Wordless Wednesday.

Camera's. Canning. Puppy's oh my!

I'm in the market for a new camera. I have a Sony Cyber-shot now. It's an OK camera, but I have found that whenever I zoom in on any object, I get a lot of grainy looking pictures. I HATE that. I also cant stand the long delay. Carly is so hard to capture on camera. I need something a bit quicker.

I'm, by no means anywhere near being a professional photographer. However, I do want a decent camera. One that I can snap pictures and get those poses I seem to miss . I would love one that I can zoom in on any object and not get grainy looking pictures.

Anyone out there have any ideas for me?? I would really appreciate knowing what kind of cameras you all have. I know several of you have the Rebel. Not sure I want to spend quite that much money. A happy medium between the Rebel and my Cyber-shot would be nice. Hopefully!

---------------------------------------------------------------

Today has been a BUSY one! We were picking cucumbers and green beans again out of the garden. I have made another 7 quarts of dill pickles. Still have cukes to deal with tomorrow. Likely, another 7 quarts. I'm also doing green beans again! Actually, I'm still doing them right now. Total of 7 quarts of green beans tonight too. I already did 8 quarts of green beans last week. Sheesh...gardening is a lot of work. Worth it come winter though.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Puppies. What do you do with a puppy that is so rambunctious??? Our pup is just 6 months old. He is HUGE. He's part Doberman/Rottweiler. We had him fixed last week and he weighed in at 70lbs. The vet says, "he is going to be HUGE". Yeah. We kind of figured that out. However, he has to be the biggest clumsiest pup I've ever seen. He wants to PLAY all the time. I mean always. If you aren't playing with him. He's getting into to trouble. You can pretty much count on it! Such as digging holes in the yard. Pulling flowers out. Yep...he pulls my flowers out of the ground. Roots and all. Chews everything. Loves to eat cardboard boxes. Not that we have tons sitting around, but we do have a few in our garage. Um, well we had a few in the garage.

Yesterday UPS dropped off a large box for Ashleigh. I had no idea UPS had even been here. They never even knocked on the door. Actually, they left the package out in the driveway. Didn't even bring it to the door. Well Diesel, the pup, found that package. He ate a corner of the box. Thankfully, he didn't get into the contents or Ashleigh would have gone ballistic on him.

Today, I was busy getting ready to start canning. First, I thought I had better check on the pup. We have underground dog fencing for our dogs. Works great by the way. Anyway, I went to the back storm door to see what he was up to. Oh did I find a mess. I found particle of minuscule size all over our back porch/steps and side walk. I went out to check this mess out. I had no idea what the heck it was. As I was looking at all the tiny pieces, I also found a large Ziploc food storage bag. It had our last name written on it. Hmm. Still couldn't figure it out. I then decided to check out the yard. That's when I found it. A box. A small box. It had the name of our vet on it. Oh my gosh. I knew exactly what it was. The ashes of out Sheltie, Ruby. Who was killed by a stupid girl talking on a cell phone while flying past our house. The dog was on the side of the road..still, she got hit and killed instantly. I saw the entire thing. That's when we got the underground fence.

I was sickened by my discovery. I was very angry with Paul. I had thought he buried this poor dogs ashes. He obviously did not. OK, so it had been 3 stinking years. He should have got on the ball and taken care of it. Now, Ruby is laid to rest. She is in my flower beds. Home I suppose. But still, I was ticked. That took an hour and a half out of my canning day. You wouldn't believe the mess those tiny bone fragments and ashes make all over your porch. It was not a pretty site.

Will this puppy phase ever end? I sure hope so, for Diesels sake. And mine! Because if it doesn't end soon....Oh my. Not sure what I will do.

I never fails...

Whenever we go anyplace, Carly is normally with us. Rarely do we leave her behind. Partly, because I don't feel anyone can watch her as closely and as well as I can. Ashleigh is fully capable, but still...no one cares for her better than I do. My mom and dad do keep her some, but honestly, they are now 71 yrs old. It's hard for them to keep up with her. As she is pretty much NON STOP! Which we are very thankful for by the way. She is a busy little girl without a doubt. Another reason that we take her with us, is simple. She is our little girl and she goes where we go. And she LOVES to go.

It never fails. No matter where we are. Be it the park, grocery store, the mall, out to eat or even on a weekend getaway. People are drawn to her. It just never fails! Most of the time, it doesn't bother us. Some people comment on how cute she is. To that, we say "thank you". Some people ask her age; and then nearly faint when we tell them she is 7! Every once in a while, I offer up the facts to her size..Down syndrome., along with congenital heart defect and the fact that she endured 26 long agonizing months of chemotherapy. Some are thrown aback, some are not. Some are very interested after hearing about it. Some, wish they never would have asked. Like maybe they could catch something from her.

It's interesting to us, how some people will just look at her and smile. Some people roll their eyes at her. Most of the time it's older ladies who do the eye rolling. I must say, that really blows my mind. I then realize, that back in their day, a child like Carly, who was born with Down syndrome., was tossed aside. Kept locked away in a room so no one would see them. Shut off from society. Left with little or no love. I really can't come up with another reason for these older women to give us or Carly nasty looks. Carly is very well behaved. She rarely acts up in public. Now at home, well - that's an entirely different story!

