The Art of Photo Scavenger Hunting

So as you may know, I am involved in a monthly photo scavenger hunt group.  It really is great fun and keeps me shooting, even in the busiest of times.  I'm trying really hard to keep my scavenger hunt photos interesting and not just a blah photo of some inanimate object, but sometimes it's difficult!  So for this round and any upcoming I've decided that if I can't get a good, artistic, pleasing photo, I will just bypass that photo opportunity, even if it means not getting my hunt item.  For some items this is very difficult to do, but I'm trying my best.  For example, three things today that I got were 1) Colored erasers; 2) A patch or badge; 3) Something depicting a hobby.  So I searched about the house (since I'm still mostly home-bound) and came up with the following:







My favorite of this set is the erasers - the colors pop and turned out quite nicely.  Not sure about the other two, but I'm working towards a goal here and that takes time!  Stay tuned for more scavenger hunt goodness...

Happy Buggy Monday

Since the cold weather is quickly approaching, the opportunities for bug and insect photos is rapidly dwindling away.  Here are a few macro shots I got over the weekend.  Happy Monday!

Clairvoyant Findings

Last night I attended a "psychic party".  Now, I'm not saying that I believe in all this, but there is
always that little thing in the back of the mind saying "What if...".  So I went, and it was fun sitting around and talking about what the readings of each participant revealed.

It wasn't like in the movies where you go in a dark room, only lit by candles with a gypsy looking lady sitting behind a cloth and candle covered table.  It was simply a spare room in the house away from the other noise, lights on, with an ordinary looking middle aged woman sitting at a card table with her bottle of water wearing silver bangles, jeans and knit shirt, and flip-flops.

The clairvoyant used tarot cards for her readings and she had obviously been doing this for a while based on the wear and tear of the cards.  I first walked in the room, shook her hand, exchanged normal pleasantries when meeting someone new "Hello, how are you...good", then I sat down, she asked my first name, and we were off!  Below are some of the things that she "saw" during my reading.  There is more, but I will not share all to protect the innocent.  ;)

• The first thing she asked me was "could you be pregnant?"  I about laughed out loud and snorted through my nose at that one, seeing as I just had a hysterectomy three weeks ago. When I said no all she said was "I see something in the belly area" and left it at that.


• Next she saw "romance change or a redefinition of love".  And she explained that this doesn't necessarily mean my spouse, but could be any close loved one.  I know where that could possibly stem from...and won't discuss it here.


• She saw me as growing to be an old woman in good health. She sees me as a healer.


• She doesn't see me physically moving anytime real soon, but possibly around 5 years from now there will be a move. Hopefully this will be our 50 acre farm purchase.  She mentioned something about Yellow Wood Forrest, which is in Brown County, Indiana.


• She saw a lot of stacks of books around me, which indicates that I read a lot, research a lot, or attend a lot of conferences.  All of the above are true.


• She asked out of the blue if I sleep poorly.  You can see my Sleep Writing post for the answer to that one!  She said I'm a "dimension jumper" when I sleep and suggested I video tape myself sleeping (which I have considered doing) when I answered yes to her question of "When you wake do you often find things misplaced or moved".  Heh, yeah...I do that.


• I asked about mine and Jason's relationship, of course.  She sees us together until death do us part.  Awwww.


• She sees me at a rustic cabin in the near future.  We have a January trip planned to Lake Cumberland in January with friends to stay in a cabin on the lake.


• And the final kicker...she sees a dog with a red ribbon coming into my life.  Most likely a stray and one we will most likely keep.  

So, that was the bulk of it.  The only thing that really got me was the last one since I never mentioned anything about my dogs or love for animals at all.  And the cabin one got me as well since we just put down the deposit for the cabin a few weeks ago.

Again, this was all done in fun.  But it will be interesting to revisit this post and see what happens!

Autumn Has Arrived in Kentucky

Ahhh!  The colors, the crispness in the air!  I'm sorta homebound right now, but wanted to get at least one fall shot this year before all the leaves blow away.  So I stepped out on my front porch and snagged a shot of our little Maple that lives in the front yard.  Hoping to get a shot or two with some blue skies, but this may have to do!

The Art of Racing in the Rain

I don't often write of book reviews, but this one truly captured my heart!  "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein is utterly amazing!  Particularly if you are a dog lover, as I am.  It's a story from a very intelligent dog's point of view who's goal is to be reincarnated as a human.  It deals with love and loss, family trials and tribulations, and most importantly...love and acceptance.  It makes you think twice about your life, about what you have and what could be, as well as the faithfulness of our wonderful canine companions.  I urge you to read this book!  And if you have or if you do, please comment and share your theories.  I don't want to say much more for fear of ruining the book....but I highly, highly recommend it!  This one will definitely be on my re-read list.

Life on the Couch...and Another Photo Flashback

It's been 3 days since my surgery and 2 days since I've gotten home from the hospital.  All went well and I'm happy to say they found the problem during the surgery, which verified that the procedure was necessary to fix the issues I was having.  So now I'm off work for six weeks to fully recover and get my energy back.  Today is the first day I've really been awake all day (apart from one small nap).  I stopped the percocet pills this morning and moved to ibuprofen and it seems to be doing ok.  Percocets will be saved for night time for the next few nights and will then wean off of those.

The last couple of days the couch and I have become best buds and the dogs have argued over who gets to lay next to me.  It's a tie between Lois Lane & Blue currently.  I've watched "Sweet Home Alabama", "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" and "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants".  I've been online here and there, though not too clear headed to stay on for long until today. I have attempted to read, but still not clear headed enough to keep up yet.  (If this post rambles, you know why).

Family  & friends have been wonderful and I must send thanks out to all of them for the online well wishes, phone calls and visits.  Mom was at the hospital with Jason during the procedure and provided me with a cute nightgown and fuzzy socks, along with a ride home so I didn't have to climb up in the big truck.  She is bringing dinner one night this week - presumably homemade pot pie - yummy!  Grandma Parson came to visit me at the hospital also and brought me another cutie nightgown.  My dear mother-in-law, Emily, brought over some yummy food (check out her Marvelous Recipes) and some beautiful flowers and her and Ralph sat to visit for a while yesterday.  And today my  good friends Christina & Charlie brought me a goodie basket full of stuff, including a crossword puzzle book, which took up an hour or so of my time today.  And of course Jason has been awesome.  He dotes on me hand and foot, bought me a Snuggie blanket, has made several trips to the store for me and is just downright awesome.  I do have the best husband in the world, don't even try to argue that!  ;)

And since I have no interesting photos for the week, I'll provide another Photo Flashback from this time last year, when we were camping (as we usually are in October).

A snake we came across when hiking:

The gravel road leading to the campsite:

A horse at a Halloween bonfire we attended for Jason's previous employer:

Sleep Writing

I admit it, I'm a sleep walker (and talker for that matter).  I'd like to say I don't do it very often, but I really don't know.  Sometimes I wake up and sometimes Jason puts me back to bed and tells me about it the next morning, but there have been times when I would have never known I was up and about if it wasn't for the evidence I find the next morning.  For example, I once took an oil lamp from the dresser, set it on the floor and disassembled the entire thing and left it in 5 pieces for myself to find the next morning.  I have no recollection of being up, of having any dreams involving dismembering anything and Jason slept through that one.

Then there are times when I do something that causes me to wake up, like when I opened the back door and the cold, January wind woke me.  (I was dreaming I left my camera out in the backyard and had to get it before it rained).  When that happens I just simply sigh and take myself back to bed.  Except for the time that I dreamed someone was chasing me and that I was climbing a fence to get away from them...that one was a doozy.  Instead of climbing the imaginary fence, I was actually climbing the bookshelf that is in my bedroom.  I wasn't woken up until the entire shelf, along with about 130 books, toppled on top of me, waking me up.  That one freaked me out!

So my sleepwalking has been fairly calm over the last couple of months, or so I thought.  This morning I woke up, no recollection of dreams, waking up in the night or anything.  Yet printed on my left hand in blue ink in my writing was 5 numbers.  It looks like the number 51303 (apparently I don't write very neatly when I sleep).  I've been wracking my brain all morning trying to think of what these numbers might mean...no luck yet.  I never thought to blog before about my sleeping adventures - I'll have to start keeping track.  Maybe I'll find a pattern!

The evidence: