Just a note :)

Just a note to explain my absence... I haven't updated any of my journals in a while because I have had some problems here and there...

My sweet little ten year old, David, was diagnosed with pneumonia, on top of already suffering a bout of asthma. I don't have insurance right now, so the last couple of weeks have been daily efforts to get him what he needs, and nights with little sleep while he struggles to get over his illness. On top of that lovely situation oldest boy has been having school problems, and the staff there don't seem to understand that I have more than one child to take care of or why I can't show up at the drop of a hat. How can I express my frustration?

Grrrrr......

Anyway, it'll get better, just wanted to let everyone know I am still here, just overwhelmed and busy. I have to update the Poetry Dance Journal before anything, but when I am caught up I'll be back. :)

Dawn :)

Halloween Graphics/ Cookies

Just some simple Halloween tags for anyone who wants to save them to use in email... or if you like copy and paste them to your journal right from here :)







And I am not gonna reprint it here because I don't have permission... but if you are interested this is a link to some yummy (I have tried them they are good) funny cookies:


Cat Poop Cookies <---------- click for the link

Serious Drivel

I got this as an email the other day on another screenname where I get about 100 emails a day. (I have no life... have I mentioned that lately?) It is just frustrating enough that I had to share it with you.

The following is the email exactly as I recieved it:

How Smart is Your Right Foot?

This is so funny that it will boggle your mind. And you will keep trying at least 50 more times to see if you can outsmart your foot, but you can't.

1. While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.
2. Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction.
I told you so .....And there's nothing you can do about it!

Halloween (Acrostic-ly)

Happy children dressed
As ghouls
Laugh and dance in darkest night
Lured by costumed friend and sweets
Observing customary fright
With make-upped visage armed and clad
Excitement bound by thinnest thread
Entranced once more by 'Hallows Eve
Night ending only once in bed.

Whoooo Hooo ! Halloween!!

I love Halloween. Perhaps it stems from my love to be somebody else. I love masks, make-up... pretending. My mother wanted me to go into acting, because I was always "putting on" as she called it. (When I was ten I would adopt a scottish accent and pretend she was a distant Aunt I was visiting when we were in public. Which went over well until whoever I was speaking to found out I was telling stories. Mom didn't find it amusing until many years later.)I started on AOL years ago as a roleplayer. Creating charcters for chatrooms like The Red Dragon Inn. Back in those days I was paying by the minute and I am sure I single handedly payed all the AOL employees their saleries. These days I tend to limit my ecentricities to dressing up yearly and acting as a costume designer and make-up artist for friends. I am already quite booked this year.

So... in the spirit of Halloween (pardon the pun) I will be liberally sprinkling my journal for the next month with recipes, jokes, graphics, ideas... and whatever else strikes my fancy in honor of Halloween. :) If you like it... snag it. If you have something of your own... leave a comment, or a link to your own journal, or send me an email... or a link else where. Whatever. I love it. I love it all....

Moohahahahah....(okay... sorry... I am geting out of hand here.)

Ahem.



So anyway.... the first thing I am gonna share is gross. If you have a weak stomach... don't do it. Having a party? Wanna gross out your friends? Here's just one of many yummy recipes sure to make your guests stop dead in thier tracks and wonder just what exactly is wrong with you.

This is called Kitty Litter Cake...

Yeah. You heard me.

No real kitty litter... it is a cake, but looks bad enough to fool anyone. Totally edible... totally disgusting. lol.

Here's the recipe:



Cake Ingredients:

1 box spice or German chocolate cake mix
1 box of white cake mix
1 package white sandwich cookies
1 large package vanilla instant pudding mix
A few drops green food coloring
12 small Tootsie Rolls or equivalent

SERVING "DISHES AND UTENSILS"
1 NEW cat-litter box
1 NEW cat-litter box liner
1 NEW pooper scooper

Prepare and bake cake mixes, according to directions, in any size pan.
Prepare pudding and chill.
Crumble cookies in small batches in blender or food processor. Add a few drops of green food coloring to 1 cup of cookie crumbs. Mix with a fork or shake in a jar. Set aside.When cakes are at room temperature, crumble them into a large bowl. Toss with half of the remaining cookie crumbs and enough pudding to make the mixture moist but not soggy. Place liner in litter box and pour in mixture.Unwrap 3 Tootsie Rolls and heat in a microwave until soft and pliable. Shape the blunt ends into slightly curved points. Repeat with three more rolls. Bury the rolls decoratively in the cake mixture. Sprinkle remaining white cookie crumbs over the mixture, then scatter green crumbs lightly over top.Heat 5 more Tootsie Rolls until almost melted. Scrape them on top of the cake and sprinkle with crumbs from the litter box. Heat the remaining Tootsie Roll until pliable and hang it over the edge of the box. Place box on a sheet of newspaper and serve with scooper.

Enjoy!

A few Hawaii Photos :)

I can still smell the salt in the air... ah how I miss it already!

Honey... I'm home!

I am back... it was fun...! I will be here over the next few days posting and telling... but am so swamped right now I don't have time to do anything but...ahhhhhhh! ::grins::

Out for a bit....

Just a note to everyone who's been leaving comments (thanks guys... if you have a journal or blog or even enjoy email, you know how I appreciate it!) I intended on leaving some comments of my own and dropping by everyone's journals... and doing some updates tonight because I am leaving in the a.m. for a week and am not certain if I will have internet access where I'll be, so I wanted to make my rounds. However, it has been a crazy day and I can't manage it. As it is I am visiting my own journal via Internet Explorer since my Mums computer doesn't have AOL and my laptop can't access her DSL. Hmmm...

Anyway, I will think of everyone, and bring treats back to share. I'll miss ya guys!

SMOOOOCH!

Creating Fun

I mentioned in my last entry that i would show some photos of my kids last weekend. I have to say, I am impressed with their ingenuity. My sister and I grew up in New Mexico, and spent our summers in west Texas. While we enjoyed an occasional trip to the lake which was quite a distance from Albuquerque, or a swim in a pool when we got lucky (we actually lived in an apartment building that had a pool one summer, and I was the happiest kid alive) or maybe even a visit to a water slide and twice (glory!) a vacation in the vicinity of a beach, we didn't often see water. Not the kind you play in.

My boys went this summer to Viginia Beach to visit their father and spent a great deal of time at the beach. My seventeen year old was in heaven, and bought a skim board. A skim board is like a surf board, except that it is thinner and usually shorter, and very lightweight. I found this explanation of skimboarding online:

"Skimboarding is a sport similar to surfing which takes place near the shore. The skimboarder stands about twenty feet from the ocean with skimboard in hand and waits for a wave. When they see a wave they run towards it with their skimboard still in hand. Upon reaching the wet sand they drop the board and jump onto it as quickly as possible. Once on the board, the skimmer must remain as stable as possible and prepare to make the transition to the ocean. The skimmer then (hopefully) glides out into the ocean toward the oncoming wave, banks off of it, and rides it back into shore. There are many possibilities for riding the waves and this is where skimboarding gets really interesting."

(If you want to learn more about skimboarding, this site is a good place to start.)

So anyway, here's my boys now ... all excited about skimboarding, and living in New Mexico. Got a board with no place to go. Hawaii looms in the near future, but of course, being kids, they cannot wait that long.

So off to the backyard the ran, shovels in hand, and dug down into the dirt in our backyard which is probably 60 percent clay, and created an impression in which they dropped a blue tarp.

And then added water.

So all the boys, my own two and my stepsons, ran outside attired in shorts and boxers and proceeded to skimboard.

You need to see it to believe it:

Goofy moments

So... my oldest boy is into breakdancing.

