Getting older sucks!!!

I saw my Dr. today and she said that I need to go to Physical Therapy once a week to strengthen the part of my back that is injured. She said it will hurt and not be fun. Looking forward to it....

Dangerous curves ahead!

My back was feeling good.....until yesterday at church. Those benches in sacrament meeting killed it! I couldn't stand the twisting and turning trying to get in a comfortable position so my back wouldn't hurt--but ended up leaving in the middle of the meeting and stood in the foyer. It was feeling a little better by the next class, so I decided to go. I sat down on the metal chair, bent to put my purse down and felt a sharp pain. It hurt so bad, I ended up leaving that class and stood in the hall. It continued to hurt and standing became painful so I got in my car and drove home. I did some stretches the chiropractor recommended and that didn't help, so I laid in bed until I had to go back and pick up the kids. The rest of Sunday I spent in bed. I felt so bad because Anson had to pick up my slack.

I painfully tossed and turned all night. Not only was my back killing me but I had a migraine that wouldn't quit. Anson, my sweet, sweet Anson got the kids off to school this morning for me. I stayed in bed a little while, then showered, dressed and got ready. It's the weirdest thing. You can actually see that my body is twisted. I called the chiropractor as soon as they opened and got in 45 minutes later. He popped a few things but couldn't straighten me out. What the heck did I pay for anyway??? LAME! I'm worse off now than when I had to first see him 3 weeks ago! He wants me to go back tomorrow, but I also called my family physician and made an appointment for tomorrow as well. I may need an x-ray or there may be a bigger problem than what my chiropractor can fix. I really hope that's not the case though. At the very least I'm hoping to get my insurance to cover my chiropractic visits. I'm paying out of pocket and it's getting expensive!!!

I hope to walk out of the office looking like this tomorrow!

I'm going back to school!

After a looooooooooong year off, focusing on the screen printing business, I enrolled back in school! That's the good news. The bad news is that all my fun classes are over like art and photography. Now it's time to get down to work and actually finish getting my Associate's degree.

Last Friday I went in and took my English/writing test to see what level I am at. It was the second time taking the test, but I got a 99% which means I can take English 101. I'm not too thrilled to take it, because I hate English, but it's required....just like Math. Uhg. I took that test once and I don't even remember what I got on it but I know it wasn't college level and wasn't even close! Math is THE worst thing ever. The only thing I need numbers for is a phone number. That's it.

I have decided that from now on to take only classes that are required for the Graphic Design degree. I am signed up for Intro to Graphic Design, Art in the Twentieth Century and English 101. I think it's 13 credits and it is a lot, but if I want to finish, I need to do more than half time. If I work REALLY hard, I may get done by the time Anson gets his Doctorate in 2012! :)

In other news, Anson kind of made up for FORGETTING my birthday. I will never let him live that down...ever. Last Friday he picked up an elliptical for me. I found it on Craigslist and he got it that same day.

We don't really have room for it in this house, so we put it by the back door in our dining room. Classy, I know.

Photoshop those dark circles away!

Anson is having an article written about him for Vancouver Family Magazine and needed to submit a picture. I took this picture of him a couple of years ago. He looks washed out and those bags under his eyes kind of make him look mean! So I opened Photoshop and went to work!




I went into color balance and added a lot more yellow and a little bit of red. I also took out the bags under his eyes and softened it with the blur tool. I took out the little stray hair sticking down his forehead and filled in the um...ahem...*bald spot*. It all took a couple of minutes!

And here is a side by side!


Click on this picture to see it bigger.

Photo Restoration

I asked my mom if she had any old pictures that were in horrible condition to see if I could restore it. She gave me this picture of my grandma, Mimmer. It was going to be a big challenge because it had been through a fire. I wasn't sure I could pull it off because of the bad damage in the middle of the picture.




It took longer than I expected it would, but I think I got it pretty close to the original.

And here is a side by side.

Loving Lucy

Pretty much ever since we got Lucy, Anson and I have been going back and forth as to whether or not we should keep her. There's pros and cons to having a dog. The kids and I have really come to love her, but Anson has been stuffed up and had sinus problems. I love my husband more than I love my dog, so I finally said enough with all this talk and just acted.

I put a note on facebook and I immediately got a response from Ryan asking me to take it off because he wanted to talk to Sarah about it and would give me an answer later that night. To my surprise he said he wanted her. We brought her over to their house Saturday night and said our goodbye's.

Sunday morning I woke to Ashton crying his head off saying , "Lucy, Lucy, Lucy, I want my Lucy". I found him on Ammon's bed with tears streaming down his face. He was inconsolable. I stayed home with him from church. Later that day we went over to Sarah and Ryan's to visit Lucy. The next day when Ashton got hom from school he called for Lucy. Lucy always greets them at the door and rolls on her belly for rubs. It's really cute!

Anson and I were torn! We didn't want to ask for her back, but we knew we needed Lucy home and she needed to be with us. MIRACULOUSLY, Ryan called Anson Tuesday and said it wasn't working out and he would drop Lucy off to us a little later that day!!! She came back to us with lots of kisses and tail wags. She missed us as much as we missed her. She was a little different when she came back, but today she is back to her old self and we couldn't be happier!

15th wedding anniversary!

Our wedding anniversary was on January 28th but was uneventful so I never posted anything. Anson was in school up in Seattle so we just sent a text saying happy anniversary. I always imagined that we'd go away somewhere exotic and romantic for our 15th or do something really special. Oh well, maybe for our 20th. Anson should be done with school by then! :)

It was also Anson Jr's 14th birthday that same day. I picked up pizza and made him a cake. He insisted that he put his own candles on and light them himself. We sang happy birthday, ate some cake and ice cream and/or had root beer floats. Like I said. Pretty uneventful...