No Good Excuse

That's right, besides the laptop becoming terminally ill, I have no good excuse for my nearly month long absence.  So, I'll just jump in and tell you what I've been up to lately.

• I celebrated my 30ish birthday...

It also happened to be Donut Appreciation Day.  I celebrated with the best donut EVER.

Wayne bought a bike....for himself...on my birthday.

The bridge over the Mississippi River in Muscatine

Not the cleanest picture, but the best I could do without my tripod

• Then we went to the Cancer Survivor's Day celebration at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.  We had fun, won a prize, ate some food, played some games and of course, no celebration in Iowa City is complete without Herky the Hawk (the University of Iowa's mascot).

A reluctant Wayne with Herky

• We've had to spend a few evenings in the basement waiting out tornado warnings.

• Lola was asked to leave obedience class when she went into heat on the very first night. 

Doesn't Daddy know I'm a girl?  Why did he get me this red camo diaper?

• I had pink hair.

• Now I have blue hair.

It's no secret that I like pink, but I must say that the blue is my favorite.  But for some reason, it's also the messiest.  You know how when you dye your hair red it looks like you're bleeding when you wash your hair. 

Well, it looked like I murdered a smurf in my shower.  I could probably claim self defense because I have blue dye under my fingernails.  Every morning I wake up with blue streaks on my cheeks and at least twice a day I have to wipe the blue dye off my ears.  It literally looks like I'm morphing into a smurf.

I've had red, purple, green, blue and pink and I've never had the problems that I have with the blue dye.

By the way, Wayne HATES the different colors.

• We've had at least 15, um, discussions about the hand soap in the upstairs bathroom.  Wayne thinks it leaves his hands sticky.  I think he's crazy.

• I ended up with several bruises, scratches and scrapes all over my arms after helping Wayne load some fencing in the car. 

I may or may not have sent the pictures to a few friends with the message "The next time Wayne asks for pancakes, I'm just gonna make them."

Then Wayne was trying to convince me to buy something at the local farm supply store.  I may or may not have very loudly said "Fine, Fine, buy whatever you want just no more bruises".

Not a single person believed me...not even for a second...I guess that's a good thing.

You Capture--Fun

Last week I had such a hard time narrowing it down to just one photo for You Capture.  This week, I really had to look to find these three that fit this weeks theme of fun.

I generally don't shoot with the theme in mind, I just take pictures all week long then hope to find ones that will fit once I upload them.

These first two are of Lola with the sprinkler.  Lola loves water.  I've never had a dog that likes water as much as she does.  We literally have to push Toby out of the house when it's raining, Lincoln will go but won't stay out long, but Lola will stay out for hours and be completely soaked when she comes in.

It was pretty warm around here last week so we set this sprinkler up for Lola.  We just knew she would love it. 

I think we were right.  What do you think?

 My husband took this next one.  I can't remember why, but I laid down on the floor and approximately 1.2 seconds later all three dogs were right in my face.

At least someone was having fun....

Head on over to Beth's to check out more fun.

National Cancer Survivor's Day

Tomorrow is National Cancer Survivor's Day. 


If you or someone you love is a survivor (you're a survivor the day you received diagnosis), please take some time to celebrate.

I will be celebrating this guy today.

If you are so inclined, please say a prayer for those fighting and for those who have lost their battle.


We're headed to a celebration at the hospital, expect a full report soon.

The Contenders

I got some pretty cool shots this week and it was really difficult to narrow it down to just one for You Capture so I decided to post the outtakes.

These first few pictures were taken Tuesday.  Wayne was really tired and I well, didn't care.  The dogs were just happy to have him home and I let them crawl all over him.

I really like this one in black and white and since it's Memorial Day week, I added the color on the flag.  In case you're new here, Lola is the one with her tongue hanging out, Toby is the little guy and Wayne is the one wearing clothes.

I took this same shot from the opposite angle and couldn't even see Toby.