I remember break dancing in the 80's. A date took me to a club in Milwaukee where he spun on his head for an hour while I watched, from the side, embarrassed.
(This, from me... who was into punk and bouncing off of walls and trying to look like Madonna or Cyndi Lauper... pleeeeze)

Anyway, I never dreamed my son would be into break dancing. But he loves any kind of dancing, so I should have figured. He also into martial arts in a big way, and other fighting techniques. He is into something I do not understand called capoetta. (spelling?)
We live in the country, no trees, no water, not much to do, so the kids get creative and find entertainment. The other day they set up a surfing pond, (photos later) and while it was getting ready they put out cardboard and practiced their "moves".

I tease my son all the time, because he is there all legs-akimbo and flaiing about and he calles it dancing. (yeah... he laughs at my "moves" too) So I took a photo and played with it, animated it. It's silly. It's stupid. It has a bad word in it so forgive me.... but I have to show ya because it cracks me up. :)

http://dawnallynn.smugmug.com/photos/36247572-M.gif

Nobody Knows me but my Dog

...and though this little quiz can tell you some of it.... there's still a ton you don't wanna know... lol.
QUIZ : Dawn's Drivel
Found this link in SINS journal (octoberoots, Tidbits ... thanks for the cool link) and you can make a quiz of your own when you're done. :)

Tagged...

I got tagged (grins) by Courtenay to do "The Seven Sides of Life", so here goes my answers...

Seven Things I Plan To Do Before I Die:

1. See my children through college and help them get a good start in life.
2. Publish a book.
3. Go to Ireland and Scotland.
4. Throw away anything I don't want anyone to see when I am dead. (lol... yeah, think about it.)
5. See a few lost friends and say hello again.
6. Write memoirs down for my children and grandchildren.
7. Take my parents and my fiance somewhere wonderful.

Seven Things I Can Do:
1. Give good advice.
2. Write.
3. Photograph.
4. Create new from old.
5. Apologize when I am wrong.
6. Love without reciprocation.
7. Help others help themselves.

Seven Things I Cannot Do:
1. Keep from talking too much.
2. Keep from worrying what might happen.
3. Help when members of my family are arguing amongst themselves.
4. Manage my money well.
5. Watch others suffer without wanting to help.
6. Keep my opinions to myself.
7. Sleep when I have things that I am excited about, which is almost every night.

Seven Things That Attract Me To The Opposite Sex:
1. Confidence
2. Intelligence
3. Humor
4. Someone who has and stands up for good values and morals.
5. Good fathers.6. A nice mix of romance and strength
7. Excitement for living.

Seven Things I Say Most Often:
1. I love you.
2. Hey, guess what I read today...
3. Did you do your homework? Well then, is your room clean?
4. I missed you while you were gone today.
5. I am going to ground you for the rest of your life if you don't... (at which point they grin, because I am full of it.)
6. Did anyone feed the dogs or cats? Hello? Hello?
7. Oh gawd, get up! We're late for school again!

Seven Celebrity Crushes:
1. Sean Connery
2. Mathew McConnahey
3. James Spader
4. Orlando Bloom
5. Antonio Banderas
6. Ewan McGregor
7. Liam Neeson

Seven people I want to do this:
1. Celeste (gdireneoe)
2.Derek (deveil)
3. Aude (audedu84)
4. Dawn (princesssaurora)
5. Sue (dakbdimble)
6. Cynthia (sistercdr)
7. Jodi (jouell3935)

Photo for Katrina's Victims

I haven't mentioned the disaster on the gulf coast too much because I am so frustrated I am not quite sure what to say. I've lived through a couple of hurricanes myself (I was in Florida for Andrew) and a few other scary natural ickies (an Earthquake and a volcanic eruption in Italy that all frightened me bad.) And I never had to go through what those people on the Gulf are going through.

It kills me.

Our family has donated what we can... and I am trying to also volunteer through my local chapter to do what I can physically or otherwise. I suspect it won't be enough... and I am struggling with it.

I can't get past thinking that we can get food, water and medical aid to other countries when we are at war a lot faster than we are doing in our own backyard. And I was under the impression that we were trying to be prepared for distasters in case of terrorist attacks... If this is any indication of our preparedness levels, we're in trouble. As are our counrymen in need now.
My heart goes out to them, all of them... and I am doing what I can.
Here's my photo as suggested by John:

Thanks John.

