Confused Kat

Ok so I have posted a previous blog about the cat and her tragic entry into our home. Things seem to just get odder.Stephen jokingly named her Kat and that name has stuck with her. After loosing all of her kittens Kat suddenly has milk (which she didn't have when she delivered the kittens).

Kat seems oddly confused about her motherly roll or should I say lack of. In the last few days I have noticed that every time Katie cries Kat does some super hero jumping and running. I really noticed it a couple nights ago when Katie woke up in the middle of the night and let out a big cry. Kat jumped from the floor, to my bed (landing on top of me) and instantly into Katie's crib, all before I could get the blanket off of me!

When I got to the crib Kat was coddling and soothing Katie! It hit me that she is post delivery and knows she should be tending her kittens, but as there are no kittens to tend to she is trying to tend to Katie.

I went to a web site called Catster and ask if it was possible that Kat has confused Katie with her own baby. Apparently its common for a cat to adopt other cats or other animals especially when they have lost their own kittens.

I knew this much because we once had a cat that had kittens on the same day that my daughter came home with a tiny baby rabbit. The cat went nuts chasing this rabbit. I thought she wanted to eat it. However once she finally caught me off guard enough to get the rabbit she took it and put it in the bed with her kittens and tried to force it to nurse. I suppose Kat is doing the same thing with Katie, she is trying to adopt a human baby to fill her motherly needs.

Crazy Kat...

best meds for baby!!

Katie had the worst couple of months, she had a virus then the flu, then another virus and as soon as she got over the virus and went back to daycare she caught it again. Thankfully she is much better now but all that sickness left her with the worst diaper rash ever. We have tried every kind of cream from over the counter to prescription stuff, nothing seemed to help.

Then my niece recommended using this Corona Ointment that is actually found at feed stores and made for horses. $4.oo for the jar and an overnight application and she is completely healed up!! Think this will be one of our staples in the medicine cabinet from now on!

Sadly we where not able to save any of the kittens, but Stephen seems to have a new pet who follows him every where. She even jumped in the care and tried to go to work with him this morning!~

A couple of years ago right after I moved into this house, both Sara and Shelby some how managed to talk me into letting them have one kitten each. Now I wasn't exactly wanting them to have the cats but well I am a sucker at times.

Sara had a female cat named Tiger that looks very much like the cat pictured above. The only difference that I can see is that Tiger had blue eyes and this cat has green eyes. And Tiger's hair was a bit shorter and slicker.

Shelby had Precious who you would think would be a girl and we thought it was a girl for a very long time. This cat was very long haired cat. He was a true ball of fur. White with orange trimmings. Beautiful cat really. The thing with Precious was that Shelby picked him out a couple days after he was born, then while she was waiting for him to be old enough to bring home, well some how he got under a rocking chair and the guy who gave us the cat smashed the kitten's head. We ended up waiting longer than normal for the kitten because the owner wanted to make sure that the kitten was going to be ok. Precious was ok, well sort of ok. For a very long time he didn't have a clue how to clean himself and he was a bit slow. Shelby had to bathe this cat, so much so that the smart fur ball would jump into the shower with you if he got half a chance.

Last fall when I was big and pregnant with Katie we realized that Tiger was pregnant. Stephen was beside himself worried that we would be over ran with cats. I personally was pissed that I had already been fat and pregnant for so long and this darn cat got to have her babies in no time at all.

When Tiger had her fist litter of Kittens she was a bit slow to mother them. However once I got her to nurse them she was fine and Nature took its course and she turned out to be a great mommy. Trouble was that she was still nursing kittens when she got knocked up again.

Needless to say we had a lot of Kittens, but we did find homes for all of them except one. Then all of the sudden both Tiger and Precious where missing. We had made them start living outside full time just before Katie was born. They where fine outside but then all of the sudden they went missing. and the one kitten was alone and sad looking really. But a day or two after the mom and dad went missing so did the kitten. I really thought something ate it.

We live on a circle drive where most of the homes are owned by one guy. There are only a couple of us that don't rent from this man. A few months ago I mentioned to the handy man that my cats had gone missing. The man said boldly as ever, right in front of my 10 year old " yeah I shot them, I was sick and tired of having cats all over the neighborhood so I shot all of them" Now I was shocked and pissed really. But Mostly I was upset that he said it in front of my daughter who cried about her cat being shot.

Then a couple of weeks ago the lady across the street starts calling and throwing a fit cause there was a stray cat on her porch and she swore it was our cat. We told her several times that Jerry shot our cats and we don't have any cats now.

Yesterday Shelby comes in with the above cat swearing that this is Tiger and she has to save her because the lady across the street has been hitting, kicking and throwing the cat. I was really tired and didn’t feel like getting into it with her, not to mention that at a glance this looks like Tiger.

The entire time Stephen is going on and on about how "that's not our cat, we are not keeping the cat and it’s not our cat!!" Then Shelby says the oddest thing. She is standing there holding the cat up to me going on and on about it being Tiger and the she says "Omg she peed on me!!!" I was so exhausted that it took me a second for it to click as to what she had just said. Once I realized what she said I thought ummm cats don’t normally just pee while being help up in the air.

Of course I look to see what Shelby is on about and I will be darned if there isn’t a kitten butt hanging out of this cat. Even though the darn cat's water had just broke on my bedroom carpet and even though Stephen was still chanting "it isn't our cat" I couldn't throw the cat out the door with a kitten hanging out of her. So I made a bed in a container and put her inside.

It didn't take long to win Stephen over, because it didn't take long to realize things where not going well with the cat. She had 5 kittens all of them where either butt first or sideways. Stephen had to pretty much pull the kittens out and three of them didn't make it.

Mommy was struggling to clean her self up and the babies where pretty much on their own. Now I know that the mom cleaning up the Kittens is what gets them started really breathing. Stephen had to do all the cleaning up and tried to rub them all enough to get them breathing but only two of the kittens made it.

Mom isn’t interested in letting them nurse and the kittens are not even trying to nurse. The kittens had no hair and no idea who to suck or swallow.

We put mom and babies in the laundry room on a shelf with a heat lamp to help keep them warm. Apparently this is necessary with premi kittens (per my internet search). When we came home today the kittens where gone and mom was wondering the house. We searched for a long time and found the kittens beside the tub we had them in, one had died during the day but one was hanging in there.

Mom refuses to leave the kitten any where besides on the cabinet so we actually have mom and baby on a towel on the cabinet with a heat lamp over them.

One of Sara's friends brought me the tiniest bottle to feed the kitten with. We are basically manually pumping milk from mom and forcing open the kitten's mouth to teach it to nurse but also giving it some vaporized milk in this tiny bottle. The kitten seems to be giving nursing an effort but it’s difficult because mom has very little milk. Also because mom isn’t really nursing she seems to have a very large tummy still. I am thinking this is because the nursing is what causes the uterus to contract back down and she has had no real nursing yet.

Stephen has named the mommy CAT, and for some reason CAT has decided that even though Shelby brought her home, I made her a bed to give birth in and Stephen insisted she didn't belong here, she is defiantly Stephen's cat! She follows him every where and jumps into his lap when he sets at the computer. This cat has claimed Stephen and now he is talking about buying her a collar.

Stephen swears that we can't keep the kitten but I have a feeling that if the Kitten makes it he will be so attached he won’t let it go any where. The girls want to name the kitten Faith or Miracle. Not sure about a name at the moment I am just hoping for survival for the poor kitten.

Drowning in work

Some days Stephen and I have to wonder how we manage.

Recently Stephen says he is drowning in photography work. All though its tiring and can be stressful, its a good tired and a good stress. Of course we would rather be drowning in photography than not having enough of it.

So yesterday morning Stephen had a photo shoot for the magazine and senior photos as soon as he was finished with that. The senior's mom calls on Friday night worried about every thing, she was concerned because at her sister’s prompting she had canceled an appointment at a photo studio where she was going to pay for a sitting fee and then order a package of photos, but we where charging her more than the sitting fee. She was certain that she wouldn’t be able to print our photos for less than what the studio was going to charge. Oh and if she gets wallets how would she cut them out.. it was a total panic moment, you know good and well that if she had a page of wallet photos in her hand after the fact cutting them wouldn't be an issue she was just in that "mom's first senior panic mode" Stephen actually said to her " you will use scissors.

So I called the mom back, before the call ended I had to put her mind at ease about hair, makeup, jewelry, our prices and my ability to convince her 18 year old daughter that these where senior photos and “sexy” wasn’t the intention. Been there and done that with my own girls, some times with teenage girls its easy for them to confuse confident sexy with porn sexy so Stephen and I work hard at keeping every one on the confident side and if the poses start crossing lines Stephen haa became comfortable with stopping for adjustments, and well I have armed myself with wardrobe tape!

I hung up the phone and had to discuss it all with Stephen, you see I used to be very uncomfortable with charging the $150.00 for a disk or charging in general. Its been said that I could bankrupt any buisness because I tend to want to "help out" every one and charge no one. So I needed Stephen to tell me again that we really where giving them a deal.

I realize they had canceled an appointment where she was only going to pay $35.oo for her setting fee but the setting fee did not include photos, hair, makeup and the photographer was not coming to her house. Not to mention the setting fee was for her daughter’s photos only, we had agreed to do the senior photos, some of each kid, groups of her kids and some family photos. What we are doing at the moment ( and this is sooooo temporary just to get things started), we sort out a place to do the photos and then take what ever photos they want. Then we give the customer a disk with all the photos and they get them printed. We have done weddings that included family photos for almost every family attending the wedding. We do it this way for now because the customer gets a heck of a lot of photos for their $150.oo. I think the last two weddings the bride got disk with 300 to 400 photos on them. The disk we turned over this morning for the senior photos had 280 photos on it. The only duplicates where, if we turn one black and white I do it in addition to the color photo, and a couple of the ones that I put senior 2009 on I did it as a duplicate so they maybe got 6 or 7 duplicates but the duplicates where not exactly like the original photo.

Now I have spoken to a few moms recently about their senior photos, most of them paid a sitting fee and the package cost them at least $400.oo. That is not including all the extra photos we take of the entire family. When Stephen and I first got married I felt odd about charging $150.oo for a disk but now that I am helping with the shoots and editing and putting in the time labor . honestly I am feeling ok about $150.oo.

I have makeup that I use every time Sara’s friends turn up here wanting some “cool” photos and I have some jewelry that I have picked up at various sales just for the photography. However I got to thinking that I needed a couple of things to make sure this girl would have what she needs. So while Stephen was doing his first photos of the day Shelby and I ran to Wal-Mart to look for some cheap but big ear rings, and a bag for my makeup, jewelry and hair stuff. I have been keeping an eye out for a bag but I had in mind what I wanted and I just haven’t seen it yet.


Turns out that Wal-Mart has very little jewelry these days. I remember when they used to carry a lot of cheap stuff that would make due. I managed to find one card of ear rings that was not what I was looking for but would do. The bag was another challenge. Near the makeup was some bags but they where just bags, no real slots for stuff. I stood there picturing makeup piled in those bags and me digging through the bag unable to really find anything that I needed. So I went to the hair isle and found pretty much the same thing, then I went to the purses and …nothing… Finally I went to the arts and crafts isle and even though it wasn’t exactly what I had pictured, for less than $20.oo I found a tote just like this only mine is pink instead of blue

This has lots of pockets and places to put stuff so I was pleased. I managed to get all of my make up and combs and hair spray in there. I even bought a plastic box to put jewelry in ( the box was made for arts and crafts items but it works for me) . The box fit right into the tote. I was quite pleased with myself until I looked at Wal-Mart.com and saw this

Now I want this tote for my make up and jewelry and the pink one can be for curling irons, straightening irons and all that stuff.. not gonna happen as I am to frugal to spend a $100.oo on a tote.. the only chance I have of getting this tote is if Stephen goes and buys it with out telling me then once the money is spent I am ok but, me I would stand there and stare at it and want it and then think $100.oo buys a few packs of diapers or could pay a bill and I would never actually give up the money just because I want the tote.

So any how back to the situations we get into. After our trip to Wal-Mart, I had to take both seats out of the van, pack up all the makeup, hair tools and jewelry and I was suppose to get all the lights, background and support system ready to load into the van, oh and at some point I should at least brush my hair and put on a little make up too. I was in the middle of brushing my hair when Stephen got home, none of the lights, background and supports had been touched, but the van seats where out and my stuff was packed up!

Stephen didn’t complain though, I suspect that he left the house knowing that there was no way I could do every thing I had planned on before he got back lol. So Stephen loaded the van up with everything while I finished getting dressed and we headed off to do these senior photos.


I had explained to the mom call Friday nights phone call that the more her daughter was willing to pose the more shots she would get. The girl was pretty enough but she does exactly what my daughter does, she goes in her room or hangs out with her friends and acts goofy and snaps photos of her self. But put the lights and camera and every one watching they freeze and suddenly can't think of one cool pose. It really reminded me of Sara. One of the older boys brought out his horse and Stephen was able to get some good ones of the boy riding.

After the photos Stephen had to go farther away from home to pick up some bee supplies. Stephen had found some one selling used be boxes and other bee stuff. I personally wouldn't have bought them because the looked a bit yucky to me but Stephen went ahead and got them.

Needless to say several hours later when we got home, we where exhausted and ready for a day to crash. That didn’t happen though.

Today Stephen had another photo shoot for the magazine ( the magazine is the best these shoots almost always go smoothly). Then when he got home he had to sort out all of the used bee boxes he bought.. I will leave that part for him to explain on his blog.

