Random Schtuff

*This was in the sky while we were in Disney...love it love it love it! I also love the pink sunflare to the right of the smiley.
*Still don't have my computer back...ticking me off at this point
*I swear I can see Cole growing in front of my eyes like one of those Kudzu vines that grows like a foot an hour or something crazy.
*On the way to the dentist this week, Peyton wanted to know if they were going to Tazer her.
*I am in love with Facebook
* I love how Peyton still occassionally forgets and calls the thin straps on her nightgown noodle straps. (spaghetti straps)
*I can't WAIT till my spring sessions are in full swing (ALTHOUGH you should know I'm going to be keeping a light schedule because of my flippan' 80 year old back, so keep that in mind if you want to schedule)
*I just can't wait for spring the cold is depressing me.
*I have to immediately go to the RIGHT now at Target so I don't look at the clothes for the girls.
*I really hate not working
*My kids EAT all the snacks I buy at the grocery in the first two days.
*I have to hide chocolate and candy from my children so that Matt and I will have a stash.
*I have the absolute best family (you know who you are) and friends(that are more like family again, you know who you are) ever. They put up with my crap.
*Our twins are almost teens. Lord help us.
*Cole has had two clean dental visits in a row. This is a miracle because I swear the plaque grows on his teeth like mold on blue cheese.
*I'm currently obsessed with box tops for Peytons class. You can send me yours if you want.
*My husband is a gem.
*The Twilight Movie CD comes out March 21st. I've pre-ordered it. Duh
*I am that person in line that you hate who still writes paper checks.
*Callie is blossoming before our eyes into such a beautiful young lady.
*Yesterday Levi and Cosmo were playing in the backyard. Cosmo has/had a lovely sage green and brown paisley adjustable collar from his previous placement. Levi "adjusted" it for him while playing and he came in with a large segment going across his mouth from one side to the other like Hannibal Lector. I kept picturing him calling me "CLARISSE".
* I have sucessfully used: I, my and me almost as many times as Kate from John and Kate plus 8 does in about 10 minutes of an episode.

Pump up the party! AND let's order some SNUGGIES!

If I was a little Hawaiian girl, I could look this cute and wear a lei and dance dance dance the hula till the cows come home. Well there probably aren't any cows in Hawaii, maybe till the pineapples are ripe. Not as catchy but...

Whimages wants YOU to know that I will be spring shooting MARCH, APRIL and 3 weeks of MAY. So if you are thinking of getting your spring portraits of your sweet little hoodlums soon, you might want to call me. Or if you want that new puppy pic or your family chillin out in the fresh green grass, shoot me a mail~!

SORT OF IMPORTANT INFORMATION:
I more than likely will NOT be shooting this summer after the end of May. If you have been following THE NOT SO INTERESTING SAGA OF ROBYN'S BACK, then you'll know why. I spoke with my Neurosurgeon (I don't know if you are supposed to capitalize the word Neurosurgeon but HECK, if I had gone to school all those years to be poking around peoples spinal cords and brain goo I'd want to be capitalized. FO SHO). He will be doing a lumbar laminectomy, discectomy and spinal fusion at the end of May. Judging by my discogram, he said that if I just had the discectomy, I'd probably be back in 6 months for the fusion anyway. All these ECTOMYS are crazy. What I REALLY need is a flabectomy, or a skinnyectomy or givememoneyectomy but those are not in my cards I guess. I can't play cards anyway. Well except for GO FISH but who CAN'T play that. With a twelve week recovery, I'm guessing I won't be picking up my camera except for my family.

