an ode to almond butter

I have made a new friend: almond butter. Oh my. I never knew anything could taste so yummy. I am trying to eat less things that will irritate my bladder and peanuts are on that list. I don't know why, but the doctor gave me a pamphlet with all the various things to avoid and peanuts were on the list. It said that I could eat almonds though, and I needed a substitute for peanut butter.

I found this next to the peanut butter, and although I wasn't sure about it when I bought the jar, I really do like it. I only recently discovered that I like almonds, so this is all new to me. For some reason, the skin on almonds has always bothered me, until recently. Somehow, I tried them in a mix I had and decided they were okay. It's interesting to see what I suddenly like now that I am older. In the last year I have discovered hollendaise sauce, grits, poached eggs and now almonds and almond butter.

What have you discovered taste-wise lately? Anything new?

a photo shoot with Phoebe

So, Mommy has this new camera and she is always practicing taking pictures and she thinks I am particularly photogenic, and I guess I am pretty. Yes, I am a pretty girl, uh, dog. The other day she took some pictures outside, because inside it is hard to get pictures of my eyes. They don't come out right, but in the sunlight they look nice.

Here I am on the porch, looking pretty good.

Here is a close up of my eyes, which are kind of a blueish white. I am a Husky-Lab mix and you can certainly see the Husky in my eyes and in the shape of my tail.

So I posed for my mom a little bit and then I tried to lick the camera and then I heard a siren and howled for a minute. Mom has always wanted to take a picture of me howling, but I am hard to catch as it is often in the middle of the night, or she doesn't have the camera when I do it. She was happy to catch it.

After this photo shoot, I was tired. I told Mommy to take a break and I took five. Modeling is hard work.
I must say that I love the fall and being outside. I have heavy fur and so these cooler temperatures are just perfect for me! I think I'll take a nap and dream of chasing birds and eating bones. My favorites.

click, click, click

Go and read the post on our adoption blog. There isn't any big news, but a prayer request. Check this post, please.

Thanks!

wedding dress white

A story of several wedding dresses and my random sewing skills. Several years ago in June I went to the church early for a wedding with my husband, who was doing the sound for the wedding of our Pastor's middle daughter, Lauren. I ended up helping out as the wedding director was running around and when the bride's mom went to practice bustling up the dress, there was no loop.

We looked and looked and looked for the loop. There was lots of lace and beading on the skirt and we thought maybe we were missing something, but it just wasn't there. The hook was there, but there was nothing to hook the hook onto. Problem.

So that's how I ended up like this, ten minutes before Lauren walked down the aisle.

I said to someone, "if you have a needle and white thread, I could probably make a loop. It wouldn't be hard." So we ran around, looking for a needle. Turned out the reception decorator had a needle, but only had black thread. We looked around some more and I noticed that some she was using some cheesecloth, which is basically thread. We tore some thread off the edge and I ran down the hallway to the holding room and had Lauren lean against this cubby thing while I swore I wouldn't poke her and sewed on a loop of thread. In the picture she is meeting one of her fiancee's relatives while I am sewing.

It was one of the most random instances of my life, when my sewing skills came in handy and I was able to help. And I love that someone captured it on camera.

Two, I have gotten addicted to the TLC show Say Yes to the Dress where brides come to Kleinfeld's bridal salon and look a wedding dresses. I love it. I liked picking out my own wedding dress and find it fun to watch others figure out what they like. It's fun when they get all emotional and cry choosing their gowns. But the interesting point about the one I watched today, was that one of the customers on this rerun was Kate Gosselin, who was picking out the dress for her vow renewal. I found it sad to watch, as she was so excited to find a dress and was thinking about what Jon would like her in and what made her feel pretty. The whole situation with Jon and Kate is so sad and slightly disturbing. There is so much trash out there about them, and I just feel bad that their kids will be able to dig it up someday. Everything lives out there on the internet.

Remember that wisdom, folks. Everything lives forever on the internet. It takes a court order when you die to have someone shut your blog or Facebook account down, I read recently. They are looking into changing that, but it will live on long past you. And that may not be a good thing.

Okay, that was a sidebar, but those are my thoughts on wedding dresses. Did you love yours? I liked mine a lot. I think I looked really good in it and felt pretty that day. It's what I could hope for on my day. Tell me about yours.

a walk around the neighborhood

Today we walked around the neighborhood and looked at some yards and landscaping. Our yard is in great need of work and Charlie started today by digging out some stumps left from plants we cut down. But we took the walk to look at what other people have done in their yards. I found several little gems of things that I liked and saw these flowers.

This blue one was one of my favorites. There is a teeny tiny bee on the center one. He was friendly.

I hate these plants (cope berry bushes?) but the berries are pretty.

I have no idea what the little purple berries are, but they seemed happy and friendly in the sunshine.

I have been enjoying my new camera lens (18-200) and learning how to work it, and I think I have finally figured out how to work the macro setting. I still can't get as close as I can with the standard 18-55 lens. I do love the softness of the bokeh. Lovely. Double click on these photos and you can see them in all their large glory. Such loveliness.

what's the right thing?

The other morning I was getting ready to turn right at a stoplight when a funeral procession crossed in front of me. When my light turned green, the people in the procession stopped, and I was pretty sure they were supposed to keep going, even through a red light. My problem was, the procession was going down a four lane road, completely taking up one lane, but leaving the other empty.

I turned.


But it felt really weird driving next to the people with their flashing lights the policeman up front. Oncoming traffic was stopping, even though their was a middle lane. The police car did stop at several red lights, and it seemed to be following me for miles. I almost wanted to roll my window down when I was stopped next to the cop to ask what I was supposed to do. I do not remember from driver's ed what the rules are, and I don't come across them very often.

I think I should have let the whole procession go and stayed at the light, from what I can gather from the internet. Each state has different laws and talks about what people IN the procession should do: proceed through lights until the police car stops. Nothing told me what I should have done.

One person said that it is the last way we can pay respect to the dead and their families, and I get that. I do. And in the moment I was thinking about getting to where I was going. It did feel weird to pass the hearse, but there was a car behind me that was going really fast and I didn't want to stop in front of them. I feel bad about it, but wondered if anyone really knew the rules, or if there were laws governing it.

spiderman, spiderman

I came outside the other day and stretched between a tree and our ivy plants was this huge spider web, floating in the air. It was about 12 inches across and a foot and a half long. Today when it was raining, all the little droplets were stuck to it and it was really pretty.

It was hard to get a picture, because the camera wants to focus on the background and I wasn't sure how close I wanted to get to the web. I did not see the spider, and since I didn't know his whereabouts, I didn't want to get get close. I took three pictures and then went back inside.

Just thought I would show what has been the prettiest part of the last two weeks. It has been completely rainy here, and the one day that was sunny was soooo hot we'd all rather have the rain. But then today it rained and the temperature dropped. Not so great.

I suppose I could be philosophical about how hard the spider worked or how intricate the web was, or something, but I am not in that place. I could write about how dedicated the spider was, but really, he's just trying to catch some food and as soon as it stops raining, I am going to take a stick and knock it down. I have no love for spiders and my husband is scared of them, so it becomes my job to kill him. In fact, he hasn't really gotten that close to the web.

I am grumpy, can you tell? Things aren't happening that I want to happen, and other things that aren't that great ARE happening, and I wish they wouldn't. Life is confusing and I am tired of being in the rain.

Sunshine is much better for my psyche.