TCB :)

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required.

There's your sign!

Just wanted to start out by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas! I thought I had changed by background, but I didn't and we still have turkeys! :)

I'm getting so excited about Christmas--it's my favorite time of the year!

This video may or may not stay posted. I was in a traffic accident today (I'm ok) and I'm trying to figure out how to get the video from my camera to my computer. It's on an SD card, so you'd think it'd be a breeze to transfer, but it's not... the only thing that shows up on the card is my music. ;p

I had just gotten onto the highway today, around noon, and was working my way over to the fast lane. (The highway is 2 lane southbound, 2 lane northbound.) Before I knew it, a "lane closed" sign appeared and there was nowhere for me to go. To my left there was an 18-wheeler, and behind me there were cars. If I had stopped there could have been more damage. I slowed down as much as I could, but there wasn't much time. Luckily no one was injured, but we did lose our right eye (our mirror), and a window on our camper shell. I pulled off the side of the road onto the shoulder and . . . freaked! While I was waiting, for troopers and insurance and the like, I whipped out my phone and shot some video. A second truck did the same thing!! Before the construction workers got a brain and brought more trucks out to alert motorists of the lane closure, a 3rd accident occurred, only it was in the left lane and 2 cars hit each other. They were able to pull off the side of the road, and no one was hurt.

A supervisor came out and told us that signs *were* out and that we couldn't talk to her, that we would have to wait for the Troopers, when it was clear there were no signs out before she came. (She brought 3 trucks out to alert motorists after the accidents had occurred.)

It pretty much put a dent in my day (no pun intended), but I'm really glad no one was hurt. So...be careful around construction zones, even when you don't know they're there! This video is footage of the truck that hit the sign after I did.

One more that didn't post

For all intents and purposes, she was on the floor where the cord is and jumped to the black couch. Gotta love her! :)

One more that didn't post.

Super Dog...not so much

This is what happens when a dog decides she can jump through the space dividing the lamp and the couch. Luckily, no animals, humans, lamps, couches or computers were hurt during this event.

*Thanks*, Chena!

Morning Run, er....Walk

Over the past few months, I've been paying more and more attention to people who run marathons. From friends to random people to celebrities who run, I'm starting to think, "Hey! This marathon thing might catch on!" :wink:

No, I haven't signed up for a marathon, but I did find this neat site. There's a lot of content on the site, 95% of which I will probably never ever use, but there's this training log where times, distances, running shoes, etc can be tracked. I usually take the dogs with me when I walk, but it's always a chore walking them both. So I went out by myself this morning, in order to have a relaxed walk. I logged my first 2-mile walk alone this morning at 38 minutes. I'm not sure that I will ever have the desire to run a marathon, but I'm excited about this site!

OUR Awards!

Ok, so I stole this post idea from my friend Alison, but I was going to post one of those "getting to know you" quizzes, so you can thank me later. ;) My choices are in bold below, and I've also added my thoughts here and there.

FAVORITE MOVIE ACTOR
Brad Pitt-I wouldn't vote for him if you paid me.
Hugh Jackman-for me, it was a toss up between Hugh and Johnny, but Johnny won
Johnny Depp
Robert Pattinson
Ryan Reynolds

FAVORITE MOVIE ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway
Drew Barrymore - I love Drew!
Jennifer Aniston - I loved her in Friends, but I'm getting tired of the "lonely girl" shpill. Sorry.
Kristen Stewart
Sandra Bullock - I love Sandra, too, but love Drew just a little bit more!

FAVORITE ACTION STAR
Christian Bale - Again, a toss up, this time between Bale and Diesel. How can I not vote for the "bad boy"?
Gerard Butler
Hugh Jackman
Shia LaBeouf
Vin Diesel

FAVORITE COMEDIC STAR -This was really hard for me, as I think all of these guys can hold their own against each other, except for Ryan Reynolds. I don't find him laugh-out-loud funny.
Adam Sandler
Ben Stiller
Jim Carrey
Ryan Reynolds
Vince Vaughn

FAVORITE BREAKOUT MOVIE ACTRESS
Anna Kendrick - Who?
Emily Osment - She's cute, but other than Hannah Montana, I'm not sure what she's starred in
Ginnifer Goodwin - Umm...I like her, just not over the top
Miley Cyrus - Highly successful, but sometimes she's not the best role model for young girls.
Zoe Saldana - She was the best choice! Love her!