In other fascinating Bedsaul news...our furnace broke sometime in the night on Sunday. My handy-dandy Dad diagnosed (he always wanted to be a doctor) the problem and went to get the part. Unfortunately, as fate would have it as always when it comes to these types of matters, it will take up to 3 days to get it in. Our gas fireplace has been running double time. I'm thinking about ordering SNUGGIES( https://www.getsnuggie.com/flare/next?tag=ossmgotm ) for everyone in the family. They'll keep us all warm, we'll STILL be able to answer the phone (even when you call to make your portrait appointment~ that's like a subliminal message or something) PLUS we'll have them when we go to all the sporting events we go to(we really don't). I'll also look like a totally hot mom walking to the bus-stop in the morning with my snuggie and crocs on and my bed head and sleep wrinkled face. Maybe I can wear it to watch the girls dance. Maybe I'll even join the snuggie cult I saw on you tube. I'm not going to link that because as laugh my butt off funny and politically incorrect as well as crass and a horde of other inappropriateness as it is, I just can't bring myself to post it. I will NOT link it. (There's always google though)

Do my run on sentences bother you? :-)

Mason's B-day, Bruno and a DISCOGRAM!

We celebrated my nephew Mason's 2'nd Birthday over the weekend. Being the awesome aunt I am, we gave him a really cool percussion set with snare drum, harmonica, sticks, marracas etc. He loves it and giving him this fantasticly loud and potentially annoying gift has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that my sister used to purchase similarly obnoxiously loud toys for my three children. (Like the pay as you go phone that she bought Peyton for Christmas that Peyton is forbidden to answer because obviously whomever had the number previously used it for illicet and illegal purposes that I want Peyton to not be a part of. And the fact that she has credit card companies calling her on that number offering her GREAT INTEREST RATES on a new credit card dosen't help either.) So BEAT THOSE DRUMS MASON!!!

Here is super cute little Bruno. I seriously wanted to tuck him into my coat and bring him home. Those lips, those wrinkles, that sweet puppy breath. Truly it was almost too much for me to handle! I LOVE shooting pets and puppies are just icing on the cake!

DISCOGRAM it's GROOVY BABY!

LET'S DO THE HUSTLE! STAYING ALIVE, STAYING ALIVE, AH AH AH, STAYING ALIVEEEEEE.

A discogram is so cool people! Like this guy shows up at your house and he's got this super fly afro, cool sunglasses and a leisure suit that just shows everything he's got from the large peace sign necklace nestled in the dense bed of chest hair down to his endless long legs on his platform shoes. Then he starts dancing to a melange of 70's music. All the while stripping down to one of those uber-popular speedo's. AWESOME!

Well, not really but it sounds like that's what a discogram is right? Instead they inflated 3 of my discs with contrast medium all the while monitoring my reaction and x-raying the results. I had heard horror stories about this test (google discogram message boards if you are curious). Thankfully my neurosurgeon (he walks on water. well maybe) had this FANTASTIC and gentle radiology specialist do it who made it a walk in the park. Well not quite but my last epidural injection was worse. The residual pain wasn't fun but the test was not bad at all! So now I'm just waiting to see if or when or what kind of surgery is next. EDIT!! I just spoke with the neuro's office and apparently I'm going to be scheduled for a laminectomy and lumbar fusion. (laminectomy involves bones or joints or something, not discs and fusion well is fusion). So since this is lumbar they go in through the front of my abdomen. DAMN IT~! There goes my bikini wearing days!

LOL actually my bikini wearing days have been LOOOOONG gone because of the twins but now I can blame it on that instead of the twins which was causing them all KINDS of mental distress and stuff. (I'll pretend it has nothing to do with my extra lbs)

Where to begin?

LOOOOONG post ahead alert!

We've been without a computer forever. Tina came to my rescue and lent us a computer while I work on a website for their company. If you are one of the 2 clients that's waiting for your pics...I'm just waiting on my hard drive to come back...sorry!

