Today is a day unlike any other

Although, I have a feeling that I am going to have a quite a few more like this.

You see, I was laid off from my job yesterday. It's ok though. I have had a feeling for a few weeks that some changes were about to happen. For about two weeks I have been calling around to places to see if they are hiring. I wanted to be prepared just in case. I haven't had much luck with anybody hiring, so here I sit at home.

Which is why today is unlike any other day. Ever since I was in high school working for my dad, every day, Monday through Friday, and sometimes on the weekends, I was always up going to school or work. If I wasn't doing that, I was going to an appointment or doing something productive. This is the first day in all this time, that I woke up this morning and didn't have anything specific to do. Of course I am still calling people, and cleaning up around the house, but it's not the same. And it's quite depressing.

I did file for unemployment online this morning, but hopefully I can find something before that goes through. We'll see though.

The dogs

I haven't posted any new (or recent) pictures of the dogs in quite a while. I've started taking pictures of them a couple of times a week. My computer is full of dog pictures. My mom laughs at me, because she says that's how it is with kids! Well, what else am I supposed to take pictures of? Josh? Ha! He really doesn't like to have the camera in his face!


I really don't have any pictures of Rylie. She's usually running around and won't stand/sit still long enough for me to capture anything worthwhile. Most of the shots I have a her are at night when she is exhausted, but looking awfully sad, pathetic, and cute all at the same time. Or she's in the background of the pics I have of Bayla.

I was able to get this picture though. I think this was back in January right after she got back from her hunting trip to West Texas. Something happened to her leg, and she didn't want to walk on it, so I put her in the chair out in the sun, and she was a happy camper the rest of the afternoon.


Bayla on the other hand is a camera hog!!! I know he doesn't "understand" that he is getting his "picture" taken, but he does know that something is happening, and he needs to sit still (at least most of the time). As soon as he hears the camera turn on, he immediately runs over to whoever is holding it and sits in front of them. I have since figured out how to turn the sounds off and I can usually get one unsuspecting picture out of him!



And if he's not sitting still, he has his face right in front of the lense!

He knows he's cute!

He even smiles for me!

And then there's the ball! I absolutely love this picture! If it had been Rylie, she would have already snatched it up. In fact, the picture after this is him going for it!

Some photography

I have always been interested in photography and taking pictures, and I've gotten a little more interested in the last two years or so.

My current obsession started a few months ago when I discovered The Pioneer Woman's blog. I really can't remember how I happened upon it, but I did. I think I found it around the end of February/beginning of March, and I've spent the time since then reading just about every entry. I really like her photography skills and her Photoshop tutorials.


On her site, I discovered "actions." I work with Photoshop every day at work and am lucky enough to have access to CS2, but I had never heard of actions. Probably because I'm usually not working with photographs, but renderings. Anyway, she has two set of actions you can download for free. Plus, I went online and downloaded some other ones for free as well. As soon as I discovered these actions, my world opened up like never before! I started going through my photos looking for pics good enough to apply these actions too.


And in the process of learning about actions, I also learned about the really cool affect of the black and white photo with color.





So, the following photos are some pics I have taken the last couple of years that I really like and wanted to play with. I am no expert, but I am enjoying learning about this, and playing with a different aspect of Photoshop! The first pictures in the sets are the before's and the rest are the after's.

This was from Sigma Alpha National Convention in St. Louis

Ft. Davis, Texas

Vancouver, British Columbia

Cactus flower - Schulenburg, Texas

Bluebonnet - Schulenburg, Texas

Phlox - Schulenburg, Texas

Bluebonnets - Schulenburg, Texas

Claret Cup Cactus - Big Bend National Park, Texas

Vancouver, British Columbia

My childhood was a lie!

Not really my whole childhood, just one very big part of it.

My mom's mom, Grandma Elsie, always made chocolate chip cookies. When we would come home from school, there would usually be a butter container (or two) full of cookies by the garage door. They were always so good!!!! Any time we were at her house, she always had some around. Well, around 5 or 6 years ago, she started to go downhill, and of course didn't make cookies anymore, and 2 years ago she passed away.

I've thought about those cookies a few times in the last few years, and always made a mental note to ask my mom if she had found the recipe. I, of course, always forgot to ask. Until this weekend.

When I got home on Friday, I needed to run to the store to pick up a few last minute items for some things I was making. My sister said she wanted to go to because she needed to get ingredients for Ryan's birthday present...he had said he wanted someone to make him Grandma Elsie's Chocolate Chip Cookies. When I heard that I said, " Ohh, you have the recipe? I was wondering what it was. Can a get a copy?" And then my dad says, "Sure you can! It's on the back of the chocolate chip bag." To which my response is, "Huh? Are you sure?" Oh yeah, he was dead serious. She had copied the recipe from the bag. Like literally, made a copy of the recipe on the bag. Talk about your all time disappointments! I really could not believe it. I had to see for myself exactly how it looked. And it looked just like the recipe on the bag. We always thought she had some kind of secret recipe or something. Who would have thought that it was staring at us everytime we looked at a bag of chocolate chips?

Rach made a batch this weekend and they turned out pretty good. She got mad at me because I kept stealing tastes of the batter! They didn't really taste exactly like Grandma's, but they were still good and reminded us of those butter containers!