home sweet home

Well! Just back from a week of "hunting".. err.. camping since nobody really killed anything! Just as well.. not sure how prepared I am for gutting an elk and packing 1/5 of it down the side of a mountain! We went up the muskwa last sunday and camped up there until thursday when we woke up to SNOW. I knew it was a possibility but after the beautiful weather we had had all week I was really hoping that it wouldnt happen. BRRR! We saw a few elk and listened to them bugle back and forth to each other and us. The odd time a wolf would chime in.. eek! Very eerie sounding - needless to say I stayed nice and close to my uncles and their guns! All in all it was a great week away from the world of work and what not! Today is raining so I SHOULD be doing laundry and catching up on housework that is months behind but a large part of me is doing the usual procrastination thing and thinkin this is a good day to just stay on the couch and watch movies!

Last night Jodi and I went to "Good Luck Chuck" at the cineplex.. funny movie! When I stopped by Jodi's to pick her up Kayden my little bud decided that me and him aren't as good of friends as I thought! I think this was his first make strange episode! Hope he gets over that quick!

Oh! While I was gone Mom decided to do me and Abbie a favor and got her in for a haircut at the place where Rusty goes in Dawson.. Lets just say rather than a haircut she got a buzz cut! GONE. Her hair is SHORT and LOOKS REDICULOUS!! haha.. good thing hair grows back!

Well off for some more procrastination!

here nor there

just somethin pretty!!

mom's garden

Mom's garden is FULL of awesome sunflowers this year.. some of them are like 8 or 10 feet tall! Enjoy!

little people grow tooo fast!

I had last tuesday off and got a chance to hang out with my newest little buddy! He looks rather insightful here! Can't believe your so big already Kayden!

things to be grateful for..

my great-grandmothers funeral last friday inspired me to write a post like this. she kept journal after journal and was grateful for the simple things.. ie.. a game of bingo that she LOST.

here is a quick list of some things I am grateful for;

- my family
- abbie
- my 1/2 hour with jodi and kayden last night
- my camera and the beautiful pics i can take with it
- the supper brette brought me to work tonight
- happiness
- the long weekend coming up in two days
- my home
- supper with grandma and umpa on sunday
- technology (computers.. email.. facebook.. blogs!.. etc - all great communication devices)
- wonderful memories

wedding 2

Wow. I seriously apologize for my lack of bloggage. But today.. Is a new post! How exciting for friday night! Right.. first.. sneak peak of last weekend's wedding. It was a very enjoyable day for me in Dawson Creek, hanging out with Kahla and Derek on their wedding day. Everyone and everything was beautiful. I hope you enjoy!



I'll have to add some of the LAST wedding too.. get you all caught up... hope you enjoy!

As for me.. this weekend if the weather is nice I may take my puppy and my camera on a hike in Jasper and try to find something beautiful to take pictures of. I promise to share some of those as well. I must get back into this blogging thing - otherwise life will speed right on by!

oops! forgot about you guys!

So two days less than a month since I have posted. My time sure does fly!! Since I have last posted I have.. photographed my first wedding, watched Tim and Faith live again, worked in a sauna here at Nissan, made a mess of my house again with reno's .. this time in the laundry room installing some much needed shelving. I will take a picture when its all cleaned up again..and most recently I went camping for Mason's Birthday. She's so cute. We were out at Big Mountain and the creek was soo warm and the weather sooo hot that we could just sit in the creek all day. Kinda ick with the little minnow's nibbling at you and even the odd leach. UGH. It didnt stick though - when I shook my foot off it went! I caught a couple minnows for the kids and they are powerful little things! A couple jumped right out of the cup and back into the creek! So we put them in water bottles and boiled them to death! hehe. Oops! Don't tell the kids! They think they are sleeping!

Well back to work.

can't wait!!

Wow! i am sitting here thinking that nobody updates their blogs anymore.. must be cause of summer or something.. but i havent even had a chance lately! This is going to be a great week! I am heading out to edmonton with the girls for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill concert #2!! The last one was so great we couldnt help but hop at the chance to buy tickets for this one in Edmontong!! YIPEE. So its not in vegas..oh well i get two days off work and a chance at seein Tim shake his bum again! Haha!