FAVORITE BREAKOUT MOVIE ACTOR
Chris Pine
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Sam Worthington
Taylor Lautner
Zachary Quinto

FAVORITE ON-SCREEN TEAM
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Proposal
The Twilight Saga - You don't have to be a teen to fall in love with this movie!
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
X-Men Origins: Wolverine


FAVORITE INDEPENDENT MOVIE
(500) Days of Summer
District 9
Inglourious Basterds
Paranormal Activity
Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail - This is the only one I've seen. I love Tyler Perry, but to be honest, the play version of this was much better than the movie. (If you haven't seen any of the play versions of TP's movies, you are missing out!) I want to see 500 Days of Summer, and I'm thinking that Paranormal Activity will win this award.

FAVORITE COMEDY MOVIE
17 Again
Bride Wars
He's Just Not That Into You
The Hangover
The Proposal

FAVORITE MOVIE
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Star Trek
The Hangover
The Proposal
Twilight - This is the only one I've seen.

FAVORITE TV DRAMA - No vote. I don't watch any of these shows.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Grey's Anatomy
House
Lost
NCIS

FAVORITE TV COMEDY
Desperate Housewives - I watch this show, but I wouldn't classify it as strictly a comedy.
How I Met Your Mother - Never seen it
The Big Bang Theory - Never seen it
The Office - Love it!
Two and a Half Men - To be fair, I've only seen reruns, so I don't know if the current ones are funny or not. Love the reruns, though!

FAVORITE TV DRAMA ACTOR - The only actor I've watched is Kiefer, and I'm not really a fan of him right now. no vote.
Hugh Laurie
Kiefer Sutherland
Mark Harmon
Matthew Fox
Patrick Dempsey

FAVORITE TV DRAMA ACTRESS
Anna Paquin
Blake Lively
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Katherine Heigl
Mariska Hargitay

FAVORITE TV COMEDY ACTOR
Alec Baldwin
Charlie Sheen
Jim Parsons
Neil Patrick Harris
Steve Carell - Hands down. He can make me cry from laughing so hard.

FAVORITE TV COMEDY ACTRESS
Alyson Hannigan
America Ferrera - Ugly Betty Rocks!
Amy Poehler - tried watching Parks and Recreation since it's from the creators/writers of The Office. Guess what? It's exactly like The Office! I don't like her show b/c it shows lack of originality.
Eva Longoria Parker - love her, just love Betty more!
Tina Fey - She truly is a funny woman, but I don't watch her show.

FAVORITE TV OBSESSION - None of these, really, but if I had to choose one it would be...
Dexter
Gossip Girl
The Hills
The Secret Life of the American Teenager
True Blood

FAVORITE COMPETITION SHOW
American Idol
Dancing with the Stars
Project Runway
So You Think You Can Dance
Survivor: Samoa

FAVORITE NEW TV DRAMA
Eastwick - LOVE this show, but I keep reading that no more episodes past the 13 have been ordered. That's not good.
FlashForward
Melrose Place
Mercy
The Forgotten
The Good Wife
The Vampire Diaries
Three Rivers
NCIS: Los Angeles
V

FAVORITE NEW TV COMEDY
Accidentally on Purpose
Brothers
Community - Liked the first few episodes, just haven't been into it much lately. But I like Joel McHale, so I tune in when I can.
Cougar Town - LOVE IT!
Glee
Hank - awful! I hear it's already been scrapped.
The Cleveland Show
The Middle - The thing I don't like about this show is how the family seems so disconnected from each other.
Modern Family - LOVE IT!

FAVORITE ANIMAL SHOW
Animal Cops
Dog Town
Dog Whisperer - since it's the only show I've seen
It's Me or the Dog
Rescue Ink Unleashed

FAVORITE MALE ARTIST
Eminem
Jason Mraz
John Mayer - If you don't know how much I love John Mayer, then you really have no idea how much I love John Mayer!!
Keith Urban
Tim McGraw

FAVORITE FEMALE ARTIST
Beyonce - She's basically the only one who doesn't get on my nerves and who sets good examples!
Britney Spears
Carrie Underwood
Pink
Taylor Swift

FAVORITE COUNTRY ARTIST
Brad Paisley
Carrie Underwood
Keith Urban
Rascal Flatts - No contest for me here.
Taylor Swift

FAVORITE BREAKOUT MUSIC ARTIST
Adam Lambert If you were anywhere near me during the first half of this year, you'll definitely know why I chose him! However, if voting for the most flattering picture on the voting page, I'd have to choose Demi Lovato. I'm not sure why they posted some of the other pics!
Demi Lovato
Kris Allen
Lady Gaga
Susan Boyle

FAVORITE ROCK BAND
Daughtry
Green Day
Kings of Leon
Muse
Paramore

FAVORITE MUSIC COLLABORATION
Good Girls Go Bad, Cobra Starship & Leighton Meester
Lucky, Jason Mraz & Colbie Caillat
Run This Town, Jay-Z, Rihanna & Kanye West
Life Your Live, T.I. & Rihanna
I'm On a Boat, The Lonely Island & T-Pain - Toss up between this and Lucky. This song makes me laugh.

