Something to make your day...

Hahahahahahahaha.

Photoshop

You can turn a blury, kind of ugly & blah photo into something cool-ish...

Before:

After:

Kind of antique-y, old-y looking...

And yet another reason I need a fancy camera. Haha. I think i'm so amazing...and i know i'm not...

Updates

Sorry I have not blogged a lot lately...seems like there has been a lot happening, but I can't remember all of them...we've been too busy!

Here is what I remember:

1. We have had a TON of snow and it is sooo freezing!

3. The Green Machine drives fantastically in the snow-yay!

2. We are working like crazy people.

3. A lot of work goes into the ward Christmas party...this I now know...and I didn't even do as much as some of the others.

4. I'm tired.

5. I got called racist and deaf (along with a few other explitives) at JC Penneys the other day. Haha. Who knew I was racist, deaf, and a female dog? I didn't. Hahaha. It was actually quite ridiculous, maybe I will tell you the story sometime when I have a few more minutes, but honestly, I don't think the lady was all there...

6. I got yelled at by the Stake Center building coordinator...that's a fun story too. Haha. (I don't think i'm doing so good this week...no one seems to be very happy with me.)

7. I have NO Christmas shopping done, oh wait I did get one thing...

Awwwwwwww Yeah!

So, things have been crazy over here and I haven't even gotten to do ANY Christmas shopping. Despite the fact, we were able to take a little time off to go and meet Glenn Beck! ...Okay, so all we really did was shake his hand as he signed our book, but, really, it was so exciting!! We love Glen, we've been listening to his show now for a couple years and really like it. If you don't know who he is, he's a Conservative talk show host. He does a radio show as well as a show on FOX news. He is Awesome! Here are a couple of pictures:

Of course this was the MOST ridiculous picture of me ever, so I had to block out the explicit images...

They didn't let you take pictures while you were with him, so sorry he is so far away...you get the idea.

Jon's friend also owns a little sign shop close to the bookstore where we saw Glenn so he made a bunch of signs and sold them to people waiting in line. It was so funny, he made us a sign that said, "Hello ya sick twisted freaks!"....if you listen to the show, it's funny...if you don't listen, you might think it's retarded, so disregard, but whatev...

I need a Vacation

I am in need of a vacation--I'm so sick of working.

Who's all in, and where should we go? Somewhere warm....maybe a cruise...the Carribean?

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

This is really exciting for me...ever since Jon and I have been married we have NEVER gotten to have a Christmas tree. Either we were going to be out of town, or some other reason, it has just never quite happened. Well this year I was determined to have a tree. Awhile ago my Grandpa called me up and asked if I would be interested in one of his old artificial trees, this was probably the best part because I had planned on purchasing one & it would have put me out at least $100 bucks or so... It already had lights wound around all the branches so that cut out another step for me too, and all I had to do was decorate it!

Of course, I tried to do it as thrift-aly as possible, and so I just tried to use things I already had. I did have to buy the poinsetta stems and the red and gold balls, but all I spent was $15. I had the gold ribbon already and just tied a big bow for the top and wraped the rest around the tree, I had the pinecones and just tied a ribbon around them so that I could hang them & that's all I did!

P.S. Sorry the pictures are so blurry...I had to turn the flash off and aparently I couldn't hold very still.

Our Elf Selfs

This is always fun to do each year... Bet you didn't know my dogs could dance?! The best part is when Jon does the splits at the end!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Yikes...

So, I am officially exhausted. I now have 2 part time jobs and am a busy lady! By Wednesday this week I had worked 37 hours! THat's 37 Hours in 3 days! Yeah....LONG days. Then, since today is Black Friday I had to be to work at 3:30 in the morning! Yeah. You crazy early bird shoppers--making me get up at 2:30 in the morning! Ahh. Haha. Just kidding...kind of... So, the only day I have had off this week is Thursday, which of course was Thanksgiving, which is never really a restful day because you are cooking ALL DAY long...and yeah, you know what I mean, so I am really, REALLY tired.

BUT...I am very thankful for SOO many things:
-Family
-Friends
-Home
-Big Puppies
....etc.... So, sorry for no pictures or anything exciting, but I'm going to bed even though it's only noon.

Goodnight.

TWILIGHT!!!

I L-O-V-E-D it! It was so much fun!

Of course, the book was better, but isn't that always the case? I think the best part was just being able to see the characters in "real life", if you will... There were a few parts I found myself cringing a little, but it was still so good! Jon and I went with some friends (see above) who had not even read the books so I was a little nervous for them, but they LOVED it too! Haha. They kept looking over at each other and going, "he is SOOO hot!" so that made me happy. The boys thought it was okay...they said they were hoping for a little more action, but yeah...I think they just enjoyed teasing us afterwards. Anyways, go see it! Of course, it is not the book, and you just have to go into the movie knowing that it's not going to be the book, it's just going to be fun and you'll enjoy it.