Been busy lately.. so for a quick update.. I am now the finance manager down at Nissan since a week ago friday. So far it has been pretty good. The type of customers that this store draws are totally different than the subaru version. it may only be a couple blocks down the road but the people seem like they are from a different world! all put together and making money! wow. what a concept! hahah.

yesterday i had the opportunity to take some photo's! i think i took a couple hundred! first i took pics of the thompson clan. randy rox and girls, rhonda leonard and kids, peggy and carol. the sun was bright so not all the pics turned out as well as i had hoped.. but there are definately some gooders. i will post some soon on the website.

oh the website!! please visit absolute.smugmug.com it is still a work in progress but it is where you will find my pics from now on! there are 4 current galleries set up and more to come. please leave comments so that i can improve it as i go along!

and speaking of websites.. if you havent already, go and visit ashley's etsy store now up and running and attached to the twisted creations link on my sidebar. photography al la moi!

Hump day

Haha.. cause its wednesday! Congrats to Jodi and Jeremy over the weekend for their brand new baby boy Kayden Brian Budde born on Saturday morning! He is my new favorite person. This baby is perfect so far!! I may be biased but he is a dear. One more kidlet to take pictures of constantly! I can't wait for his mom to let me get my hands on him and POSE some black and whites! I took some of him in the hospital (the photo of him on Jodi's blog is one of mine) and had them developed in Sepia.. some look strange and yellowy when developed - I have more testing to do on that! But I have all sorts of artsy pose ideas. Oh AND pics of him and his dad's hands and feet!!! How cute. Speaking of his Dad. Jeremy is being a great dad so far! He took to it like crazy and I noticed at the hospital that he is just a natural. Obviously his Mom (jodi) is also doing wonderfully..that just didnt surprise me at all. She has always been wonderful with little kids!

Well back to my Wednesday full of work!

pic as promised

new favorite pic of my dad!

quick!!

my apologies AGAIN.. for not posting.. i Just realized its been 12 days! Yikes.. And I was going to complain that noone else was updating!! I have added a couple more links to my sidebar.. i doubt they will be at all interesting to you (my readers) but they make it much easier for me to read regularly!!

Will post pics soon!

NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS..

I will apologize for my lack of blogging lately - Life's been a busy place. However I have heard your requests and will say SOMETHING today..

Well.. I am reno'ing again. We all know how successful that can be for me. Seems like anytime I start to rip something out something crazy happens. This time was my fault to begin with - I didnt buy enough flooring! Ty re-measured for me last Thursday so that I could buy more if necessary prior to the guy coming on Saturday to install it all. Not enough as it turns out. Oh no.. Spirit River Flooring is out of it!! PANIC. Disaster aborted though when I found the exact same flooring made by a different brand at "End of the Roll". Yippee. So the only thing that went wrong after that little panic attack was the fact that the carpenter guy (different one than from the previous reno disasters) didnt remove the tile in front of the door as I had requested. Not sure why he didnt do that - but.. maybe a good idea. Now I will have to find someone to tile that for me. Those tiles definately need replaced! But FIRST - lets get the living room set up again. But.. then I decide that I MUST paint! Haha.. I always talk myself into painting. There is now one coat of a DARK brown throughout the whole living room. The plan is to get the next (and hopefully the last) coat of paint on the walls tonight - Then move the couches out of my kitchen so that I can eat again!!

Also in all the news that is the news is the second wedding photo confirmation of the summer. Both are in July and I cant wait! If anyone else knows anyone looking for a photographer please let me know! Ofcourse this includes doing family photos, etc.

And speaking of photo's - my new lens and spare battery that I ordered off Ebay finally arrived! I cannot wait to get outside and take some pictures with the new lens adapter! The world will be round! Wait and see!

Sidenote - Time is escaping me! Baby Budde will soon be here and I still have yards of fabric to turn into something ;) and I think I still have some curtains on order that need completed as well! Ok now work is interupting my blogging..must go! Have a good day!