New and Old and Just Plain Fun

I've had a lot of projects going on lately. I have a big family, as many of you know... five kids and one handsome boyfriend.

I work full time and do photography when I can....(like sleeping) plus managing my website, participating in photography groups I belong to, and my journals. I enjoy writing, but do precious little of it anymore. I started a new journal recently which Spencer from over at Spencer's Place is going to lend me some help with as I'll be on vacation soon for a week. (More on that later.) The journal is Poetry Dance, (click on the Ladybug stamp below and you can get a peek) And we're doing weekly poetry assignments and bi-weekly challenges. Tomorrow the new challange starts.






I've also been working on my website (as mentioned) and while it has a way to go, I am fairly happy with it these days. Kat gave me the idea of the hosting service so I owe her a big Thank You! If anyone has the time to have a look and let me know what looks good and doesn't... kind proof it and give me some honest feedback I'd appreciate it. My mom says it's wonderful... but she loves me too much to be constructive. lol. :) Anyway... the website is

www.dawnallynn.com,

drop me a line if ya have any comments, good or bad. :)

The vacation I mentioned is Hawaii... my mother is treating my kids and I... (whooohoo!) so I have three weeks to lose wieght so I can fit in a bathing suit (uh-oh) and then from the 22nd to the 27th of September I'll be in photographers Heaven. Heh.

Well, the day grows long and I have more journaling to do... just wanted to throw something out that wasn' an assignment, and before Friday again...lol. Hope everyone is having as much fun, and far less stress than I am!

Round Robin Challenge "Labor"

It's Round Robin time again ... and as always I think a lot about what I want to post for each challange long before posting time might come along. I like it when my photo means something for me, and I like the photo to have really been a challenge.

This week the topic was "Labor" and was chosen by Robby of "Robbie's Ruminations" . I had a hard time at first, but ended up realy enjoying this challenge. As always, I am gonna tell ya why. :)

Have you ever noticed how the things we love leave marks on us? The calloused fingers of a guitarist, blisters on the soles of a runners feet, stretch marks on the belly of a mother, and even those tiny creases left over from a life of joy which we call "laugh lines". Our pleasures often leave evidence of their existence.
My father has endured a lifetime of hard work and hard times, a lifetime which has left evidence of it's own in it's wake. Swollen, painful joints and a rash of scars are part of who my father is these days. But his hands are a wholly different matter.

My father has made and sold pottery for more than thirty years now. His fingers are knobby and stiff, his palms covered in callouses, the skin thickened and stained from contact with the molds and clays. Yet what his hands proclaim is that my father has worked more than thirty years doing something he has loved.

Though he doesn't write, draw, or wield a camera as I do, my father and I share a deep love for creating. My father expresses his romance through the business he's built, through each piece of pottery he turns out. Sure, he grumbles now and then ... but the truth is that he couldn't walk away from it if he tried. For though it is a career, a job, a living ... it is also a labor of love.

Which is why I chose this photo of my fathers hands to represent my entry for this weeks Round Robin Challenge.

Who I am in Black and White

I had ideas of what I wanted to do for this weeks Round Robin Challenge, but (of course) things happened and none of the projects or photos I hoped to do panned out. So, I went through my exisiting photos to see if there was one, maybe, that would fit the theme of "Who I am in Black and White."

Well, this one is certainly Black and White. And it IS me. And, yeah, there are elements of it which are exactly who I am.

I am someone who often puts up a mask. Sometimes it is a smile when I am crying inside. Sometimes it is one of bravery when I feel very frightened. The truth of who I am is that I do not like for anyone to see me as frail, needy, or unhappy. Often this is a good thing, because I find that the mask often helps me to actually feel the way I am pretending to feel. (How's the quote go? Fake it 'til ya make it?) Sometimes, though, I just feel lonely, sad or scared behind a mask I chose to wear.

I am also someone who is very creative. I love to paint, write, draw, whatever. I love to invent. Inventing myself, or reinventing myself, is dang near a hobby.
I am also one who likes to dream. Awake or asleep I enjoy the hope and vision dreams bring me.

