Snow Day 2013

January 17, 2013

I know what you're thinking. Snow day? Why not "Snow Days" or  "First snow of 2013" or some other such fitting title? Because my friends, this is east TN we only get one snow day per season. And this was it. One moment the rain is coming down in sheets, the next ice, and the next huge beautiful snow flurries.

I was still at work when it was started and was chomping at the bit to go home. Not really because of road conditions, ( I only live fifteen minutes away you see) but mostly due to this simple statement: who wants to be at work on a snow day!? OR trapped there for that matter?

Luckily they let us "early folks" go home around 2:30pm so I missed the masses of traffic attempting to get home, as the snow came down harder. Had I known that life would be right back to normal at 9:30 the next morning, perhaps I would have taken a bit more time enjoying the warmth of my house, the coolness of the snow outside, the beauty of it; instead of stressing about my budget.
(Which turns out was a complete waste of time due to things I just realized today!) 

Perhaps next year. Until we meet again Old Man Winter!

My yard during the inital storm

The End.

P.S. ( I really miss my photoshop. I hate these vertical pictures messing up my flow.) 
P.P.S ( You know what's really bad? When you're iPhone is taking better pics than your, albeit six year old, DSLR. ARGH!) 

February Focus

I had this big long depressing post written up about how long and horrid this week has been, but I only managed to depress myself further, so I scrapped that and decided to make some goals for myself this month.. 

1. Survive Photojournalism Class. Ok.To say this class makes me nervous is a HUGE understatement...mainly because we have to work, hard, and fast. One week turn around on most assignments and on top of that a Photo Story/Essay that's due in six weeks. Only school can make a week the shortest amount of time ever. 
2. Continue shooting daily - I did miss one day this week, because well my motivation took a vacation. But I'm pleased that I've kept it up this long.
3. Purchase a car!!!!!! - as I alluded to in previous post, I am in need of a car. Like...NOW. Like as in I don't have a car to drive anymore...and let me tell you this. When I grow up, and get married I WILL NOT (please God?) have more than 4 kids. Driving a 15-Passenger van  (especially at 21) is NOT cool...but what's sad, is that is the ride is so.much.smoother than my dad's car. (sorry dad) So I'm scraping together every little bit of money I can so I can purchase a vehicle. Right now I'm looking at the 2000-2002 Acura TL or the 2003-2005 Mazda6.  I'm going to have to finance this car, so I have to get something I can afford on my meager salary. PRAY!! 
4. Start raising my fifth guide dog puppy - 3 weeks 4 days.....
5. Drink more water, watch calorie intake: Completely failed on that last month, what can I say. Stress. This month will get back on the band wagon, logging what I eat, so I can start moving towards something a little healthier. 
6. Redo Hair. So in case you were wondering...that is all my real hair, and it takes about 3 hours to get flatten into shape. I normally will do it this way in the winter, due to less heat which equals less sweating, which means my hair stays flatter longer. get it? But its starting to fuzzzzzz so I need to make some time pre-puppy to get that taken care of. :-/ 

Other smaller goals include: Being on time for things, being prepared ahead of time, trying to get my homework done before the last minute, continuing to not procrastinate about things that scare me...... #gulps. 

Not a long list but challenging enough I supposed.
How about you? What are some of your goals for this month?

An Unexpected Snow fall

Of course the day I break down and wash my car, get it all nice and "purty" it snows unexpectedly. 

I thought the skies looked a little heavy but wasn't expecting snow! 

Haven't felt like blogging much lately, partly due to the fact I'm still recovering from this weekend past, and taking every opportunity to sleep. Which so far hasn't been much. Stupid Caffeine. 

So perhaps this weekend...? 

We'll see.

                 

First Snow

I'm skipping today's #Reverb10 prompt, cause it was just like, I ....I can't even explain the confusion I felt when reading it. Inteeways....the weather announcements started around Thursday afternoon, a huge storm system was supposed to go through our fair city over the weekend. Snow, rain, sleet the whole nine yards. All the locals were skeptical, after all the most snow scene around here is about 0.5 inches. Skepticism rose to a whole new level when Saturday morning dawned bright and 50 degrees. 


And it wasn't until 11PM that the rain started. Cold, bitter rain. I began to become optimistic that we'd have snow by the morning. My disappointment was great when I  stuck my head out into a cold, gray day. 
However, by the time church was out the flurries were coming down hard and fast, much to Pompei's delight, and the dachshunds horror. By the time, we were getting ready for the evening service, the roads were getting slick, and icy.


Now most northerners who move down here, are always laughing at the locals and how quickly the town shuts down when the snow starts falling, however, they don't realize that those huge...shall we say "ditches" or drop offs, the mountainously steep roads, are a like riding the roller coaster of death, on a thin sheet of ice. Four wheel drive or no. I've attempted to drive them. Believe me, its not an experiance I want little children and busses going through.


So what do I do on a Sunday evening, with no church and lots of snow coming down?? Well after I freeze my nose off, letting the dogs play in the yard....

I organize my closet!!!!!!! I know, I know try not to be jealous. It had to be done, I needed to get to my clothes.

Have you ever washed your entire closet all at once? 

Like, take every.single.piece of clothing out of your closet and wash it?

No?

You probably should do it every so often. #justsayin

ANyway, so I'd done that last month, for a reason,that I'm not going to tell you right now, and spent sometime sorting through, bagging up the clothes I haven't worn in like...since I bought them, and let my sisters go through them. #werecoolwithhandmedowns

I made quite a dent in my closet, so now instead of taking up both sides, it only takes up one....and a dresser...and a bunch of tubs....See? 

Before...

 In between....

 And After! 

Except you can't see my closet...

Or inside it...

So you'll just have to take my word..K?!

After that was done, I cleaned other parts of my house and all the while managing my city on Age of the Empires II. Gold Edition. My mom used to think that game was violent.  It is sorta, of but a girl has to keep her city safe, and if I have to commission, armies of archers, elephants, calvary and hoards of villagers to keep my food supplies up. You should try it sometime. :) During the managing of my second empire, I whipped up some Monkey Bread. 

Yummy, ooey, gooey, goodness. Note: Don't try to grab the pan without oven mitts. Also don't stick your finger in the empty pan and try to lick the remaining glaze...it burns. 


Oh wait..you actually wanted pictures of snow?! About that...there's the little problem with it getting dark at 5:30PM and yeah. Maybe tomorrow. Speaking of Monday, I don't have to go in until 10AM, and with any luck they may just shut her down.......


You'll excuse me, so I can go pray for 12 inches of snow?


See Ya!

November 14: Wish List

Dear Santa, 
I really wish you real, could you imagine how happy Christmas would be if you actually had anything to do with the things people bought? I mean think of all the debt you would save people! No I'm not one to go "all out" over a holiday, if I can afford something I'll do it..which may mean disappointing people. Anyway. Digressing again...However, if you are out there hovering around somewhere, and my parents were wrong that you aren't just a random guy in a red suit.....pleasepleaseplesasepleasepleaese....


Here's what I want for Christmas: 

Sony Alpha a700 

via

Ok, so i'm in serious need of a camera upgrade, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to stick with Sony. I really really really like this one Santa, and if you don't mind including a 50mm 1.4 lens, as well as a 24-75mm lens  in it as well...I would be forever grateful! 

21.5 inch iMac

Via

Oh my computer needs upgrading as well! Yes, I know I have one of these already, but I'm still running TIGER OSX 10.5 ITS TIME FOR AN UPGRADE SANTA BABY! :)) Preferably Snow Leopard with 1TB in hard-drive space if that's not too much trouble?

2011 Ford Edge 

The car speaks for its self.

iPod Touch 4th Generation

Via

Ok so my MOM has one of these before I do. Not.Fair. I want.The end.

Light Room CS5

So my teacher show us the power of this little beauty in class the other day, and I.am.in LOVE I tell you! It makes the editing process so much simpler!!! Things that take a lot of time in photoshop you can do with a click of you mouse! GENIUS! 

Of course this is just the BEGINNING of what I want, Santa, so keep that in mind as you are filling out my requests ok? I'll check in with you later, with the remainder of this list!!

TaTa!

Yep..its Monday

I have never really been one to dread Monday...well until this week. My two week vaca from the university is over.....

