Guess who's turning one?

That's right! Today!


A few random facts:

She "plays" with her food while she's eating and starts getting full. All out, rolling in it, growling, etc. :)

We call her a lot of things aside from her name. Our favorites are Turbs, Turbsy, Turbo-doggie, and Pogs (puppy + doggie - gie + s). Sometimes Turbs-a-runity. If you know Joel, you'll understand. haha

We spank her when she's naughty. And guess what? She's pretty well behaved overall.

She also knows what "Do you want a spanking?" means. It's her last warning. heh

She still gets "sit" and (lay-)"down" mixed up sometimes.

She would go outside (for the bathroom) every 20 minutes if we let her. Mostly just to sniff around and see if any neighbors are out. This can be frustrating. :)

I always said I would never have a small dog, and be one of "those" people. But now, I completely am... and don't care! However, I draw the line at "Mommy" and "Daddy." Sorry, that thing didn't come out of me. Nor is it human. ;)

She's one of the few dogs I'm actually not allergic to. We all know the hubby wasn't going to go for a standard poodle.

If Joel's out of town, she starts getting antsy downstairs around 5. She knows he should be home by then. :)

She always perks up at vehicles... I swear she can pick out GMC/Chevy pickups from all the rest. haha

She is the absolute biggest cuddle-bug when she's tired. Love it. :)

She knows she has to sit on the couch while I'm working. Then she knows when the washer/dryer signals go off, she gets to go "help" me with laundry. Haha.



Have a great weekend, everyone! Mine will include a convention!

Whine. Sigh. Annoyance.

Dealing with the helicopter company again.... do I ever sound like a broken record?

This time we're dealing one-on-one with them. No more insurance companies.

But, in order for us NOT to give them all a lump sum, we have to fill out a very detailed form and APPLY to get to pay in installments.

Hello. We're 22 years old. We own a house. And vehicles. And we (I) have student loans. And I'm still in start-up mode in my business.

Do you think we have $21,000 just sitting around? Especially to use for medical bills? Maybe in mappy-pappy land. Or in Palm Springs, where all the rich and famous (and the helicopter company, coincidentally) are located.

So meanwhile, I'm running around to get together last year's taxes, pay stubs, a couple months worth of checking and savings account statements, and business financial information. Just got done going through a personal financial statement... detailing out each bit of income, all our assets, and expenses (no place for liabilities... we have LOANS, people!).

Good news and bad news.
The bad news is our bottom line looks pretty grim.
The good? There's no way they can expect us to pay hardly anything for monthly payments.


PS. Would it feel weird to anyone else to pack up all this sensitive, personal information and ship it off to a medical provider in California?

PPS. Let's vote. Who here thinks we should enlist a lawyer's help? If nothing else, to at least explain to us our rights in this whole situation?

Hardware Upgrade v.1.06.87

How to install new hardware in your computer:

1. Do NOT back anything up. No files, pictures, nothing.

2. Open the pretty shiny packages with your new stuff.

3. Call your tech support and put them on speaker for the next 5 hours.

4. With their help, put in the new hardware.

5. Start up the computer.


6. Do what your tech support tells you for a few hours.

7. Windows still doesn't load.

8. Start to realize you could potentially have to re-do all your books and lose all your image files since April.

9. Follow your tech support's great idea. Install NEW Windows to a different hard drive, then copy all the files from the old to the new.

10. Start computer. Boot to NEW Windows.

11. Old Windows boots up. What??

12. Jump up and down with glee.

13. Do a massive backup, which takes about 4 hours.

13.5 Dig out a fan for your poor, overheating external hard drive.



14. Put the hardware back in, wipe clean your drives, re-install Windows the right way.

15. Spend a full day's work putting programs back on and downloading drivers/updates/etc.




16. Thoroughly enjoy your fast programs and new Windows.

17. Remind your tech support you love them.

18. Buy your tech support a gift card. (Wait, my tech support doesn't read this, does he?)

19. Laugh with glee when your tech support still answers your calls.

20. Remind yourself to get an auto-backup system in place.

21. Prank call your tech support.

22. Resolve not to do another hardware upgrade for a looong time.

Pics!

Found all these while looking for something else.

This is her typical traveling position.

"Helping" with laundry. Usually she just chews up my tennis balls that I keep in the dryer.

Bales and Turbs.

Suz and I wore our matching shoes (that we both wear like once every 6 months) on the same day. It was pretty epic.

I'm really drawn to this saying. I love it.

Georgia

Georgia was really great. The lakehouse was amazing. Mark, Lauren and their gorgeous kiddos are the best. :)

Apparently the whole album should be viewable here.

Life.

I love my job.

I love photographing with clients.

I love editing through hundreds and thousands of images.

I love images like this:

Don't you?


Makes everything else okay in life.

Like the final decision from the insurance/helicopter company. Yup, $21,058. Our baby. I could have told them that the insurance company wasn't going to budge anymore.

And the fact that we spent time and money to drive out to Iowa to get a motor for our car. And it's the wrong one. And the guy's a dumb moron. And on the way home, the other exhaust pipe on the truck broke. And now the car's sitting at the shop, waiting for Joel to rebuild the motor, plus the other motor that's now ours. And I'm driving a really loud truck. Wait, maybe that's okay. ;)

With the hesitation of sounding like a thirteen-year-old girl obsessing over her first crush, I will say this: photography (among other things) is truly my drug.

:P