I couldn't think of a good title for this blog, so I decided to leave it blank. Someone asked me the other day "Are you Happy?". SURE! I now have heating oil and hot water, why wouldn't I be? OH, because I had to pay $1,000 for that's why!!! Sorry, back to the topic.

I started thinking...AM I truly happy with my life (yes), my marriage(yes), my job (or my 5 jobs). I am doing 4 (right now) things that I truly enjoy doing. Luckily the talents I have been blessed with translate monetarily (at least enough to where I don't have to get a 9-5 job) Photography is my passion, and I believe that God has truly blessed me with an eye and capacity for this art.

However, Is this what I want to do or what God would have me do? I think this is a burning question in a lot of our minds. How do I discern between what God is calling me to do and my own ambition? or are they the same? IF you could do ANYTHING, what would you do? ______ What is your ideal job?____ Or what would you rather be doing?_____( I would like you to answer out loud to yourself) What is keeping us from doing these things? Is it a lack of money, time, opportunity? Would we feel guilty/selfish for doing what we want instead of what we think/believe that God is calling us to do? Are we too comfortable in current situation to step out on a limb and give God the opportunity to work through us? Are we truly using our talents to serve God? ( I don't have an answer I'm just thinking out loud here)

I know that we are not to seek things for ourselves, but to seek God's kingdom. Please understand I'm not saying sit back and let God work in our lives, that puts the emphasis on ourselves. It is part of our relationship with God that we are to strive to know, love, serve and devote our lives to him. Our faith takes action on all accounts. We are all ministers and servants and I believe that God uses us in whatever situation/job we are in, when we allow him to. I am just rambling here so please forgive my spastic sentences. My mind is all over the place. I am looking in the mirror while writing this (it's kind of weird).

All i know is: If it doesn't involve risk, it doesn't involve faith.

Anyway, just something to pray about...

p.s. fall is over. now Winter has shown it's evil head. Supposed to get 10 inches of snow tonight.
Those of you who want to move here...wait until it's 35 degrees below zero and the cells in your head start to shrink giving you a headache when you go outside, and you can't go outside for more than 6 minutes with bare hands or you'll get frostbite. OH, and if you breathe out the steam turns to ice and falls to the ground :)

Halloween decorations- yep! those are leg bones (crossed!)

skull

Arm bones coming out of the ground....man I LOVE this holiday!

seriously!

yep! bloody handprints!

End of Fall

Since this is my favourite time of year I have been taking a TON of pictures. The other day it was absolutely beautiful outside, and I needed to take a walk to clear my mind anyway, so naturally...I took my camera. I have a lot on my mind, but nothing I really feel like writing about this late. Anyway, enjoy the pics and the start to your week! :)

This is a sign that my two dogs blatantly ignore! It's actually one of Gunther's favorite places to go. :)

This guy grew in my back yard!

This was in Cooper Park, I thought the couple was so cute!

Crab Apple tree. Most of the apples are now a deep burgundy color, this one was a late bloomer.

When I was down by the lake about 4 chipmunks kept running all around me chasing each other. This one came out to look at me for a while :)

This is actually a buzzard. There were about 30 of them in one tree. I'll post a pic of that later.

leaves on a bench down by the lake

I thought the colors were amazing

Unfortunately, a huge storm came the day after I took all of these and knocked the majority of the remaining leaves off. Anyway, enjoy your week!

wedding

This past Saturday James and I had a wedding that we went to. Actually, that's putting it lightly. Two of our best friends here got married and we were in the wedding party, we sang the processional (when she walked in), and I made their wedding cake. So we were slightly involved in the whole process. Anyway, it was a BEAUTIFUL wedding, bride, setting, day..etc. Anyway, I didnt' have a chance to take many pictures but here are a few.

James and I being...well...us.

outside where the wedding was

top of the cake

their wedding cake! it was covered in chocolate ganache, that's why it's not as smooth as icing, but tasted WAY better!

Fall

Fall is my FAVOURITE time of year for lots of reasons! A. College Football. 2. Baseball Playoffs D. the weather starts to get a little cooler. 4. Halloween is the best Holiday! and 5. Fall in upstate New York is stunning. Most nights James and I take the boys on an hour, or so, long walk. This serves a myriad of purposes. It get us off our butts, we have a little quiet time, and it totally wears the dogs out. This time of year is the absolute greatest. Last night we just walked around for about an hour an half. I, of course, took my camera. Unfortunately, we left a little too late so I wasn't able to get as many good shots as I wanted. But, you'll get the idea. Anyway, here a few shots from last night. I'll be posting more from days to come as the leaves turn even more.

This is James and the boys in Cooper Park

Angus just chillin in the leaves.

James playing with the dogs

Taking it all in!

One of the beautiful trees this time of year. You can see the red at the top of the tree! gorgeous!

leaves

the red ivy grows on a lot of houses!

Cooper Park

Again

This beautiful tree right up the street. At night the street light makes it look like it's on fire!

Anyway, hope you like these. I will be taking a LOT more the next few weeks!

Here's a joke for you:

Little Tony had been playing outside with the other kids for a while when he came into the house and asked his Grandmother: "Grandma, what's that thing called when two people sleep in the same room and one is on top of the other?" She was a little taken aback, but she decided to just tell him the truth "it's called sexual intercourse, darling." Little Tony, just said "oh, okay." and went back outside to play with the other kids. A few minutes later he came back in and said angrily "Grandma it isn't called sexual intercourse, its' called BUNK BEDS, and Jimmy's mom wants to talk to you!!!!"

Cheers, y'all!

Funny Story...to me, anyway!

As most of you know we have two dogs, Gunther the brown dog who looks like Benji and LOVES attention, and Angus. Angus is special. He's a Scottie. He's somewhat anti-social and....Jaunty. Yep that's the perfect word to describe him..he's Jaunty. Anywho, when James or myself comes home , generally both dogs will greet us in a matter of minutes. Gunther is normally waiting by the back door and Angus reluctantly follows suit. Today, I've been home working on wedding pictures, and converting my cake recipes for a cake I have to do next week. James came home around 11;40 to have lunch. (We have a guy who's repainting our house per our landlord's request, so i've kept the dogs downstairs with me, otherwise they would bark constantly) So, I had just seen them not 10 minutes before James came home. He walks in the back door with his normal "HI" to let me know it's him. Gunther comes running out...but no Angus. ( not so weird). But we decided to try to find him anyway. So we're both calling his name.....that doesn' t work (but it rarely does), then I try "wanna go outside?" (now, this is generally a sure-fire way to get that dog to show his face...but STILL no Angus. So now we're a little concerned. we can't find him anywhere. Then I see this..

Just to give you a better idea of where this dog decided to hide. This is an armoire in the corner of our dining room. (Please excuse the large stack of magazines, James was supposed to take those to the hospital a while ago) If you look closely in the bottom picture you can see how we'd miss him. :)

Okay, so next story. I'm weird, that's no secret. We live on a fairly busy street in Cooperstown. People really like to look into our house...I don't like it when people look into our house and I'm not going to close the shades on a perfectly good day or evening when there is plenty of natural light. Well to put a stop...or actually just to entertain myself this is what I put IN THE WINDOW. I think it s' fantastic. It's mask that I wore in a dance I choreographed that I put on a bendy-neck (?) lamp. :) (insert maniacal laugh here)

I made Banana bread today, I can't have it because i'm allergic to bananas, but James likes it! :)oh, and I made the bowl!
Cheers!