I wonder what you want to hear about first? I'll start with Disney. My Dad took my sister's family and my family last week. The weather was AWESOME! AWESOME! (sorry to rub it in but....it was AWESOME!) The mornings and evenings were a tad chilly but that was it! I just mainly tagged along for the ride (actually the lack there of, well the good ones at least like the rockin' coaster and space mountain). More on that in a couple paragraphs. Callie actually got on Space Mountain. TWICE! This is momentous, truly monumental in the history of fraidy cat Callie! And Grace is going to be a daredevil just like Peyton. Her two favorite rides were the Haunted Mansion and Barnstormer, she referred to that as a big girl ride! Mason thought he was as big as the rest of the crew except when a character came around...then he high-tailed it toward his mom.

A Cinderella story...sorta
Before we left I made a quick trip to Old Navy to get the girls some capri leggings and I picked up a pair of super cute silver ballet flats for Peyton. I had been looking for a pair that I liked so I snatched those up. When I came home I put them in the large bag we were checking (we only checked one because it's 15 dollars a bag...I was being bargain Betty). A while later I ran upstairs to grab something else and the terrible twosome each had a pretty little silver ballet flat as a chewbone. They were still attached to each other with elastic so the two devildogs had to lay directly next to each other to get their chew on! So I scolded them and put the now distressed silver ballet flats in the suitcase and zipped it up. Let me tell you, these ballet flats were NOT meant to be. Fourth night into the trip we had dinner reservations at Chef Mickey's with my friends Tina, Lisa and their kids and Mom. As we hopped off the monorail in the Contemporary, Peyton starts fussing((here's the Cinderella part) that she lost a shoe. So I frantically turn around and look into the crowded monorail and ask if anyone sees a little silver shoe. Then I look down the 4 inch crevice between the monorail and the platform and see a glint of silver way far down. great. I take a crying and hobbleing Cinderpeyton down to Chef Mickeys to check in and then we were off to buy some shoes. She ended up with a really cute pair of sparkly High School Musical Flip Flops. I'm still sad about the silver shoes. This could ONLY happen to Peyton.

Okay, here comes the pity party that you are all probably getting used to hearing by now. Robyn's back, yadda yadda, bla bla bla. Unfortunately, my last epidural steroid injection only lasted 5 days (so I had that GOSH DARN spinal headache for NOTHING). So my doctor loaded me up with meds and sent me off to the happiest place on earth in a pretty happy state mentally! Next week I'm having something called a discogram. They inject dye at 20psi into a good disc and measure your response. Then they try to do the same into the bad discs and measure your responses. After, they do a cat scan to see where the dye has leaked and it will show cracks or things in your disc. Then I'll know if I need a revision discectomy or a fusion or something else.

Computer HELL and DISNEY and a LOVELY spinal headache

Our computer crashed with some weird something or other and we have a hard drive failure. URGH. Thank GOD we bought the extended warranty! It's leaving today to go the the hard drive doctor so I'll be without it. So Call me if you need me. :-)

Next week, my father is taking me and my kids and my sister and her kids to DISNEY WORLD! WOOOO HOOOO! We are so excited...can't wait to see Grace and Mason's little faces! The cool thing is that we are staying in the same resort as two of our neighbors families and my other friend Tina and her family are going too! It's gonna be a blast! Poor Matt is staying home with the doggies. Winter is not a good time to vacation when you are one of the people who decide whether or not the roads are too dangerous due to snow or sleet for the kids to have school.

I had my second epidural injection earlier this week. What an adventure! The procedure itself was so much more smooth this time and much less painful. Afterwards I stood up and said something about how easy that was. Well...I spoke too soon because suddenly someone hit me in the base of my head/top of my neck with a baseball bat going ninety miles an hour! Well, not literally but it sure as HECK felt like it! Apparently I had something called a spontaneous spinal headache. Sounds like fun? The rapid drop in blood pressure was kinda nice considering my head and legs didn't feel like they were attached to my body. Could have been a semi fun ride minus the unbearable gnashing pain in my brain. They went right back in and did something called an epidural blood patch. Which basically means taking blood from your hands and putting it into the area where you had the epidural. When you have a spinal headache like that, your spinal fluid is leaking from your spine. It's normally a good idea to keep spinal fluid where it belongs...in the spine. So the blood patch will go into the area and stop up the hole where the fluid is leaking by clotting, like sticking your thumb in a hole in a dam. Pretty cool theory! It worked so that was awesome! Unfortunately, because of the blood pressure issue it took about forever (really) to get the 22 cc's of blood from my hands. I'm fine now and felt pretty good within an hour afterward. Good times for sure! :-) I just had to lay flat and drink LOTS of caffeine (HEY, Mr. Barista, can I have a grande skinny vanilla latte with 3 extra shots PLEASE!)

So I won't be here for a while...with out the computer, I can't really post! But hopefully when I get back it will be done and I'll have SUPER cute pics of the kids having a good ol' Mickey time! :-)

"Yes, I'm a complete and total ANGEL!"

Don't let this photo fool you. He looks: sweet, innocent, harmless. Cosmo looks like he's full of mischief chewing on Mr. Innocent Levi's ear. Macy is such a good sweet girl except for her moments of snobbish behavior where I swear you can practically see her roll her eyes at the idiotic antics of the two boys.

These two could not get into more trouble if they tried. TRUST ME! We all know or have known in the past, a couple young boys that attracted trouble like a big ol' magnet. Usually one of those boys attracted most of the trouble and the other one either just happened to be tagging along or went with the flow, right? Every Batman has their Robin. Well they are good guys so that's probably not a good analogy. You know what I mean though. Let's just get this out first. Levi IS THE TROUBLE MAGNET and Cosmo usually just tags along because trouble means fun and he doesn't want to miss any fun!

Here's a rundown of a bit of what the terrible twosome have been up to lately:
*chewed up a wooden hanger in the middle of the night that they somehow got off the bottom rack of our closet.
*Ate a matchbook style pack of emery boards. They'll feel great on the way out.
*Ingested the majority of a new pink pencil
*snagged a drumstick and covered it in grooves with their teeth. Maybe Matt can market that as a new gripping system for drummers.
*Polished off an entire plate of sugar cookies that Callie painstakingly made.
*Stretched out a pair of Peytons panties during a rigorous tug of war, they are so big now I could pretend they'd fit me.
*Covered my bedroom carpet in wonderful psychodelic pink swirls of fushia hair dye. Groovy baby!
*Spewed shampoo on my bedroom carpet after stealing the bottle out of the kids bathroom. But maybe they were trying to clean up the permanent hair dye!?
*Opened an entire pack of panty liners but brought one down to show me. How thoughtful!
*Ripped about 10 pages of my TWILIGHT MOVIE COMPANION that Tina gave me. I have to say this probably pissed me off the most!

I have a hard time staying mad at those cute faces. Maybe I'm just super tolerant. Or crazy :-)

OH GAWD...the birds and the bees...well sort of. It's Peytonism time!

This morning, I was post-processing some photos and Peyton was laying on the couch watching the Wonder Pets. Cosmo and Levi were snuggled on top of the blanket covering her (Macy was still cozily tucked in my bed because princesses like to sleep late). Because of the Holidays and stuff with Cosmo leaving and then coming back, we haven't gotten around to his neutering appointment yet. (WHICH I FEEL is of the most important for all pet owners unless you have a CERTIFIED champion that has won many awards in the show ring~hopping off of soap box now).

Warning the following may contain words that you MAY find offensive. My kids know the correct terminology for the male and female body parts. However, penis, testicals, vagina and butt (well, that's already slang but I can't even bring my self to type the real word here..ewwww) are not words that I ever wanted slung around in public, call me CRAZY. We've always adopted slang terms for these parts, I won't bore you with all those crazy details however I will have to share one or two in a moment.

As Cosmo was curled up right next to Peyton his Do Dads just happen to be relatively close to her face. Yeah, ummm not a pretty site. She glanced down and noticed them I guess. And she said, "MOM, we really have to get Cosmo neutered soon!" Because she does know what that means. I reassured her that yes, we would be getting him neutered soon. She then said, "I'm worried that he might have a baby!" So I explained that he'd have to have a doggie girlfriend that he loved and then God would give them the puppies. Then I told her that he doesn't have a girlfriend that he loves so we were safe. Then she wanted to know if this was true than why does her little diamond dove have eggs. Now I'm in a quandry. (Her little diamond dove lays an egg about every other day several times a year) So I told her that because she doesn't have a husband bird that she would produce eggs but that God wouldn't give her a baby. She then said, "Mom, we GOTTA get her a MAN!"

The aftermath...

I've been non-existent here in whimagesville for a bit. Sorry! I looked at my stats today and I was like "so I must BLOG tonight or I might get hate mail or something". Wasn't quite that bad but still lots of people were looking for whatever mundane thing I have to say about my life, my dogs, my kids, my ailments and my photos. So here goes

I'll start off like my deceased Polish Grandmother (bless her heart!) and talk about my crappy luck with my back. As I mentioned, I put off the next lumbar surgery (where they would be going in through my STOMACH most likely...hope your not eating a donut or something). I elected to have Epidural Steroid Injections instead. These could: a. work wonderfully and put off the surgery for a long time b. be a GREAT patch job till the surgery or C. not really work. So I had to see a pain management specialist instead of the neurosurgeon that I just love. Apparently, it's a fun thing to switch up your meds right before the holidays and put you on stuff that takes about a
week to semi kick in. AND to make it an even better GOOD TIME, don't tell me this AND don't return my frantic phone calls that started on a Friday morning. Cool huh? We are off to a great start! I spent 3 days in the fetal position on my couch but heck could have been worse. At least I have a couch. At least I can curl into a fetal position...look for the positives people! Finally Monday night I did get a call back. So next time I'm supposed to a. deal with it or b. go to the emergency room. Great options. Today I had the procedure done....I'd have rather had a real epidural, in fact...with the twins it took 3 epidurals to work (cause I was literally the SIZE of a BARN and I couldn't squish up into that fetal position ball that they like) I would have rather had the 3 epidurals again! Anyway, enough b*tching, it's over with and I feel fine tonight. I'll go back in 2 weeks for another and hopefully that will last through our Disney trip at the end of the month.

Santa came by our little abode and brought some goodies. I have LOTS of photos of my kids with their eyes shut. nice. The wrappingpaperboxstrewn room always cracks me up. The kids on the steps...it's tradition! Don't mind the BED frame at the top of the steps...the girls are changing beds YET AGAIN. This pic is of Peyton with her requisite Matilda Jane (www.matildajaneclothing.com) that was on the top of her list. Look at Levi's LOOOOONG tail in the shot. Poor guy can't even sit properly! Santa went phsycho and got Cole the phone he wanted. Santa is crazy. Callie got the UGGS. Remember the UGGS? Read the last couple posts. She hasn't taken them off. I got a really cool camera wrist wrap since I really shouldn't have the camera around my neck anymore. Matt and I don't exchange and we haven't in years! BUT read on about our FAMILY PRESENT:

Cosmo is now officially a member of our whacked household of kids, fur, feathers and fins. WOOHOO! I'm so happy for US! LOL

I just realized this whole post sounds ALMOST like one of those RAH RAH MY FAMILY ROCKS holiday letters you sometimes get. Well, minus the complaining like my Polish grandmother (bless her heart!) part. Sorry! :-)

