some may call me the cat whisperer...

Or... others might just call me a crazy cat lady. Lance likes to remind me, that I am very lucky that he married me... because if it weren't for him, I would definitely be destined to the life of a "crazy old cat lady." And sadly, he's probably right.

Currently we have 3 cats that we claim as our own... I feed them daily, I have given them all names, and I have paid to have them all fixed. Rosco, Blackie & Little Cat (I said they had names, I didn't say they were creative names).

Meet Little Cat. (he's shy) He found us at our old house and adopted us. We tried our best to find his owners, but he seemed pretty content to just stay with us.

Meet Rosco & Blackie. They are brothers. The day we moved into our current home, these guys were teeny-tiny kittens living right under our house. We started feeding them by default when they broke into our screened in porch.

But see, recently there has been this other cat that has been sneaking on our back porch to eat our cat food. I hate this cat. Seriously. It is actually the mama cat of Rosco & Blackie, but she had disappeared for a while... and I was perfectly okay with this.

But Nasty-Skank-Mama-Cat (yes, that shall be her name) has reappeared. I hate her. Everyday... she stares at me, hisses at me, then proceeds to eat my cat food... every flipin' day.

But... It just so happens that Nasty-Skank-Mama-Cat produced this adorable baby kitten...

I know... So stinkin' cute, right? I really don't understand how a cat so mean and so ugly can produce a little kitten this cute.

Soooo... I write all of this in hopes that someone reading this post will fall in love with one of these cats and decide they need them to be their own. Pleeeeaseeee. As you know, Lance and I are moving to Louisville early August. We are planning on taking Little Cat with us (unless one of you desperately wants him), but we would love to find good homes for Rosco, Blackie, and super-cute-white-kitten. I don't care about Nasty-Skank-Mama-Cat.

book review...

I figured it was about time for another "inconsistant book review" ...from your very own inconsistant reader.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: So, I have finally finished reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I know, I know, it took me absolutely forever. But I'm completely blaming this on the fact that I lost the book for over 2 weeks under the passenger seat of my car (don't ask). I really did enjoy it, and will definitely be reading the third Harry Potter sometime in the near future. In the meantime, I'm going to take a small break from Hogwarts.

Size 12 is Not Fat: This cute murder mystery book by Meg Cabot was my most recent audio listen. When I am at the library, I totally pick out my audio books based on the cover... I don't believe in that whole "don't-judge-a-book-by-it's-cover" crap. This book had a cute girlie cover, so I snatched it up. But I was completely shocked to discover it was actually a murder mystery... okay, a cute-girlie-murder-mystery, but none-the-less, I was very pleased with my selection. Audio books are best if they are simple and mindless, and this one was. So much, that I actually checked out the sequal 'Big Boned.'

Eclipse: I know, I know... I'm way behind on the whole Twilight mania. But I barely made it through 'New Moon' and I just had to give the whole saga a rest for a while. I feel like I'm ready to give it another chance now. My original goal was to finish the book before the movie came out... but seeing as how I just started the book yesterday and the movie comes out on Wednesday... that's probably not going to happen.

Redeeming Love: Okay, I have read this book a long time ago, and it is probably ranked as my #1 favorite book of all time. This Francine River's novel is the book I recommend to anyone and everyone. I recently encouraged two of my co-workers to give it a try, and they both absolutely loved it. This book quickly became the topic of some of our lunch conversations and I decided that it's probably about time that I re-read this favorite. And... if any of you have not read 'Redeeming Love' ... you must.

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As a side note... thanks to all who checked out the Black Tag Photography website. I realized today that I still have a few glitches to work out, so be sure to check back soon!

what i've been working on...

I spent the better part of my weekend putting together my very own website for Black Tag Photography. It has been a labor of love, and I have to say, I'm feeling pretty good about it so far. My goal was to have some type of website put together before I photograph my second wedding on July 10th. Goal accomplished.

You can go check out the new site yourself if you would like... www.blacktagphotography.com

I am also attempting to set up a Facebook Fan page. So, here's my shameless plug for that... "Be a fan of Black Tag Photography, and tell all of your friends!"

