This week's challenge is Pets only and since I took this of my Somoa just over a week ago, I had to enter it! She's a great model and loves the camera but I absolutely loved how the colors and glow came out in this picture in front of our tree!
Its been a couple of weeks now, but we had a Bassett Hound named Daisy stay with us for a few days. It was fun and interesting. Many of you know that Somoa thinks she rules the roost so we knew that we needed to watch her. She snarled a couple of times and showed her ugly side but all in all, it was a fun adventure.
While they were not fond of it, here all three of them are in our front doorway. It was a lot of sit and stay commands and notice they aren't all in focus. It was a good try anyways.
This is definitely Daisy's favorite spot......other than my couch! :) I usually came home to her waggin her tail standing on the sofa very excited to see me! She was way more excited when Jeremy came home though. Definitely liked him!
Oh and see, Somoa is lying peacefully next to Daisy!
I couldn't resist capturing a few classic Bassett Hound pictures. The ears, the feet, the sad sad eyes!
These feet are strong but unfortunately not long enough to keep poor Daisy's ears out of everything. She has a special water bowl for that but the week she stayed with us it rained a bunch and the grass would get her ears wet every time! I felt bad for her but I guess she is used to it! We had fun with her visit! She's a real sweetheart!
Okay not really I am just changing the look of my blog to a fall theme! Bear with me as I don't have the time to sit down and do it all at once so inbetween its going to look a little ugly and disjointed!
In only 11 days I will be having surgery on my ACL so I have been doing a bunch of stuff I won't be able to do for a while. Unfortunately, fall is my favorite time of year and I have a feeling I won't be able to do a bunch for a month or so during the nicest part
Last weekend we tailgated for the Bengals game and then watched them beat Pittsburg at home for the first time in 8 years. Since it's fall, there were yellow jackets everywhere and I was lucky enough to tick one off! This is the remains, a week later. I forgot to take a picture a couple of days ago when it was purple! Apparently I am a little allergic! I looked like some kind of crazy between my knee brace and the bee sting on my other leg!
I have also been trying to do as many photo shoots this weekend and next before surgery. I am not sure how long I will be unable to do them. This weekend was just beautiful for them. Check out a couple of the shoots http://www.erinjacksonphoto.com/
I have also been thinking about getting another tattoo for a while. I had designed one that is inspired by my favorite Bible verse and my fascination with flying. The word soar comes from the verse which says "those who trust in the Lord will soar on wings like eagles" I wanted it to remind me that even though I might be able to get through my day to day life on what I think is my own, if I trust in my Savior, I can really fly.
So, I went in to check on sheduling and prices and stuff and well, long story short.....
here it is! Its not completely healed which is why it looks a little scaley. (Eww, scaley? why did I describe it like that?) Oh well! Its on my wrist if you can't tell from the picture. It hurt but I really like it!
So, I met with my doctor this week and he said I was looking really good for surgery so I guess we will be ready to go on the 15th! I can at least be glad to catch up on books and movies over my break!
So, I know, I like to do stuff that some people consider "extreme". (ie: skydiving, wakeboarding, snowboarding, etc). I just consider them fun and there are plenty of people who do stuff waaaayyy more extreme than I do. But, I guess it caught up with me this time.
Saturday I went to use my gift card from my sister for Wake Nation, a really cool wakeboarding park. Google it, its pretty cool. Anyways, I had been there for an hour already and Wendy and Caleb showed up. I went back to get out on the water, got off the dock went about 30 feet and heard something pop! I went down and screamed! I dont' consider myself to be wimpy but this hurt! It swelled, we went to the ER, got a brace, crutches and went home. Stupid holiday weekend meant I couldn't get an MRI till Tuesday which turned to Wednesday. Then I went to the orthopaedic doctor yesterday.
He came in, moved my leg around and said, "Well dear, I'm afraid you don't have much of an ACL left, in fact its pretty much non-existant." What! Oh jeeze, I thought I read enough on WebMD to diagnose that it was only my MCL. Guess I need to go to medical school after all! Then he showed me the MRI stuff. I will explain it below.
These are all from the side of my leg. The large black things are my femur and tibia. The black band that is circled in this first shot is the Posterior Cruciate Ligament, or PCL, meant to keep your tibia from going too far backwards. My PCL is fine.
