Icycles

This picture doesn't really convey how huge these freaking icycles truly are. They are hanging in the entrance to Ash Cave and it was almost scary driving under them because I'm pretty sure if one of them had fallen, it would have came straight through the roof of the truck and killed us all. Or at least gotten us wet.

Flat Creek In Winter

Driving down to Cassville tonight with Scott we drove over the old Jenkins bridge and stopped to take a picture of the creek and the snow. So pretty.

Yay More Snow

What more can I say? We got some more pretty snow and no nasty ice. It's been a great winter so far. This is what it looked like as I left work today.

My New Bowling Ball

Scott had told me at Christmas that he would chip in on getting me a bowling ball as my gift from him and yesterday was finally the day. We left for the bowling alley early and headed into the Pro Shop and looked over the selection. I'm not someone who is too particular with how my ball looks; I just want one that's not too expensive and not horribly ugly. It would have been cool to find one that matched my bowling shoes because my shoes are adorable, but they didn't have any balls the same color. So I picked out the turquoise & black swirled one. My other options at this price range (with my required weight & currently in stock) were midnight blue and black swirled, or pastel pink & purple swirled. I think I made the right choice. Next week I'm buying a bowling bag. Woot! Now I finally fit in with the rest of the league.

Ahoy Matey!

Okay, I have a confession to make. This photo a day blog is not going as I intended. I'm hoping it's the cold weather and gray days we have been having that are to blame, but this thing has gotten rather boring. I wanted to do this project as a way of practicing my photography and looking back through the first month I only see 2 or 3 pictures that could be considered photography. The rest are just snapshots of my life. I have actually had a blog for about 3 1/2 years so I guess I'm just letting the blogger side of me win out and I have turned this "photo a day" blog into a "day in my life" blog. Sorry about that.

In an effort to remedy this issue I tried to get some sort of outdoorsy, interesting photo for today. So going home from work, I took a side street that I had never taken before and BOOM! I immediately found an abandoned boat surrounded by houses just 1 block west of Republic Road.

New Haircut

After a little over 2 years of purposely growing my hair out and refusing to cut it... I finally gave up. I had been trying to get to the point where I could put everything up in a ponytail but my hair is so thin and grows so slowly that it just wasn't meant to be. The back of my hair was quite long when it was wet, but my natural curls and ringlets always made it shrink up a good 2 inches. Combine the curls with the fact that my hair is so fine and thin and surely you can imagine how closely the back of my head resembled a rat's nest most of the time. And trying to grow out my bangs and sides long enough to reach a ponytail meant that I was stuck wearing headbands and hats in order to keep it out of my face. Basically I was growing to hate it and it wasn't growing at all. So I decided to back it up a bit to a point where the length wouldn't get all frizzy. I also wanted some bangs and some shaping on the sides so that I could quite wearing headbands and actually leave my hair down.

I took a picture of the finished project. I'm actually very happy with it. I think it's going to be the perfect length for me. Of course I wasn't able to take a picture of my hair without taking a picture of my face. Bummer.

Matilda The Wicked

I love Halloween. LOVE. IT. Like, it's so totally my favorite holiday. I really have to exercise great control to keep from buying a crap-ton of decorations every year. I try to limit myself to only 5 or 6 items per year. Unless there's a huge sale, or something that I simply can't live without, or I just got paid, or it's the creepiest thing ever, or... you get the idea. So last fall when I spotted Matilda in a booth at the War Eagle arts & crafts fair, I knew instantly that she was coming home with me. And for only $20. Amazing. She now sits atop my desk and oversees all my projects. Yes, my desk is decorated like this year round. No, those are not the only Halloween decorations I have. Yes, I love Halloween more than Christmas. No, I am not a devil worshipper.

Oooohhh.... Pretty

This weekend Scott purchased his first bowling ball. It's so new and shiny. And about 100 times more reflective than I expected it to be. This ball is actually black with silver swirls in it. Not that you can tell by looking at the pic.

It is so slicked up it's reflecting the light fixture above it, the American flag blanket that serves as our patio door curtain (I know.. we're slobs) and if you look closely enough you can actually see me. So now I guess it's sort of like a self portrait. Lol.

My Sister Loves Me This Much

Saturday I had plans to go down to Wendy's house and hang out with her and the kids all night. When we first discussed the plans, I had mentioned maybe we should grab some pizzas and junk food while we watched season 10 of Friends. [Sidenote - Friends is the greatest show ever.] When I called her Saturday afternoon to make plans for the pizza she told me she had actually decided to make Chicken Spaghetti for us for dinner.

