Getting ready to head 'down home' for the Thanksgiving holiday. Austin and Mason have already left which leaves me to pack my stuff and the dogs. I'm just so glad I don't have to listen the kids' songs cd for the entire trip!! So very very happy!!

I have to stop in Boone and get gas and then again in Council Bluffs to drop off a cd of senior photos. So I'd better get my butt in gear...

I've been working all day. All day... I'm more than ready for bed but I have to finish this session and a newborn one before I can go to bed. I have to get them done and delivered before I leave tomorrow... Gonna be a long night...

So I didn't make it all month but that is okay...

Friday was Fremont-Mills state championship football game. We kicked butt!! The final score... 81 to 0... 81 to ZERO!! How crazy! The game was awesome!

Mason was picked up from preschool by my friend Jess so he was pretty excited to be able to play with her son Vince. Vince then came home with us and stayed the night. They had so much fun playing outside and running around that they both crashed on the couch before 8:30! I call that success!

Saturday morning Jess and her husband dropped off their daughter Ellie on the way to Des Moines to go see Wicked. We, being me, my husband, and the kiddos, all had a great day. There were no real tears and thankfully they didn't eat me out of house and home.

Sunday was my BIRTHDAY! Yay I'm now... um... 31... I guess I'm okay with it. I mean really what would happen if I wasn't? NOTHING! Life goes on so I've decided to just accept that I'm 31. I'm not saying I'll be okay with 32 next year but for right now 31 is okay...

And now some championship football game photos. Better photos than the score updates on my facebook page...

My day started with the sunrise... I know hard to believe...

Walking to the middle for the coin toss that they no longer even do on the field. So basically they just shake hands and make a show of it...

A touch down run attempt... I don't really remember... by number 32...

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

Another series of photos. This time of number 19's touchdown catch...

Photo 1

Photo 2

Photo 3

Number 7's interception touchdown!

All the seniors!! Such a great group of guys. It really has been fun watching these boys play this year.

My niece, Morgan, and her friend. They wanted me to take their photo so I took it and then it dawned on me that the photo I had just taken could have been taken anywhere... There were no distinguishing attributes about it that you could look at it and say 'oh that was taken at the dome...'. So I had them turn around so we could get some of the field behind them. I think it made for a much better photo!

I took this of the law enforcement officer because he was texting... and noticed the coaches when I got home. I do wonder what the guy was texting...

The final score!



Ended my day with the sunset...

I'm really wishing I could get over this stupid little cough... I just can't seem to shake it.

Now that Mason has been bathed and is in bed I think it is past time for me to haul my butt up to bed too. I have a log day of procrastination ahead of me tomorrow... I have a couple of sessions that I've edited my favorites from and am just working on the 'momma favs' right now... The cds have to be in the mail by Friday at 4 so I've got time. At least all day tomorrow because Friday I will be in Cedar Falls at the UNI-Dome!! Getting excited! Seriously!!

It's Their Title to Lose...

I love the unity of this team! I sure can't imagine the football players holding hands when I was high school... willingly because they know it makes them stronger. More of a team than individual players...

I love this set of pics. All were shot in quick succession. While there has been a lot of talk of N.M. (I don't need people to google and find this little place) he isn't the whole team. It is rather impressive to watch him bulldoze his way to the inzone but to watch #7 fly through the air is fun too. He isn't very tall and he is tenacious. Almost like a little ankle biter dog that looks all sweet and innocent and then goes for the face when you lean down to pet it... Tenacious! The quarterback, #4, is fun also. He just doesn't get frazzled easily. Probably a good thing in a QB.

If I remember right this might have been the first touchdown run for the {K}nights... It looks like they are getting ready to start a line dance...

I didn't take this last photo because I had a good view of her but because I figured with all the other cameras floating around no one else would. While our football team plays like a team the town as a whole is still a little cliquey. This wonderful young lady might not have the 'right' last name but her mother sure thinks she is special and I knew her mother wasn't there to see her play at the dome. While I have taken better personal photos this month, this one is my favorite so far this month. It's a little early in the month to name my fav professional photo...

Ha! What a day! I got nothing done... Absolutely nothing... I take that back I did get one load of laundry done... but that is it.

I'm hoping tomorrow is better. You know the tomorrow that starts in about 45 minutes. Yep that one!

I Do Better With Sour

This will be short and sweet... I'm afraid today is gonna go much too quickly. Yay for bullet points!!

• The boys got home around 9 last night... The longest 3 hour drive I've ever seen!
• I went to bed late
• Mason got up early
• I have a family session I need to get on CD so that it can be delivered when we go to their daughters bday party at 11...
• and I think I'm coming down with a cold... stuffed nose, sneezing, cough, headache... Fun times...