While Stephen was out I was editing yesterdays photos and taking care of a cranky Katie. But things got really strange when Shelby came up to me with this cat that the neighbors have been hitting and kicking and throwing things at. They say it’s a stray and they don’t want it near their house. So Shelby is holding this cat up telling me how she needs to keep it and save it cause its been treated so awful when all the sudden she says “mom it peed on me”. Ok We had a long day on Saturday and I had been at the computer editing the photos all day so I staried blankly at Shelby for a few seconds before it clicks what she has said..I am thinking cats dont just pee on you!!! So .. I look down and I will be darned if I didn’t see a kitten poking its rear end out! So of course I am not going to throw the cat out the door even if its water did just break on my bedroom carpet. We got a container and an old towel and put the cat in there. Stephen only had one thing to say and he said it over and over and over.. Thats not our cat, thats not our cat, thats not our cat....

It didn’t take long to realize two things, The kittens are extremely premi!! And this cat don’t have a clue what is going on. The cat struggled to clean her self up let alone the kittens. The kittens have no fur, 3 of the 5 she had where born breach and dead, and the cat is scared to death to stay in the box with them. So suddenly Stephen goes from "thats not our cat" to CPR on a stillborn kiten!!! Stephen has had to actually help her get some of the kittens out, he has done all the cleaning up of the kittens and the two that are still alive, Stephen managed to rub them enough to get them to breath. I know that the mother cleaning the kittens at birth stimulates them to breath but with mom not cleaning them its been up to Stephen. He tried with all of them but only two of them finally started breathing. I honestly hold out little hope that the two kittens will make it. We did some research because the kittens are not attempting to nurse. Apparently if they are really premi they don’t know how to nurse or swallow. Its late at night and there is no place to buy the needed feeding tube and they will need feeding every hour and we both work all day so the only thing I can think of is to do what we can and hope that nature kicks in and the mom figures out what to do.

This week end is one of the reasons I love Stephen so much, We manage to book a lot of photo work, have 101 things on our plate and still get it all done, and them throw in a suprize cat/kitten rescue and he jumps right in and helps try and save them!

Darn what messes we get into!

So its drill weekend and the very first time that I have ever spent the night away from Katie. Its been very strange and hard to stay in a motel and not go home. I use to drive home after drills but that is an hour away which is exhausting and costly. Recently the Guard started paying for our motel room on drill weekend. Most drill weekends include Saturday and Sunday but once in a while it starts on Friday. This drill started on Friday so I spent the night here last night.

They gave us some coupons for 50% off our breakfast at the Denny's that is in our motel. So this morning my room mate and I went to have your breakfast. We where ready to head to the unit as soon as we finished eating so of course we where both in our military uniforms.

My room mate had to run back to the room to get something so she handed me her wallet and took off back to the room. I pushed my plate back and pulled out my ATM card and was about to look for my friend's ATM card when the waitress came up to me. I was thinking she was bringing our ticket. Instead she came to inform me that some one had paid our ticket for us. I was left sort of speechless and didn't know how to respond. I eventually found my voice and ask who paid it so that I could thank them. However the man and ( I am assuming) his wife where already pulling out of the parking lot. I still really had no idea what to say.


Above is something that Stephen made to put on myspace or something a while back. Because he always says how proud he is of me. I even find myself wondering at times what is it that he is proud of, I am in the military because it is part of who I am, or it was any way. The last time I re-enlisted I had said for months that I wasn't going to re-enlist, I was going to finish my current enlistment, get out, marry Stephen and start a new life. My new life was to be for the most part separate from my old life. The only thing I wanted to bring along in my new life was my children. But at the last moment I simply couldn't let go. It was partly the sign on bonus, who couldn't use the money they where waving in my face? But honestly for the most part it was me not being able to see me breathing if the ties to the military where cut. It wasn't until the last year or so that realized that I have SOOOO many other things in my life that letting go of the military would be so much easier than I thought it would be.

Recently faced with the posibilitiy of being put out of the military due to an injury that occured while I was deployed I had to really come to terms with the idea that I may not be active in the military in the near future. A year or two ago I would have been 110% sure that if the military was yanked away from me I would have fallen apart, today I know that I would be ok with it.

So for many years the military for me wasn't about me serving my country nearly as much as it was about filling a need with in me. With me seeing the military as something that I need, something that serves a purpose in my life, I am always suprised and even shocked when people do things like pay for my meal just because I am in the military.

Things like this tend to happen, when we stop by Wal-Mart on our way home and a complete stranger comes up to us and says "I just wanted to say thanks for your service to our country" . Or a little kid stops you in the store and is beaming at you because your in uniform.

Or when we stop off to buy a soda on the way home from drills and some one pays for the drink or the attendant wont let us pay because we are in military uniform.

During our deployment to Kuwait in 2003 it happened a lot, where one Kuwait citizen or another would pay for your drink or food just because they are grateful that American Soldiers liberated their country.

Even outside of the military when I get a "thank you" or some other complement I never know what to say back. If I have done something for the person a "your welcome" works but if its just a random complement I am at a loss for words. As for the military and people being nice, I never want anyone to think I am being ungrateful or that I am being a real *@%@*, I just really don't know how to respond.

I think that the main reason I feel so awkward about people thanking me in reference to the military I never feel like I did anything in the military that warrants a person to be grateful or thankful to me. I joined the military originally to get medical insurance for my children. I ended up staying in the military for the last 14 years because the military became a part of me and eventually I couldn't identify me with out having some sort of military in my life.

Yes I went to Kuwait, yes I went to New Orleans after Katrina but in many ways those where selfish acts on my part. I have this weird need to be a part of something important. So I view the things I do in the military as a way to fill that need within me. I do realize that its very strange to say that I would WANT to put myself in less than cozy position in order to help some one else just so that I can fill a weird need with in myself. This is a part of me that I never realized or saw until just a few years ago.

So I suppose that I have a hard time knowing how to react to some one thanking me for doing something that in many ways I did for myself.

At dinner my room mate and I was discussing breakfast and the whole issue of people saying thanks to us. It turns out that she don't know how to respond to people either. She indicated that she often thinks "what exactly have I done to be thanked for" . Yes she has been on two deployments but even though she didn't volunteer for either deployment she wanted to go, wanted to see the world and meet people of different cultures, not to mention that they paid her a decent amount of money to do that.

Now don't miss understand deployments are not easy, you miss your family, you work long hard hours and endure some hard times, and well there is always the possibility of being injured and even killed. However we are lucky enough to be in a unit where the missions are more often than not in more secure places. I am not saying no one will ever be injured, shot at or in a battle but our chances of seeing that sort of action is slim.

I suppose that my whole point to this blog is that we don't feel like we have made a real true sacrifice so we don't know how to respond when people are so very grateful. Its hard to explain, how can you feel like you deserve thanks for full filling your own need? In many ways I feel like my family deserves the thanks more than I ever would. Its my children that missed out having a mother that suffers the most on deployment.

Sara's friend had a birthday party with an Emo/Gothic theme. The girl wanted Stephen to come over and take some photos at her party. Stephen couldn't go because he had work for the magazine and then a concert to photograph after. I couldn't go to where the party was because Katie has been so ill and is just now getting better. The weather had turned cold out so I didn't want to take a chance on her getting sick again. So I text Sara and said that if they came here I would take a few photos for them.

With Stephen out taking photos all day he of course had his gear with him. I only had one lens here. Every time I use this lens I complain about the results. Stephen broke the lens into two pieces a couple of years ago and we mailed it off to the manufacture (Sigma) to be repaired. When I first met Stephen this was the lens he used most, or at least the one I saw him use the most. Now every time I use this lens every thing turns out so very soft. I officially don't like this lens. Stephen says that if we change some settings it may work better, we will see.

Above is a few of the photos that I took yesterday. The photos and the lens where not that screwed up. I used Lightroom to make them odd colors because the girls wanted odd and different photos, I have a few that have not had the colors changed and I will post more later.

Sunday my daughter-n-law called and wanted to have some photos of my granddaughter (Cloey) in her Easter dress. Stephen's day was full and mine was suppose to be cleaning house so I opted to do the photos instead. Easy choice who wants to clean house!

I wasn't exactly happy with the first set of photos, there simply wasn't enough light and even though the pics printed ok on the screen when I zoomed in it all seemed very soft to me.

We have these lights in the closet that are not for photography and Stephen wont use them because he insist that the lights are not clear white light. But I used one of them on the second set of photos with my son and his wife. I was much happier, the photos seemed much sharper. The light isn't perfect but for me it will work until Stephen gets some studio lights. Now the next step is on me to work on framing up the photos.

Was a good day, we took Cloey out and let her help plant about 60 plants. She loved getting dirty.

Katie was having a great time just being outside, until she suddenly got sick. Turns out she has thrush mouth. Its nasty stuff and made her really ill. Lucky for us my daughter's friend had gone through it and discovered that the best treatment going is Gentian Violet. Stained her mouth and bottom with this stuff and almost instantly she was feeling better. So off to daycare with her tomorrow with her purple lips and bottom.

Stephen had a wedding to photograph this week end. I always tag along if I can when ever he does any photos. The last wedding he did was of a very funny couple. I think their wedding will always be my favorite ever.

This one was a little less comical, a church setting and a I don't know just different. Not in a bad way, each couple should have the wedding that they want. The wedding should suit the couple and in both case I feel like this was the case.

The above photo is the only one I took at the wedding, I think I like the black and white version best. Then again I always love black and white photos the best. Mostly I stood around holding the flash in various places. Stephen happened to hand me the camera while he was sorting out some candles and the little girl kissed the bride. I had to take the shot because the entire morning the little girl had refused to get close to the bride. She didn't like her poofy dress and didnt want to get close enough to touch it. lol Kids!!

The whole day was a bit trying because we still have not gotten Stephen's camera back. Apparently Nikon is waiting on a part or something. This meant Stephen took the photos with my camera. We haven't had my camera for long so of course Stephen isn't as comfortable as he is with his own. Plus his camera take larger photos than mine does. Now I would go into details but I dont understand the technical part of it I just know that when I was looking at developing the photos these seem smaller and different. I guess I need to get used to both cameras so this is just training for me.

The other thing that is driving Stephen a little nuts is that when he came here he had to leave a lot of stuff behind. Partly because the power cords are different. Partly because by the time we pay for transer boxes for every thing so that the cords would work and pay the cost to ship it all here, we could just go out and buy US products and save a lot of hassle. Because Stephen wasn't able to bring all of his stuff we do not have studio lights.

The church was dark making it hard to take the photos with no lights. Now we got a lot of good shots but not the exact shots Stephen wanted. A LOT of this is that Stephen is his own worst critic and I am not sure that he will ever look at any photo he takes and say " thats the best shot ever" Some of it he has a real point and we need the lights. So Stephen is in a wirl wind trying to find the ones he wants at a price we can manage.

I was exhausted after the wedding and really ready to call it a day. Unfortunately it wasn't that simple. We came home to find that Sara had let Katie pretty much wreck the living room and my son and daughter-n-law where here to do a not so fun task.

A few years ago my x made a really dumb choice to finance an Mustang for our 16 year old son who didn't have the best record of making payments on his pick up (which wasn't paid off when he got he Mustang). Because a 16 year old should never have 2 car payments while working part time and going to high and trying to have a girlfriend that he wanted to spoil rotten (as all boys should) and school things just didn't work out.

My x's fix was to park the car and put a for sale sign on it. His hope was that either the boy would realize that he had to make the payments or some one would buy it and get it out of our name. My thining was that if I was making the payments I would just drive it. And I parked my van and drove the Mustang for a couple of weeks. However I guess once a mommy van driver always a mommy van driver. I just didn't like the Mustang. I made a VERY VERY VERY bad decision. A close friend came by the house and the Mustang came into the conversation. She wanted it and wanted it bad. The problem was that she was newly married and her and her husband where young. No one would finance them at a decent rate. I made the choice to let them take over the payments on the Mustang. Every thing was fine until a year and a half into it they changed insurance companies. The old insurance company reported that the insurance was cancled and we got a letter in the mail that we needed to prove insurance on the Mustang. The girl did mail in her insurance proof with her payment. Some how from that point on it was the biggest battle ever. The finance company did not assoicate the money orders with the account for the Mustang because the money orders had the girls name on them and not mine or my x's. Then I had her start putting our name and the account number on the money order. Still several payments where in what they call "unidentifyable funds" eventually that got sorted out but what never did get sorted out was that the insurance was in this girl's name and not the name on the account. The finance company added forced insurance to the payment and the girl just kept paying the amount that she had always paid. I spent hours and hours on the phone with my x, his mother and the finance company trying to sort it all out.

Finally the girl tells me she has it all sorted and not to worry she has a name and number of some one at the finance company if anything else goes wrong. However it must not have been as sorted as she indicated because a repo man turned up at her parent's house to repo the car. This girl's father threatened the repo guy and I hear he actually put his hands on the repo guy.

The next thing I know is the girl's husband is saying he bought his wife a new car and his plan is to park the Mustang and let the repo guy come for it.

Well hell if they do that then the car gets sold at an auction, what ever it brings goes toward the balance of the loan and me and my x are stuck paying off the rest for a car that we dont have. What really made me mad about it was they never came to me and said that they simply couldn't deal with the issue any longer and wanted out. They where just going to throw my credit down the drain and never say a word. From strangers I expect this from the parents of my god daughter NEVER did I exspect it end like this.

My x had said a while back that if it gets to the repo point he would pay off the past balance and let our son take over the payments again. So my son and his wife came over and we went to get the car.

These people who ruined my credit and was about to really throw me under the bus threw a real fit when they found out that I was taking the car back. By the time we went for the car it wouldn't start (even though she was driving it a week ago), two of the factory rims where gone and donut tires where in their place, a very exspensive stereo system had been ripped out, the driver's window had been left down for a week in the rain, the door panel had been not just removed but torn and the entire inside of the car was trashed beyond reason. All of this in a week! When we tried to call and ask where the rims and stereo was the girl's father cussed out Stephen and tried to say that his daughter bought them. No way did she drive that car out of my drive way with out 4 factory rims and the stereo!

It was a hard task to deal with and I learned my lesson.I will never trust any one with my credit again! EVER

Turns out that my x don't want our son to take over the payments, the way he sees it he is looking at over $2000.oo to get he car paid up to date and back into a decent running condition. I am thinking more like $3000.oo. He figures if he is going to pay that much he may as well drive it. As long as he is paying for it good for him. Of course our son and daughter-n-law are not happy but I understand where his dad is coming from and what his concerns are so I wont argue the point I am just glad its all sorted.

So tonight as I was feeding Katie her dinner Stephen and I where talking about people doing the picture a day blogs. Some people do the blogs to show case their professional photography, some do it to document their daily lives and I am sure there are a lot of other reasons to do a daily photo. Stephen thought it would be a good idea for me just so that I get more comfortable with the camera and all its features. I honestly get lost with it all my previous method was to put the camera in auto mode and point and click, if it was a good photo then great if not it was not that big of a deal. Helping Stephen means good photos all the time, so I am learning every day. Right now it’s more about getting comfortable with how to hold the camera and where my hands are at. Because I am left handed when I turn the camera to the side I turn it opposite to Stephen and most right handed people. Today I discovered that I can’t turn it the other way and function so I have to learn where to put my hands or else my hand can block the flash or cause shadows. So now I am REALLY trying to get comfortable with just holding the camera.Not only will the daily photo help me get comfortable holding the camera but I like the idea of documenting daily life. So above there is a collage of the photos I took of Katie. Its a reality moment, this is truly how Katie is at meal time....A MESS!!!.... Needless to say Stephen would rather wash the dishes than feed Katie ! The collage, well I recently downloaded Picasa 3 and I wanted to play around with it.

_________________________________________________________________________An update on Stephen's camera!. Stephen called yesterday and after telling the rep off he finally confirmed that they had received his proof of purchase. However the information had not been logged into their system. Stephen got very upset because he had assured him that it would be done. The rep said he would log in the information right then and e-mail Stephen when it was done. Of course that did not happen! So today Stephen called back and asks if the information was logged. He spoke to yet another rep who actually told Stephen that we had not provided proof of purchase and there was nothing he could do until that was provided! I thought Stephen's head was going to explode! After Stephen reamed the guy one he hung up and tried to call the corporate office. In the mean time I called back to the service center and just happened to get the same rep Stephen had just told off. I told him in no uncertain terms that I was going to step by step tell him exactly what I wanted to do, when he bulked at it I said " you can either shut up and do what I am telling you or I will put my husband back on the phone " the guy shut up and decided to do as I ask. I gave him the control number for the issue, I insisted that he pull up all the call logs for the control number. He started trying to tell me stuff but I actually said to him " look in order to take phone calls from Americans you have to at least be able to read so just stop running your mouth and find yesterdays call log and give me the name of the rep who documented that he had the fax in his hand" My intention was to go back to the head office with the guys name but instead this rep pulls up the control number and guess what. THE FAXED INFORMATION WAS IN THE SYSTEM AND AN ESTEMATE HAD ALREADY BEEN CREATED!!! so now why couldn't this rep have told Stephen this when he called the first time?!?!According to the information that we have looked up, the owner of the shop that sold Stephen the camera and Stephen's father ( who is also a photographer) the issue with Stephen's camera is simple the camera needs to be opened, a couple of screws tightened and well that’s it. Apparently the D2X has a history of the flash boot coming loose. The estimate that we received was over $400.oo! I ask repeatedly what exactly was being done or replaced on the camera. The rep told me that he has not idea, he is not allowed to discuss the repairs, all he can do is tell us the estimate is there, and email us a notification so that we can go on line and accept or decline the repair. He also told me that Nikon policy is that if you send in a camera for repair the techs go over every detail of the camera and anything that needs repaired or replaced is included in the estimate. I told the rep that we sent the camera in for only one part to be worked on and that we didn't want anything else touched, especially if no one is going to tell us what exactly is being done to the camera. However according to this rep there is no other option, Nikon will not allow you to see a list of the repairs and choose what you want to have done. Its an all or nothing repair and we are not allowed to know what repairs are being done! Total BS! In the mean time Stephen's mother is IMing me saying that is to high, get the camera back and mail it to the UK for repair. But if we do that.. shipping cost alone are outrages and the fastest any of our packages ever make it to the UK is about 3 or 4 weeks, then the repair time and then the 3 or 4 weeks to mail it back. Stephen has already been with out his camera going on 3 weeks now so we simply cant wait another two or three months. No camera means no work! So we accepted the estimate and gave the jerks our debit card number! I am soooo mad about it. I am sooo not happy with Nikon and their stupid rules and policies and rude customer service. I would say that I am never buying Nikon ever again but I ordered a flash for my camera today and the darn thing is Nikon but dang it the flash had been a demo and was being sold cheap, with shipping and tax and all I got it for $62.oo . ..but that is it I am on Nikon strike after this flash comes in the mail!

Yesterday after drills, Stephen had gone hunting and I was just surfing around on the net. I notice the little box pop to say that Stephen had an e-mail from Nikon. I am thinking oh yeah maybe they found his camera and are e-mailing to tell him.

The e-mail never referenced the fact that the camera was missing for well over a week! Instead it said:

This email is in regards to your Service Order #: ######. Your equipment has been received and logged into the system, however our technicians have determined that this is not a US model and we are going to need an international Proof of Purchase in order to be able to Service it. If an international Proof of Purchase is not available, or if you cannot provide us with one, we will determine this equipment to be a Gray Market camera and it will not be serviced by Nikon USA.

Now I know that every company has their rules but we had no idea where to send the camera or how to get it serviced, so Stephen called the Nikon center and ask for help. He explained that he purchased the camera in the UK and registared it there at the time of purchase. He also ask for a detailed outline of what steps he needs to take in order to get the camera fixed even if the warrenty wouldn't cover it. Not once did the rep mention anything about needing proof of purchase.

Later when the camera went missing we made at least a 100 conversations with Nikon reps about he missing camera, we pretty much begged them to verify with the actual repair department if possibly the camera had been delivered and not scanned by the postal service at the time of delivery. Every single rep got he full story about he camera being from the UK and registared in the UK. Every single phone call Stephen insisted on giving them the serial number, thinking that they log them in by serial numbers and that would be the fastes way to verify if it was in the building. Not once even when we spoke to several managers did any one mention the need for proof of purchase.

Now to make the service even worse it turns out that the postal service did screw up they did not scan the package on delivery so their system shows the package as not delivered. However the repair center has a policy that once they recieve equiptment for repair if the serial number comes up as a non-USA product that equiptment is put to the side and left until they have a lull in service. In other words instead of verifying if the camera is legally in the US they leave it sitting on the bench and move on to other work. This is why Nikon could not verify that the camera was in the building they had never registared in their system that the camera arrived. They sat on if for a full week before bothering to log the camera in.

Now the postal rep was calling Nikon all along the way asking if they could send some one into the area where the camera was and visually look and see if it was sitting there waiting to be logged in. Of course the postal service was worried that time was passing and we where going to file a claim for payment of the lost package. The managers at Nikon failed to really try. I have worked in customer service for a long time I know that in a special situation where a package is thought to be lost they could have visually checked to verify if the camera was sitting there not logged in. 2 minutes of a reps time to actually go an extra inch would have save so much stress and time.

As well during all of this panick about the camera at least one rep should have known that the camera not being manufactured in the US it would not be logged in right away and may be sitting on a bench waiting. Even though Stephen kept insisting that they search for it by serial number not once did a rep say oh this isnt a US serial number and this could be the issue.

Stephen contaced the Nikon rep because the fax number that he rep gave us in the e-mail can only recieve faxes from with in the US, we needed a number that some one from the UK could fax to. The rep told Stephen 3 times that there was no such number and the only number was the US only line. After asking for a manager the rep suddenly gives Stephen a different number to use!

So this morning Stephen couldn't sleep and was pacing the floor. He made a call at 5am to the UK, (it wasn't 5am in the UK). It happens that Stephen is really big on spending your money with buisnesses that spend their money with you. So when he wanted a camera of course he bought it from a buisness that had hired him to do some computer work when he worked for himself. So Stephen called the store owner and ask if they had a record of the purchase. We knew for sure tha we dont have the reciept because Stephen had moved across the big pond and only brought what he could fit into his suitcase.

Thankfully the man had a record and could fax it to Nikon. Now I am sure Stephen will write about the whole thing at some point and he can tell you all about the store and its owner, I have never had a chance to go to the UK so I don't know much about any of Stephens friends and associates from the UK. I just know I am greatful that this man was willing to pull up sales records from 2005 and help us out!

Stephen responded to the Nikon e-mail saying that the fax had been sent and would they please verify its reciept. Of course the rep did not reply by e-mail or phone. So Stephen called and called and called again. Finally he had enough the rep insisted that the fax was never sent or recieved.

Now if I get pissed and use some foul language chock it up to my temper, but when Stephen says F*@# its on! He holds his temper and generaly is calm but today they just went to far. So Stephen finally unleashes the stress of the whole ordeal on this rep who magically found the fax and admitted that they have had the fax all day and no one bothered to log it! I see a pattern here!!!

At this point we are now waiting for Nikon' service center to look at the reciept and decied if they want to accept it or not, and then to let us know what the repair cost.

The entire ordeal there have been only 2 Nikon employees who actually tried to help us sort it out. Damingo started out helpful, he called the postal service and scheduled the redelivery and called us back with a confirmation number. How ever when the redelivery time came and went and Nikon claimed they didn't have the camera Damingo stopped taking our calls and started only responding by the Nikon web page. And when Stephen finally spoke to Damingo again, Damingo refered Stephen to the head office and pretty much washed his hands of the whole issue. At the head office there was Joy, and according to Stephen she was the nicest friendliest rep ever. Joy was shocked to realize that the fax number that would recieve a fax from outside the US was to a fax in their New York office when the issue is being handled in the California office. Joy said there is a fax in California that could recieve a fax from outside the US and she don't really know why we where not given that number?.

Needless to say Stephen and I are starting to think the next camera and equiptment we need to purchase may just come from Canon instead of Nikon!

So I had drills today. My unit was deployed around the time I found out that I was pregnant with Katie. So pretty much the last year of drills consisted of the old, the lame the lazy and of course us pregos. Normally our unit is only about 60 people. But even 60 seemed like a lot today. I guess I had gotten used to the 10 or so people that where left behind.

I was running late, because I had no idea that the road I take once a month to get to drills is under construction. I had to take a long crappy detour. So any way today was the first drill where every one who had been deployed had to turn up for drill. I was shocked when I pulled in to see a darn formation! I guess I got used to lazy gaggles.

When a guard unit is deployed and there are people who can not go and job positions that have no one in them, the state pulls random soldiers to fill those spots. This deployment was even odder, the state took several units and put them together to form a full battalion of soldiers with a diverse range of jobs. Then the battalion was trained to work as Military Police for the duration of the deployment.

Now this deployment was hard for me in a lot of ways. I didn't want to stay behind. There is this thing with most soldiers, your unit or platoon (depending on the size of the unit your in) is like a family. For me it was like watching my second family go off to war and me staying behind. Along with that feeling of abandoning your family there is the fact that even though deployment is hard work, dangerous and scary and all that bit. There is also a since of excitement and adventure in being deployed. Knowing that something can and will happen but not having a clue what.

For those soldiers that are telling their families that they are 100% against deployment and they would do anything to get out of it. Either they don't like the military and really would be better off out of it or they are telling their families what they think they want to hear. Don't take that the wrong way, its heart breaking to leave your loved ones behind for a year or more and you miss them and think of them daily and wish you where home with them but there is an undeniable excitement to it as well.

So needless to say it was hard on me to not go with my unit this time around. I had just gotten married and almost instantly became pregnant. There where a lot of changes going on in my life that where a struggle. (the struggles of new marriages and mixed families is another blog for another day). At the end of the day I believe for me and my family and the place we where in at the moment, it was best that I couldn't go.

Any way back to drills. There where a lot of people there that I have never met before. Some will choose to transfer into the unit and stay with us, some will return to the unit they where in before deployment and some will be finishing up their enlistments and leaving the guard all together. The whole thing felt so strange to me. Here where all these people who had deployed with my unit and I don't know any of them.

One of the guys recently became a US citizen and I think he was the one who got me all ruffled up on the real topic of today's blog. This new citizen wanted to talk politics. Now I know that in order to become a citizen the guy had to take a really hard exam and he of course had to know a lot of information about our government and all that. However the conversation eventually got to Welfare. This issue is one that makes my blood boil!

This guy believes that because the intent of the system is to support the very old and children then there is no putting down the system. Maybe that is true, however that is not how it really works. During our discussion my friend Misty ask him if he personally knows one person on Welfare. Of course he don't so he has no first hand knowledge of how things really happen.

I know people that do not work, have never worked and have no intention of working that live off the system. I also know some people who work their asses off and when they hit a bump in the road of life they can't get any help at all.

As I am extremely tired from a long day and a week from hell I think I will have to rant later.

Stephen took this picture of my son Steven and his wife Carissa last summer.

This has been the craziest week ever! It started on Monday when Katie had to be picked up early from daycare because she was very sick. 103 fever, and fluids flowing from all directions, I picked her up along with 2 shopping bags of clothes that she had dirtied up in a couple hours. I ended up being off work all this week. I really don't have the vacation time so I am having to apply for FMLA....aaarrrggg I hate FMLA its complicated and a real pain.

I have spent he whole week trying to comfort a baby who's primary reaction was to throw up on me or worse! When I wasn't walking the floor with her, I was washing and re-washing the blankets from her bed and the covers on her walker and swing. I kept thinking that if I cleaned every thing it would help kill all the germs and maybe stop the spread of the virus that Katie had. I guess it helped some because I didn't get sick.

Katie is not a cuddlier, she always sleeps alone and really cant fall asleep if there is any one near her. This whole week she has slept in our bed for most of the night and cuddled. There have been times that I watch her sleeping and wish she would cuddle with me, I never meant for it to be wet stinky cuddles lol.

Stephen mailed off his camera last week to Nikon to have a minor repair done. It is always hard to part with his camera, there is always this fear that the camera will get lost or damaged. Well Stephen's worst fears happened. The post office in California has said that they did receive the package, they did attempt to deliver it (at 4:59 AM!!) and the package was brought back to the post office and locked in a cage. From that point on its a huge mystery as to what happened. The post office manager is in a panic, they have lost a package that is insured for over $4000.oo. No manager wants to have to deal with costing the company that amount of money.

The customer service department has been terrible. We have had to demand managers in order to even get them to try and find the package. To make matters worse we are required to wait 21 days before filing a claim. Stephen has a wedding to photograph in one week! So at this point he is trying his lenses on my camera and hoping that he can take wedding worthy photos with it. Once your used to a piece of equipment its uncomfortable to change to new one, especially when you have little time to check it out and see what all it can do.

Yesterday I was on the phone with the post office when I got several text from Carissa. I was thinking geeeshhhh I am on the phone I will read them and text back when I am done! Then I felt bad for thinking it. Steven was at the emergency room! Carrissa took him in at about 11:30 am. He had woken up about 2am with terrible stomach pains. He thought food poisoning or the virus that is going around. But by 11 am he realized he better go to the doctor because he couldn't handle the pain. Apparently one of the nurses said it was a pulled muscle. Lucky for Steven his wife insisted that they do test. She kept telling them that he had not lifted anything and she didn't believe he had a pulled muscle. Turned out his appendix was severely enlarged.

What made the whole thing even worse was that they arrived at the ER at 11:30 am and the doctor didn't do a cat scan until 4pm! They had given him something for pain shortly after he arrived there, but the medication was not touching his pain. Finally they moved him to a room to wait for surgery and promised he could have more pain medication. I arrived at the hospital at almost 5pm and he still had not received any more pain medication. He was starting to get a fever and he looked like he was hurting. The nurse kept saying that she had to speak to the Dr to get him to order more medication. Carissa kept saying that the doctor ordered it before moving him from the ER. Turns out the Dr had ordered morphine but the nurse didn't check to see if he had. The nurse finally came in and said she would give him morphine and then he would need to change out of his clothes into a hospital gown. All I could think was that Steven is a big boy if they give him morphine there is no way his pregnant wife is gonna be able to lift him to change his clothes and I know I can't lift him. So I pointed this out to the nurse and suggested that he change first. The nurse looked at him and I guess she didn't want to have to lift a drugged up big boy and gave him his gown before he got the morphine.

Stephen (my husband not my son) was near the hospital when I found out so he met us there. He was so tired from Katie keeping us up all night that he opted to take Katie home and get to bed early. He wasn't home half an hour before he was texting me saying that he was throwing up just like Katie. I came home later that night to find him sick and exhausted.

At 9:30 pm they finally prepped him for surgery and took him back. The doctor said that he would be in recovery in about 30 minutes. Well over an hour later we where all getting worried when the doctor came in the waiting room. Apparently because Steven is bigger, and the fact that his appendix was quite enlarged, and something about his intestines being in the way the surgery took longer. Thankfully he was fine and recovering.

It was in some ways funny to see him getting prepped for surgery. Stephen has never had surgery before and was a bit nervous. He was making jokes and had the staff laughing before they started all the prepping. Then his eyes almost popped out of his head when they told him that the anesthesia would make him sleep so deeply that he would stop breathing so they would be putting a breathing tube down his throat. He actually tried to talk them into doing the surgery with out the tube, the idea of a tube down his throat was not settling with him.

Thankfully Katie is better, Steven is already home from the hospital and I am heading back to work tomorrow. I hope next week is a bit less dramatic and maybe Stephen and I can get some sleep at night with out Katie rolling around in our bed!

Ok so my blog is called "what life is all about" so that means my life in general. Needless to say I wont always write about my adventures into photograhy. Today I want to venture into other parts of my life and well vent!

Stephen has an amazing camera, he has had it for a while and never had any problems with it. Its a Nikon D2X. We have been very lucky to be able to have such a nice camera and no problems. Once before Stephen was cleaning the inside of the camera and broke part of it, that was really his fault. He mailed it off to Nikon and they fixed on the warranty, simple, easy and no hassle.

All of the sudden, the very day that we brought home my camera, Stephen's camera started having a problem. Every time he put the flash on top the camera cuts out or says that the battery is dead. Stephen did some research and found that there is an issue with the boot that holds the flash. So we called up Nikon and mailed the camera back to them for repair.

We realized that the warrenty may be out but we need the camera! So we filled out a form, went to the post office and paid extra for insurance and a delivery confermation.

We recieved the attempted delivery confermation however USPS tried to deliver the camera at 4:59 AM and of course no one was there to accept the delivery. A notice was left with a lable number. We contacted USPS and was informed that the package would not be automaticly redelivered. Nikon needs to contact USPS and schedule a redelivery time. We can not schedule the delivery because the package is not being sent to us. The reciever has to schedule the delivery.

So Friday we called Nikon and explained the situation. The rep tried to tell Stephen several times that if they did not accept reciept of the package then we must have mailed it COD where they had to pay for the delivery cost. It took Stephen 5 tries to explain to the woman that he had a reciept where he paid for it. The rep assured us that first thing Monday some one would go to the post and pick up the camera. As well once the camera is picked up and brouht back to the repair center some one would call us verify that the camera was safely delivered.

I called Nikon today to say that I had not recieved notification as promised. The man put me on hold, then came back and said he was still trying to find out something and put me back on hold. After 5 more minutes of hold he disconnected me. I spent the next 30 min trying to re-call the service center. The problem was that they automated system suddenly wouldn't let me use the option to speak to a rep.

Once Stephen arrived home he started trying again to reach some one. Finally he got a rep on the phone who told him that basically they couldn't pick up the phone, call a toll free number and schedule the delivery. The woman went around and around the whole issue and kept saying that they simply could not sort it out for two days. Stephen is saying to them repeatedly that if some one does not call to reschedule the delivery TODAY, then tommorow the camera will be returned to us. Stephen called 5 times, I called 2 times and every time we ask to speak to a supervisor the standard answer was "we don't have a supervisor" . However after insisting to speak to a supervisor we where placed on hold again, the told that they where transfering us. Every time they would hang up instead of transfering us.

Finally on call number 7 or 8 Stephen spoke to a supervisor who said he will call USPS right now. The supervisor (Domingo) called USPS and scheduled the delivery, called Stephen back with a Nikon reference number and a USPS reference number. Now why did that take what 8 phone calles and 7 rude customer service reps!

Now I currently work for an insurance company under a Medicare contract. My current job is working appeals, so I deal with written correspondance. However I have not been in that position for every. I spent 3 years at Cigna where I took customer service calls all day, then I went to my current job where the first few years I was again taking customer service calls all day. I will never believe that a customer service center does not have a manager/supervisor available. Yes they may be on a call and I may need to be on hold but to say that they dont have a supervisor is well BS!

Not to mention that Stephen owns thousands of dollars worth of Nikon products. Any time that you spent 2 thousand dollars in 15 minutes on Nikon products to exspand your current inventory I feel like you deserve good customer service! Now the 2 thousand was just recently, Stephen had to make 2 trips from the UK to the US to bring all his camera gear over, and he still has stuff that he hasn't brought over yet. Not to mention all the stuff he sold off before coming here. And add to the fact that when people we know ask him for a recomendation he always recomens Nikon products.

Customer Service is the #1 most important part of any company. I don't care if the customer only spends a dollar or if they spend millions, customer service is key to the success of any buisness. If you are selling a reliable, usable, indemand product but you have crap customer service I wont use your products. I have no idea how any company survives with poor customer service!

Now on to another subject. The last two days I took lots of photos of the girls. Mostly Shelby because she is so willing to pose for me. But I also took some of Sara and Katie. Katie was happy and playful and kept running off. This morning Katie got up happy and had her morning bath. She plaid, giggled and carried on like every thing was fine.

Stephen dropped her off at 7 AM and she was fine. The daycare fed her breakfast. Apparently she ate a really good breakfast and left nothing to be wasted. Then a few minutes later she was throwing up every where. By 11 AM I was clocking out and heading to daycare to get her. She had 103 fever and was really out of it. By the time I got there she had been changed 3 times because she either threw up or pooped all over her self. They had gotten permision from Stephen to give her something for her fever but she still had 101 temp.

I gave her some red gatoraide when we left the daycare. By the time I got to the doctor's office she had thrown up on her clothes. I wiped her off with a baby wipe, and as I am taking her out of the van she threw up again.

I changed her diaper and her bottom was fine. I checked her in the waiting area at the doctor's office. She was fine. I noticed when I sat her on the doctor's scales she had another dirty diaper, and dang it I left the bag in the car. By the time that the intern checked her, went and got the doctor and they checked her (really it was only a few minutes) The doctor decieded that she wanted Katie's dirty diaper so they could do test on it..eeeeewwww. She gave me a diaper and when I went to clean Katie up omg her bottem was almost bleeding!

Now picture this I went from work to daycare to the doctor's office. All I had with me was the emergency diapers and a baby blanket that we keep in the van. No clean clothes for her or anything. So I walk in with a baby wrapped up in her blanket, she has no shoes or jacket on because she had thrown up on them at the day care. She had red, wet stuff all down her. Embarassing enough to have your baby looking like she dont get clean clothes. I mean every time I tried to clean the red yuck off her it just smeared all over her more. Then I get back there and realize that because she was throwing up as I took her out of the car I didn't think to grab an extra diaper! geeeessshhh now I really look like I dont take care of her. So lets make it even worse when I went to change her to give them the dirty diaper, there was poop all over the inside of her already dirty clothes. So when I leave the room I have katie in a diaper and socks. I get to the desk to pay and had to set her down. Katie is 10 months old and has been walking for a month now. When I sat her down in her blanket to write the check she gets up and walks off into the waiting area in just her diaper. Now mind you its cold outside. I bet people thought omg this poor baby! Katie with her raw bottom, cramping tummy, aches and fever is looking at every one laughing, smiling and giggling. She wasn't acting sick so most people would think she is there for a check up. I didn't know what to say so I grabbed her up with her blanket and rushed her out the door and into the van where she was asleep before I ever got out of the parking lot.

what a day! Katie is sleeping and Stephen's camera will be delivered at 7 am so I guess all in all I can go have a nap now!

Took a few more picst today, we left the photo stuff set up in the living room tonight because tommorow is Stephen's turn to be on the other side of the camera! He tends to stay on the back side where he never gets his photo taken. Yesterday when I took a couple just to see where everything was I had to say Boobies just to get him to smile, tommorow he gets to see what I have been putting poor Shelby through.

Shelby (age 10) made me laugh today when I took a few pictures of Sara (age 15). Shelby was up by the camera telling Sara how off her modeling was and this is how you should be doing it. We both just looked at her like I have been making her be my muse way to much.

I have had this account for a while and just never used it. I originally set it up with my husband's and my name on it so that we could write blogs here when Yahoo 360 started falling apart. Stephen set up his own account and never used the joint one. He pretty much moved on months ago and I lingered on 360 so long that I have no idea what is in his blogs these days. Struck me as very strange the other day when I realized that for the first 2 years of our relationship (maybe longer than that) we communicated 90% by blogs and now I haven't read a blog of his since he left 360 many months ago.

So today when I was struggling to look at stuff on 360 I finally gave up and decided to move on and adjust this page to be mine.

My profile is fairly blank because when I got to looking at my old blog place I realized that some of the stuff on my profile had been there for years and honestly didn't apply to my life today. However when I went to fill in this profile today my mind went completely blank and I couldn't think of a single thing to put about myself. I am not sure why this is, it could be that every blog or web page I have ever had has revolved around my children, my husband and our life together. They all pretty much have made their own places on the net and I can't think of anything else to put on there. Maybe I will get inspired some other day and figure out what to put on my profile.

I guess I should put a little information about me in my first blog....Hmmm lets see....

Between my husband and myself we have 7 children.. a lot I know and honestly complicated.. we where both married before, he had two boys from his first marriage . My first time around I married into two step children that lived full time with us for 13 years, I also had two children from that marriage. Then there is the baby, Stephen and I have a 11 month old baby together. I wasn't expecting her, was shocked, surprised and blown away but 11 months into it I can't imagine life with out her.

Along with being a wife and mother I also have 14 years in the military, some active duty Army and a lot of National Guard. I hope to finish out my 20 years before I get out; however I am not sure if that will happen. Time will tell. For a full time job I work for an insurance company under a Medicare contract. Some days I love my job and some days I wish I could walk out and never look back. I think the problem with my job is that I get restless and board some times.

That's not all though. My husband does a lot of freelance photography. Up until this point I have tagged along to carry lenses and meet new people, did a little editing for him and basically had fun. Recently though we purchased a camera for me to start learning on. The goal is that one day we will open a studio. Years ago I went to cosmetology school, my hair doing days didn't last long, I opted to work for Uncle Sam instead. But thanks to Stephen's encouragement I resently got my licence reinstated. When we open a studio I will be able to do hair and makeup when needed. I do this now when the photos are of family and friends, but we want to offer it as a service in the studio. Not that we exspect every client to need the service, it will just be an option for those who want it. I now realize that editing photos can be time consuming and could take up a good amount of time but I also want to be able to pick up a camera and help when needed. Today I took my first photos. They are no where near the quality of work that Stephen does but for day 1 I am pleased. I am also very well aware that I have a lot of learning to do! The photos at the top are a few of what I took today. Thanks Stephen for setting up all the gear and Thanks Shelby for playing model for me!