This slide shows a large white area that is where there should be another solid black line for my ACL. All the white stuff is swelling. Notice, no sign of any ligament! Nice!
This last one is what he said is textbook bone bruising from a ACL tear. The two white areas on the bone are where they banged together when the twist and ACL tear happened.
Hope none of that was too graphic for anyone. I think this stuff is cool so I thought maybe some of you would too! (I was given the CD of my MRI scans and have had fun playing with them on my computer!) I might have to make some crazy artwork out of them or something!
So, I have 3 weeks of Physical Therapy to reduce swelling and get mobility back in my knee before they do surgery. Another adventure!
This is the first time I have entered in a I (heart) faces blog photo. http://www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com/. Nostalgia brought to mind so many entries but this is what I chose.
A young girl picking flowers behind Grandma's house. It could be me or my mom or her mom. (Its not, its actually my friend's adorable little girl) but what I love is even though she is picking flowers, she's got dirt under her fingernails, a sign of playing outside, not watching TV. Enjoying the smells of summer and the feel of the sun on her shoulders. It makes me want to go pick a few daisies myself!
Last Friday for my 27th birthday, Jeremy surprised me and took me skydiving! Okay let me go back a few weeks.
We hang out with a group of friends once a week. Over two weeks before my birthday Jeremy had my surprise planned and was telling everyone...except me! The thing is, I knew they all knew, which was torture. Well, through comments he made I figured out how much he was spending. I started doing what I do and trying to figure it out! I thought it might be skydiving until the day I asked him if the activity depended on the weather and his answer was no! Well that threw me for a loop.
Fast forward to last Monday before my birthday and he came home with a gift bag. In it I found 4 little toy parachute men! What a cute way to tell me! Yeah he was yanking my chain about the whole weather thing.
So Friday we drove up to Xenia, OH to Greene County Skydiving. Its in the middle of a cornfield but Jeremy told me highly reccommended by lots of people. We were the first people there being that it was only 9:30. We walked in and "Shaggy" gave us paperwork. He is apparently the resident DZ (that's Drop Zone) hangout. He goes on a plane anytime there is an open seat. He also packs the chutes and usually signs everyone in. They got me suited up and explained a few things, oh and I had to watch this hilarious video and sign my life away basically.
The jump was awesome. I have no words to explain it. I have never felt that big of an adrenaline rush. Brandon was my tandem partner and Chrissy was the videographer, not from the ground, she jumped right with us! She actually hangs off that strut you see in the video until we jump! (By the way, still trying to figure out why the video is squashed and cut off on the sides.)
We did have a couple of funny/scary incidents! When Brandon pulled the chute I yelled up at him, " Are we good?".....no reply! yikes. I said it again...and then I could hear him struggling with the canopy. All of a sudden I felt it straighten up a bit and catch more air, then his reply, " Now we are! " Our strings or the canopy got a little twisted! Kudos to Brandon for fixing it! Then when we got down on the ground Brandon had me sign his jump log book and said, "I am glad I didn't look at this before we went, Do you know what jump # this was for me? 666! " HA! Just goes to show you God is bigger than a number!
All in all, the coolest birthday ever! I told Jeremy last night I am not sure how he is going to top that b/c that was pretty much the thing I wanted to do most! I love to travel and see places too, but I sure do love flying now! I will close with a couple of cool quotes. One funny and the last one that is now my favorite!
Saying you've flown because you've been in an airplane is like saying you've swam b/c you've been in a boat. Get in the medium!
"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return." -- Leonardo da Vinci
I love where I come from. A good glass of sweet tea can take me far away from Cincinnati. However, I have grown fond of my local IKEA store. I love love love the mountains of East Tennessee and the laid back way of life. I love dogs and any animal. My dream when I retire would be to have a farm with a rescue shelter. I like my job but it is not my life and I love to learn new things. This results in a long list of hobbies....(ie: photography, graphics, painting, scrapbooking, backpacking, wakeboarding, etc etc, see above). I'm not scared of much except missing something exciting. I got to skydive this year and loved it! I would like to go as soon as my ACL heals from its wakeboarding accident!
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