Okay, no more... I promise.

restaurant review :: which wich

Yesterday I went to lunch at Which Wich with the girls from my office. I have to say, I was pretty impressed. I loved the whole concept. You basically get to pick/design your "wich" exactly how you want it.

When you walk in, you choose a paper bag for your type of sandwich (chicken, turkey, beef, vegetarian, and even breakfast).

Then once you have your bag, you select the remaining ingredients directly on your bag (bread, cheese, spreads, veggies, etc), kind of like a scantron quiz.

You give the Which Wich people your little paper bag and in a few minutes they call your name and produce your sandwich, exactly how you ordered it, right inside that little brown paper bag. Genius, right?

As for the sandwich itself... I ordered a vegetarian caprese with avocado. And I wasn't crazy about my selection. But I fault myself here. I will definitely be going back to find my very own signature "wich."

But, just in case the sandwich itself didn't do it... Which Wich won me over with their ice machine. That's right, they have pellet ice! You can never go wrong with pellet ice. For whatever reason, it makes my Dr. Pepper taste even better. I also noticed Which Wich makes some amazing milkshakes. Will definitely be trying one of those on my next visit.

thankful thursday

This Thursday I am thankful for:

1) Happy mail! I absolutely adore happy mail... you know, care packages, sweet notes from far-away friends, birth announcements, wedding invitations... basically anything that's not a bill. And yesterday, I received such a fun little package from my kindred spirit in sunny California. This little padded manila envelope contained some of the cutest monogrammed stationary I have ever seen, a perfect summer tank, some adorable red flower earrings, fun party napkins, and a sweet little note. I absolutely love happy mail! Thanks MMR :)

2) My personal assistant. Aka, my sister. She is the absolute best. Jenna knew I was practically hyperventilating with stress from work, the move, an upcoming wedding, etc... so she and her boyfriend drove up from Birmingham to basically check off my to-do list for the next few days. So, while I have been at the office, she has been boxing away (sharpie in hand), calling utility companies, and even calling pet adoption agencies (anyone want a couple of cats?). She really is spectacular. And... if you pay her enough, she will come to your house too :)

3) A fully-functioning Prius. That's right... because I have the Husband of the Year, my little Prius is up and running again. Good as new. The long drive to Raleigh, NC proved to be worth it. Lance was able to get a refurbished battery and everything seems to be running like it should. Our Prius is what they call a "2nd Generation Prius" and the guys at the shop told Lance our Prius had more miles on it than any 2nd Generation they had seen... translation: I drive too much. Regardless, I'm thrilled to have the Prius back!

husband of the year

And this year's 'Husband of the Year Award' goes to.... Drumroll please....

(opening envelope)

That's right, you guessed it... my husband!!

He has secured his place in the Husband Hall of Fame today. Of course he has always been in the HHF to me, but now, I'm sure all of blogland will agree with me...

Do you remember how yesterday I told you about the Prius, and how the "life support battery" completely died on us? And how we were desperately searching for a refurbished battery, since that was about half the price of a brand new battery? Well, Lance found a place to get the refurbished battery... but it just happens to be in Raleigh, NC... a solid 5 hour drive from our house. But apparently, this is the only place on this side of the continental US that actually sells these refurbished batteries.

So, my husband, being the saint that he is, got in the Prius bright and early this morning and drove the 5 HOURS to Raleigh to take it to the shop... and then he will wait for 2-3 HOURS while they replace our old battery (and charge our credit card for $1,800, of course)... and then he will drive ANOTHER 5 HOURS to bring the Prius back home.

Told you. Absolute best husband in the world. And yes, apparently you can drive the Prius around with the dead battery, it just has to work really, really hard.

a sad day for the prius...

Today marked a very sad day for our little 2005 Toyota Prius. Today, my friends, the battery died. And when I say battery... I mean the real battery. Every Prius has two batteries... one regular battery (just like any regular engine car) and one TOTAL-LIFE-SUPPORT-OF-YOUR-CAR-BATTERY. The latter one is the one that died...