FAVORITE R&B ARTIST
Alicia Keys
Beyonce
Jennifer Hudson
Mariah Carey
Usher

FAVORITE POP ARTIST
Britney Spears -
Katy Perry - don't like her
Lady Gaga - I'm giving her tons and tons of points for creativity and on that level, she blew everyone out of the water
Taylor Swift - I'm not sure why, but she sometimes gets on my nerves
The Black Eyed Peas

FAVORITE WEB CELEB
Andy Samberg
Ashton Kutcher
Miley Cyrus
P. Diddy
Will Ferrell - I had no idea who ran funny or die.com

Alaska - Last Post

I hope you've enjoyed the posting of some pics of our visit. Here are a few more for ya! :) These are from our Saturday.

We had been riding around for a little bit and came to a stop to look at something or other. We got out and Chris says, "No wonder people were looking at us funny." Well, this was why. A nut holding down the wench on the front of the truck had broken and we were riding around with the wench halfway hanging down!


But, we rigged it until we could get back to our place of stay.


We ran into a couple of sled-dog teams, or mushers, on this day. Here's a picture of the dogs taking a run. What the locals will do is hook the dogs up to a 4-wheeler (b/c there's no snow on the ground yet), put the 4-wheeler in neutral and let the dogs do the pulling. This gets them ready for whatever they need to get ready for. Could be the Iditarod, or could just be this is their mode of transportation (see bottom right of 1st page "Vehicle Configuration") for the winter. Since the Iditarod official start point is in Wasilla, and that's where we were, I would say these people are getting ready for the race. We didn't get to talk to them, so I can't say with certainty. Either way, I thought it was so neat!


One of the roads we went down many, many times!


Chris' picture-taking skills. He saw the red berries and green moss and wanted to place them together. I just saw the red berries and took pictures of that. I would have never thought to actually move the berries to the moss.


And on this one, he moved the leave that was in the way of the red and green. I was amazed by his creativity! (It doesn't take much to make me happy!)


You would not believe how hard it is to get pictures of someone trying to throw leaves in the air! So...I'm signing off with these. Chris was behind the camera and I was having fun! :)


Thanks for tagging along and taking a look at our pictures! :)

Alaska - Post 5c

Here is the pump from one of the places we stopped to get gas. You know those thriller movies where the people always run out of gas in the middle of nowhere? Well, that would have been us had we ever run out of gas. Good thing we didn't! I took a picture of this pump, because a couple of days previous to this, we decided to stop and fill up. However, when Chris went inside to get $20 worth, all we could squeeze out was about $13.00. We called the next day to see if they had gas and this was the response we got: "The fuel truck was supposed to come yesterday, but he never showed, so I wouldn't count on it." I took this picture because I was so excited that we got more than $20 worth!


And here's the general store that sold us the gas.


This was a fun and exciting Friday night. Bundled up with coat, gloves and scarf, riding in a 2-seater truck with the heat up and the windows down. It was cold outside, but the air fresh enough that we didn't want to be just sitting in the truck with the heat blasting. We saw about 8 moose, and of course I was loving it! But back to the picture...we saw this moose on the side of the road and I wanted a picture, so we pulled up and got one! We pulled to the side of the road, and the moose was 5-7 feet away from us. And she was just standing there--staring us down! The only reason she didn't run away from us, even though they aren't skiddish animals, is because she had her baby with her. Those pics didn't come out so great, but I just love this one!

I had been wanting pics of the city of Anchorage at night, but something always happened where I couldn't get one. So, we made a specific run out to the bluff again to get pics. Well, my awesome husband informed me on the way there, that the area we were going to was notorious for bears. GRRREAT! So...I really wanted a picture. I have my camera on the tripod, ready to go, and I'm unfolding it as we're walking so I can put it down, shoot, and run back to the truck. Well...the land I had the tripod on was not flat. That, coupled with my feeling of need to not let go of the camera setup, led to shaky pictures. Another grrreat! And then, Chris tells me he hears a rustling in the woods so by now my heart is pounding and I'm packing up, heading back to the truck. These are the best of my Anchorage pics. LOL






I hope you enjoyed our Friday in Alaska. One more day of pics to come!

Alaska - Post 5b

We were on a high point looking across at the trees. (Try typing "at the trees" three times fast--whew!) I'm sharing with you because I think they're absolutely gorgeous!

Here is another moose sighting. Or at least, where some had been.


This is a picture of mud flats, the same place where the car boneyard is. Yes, I'm fascinated with this place, and the mud just makes it that more eerie. The mud flats is basically like quicksand. Once you go in, it's very very difficult to get out, if at all possible.


And...here's a rusted object on the beach of the mud flats.


A close up of the mud. I thought this was pretty.


Another view of Anchorage.


I'm inserting this picture because I wanted to point out that this was taken from above the flats. If you look hard, about a quarter of the way from the bottom, you can see the gravel ends and the mud begins. Well, where the gravel ends is literally where it ends, and then it drops straight down into the bluff, where the cars go. I'm not sure why I wanted to point that out, but I just did. :)


(2 of 3 postings)

Alaska - Post 5a

On to our Friday. By the way, I'm sorry I don't have any cool collages or setups of the pictures other than single shots. Maybe one day when I'm not fed up with Picasa only posting 4 pictures at a time, I'll get creative. For now, you get a play-by-play (almost but not quite) viewing. Here's another picture of a grouse. This was in the state park I previously mentioned, so we couldn't shoot it. I couldn't see it in the tree, so I gave Chris the camera so he could "shoot" it. We ended up getting 2 birds this day and cooked them for supper. They are a dark meat, and actually are pretty good. The way Chris seasoned them, they tasted like roast beef. Yum-o!


This was taken in a field, and I'm like a little kid when I see wildlife in Alaska. I can't get the camera to take a picture fast enough, and I try to enjoy the animals at the same time. It's kind of hard to see this moose, but don't worry--I also zoomed! (The moose is that thing almost smack dab in the middle of the picture.)




We followed this logging trail for a few miles. It was very pretty, with the colors of the leaves changing, and also fun! There were slopes and hills, and the truck we were in just made it that much more fun! Here are a couple of pics.




Random trees


A picture of the mountains from far away.


Close-up of the mountain. I love my camera!!


(Part 1 of 3 postings)

Alaska - Post 4

On Wednesday of our trip, we didn't get to do much exploring. This was the last day we stayed with our first hosts, and they had school and work, and we had to get to our next place of stay so we didn't get to see the great outdoors really. I think we did a little bit of shopping and eating. (And when I saw 'we' shopped, I mean the guys.) I got about 5 pictures, at night, and they have no great significance, so I'm not posting.

On to Thursday. The owner of the second place we stayed was out duck hunting, so we had a couple of days where we weren't on anyone else's schedule but ours. And while we were grateful for having hosts, it was nice to have time to enjoy. We planned on getting up "early" on Thursday, but our early turned into 9:00AM. ;)

We started out our adventures for the day in a state park.


Here are some ice crystals that formed because of the freezing whether. As the day went on, the sun eventually melted them, until the next morning, when the cycle began again.


If you look at the bottom left, you will see a leaf that is covered in ice, that resembles a fish. We didn't notice this until we were going through the pictures later that night!


I became fascinated with the flowing water.


And my focus button.


Here we are with our borrowed ride we had for the couple of free days we had.


I'm not sure what was going on here, but I'm kind of liking it!


A scenic view of the wildlife. (aka, Mosquito!)


Chugach Mountain Range


Downtown Anchorage.......and a branch.


Grouse (otherwise known as 'stupid chickens')


I don't know the name of this plant, but it looks like cotton.


We found ourselves back at the bluff where cars get pushed over the edge. A new car appeared and had been burned, but not yet pushed over the bluff. *But* the car is not the focus of this picture. The following are pictures of a touch and go landing by the Cessna.

Adam Lambert's New Single!

In case you haven't heard, I am a huge huge fan of Adam Lambert. And he has a new single out! :)

Alaska - Post 3a

Don't be fooled: we weren't this close to the creature. I'm not good with distances, so I'm not sure if this would even make sense, but I'd say we were about a football field's length away from the moose. We were far enough away that I felt comfortable, I'll just say that. Even if it had been a bear, I would have been comfortable.


There were 2 moose, so here's both of them together.


I'm not sure why, but I remember being fascinated with this stream flowing from the mountain, so I'm sharing it with you.


I, accidentally, snapped a picture of the snow flurries that were falling from the sky. I think I was actually testing out the flash (it wasn't as dark as the picture makes it seem) and ended up with this.


There are a few gold mines in the area we were in, and although we didn't run into any, we did come across this contraption.


Here we are in front of the contraption. We had already gone as far as we wanted to go and were heading back to the car. If you look, you'll see the stream behind us that we hopped across getting to and from the water mill. I guess that's what that thing is?


After another day of wandering, we headed back to our hosts' house, and were greeted by a mother and baby moose at the entrance to the neighborhood. You can see the baby in the front, and the mother's ears from behind the bush.


I have a ton of pictures from this day, but don't have them uploaded anywhere yet. I might put them on my Picasa web album so I can share more of them. But for now, I "Hope" you're enjoying!