P.S. Edward is hot!

The last of Seattle

Pike Place Market

I can't remember what this freeway is called, but yeah...You can kinda see Mt. Rainer in the background.

North end of Pike Place Market

Mt. Rainer. That thing is HUGE! (p.s. I know i'm lame for taking a picture in the airplane, but...oh well)

Such is Life

Well, I have sort of been looking for another little part time job to earn a little extra $$. I found one...it's retail...I already somewhat dread it. Ahh. I have worked retail before and while I love being surrounded by clothes all day, I despise being surrounded by the "customer". I hate being treated like crap by said customers. So here's to hoping they are all angels!

P.S. I found this video the other day and really liked it...it's all about Great Danes.

And a few more Seattle...

Are you sick of Seattle pics yet? Haha.



Oh, look, Dwight! I didn't know he lived in Seattle.

Docks...

This place was kinda pretty...

It was down the street from the gum-wall thing. Weird.

And there are even more pics...I will try and do the rest tomorrow.

Seattle cotinued...

After all the times I have been to Seattle, I had never seen this before...


GUM!!

An entire wall dedicated to chewed up gum...nasty. Don't worry. I stayed far enough away from it.

Close up of the Gum Isicles



Kind of sick, kind of cool...kind of Seattle-ish.

Trip to Washington

Last weekend I made a quick trip to Washington to see my family. It was a lot of fun and good to just see and hang out with everyone. Jon didn't get to go this time, but next time he's coming no matter what! Over the next couple of days I'll add a more pictures, but here are a couple of the family and the Space Needle.

Now I have to go catch up on everyone elses blogs!

Federal Holidays ROCK!

Well, because today is Veterans day--NO WORK!! I love holidays...the best part was I didn't even know I had today off until I was at work yesterday and I heard someone talking about what they were going to do on their day off. So, today I'm going to be catching up on some serious laundry and cleaning house. Sounds fun, right?

But really, just so you know, I LOVE my dogs--I want to redeem them from that last post. They are really pretty good most the time. I love them like children so that's why I put up with them. I'm sure some of you who have children have had things ruined by your kids, so really, this is no different, it's just that my kids are furry, have tails, and slobber. Maybe your kids slobber too, I don't know. Anyways have a good Veterans Day, I hope you are all relaxing at home!

-Mal

Unfortunately to get any cleaning done around here I have lock the dogs up using any one of the following methods:

Sometimes I can even get away with just separating them...

Things my dogs have destroyed...

So today as I was trying to organize some pictures I ran across multiple pictures of things that had been destroyed and ruined by my dogs. Hahaha. I don't know why i have taken pictures of these things...but I have.

First we have...
What? You don't take pictures of your dog eating garbage?


Here is what I came home to another day...

Then most recently this was broken by Thor. I guess he wanted some candy corn. But let's not talk about it, it makes me too sad. Oh, and I don't have a picture of this thing destroyed, but you see that book sitting up there on the fireplace?


Yes, that too was torn to shreds as well one day.


Trigger had had this stuffed puppy since he was a puppy, but one day it was dragged out to the backyard by Thor and promptly un-stuffed. Every now and then the dogs will dig up a shred of the red puppy.

Then the dog beds. I don't know how many dog beds we've gone through, it has to be over 10 dog beds.

Somehow we still let them hang out here...they're lucky they're cute.

P.S. 95% of these photos were taken over a year ago when they were both still going through the puppy stage...the only one that has happened recently is my apothecary jar.

So...

I can't upload any pictures to blogger right now. WHat's up with that?

Is anyone else have troubles?

I have a few posts that i've written up, but they need pictures so i'm waiting until I can upload them...

Paramore

Wow. I love PAramore. When I grow up I want to be like Hayley.... If you want some background info on me and Paramore click here. Well anyways, you all know how I love Twilight, well Hayley wrote a song for the new movie! I really like it and here is the video:

Paramore - New Music - More Music Videos

Politics

I so badly want to spew my guts about all this political craziness going on!! Ehh... i'm just trying to hold it in & hoping that all of the educated voters out there, went and voted.

P.S. I'm still rootin' for ya McCain! I do think that the media has portrayed you in a very un-fair light. Unfortunately that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Is it tacky to put who you voted for on your blog? Hmph. I don't care anymore. I do, at least, feel a little better now that I've said something.

Oh goodness...

I don't know how or why, but Jon is always getting on the news, radio, etc... Here is one example....and just in case you weren't sure our political views....now you know. Haha.

Click here (There should be a link to the video to the left)

And there's a new post just below this one as well....

It's been so long.

Wow. This week has been soo busy and yet I look back and think...what were we so busy doing? Well here is what I remember...


1. Trigger celebrated his birthday with a big rawhide (from Costco) .

2. We have been to Costco 3 times and it hasn't even been open a week yet.

3. I babysat a very cute, very good little baby! (Which, I must say, may have helped make me a little more baby hungry. Some day people, some day.)


4. We had the missionaries over.


5. We (but mostly me) set up our food rotation system. (Holy poop, I wanted to die afterwards. Has anyone else ever set one of these babies up before? It was involved! & yes I know there is a big gap down there in the bottom, but I don't even have enough food to fill it up yet & my fingers were too tired so i stopped)

6.And then I watched Jon clean out the freezer so we could turn it back on and fill it up with Costco goodies!

Happy Birthday Trigger!

Well, instead of boring you with a MILLION pictures of my baby puppy I felt like being informative and boring you that way instead (+ a couple pics). I have had lots of people ask me lately about dog ownership/owning a Great Dane and so here is my 2cents:

(ignore the pink collar, it was just for marking purposes)

1. Research different Dog Breeds. Believe it or not I did actually look into a lot of different breeds. Jon wanted a Great Dane and I didn't...I wanted a fun house dog that wasn't too high maintenance, but could be lovey. Well believe it or not, that's a Great Dane.



2. Visit LOTS of Breeders. This was really hard for me when we first started looking at pups. The first breeder we went and saw I was ready to pick a puppy, but Jon forced me to do some more looking...I'm SOO glad we did. After looking around I realized that I wanted a breeder invested in the welfare of the puppies, not their wallet! (The first breeder we met was so anxious to get the pups sold...almost like there was something wrong with them or something?...)

3. Take your PUPPY to Obedience Classes. This really, for me, is the most important. I learned the hard way about this. This will give your dog a HUGE advantage! Really! They will learn all kinds of basic commands and tricks as well as getting the socialization with other dogs and humans! This can also be a good bonding experience for owner and K9. Your dog needs to learn that you are in control (especially with a great dane who may become bigger than you someday) and that your are Alpha! Trust me, this is SOO important! When I took my dogs it only cost 60$ for an 8 week class that included training supplies--WELL worth it! Before you get a dog check out a couple of places around town...make sure they are certified trainers as well! If you have kids, most places do kid doggie obedience too, which would be a great idea too!

Well those are just a few starters. I really do Love my dogs. They are good practice children. Haha. And even though I complain about them sometimes, I really do love them a ton and we have so much fun with them!

Happy 2nd Birthday TrigFace.

P.S. Trigger is seriously the best dog! Our vet even said that Trigger is her doggie boyfriend!

How could you not LOVE that face?

Photography

I love art.

Any kind of art-drawings, paintings, crafts, graphics, photography, etc... The list really could go on and on. Anything artsy-craftsy I am a fan. I have always kind of considered myself an artist. For a long time I wanted to be a fashion designer...I drew all kinds of things in high school that I wanted to design. So I decided that I wanted to do something artsy and so I went to college to pursue that.

You should know I used to be a Art Major in college. Used-to-be because it started getting not fun. Not fun because it started feeling forced. Forced because it was what my professors and teachers thought I should do or how I should channel my creativity. I didn't feel like I had a say in what or how I got to do things. That was not how I wanted to do art, it just wasn't natural anymore. So I quit being an Art Major. I decided I could still be an artist, I just wanted to do things my own way. I wanted to create my own assignments and my own projects. So I changed majors and decided I would always just do art on my own time.

I still kind of kick myself about that one...why you ask? Because in the last semester of my not-artprogram in college I was required to take some classes that reignited my artistic creativity and made me miss my days as an art major. In one of my classes I became a (and this is self-proclaimed) Photoshop Master. Haha. And that has had me hooked on photography ever since. Only one problem, and quite a large one as well...I don't have a grown-up camera. I'm dying for one. I already know most the editing tricks, now I just need the camera! I just have to figure out which one to get...

Any suggestions?

And just so there is a picture-here are 2 paintings I did as a jr. in High School. I can't find my other stuff that I like better, but...oh well. Obviously I was going through some sort of "tropical" theme phase...

Vacuum

Over at SITS they are doing a vacuum giveaway. Now I just happen to need one of those with these two mammoths wandering around here.

What is even cooler is that it's a Healthy Home Vac so it purifies and protects against bacterial growth.


Anyways, if you want to enter, better get over there quick!