Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.

i have mail

nobody@vox.com(audralynn) — Wed, 14 May 2008 14:23:08 -0400

I got home last night and there was quite a bit of mail in my mailbox! one of them was a postcard with Prince's symbol on the front and all it said was "you're cute!"

the other was a die cut of the chicago skyline and it say "you're perfect!"

seriously could anyone ask for a better boyfriend?

in funnier notes Jocelyn couldn't get over how all the post card said was "you're perfect" and that made me laugh even harder!

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Cali turns 15

nobody@vox.com(audralynn) — Tue, 13 May 2008 15:21:40 -0400

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My dog, Calliope, turns 15 today. FIFTEEN! That is pretty old for a lab/shepard mix. I made her come outside this morning for some photos and tonight I will take her to dairy joy for a small vanilla cone.. I wonder if she knows its her birthday?
I do know she hates having her picture taken and she wouldn't sit still for anything.

The vet says she is in really good shape for a dog of her age and she is just starting now to have hip problems. I do not do so well when she is not feeling good or when she might be sick. I guess when I got her I never gave a thought to what it would be like all those years later when she was getting older, or to the fact that she might not be with me forever.

My mother asks me if I am going to get another dog after Calliope and I am not sure I am. I love her but its heartbreaking to see her get older and I am not sure how I will be when she is gone. I got Cali when I was 20 years old - I am 35 now! I can hardly think of who I was back then, what I was thinking. I am pretty sure I either thought I knew everything or I wasn't thinking at all about how long she would be with us, how many times we would move, she would move, how many jobs I would have or places I would live. I think she likes where we live now, we have 2 acres of land and for the most part she can wander all over it as much as she likes. She has had Lyme disease for over 8 years now so I don't worry too much about the ticks so I can let her go where she wants. She doesn't have any other animals to compete with and except for my nieces, who I think are her arch enemies - she is the queen bee. We never broke her of the habit of eating people food, so she wants that alot - sometimes I wonder if she is being fed enought considering how much human food she consumes.

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She now sleeps in later than I do and some days I have to wake her up to go out before I leave for work, but that is what retirement is - sleeping in alot:) She has either gone deaf or she now has selective hearing. I like to think it selective hearing and she is thinking to herself "you people are crazy - I am just going to ignore you when you call me inside or tell me to move over - I am old and get to do what I want"

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So thats my dog, and I love her, and I think Matt likes her a bit. My family loves her, the girls aren't really sure, the other day Riley had forgotten I even had a dog....

Happy Birthday Calliope!

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Ham it up!

nobody@vox.com(audralynn) — Mon, 12 May 2008 08:16:26 -0400

Hailey's spring concert was last week...i am just getting to the pictures now, I am behind behind behind....

Here is our little pig:

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Here she is showing us her snout

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Just a portrait:

HamItUp-3

and here is a rare picture of Matt and a baby....

MattandChild

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New post at Bayette Photography

nobody@vox.com(audralynn) — Fri, 09 May 2008 07:47:28 -0400

A 1 year old session from 2 weeks ago. Check it out

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by the way...

nobody@vox.com(audralynn) — Wed, 07 May 2008 10:34:22 -0400

our radishes are up!

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And a partridge in a pear tree

nobody@vox.com(audralynn) — Wed, 07 May 2008 10:32:36 -0400

Matt and I are going to celebrate our 4 month anniversary tomorrow (is that it?? it seems longer:) And since he had the day off yesterday he took it upon himself to give me my gift early!

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So traditional gifts for 4 year/month is Flowers or Fruit - he gave me fruit!! He gave me 2 pear trees for the farm we are building:) Now I have to admit it took me about 30 minutes to get the full extent of the gift. When I got home last night I saw the trees and when I went up to them I saw this hanging in the tree...

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and as I said it was some time later when it dawned on me - he gave me a Partridge in a pear tree! I love you Matty - you are perfect and your gifts are great! I can't wait to walk around the back 40 and decide where we are going to plant these - they are a perfect pear just like us:)

Stay tuned tomorrow for what I am giving him :)

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Bayette Photography

nobody@vox.com(audralynn) — Wed, 07 May 2008 10:18:57 -0400

I made a new post on the business site - I have Theresa and Mikes post and gallery complete... check it out here

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Demolition Weekend

nobody@vox.com(audralynn) — Wed, 07 May 2008 10:07:13 -0400

We got started on the renovation this weekend. It was all hands on deck for the demo part, which I think everyone likes because it is really just destroying stuff. I can't tell if the rainy weather was a benefit or not. On the one hand it was not a benefit b/c the weather was cold and raw and since the heat was removed from the house it was cold and raw inside the house. On the other hand you certainly didn't feel like you were missing anything having to work inside during the rainy weather. And if you were working you didn't really feel that cold.

So lets see where we are at

This was my living room:

LivingRoomBefore (3)

... this is now my living room:

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This was the view from the other side:

LivingRoomBefore (5)

This is the view from the other side of the room:

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You can see my shiny new kitchen in that picture!!! Ahhh at least that room is done!

Now, before we tore these walls down we thought that the wall that seperated the middle room from the living room was the old counter from when this house was a gas station

Housecirca1930s

But turns out that might not be so...when we removed that wall the hardwood floor that is in the middle room/living room ran directly underneath the wall. So the floor had to come before the wall and I know the floor isn't original. But how old is the floor - well we haven't been able to figure that out yet. But we do know the heat was installed around 1993 and that was put in AFTER the mop board... but the floor might have come after that b/c the floor doesn't run under the mop board. The mop board is looking original but the floor is not. And if you take a look at the picture above and then look at the landscape of my house I am starting to doubt that this house was even in this location to begin with. Questions are popping up in my head about this whole thing. I know the house was lifted to put the basement it is not a stretch to think that it had been lifted AND MOVED! My neighbors behind me have some ties to this house, I need to pop over and talk to them as well as just go to city hall and see what I can find. And where did the gas tanks go that were in the front yard? They would have had to have been dug up at some point but at what point? I have much research to do.

Take a look here, that large beam running upwards in the middle is almost a dividing line of the house - and the framing changes on either side - one side has boards that are in line with the floor and others are open further down.

RenovationFirstWeekend (13)

In the meantime we continue to work on this, I won't like I am nervous becasue it appears my dad might not be able to finish this and my electrical skills are limited. I was accidentially electricuted on Sunday when my dad left some tools attached to a live wire, which isn't like him, which leads me to believe he might not be able to finish. That being said I wonder how much knowledge I can cobble together between me, Brian and some books...

between now and then the planning continues:

RenovationFirstWeekend

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two from this weekend

nobody@vox.com(audralynn) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 08:20:48 -0400

I am still knee deep in this session and have two others to work on but I wanted to post just these two quickly, right now they are some of my favorites but that is subject to change.

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some of the garden is planted...

nobody@vox.com(audralynn) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:29:05 -0400

um this weekend was p-nutty busy! I had two session this weekend and while I haven't even gotten to the pictures yet I do plan on finishing up the couples session tonight - so I promise something on that tomorrow. When I got home Saturday night...

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