...

ilike this one.. haha.. be sure to check out jodi's blog for a peek at what is inside this belly!!

sneak preview!!

argh!

so i deleted the last post because i had accessed my blog on two different computers and the pictures werent coming up. i dont know what its problem was but little boxes with red x's in them is not exactly how i want to display my work!!

forever ago

Well its been a coons age since I posted. How long is a coons age? I have no idea.. but in this case its a week and a half! Happy Birthday Jodi!!! today..

What's new you might ask? Well not a bunch since it feels like all I do is go to work and go home and cuddle with my puppy. Odd time I talk on the phone for a bit.. or msn. Last night I went shopping on Ebay - ordered a spare battery for my camera as well as this new fisheye lens thing - should be kinda cool. Its more of a filter than an actual lens - real wide angle lenses go for at least $400.. and for my purposes which will be like 2 pictures a session this should do!

Hmm.. what else is new? My house has stayed somewhat clean all the way since last friday. Yup that's right - I spent my friday night CLEANING my house - well the living room and kitchen. Its so nice to just wander around and look at all the clutter that isnt there - WELL really it is still there.. now it is just hiding in the spare room. Peace Windows came and measured my kitchen window and my bathroom window yesterday. I am expecting a quote very soon! He also checked out my ugly front door frame and he figures they should be able to make it "pretty" again. Now I just need to find someone who feels like laying some laminate.

Oh and funny.. Yesterday my hated carpenter from when I was renovating my kitchen walked into my work. Car shopping. Good luck.. haha someone else can deal with him.

celebrity lookalikes..

spur of the moment!

Tonight I was driving along.. and all of a sudden I saw the above!WHOA.. pulled the truck over and took a couple shots. I dont know what made me take the time to swap to the lensbaby but I did and I am pretty happy with the result - who would have thought the scumiest part of town could look that good! It was a very rushed photography moment between the lights changing and letting cars almost run me over and having a bum yelling at me from his home on the sidewalk just west of what was bum park. But fun all the same. I wish I had more time as I could have tried a couple more angles.

Brette and I went to that new Mediterranean Oasis restaurant.. holy garlic! My tummy is in "i am not sure if i liked supper" mode right now. It wasnt bad - but it wasnt exactly YAHOO excellent either.

Well - I am yawning now so that means bedtime.. Sleep tight!

more like this..

Midweek blah.. haha.. almost thursday and the days are lasting so much longer. Today I worked until after 7 and came home, talked on the phone.. and STILL had time to take Abbie for a big long walk around the neighborhood! After all the snow we got this winter I thought for sure it would take longer to melt, but as we wandered around the streets tonight it is actually pretty amazing how fast the snow has left! The south side of my house is almost completely cleared away!

Starting today I noticed myself getting into a antsy sorta renovation mode again! I stopped by the window store yesterday so that they can come and give me a quote on a couple of those.. and I almost decided to move all my furniture and rip out the living room flooring. These moods tend to leave me with the messiest house possible for months at a time so i will have to be careful!! haha!

Tonight was laundry night. Everyday should be laundry night.. then maybe I would be able to keep up! I have like 4 more loads after what I have already done - not to mention putting away everything that will be clean!

Ok.. I am being rather boring. Sweet dreams everyone!!

something a little different

so a couple weeks ago abbie and i went for a walk and took some pics using the "lensbaby". it was the first spring walk of the year and the sun was out and everything was fairly ugly as all spring things are.. brown and muddy and not green at all.. garbage poking through melted snow etc. but here is one of the neighborhood trees looking all nice and pretty even at this time of year..

sunday kakwa trip

can't say "happy easter" any cuter than this!

betty part II

pics!!

hungry

So I am hungry! Growling tummy.. grr

Wow have I ever not posted anything lately. I keep thinking I am going to post pictures and then when I am at home I forget! So here is a quick post in the meantime to keep us all busy! Haha.

I went to Edmonton over the weekend. All by myself! Weird last minute decision on Friday when I was looking at my April work schedule. Had the Saturday off.. had money burning a hole in my pocket.. had a want for some new work clothes.. off I went! It was kinda nice to just have a bunch of me time. Granted.. by the time I got to Edmonton I had had about enough "me" time. 4 hours driving down the divided hwy will do that to a person. The hotel upgraded my cheap ass one queen bed that I had requested to an "executive" suite. So I got to have this great big room all to myself. I dont even think I sat on all the chairs in there. I definately only used one of the TV's.. haha!

With Jodi's baby on the way I couldnt ignore the PULL of the kids clothing stores. Uh oh! I ended up buying double the stuff cause I dont know if it is going to be a boy or a girl and it was ALL sooo cute! I am SO excited for May!! Which reminds me.. I have some sewing to do!

Why is it still snowing? Seriously.. we have enough now. Although I would like the opportunity to snowmobile some more!

This weekend is a long weekend.. for me its more like two short weekends. Friday off/work Sat/Sunday off. And this is probably the first time in forever that I dont have the Easter Monday off. But I dont mind - I get TURKEY! Maybe one of those day's off will be nice out and I will get a chance to take some pics. This weather is seriously putting a damper on my picture taking want. I will post some of my recent "freezing" pics later!!

Have a good day everyone!

EVENING OUTSIDE!

wednesday night was poker night for randy and roxanne.. so i went out and watched the girls for the night - which meant playtime outside with me and my camera! first real people pics since the few i took on the 10th! many many pic's later here's a quick sample! i actually have a couple of the three of them all LOOKING at the camera - a large feat!!

sleepy mornin

Good Morning! It's crazy - last week when I had to be at work by 7 am I could get up and outta bed and off to work with no hesitation.. but now that I am back on my regualar 8am schedule it was almost impossible to wake up this morning! Went to sleep by 11:30 last night even.

I think I might be coming down with something though - kinda have a sore throught this morning. Uh oh. No thanks!!!!

Anyone have something for me to take pictures of!? I want to take some pics! I haven't tested out the cool "lensbaby" on the new camera yet.

Ok.. short but sweet - i dont have much this mornin! Have a great day everyone!

day to relax!

well.. it appears it has been a full week since i last posted. i apologize for my missing punctuation - the shift button on the left side of my keyboard doesnt seem to be working and i am too lazy to go back and fix my mistakes..

today has been super duper nice and relaxing - i had planned on sleeping in all day as i was at work for seven everyday last week and was fairly tired by the end of it all - but there i was at 8:30 this mornin unable to sleep anymore! grr..

i took advantage of my energy and went for a drive out towards bezanson to take some pics.. all i found was this rather super scruffy little moose. ick! then i went shopping! new shoes, new la senza stuff, dress pants and some tops! that was fun!
then home to watch a movie which i promptly slept through and just super laziness since then.

last night i had randy and roxanne and girls over for ty's hockey game on the computer. super jealous of those dawson people that can watch right on tv! knight's snagged their regional title and are off to the ncaa division 1 tourney. next they play UMass in rochester NY next weekend! good job bro!!

productive weekend

clean house! yes! for real.. its clean at last! well maybe not all of it.. but the kitchen/livingroom/hallway/laundry room is all clean.. crazy spare room is still very unorganized and my bedroom.. well its my bedroom and it just doesnt stay super clean but if i made my bed it would be pretty close..

i finally took my bags of clothes to the diabetes bins today too, then to the fabric store and the grocery store and london drugs for a couple various things. then into the kitchen to make banana bread and apple crisp and then stir fry for supper. and in the meantime i sewed on the.. oops thats a secret.. more on that in may! haha

oh! and on friday i bought a new camera.. yup the one on the wish list from a few posts ago! how exciting! and now.. a pic from the new camera!

been awhile

Good Morning! Almost afternoon I guess.. 11:30. Its thursday again and I just realized I havent posted since last friday! Last weekend I worked Saturday. Then on Saturday night I joined a few people from work at "Dave's Comedy Club" for that-pretty funny! We then went to the Corral where Kristy was celebrating her birthday!! Happy Birthday Kris!

Sunday came and Becky and I painted jodi and jeremy's nursery. Just some finishing touches left now. Last night was supper at the Keg with mom and dad and gerald and denise. Pretty yum as per normal. Dad is off to Vegas today for Nascar. (I am not really what the hype is about nascar!) After supper last night I went to Ashley's and played with some of my new "Stampin Up" supplies! Ashley is now a consultant and can help you with any and all of your stamping/scrapbooking needs! They have some really nice stuff too! FYI she is going to do workshops!

Ty's birthday is on Monday. His present is sitting in a cardboard box by my door. I was supposed to bring it with me today and ship it away express.. Apparently it even takes Fedex 4 days to get there! Probably be late now! Speaking of ty.. his team is now considered FOURTH IN THE NATION! They play off against Harvard this weekend - best of three series. Good Luck Knights!

How boring is this really? I have nothing to talk about cept for what I have done in the last week and really that isnt much at all! Oh i went to Tokyo's for supper on Friday night with Aunty Colleen and Christy. Very nice visit!

Ok this really is boring.. I will hit "publish" now!

how cute!

ok..here's a pic taken with my new lens! hope you like! have a good day!

PART 2

ABSOLUTE PHOTOGRAPY?

weekend wonders!

The weekend started with an A's game - they were playing horselake and dont bother asking who won cause I have no idea. The 50/50 was like $284 or something though so hurrah for us! haha.. I left GP for Dawson after the game, getting to mom and dad's at like 1am. Abbie went straight upstairs - pushed mom and dad's bedroom door open and hopped up on the bed to wake them up and let them know she had arrived and maybe they could play?? haha!

Saturday mom and dad and i went on a "snow rally" - poker rally thing out at Sunset Prairie. It was in the community pasture and was a rather boring ride. That is until Dad took a "shortcut" - then we found a log that mom decided to get stuck on and then Dad and I both got stuck on it after having to cross it again! Mom then proceeded to show us just how easy it is for her to get stuck.. some of the easiest places! Sorry mom!

Saturday night we went to Mile's (the guy who built dad's boat)house and watched Ty's last regular season game on ESPNU. It was like watching a NHL game.. the broadcast was so clear and professional it was really cool! Ty got an assist too! Set up a really nice play for Shea Guthrie. They ended up winning what was a super close game 4-1 (couple empty netters at the end).
Then I went home and Kristy came over for a hot tub! and a bottle of wine ofcourse!

Sunday brought a nice sleep in. That is after Abbie went outside for a pee at 6 am and decided she should take on two moose! I thought she was a gonner! Then the sleep in.. then french toast for breakfast ala mom and a relaxing day around their house. Dad changed the oil in my truck.. I helped him at the office for a bit.. steak supper and a quick drive home.

Tonight I am headed over to Jode's to help pick paint colors.. maybe take some belly pics! Have a good one!

i wish...

i wish my sewing room looked like this!!! Check out Heather Bailey's "studio"

short week

Well last weekend was a long weekend which means this week is a short week! I worked saturday and then raced out of town and out to Kakwa for the rest of the weekend. It was a great time. I will post some sledding pics when I am home for 5 min! Haha.. We got home really late Monday night (2 am) and I was up again for work at 6:30. Needless to say I can't seem to catch up on my sleep. Tuesday night I cooked up some supper (schezwan stir fry ala green giant w/itchiban noodles) and then off to the farm to unload my sled. What a headache that was! Everything was all froze up so it was almost impossible for me to get out of my truck on my own. When I finally manoeuvered it onto the ground it wouldnt start. I couldnt muster up the strength to pull it over! Called dad for advice and ofcourse he knew just what to do! So I am going to park it, but first I must not have gotten stuck enough at Kakwa so I go and get stuck in the field. Then I get stuck in the yard. Then I ROLL it off the side of a snowbank. Can we just park it already?!

Last night was supper at the Keg with all our Finance managers and one of our bank reps. That was nice. Then I went out to grovedale to meet Ashley and pick up some stuff I left with Randy. Ended up playing a game of poker - which I haven't done in AGES! I didnt win but I did pretty good I think! 4th out of 7 I think.

Well I should really do some actual work! Have a good day! Dont forget to read Jodi's blog - she's at 27 weeks and growing!

OH ps! It's almost the weekend! Golden Knights vs. Quinnipiac on ESPNU Sat night at 6 our time. It's a US station but someone you know might get it!

pics!! as promised!

