A Bit About Myself



I started this blog in order to document my trip to Scotland
but shortly after starting the blog I lost my job in a reduction in force.
This blog then served to keep me sane during my 1+ year of unemployment.
I have had a job since August, which I have enjoyed very much but I have missed blogging,
so it is time to start up again.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Last Weekend at the Park

My toe finally healed enough that last Friday I was able to take my dogs for a walk in the park.  Since we are already at 100 degree days here I had to wait till almost 8:00PM but that meant I got some great sunset pictures. 





This is my new favorite picture of Memphis.



The sunflowers are still everywhere, and this one even had a little friend.





I love this picture of the pecan trees with the sun rays coming through.




I don't know if I have ever mentioned before but there is an old farm in the center of the park. The donkeys live in the area.


I took this on the drive home, the sun was just gorgeous.



I have been putting together shutterfly books of this year's family reunion, my pets, and the park.  While doing this task my computer has started to act up, so I have not been able to blog as much.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Feeling Down

I have been feeling out of sorts for the last week or so, which has lead to days where I feel really down.  I am normally very optimistic and live by fate, so I am rarely depressed.  I am not sure what is causing it, but I have come up with a bit of list.

1.  Had my plans worked out I would be spending some of the summer in Scotland, now I have no idea when that will happen

2. I sprained my toe at the beginning of the month and then every weekend after I have done something to make it worse.  I finally cracked and took a painkiller Monday and I am feeling tons better.  However since I have been resting, I have not been able to do anything active. No walks, no Just Dance, just reading, surfing the net, and watching movies.

3. I am once again spending the summer searching for a teacher position.  Since graduation I have only had one summer where I did not have to look for work. 

4. I am not a fan of summer, it is hot and since I live in Texas is never seems to rain.  I wish I had a pool I would spend the whole summer swimming.

5. I have not been babysitting as often as I was during the Spring.  Right now I am lucky to have one job a week, which means I go long stretches with only myself (and my pets) for company.

6. Finances (enough said)

Other things come up and I am constantly thinking about possible futures.  Anything could happen, which is both scary and exciting.   I have been reading and watching movies like crazy as a way of distracting myself.  Sometimes it works great and sometimes it does not work at all. 

For example, last night I had tons of nervous energy but with my toe I could not do anything active to take care of it.  I was suppose to babysit but it was cancelled last minute and since I was already dressed and ready to go I went to see Rock of Ages at the local theater.  It was a great movie and it distracted me momentarily with the great toe tapping music.  However the second it was over the nervous energy was back so I decided to rent a couple movies to watch a home.  I chose to watch Journey 2 for the third time and Footloose.  Since I was already familiar with Journey 2 it did not help at all (and I adore Josh Hutcherson, so it should have worked) but Footloose did help some, at least for awhile. 

I thought I was doing pretty good today, I was happy and looking forward to a afternoon spent at the library but the second I started a job search the down feeling came back full force. 

I can't wait for my toe to heal so I can go back to exercising and taking the dogs on walks.  I am pretty sure that would help me the most but who knows how much longer until it heals.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Lacy photo shoot

Lacy was posing for me this afternoon, so I let her have a bit of a photo shoot.






Park Pictures

First up are pictures of the dogs and the donkey.

Sorry about the cord in the way, by the time I tried to take a second picture Daisy (my mom's dog) had moved.



Vegas usually goes no where near the Donkey, but with my Dad, Daisy, and Memphis all there she got distracted and did not even know he was there until he started to get a bit close.  I think he may have been trying to eat her fur.


Daisy is heart worm positive so a walk is not easy for her.  We stopped for a few breaks but she actually did really well.




It is sunflower time in the park and the sunflowers are VERY tall and seemed to sprout up overnight.



I have seen these flowers a few times in the area and I think they are very beautiful.



A field of dark orange flowers.


This flower opens later in the evening.  I caught it open the day before but I did not have my camera with me.


Dandelions are all over the park right now, so everyday I pick one to make a wish.  The day I took this picture I picked one and the wind blew at the same time I did and it went back into my face.



The Sun is setting on the orchard. 


I have passed this spot tons of times over the last year but the other day was the first time I noticed it is shaped like a "A" the first letter in my name.  Pretty cool.



May the Odds...

So I have seen those little foil packs (or boxes) that contain a Hunger Games character, several times over the last few months.  I had not been willing to buy one because I wanted a guarantee that I would get one of my favorite characters.   The other day I was picking up some stuff at CVS for my sprained toe and I saw some of these on the counter and decided what the heck, maybe I will get lucky and get Peeta (my favorite HG character).  My luck must really be changing because that was the one I got, although you can barely tell.  It says district 12 and it is not the Katniss one so that leaves me with Peeta.  I guess the odds were in my favor.


Vegas the Singer

Yesterday I was able to capture Vegas' singing talents.  Well not really, it was her being vocal about what I assume was a dog walking past the house.  When I first got her, this was a common occurrence whenever she saw a dog that looked like my sister's dog, Milo; now it is any dog. 




Such talent!!!!

The Thief

When I was in college, Lacy was always stealing food off my plate.  She would use her paw to push it off the plate and always thought she was so sneaky about it.   Sometimes she would crawl on my shoulder and try to steal it from my hand before it would make it to my mouth. The other night I was eating a pork chop and she started to jump up and peak at me from the end of the end table.  The first time I got a video with my cell phone but then the last two nights I was able to get video with my camera of the thief.  I am watching Veronica Mars so that is what you hear in the back ground.



She loved it so much that she hopped up on the end table, to try and eat the food right off my plate.  She can't jump very high and almost never gets on the furniture so this tells you how much she loved it, also the fact that she had my plate cleaned in a few seconds.


Vegas and Memphis were not too thrilled about Lacy getting what they consider their plate.  I would not have let them clean it anyways since it was butter and would make their fur greasy, but Vegas still gave me the best look.


** Yes that is my toe all wrapped up.  I sprained it while babysitting 1.5 weeks ago and then made it worse last weekend.  It feels tons better now.