Some Pics...

It appears that my sweet video isnt showing up! I am so bad at figuring that out! Anyway, I am pretty good with the pics so here are a few... I have better ones on Jeff and Aline's camera that I will post later.

Disney Vacation

We had the best time in Disney! I never would have thought that Kaylen would have loved it as much as she did! She went crazy over all of the characters. I have uploaded a few videos of her meeting Pluto and Minnie. I must admit that her very favorite was the Pooh cast. She loved them!!! We had a blast and are very glad to be back home! I will post more pics later as I get a chance to do some editing.

My New Haircut!

I know I look tired in this picture... I am tired! But I wanted to show you guys my new haircut! I will post about allen's 30th birthday party when I get a chance and next week there should be many Disney pics and stories.

My day off with Kaylen Yesterday

Kayley was too cute yesterday. We ran errands all day but we did stop at Chick-Fil-A to have some lunch with friends and play on the playground. I just wanted to put some random pics from the day on here for you all to see!

Our Scary Weekend

Well, we are glad to be on this side of the weekend and I would like to start by saying that God is so good! As most of you know Jeff (Allen's dad) went in to the hospital on Thursday night with a numb left arm and chest pains. Friday they were getting ready to release him and he had an irrigular heart beat that finally corrected itself. If it hadnt, they said that would have killed him. So they then said it was imperative that they find a reason why his heart was acting this way. There was a problem with his kidneys that prevented them from being able to do the heart cath to check his heart. I think it was that his creatin (spelling?) levels were too high. All i know is that they finally did the cath on sat morning using a high quality dye and not much of it. They were hoping to find something... they did! A 95% blockage to one of his arteries. They had to transfer him from crestwood to huntsville hospital and put a stint in that afternoon. So he came home on Sunday and is still recovering. Allen is taking the day off today to watch kaylen and I am going to try to take a day off this week to help allieviate the stress of watching kaylen as well. Speaking of Kaylen, she was a trooper all weekend. I am attaching a few photos of her at the hospital. The cutest thing she would do all weekend was she would grab her Papaw's finger and try to pull him out of bed... she wanted him to play with her. (of course i didnt get a pic of that!)






BTW... Jodi, this post's for you! Next time i will dedicate a more upbeat one to you but since you have been requesting one... you get the dedication!!! :)

Labor Day Weekend

My weekend started off AWESOME!! I had a blast in Nashville with my two very good friends, Emily and Hollie. We hung out at Opryland Hotel, caught a chick flick, and enjoyed a fun day of shopping. Here are a few shots from out weekend:




So on our way home I started to get a headache. It eventually got soo bad that I ended up in the ER getting sick in the waiting room bathroom - yuck! They gave me a shot that knocked me out for days! I still dont feel quite right. So I slept Sunday away... it is as if it never happened. What a crazy few days!

The next picture is Kaylen and her "snack"! She just HAD to have the ENTIRE box of honey grahams! she didnt eat them all but wanted them all on her tray! Kids!


Monday we went to the lake with our friends. it was a fun trip and the kids were cute as can be! Kaylen and Jonah were eating some grapes on our way home. Kaylen was sooo sleepy she ended up laying down right there on the floor and didnt wake up until around 8 pm... boy was i in for a long night!!! We had a small hiccup that evening... the explorer somehow ended up in the lake (well, the front passenger tire went off the ramp and we were stuck) it was a very narrow boat ramp. anyway, an angel tow truck happened to drive by and see us... and for a fee he helped us out. but we didnt have to wait for someone to get there! it was a huge blessing! it wouldnt be a boat outing without a small mishap!

Lake Day Last Sunday

So I am not posting pictures today but I had to get this story out (to my 5 or less blog readers).

Last Sunday Allen and I took my parents out on the boat after church. We took Muggs, Laci and Kaylen along with us. So, needless to say, we had our hands full! We had the jet ski out there as well.

Incident #1: We were all out in the lake floating around (with the snakes, kat). Allen was the last to get in the water and he decided the dogs would be fine on the boat without supervision (i would have put laci in her crate). Anyway, he gets back on the boat to find that Laci has torn into the choc. chip cookies and half of them were gone! That is a heck of a lot of chocolate for a little 5 pound dog!

Incident #2: My mom and I went out on the jetski and had a great time riding around. I let her drive and she did great. I told her that we should switch places because if Allen was going to gripe at one of us for barely bumping the boat, it might as well be me. Well what do you think happened? I barely bumped the boat (I really tried not to but i got nervous). Of course Allen yelled at me and made me feel stupid. So I got all upset at him because I knew he would do that! Anyway, so that put me in a bad mood.