New Home

Sorry for no bloggin.. I sure go in spurts! Today I moved all my junk and clutter - really not very much stuff - from my big beautiful desk and office at Grande Prairie Chrysler to my smallish cubicle thing at Subaru North. My whole life I thought promotions would lead to bigger and better things! HAHA! Was I ever wrong. No its really not that bad.. the desk is a decent enough size and there is tons of storage..

In other news, Val and Aaron had a baby girl on Feb 12. Kataline (oh crap I forget the spelling.. it MIGHT end in an "a" - SORRY Val!) Baby Kat was born in the afternoon and is 9lb6oz. All natural! WOWZERS! She is pretty cute too! I went up and gave her the quilt I made last month and held her for as long as possible without being called a baby hog! Val and Aaron are so cute.. they cant seem to stop looking at their new addition to the family! Aaron seems to have taken over diaper changing so far - we will see how long that lasts! haha! But seriously CUDOS (sp?) to him for taking that on during the hospital stay. From the sounds of things they were going home yesterday as long as everybody was still healthy. I took some pics and will have to post them when I am at home for you to all see.

If anyone here reads my blog and hasn't read Jodi's lately - definately go and have a peek! Her baby grew some more and her belly is BEAUTIFUL right now!! She is also almost out of her second trimester and into the third already - but I will shut up now so that you can read it all on her blog.

pics later!

name issue

SO.. people are starting to ask what my picture taking hobby is CALLED. So I have been brainstorming and need some help/feedback.

Current ideas include:

"Real Moments"

"Real Shots"

"A Click in Time" (kinda longish)

any suggestions?

"A Click In Time"

half a month later!

Well! Talk about tired! Yup thats me! I am soo not used to not having days off every weekend! I really need to start getting to bed. In other news.. I am gonna be a FINANCE MANAGER!! Train, train, train..

Tonight is all about "what not to wear".. I am on my third episode since waking up from my nap. Dad woke me up from the Dominican. They are having fun.. I asked how the weather was and apparently it rained for a couple minutes today so they sat under an umbrella and had a drink. Must be nice! Meanwhile I was driving back and forth, back and forth, back and forth to evergreen park!

I also squeezed in a photo shoot! That was fun.. bit more of a deposit towards the new camera! Or maybe shoes.. I noticed this week that my shoes are in desparate condition. I have this horrid habit of wearing them until they are literally falling apart. For example.. I have this pair of brown shoes that I bought in Kelowna with Cleo one day way back when Ty was a Silverback rookie - and I RETIRED them last year when I worked at Univar, but I apparently never threw them away and then when I started working @ GPC I needed some dark brown shoes so out they came. They look disgusting. Then there is this lighter brown pair that i bought to replace those ones, and I can stick my hand between the sole and the bottom of the shoe and like tickle my feet. ICK. My black shoes I bought when I worked at the keg and well.. that was like 4 years ago! Not to mention that my dog attacked them last year and they were technically retired for awhile too. I do have another pair of black ones that I bought in vegas, but they have a little heel and with all the ice right now they are just dangerous! So for decent looking shoes i have a pair of black boots that I bought before christmas! Yup.. shoe money! LOL

Did i mention that my Christmas Tree is still up? yup. Sad.

I need to go grocery shopping - I just realized that I dont have anything to eat for breakfast in the morning. No milk. No bread. No.. yikes.

Ok enough blah blah blah.. its totally bedtime. Night!

Wish List

Pentax finally came out with a decent digital SLR. And I discovered it today.. on payday.. uh oh! Up until this point I have been quite happy with my 35mm Pentax. I have been super happy with all of my pictures.. but.. there is always room for improvement!
All of my current lenses will even fit this baby!

see preview

Check it out!!

Wow I actually didnt procrastinate on finishing this project.. and also didnt leave it until the last minute to make as is my norm!!



And ofcourse.. here is Abbie being oh so cute on the clean laundry in the corner of my sewing room! What good company!

Part 1 Complete!

Well tonight I finished the quilt top on the baby quilt - now just the batting and backing to go on.. tying and/or quilting etc.. I made macaroni casserole.. I watched ty's team tie their second game this weekend.. talked on the phone and msn.. wow I have actually been busy. Abbie looks bored: