Remembering

This is the second year without Grandpa Lee for Christmas. We have made a point to visit a few times a year and plant flowers, roses, etc. During Christmas though we like to bring a little something. This year it was a mini-Christmas tree. I thought it was such a cute idea. We trotted out there in freezing cold weather. It was the quickest display of tree decorating ever. Our fingers were froze trying to put everything on it and for me to take the pics. We love it and love doing it though. Wouldn't have it any other way!

Just a puppy {Alderick}

Yes, he really is still a puppy. I believe he's 10 months old. This is my girlfriend's dog. . .well her son's dog but you know how teens are, they're never around and the moms take care of the animals. I know my friend is attached to this one anyways.

I haven't seen Teresa in a while so I went up to visit and have a few cocktails out on the deck. The pup had been hit by a car about 2 months ago and had surgery on his back leg. Because he has to stay mobile, he's stuck in a cage and can only get out to stretch and relieve himself. So getting a decent picture of him was tough because he has so much energy pent up. He only had 2 more days before he was released from his medical restrictions.

I would love to go back and get some decent shots of him out in the fields, etc. But he must be walked first to tire him out a little LOL

Bronx Zoo {girls day out}

Schyler and I took a bus trip down to the Bronx Zoo for the day on Saturday. It was a fun girls day. The zoo was really big and a few times we ended up going in a circle but we managed to get through all of it. That day was very busy and it was hard to get in a decent spot to take a picture. We had a fun time and were pretty tired when we got home.
This gorilla sat right up against the glass eating and kept shaking her head like she didn't want everyone sitting there watching her. Another gorilla that was sitting up against the glass was just watching everyone. A little boy standing right in front of it stuck out his tongue and the gorilla did it back to him. Everyone started to laugh and told him to do it again just to see if the gorilla knew what it was doing. Didn't you know the gorilla stuck it's tongue right out again LOL!

Jack Russell Trials {FUN STUFF }

Warning, large share of not so great photos and long post ;)

We headed down to Connecticut for a fun weekend with Piper. We attended the Yankee Trials. It was great to see so many people with their JRT's. What is so amazing about this breed is there isn't one dog that looks alike. There are smooth, broken and rough coats. They also have many different distinct markings in brown and black and they are all different sizes.

We watched quite a few of the races and strolled around looking at all the dogs. A few people talked us into entering Piper in the Lure Coarsing for fun. She's never done anything like this before and our entry was called "just for fun". We decided to sit back and let her watch some of the pros chase the bags around. There is a large pulley system around the race track that has a bunch of plastic bags attached to it. The dogs instinctively chase the bags.

After watching the second dog run, Piper was going crazy she wanted after it LOL! She was called almost last. She got 2 tries. Her first run was extremely fast but when the bags went around the corner one ripped off and she chased that and it basically stopped the run.

Here's her second run. Mike was preparing to let her go on call.

I was disappointed in my photos. I was so excited watching her that I never really checked my settings and I really had a hard time focusing on these speed demons! I use my 70-300 all the time for Pop Warner and I never had a problem. These dogs are like lightning and I could barely get focus on any of them. You can see behind her the dirt coming up in the air!

That was her second time, even after being tired from the first run. We figured she ran 250-300 yards in 18.70 seconds! She pretty much smoked the pros, except one he got 17 something. The judges told us we need to put Piper in a class!


Not a great pic but you can see how sprawled she is and she's right on top of the bag.
Daddy giving some love.
Here are some of the pros running the hurdles. Yes, they need to be muzzled because when they come through the shoot they attack the fake fox and each other because they are so excited.


More love.
Taking some agility jumps with Schyler here.

My girl. . .

Getting back into the swing of things for the season. I haven't been using the D300 lately and I'm trying to get used to it outside with natural light. Seems much different than my D70s. I'm sure it's a matter of all the settings, lcd lightness, etc. We got this outfit as a possiblity for our Denver Pea Trip, but I think we need wellies instead of her Uggs. We're working on a possible rocker type outfit maybe, but we'll see ;O)

I'm also psyched about proofing now since I've just completed Phaunt U!

A little brag here. . .

I dove into photoshop head first trying to learn all I could from my pea-pals and other tutorials online. Never could totally grasp all the techniques and why. I finally took the plunge and signed up for Phaunt U. . .absolutely amazing class. We're nearing the end and I'll be sad when it's over but man did I learn so much. If you are ever looking for a great class to learn all the basics of photoshop, contact Kylie at Phaunt U. She's wonderful. So my brag. . .I made her blog "bragging on my students". Here's the link http://www.phauntactions.com/blog/

Mine is obviously Piper in the pink chair. I'm actually thinking about having it done in a canvas now! I love it that much. So glad I decided to go back to some photos that I thought I would never be able to fix.

Our rescue puppy

So apparently because we have a Jack Russell Terrier, we're the ones to call if someone needs to find a home for one. My cousin called me because a friend of hers has 2 JRT's and needed to find a home for one. Apparently, there was a deal made between the 2 children in the house and the one girl that belongs to this pup didn't keep up her end of the deal. From what they told us it's unfortunate for the pup, but some real tough love for the teen.

So we picked him up today with arrangements already made that my DH's Aunt was going to get him. She loves our Piper and has been looking for a pup. It was a perfect match!

He's a typical JRT. Tri-colored (which I'm not fond of. . .that's why it took me 3 months of searching for Piper), a shorty and very chubby! Piper is a long-legged JRT and very slim & trim.

So without further ado, here he is:

This is Piper's "oh no, he's not staying is he?" look. See the difference in size between the two? He's only 4 months old and she's 13 months!



One of the first things we did was got rid of the jingly cat collar. We weren't sure if he would take off on us because they said he liked to run. We have a really large yard and they didn't but just to be safe we kept him on his leash.
I have to admit I wasn't ready for 2 JRT's in our small house but he really was a treat to keep for an hour. He was very happy and didn't seem scared or sad with us. My DD was really bumming. I know she was thinking Piper is mine and my DH's and he could be hers. Just can't happen at this point in time. I know he will have a great home with Aunt Florence.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day! Can't post without a photo, so here's my little leprechaun. She wasn't too happy about that little hat on her head and she has gotten to be just like kids. As soon as I get the camera out, she does everything she can to look away from me. No matter how much I call her, she'll look away LOL!

It's Freaky. . . Freaky Friday that is!

Student Council made today "Freaky Friday" for school today. All the kids in the Middle School got to dress freaky. Schyler was "pumped" about going to school today. I just had to laugh about that one. It's her first year at the Middle School and she comes out with some new stuff all the time. Today was "pumped" LOL! So of course last night there was lots of tryouts for what she was wearing and this is what she decided on. Pretty freaky, huh? :)

Sorry for the snap shots but not only did I only have a few minutes to get a few I was not prepared for my speedlight to totally overload my camera. . .my focus fell on her neck :(

Add that to my list of things to practice:
1. Handling my camera vertically with the speedlight hanging of it.

Long time no blog. . .

it's been a very long winter and I haven't really been inspired lately to even pick up my camera. I was in Schyler's room helping out with some homework and there was some great light coming through her window. So I decided to grab the camera and take a few shots.
I'm always color popping everything so I decided to use Jenn H's awesome Cherry vanilla action on a few of these. I want to work on being more creative and trying some different processing. Of course until I take the Phaunt U photoshop class in April, I'm still going to be limited.

I love this pic, but she hates it because of her teeth. She can't wait to get her braces!
I used Jenn H's cherry vanilla with some adjustments and then I burned a lot of the background because her room was the usual mess. Tweens, gotta love 'em! It only gets better right? ;)

Today's my birthday . . .

Piper is one already! I dare say she is the most spoiled dog on this planet. We call her the "queen" because everything is about Piper and what she wants.

Because this blog is over run by pics of Piper, I'm only going to bore you with a couple of that was then, this is now shots.

This is the day we got her. We drove all the way to Delaware to get her and it was well worth the trip.
Here she is now! Although I think she has a problem. She LOVES to lick inside the Mike's Hard Lemonade bottles. She thinks she was being sneaky. . .
. . .busted!