When I got there, she was in the kitchen a little stressed out because the chicken was in the pressure cooker and it had been done about 15 minutes but the pressure cooker lid hadn't released yet. 30 minutes later, the stress level had risen considerably... the chicken was still stuck in the pressure cooker. Wendy had ran cold water over it, made sure it was completely depressurized, had a strong teenage boy try to force it off, etc. She had even reheated the whole thing and started the process over. More prying by multiple people, more soaking in cold water, trying to clean all the seals with vinegar in case some trapped food had caused the problem. The picture above is obviously Wendy trying to pry the seal loose with a knife. Over an hour into the whole "chicken is stuck" incident and Wendy was pretty upset that she has ruined dinner. The spaghetti noodles had been sitting on the stove for an hour now and the whole meal still needed to bake in the oven to melt some cheese over it. I kept trying to tell her it was okay, no big deal, kind of funny actually. But then she said "I wanted to do something nice for you and I can't even do it right." And even though I didn't think I could ever love her more... hearing her say all this trouble and stress is because she was doing it for me totally made me love her more than I thought possible.

And then 5 minutes later (1 hour, 20 minutes in) she gave up on the pressure cooker. That's when I stepped over to the sink and actually got my hands on it for the first time. I had been asking her if I could help the whole time, but her & Kyle were doing all the right things so I hadn't forced them to let me try. Now this next part of the story is not me bragging. I'm just stating the facts. It took me about 30 seconds to get the lid off the pressure cooker.

It was the best meal I've ever had. Partly because it was so obviously made with love and partly because we all worked hard to get it accomplished.

Babysitting Jacob

I have the most adorable nieces and nephews in the world and tonight I was lucky enough to get to babysit the youngest one. Jacob is one of the happiest babies I've ever seen and I love getting the chance to keep him. As an added bonus, Melissa stayed for several hours and played Rock Band with us.

Moves!

Indoor action shots are something I definitely need to improve. I just don't have it right yet. Luckily, I have a love for watching high school and college sports so I have plenty of opportunity to practice. Tonight I attended the Fordland Lady Eagles game. #23 there is a good friend of mine. Her name is Meagan, but I call her Moves. Because she's got mad skillz and major moves on the court. Last year, her freshman year, she was a starter on the Varsity team. A starter. On Varsity. That's saying something. Sadly I had to miss 1 game during her first high school season, but I made it to all the others. No matter where they were. And she had a great freshman year with some impressive stats. Unfortunately tonight was the first game I've been able to attend this season. Mostly because I seem to have way less free time this year than last. But also because Moves has been out for most of the season. Tonight was only the 3rd game she's been allowed to play in. And only for a few minutes at a time. Because last summer, on June 4th at basketball camp, she tore her ACL.

The road to recovery was a long one. One that I'm quite sure Moves wished she didn't have to walk. Or limp, as the case may be. But she did. She climbed over bumps and went around potholes and she is now almost to the very end. She still isn't allowed to play a full game, but she is at least playing again. Her first game back last week she scored 9 points in the limited time she was on the floor. Tonight I watched her dive for the ball, jump over a tangle of bodies for a rebound, run down the court on defense...and I worried about her knee. But I also smiled. Because she wasn't worried about her knee. And after all the time she spent thinking of nothing BUT her knee, it was good to see her doing her moves just like she used to.

And for the record, if you're going to be technical and wonder how someone my age can say "that teenager is my good friend".... I am actually great friends with her mom & her Aunt Lisa and therefore I am very fond of their kids.

Experiment In Uneasiness

I had a couple of birthdays to do some shopping for this week, so today after work I headed over to the mall. I hadn't taken my photo of the day yet and I briefly considered taking my camera into the mall and playing around with the soft ambient lighting inside. But just thinking about doing that made me cringe. Because people inside might wonder who the weirdo is walking around by herself taking pictures of the mall. People might wonder if I'm taking pictures of them. People might think I must be a loser if I have nothing better to do than walk around the mall by myself taking pictures of boring plants and strangers. Do you even understand that? Let me spell it out. I was afraid some stranger MIGHT have an opinion or judgement about me THAT I WOULD NEVER HEAR OR KNOW ABOUT. Wow. Just another one of my many issues.