And go figure... the warranty on the battery was good up until 150,000 miles, my Prius just hit 161,000 miles the other day. Totally sucks. This is typically a $3,000 plus replacement, but Lance is trying to find a refurbished battery that hopefully will only cost about $1,500. I say the word "only" very loosely here.

But... I did get to pimp the Denali to work today. How awesome is that? And how HUGE is that? This thing could swallow my little Prius whole.

adorable little rental... check.

Here is our adorable little (2 bedroom) rental. It is absolutely perfect... and was the last place we looked at after a very long day of rental searching. Lance and I arrived in Louisville Thursday afternoon. We spent all of Thursday evening and all day Friday calling numbers on 'For Rent' signs, and looking at apartment complex after apartment complex. It was utterly exhausting and we had almost given up hope. On a whim we decided to stop by the seminary so Lance could talk to some people about his class schedule. On our way out, we stumbled upon a housing bulletin board.

...And there it was.

A light blue flier requesting renters for a 2 BR, 2 bath, guest house in a gated community. So at 4:30 Friday afternoon I called the number and left a message... desperately hoping they would return my call. (You would be surprised at how impossible it is to get a hold of some of these people.) Well, sure enough they called us back and allowed us to come by the house that evening to check it out.

The potential rental is only 5 miles from the seminary campus, but you would think you entered another world. Do you remember in my first Kentucky post, how I said we were hoping to find a 2BR rental in one of the trendy neighborhoods near campus? Well... I'd have to say we did pretty good for ourselves. Did you catch the part earlier when I said our rental was someone else's guest house??? Any time the guest house has it's own 2 car garage, you can only imagine what the main house looks like, right?

Well, it's absolutely perfect. I tried to take a couple of pictures with my phone, but the quality is not that great. But basically there is a small living room and kitchen area with one bedroom on the main level. Then you go down this adorable little spiral staircase to get to the second bedroom, aka, my office. It has a washer and dryer, 2 full baths, a perfect little kitchen, and the best part... A POOL. That's right, the main house has a gorgeous backyard with an immaculate swimming pool that we would have access to whenever we want. I mean seriously... how awesome is all of this?

And to top it all off, the landlords are this adorable little young couple, not much older than Lance and I. They have a sweet 18 month old son and both are full-time lawyers. They seem incredibly nice and laid back. We are hoping that our landlords become some of our first friends in Louisville... kind of like a 2-for-1 deal.

Here are a few pictures of the inside. I know the quality is not great, but you kind of get the idea...

This is in the living room area with awesome spiral staircase.

This is another view of the living room/dining area.

This is the upstairs bedroom, which will probably be the master.

This is the downstairs bedroom, which will be the office/guest room.

We are absolutely thrilled with our find... Thanks to all who were praying this weekend!

thankful thursday

This Thursday I am thankful for:

1) Sirius Radio. I love this thing. It makes my commute tolerable and long road trips not quite as long. Currently my favorite presets... Station 21-Alt Nation, Station 30-Coffeehouse, and Station 24-Lithium.

2) Road trips. I don't always love road trips... but I'm a pretty big fan when I don't have to drive... Today we (and when I say we, I mean Lance) are driving to Louisville to hopefully find our adorable little rental. Fingers crossed.

3) Golden Oreos. Have you had these things? They are awesome. Your typical oreo cookie, except now, the cream center is sandwiched between two golden cookies. Genius. Now when you get cookie all stuck in your teeth, it won't be quite as obvious.

TOMS makes wedges... what???

That's right blogland... the ever popular TOMS, now makes these adorable wedges. And mine arrived at the office today :)

Seriously, leave it to this company to combine comfort, with cuteness, and all for a good cause. I think I'm in love. I ordered the Navy Stripe Calypso's... and they are absolutely perfect. The heel height is just right at a little over 3"... and the canvas and jute rope material tone down the heel all together. The perfect combination of dressy meets casual.

On my last TOMS post, I had a couple of reader questions...

-Do they sell them in stores? Yes, I have heard of a few outdoor stores that are selling TOMS, but it's mostly small boutique size stores. Just make sure that if you are not purchasing directly from the TOMS website, that your funds are still being put to good use, with a pair of shoes being sent to a child in need.