Apparently, Toby thought Wayne's forehead was dirty.

She sleeps just like her Mama, on her belly with her arms stretched out in front of her.  Only, I rarely sleep on the bathroom floor.

This was after she played in the new sprinkler we bought her.  She's trying to eat the plants in the garden through the fence.  I just love the way the plants are in her face.

This one was after the sprinkler also.  This is probably one of my favorite pics of Lola.

So there you have it, my You Capture outtakes for this week.

Butt, Of Course

The other day I told you that I've sustained an injury that makes it difficult to sit for long periods of time.  That's pretty much a nicer way of saying I fell down the stairs and may have broken my tailbone.  Yep, I may have a broken butt.

The morning of Wayne's cancer check up (over two weeks ago on a Monday) I put Lola in her kennel and headed downstairs.

Our house was built in the 1960's, when apparently everyone had smaller feet, because our steps are very narrow.  So when my ginormous feet landed wrong on the stairs, they basically acted as skis and I just slid all the way to the bottom before landing directly on my butt. 

Unfortunately, Wayne and our friend Jackie were downstairs and watched the whole thing.  Through laughter they asked if I was okay.  If my slippers hadn't flown 15 feet in the air, I would have thrown them at their heads.  The first thing I said was "I'm fine, I have plenty of padding."  Um, I was wrong.

It was sore all that week, but mostly when I sat down just right.  But by last Wednesday, I was convinced I had broken my butt.  The pain was so much worse, it hurt all the time and I could not sit at all without pain.  I went to the Chiropractor on Friday, she adjusted me and told me to take it easy until I go back to her tomorrow.  I've basically spent all week lying on my side on the sofa. 

You know when you have abdominal surgery and you can't believe how your stomach muscles control everything you do.  Well, everything hurts.  Everything.  My primary goal every day is to avoid sneezing.  The other day I sneezed three times in a row and I literally thought I was going to die. 

Laughing hurts.  The following conversation had me laughing so hard, I was crying from the pain.

Wayne:  You need to just get X-Rays to see if it's broken.

Me:  It won't change the treatment, there's not a sling in the world big enough for my ass.

Wayne:  But at least they'll give you some pain pills.

Me:  Yeah, but I probably won't take them.

Wayne:  They're not for you, the whining is killing me.

You Capture--Best Shot

This weeks You Capture assignment was to take photos all week and post your best shot....just one. 

Like always, I took a ton of photos this week.  It's usually not too difficult to narrow it down to four or five photos, but narrowing it down to one has been painful.

The photo I chose is not a technical masterpiece, but I just love her eyes and the story behind it. 

The command was "Upstairs Lola, Mama's going bye bye."

The result was this.

She walked over to Wayne, sat down on his feet, looked up at him with those sad eyes and let out a big sigh.

Do you see the most disturbing part of this whole thing?  Yes, Wayne is petting her...um...hello...that's not helping Wayne!!!

Of course, it probably didn't help that I stopped to pick up the camera before making her go upstairs.  But she looked too cute, I just couldn't help it.

I'm totally going to follow the rules and only post one photo right now, but I'll probably post the outtakes tomorrow.

Head on over to Beth's to check out more best shots!

Versatile Blogger Award

Toad Mama at Toad Mama's Interstitial Space gave me an award.....for blogging.....me!? 

I should have known better than to expect a reaction out of Wayne.  After explaining to him what a blog is, (kidding, kind of) I told him that it basically means that someone besides my Mom reads and enjoys my blog.  Which is pretty stinkin' cool if you ask me. 

Toad Mama primarily lives in Maryland but also has a place in West Virginia.  I like reading about her adventures with her husband, grandkids and her three dogs and she takes amazing pictures.  I still can't figure out how she manages such great pictures on a bike ride, I would surely be taking photos of the inside of an ER if I tried that.  Please check her out and say hello.  She's friendly, I promise.