And, deny it though I may, there is an element of darkness about me. I used to roleplay in games, and I always chose the wicked character. I tend to think it's because I play a good guy in life all the time. I also think it comes from feeling like I get stepped on sometimes. (Wanna see wicked? Watch me flip out when someone treats me badly in public... ohboy.)

Oh, there's more. Lot's more. I can imagine sitting here writing for the next six hours about all the things that this photo says about me, light and dark. But perhaps the most important thing I can say about myself that this photo doesn't... what I would have liked to share if I'd taken another photo, is that I am someone who is glad to be alive. Thrilled to be able to express myself. And greatful to have so many loved ones around me in the journey. :)

Happy in my Photo Gallery!

Well, this isn't a big deal as things go, but it made me feel good.

I was recently invited to show my photos at a website which had used one of my photos for a story. ( I have my stuff available at a Stock Photography site.)

I hadn't visited the site before, but I really enjoy dropping by. It's called VerbSap, and it has some great stories there. (You can even submit your own, but so far I have not had the nerve.)

Anyway, I don't get to show off real often, but I am pleased as punch and wanted to leave a link for my J-land friends to visit. :)

VerbSap Art Gallery

While you're there, have a peek at a few of the stories, among other things. It's a neat site. ;) The main site addy is VerbSap.

No photos to post today, my sweetheart dropped my laptop, so I am sans my photofiles. Ah well, at least I still have him, clutzy fingers and all! :)

Nobody Knows me but my Dog

...and though this little quiz can tell you some of it.... there's still a ton you don't wanna know... lol.
QUIZ : Dawn's Drivel
Found this link in SINS journal (octoberoots, Tidbits ... thanks for the cool link) and you can make a quiz of your own when you're done. :)

Do not stand and weep

Most you have probably already heard, but for those who haven't, our dear friend Kat, who writes the AOL Journal entitled "From Every Angle" suffered the loss of her sister and nephew today in a car accident.

I have been sitting here, wishing I knew something I could do for her, and at a loss, because there is nothing.

I know Kat because I frequent her journal a great deal. She is a wonderful photographer, a sweet person, and has a gentle soul. My heart breaks for her.

If you get a minute and the inclination drop her line. I know from experience how much words can mean when you've lost someone.
Love ya Kat.

Do Not Stand and Weep

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that swiftly blow.
I am the diamond glint on newly fallen snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the soft and gentle autumn rain.

When you wake from sleep in the early morning hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush
of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft, starlight at night.
Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there. I do not sleep.

Secrets and Confessions

Have you ever had a secret you wanted to tell someone but couldn't? Have you ever felt a burden lifted because someone else shared a secret you could relate to?

I don't have a lot of secrets. They are adverse to my garroulous nature. For me keeping a secret of my own is akin to holding my breath for ten minutes. Interesting concept... but it just won't happen.

I can keep other peoples secrets, strangely enough. I don't even blab things in my journal that I have promised to keep close to the vest when I know that nobody else will know who I am talking about.

But my own secrets... well, I am like a sieve and water. It just all comes pouring out.

Which is healthy I am told. There is a saying, "You are only as sick as the secrets you keep". I don't know how true that is, but I feel like fairly healthy individual.

In any case, a friend of mine introduced me to a website, or blog, called Post Secret. People send postcards to this fellow, created by the individual and inscribed somehow with a deep, dark secret they want to let out, and he posts it in his blog. Some of the stuff is sad, horrible, painful, and more. It's like watching a train wreck, you want to look away, but there's a part of you that looks anyway.

Some people have responded that the postcards have echoed a secret they themselves have harbored, and upon reading it, they felt release from as if from a large stone. I have had a gamut of emotions I don't quite know how to catagorize.

It's not a good site, it's not a bad site. It does have a lot of hard honesty on it. And like most journals it is an outlet for thngs someone else needs to share.
If you'd like to see it you can visit it at Post Secret.