Those who know me know I'm an avid photographer. I've always had a camera within arms reach. Even as a child, I took a lot of pictures with my little point and shoot film camera. When I had my first child, Avery, I was given my Dad's Pentax SLR, and I loved that camera fully and completely. I have some really great photos of my son.. like the pictures of him lying naked on his tummy on the floor with his Winnie the Pooh toys. I won't put those up on here since he's 11 years old now and wouldn't talk to me for weeks if I did, but trust me when I say they are adorable! A few years later I was introduced to digital cameras and I was hooked. I bought myself a Canon Powershot and took as many photos as I could. As much as I loved the fact that I could take a thousand photos and only print the ones I loved, I still missed the versatility of my SLR. When my husband bought me a Canon Rebel xt back in 2005, I was in heaven. I got the best of both worlds... SLR and digital? Oh yes! I literally took thousands of pictures a month until I finally laid it to rest in the summer of 2010. This left me with no DSLR and no means to buy myself a new one. My very generous children lent me their point and shoot digital cameras to get me by, and I really appreciated it (and even got a few great shots!).... it just wasn't quite the same.

It's embarrassing to admit this, but I became lost without my Rebel. I felt depressed. I felt like a huge part of me was missing and I was no longer myself. What that says about me, I'm not sure. And I'm certainly not sure I like that! However, it's the truth. I literally look at the world through the eye of my camera. I don't sit in the van watching out the window thinking, 'Wow, that's beautiful!'. I think, 'Wow, that would make a beautiful photo!'. There have been so many moments that my husband has had to endure my sighing and sadness over a lost photo opportunity. There have been many times that I've just passed those opportunities right by without bothering to try with my kids' cameras.

But today, that sadness is gone. Do you know what I did? After the encouragement of my husband, I went out and bought myself a new DSLR! Originally I had wanted to switch to a Nikon, but after taking the lenses and accessories that I already had into consideration, I settled on another Canon (t1i, incase you were wondering!). There is not one bit of me that's disappointed by that, either. I went out this morning and picked it up, and I've barely set it down since! I also picked up a macro lens (I already have a telephoto), some filters and an external flash. So many goodies, so little time!

I've been spending a lot of time trying to capture the personalities of my furbabies on camera now. They were all getting annoyed with me when I finally decided to call it quits for a little while. We have many furry friends in our house. Two ratties, Ratatta and Rhi. Ratatta (brown/grey) has been sick with a chest infection lately, and although the wheezing and sneezing went away while she was on two types on antibiotics, it seems to be back again (not even a week later). I have been trying to get some good pictures of her since she is my son Tiernan's rat and I know how heart broken he'll be when she eventually passes. They just don't live long enough, these ratties. Today, I finally got some good shots of both rats! That way my daughter Rhianna will have some good shots of Rhi for her own photo album. We also have three cats - Mirri (the plump cat in the photo on the left), Solange (the other cat in the photo on the left) and Scooter (who is an old girl and has been sleeping in the dimly lit corner in the basement all afternoon so no good pictures of her), and one dog - Tibbs, our Sharpei-Lab cross.

Expect lots more photos of my kids, my husband, my furbabies, our adventures and our food! Be warned! Hehe.

No photos of food today, though, sorry. I was planning on making sushi, but didn't have enough rice. We're going to grab some food out tonight.. something we so rarely do these days.