Why is getting motivated to get healthy and start exercising so difficult?

--I feel sad today because Patrick Swayze died. I'm thinking of his wife today. He was her whole life.

Only on the west coast

Check out the video of this weatherman in California that Becker posted on his blog. Our only claim to fame in this area was a weatherman who could write backwards. Now, if he could've done that while dancing to "Pimp Juice", that would've been entertainment.

Science Experiment

Mr and I have been gone a week. When we left, I forgot to ask anyone to water my plant for me. What was once a beautiful, full, bright pink impatien now looked like this.


Since I had nothing to lose, I decided to drench it with water. What's the worst that could happen? I mean, look at what I was working with! A whole day after I watered it, it looked like this.

There was only a small part of it that didn't come back to life. Amazing, huh?

Much ado over nothing

This week I'm travelling with Mr while he works out of town--for his 4th week in a row. That means a lot of time on my hands while he's working during the day. Thankfully, we were able to have an extra laptop for me to cruise the internet.

This morning, while I was enjoying the complementary breakfast at the hotel, I was watching the Today show. I couldn't believe that they were doing a whole segment...with "expert" commentary and everything...about Michelle Obama wearing shorts while they were on vacation to the Grand Canyon. I mean, seriously, this is news? I just can't believe how much her wardrobe choices are scrutinized. With all that's going on in the world, this is what they devote time to on the Today show??? Just crazy.

Funny Video

An added bonus...the song is by AC/DC.

Nature is so cool

This spider is on the shrub right by our front porch. I've been fascinated by it. The video is a little grainy, but focus on the pink petal and hopefully you can see it okay.

Looking Back--Final Edition

I really debated about what song to end my look back at songs that have been important to me throughout my life. It's a hard thing to do when you're someone like me who loves so many types of music and songs. I thought about going the sentimental route and ending with the song Mr and I danced our first dance to at our wedding. After all, the first time I heard the song I knew it would be played at my wedding. Of course, at the time, I wasn't sure if there would ever be a wedding in my future and I certainly didn't plan on Mr being the one I'd be dancing with. However, this look back is about my whole life, not just my time with Mr so with that in mind, there was really no question what I would end on.

I was a late bloomer in finding AC/DC. In fact, I've been a late bloomer in most things in my life; however, we'll save that for another post! Anyway, as a "good girl" in high school, I didn't listen to heavy metal. "Good girls" don't listen to music like that. They stick with nice, safe artists. At the time, that meant Prince, Madonna, Michael Jackson, etc. However, when I went to college, all those "rules" went out the window and lo and behold, enter AC/DC and whatever other heavy metal group at the time that rocked it out. However, AC/DC is my favorite band in the entire world.

New groups come, new groups go, but AC/DC remains a constant. I can't hear this song without thinking of all the times that I've sung this song at the top of my lungs--sometimes playing air guitar, sometimes playing a broom, and that one time in Ft. Worth when I actually sang it with a live band--again, a story for another post. To me AC/DC = happiness, good times, good friends, good memories, the quintessential "me".

Looking Back--Part 4

I can't even remember the exact age I was introduced to Janis Joplin by my mom. I just always remember her listening to her. I remember learning the words to this song early on. My love for Janis continued into college where I would listen to her a lot. I've always felt sorry for Janis and the sad life that she led and of course, her sad death. In some weird way, I feel like I'm helping her by listening to her songs.

Looking Back--Part 3

I like to think of myself as the original Cher fan. I used to love watching "The Sonny and Cher Show". I especially looked forward to the end of the show when they would bring Chastity out. Yes, this was a long time ago.

I don't remember my exact age, but I had the cutest, baby blue portable record player. Yes, I'm old enough to remember records, what of it! Anyway, one Christmas I got Cher's new-at-the-time album. It had a beautiful picture of Cher on the front, dressed in an Indian outfit--what would now have to be called a Native American outfit. I thought she was so beautiful--her smooth cafe-colored skin, long, shiny, black hair. I absolutely adored her. I played that album over and over and over. My absolute favorite song was "Half Breed", although I knew every song on that album by heart, and mostly still do. To this day, I love to sing "Dark Lady" at the top of my lungs. Old habits die hard.

Looking Back--Part 2

I decided to continue my look back at music that's touched my life in some way.

Today's edition is rather timely, due to the recent death of Michael Jackson. When I'd heard that he'd passed away, I remembered thinking about "Thriller" and the memories around that song. Then this week, I friended my BFF from high school. During our senior year, she and I used to go back to her house after school, turn on MTV and practice all of the moves from "Thriller". In my memory, it seems like we did it every day. We had it down pretty good. Gosh, it's been a long time since I've seen this video. Think I might just start rehearsals again here in my office!

Looking back

Music is very important to me. When I'm in a funk, my favorite music can pull me out of it almost instantly. When I feel like crap and want to "waller" in it, certain songs can help me waller with the best of them! Today while I was getting dressed, I was listening to my iPod on shuffle and an old favorite played--"Better Days" by Bruce Springsteen. Boy, did this song take me back instantly.

There were many days that I sang this song at the top of my lungs in my apartment, remembering what absolutely shitty times I'd been through...and survived...for the better. There are so many lines in this song that rang so true for me at those times in my life that it makes me wonder if Bruce didn't go through similar things in his life. That's the thing with songs...the words can seem like they were written about me or my life and those are the songs that mean the most to me and truly touch my spirit in a way that nothing else can.

As I listened to it today, it made me remember those tough days again and where I am now. It made me remember the person I was then and the person I am today. I am a different person than I was then, but I wouldn't be this person if it weren't for those shitty ones. Truly, today, I am living in Better Days...and I'm grateful.

My most embarrassing moment

Last night I had a horribly embarrassing moment that I should probably keep to myself, but for some reason, am compelled to share.

I was driving home from a shoot with some other photographers. I was going down this small hill--about 45 mph which was the speed limit. My mind was thinking about the group I just left, what I was going to do today, and still mulling over incidents from the weekend--yeah, still thinking about them!

Anyway, I approach the bottom of the hill which is a light and the light is yellow. Now, normally I would just go right on through the light, but my eye spots a cop sitting at the other side of the light getting ready to turn in front of me. Now, a series of thoughts flashed through my head in an instant: 1. Bean just got a ticket for running a yellow/red light 2. I probably shouldn't run a yellow light in front of a cop in case it turns red while I'm under it--can't afford a ticket 3. I'm going fast enough to make it, but should I try?

So, what do I do? I slam on my brakes, screeching to a halt and the above picture is kinda what I looked like. There literally was smoke and a horrible smell of burning rubber. As soon as I "land", I look over at the cop and give him the a-okay sign with my fingers. He kinda smiles, waves and proceeds to turn. Meanwhile, all of the other people sitting at the light who got to witness my Jeff Gordon moves, begin to turn, look at me and laugh/smile/shake their heads, whatever. I'm sitting there mortified/laughing/cringing/shaking, any combination of these. The stupidity of what I did is still making me laugh today, thinking about what I must've looked like. Let's not even mention the fact that I never even looked in my rearview mirror to see if anyone was behind me and the disaster that would've resulted if there had been. <>

Anyhow, that was my night last night. I'm thinking in another 6 months I might have to have my license taken from me.

So, I think it might be menopause

I haven't felt well for a couple of months. I've been extremely tired all the time, moodier than normal, weird aches and pains. I went to the dr. 2 weeks ago where she had me get a chest x-ray and run some bloodwork to see if I was anemic. Everything came back normal. I've been worried. Worried because I don't feel myself...not sick, but not myself. Enter Google.

This week I've been googling perimenopause which is the anywhere up to 10 year period prior to menopause--the actual cessation of your period. Many of my symptoms line up with it. Then today while I was grocery shopping something hit me. I've been eating 2 teaspoons of flax seed in my yogurt every morning for several months. I ran out of it a couple of months ago. Could this be my problem? I don't know but I bought the flax seed tonight and promptly came home and put it on some yogurt as a snack. I'll let you know if my symptoms improve.

Girls just wanna have fun!

This past weekend I had girls' weekend down at the lake. We gathered together to celebrate Bean's 40th birthday. Her birthday was actually in March, but things were going on in her life then that prevented us from celebrating the way God (and I) intended so we made up for lost time this weekend. Unfortunately, even though lots of pictures were taken, not many can be posted. Our philosophy is "What happens at the lake, stays at the lake!" What I will share is one picture of the birthday girl and some pictures of the party decor.

Fun at the Fair

Last night was my favorite night of our county fair--the demolition derby. They added a new competition this year--lawn mowers. Here's a few videos I took. What a fun night, plus the funnel cake and Mr. Softee with sprinkles rocked!

Some favorites from this weekend