The Lion King...I think!?!?

Let me explain....our good friends John and Sara Voorhees invited Don Pocock and Alex and I to attend the Broadway performance of The Lion King with them at Gammage theater. Yay...."of course" I said....however...money is tight so lets jsut get the cheap seats. No big deal....there really is not a bad seat at Gammage. Well our Sara, who handled the seating arrangements, really came through. We sat in the cheap seats...the very cheapest I'm sure....the very back row. By the time we got up to them Sara was having heart palpitations and my nose was bleeding. But we are at the Gammage after all, so we held our heads up and marched right up to our seats. Whew....what a climb. Ok...so i'm exaggerating....it was great. We enjoyed it very much....you know, the mind of extremely creative people is an amazing thing. We went to dinner first in Tempe at a little place called La Bocca...yummy...great italian restaurant...the pizza is wonderful...oh and the Bruschettas before dinner are amazing. Anyhow....word to the wise...don't park under the trees on mill ave. We could hardly see out the window through all the bird poop when we came out of the restaurant.
Here are a few pictures...apparently Disney doesn't allow cameras and some 14 year old kid that worked at Gammage was on his way to stop me from the crime of photographing myself and my friends so i snapped a few and quickly put it away. For crying out loud...I think the people in the back row should have some fun...I mean come on...this was our view of the stage....

it's the black nothingness in the background....just kidding....this is why taking photos at concerts with a flash you only get the people sitting in front of you in your picture. I wasn't about to carry my pro camera up those steps...i may never have made it. :)
Sara and I relaxing after our workout....

John and Don comparing golf scores.....

Apparently alex didn't like the flash either....

See the lady in the sequined blouse with her bra strap showing...she reeked of cigarettes...ugh...and guess what she did for intermission...yep...went out and came back reeking some more...Smokers...why don't they get it....it stinks...it stinks bad.

Sandy!!!

We have a new addition to our family since the last time I blogged...which was a month ago...good grief...I'm way behind. So let me tell you about Sandy. She's an eight year old Golden Retriever who is gentle, sweet, happy....and rather chubby. We got her from Rescue A Golden of AZ. She was given up by her owner because they couldn't care for her due to age and health reasons. Apparently they hadn't been caring for her for some time now. Anyhow...after submitting an application and having the Rescue do a home visit, we were approved for adoption. Then on Saturday Jan 10th we got a call about Sandy. They brought her over on Sunday. She tried jumping out of the small SUV that they brought her in and fell on her face. Fat dogs can't jump. I immediately started brushing her out and got mountains of hair out of her. She was all matted, had two-inch long toenails and was really dirty.


We took a walk around the block that evening and I worried that she wouldn't make it home. I never noticed it before but apparently the last half of the block is all uphill. She did make it home and layed down the rest of the evening and all night long. Monday morning i didnt' think she was going to be able to stand up...once she finally got up she limped on all four legs to the door and outside...after a bit of moving about she loosened up and began moving a bit easier. SHe went to the groomer the next Tuesday and looks so much better now.


Today she's feeling happy and perky and really looks forward to her walks. I took her to the vet the first week to have her checked out...she tipped the scale at 124.6 pounds. The vet said she should weigh 80 lbs. Yikes...we have our work cut out for us. I'm anxious for her to lose some weight because I can already see a playful happy beautiful dog under all that weight.

This was taken the first day I got her while I was trying to get her brushed out. The bag in the background is packed full of hair.

Same Day...couldn't get standing picture cuz she won't stand long enough for me to get the camera ready to snap.



Jan 24, 2009 Update....I took her today to have her weighed and she's lost 3 pounds. I know it's not much. But it's progress. Yay!!!


Oh ya.....I think I see a waistline in there.

Photos of My Family

So each year on Thanksgiving Day....(which for our family means the Saturday after Thanksgiving Day) anyhow, we get together for a family photo. UGH....What a pain it can be....there's always someone complaining and wishing they weren't there, but I won't name names...(Josh and Seth)..so I lie sometimes...anyhow....I finally got the photos ready to go on my wall....these are the ones I've chosen for my wall....I hope the kids like them too. I'm excited to have updated pictures on my wall...
In no particular order!!! (that's a Dancing with the STars phrase) :)

The whole crew!

My son the pilot...need I say more girls??...he's AVAILABLE...:)

Breezy, David, Dutch and Maylee....

Seth, Tara, Maxx, Jace, Kade...and baby on the way!!

Josh, Lacy, Heather, Sammy, Makayla, Jasmine and Justice...

Last but most definately not least....Stormy!!

Even though there was some complainig...all in all it turned out ok and I have new pics for the wall...thanks kids.

Re-invented

So I'm the kind of person that gets bored with the same hairstyle. Ask my hubby and kids...I never keep the same do for long. So today, I re-invented again...Yay!! This one is a work in progress....need to grow the front out some more...but at least it's different than it has been...here are a couple of shots.

Family Photo Session

Recently I had the opportunity to photograph the McKinney Family. They were a lot of fun to work with. Seriously I have never photographed such well behaved children...they made my job so easy...I guess I shouldn't admit that...but these kids were awesome....it may help that Grandma had bribed them...they each got some huge gift after the session...Good Job Grandma...whatever it takes...Thanks Kids...You are the best!!!

Laura and Justin

I recently photographed the wedding of my niece Laura. She really was a beautiful bride. They were married in a tiny little chapel in Prescott, Arizona. There was a great little park nearby for photos...and the weather was perfect for a wedding and for outdoor wedding photos. Here are few of my favorites.

Tag..You're it!!

So Breezy tagged me and here's how it goes.

Find your 4th photo file...

Choose the 4th photo in that file...

Post it to your blog....

tag 4 friends...

So here is my photo....

This is Dutch at Christmas 2006....only 2 1/2 months old. Breezy had him dressed in an adorable little Christmas outfit. It's hard to believe how quickly time goes and he's already had his 2nd Birthday. They grow up so fast.

Now I tag....Lacy, Noah, hmmmm....I guess I don't have 4 friends that haven't already been tagged...sheesh...I need to get out more.

Fireproof

Alex and I saw the movie "Fireproof" today. Wow!! What a great message. This movie is a must see. I had not heard of it before today. I am so glad we saw it. I feel strongly that all married people should see this movie....and those planning on being married one day...it's great. I was just amazed to sit in a Harkins movie theater and hear so many good reference to God and Jesus Christ and to hear people speaking highly of marriage. It's great...go see it. Run..don't walk...it's been out for 3 weeks...may not be out much longer.

Yay for the 70's!!!

WOW!!!! The weather today is amazing....my little weather widget said it was 61 degrees at 8:30 this morning....HOLY COW....Now it's 12:30 and only 72degrees. I LOVE THIS!! This is what I've been waiting for. Bring on the boots and sweaters. YAY!!


Today is my cute little grandson's birthday party....Dutch is 2 years old. Wow...hard to believe...the b-day was on the 9th but we're partying today.





From this:
To this:

In just two years....Cute huh?

Happy Birthday Dutch!!

Fall is in the Air!! and so is Love!!

This morning when Alex and I went outside to go for our walk there was an actual chill in the air....YAY!!! I've been waiting for that. It was great. The only thing that could be better is if there were actually some true fall colors around here. But alas...we can't have everything.

I had an engagement photo session recently with Jon and Jodi. They were really fun and we got a lot of great photographs. I'll post a few of them. The wedding is coming up and I look forward to photographing that. I love people that get married in the cool months....it makes it so much fun to work outside.

The one they chose for the announcement is awesome....but I have to keep that top secret until they're sent out. Check back later for that. :)