-Do they fit true to size? Yes. I wear an 8.5... and the 8.5 in both the original and the wedges fit perfectly.

If you are thinking about purchasing a pair for yourself, they are totally worth it.... both for you and the good cause.

smellin' good. real good.

Do you remember a few months ago when I started my search to find the one. You know, that perfect signature scent. I searched high and low... at Perfumania and Ulta... smelling fragrance after fragrance...

At every perfume store I entered, I always asked if they carried Burberry Summer... the answer was always no. Until finally, last week, I gave in. I decided that if I really wanted to find the perfect scent, I might just have to suck it up and pay full price... something I rarely do. But after deciding that Burberry Summer was the only one for me, I marched myself into Macy's... directly to the 'fine fragrance' counter... found the first white-lab-coat-employee... and told them to ring me up for a bottle of the Burberry Summer. And I must say, I'm very pleased with my full price purchase.

However, during my search for the perfect fragrance, I did stumble upon a few other potential scents. Based on some of your comments from my original post, I tried Ralph Lauren Romance, Burberry Brit, and Pure Grace Philosophy. I even ended up purchasing a small bottle of Philosophy's 'Falling in Love.' I feel really confident about my new I'm-a-grown-up-fragrance-collection. I have a handful of diverse, yet light, favorite scents. Warm Vanilla Sugar will always be my go-to scent, but I love my new Burberry Summer... and now I have a couple of back-up scents, just in case of an emergency.

thankful thursday

This Thursday I am thankful for:

1) EinsteinBros Bagels. I can think of no better way to start your day than with an asiago bagel slathered in cream cheese. I mean seriously... how delicious. And I'm sure it's super healthy, right? Don't answer that.

2) Starbucks Caramel Frapachino. I don't treat myself to these very often, but when I do, they make me oh-so-happy. I'm pretty sure it's the whipped cream and drizzled caramel that does it for me.... every.single.time.

3) Some photography networking. Well, really I was just lucky enough to get invited to eat dinner with three incredibly talented photographers. It was so great to just be able to sit and listen... I was completely inspired. Jennifer, Lora, and Candice all are incredibly gifted at what they do... definitely be sure to check them out.

a little crafting progress

I've been able to make a little bit of progress on a couple of craft projects... and when I say little, I mean little...

So... do you remember this little project idea? My 30 by 30 list in a book? Well, I finally got around to doing something with this project.

I basically took a vertical business card template and put one '30 by 30' item on each card.

These 30 items are all very important to me, and are all things I want to accomplish before my 30th birthday... and you know what they say- goals written down (and numbered in super cute brackets) are more likely to be accomplished. They do say that, right??

So now I have a pile of super-cute-miniature-card-sized life goals. This is as far as I've come with this project... but I'm thinking it has major potential.

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And what about this massive photo project? Remember my lofty goal of organizing my zillions of photos into standard 12x12 scrapbooks?

This one is coming along nicely. I have turned this...

Into this...

And somehow, I want to fancy up the front photo window with these cute little flowers. What do you think?

I will keep you posted as my crafting progress continues... hopefully we'll have some finished products to show off shortly. Stay tuned...

kentucky stats...

I recently stumbled across this awesome new blog... Johnnyism's Weblog. I was thoroughly entertained as I read through this guy's hysterically sarcastic view of the modern world. I was especially ecstatic to see that good ol' Johnny was doing an ongoing series about all 50 US states... and was even more ecstatic to see that he started this series out with the great state of none-other than KENTUCKY.

Here is what Johnny has to say about the Bluegrass State...
(and what I have to look forward to)

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KENTUCKY
Kentucky is one of four U.S. states officially known as a commonwealth. This means absolutely nothing. Nadda. No one has used the word commonwealth since 1954. Kentucky is known as a bluegrass state. This confuses everyone since the grass is not blue. The music is also not grass. Kentucky is also home to horse racing, a sport that most people do not believe still exists.

WHERE DID THE NAME COME FROM?
Named after the fast food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken. The whole state comes in original or extra crispy.