We arrived home from AL around 7:30PM last night. I was basically dead on my feet; I completely forgot I had to drive home the night before, and stayed up talking to like 3:00AM, as I'd done the last several nights. My head was aching so badly by the time we arrived home, I could barely do anything.

Though I'd left my heaters running while I was gone, the house was frigid, and didn't warm up...much.  My toes were literally NUMB, by the time I crawled into bed. I had to turn on a heating pad, since my bed warmers were all still at the kennel.

Though, I do have to admit it was nice to have the whole bed to myself. Aaaah.

Anyway, I got up this morning with about 10 minutes to spare, since I had no little furkids, I was out the door, and still made it to work with 5 minutes to spare. (OOh yeah baby)

The morning kind of went steadily down hill after that, I managed to mess up a couple of vet appointment, cause some people to panic...than I took my lunch break to pick up the munkchins and managed to lock my keys in the car. Thankfully my parents live about 15 minutes away, and were able to rescue us.

That left me mere moments to dash home,  and "throw" the pups into the house, and race back to work.

Once there my co-worker and I (@ the service dog job) started talking (via Email) about Victoria, and her career as a Service Dog; by the end of that convo, we'd decided to remove her from the program.

Wow that threw me for a loop...not in the fact that she was career changed (as we call it) but because I actually had the opportunity to keep one of my babies, right there in arms reach.

But is it the right thing to do? Can I afford three permanent dogs plus whatever service dog I have in my home? What about moving? Traveling? Vet Bills?

And I have 10 days until school starts, and ony 8 days too get registered, which in reality is only 4 days due to work.....AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

My head hurts. And it doesn't help that I probably got a total of 20 hours sleep this entire weekend.

Not to mention but tomorrow I have to run over the mountain (1.5 hours) for an important meeting...

Yep....its just gotta be Monday.

Christmas Parade No. 2

Christmas Parade Number 2, our GNO/SHOE group decided to meet at IHOP for breakfast, before we went to the parade, in a small town just 30 minutes out of Kvill. Since this parade was well known for its vast candy supply, I brought my youngest sister Autumn,and they brought thier niece who is the same age as my sister.

Which also meant I had to pay for my dearest sister's breakfast as well. But it was ok cause she had fun. I LOVE IHOP, Breakfast and Dinner are THE BEST!!! We had to rush a little as my dear friends were late, but it was all good.

[Viva La French Toast!]

[Victoria finally decides to lay down and sleep, verses sniffing the table]

The parade was so small it went through a shopping plaza instead of shutting down a couple of roads like they did in our city. Which actually worked out very well. It wasn't all that in a bag of chips, BUT...the CANDY amounts, was at least 2-3 lbs. NO JOKE.

Victoria was only out about 15 minutes, before she was spooked to the point of no return, due to the sirens. So I put her back in the car and went back to collect candy.
Note to self: Next year don't wear high-heeled boots, as its very hard to bend down to the ground about 50-60 times.
I think I'll have enough candy to last me through the first two months of classes. lol.

[Hey it was cold, out there!]

[VickV before the parade started]

[Fisher]

[Aspen, Brooklyn, Kimber and Autumn]

[Very cute, even that is too many dogs for me!]

[One of two small marching bands]

[That was only during the first half of the parade, I got more as time went on]

***************

Winter

Only 19 days till International Get into Debt Day!

Winter is officially here....

The Bad: The days and nights are cold, the sky is gray for the most part,all the leaves are gone, the grass is dead...and snow is in the forecast for tomorrow. (ok that would be today, and yep there is snow.)

The Good: I don't have a tiny puppy to potty train, so lounging around in my coat, scarf, hat and gloves...in order to be ready for those 1/2 hourly trips outside. (Though spending 45 minutes to an Hour outside is not much better)

The Bad: Having to sit through 1.5 hour parade, and freezing, wrestling with a 6mo Service Pup...
The Good: Drinking Starbucks Hot Chocolate (not a coffee fan), hanging with friends,and then going out to eat afterwards.(That was Fun!)

The Good: Snuggling under mounds of blankets with my four (soon-to-be-three) dogs. *sob*
The Bad: .....Snow, being stuck at home, no insulation in my house, having to pry myself from mounds of warm blankets, and warm furry bodies. (It was hard, but the incessant whining at my door soon convinced me)

The Good: The puppies have a lot of fun.

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