So there are three rules to this award.

1.  You must thank the person who gave it to you. 

2.  Tell seven things about yourself.

3.  Pass the award on to those who you find to be versatile. 

It's hard to come up with seven things that I haven't told you before, but I'll give it a shot.

1.  I had LASIK surgery almost 10 years ago.  Before the surgery, the vision in my left eye was 20/700 and my right eye was 20/500.  That means that I could see at 20 feet what those with perfect vision could see at 700 feet (a big blur).  Now my vision is 20/40 and I do have glasses that I wear to drive at night.  Not quite perfect, but I can see my toes!

2.  I'm kind of clumsy.  Right this very second I have a blood blister on my big toe from taking Lincoln outside at 4am, the top of my foot still hurts from my migraine related injury over a month ago, I have a small bruise on my nose from hitting myself with the cabinet door this morning (praying I don't get a black eye) and I am nursing an injury that makes it difficult to sit (I'll tell you all about it in a few days....lucky you!).  I haven't been sleeping well lately so I'm going to blame it on that.  Of course that only explains the last month, not the last 30 years.  Oh well.

3.  I am deaf in my left ear.  Sure, it has its inconveniences like when I'm in the car with Wayne driving and he gets irritated because I can't hear a thing he's saying.  But it actually works out okay for me.  At night I sleep on my right side with my left ear up and I can't hear a thing!  They say that over time your body compensates for the loss of hearing and it shouldn't affect your balance, but I don't think my body got that memo (see above).

4.  I am a TV junkie.  I just about went into withdrawals Sunday night because there was no Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters or Army Wives.  DH and B&S are over for the season, but would someone please tell me why AW was not on last night.  I know it's a holiday weekend and all but I would think a show about Army wives would be perfect on Memorial Day weekend.  Don't even get me started about the Grey's Anatomy finale.  There might be a whole post about that if I can sit long enough to type it.

5.  I love planning parties.  My dream is to start a party planning/catering business.  I still get comments on the baby shower I threw for my cousin nearly three years ago.  The only problem is that I don't care for working nights and weekends.  But if you're planning a party on a Tuesday afternoon, I'm your girl!

6.  I love everything about Christmas.  I like buying and wrapping gifts, baking Christmas cookies, but I especially like decorating.  I usually start in early to mid-November and it stays up until about the second week in January.  I'm already planning my trees for this year.  I will have 4 full size trees (6 ft or larger) and at least 6 smaller trees.  I bought a 9 foot tree and a bunch of new ornaments at the end of the season last year that I can't wait to put up.  And I'm planning to make a wreath in the shape of a cancer awareness ribbon for the front door.  I haven't quite figured out how to do it yet, but I will.

7.  I am really nosy.  My parents have open shelving in their kitchen.  Every time we go over there, I dig through all their food to see what they have (and to see how many things are expired).  One time my Mom called me a few days later, she was at the store and couldn't remember if she had something.  I was able to tell her that I thought she did.  There are times in restaurants when Wayne is trying to talk to me and I shh him or wave him off because I'm trying to listen to the conversation behind me.

I chose to give this award to two people.

Katherine at The Katherine Wheel is in her intern year of her Anesthesiology residency.  She and her family moved to Iowa about a year ago.  I always learn something new when I read her account of places Wayne and I have been dozens of times.  I can't remember how I found her blog but I'm glad I did.  

Elaine at The Miss Elaine-ous Life has three young children and a husband.  She blows me away with her honesty about everything from the highs and lows of raising three kids to her image of herself.  I met her through You Capture and she had me at the title of her blog....so clever!

Please go check them when you get a chance.

**Edited to add--After posting this and catching up on my Google Reader I noticed that Katherine gave me this award as well.  Thank you Katherine!  OMG!  There's two people (besides my Mom) that read and enjoy my blog, Wayne's going to have to grease my head to get me out of the house in the morning!!