when was the last time YOU showered?

The last week and a half has gone by in a BLUR. Literally a blur.

Yesterday, I was planning to take a shower before church, but realized when I tried peeling my eyes open at 7am (yet again) that there was no way that was happening. As it stood, I barely made it to church for practice in one piece.

The Mexico team performed one of the dramas we did down there in both services yesterday morning. I am trying to get a copy of the dvd so that i can post it up here (not to mention for my own benefit... i have been unsuccessful at every attempt so far in trying to tape it. how annoying)

Anyways, this is where I'm going with all of that. I felt nasty, dirty and grungy yesterday... and I thought to myself, "I can't even REMEMBER the last time I showered."

Eww.

that's gross.

But take heart dear friends. It's just the sleep deprivation at work. Because I soon remembered that I had indeed showered just this past saturday.

I'm not that sick.

Anyways, I have a couple posts in the queue and I just have to hook up my laptop so I can get my pics to put up on them. And then I have 3 shoots that I did this weekend to work on. I am stoked about this, and since I have releases from all of them, I will be sharing them as soon as they get processed.

For now though, I have exciting news. Well exciting for me.

Get ready for it.

I HAVE THE DAY OFF TOMORROW!

This day off has come from an unfortunate series of events, but it is alas, still a day off.

My plans for the day:

The morning hours are predicted to be cloudy bright. PERFECT for picture taking.

So Mom, Dad, the kiddos (aka my two nephews and niece) are heading to the beach for a photo shoot of the three of them. It's going to be a surprise for their parents for Christmas.

Then, when the day gets hot, and the sun comes out, we're going to veg on the beach and swim in the lake! I can't think of a better way to spend a day off...

Family, fun, sun, pictures... and BEACH!

for lack of a better title

Currently, I am in the process of coming up with a few posts that will "autopost" while i am away in Mexico! Somehow, i am coming up with the greatest material as a result and it's KILLING me that I am saving it for the trip.

In fact, I feel so at a loss for good things to post NOW that i don't even want to post! AHHH!!! This is just NO good.

But alas, I actually do have some things to say.

Today, I woke up with unbelievably itchy eyes. So much so that I took benadryl BEFORE 7am. My body shuts down on benadryl... I cannot keep my eyes open. But it was a risk I had to take. My eyes were really bad! I am thinking about banning the cat from now on. the allergies are just too much to handle.

So as I was with Andy, literally on the verge of passing out i was so tired, he asked if he could watch a movie. *Perfect!* So I laid on the couch while he sat next to me and I slept while he watched the movie, yay!

Then again while he was napping I took another catnap knowing that once the girls are done with school this will no longer be an option. And boy am I glad that I did! Becaaaaaause when they came home today they informed me that TODAY was the last day of school... and all this time I thought it was TOMORROW.

This is one instance I am so glad I didn't procrastinate the nap. it would have been a sad day for me :(

So that brings me to my final point here. Not that i had points to begin with, but my intent was to write about how summer has officially begun because the kids are now out of school.

So tomorrow will be the day that we do some planning. Syd is a planner and I like to sit down with her and think up fun things to do. Then we write them down in her little calendar and fill in the gaps as we go.

But for now, I need to get some sleep! It's gonna be a new day tomorrow and I am excited to see what it brings! I'll be busting out the camera too... it's been in it's bag for what like 3 days now? Unacceptable.

an opinion please

Last night was early to bed for me. I felt so unbelievably tired yesterday. The kind of tired I haven't felt since camp 2 years ago. And I was wondering why and how I felt that way... am I just getting old? But then my mom reminded me of the way I've been living my life the last 30 days. It's not so much that i've been pulling all-nighters and living on no sleep... it's more the never ending "GO! GO! GO!" mentality i've been walking in.

At any rate, i slept well and when my alarm went off this morning I woke up feeling confident that I wouldn't fall asleep at the wheel on the way to work!

The good news about all this craziness is that I made almost 2 extra weeks of pay this month woohoo! I'm planning on buying 2 things plus paying off some of the credit card I ended up using for the wedding.

Wanna know what i'm getting??? do ya, do ya, do ya?!?! Ok enough begging, i'll tell you!

A camera backpack and an external hard drive! So exciting i know, but seriuosly, these are the two things that I absolutely need before I go to Mexico. The first being for obvious reasons and the other because my computer is almost full of pictures again and I am DONE burning cds. Besides, burning cds is sooo last year (ya i just got done burning my last batch about 6 months ago *grin*)

So these are the choices for the backpack. Here are the reasons I like (or dislike) both.

The Lowepro is black, I like black... actually i like a lot of colors, orange, red, blue... the brighter colors. I'm not such a big fan of the drab green the Canon comes in.

The Lowepro is about $25 more than the Canon.
I have all Canon equipment... so it'd be nice to stay true to the name.

Sean has the Canon backpack and I've seen it up close and personal, not just on amazon. It's a nice size, kinda big but that means room to grow! It's such a bummer to run out of space. Plus the Lowepro is suited much more for the hiking trekker type... I kinda want a pack that I can sling over my shoulder and hop in the car, on the bus, into the plane etc... It doesn't need to be really fancy. It just needs to keep my stuff safe in the event that I throw it somewhere (or drop it!)

So far the only pro about the Lowepro is the color... what do you think?

Vitamin D and Owen

This is the face i have had to look at all day long. Truly, this picture doesn't even do justice to the patheticness of this poor creature. He will sit across the room in an Eeyore inspired position and then look over his shoulder at me with the most pleading eyes i have ever seen. It speaks to the fact that even dogs feel the gloominess that this time of year hands us. What's funny though is that whenever i say his name, his tail starts to wag... i think that if i had a tail i would wag it too.

I've gotten past the point where my sunny pictures in Brazil no longer make me feel warm... I mean they definitely remind me of the sun and all... but i'm just not inspired by it like i was. It lasted for a couple of months... but right now, especially this week... man it's just depressing!

So poor Owen... at least looking at his face makes me realize that i'm not the only one longing to go outside and run around and not return to the house covered in mud. I can't wait for the sun to break... when it happens, i may just go out in full on sweat gear and take a nap in it. or maybe i could just start taking vitamin D?

winter favorites

i've read a few blogs lately that are a list of "favorites." at first, i really didn't want to do it, since it'd been done, and redone... but i have been thinking lately about the things I love about the different seasons. So i decided to list out the things that i actually DO like about winter.

There are just so many days when the sun doesn't shine here that it is hard for me to think of the things that i love. But when i think about the things that make me feel warm, i start to remember what they are...



my kitty cat sleeping next to my face because it's warmer there :)

going to sleep in a nest of blankets and pillows (honestly, I would do this year round, however, it is just too warm in the summer to make that comfortable)

putting on my slippers in the morning (it helps make getting out of bed a little more bearable)

hot chocolate with coffee flavor (notice this is not coffee with chocolate flavor... i'm talking mocha EXTREME)

getting into a hott shower in the morning and finally shaking off all the cold from getting up

sitting in front of the fireplace doing varying activities... such as reading, watching tv or scrapbooking

Notice, most of these have to do with sleep, bed, resting or waking up. Winter is truly a time to hibernate for me. I am extremely reflective year round, but i hold a certain fondness for the season of winter... it seems like I have to try harder to be happy so it helps me to see the beauty all around me. I love when it snows new and all the dirty snow gets covered up and all you can see is white... yah I like that too :)

the story of my life... err i mean blog

I thought it would be a lot of fun to have a cool template for my blog. So this morning i went on a search for the perfect temp... and i found one. I downloaded it and then copied the html into the blog.

Consequently the new template decided to take over my blog and make it look awful!!! Hence the reason for the new site name. What a pain in the butt! I tried to figure this thing out all day long and noone was really able to give me any answers... AH!

I kept thinking throughout the day that i wanted to blog about this particular problem, but my blog was unreadable, so it would be useless. So even though i am DEAD tired, I have just spent the last hour recreating the entire blog under a new name so that i can get this show on the road.

i'm pathetic.

the adventures of elmo in grouchland

I only have one final left and it's on saturday. I'm really not worried about it... therefore in my mind school is over. I am so relieved! The stress is literally draining from my body :) however, all that draining is leaving me excessively tired. thank God i don't feel sick anymore, but i am just wiped out.

So this morning i was watching dragon tales (which i hate by the way, but A loves it) and he just looked up at me and said, "manna, you not feelin good?" I replied and said that i feel just fine but i'm kinda tired. So he hopped down and ran up to his room and got me his special car blanky and told me, "lay down and take nap manna."

Great idea! I turned on the adventures of elmo in grouchland which is one of the newest favorites he has and i laid down. Granted he was crawling all over me the entire time i snoozed, but if he hadn't been i wouldn't have been able to get any rest because i would have been worrying about what he was doing! I actually dozed for an hour and i feel so much happier now!!! yay for 3 year old encouraged naps :)