Cobblers Son

So there is that old saying about the cobbler's son going shoe-less. I mentioned that last year too. Well...first of all a cobbler is a shoe maker and anyway...you get the idea. Well, for me it applies to my Christmas photos. I tried to do them over Thanksgiving but my husband hated them (I think I mentioned this already, maybe not) he said the children looked like Serbian Orphans (not that there is anything wrong with Serbian Orphans and I'd be more than happy to help one AND I BET they'd be MORE than HAPPY to let me take their CHRISTMAS photos). So I told the kids that they HAD to do it again on Monday. AMONGST groans and fussing I really didn't get ANYTHING I liked! LOL Most of all Callie hates all of them (so yeah, we don't hate here at the Bedsaul's so she must STRONGLY DISLIKE all of them) but she TOTALLY was NOT into it and it shows in the photo. Cole and Peyton were much more cooperative. This type of WHIPLASH emotion (Bella says something like that to Edward in TWILIGHT...don't even get me started on my TWILIGHT issues) is really becoming the norm around here
with the twelve year old set I have. Much more so with the female but it goes both ways. Here's an example: The kids usually get one larger ie: more expensive gift and then all their other gifts for Christmas. Callie wanted REAL UGGS, not fake UGGS not BEARPAWS not Payless or the ones from the kiosk in the mall. Last year, she got Bearpaws...not a good idea. ANYWAY, so I ordered the UGGS, obviously she knows she got them, she saw the box come in the mail. They are SUPER cute and chocolate brown (and I thank the Lord that her feet are now big enough the momma will be able to wear them occassionally while little miss moody-pants is at school). The next morning we have a complete and utter break-down crying hissy fit because those chocolate brown UGGS would look SUPER-CUTE with the outfit she has on and Miss Moody-PANTS will NOT tell Daddy and she will not wear them ever again until Christmas. OBVIOUSLY she went to school not speaking to me because I'm definately the meanest mom ever for not letting her wear them and ruining her day by making her resort to wearing chocolate brown suede ballet flats with her super-cute outfit.  Oh the PAIN of not having EXACTLY the right shoe!


In other Bedsaul family news...I think Cosmo aka Drano-boy will be staying. He's just such an angel pup and I love him so much. AND I love Levi McCoy so much too. Especially when he comes into the bathroom while I'm showering and pushes back the curtain while chewing about 8 pieces of mint gum with the foil intact. THAT had to taste great! Who doesn't enjoy chewing a half-pack of gum at one time, and why bother taking off the foil wrapper? Macy and Cosmo just layed on my bed during the gum chewing fiasco minding their own business. I do have to compliment Levi on his fresh breath the rest of the morning. There is a silver lining to every dark cloud people!

Pin up boy!

HERE'S MY CALENDAR BOY!!!!!!!

Chester's Calendars came in today from Toyota Marketing! Made me so happy for him! Cool thing is they are FREE at ANY Toyota dealership NATIONWIDE! If you are not familiar with Chester, he's my rescue boy who passed away from Lymphoma this summer. This photo was submitted just a couple days after he was diagnosed and I feel it's such a great tribute to a wonderful boy who touched everyone's heart.
I had/have visions this year of beautiful and bright, happy Christmas cards of my kids that just scream JOY! I purchased colorful and fun hats and have my cards all picked out. The problem is my kids run SCREAMING from me when I bring it up. I'm getting a little ticked! Lucky for me, my friend also had visions of bright happy cards too and HER kids were cooperative. Even if we did just stick them infront of my white birch right off the bus stop this afternoon they did great and look at those cute happy faces! I MUST try again tomorrow with my kids...I'm going to have to threaten them or something!

He's Baaaaaack!

A little over 24 hours later and Cosmo is back home. The other boxer at his placement home couldn't adjust to having another boxer boy there. We are all so happy to have him back...I can't even tell you. That's Cosmo on the bottom and Levi resting his head on his homeboy! (did I use that slang correctly? I dunno!?) I think he looked at the whole experience like a playdate that went awry! :-)

Birthday princess and a Peytonism

We celebrated my little neice's 3rd birthday over the weekend. She had a pony party and a bright colorful cake and lot's of fun! She said it was her best party EVER! LOL I think they always say that!