I got a wonderful surprise last night. My husband decided he was gonna go down to my 'down home' and pick up a tractor he is buying from my parents. And the best part... he was taking Mason with him! So I had a whole evening and night and day to myself. It has been wonderful!

First I followed them out the drive and headed to Ames to buy another EHD (external hard drive). You know one that will sit on my husband's desk and back up my back up and all his stuff. Then I had to stop at WalMart and get Mason some snow pants and a new snow coat since he is growing like a weed.

When I got home I stole the tv out of the kitchen and took it up to my bedroom and indulged in some good old movies. As a general rule we don't have tvs in our bedroom because a bedroom is for sleeping and before sleeping activities. That does not include watching tv. I was just so tired and had a huge headache and didn't feel like falling asleep in the living room. I fell asleep during the first 30 minutes and slept until after 9. Since then I've been working on my couple of sessions and waiting for my husband and son to get home.

My husband called about 30 minutes ago and told me they had a blow out near Glidden which is about 10 miles from Carroll which is a good hour from home... So I'm not expecting them until at least 8 if not later.

He actually called me to see if I would run to town and pick him up a inner tube and run it to him... Wisely he decided to drop the trailer and run into town to pick up his own. Ha! You'd think that after 11 years he would know the easiest thing would be to do that and get what he wanted the first time instead of waiting for me to get there with the wrong thing... because we know that is exactly what would happen. Thankfully he had his friend, Sterling, with him who, I'm afraid, was the voice of reason in the scenario...

So the football game yesterday was in one word... AWESOME!! Final score 69-26! It was a great game! That means FM will be back at the dome next Friday for the state title. How exciting!! I know I can't wait. I'm so thankful my drive isn't near as far as everybody elses... I'm only about an hour and 15 or 20 minutes. Just a nice little drive. It usually takes longer than that to get home though because I have to stop and pick up Mason from my friend, Jess's, house.

It can never be just a quick in and out thing either. No. I have to go in and gossip for a bit and then I have to bribe my son to leave... I guess that is a good thing but still kind of annoying... Really, why can't he just do what I ask him to do. Anyways I guess I can't complain too much since he is such a cutie.

And the bonus of today is that Mason has decided to take a morning nap and is currently sleeping in his dad recliner and has been for about hour. Unfortuanatly that means he is growing again. I've already had to buy him more new jeans this school year because he got too tall for his others. The knees weren't even holey yet! What boy doesn't wear out the knees of his jeans? Obviously mine! It isn't for lack of trying though!

Now I've got to finish editing a couple of sessions and then I can maybe actually look through the rest of my photos from the game yesterday! Maybe even some I haven't got the chance to look at yet from all last week... Maybe...

All my data was unrecoverable. Gone. All of it! Every single photo... Totally not an awesome day yesterday... I've decided not to dwell on it. I'm off to the football game now. Maybe that will relax me... Ha!

We went to bed early last night. Therefore we were up really really early this morning... Now we are watching Madagascar 2... I've decided Mason is going to school today. As soon as this movie is over I will get him dressed and take him to school. After that I have a ton of work that needs to get done... seeing as how I won't be home tomorrow. I'm going to the FM game at the Unidome... I can't wait!! I think about the whole town of Tabor and the surrounding areas are going to be making the long trek to Cedar Falls to watch the game. My sister, Cammie, and her family are driving up tonight instead of getting up really really early tomorrow and driving up. Mason is going to school and then my friend Jess is gonna pick him up. He is really excited to have a play date with Jess's son Vince. Any other time I would pick him up on my way home from the game but we have parent teacher conferences at 6:20 (I'm hoping I'm to be home in time...) so I will pick him up after we are done...

A short night... Mason had to wake me up to go pee which I'll admit is very unusual. About an hour later he started yelling for me... Poor little kid had thrown up all over his bed...

No one needs to know read all those gross details... I spent my day cleaning up puke and doing laundry... it sucked... really bad... I was able to get some work done though... Good thing because I'm up to my eyeballs in it.

Mason at school... the heater turnd up... the dogs in the kennel... Damnit! I should have turned my phone off...

What A Day

So thankful for the time change today! I got a whole extra hour of sleep. And best yet was that I actually got the extra hour because my son is at home with his father!!

I slept in this morning, ate some breakfast, tortured my niece, took some newborn photos... Now I'm gonna eat some supper and then head home. As always I won't be heading straight home but will be stopping by my grandma's house and my cousin's to see her new little baby Carlos whom I have some super cute newborn photos of that are just waiting for me when I get home... I figure I'll get home around midnight. O'well...

5

So... went to the game last night... we won... like it was ever in question that we wouldn't! Final score 58-22. That means that next Thursday we get to play Armstrong-Ringsted again just like last year. The outcome should be different this year though.

I'm excited for the dome though. I only have to drive a little over an hour to get there. No over night crap for me. A win on Thursday would mean they would play again on the 18 for state title.

Now I'm gonna go scrounge up some breakfast (ask my mommy to make me something yummy), do a little work, take a nap, and then get ready for M and D's Dirty Thirty Party.

Let's Go KNIGHTS! Let's Go!

Where has this week gone? Where has this year gone? Anyways...

Today, like here in an hour or so I am taking off for 'down home'. My little cousin had her little baby. Little Carlos is just so cute and so little and I get to take his little pictures this afternoon. I am so excited!

Then tonight I get to go to the Fremont-Mills vs East Mills football game. I missed the game the last time and refuse to miss it this time. So I have to be in Tabor in time to ride with Cammie and Ricky because I do not want to have to find a parking space at the Malvern school.

I have to say that though FM has a great football the cheerleaders are leaving something to be desired. At the game on Monday night I heard exactly 6 cheers... Can I just say HOW PATHETIC!! I know the basketball cheerleaders are way better but that could be because they have a way better coach. Sounds to me like someone needs to step down and let the younger coach be in control because that is exactly what it is a control issue...

I feel...

like I have signed my life away...

You see, last week, my external hard drive decided to take a huge crap. As in it stopped working. Suddenly just started clicking. That just kinda spells disaster. So I sent it to a data recovery place. They come back and say... 

"Our tests indicate failure to the read/write head mechanism of your drive. Read/write head mechanism failure is one of the worst types of failures that can occur to a hard drive because of the difficulty in successfully overcoming the failure. Read/write head failures often lead to catastrophic head crashes that cause platter damage rendering your precious data unrecoverable instantly."

Do you see how my week started out? Let me play the scenario out for you...

Last Saturday, as my husband was packing for a week long business trip in Germany, I was sitting down to finish editing a wedding. My day was going good. I had my coffee and was getting ready to edit the last 4 or 5 photos and then put them on the cd for the happy couple. I plug in my hard drive and it starts humming but then it starts clicking and clicked maybe 5 times and then the hard drive would power down. I unplugged it and set it aside to deal with later seeing as how my husband was getting ready to walk out the door.

I know it seems crazy but whenever my husband leaves the country I get nervous, irritated, antsy, jubilant, good wifey and ask him if he has everything. You know the normal... socks, undies, t-shirts, shampoo, wash cloth, soap, deodorant, tooth brush, phone charger, money, foreign money, passport. Only once have I not asked him all this and that one time he only one clean pair of underwear. I laugh about it every time because the picture of my husband hand washing his undies in the sink every night is hilarious! So we go through our ritual and I see him off and get back to work.

So thinking the last time was a fluke I plug back in my hard drive and it does the same thing. I then run to the bathroom and become physically ill. Then I jump on the internet and get to work looking for someplace to recover my data. The whole time feeling like I'm looking for a witch doctor to heal some unseen mental imagined illness.

So we can fast forward a couple of days and some more physical illness episodes...

Wednesday I got the estimate for the data retrieval. $2199.00! What? Really? That much? Really? But what choice do I have? I don't know about other people but I don't have that kind of change just laying around. So I had to wait until my husband was back in the country and Mason and I were home to discuss our options.

I realize that it would be so much cheaper to just rent tuxes and get her dress cleaned and hair and makeup done again and do retakes. I know that sounds crass but the photos were generic. Totally generic! Not my favorite thing to do. But they wanted traditional. I know that the emotions on her face would very closely resemble the emotions of her wedding day because she would just be happy they would have photos to hang on the wall. And they might be able to laugh about it later but, BUT, all of Mason's baby photos are on there. EVERY SINGLE PHOTO. I have none on my laptop, none on my husband's computer, NONE. So I've set up a payment plan and should know if the retrieval is successful later this week.

I guess my advice for everyone would be to backup everything, and then back it up again, and then backup the backup. If anyone ever tells you that is crazy you can tell them about this idiot that didn't and lost everything...

Now I'm off to backup a couple of sessions I've done since then and then I'll backup my backup and get to work. After all I've got to pay for my failing...

hohum

Where did the year go... Today I am editing a senior session from last weekend and trying to think of Christmas gifts... It is sleeting outside. How can it be sleeting outside? Yesterday it was in the 60's but today sleet... I guess it is iowa.


edited...
For some reason I forgot to post this... I think I'm losing my mind or is it that my son didn't have school yesterday throwing my house into chaos...

NaBloPoMo

It's that time again...

I figured why not. I've got nothing better to do between the hours of 8-1 everyday.

On this day though I am sitting on my parents couch in a house with no internet connection trying to type this on a phone that is working but not working... and I know it won't get posted until I get home tomorrow... such is life. Here is to day 1...