CLIMATE
The temperature is normally hot. Unless it’s snowing. Then I guess it’s cold. What do I know? I’m no meteorologist.

CLIMATE EVENTS
a. Louisville tornado of 1890 claimed over 75 lives. It is also responsible for throwing a cow at Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton.
b. April 3rd 1974 tornado outbreak caused 72 deaths. Residents claim that this will not persuade them to move the trailers they live in.
c. 2008 Super Tuesday tornado outbreak claimed 7 lives. Sensing a pattern yet?
TOURISTS ATTRACTIONS
a. Kentucky Derby. Go to watch horses run around in a circle once a year. Be sure to bet all your savings on the horse with the coolest name. I bet everything I had last year on a horse named Old With Arthritis. I’m still paying on that one.
b. Louisville Zoo. Come see all the amazing animals Kentucky has to offer. From cats to squirrels to the rare human with intelligence. Watch him as he figures out how to use sticks as primitive tools.
c. Mammoth Cave. It’s the world’s longest cave system. The other end comes up in China. Just like in the cartoons.

HISTORY
- Luckily for the early settlers of Kentucky, the native americans had done them a solid and either moved or died from the area. This saved the settlers from the terrible burden of killing and pillaging their teepees thus saving them years of therapy.
- It was a border state during the Civil War. This meant it had cold feet and commitment issues. Some say it will never settle down and get married.
DEMOGRAPHICS
Kentucky has a population of 17 people. None of them know each others names and all live in Louisville. There is not a single soul located anywhere else in the entire area.
MAJOR CITIES
Louisville. The only major city in the state. No other cities are real and are considered ghost towns.
EDUCATION
5% can read.
2% finished high school.
RECREATION
Most Kentuckians enjoy going to Kentucky Wildcat games. They get a thrill out of getting their hopes up just to have them dashed by a mediocre team. See also Arizona.
STATS AND FUN FACTS
Official State Bird: cardinal
Official motto: “Please come here. I’m lonely.”
-state is home to 25630 Wal-Marts. Most do no business since they are located in the middle of nowhere. They will never close down their stores since then no one will be able to purchase a box of oreo cookies and the Die Hard trilogy on DVD at the same place.
- the state hopes to have high speed internet in the next 5 to 10 years.
- the state internet consists of two squirrels running back and forth along power lines.
- 3 out of the 7 total houses have running water.
- only country music exists here. If you are heard playing some other type of music, then you are lynched and then hung by the neck until dead as according to the law.
FAMOUS PEOPLE FROM KENTUCKY
- George Clooney. Yeah, that Clooney. The handsome dream boat from ER.
- Jim Bowie. Died in the Alamo. Also known for his invention of a knife of some sort, though I don’t recall the name.
- Tom Cruise. Kentucky officially only claims him from the time he was born until the movie Minority Report. Pre crazy years.
- Johnny Depp. A pirate who was best known as the captain of the Black Pearl. Witnesses describe him as a semi intelligent man who walked as if he was drunk all the time. They thought he was dead when he went down with the ship, but somehow he was brought back in a long and drawn out sequence that is completely incomprehensible. He was known for many daring events. Including saving the damsel in distress, Orlando Bloom.
- Ashley Judd. Seen at many basketball games and stores “borrowing” things.
- Billy Ray Cyrus. The father of a famous 15 year old. The only thing important he ever did was grow a mullet.

I will end all these posts with pictures from Kentucky along with a description of each.

The top border was originally suppose to be much more straight, but the person who drew the original picture drank 8 coffees after a hard night of partying.

The Kentucky Derby. Where horses have a moment of fame before they are turned into glue.

The official state food. also, voted most likely to succeed in high school.

with this picture of George Clooney included in my blog, I am now guarenteed an additional 15 visits to this site from women and some men.

the only instruments you are allowed to use in Kentucky. If you are caught using anything else, you will be treated as if you do not have the right to vote.
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Kentucky... here I come!

If you have a moment (or are just really bored at work) you really should read some of the other posts on Johnny's blog... very entertaining, to say the least.