Incident #3: #2 led to #3 happening. I was annoyed at Allen and so I wasnt in the best of moods but i wanted to have fun on my way in. So my mom and I were on the jetski again and we were right at the boat mart (where our boat lives) and I was doing doughnuts. We were going slow - my mom and i still have no idea how this happened. It felt like slow motion to us as well. My mom said she was going off. I didnt want to hit her with the jetski and she was pulling me with her anyway so i started scooting back but I was connected to the jetski key so i pulled the jetski with me... you guessed where this is going yet? You would be right if you guessed that the jetski ended upside down in the water. We have never done this after 2 summers of use! So since I had no idea that there was a right and a wrong way to flip a jetski back over... which way did i choose? The WRONG way!!!!!!! Of course! If there is an option between two paths I would choose the wrong one! that is just like me! Anyway, the estimate to fix the sucker? $500! Yikes - that was one expensive mistake! Luckily we ended up replacing the spark plugs for $12 and it was fine. Shew! Bad news: I lost my shirt, shorts, cover up, sunglasses, and Allen's hat to the bottom of Lake Guntersville! you cant see an inch in front of your face in that lake! So there was no way in the world i would ever see any of those items again and i really loved them! Sad!

kaylen and the pups!

Muggs and Laci hanging out together outside.

This is as nice as it gets between Kaylen and Laci. They arent the best of friends yet. I think they will be in time but not just yet.

Kaylen was looking way too cute this day so I had to snap a quick pic of her. She was, of course, watching the Backyardagains and didnt want to look at me for the pic but after many tries this is what we ended up with!

Again, the pups playing in the yard. Muggs is so good with Laci. His cheeks are torn up from all of her biting! They play and play all the time!

A special shout out to Muggsley... he turned 3 on Aug. 18. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!

My latest Triathalon

So I did the waay triathalon this past saturday. let me say... it was really hard on me! I finished in 1:00:53. I dont know my splits yet but I have a good idea... here is what I know... The race was backward. We started out with the run. This was a cross country course and had one gigantic hill in it!!! It took me back to my cross country days in high school of finishing in the back... if you know what i mean!!! i was sucking wind!!!! there was actually a guide on the path that asked me if my heat was divided into two heats... a fast one and a slow one!!!! I was like, yeah, i guess i am heading up the slow one... thanks for the encouragement!!! Anyway, I ended up averaging right at 9 min miles. Which was extremely slow but I am telling you... the hills were the toughest i have raced on. The one mountain i had to run up would have been hard for me to ride my bike up. It was even hard to run down it was so steep! My quads and glutes are killing me today! Moving on... needless to say i was exhausted when i got to my bike (i really wanted to quit) but when i got on and the wind started cooling me off, it felt great. I rode okay... probably averaged around 17 or 18 mph. Then i had to swim in the pool. I was doing fine, even passing people left and right until i got about half way and then i was geting a bit tired. I had two lanes to go and this girl started swimming on top of my legs and pushing me under. I was sooo ticked! so (probably not the nicest thing to do) i started swimming breast stroke and "pushing" her off of me. I didnt know what else to do... i was drowning! not literally but i was struggling! anyway, i am sure that she said something to this guy when we turned for the last lane because he started swimming like a tornado! i dont know how he was doing this but i feel liek he was trying kick me and block me from passing! Jerk! So i blew past him right before the end and beat him! I am extremely sore today and i was soo tired after the race... i slept from 10 am until about 1:30! Here are some shots from the race:

Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks:

Dinners by Design

So some of you already know but last Thursday I went with the 3 friends pictured below to Dinners by Design. I cant speak for the other girls but I had the best time! Let me explain the premise and then you will understand what was so great about it.

You go online and pick out your meals off of a menu (that changes each month) and you schedule your appointment. What I did is I went in with Ashley and we did half meals. So we ordered 12 full entrees and split them. So when you get there they have a print out of the meals you will be preparing. They have stations set up to create everything on the menu. You find the station for what you are going to make and follow the recepie. They tell you step by step what to get out and what goes into what. It is very orderly. They even have the correct measuring utensil in the container of ingredient you need. so if i needed 2 T of chili powder they would have a Tablespoon measurer in the chili powder. Pretty cool, huh? Anyway, the best part... when you finish making that dish they come along behind you and take all your dishes away! It is awesome! You never have to clean anything up at all! You put a sticker on them that tells you how to cook it and what sides would be good with it and the ingredients that were in it. Anyway, you leave with all your meals and then you freeze them. You get them out and cook them! it is that simple! your kitchen stays clean and you prepare all your dishes with friends. The 12 half meals i got ended up costing me $117 and then tax. But that equals out to be $4.89 a person per meal. very reasonalbe! also they have a point system... for every dollar you spend you get a point. once you rack up 1000 points you get $100 in free food! also for referring someone you get 100 points and they get 50 points for being referred. which reminds me... if you go in to do this... i referred you!!! :)

anyway, check out their website and see if you like it... it really was very cool! www.dinnerbydesignkitchen.com

