We are currently in our hotel in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. We flew in last night, and spent the night in a hotel. Hotels are expensive out here. I think our hotel is in clucker-ville (but the hotel itself isn't so bad). We got in at about 10 pm last night. And we were starving, because we were unable to grab some dinner. So we walked around at almost 11pm (Joel had his knife ready so he could shank someone) and finally found a place open...Little Caesar's Pizza. You know what? weird people come out at night. And they were hanging around Little Caesar's. We decided to take our pizza back to our room and eat it. lol. In a couple of hours we're leaving to board our ship. By the way, I always forget how hot and humid it is in Florida....no matter the time of day. It's a weird change from home.
Think of us tomorrow (as we're parasailing in St. Thomas ;)

AHHHH!!!

Let me just tell you guys that I AM SO EXCITED right now!!! I've decided that I want to start selling my pictures online as stock photos. Stock photos are royalty-free pictures that people buy from a stock photo dealer to use for various purposes...websites, articles, books, banners, logos, etc. Artists can submit their pictures to the stock dealer and they get a portion of the sales each time their picture gets purchased. I've been in the midst of the application process since the beginning of September. Among several other things, you have to submit three of your own photos to get approved. The problem was that I couldn't get all of my photos accepted. There was always a problem with one of them...out of focus, no focal point, purple fringing, lack of diversity, etc. So I keep taking pictures and learning how to work PhotoShop. BUT today, I finally got all of my pictures accepted, and now they have accepted me as an artist!!!! YAY! I'm SO ELATED!

I took this photo last week. It made me laugh.

I've had a long day. Not necessarily a bad one, but a long one.

I had a trip to the airport today.

I brought my camera with me (as usual, because you never know when you're going to come across a great photo opportunity) and managed to lose my lens cap. (losing a lens cap to your SLR is a bad thing) I was seriously baffled by this whole event, because when I carry my camera with me, I'm very meticulous and conscientious about my camera and it's condition. I couldn't figure out how I lost it. I assumed I lost it at the airport. So on my way home, I stopped at a camera store and bought a new one. Later when I got home, I opened the trunk to bring a couple of items inside, moved around the random junk inside of our trunk, and what do you know...I found my lens cap. How did it get there? I'm a little confused. But now I have two lens caps. Oh well.

Today must have been National Nose Picking Day. I seriously saw several people picking their nose while driving their cars. It was hysterical. Seriously. They were sitting in their car, moving their finger around in their nose, assuming that nobody was watching them...little did they know that I had a clear view of them from my rear view mirror. It was even funnier when they nonchalantly flicked the booger off their finger. LOL. I wanted to shout out my window, "Yup, I saw that buddy!" But my driver's side window doesn't roll down anymore. (remember last winter when the window fell down into the door while Joel was driving home in 20 degree weather? that was pretty funny...but only because it didn't happen to me. ha ha ha)

I also got to meet a good friend for coffee and a good chat at Starbucks today. It's nice to have good, uplifting friends. She managed to brighten my day.


I'm tired. Peace.

At the moment...

I HATE my dog. I'm so furious with him. I cannot even describe the anger I feel right now. The dog is wearing a freakin' MUZZLE to keep him from picking at his foot, and yet he STILL has managed to find a way to pick at his paw. I've spent so many hours (literally) caring for that dog's stupid paw - bandaging it, cleaning it, etc only for him to pull everything off, and undo all the hours of work I spent on him. At this point, if a MUZZLE won't keep him from it, nothing will. I GIVE UP!! I'm not joking. At this rate, the dog's wound is NEVER going to heal...and we may even lose our dog. I'm SOOOOOOO tired of this struggle. I'm not doing it anymore.

Cattle Branding.

I mentioned earlier that I was able to take a cattle branding, and take some photos. When they brand their cattle, they vaccinate the cows (so they won't get sick), trim their horns (so they grow better), and brand them. Here's some of my pictures. I set the camera to underexpose the photos because it was so bright, and haven't edited them yet...and I forgot to rotate them again. sorry. turn your head to the left..


Sorry. I forgot to rotate that pictures again. The father is watching as his son fills a syringe with a vaccination.





One of the sons gives the cow (actually the bull) a shot. (turn your head sideways)



Branding the cow. Notice the smoke coming from the fresh brand.



The rancher clips the horns of the bull.



father and son work together to stop the bleeding from the freshly cut horns with a hot poker thing (i don't know what it's called.)


the youngest son practices his branding skills on the side of the cattle shoot.

Today.

Today I was at a coffee shop. There was a woman behind the counter wearing a spaghetti strap tank top...no big deal, right? No. She raised her arms, and I realized that her armpits have not seen a razor in at least six months. Why the heck to people do that??? Nasty. That should be against the law. It's so gross. I was thoroughly disgusted...I kind of wanted to give my coffee back and ask for a refund. But I didn't. Gross. In this coffee shop I also saw a lady in her 50's wearing black rolled up sweat pants, pink patterned socks, and black shoes. It amused me. Then I saw a girl walk in wearing a short T-shirt, big Jnco skater pants that fell about two inches below her exposed pink polka dot underwear. It was weird. Strange people frequent coffee shops...at least this particular one.

So recently I accidentally let our car insurance run out...I forgot to pay. lol. oops! So we used the opportunity to switch to a carrier with a lower rate. We haven't even got the insurance cards to put in your cars yet. Then later on my way home, I had to go through a police check point! And of course I didn't have my insurance papers! DANG IT!!! Here's how the conversation went with the cop I talked to.
Cop: Hello. (I take off my sunglasses)
Me: Hi. I would roll down my window, but it doesn't roll down anymore.
Cop: Just kick it a couple times!
Me: No! The last time we rolled down the window, we had to open the inside of the door to put the window back!
Cop: Ok. (smiles) I need to see your license and insurance papers.
Me: (I hand him my license) I don't have my insurance papers! We just changed from Safeco to Progressive and our cards haven't come in yet.
Cop: Do you have your receipt?
Me: At home...are you going to give me a ticket? (He nods)... Even though I have insurance but I don't have my papers?
Cop: I have to. (This made me sad. I was hoping the ticket wouldn't cost too much since we're trying to save our money for our cruise at the end of the month) Do you have your registration papers? (I hand him some papers)
Me: Is this it? (my registration papers)
Cop: Yes that's it. They didn't send you a fax or anything with your insurance? (I frown and shake my head) Are you coming back this way again?
Me: Not today.
Cop: Well, I'm going to let you off today with a warning. Have a nice day.
Me: THANK YOU!

OMG! I couldn't believe it. He actually let me off the hook! I didn't get a ticket. I couldn't believe how lucky I was! I was so elated to NOT recieve the ticket I thought I was doomed to recieve. Yay.

It's official...

my dog hates me. after four failed attempts to keep the dog's wound closed (stitched once, and glued three additional times), we have given up. brody is wearing a muzzle. and he's miserable. he hates me. i'm sure of it. i feel bad. i can't watch him wear it. but i'm so tired of fighting with the dog to keep him from picking at his wound. it's never going to heal, plus, we're leaving two weeks from today on our cruise...i need the dog's paw to heal by then, so our neighbor can watch brody without too much trouble. i'm sad, and i'm really trying not to stress about it too much. you guys, pray for Brody's paw to heal within two weeks, ok? please!!!

the above picture is one of several attempts to keep brody from getting to his paw...lampshade, collar extension thingy (to keep him from sliding his lampshade down his neck and reaching his paw), and sock-covered foot with duct tape.

the above picture is the final straw. the muzzle. he looks miserable. i know. i can hardly stand it.

this is one of my very first attemps to capture light streaks. i was very excited to be able to figure this out. (i've been wanting to do a picture like this for years, i just never knew how...until recently). the only problem is that we don't have much traffic in town...so it makes it hard to capture them. lol.

if i have time later today, i will put up some of my cattle branding pictures that i took yesterday.

Today I went to a cattle branding. I got some cool pictures. I will upload them soon.

In other news, Brody still has a gaping wound in his foot. That's right, the surgery from his paw has still not healed yet because my dog is bound and determined on self mutilation. Tomorrow I am getting a muzzle. Seriously. I've had enough. We've tried everything. I'm not lying. Did you know he even likes the taste of Tabasco sauce? We learned that tonight. I am ready to choke my dog.

I just wanted to say...

a couple of things.

1. Brody is doing a little better. His paw is starting to heal again. And I think we've finally found a way to keep the dog from chewing on his paw. On Friday the vet took out the stitches and glued his wound shut. Then made some adjustments to his lampshade thingy to make it more difficult to reach his paw. He also gave the dog a shot to make his paw numb for a couple of days to give it more time to heal. This has helped, but not completely. The dog is still determined to chew at his wound. So last night we wrapped a coat hanger around his paw. This has worked so far. But we'll see...if he still gets through all the stuff we've wrapped around his paw, the next step is a muzzle. He's going to hate that, but our collection of old socks and duct tape is starting to dwindle. Plus the last trip to the vet costed $100 bucks, just to fix problems the dog created with his compulsive issues concerning his paw.

2. I have been working on photography a LOT lately. I will share some of my pictures soon. I found this website called Digital-SLR-Guide, which has really helped me to understand how to work my camera and its settings manually. You can even download photography lessons for only $15 (which is far cheaper than taking a class). I still have lots to learn.

3. There are only 19 more days until Joel and I take our 2nd cruise!! I've been making a mental packing list, and have a physical list of things to get done before we leave for our cruise, which include:

• booking a hotel room in Florida for the night before our cruise (our flight comes in the day before)
• purchasing an extra mask and snorkel (as opposed to renting on the beach) to use at some of our ports of call (like St. Thomas)
• purchasing a waterproof disposable camera to take when we go snorkeling and snuba (not scuba) diving.
• getting Joel's suit dry cleaned for the formal dinner night.
  

Seriously. I can't wait. I'm in desperate need of a vacation!!!

I have faulty thinking...

I do. I've been realizing this over the past couple of months. It's very difficult to change. Over the past several years, there was an individual (not a family member) that I held in very high regards. I deeply respected and trusted this individual. Their words of advice and correction I always took to heart. But then something changed in their attitude towards me. I'm not quite sure why. Suddenly, this person was calling me in for lectures. I was getting overly harsh criticisms. They were constantly reminding me of my past mistakes. They were condemning. They began to get unnecessarily blamed for situations out of my control. They began to overstep their boundaries to make an attempt to interfere with my marriage, and that's when Joel and I drew the line. The thing is, that I held such a high regard for this person for so long, that when everything started turning negative, I continued to take the things they said to heart, even though I felt deeply wounded. But it seemed like the more I tried to be better for this person, the more I failed, which resulted in more condemning lectures. They always had reasons to justify tearing me down. Always. They refused to try to understand things from my side. They made excuses when their false accusations were disproved by Joel and I. But no matter what, they always had a reason to show me why I was wrong. And after several years of this, I have to admit, their eagerness to point out my faults has really messed with my head. The idea that I am a very bad person has been fixed into my head for some time now. I feel like when something bad happens to me, that I deserve it. When someone is nice to me, I wonder why. It's hard for me to understand why they're being so nice, especially since I'm such an awful person. I'm in a constant state of paranoia when it comes to dealing with this person. I always have feelings of fear and panic when this person comes, hoping that I'm not in "trouble" for something else.

Over the last couple of months, I've come to realize my faulty way of thinking. I catch myself thinking about how terrible I am. I catch myself thinking that I deserve to have a series of bad things happen to me. I know this isn't true. I know that I am accepted in Christ, and that he truly has made me worthy, but it's so hard to change the way you've been thinking, especially after a several years of taking overly harsh criticisms to heart. I'm currently struggling with this issue. It's taken me so long to realize this person was wrong. I have several years worth of deep wounds to overcome. But I have learned to believe very little that comes out of this person's mouth, no matter what.