A Few From The Zoo

We took the kids to the zoo today. I wanted to post a couple of quick pictures from the trip. My colors are a little off...I am still working on learning how to balance things. I may have very colorful pictures for a while...LOL...at least until I figure out what I'm doing.

This first shot is one I'll always remember. This was DoriGrace's first real trip to the zoo...I think she's been asleep the other times we've gone. Anyway, she spend the ENTIRE day waving at EVERY animal she saw and say, "Hi...Hi....Hi!" It was precious!



I also love these shots of our little daredevil. She is fearless and loves the slide. I love the Pippy-esque ponytails.





Finally, an experience in sepia. Our big boy spent the entire day with our point and shoot in his hand. He is about as interested in photography as I am and loves scrapbooking his images in Elements. This is my favorite shot of WB today.



Have a great week!

p.s. Even if the color is off, at least I have now mastered sharpening and saving for the web, and increasing the size! Yea! No more tiny pictures!!!

Internet Surprise!!!

Like I said, I spend a little time on the internet...finding fun, interesting stuff, reading stories, studying photography, considering recipes, being totally addicted to facebook, and (on rare occasion) entering a contest. (Now, you must be sensing that my contest entering is on the increase since I was just talking about that the other day...anyway, back to my story...)

While surfing the other night, I stumbled upon a cute little blog for an etsy store named studio jk vinyl. Jamie was running a little contest for a $35 gift certificate to her store. Guess what? I WON!!! Yea me!!!

I'm so excited. (Even though I doubt JB will think $35 can absolve me of my casino losses for the month. LOL!) I can't wait to figure out what I'd like to order. I am leaning toward the Large Monogram with the scalloped edges, but I'm not sure.



Maybe something for DoriGrace's room? Who knows?

Anyway...I'm off to pick out my loot.

Nothing perks up a day like free stuff..Woo Hoo!

Internet Embarrassment

Even though I don't blog as much as I use to, I still spend a fair amount of time surfing the internet and visiting all the blogs I have bookmarked in Reader. I have several everyday reads, some that I visit for recipes, some to learn photography and a few that I enter contests on.

One of my favorite everyday reads is the Noble Pig. I love Cathy's writing, wit and views of random daily events. I stumbled onto her site several months ago as I was searching for a recipe and I've been hooked ever since. She's such a cook and such a homemaker...she's building a winery for heaven's sake! (She's like internet famous for cryin' out loud!)

At any rate, Cathy was having a little Valentine's Day contest for some fancy chocolates and I thought I'd unlurk to enter the contest. (The chocolates were just too FANCY, I couldn't resist!) I didn't win...dang it! But as a result of my post on her blog, she popped over to see little ole' me and leave me a comment.

So, imagine my embarrassment when she (gourmet cook and fancy wine lady) sees this:



That's right...my 8-hour crock pot meatloaf. Oh, the embarrassment! I'm at a loss for words. But, I've learned my lesson. I pledge, no more food pictures unless it is plastered on Little Sister's face!

Now, I am off to bury my face in today's Ranch Mashed Potatoes and regress back to my internet "lurker" status! Too bad I don't have a tempting recipe to enter into Cathy's great Potato Ho Down! Oh well, I can hardly wait to see what everyone else comes up with!

A Quick PSA on Safety

For the last 15 years, I've made the daily trek downtown and certainly had my eyes opened to other, less-safe, areas of my City. (No that isn't an error...we are The City and therefore, we are the capital and; therefore, we do capitalize.) Anyway, back to my message...

For the last 2 1/2 years, I've worked in our Municipal Court. Prior to this employment adventure, I'd always felt pretty "safe." I live in a nice, gated suburban sub-division. It's not exactly a high-crime area. Even though I see criminals everyday, I don't spend a lot of time (and more importantly effort) in thinking about my own personal safety. On the whole, as big cities go, mine is relatively safe.

But, I've had a "there but by the grace of God" moment and I wanted to use this little forum to remind the friends that read my blog to be cautious. I won't get too specific about the incident leading to my revelation, but I want to share the impact.

I have a friend that was the victim of a horrible crime...a HORRIBLE, H.O.R.R.I.B.L.E. crime. She was doing something I've done a thousand times. Leaving the mall, walking to her car. She was in a hurry...she was texting on her phone. And, she is...lucky, very, very lucky to be alive.

She shared her very personal, very moving and inspirational story with me on Friday night. I don't think I could be that strong. I don't think I could ever bounce back. I'm thankful she is. I pray I never have to find out and I pray you won't either.

So, please...

1. Get your keys out of your purse. Have them in your hand. Don't walk and dig...

2. Survey the area before you exit the building.

3. Walk assertively, hold your head up---look around.

Pay attention to your surroundings. We'd never dream of not paying attention to our children as they walk through a mall parking lot, but often when we are by ourselves, we are not as diligent about assessing our environment.

Let's be careful out there!

No Matter What They Say...

Don't try meatloaf...

In a crock pot...

For 8 hours...

Not pretty...so not pretty that I couldn't even post a picture. Well...OK, I'll show you... but only in my effort to educate.



It sounded so good...so easy...and we love meatloaf...but it was a brick. In twenty-three years, JB has never said, "That wasn't very good?" or "I'm not eatin' that." He's a guy that loves military food in a bag (MRE's) and mess hall food. Tonight was SO bad, I actually took it away from him and said, "Please don't eat that." LOL.

On the other hand...Little Sister loved the mashed potatoes.



Thanks so much for your comments. I haven't blogged since I become addicted to Facebook. It is nice to know I still have readers...so few comments these days.

Can We Do It?

As with many folks, the beginning of a new year ALWAYS brings conversations about money and financial goals to the Booth household. We are far from debt free, but find that every year we are less and less comfortable with owing lots of folks. We have looked into Mr. Ramsey and Suzie, we've taken a little advice from here and a little advice from there and figured out what we can “live” with.

We’ve never lived with a budget. I admire the heck out of those that can follow a budget. Budgets scare me. I know I’d be REALLY frightened to learn where our money really goes. We’ve just always been blessed to live how we want to live.

As our country, and our friends and family, look at difficult times ahead, we’ve talked about steps that we can take to cut back. Last week, we were talking about how much money we spend going out to eat. Between work lunches, family dinners, meeting friends, and a date night here and there, we figure food is one of our biggest monthly expenses.

So, just for fun (because we’re fun, JB and I) we’ve made a family commitment…no restaurant or fast food for the entire month of February. For the ENTIRE month! (What are we thinking???) No McDonald’s for the kids, no Arby’s on the way to cub scouts, no take out pizza on Friday night, no lunch after church…nothing. Not one $$ anywhere but the grocery store.

We’re tracking our savings and even with the increase in groceries, we figure we’ll save $500 this month. (Crazy huh? Shows how much we don’t eat at home!)

Day Four – We are surviving.