Something else that never fails. The complete strangers who go out of their way to ask, "is she Downs"? I always reply with this, "yes, she is a child with Down syndrome". Always. That's the way I choose to reply. They will then tell us of their sister, brother, aunt, uncle, cousin etc...who has Down syndrome. It's then quickly followed by, "aren't they the most loving people"? I'm telling you, IT NEVER FAILS! Each time someone approaches us regarding Carly and Down syndrome., they always throw in that stereotype of "so loving".

While we were on our little weekend get away to Splash Universe. We were heading back to our hotel room when approached by a very friendly guy. I noticed right away that he was smiling at Carly. I mean, he was SMILING! As we got closer to him, he did it...he asked the question. I of course gave him my reply. Then he told us, his sister had a boy with Downs. Let me tell you, I can NOT stand it when people say Downs. It's NOT Downs. It is Down syndrome. Sheesh!
He then went on just as I knew he would. Talking about how loving these people are. This time, we said, "well, she's loving when she wants to be, but she is also the most stubborn, strong willed child God ever put on this earth". To that, the man really didn't know what to say. If I'm not mistaken, I believe his jaw dropped open.

He then went on to tell us how the school mainstreamed his nephew. And that he is now 18 and is a sophomore in High School. He acted like it was really something to mainstream. Little does he know..that is the case with many of our Down syndrome kiddos. I of course told him that Carly is also mainstreamed and will be going into 1rst grade in the fall.

Don't get me wrong. This guy was not obnoxious at all. He was really quite friendly. We were friendly back. Talked a little and then headed on our way. As we got to our room, Paul finally spoke. These were his words, "why do people think kids who are born with Down syndrome are so much different than anyone else"? Of course, I had no answer to that question. He then said, "can't people see that Carly is a child like every other child, that she really isn't all that different"? We talked a little about it, but then quickly turned our attention back to Carly and her playful, silly, little self.

No matter where we go. What we are doing. I never fails. Someone knows someone who was born with Down syndrome. Or Down's as most call it. Honestly, I appreciate those people who take the time to ask us questions about Carly. The one's who bother me, are the older ladies who just stare at us like we have a freak for a side kick.

Regardless of what anyone thinks regarding Down syndrome. Our love for Carly will never fail. We are so blessed to have been given this very precious little girl. We are thankful for her every single day.

We were M I A...

Click on photo to enlarge.

Yes we were missing in action over the weekend. No computer and only a few tweets went out! We were much too busy having fun!

Paul and I took Carly to Splash Universe and Cabela's over the weekend. We had a really good time. Except we realized, Carly really should have had a little brother or sister. Just to have a playmate. Anyway, we went Saturday and spent the night. On Sunday, we headed to Cabela's. It's right across the street from Splash Universe.

We played in the water for hours. We went swimming in the hotel pool. Which is in another building and was much quieter. We hit the huge game room. Carly LOVED playing games. She really wanted to play the Dance Moves game, but it was geared toward an older crowd. She tried though.

Finally at 10:30 we headed back to our room for showers and sleep. The room was a 1 bed room. Thankfully, it was a King size bed. It was nice to think we would have ample amount of room for sleeping...NOT! Carly is a bed hog. She was all over that bed. Her legs flip and twist all night long! She looks like a human pretzel. No kidding!

Sunday we got up early and headed to the continental breakfast the hotel offered. It was by far the best one we had ever seen. There were so many different selections. We ate then headed back to pack up our room. We had to check out at 11. However, we could still access the splash park up till 10pm. We opted (well Paul and Carly) to just go for a few hours and then change and head over to Cabela's. I honestly had had enough of the splash pad on Saturday. My foot has a heel spur and if I don't have my shoes on, it KILLS me! So, Sunday there was NO WAY I was going to go shoeless to the splash pad. Forget it!

No doubt, we will be taking her back some day. She couldn't get enough of it. Hopefully, my heel spur will be long gone by then!

Dance Fever!

This is the way Carly and Ashleigh "hang out"! Lots of music and lots of dancing. Sometimes, even the headbanging. Although, tonight Carly decided to mix it up a bit with the dish towel. She had so much fun swing that towel round and round! If you catch it, Carly is telling me "bi, bi" (bye, bye) she says it with more of a southern drawl. Not sure where the heck she picked that up from :o) .

Please ignore the mess of my kitchen. I have been canning pickles all day long! ! I canned 7 quarts of dill and 7 pints of sweet. Big job when you're the only one doing it. That, and tending to Carly throughout the day. She was none to happy with me for working all blasted day in the kitchen. We managed. Thankfully, Ashleigh finally got home and all was well. As you see in the video.

No clue as to why Carly has nothing but underpants on! She thinks it's the coolest thing to rip her clothes off and run around the house in her panties.

While I was uploading this, I realized that Carly's hair is LONG! Holy cow! I hadn't really paid any attention. I normally put it up in a ponytail or pigtails for the summer. Sure, I wash and dry and brush it out, but then I immediately put it up. She isn't used to her hair being down either. (courtesy of Ashleigh) If you notice, she is trying to get it out of her face and push it back. The funniest thing with it being so long now. Hair gets stuck under her arm pits. Man does that tick her off!