Recent work (post 2 of 2)

The flu and the 365 project battled it out....the flu won. I missed a few days on my project and have decided to call it quits. I know it is still very early in the year, but I can't get those two days back, and at this point continuing seems unappealing knowing that. That being said, I had started to notice that I wasn't enjoying forcing myself to find something to photograph every day. I would feel like I had one good picture in the midst of three days of bad ones. I'm considering maybe converting the project into a weekly thing 52 pictures instead of 365, but we shall see.

I still wanted to share a little of my recent work, 365 project or not:)

We went on a walk around a place close by called Northpark, and it seemed these deer were as curious about us as we were about them.

The next two are some of my new favorite photos of our fur child:)

These are a sampling of the photos I used to make my dad's birthday card this year. I decided to do this around the middle of the month, so missed several January and early February birthdays. Sorry to all of you, and I hope next year we can get a fun card out to you too!

Thanks for the read! I hope everyone is having a great week!

Flu shot for me next year! (post 1 of 2)

I recently returned to the land of the living after spending the better part of a week in bed with the flu. The "achy, can't get comfortable, feel like you just want to be put out of your misery" few days I spent under J.R.'s care were quite a humbling experience. Good news is, he makes the cut and even excels at taking care of the sickly:). I was never without water, tea, or bagel thins (thank you Jackie and Daddy) that of which seemed to be the only thing that appeared halfway appetizing. Best part is, he never felt in the slightest bit ill. I guess accompanying him to get that flu shot a few months ago would've been a smart move;)!

Prior to all of this, J.R. and I made the last minute decision to take advantage of the 3 day weekend our lovely presidents had afforded us, and drive down to TN to surprise my dad for his birthday. Incidentally, we didn't get there until about 10pm his birthday evening, but the look on his face when he saw Max clamber up the stairs to greet him was priceless. We'd drive nine hours for that any day Daddy!

On the drive down we always pass the Gauley River bridge, a welcomed break in the driving for us and our cooped up puppy. We usually take advantage of the wooden staircase that leads to the scenic overlook, and run Max up and down the stairs a few times to discard some of his energy.

 The sun was barely peaking out of the clouds after the rain--beautiful!

The next morning we forced ourselves to take our 6:30am alarm wake-up call seriously, got dressed, and headed out for an early hike in the Smokey Mountains. I have wanted to introduce J.R. to East Tennessee hiking for a long time now, and thought what better place to start than one of the Mt. Lecont trails. We started out at the Alum Cave trailhead, which I must mention was already packed by the time we got there around 8:30am! The sun was shining, and we were in temperatures we could hardly recognize. It was a beautiful day.

The trail is roughly 3 miles up to the cave, and another 3 miles hike will get you to Mt. Lecont. This time of year the cabins at the top are closed, but in the summer you can rent them and make an overnight trip of it. Luckily, we decided we weren't prepared to attempt Lecont (running out of water, not enough food), and headed back to the car after this. It wasn't long after we were driving home that I started to feel the flu coming on, and had I been still stuck on that trail....yikes!

 

 This will give you some perspective to the size of the place. It was extremely steep!

Snow on top!

We took some time to enjoy the sunshine on the way down...

Although I spent the rest of the weekend on the couch after this, it was so nice to get outdoors for a while. When we were packing our bags to leave, this is what I found...

Max is always especially sad to leave the extra attention/off-leash outside freedom he has at my dad's house:)

Happy Love Day

My name is Jennifer, and I am obsessed with dressing our dog up for holidays!

I have tried to convince Max of how lucky he is to have a photography hobbyist for a mom, but most of his expressions indicate he sees it otherwise! Maybe someday he can find it in his heart to forgive me. I am sure I will move on to embarrassing our future children, eventually:).

Yesterday, Max and I experienced a first. We have all been dying to be outdoors for so long now, a 39 degree day was an unexpected and welcomed blessing. I know I know, you are thinking we are crazy for being excited about a day above freezing. It's sad, but I am learning it is the reality we face living in the North.

We anxiously packed up the pooch and headed out to Moraine State Park, hitting the South entrance this time. We haven't explored the South side as much, and when we got there, I was shocked to see the whole lake had frozen over. Obviously, I realize this will happen, but having never seen this growing up in the South, it was quite a surprise.

Next surprise: there were people actually on the ice. Not timidly tip-toeing their way out, but full out ice skating, sledding & SAILING???

J.R. has of course seen this many times, so he walked right out onto the ice like there was nothing to it...

I, on the other-hand, needed to wrap my mind around the idea of it all at first:). I figured, if "sail-thingamajiggys" could do it, surely my weight wouldn't cause a massive crack in the ice, submerging me in hypothermia inducing water right...right??

Max struggled with the idea at first too...

Sometime later, we came across a part of the park where the ice had shifted and we could see what it looked like underneath. Thank goodness it looked to be at least a foot thick (and this was by the shore!:))

It was a beautiful day and we had lots of fun. In spite of the cold, there was nowhere else I wanted to be. The company wasn't so bad either:)!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! We love you all!

Patience does not live here today...

We are still waiting, waiting, oh and um...waiting on any news about jobs, etc. I truly struggle with just trying to live in this moment, but know it is all we can do for now. I wonder what it would be like to be carefree Max through all of this. He is currently sprawled out on the floor asleep, challenging me for the closest spot to our space heater. It was a balmy 13 degrees when we awoke this morning. I haven't checked the temp since for fear of discovering it has plunged even further into the depths of "you're never gonna be able to play outside again!" The good news is, the sun has made his unlikely appearance today. If I could, I would give him a hug, I have missed his face so much!

In other news, I finally took Max to the vet to get him caught up on all of his shots. Chunky Monkey now weighs a whopping 92.8 lbs! I hope he never realizes I only have about 35 lbs give or take on him, yikes!

Anyhow, here are a few more of my project pictures. 

Happy Thursday all!