This morning I was showered and dressed to take Peyton to the bus stop early because I needed to run to the grocery and also go to the Children's place to get a plain shirt to match something Peyton will be getting for Christmas. I just had on Jeans and a long sleeved brown t-shirt. Since it's now so cold I put on my fake UGGS that my husband and sister hate. Peyton looked up at me told me I looked pretty. That's only because half the time I go to the bus stop in my PJ's but so do a lot of the other moms! I told her thank you and how sweet it was for her to say that. I then reminded her that Daddy really didn't like my boots and she said, and I quote..."MANS never have any fashion sense!"

About my surgery, if you are wondering. We've decided to try injections in my lumbar that are sort of like an epidural block for a couple months to block the pain. In the meantime my doctor is looking at all of the possibilities for my back and is considering a flexible polymer fusion instead of the titanium. When all is said and done, I'll be made up of all kinds of new-age contraptions! LOL So no surgery for me before Christmas which is a relief as long as these injections work. I start physical therapy again too. I really like doing that! LOL

Cosmo went to his new home yesterday. A few tears were shed here all around but we KNOW that he will have a great home there and be well loved. I talked to the mommy last night and she said he had a FUN filled day wrestling with Bo, their boxer but by evening he
sorta looked like he thought he was only there for a playdate! I'm wishing him well!

Bittersweet

First of all, let me say my husband would NOT be happy if he saw that I posted this sleeping photo of him...so no one call him, K? I took the photo of Macy and Cosmo yesterday and the one of Matt and Cosmo about 10 minutes ago.

Mr. Cosmo, aka: Drano Boy, will be moving to his new family this weekend. I've never fostered for more than a day or so and this is why. I think if the dog came from a normal home with a loving family that just happened to have extenuating circumstances that caused them to rehome their furbaby and that furbaby became my foster, than placing said furbaby in a new home after fostering would be easy. Yes that was a run on sentence...I had a couple glasses of therapeutic Champagne with Tina so I'm not sure how this post is going to turn out. You are warned.

Cosmo on the other hand (just like Chester-more on that in a minute) came from a home that was obviously dsyfunctional. (Wow, I can still use big words after Champagne. I rock.) He has Demodex mange which is often caused by
stress. It's more than obvious that this little man HAD been stressed. He's afraid of strangers that come into our house especially men. The poor guy practically jumped out of his skin the other day when he was outback and a squirrel caught his attention. He couldn't get inside fast enough. Given ALL that is known and UNKNOWN, his delightful loyal boxer spirit shines through and he's not willing to give up on loving humans. He didn't let his past break him, and I love him for that.

3 dogs  in a house with 3 kids and a bunch of miscellaneous kids that show up here, 4 birds and a 1/4 acre lot is probably more than a little chaos.  My heart said, Cosmo should stay but the stupid realistic part of my brain said $$$$ more dog food, $$$$ more vet bills no grass and more poop for the kids to clean up and my GAWD do they complain about that everyday as it is.  I honestly haven't been looking very hard at all for another family.. Or at all for another family. But several weeks ago a friend of ours who also has a beautiful boxer (he's pictured on my whimages site) inquired about Cosmo's story. I decided then, weeks back, that if Cosmo had to leave that I would LOVE for him to go to that family. They have many acres of land, grandchildren that live on the farm and another handsome boxer boy and a sweet senior lab. Of course, several weeks later now, he has settled into our home and deeeeep into our hearts. He is the SWEETEST and most soulful pup I think I may have ever met. He wears his heart tatooed on his sleeve for everyone to see his emotions. He's loving beyond BEYOND what a normal boxer is and if you haven't had one before you can't imagine. Love so boundless that sometimes they can't bear to be without you so much that they poke (all three heads sometimes) into the shower just to make sure you didn't magically dissappear in the mist behind that curtain. Cosmo's favorite place to sleep is ON you. His favorite place to be? With you. I know that he will have SO much fun with his new family and will be SO loved. This is a GREAT family and I feel better for having met them. Over the past year they have proven to be some of the nicest and kindest people I have met.

I don't think I'll be fostering anytime soon.

I'm a stupid lamb...

If you haven't read or seen TWILIGHT, then this title will be lost on you...sorry but then again, maybe that will make you READ it! I'd be a stupid lamb...I'm just SAYIN'!

Yes, I've been absent from the blog universe. However,my butt has been plastered to the computer and I'm happy to say that by the end of the week ALL of my shoots will be post-processed and in client hands! WHEW!

Thanksgiving is over and the Christmas season is FULL STEAM AHEAD! JEEEZ! What a fall! Not one I care to repeat next year, lol

I started making dinner again this past week. Exciting huh? My family was pretty happy! LOL I didn't do T-day, altough I LOVE to do it. Just didn't think I could keep it in my repetoire this year. Last night I made a delicious new recipe, 3 cheese chicken florentine pasta bake! It was yum! Today, I made Buckeye bars for my Father in law's birthday...altough I wanted to try them out and he just happens to LOVE Peanut butter anything. Maybe I'll try to post the recipes here this week.

overwhelmed

Warning...if you don't want to hear my pity party...please move on.

Yes, these ARE unrelated photos, however, I'd love to be back in Disney right now, sigh.

I have been given my next surgery date on my lumbar..Dec. 15th. My mother in law's birthday. Poor thing...we've asked so much of everyone lately but most especially her and she doesn't even get a decent birthday! :-)

Like an idiot, I packed in toooooo many sessions before this last surgery. Unfortunately (unfortunate in only that it takes me so long) I treat each clients session very personally. As a mom, I always look at the photos and think,"this one MIGHT have special meaning" and I post process WAY too many photos for each session. I know I have clients who are very patiently waiting for me and some who are wondering what the heck I'm doing with my time. I love them both~! If you are a client waiting for your disc, thank you for your extreme patience. I PROMISE to never take on sooooo many shoots prior to a major event in my life again. As I told a wonderful client and now friend, Shelby: Even if I have to have my shutter finger amputated, I will NEVER overbook again! :-)

Also, if you remember Drano Pup from a week or so ago, who was going to my sisters. Well....Mr. Drano himself is curled up on my couch with my other two boxers. :-) Mr. Drano proved tooo much puppy for my sister with the almost 2 year old and almost 3 year old. A boxer puppy is certainly more energetic, mischievious and high maintenance than her 9 year old chocolate lab Wilbur. So I'm now Mr. Drano's foster mommy but MAN I love this little guy. He's snuggly and loveable and as cute as a button!

Brothers and Sisters...

Siblings are the people we practice on, the people who teach us about fairness and cooperation and kindness and caring-quite often the hard way! ~Pamela Dugdale

These 2 groups of siblings were so much fun to shoot. I LOVED how they LIKED each other! That's always so nice to see. REALLY nice! They had me laughing at their silly antics and love for each other.

I'm feeling better everyday! THAT'S a plus! LOL My surgeon is on the cover of Baltimore magazine this month...that's pretty cool!

I'm realizing that this post is as random as it gets so I'm just going to go with it! :-)

I know a lot of you know about this but maybe some of you don't. PANDORA No not the beads and bracelets that are so insanely popular in my area (maybe every where, I don't know). It's a FREE internet radio station that you make your own station with your own favorites PLUS it pulls similar music and plays that too. If you don't like a song, you just "thumbs down" it and it will skip it and never play it for you again. I leave it one the entire time I'm post-processing or blog reading or facebooking. It's just www.pandora.com IT ROCKS! pun intended

And with Christmas shopping around the corner, I'm going to mention www.etsy.com yet again. I LoVE to support small companies or individuals. You basically could do ALL of your shopping on there, except for kids toys. It's awesome!

Who could ever hurt this face?

I just needed to add this photo to the previous post...please read below.