April.....what happened?

Crazy how time flyes away from us! I've neglected the blog because of Facebook & Twitter among other things.

Our company had a mandatory unpaid leave of absence (MULA) in March and I was able to visit San Francisco with Jenny. Our first day was a travel day. It takes forever to go from MS to CA...Jenny's flight time was even longer as she was coming from NC. We started by visiting Monterey Bay. Beautiful. We drove along the Pacific Coast Highway and it had the best views. We stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel and our room had a fireplace! Nice. In San Francisco, we visited the art museum, sailboat near the Golden Gate bridge, biked the GGB and to Sausalito, saw Wicked (too cool...I may become a Broadway fan), an amazing dinner at Gary Danko restaurant, and ended with a trip to Muri national monument. Flickr Gallery, here.

I started a new online photography class this month with Allison Tyler Jones over at Big Picture Scrapbooking. My goal is to improve portrait photos, be more creative. So this weekend I visited a friend to photograph her 5-month old daughter. She was cute and had the best outfits. I did okay. I had some issues with focus/sharpness around her eyes. I do hope that after 12 weeks I can see an improvement and be more knowledgeable.

I've officially converted...yes, I'm the proud owner of an iMac. I made the switch about two weeks ago. I was in iTunes hell Sunday as I was trying to switch the library from the Windows PC to the Mac and I thought I was going to have a meltdown, seriously. Then, I started to use iPhoto and their face recognition stuff is pretty cool.


This week, we purchased a lot near our home for future development. We're thinking of starting in 2+ years. Jon wants it to be green and we're fortunate to know someone who has a LEED certification. He starts his Master's program in the fall...and will be done when we will begin the process. Click here for photo.

A plug for Jon....he is running for City Council Ward 1, Jackson, MS. I'm so excited for him. He has always had an interest for politics and this is a good place to start.

Oh, and I can not forget that we've a new member in our family. Her name is Libby and Jon found her last week near his job. She was at the vet for over a week and is home today. She has a long road ahead of her before she is 100% healthy. I'm excited for her but a bit worry for Maggie & Gabe and how they adjust. I'll post some photos soon. Right now, she has a big plastic thing around her head...not attractive at all.

Have a good week.

I've finally started looking at the photos from our latest trip. Uploaded a few today to Flickr and have to review lots of more photos. Hope everyone is having a good week. I'm in the middle of remodeling our bathrooms....new fixtures & faucets. In with the new out w/ the old.

MS Blues Marathon

This past weekend, we participated in the Mississippi Blues Marathon....we did the half-marathon! I'm still recuperating. Full speed ahead in 2009!

Good-Bye 2008

Wow...this year came and went with a blink of an eye. 2008 was a busy year for both of us. Jon finished residency and started his full-time job at UMC. Finally! He study for the boards and took the exam in November...we're checking the mail everyday for the results. As for me, after 20+years, I became a US citizen. Finished my MBA at Millsaps College. Became obsessed with photography & football (sshh, our secret!).

We visited friends & family in North Carolina, visited Texas (Jon for work, me to learn about photography), traveled to Chicago (yet again...we love the windy city)), Jon went to Washington DC without me, and we finished the year by visiting Seattle, Tofino & Vancouver BC.

I hope for the best in 2009. Happy New Year.

The last 45 days or so....

I feel like such a bad blogger....I didn't realize until today that I blogged almost 45 days ago.

In late November, we went on a trip to Seattle, Tofino and Vancouver BC. I need to look at the photos and I'll upload some by the end of the year. It was a great vacation and much needed...we had great weather and I got to visit Pike Place Market!

We started our trip in Seattle - a couple of days of sightseeing and eating and then we drove to Canada . A ferry took us from mainland Canada to Vancouver Island. We drove for about three hours to reach our destination: Tofino. We stayed at Wickinnish Inn, our room was right by the beach and we got to listen to the waves crashing in at night. The days were shorter - sunrise around 8-9am and sunset 4:30-5 - so we were not able to do as much hiking as we wanted too. We did lots of hiking at the Pacific Rim National Park. Big trees...lots of hills and valleys; NO wildlife (a good thing as they had been Bear & Cougar attacks!); water. Again, lots of sightseeing and eating! We got back on the road and we took another ferry that took us to Vancouver.

Vancouver is preparing for the 2010 Winter Olympics and as you can imagine the city was busy with construction so lots of traffic. We stayed at a B&B, O' Canada House, great house and better food. We had two amazing breakfasts. We really enjoy staying at B&Bs as they're cozy and small. Lots of sightseeing & eating. It was raining a lot, so we decided to go to a museum - Vancouver Art Museum. Their current exhibition is Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution. I like art and Jon has started to enjoy visiting art museums in our travels....but this exhibit was wacky and it just didn't have much appeal. We did find a couple of works that were interesting but overall it did not warrant a second look. Yes, more eating - lots of it. I usually gain like 4+ pounds whenever we go on vacation, no matter how much exercise I do during vacation. I need to do another post...just on food.

Our plan was to spend our last night in Canada and wake up on 11/29 Saturday morning and drive back to Seattle. Our flight was schedule to leave at 12:30pm Sat. Bad choice. Lots of lessons learned. First, never stay in another country and have a flight schedule out of another one. We got stuck at the border - we had scheduled to wait a max of one hour - and we waited for almost 2 1/2 hours. Jon was beyond frustrated. It was a bit before 10 am when we left the border and we still had a 2 hour to Seattle. Drop the rental and get to the airport. Well, we went. No choice but to drive and see if we could make it. We got to the airport at 12:15pm. Enough time? We thought so b/c our flight was delayed but the bags had to be checked-in 30 min prior. We had thirty minutes....but the airline counts 30 mins from the Original scheduled...not the delayed time. Second lesson....if you're going to miss a flight avoid traveling on the weekend after a major holiday. We got on stand-by for the 3 pm flight. No go. Next stand-by for 11:40 pm flight. No go. Got to spend the night at the Seattle airport. Third lesson, pack a couple of toiletries with you (toothpaste, toothbrush, etc). Jon and I went over 30+ hours w/o brusing our teeth, deodorant, etc. Icky. Fourth lesson, if you go on stand-by (at least for Continental) - you had to get back in-line to get on the next flight for your stand-by ticket. Crazy. So, make sure that you're first in line for stand-by as sometimes only one or two people get to board the flight. We left Seattle at 6 am Sunday morning to Houston. We got to Houston and I'll spare the drama..but Jon went first as he had to work Sunday evening and I boarded the last flight out of Houston to Jackson. I got to Jackson around 10 pm on Sunday and went to bed as I was scheduled to work on Monday.

The post has gotten long....but I've stuck to my training for the half-marathon run on January 3rd! MS Blues. Last week, our group did 11.2 miles (my longest distance run to date) and I know that I'm getting old...but my body can't take much more of this....I had problems so far with the bursa socket, tendinitis, and hip flexors. I've started to take tylenol before our Saturday runs. I hope to be able to finish Sat without too much pain. I've convinced Jon to join..so he is also running! So excited to know that someone will be at the finish line to carry me out.

I'll post photos soon. Hope everyone had a good Merry Christmas holiday.

It is 9:45 am and I feel like I've accomplished so much already. I was not able to run today, so I walked 6 miles - I think at a pretty quick pace. Updated the banner and in about an hour going to a Pilates class to stretch my muscles. Happy Saturday morning!

Time.....

Not sure what happens to time....I can't believe that I've not posted since October...not updated my blog banner since September...ouch. I have been training for the marathon and maybe a little too hard as I'm hurting now and unable to run/jog and having a hard time walking. I'm thinking of going to see a physical therapist for help. I'm hoping to feel better soon as we're going Seattle & British Columbia soon and Jon wants to do lots of hiking. I may take a pass.

I ordered the Holiday Card Kit by Becky Higgins...and it is perfect. I wanted to do something crafty...but I didn't want to stamp, so I settled on this kit and it was easy and pretty. I put it together already and Jon is going to work on the letter next week, so I'll be ready for the holidays. I can't believe that people around our neighborhood are already putting up holiday decorations & trees.

Hoping to update the banner this weekend and post some recent photos.