So I decided to take the camera in and force myself to take pictures in the mall. And guess what? I survived. I didn't see any pointing fingers or hear any snickering behind my back. Of course, I only took 3 pictures and they were technically more like snapshots than pictures that I composed. Also, I'm fairly certain that each time I stopped and snapped a pic my cheeks got redder and redder. But hey, it was a baby step. I spent about an hour in the mall with the camera hanging around my neck the whole time. And I survived.

Casper's Chili

This is a restaurant. Seriously. It seats 29 people and almost always has a line outside of hungry customers waiting to get in. It's a local legend round these parts. Casper's chili is famous. I have lived here 4 years and have always wanted to eat here but have not yet had the opportunity. For any of my friends who may be reading this... one of you needs to take me here. Immediately.

I Know... I'm Weird

When I got out of my car this morning at work and headed towards the front door, I caught a glimpse of the picnic tables and (this is the weird part) I thought they looked so serene and peaceful that I had to take a picture. Something about the way the sky was just starting to light up coupled with the soft glow being cast by the lights lining the sidewalk really grabbed me. I hope you enjoy the colors as much as I did.

Jacob's Birthday Party

My nephew Jacob turned 1 year old on Christmas Day. To keep him from getting cheated out of birthday wishes, Melissa delayed having his party until tonight. Originally this party was scheduled to be at the Monett McDonalds - the party invitations even said so. Unfortunately, the day after she sent the invites out the McDonalds burnt down. So we partied it up in Cassville instead and I'm pretty sure Jacob never knew the difference.

Polishing My Skills

My cute little baby cousin Krystle is not really so little anymore. In fact, she's a senior in high school now and will be graduating in just a few months. I was totally flattered when Aunt Edna asked me a few months ago if I'd be interested in taking Krystle's senior pictures. And today I had a total blast during our first photo session. We went down to Roaring River and Krystle was a great model. She let me take hundreds of pictures of her in various lighting and in front of different backgrounds. Looking back through them, I can see evidence of where I messed up the exposure and where I was in a hurry and didn't get the focus set quite right. Various other issues like that. It was a great learning tool for me and hopefully will help me improve some of my trouble areas. But I did manage to get some great pictures also. The one above is one of my favorites, but there are quite a few more that I really like. It was a great photography day for me. I hope Krystle is happy with the results and maybe I can get her to model for me again when the weather warms up.

One Of My Quiet Places

I grew up with parents who took Sunday drives every week, random trips down the local back roads any given day and impromptu Saturday morning breakfasts over a campfire at a scenic lookout a few miles from our house. I loved it. It made me sort of a permanent tourist, for lack of a better word. I can find beauty and peace in the mundane places and things that most people don't give a second look to. Let me try to explain it with an example: I drive the same road to work and back every day. And every day I look at the houses and fields I drive past and notice beauty in the way the sunlight is playing across the tall grasses gently blowing in the fields. Or how cool the cows look all gathered up around the pond with snow on their backs. Or even how someone's yard is changing through the seasons. It's like a new world to me every day. Most people don't see these things. They let them blur right by because they've seen them before.

Unfortunately, aside from my parents I don't really have this in common with anyone. So these days my adventuring is done solo. And I gotta tell you, it's just not fun to drive around for 2 hours by myself. I need someone to talk to and share it with. Which means I have to keep it short and simple when I get the craving to go see something (yes... it's like a craving). One of my favorite places around Springfield is the Lake Springfield Park. I love it for several reasons. It's on the same side of town as my place of employment and I can get there with minimal effort. There is plenty of wildlife to see - mostly birds and deer. And it's not normally too busy when I go there after work. I can get out of the car and walk down to the water's edge and just enjoy the quiet and the beauty. Surprisingly, I hadn't been there all year so I decided to go today after work. I was shocked to see how much of the lake was still frozen. It looked so pretty and peaceful. As the year progresses and the weather gets warmer I am quite sure you will see more pictures of Lake Springfield here. Hopefully they will be a little more exciting than this one. Not much you can do with a frozen lake on an overcast day. There wasn't a spot of color anywhere and it made for sort of a bland picture.

Grey's Anatomy Trumps Photography

It's really pointless to take a picture of a tv screen and try to pretend that it's helping you fine tune your photography skills. Luckily, that's not what I did. I took a picture of a tv screen because it's 8:00 pm on a Thursday evening and THIS IS WHAT I DO. It's freaking Grey's Anatomy. The first new one of the year. I let the blogger side of me win tonight and decided to document the importance of Thursday nights more than worry about my photography. I've been waiting for a new episode for like a month now. So this is what January 14th means to me.... A NEW FREAKING GREY'S ANATOMY.

I Had To Try It Out

Okay, this won't be the norm but I had to take a picture with my new Droid just to see how the 5mp camera with flash performs. After all, my Nikon d40 is only a 6mp so the fact that my phone has a 5mp means the pictures can't be that bad. And really it's not too shabby. Honestly I probably could have gotten a much better shot but I was at the bowling alley because Wednesdays are league night and I was worried about attracting too much attention or maybe distracting someone by flashing a camera. So I only took the one. Between the perfectly fried chicken strips and french fries (and the world's best ranch dressing), the pitcher of beer and the powerball tickets you can see this is how a bowling alley table should look.

But seriously, I won't make a habit of taking cell phone pics. One of the reasons behind this project is to help me learn how to better use my dslr. This isn't really helping that. Not saying you won't see a few on here from time to time, but they will be rare.

I Can Has DROID??????

Look at it. It's beautiful. And it's mine. Bwahahahaha. Finally.

Okay, you may wonder why I'm so excited over a silly little smartphone when smartphones in general have been the norm for a couple of years now. But what you don't know is that I've never owned one before. This here's my first cell phone that is not a simple little flip phone. Well... that's not exactly true. The first cell phone I ever owned was one of those old ones that was like 10 inches tall and 5 inches thick. A real dinosaur. Lol. I'm actually almost embarassed that I ever owned one. But I did. And I was certainly one of the first people I know who had a cell phone when they first came out. But man, did I ever fall behind on the cell phone scene. Not necessarily because I didn't want anything better, but because between what I could afford at the time and the fact that you have to wait two years to upgrade (unless you pay full price for a phone and I certainly had more important things to throw my money at) the timing just hadn't been right. But now I have made it to the world of 3G. I'm so excited.

Sometimes I Amaze Myself

I am not someone who normally does a lot of cooking. I mean, sure I will make mac & cheese, frozen vegetables, grilled or fried porkchops & chicken & steak. But I don't really ever cut up my own ingredients and throw stuff together based on what I THINK would be good. But tonight, I accidentally did and it was amazing.

This is chili made with chuck steak that I diced, 1 pck. McCormick's original chili seasoning, 1 can pinto beans, 1 can light red kidney beans, 1 can stewed tomatoes and 1 can of Rotel. Yummy!

This Is The Life

Is there any better way to spend a bitterly cold Sunday afternoon than lazing in the recliner, wearing SpongeBob pajamas, perusing Facebook and watching football?

McBurned

Yesterday afternoon the Monett McDonalds went up in flames. Since it's one of only two McDonald's in rural Barry County (where I was born and raised) it was big news. As I was driving through Monett tonight, I figured I better stop and grab a picture so that I could always remember how McDonalds became McToasted. This was taken from the Braum's parking lot on the east side of the McDonalds building.

So Here's What Happened....

Tonight we had a few people over to watch the Dr Who specials "The End of Time: Part 1" & "The End of Time: Part 2". Why? Because we're nerds AND fans of the new Dr. Who starring David Tennant. Except that David Tennant left the show at the conclusion of these specials and The Doctor has regenerated into a new man. And that kinda sucks because David Tennant was the best Dr. Who ever. But at least the character is able to go through a regeneration so the show can continue smoothly and The Doctor didn't have to die. Because that's what they've been leading us to believe for the past few episodes. And then during the specials The Master returned and he was all like insane and stuff and he captured The Doctor and re-wired that strange gate thing that the one guy got from Torchwood (which Torchwood had salvaged from a wrecked alien ship). And then once the gate thing was all re-wired The Master actually jumped right into it and..... oh crap, I got totally sidetracked.

Which is the point of the whole post - to exlain why I have taken a picture of dirty dishes in my sink as the photo of the day. See, I was going to take a picture of all my friends sitting around the TV and some really cool sci-fi David Tennant scene showing on the screen so that I could always remember that tonight was the night I saw David's last episode. But I got sidetracked by preparing all the food for the party and then by actually watching the show and then by spending 20 minutes afterwords geeking out by discussing the show and then by being a proper host and saying my goodbyes as everyone left. And that's when I realized that I had never taken a picture. So why the sink full of dirty dishes? Because that sink was empty and the kitchen was clean before everyone arrived. Now it's the only proof I have that David, Jon, Ian & Zack came over and watched Dr. Who with us.

How NOT To Photograph Wind

Today was really windy. I mean REALLY windy. The wind chill was in the negative teens and the freshly fallen snow from last night was really being whipped around by the wind. As I was driving to work this morning I really enjoyed watching the snow blow across the road. It was so pretty, I thought about it all day long and thus became determined to try and capture it in my photo of the day. However, I have since realized that was not one of my brightest ideas. Two reasons: A.) You can't just stop in the middle of the road to take a picture of snow blowing across the pavement (for some reason other people using this road don't really appreciate you doing so). B.) After driving to an uninhabited cul de sac where reason A is no longer an issue, you have to actually stand out in the cold with your camera at the ready and wait for the wind to blow in your favor. In just a few short minutes I was unvoluntarily crying frozen tears and my fingers were throbbing inside my gloves. So, this is all you get. If you look closely in the middle of the road you can kinda see where the wind is blowing the snow across the road. It's that hazy spot. But mostly what you will see is that THIS? THIS is a photo fail.

Nighttime Snowfall

I always hate when the real pretty snowfall occurs overnight because I love watching it snow and once it gets dark I can't watch it anymore. Unless I stand outside and set off a flash bulb, of course. And as I stood outside last night taking pictures of the lightly falling snow I realized how freaking cold I was how peaceful it is when there's snow on the ground. It makes everything so quiet. I love it. Until I have to get up the next morning and tromp through the shit to get to work that is.

Fowl Weather

The way the year is starting out, I have a feeling I will be posting a lot of pictures of ice and snow. But the winter weather isn't all bad. The ducks and geese don't seem to mind it and I love watching them. This photo is from Close Memorial Park. The ducks and geese? Who knows where they're from.

In Love

It's official. I have fallen back in love with books. They were always my childhood obsession but as an adult I started seeing less and less of them. Books just weren't satisfying me as much as they used to. I had started spending time with computers and believed the instant gratification provided by the internet was the only thing I ever needed. But I was wrong. 6 days ago I finally went and got a library card for Greene County. AFTER LIVING HERE FOR 4 YEARS. Now that doesn't mean I didn't read for 4 years. I own a lot of books that I re-read and I buy books more than I should. But I wasn't reading at near the volume I used to. But 2010 is gonna change all that. I've already read my first 3 and stopped in today to pick up 4 more. I love the library.

Snowy Days

I need a telephoto lens. Badly. I had to stand out in the snow about 20 feet or so from where the birds were feeding for like 15 minutes before they came near me. I stood there with my camera up to my face, not moving, not making a sound. If I had a zoom lens I could have captured this from the comfort of the porch. While moving. But no! I had to put some actual blood, sweat and tears into getting this shot. Well, more like shivers, frostbite and muscle cramps. And this picture still had to be cropped and zoomed on the pc. Sigh. But you gotta do the best you can with what you got. This was taken at my grandma's house after Sunday dinner. She is an avid birdwatcher and feeds them all year long.

Lady Bears In Da House

I love sports... especially seeing a game live. My mom and I both developed a love for the MSU Lady Bears during the Melody Howard era. And they became even more precious to us during the Jackie Stiles legacy. However we don't get to go to too many games. Mom lives 1 1/2 hours away and doesn't make it into Springfield very often and even though I live here I don't really have anyone else who's interested in going to games with me. This year I got us tickets for Christmas. This shot was taken right after the team introductions. I am aware it's not a good picture. The low light made it grainy. Then I cropped it so I could cut out the heads of the people who were standing in front of me and it got even grainier. My indoor action shots definitely need to be improved so I am hoping to work on that. If anyone has any advice for me, I'd love to hear it. I shoot with a Nikon d40.

The Rose Parade

I try to watch the Rose Parade with my mother every year. It's like a tradition with us. And we both hope to one day be able to see it in person. This year I didn't tell her I was coming, just showed up on Friday morning and surprised her. She was thrilled. I took this shot obviously to show the parade is on the tv (I wish I had waited until a real flowery float was on the screen but I was having camera battery issues... I know, way to be prepared for the first day of my new project) but also to show a small snippet of my mother's love of snowmen. They can be found all over her house during the winter months.