Latest Photo Shoot

I waited so long to post these pics up because I wanted to double check with the mommy that it was okay but here are a few shots from my latest photo shoot. They were twin boys - 18 months old. Cute as can be! There were so many cute shots that I had a hard time deciding which ones to show you! I kept it at 10 although I wanted to show you more like 20! Would love your thoughts... you know, i like for you to be critical!


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Dawn's Long and Silly Journal - Read only if you are bored!

So I dont know if any of you ever experience this but I have had the hardest time accepting what I am known for here in Huntsville. What I mean by that is when I lived in Indy I was only known as a photographer. Well that and the fact that I worked in marketing. But everyone knew me as an artist. I went back to school after getting my degree in Photography and Computer Graphics to get my teaching degree. I didnt start teaching until I moved to Huntsville. Well, what do you think happened? Everyone in Huntsville knows me as a teacher. Which let me stop right here and say that I am glad to be known as a teacher and it is the most difficult thing I have ever done but also the most rewarding... and who wouldnt love the time off? So I love my job more than anything and am very proud to be doing what I do. I just dont want to lose who I was and still am.

When I went to Indiana Wesleyan I changed my major to art two weeks into my freshman year and had to declare a specific major during my sophomore year. I chose Photography and Computer Graphics because I felt like the two complemented each other well. Also I found out that year that I wasnt that bad at Photography (compared to drawing which I sucked at big time!) Out of all the art students they only give one photography scholorship out a year to who they deem the most promising photography student. I recieved this during my sophomore year - which was a shock but a huge honor. Anywayt, I then became a teaching and technical assistant in the photo lab where I worked and helped students for the remaining two years of college. During my summer breaks I helped a prominent wedding photographer i was his assistant during weddings. I began doing some weddings on my own here and there and honestly never have loved doing them... it takes your whole weekend... it's high stress and hard work. not my cup of tea! anyway, I also worked in a portrait studio in the town where my parents lived as the senior portrait photographer. I did a ton of graphics work for my jobs after college. I havent done that much since coming to Huntsville because I have had to work up to getting programs, cameras, equipment... all of that stuff! But I am slowly but surely building up the things I need and hope to start doing more and more with it again. I have to say that I really miss all of my artist friends up in Indy and miss the critiques on our work and getting together to brainstorm ideas for artwork. I went to an awesome church filled with amazingly talented artists and we would create artwork for messages or just for the beautification of the room or whatever. We dreamed up more than we created but it was a blast! I hope to move back to that a bit more in the future. I do have great artist friends here but we are all getting older and dont have as much time to sit around and dream up art projects!
Some other things I like to do... well, I also like to do stained glass, oil paint, weave if i had a loom, and draw if i am in the mood. Anyway, I guess I am just feeling like no one really knows me or what I enjoy doing and who I feel like I am. Since teaching I have learned so many other artforms that I never would have imagined doing. I like to create things - that is it in a nutshell! Sorry for the rambling waste of your time! I hope you stopped reading a long time ago. I am mostly just thinking out loud. Maybe someone here in H'ville feels like they know me better.... who knows?

The Wet Dog Triathalon and Our Little Laci

Today was jam-packed! We started out this morning at 5 am going to do our first triathalon. I ended up doing great. I finished 5th in my age group and was very pleased to start out so strong. My time breakdowns were roughly a 7 min swim for the 400 meter, around 33 min 15k bike and a 27 min 5k. That put my total time at 1:08:58. Throw in some transition times and there ya go! Allen did extremely well too. He finished in 1:10:23... no gloating from me... he had longer transition times due to bike shoes and running shoes and his swim kicked my swim's tale... around a 5:50 swim for him... rediculous! Oh, did i mention that it was raining more this morning than it has all summer combined!?!?! yuck. It did cool things off so that was nice.

Anyway, on to the really exciting news... muggsley got a baby sister! Her name is Laci. So without further adou... here she is: