The Joys

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh Boy!

Tristan and I went to The Phoenix Zoo on Monday with GG, Aunt Casie, Auntie M (I LOVE that Meg!) and cutie-pie Carter. It was my big boy's first zoo trip. I think it was more exciting for me than him. He did get a kick out of the giraffes. He spent most of the time dozing and playing with his toes in his stroller. It was just so nice to out in the warm sunny weather. We brought lunch and had a picnic there too. Mom got him a cute little t-shirt from there to mark the momentous occasion. Click here to see all the pictures from the trip.

Love,

Aunt Shirley

    

This is Tristan with his Aunt Shirley. He is just fascinated by her. He just stares at her when she holds him. As you can see, they have a good time.

Love,

 

Rancho Feliz

Here are more pictures from my AZ trip. These were taken at the newly christened Rancho Feliz.

Love,

*Amended* Tim just pointed out to me that I made a mistake in this post. My new computer comes with Windows Vista not Windows XP. What can I say? I was dizzy thinking of all my new toys. hehe.

Happy 2008!

I truly can't believe it's already 2008. The last few months of 2007 flew by. Well, here we are at the beginning of a new year. I'm always filled with excitement at this time. It's as if I get a clean slate every 365 days. Here are some of the things I've started to fill said plate with:

1. Exercise - Tim and I joined this gym last week. Of course, we didn't actually start going until Sunday but we have an excuse. Our gym is still in the construction stage - won't be completed until the end of next month. In the meantime, we have access to it's sister gym which is 30 min away. It took us a few days to get our butts in gear but we eventually started. I've already gone to work out this morning. Big round of applause for me. On a side note - on our first day at the gym I ran into Deb (for those of you who were at our wedding, she was the blonde woman with a super-toned body) who used to be my pilates instructor in Providence. She is now working at the sister gym and will also be teaching classes at our gym when it opens. I could not be happier.

2. CaeJoy pet photography - I have some new ideas for the business that I am excited to start implementing. Some new packages and a new web site design amongst other things. I'll keep ya posted!

3. Playing with my new Christmas presents - My husband was very generous this year. I got a new COMPUTER. Yes that's right a new desktop computer. We have always used laptops which was fine until I started to need large programs for photo editing (not to mention all the photos I work with).  I type this post to you from my very lovely and very fast new computer that has all kinds of cool options.

It has Windows XP which is awesome. I loooooooove to customize stuff and XP doesn't disappoint. It also has one of the coolest things I've seen in a very long time. The CD burner has a function called lightscribe. It allows you to burn an image/design/text onto the front of a CD. It's so rad.

I also found this printer under my Christmas tree. My photos come out so amazing on this. Just as if they came from the printers. I just looooooooooove it.

My most surprising gift was this. I never even mentioned wanting one - Tim did research and picked it out. How good is he? I still need to play with this a bit more but I am so excited about it. This will make my crafting soooooooooo much easier. Be prepared for lots of fun homemade gifts this year!

So that's what I'm starting the year with. Writing it out makes it even more exciting for me. Lots of fun stuff. I will leave you now with some pictures I took while I was in PHX.

I have more that I will post later. I couldn't resist leaving you with the the gooey mess on Aunt Terri's face. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm smores.

Love,

All the pretty doggies

Today is my first day off of Prednisone and I'm feeling a bit mucky. Tired, bloated, agitated. The good thing is - I know it's temporary. I'm keeping sane with the knowledge that I will be back to normal in a few days.

I got an email about a month ago from the organizer of this Meetup group asking me to come and take pictures during their monthly event. It sounded like fun, so Tim (playing my assistant) and I went to Boston to spend the afternoon with about 40 English Bulldogs. It was insane to say the least. There were so many cuties in the group. I did some mini-shoots for some of the members. Here are some of the shots from that day.

Boston

Bruno

Gracie

Hammer

Luca

Check out these cool new hair accessories. They were invented by a woman in AZ (insert a little hometown pride). I think it's such a great concept. Can't wait to try them. **Hint - Hint, great gift idea for yours truly**.

We did some decorating this weekend - will hopefully finish this week. I'll share some pics as soon as we're done. I'm off to find something to distract myself from my constant desire to grind my teeth and clench my fists. Let's hope my system clears soon of medication or I'll be in need of some dentures.

Love,

She's alive! ALIVE!

   I know, I know. I've been more than absent. I've been downright negligent. Should I go on and on about my blog silence or just start updating? I vote for updating. Here we go (in no particular order).

   First, let me ask for some good thoughts for my grandfather. He's in the hospital fighting off a kidney infection right now. He's on the mend, but you can never have to many well wishes.

   Also on the medical front: I am recovering from an incredibly mild case of shingles. So mild, I almost hesitate to mention it for fear of backlash from those of you who have "really" had it. I caught mine within the first 48 hrs and was on antibiotics and prednisone (yuck) right away. Because of this, I only had some slight pain on the right side of my face and a small patch of blisters at my temple. The only evidence of their existence is some dry skin. I had more issues with the medications than effects from the virus. I have 4 more days of steroids (hallelujah!) then I'm done. I know everyone who has had to deal with me through this will be thankful when I am drug free. Can you say PMS to the EXTREME?

   I'm moving on to Casie's new haircut because I wanted to add a picture here and I just happen to have one handy. I cut about 7" off. I love it! Very chic and sophisticated for Miss Casie. I took this picture the day before her birthday. Tim and I met her for an early Bday date. We saw Enchanted. I thought it was such a fun movie. Very entertaining. Then we went here for lunch.

   Mom and John came from PHX and spent Thanksgiving week with us. (Unfortunately, I got shingles the second day they were here- oh well.) Lucy was in heaven. John took her for a walk everyday and she got a new toy every morning. Doggie heaven. Thanksgiving day was really nice. I must admit I was so out of it that i didn't even take one picture. My camera never even came out for a special appearance. Oh well, I have foggy memories. I do need to say another Thank You to Mom, Kathy and Casie for all their help that day. I don't think it would have gone as smoothly if not for you. And a very special Thank You to The Best Husband In The World (aka Tim). Were it not for him we would not have had much to eat. He made the majority of our feast AND helped to clean. He's the best.

   Our fireplace is sloooooooooooooowlllllllyyyyyyy getting finished. At this rate we might even be able to use it by next spring. That's all I'm going to say on that for now. I'm on steroids and it doesn't take much to agitate me right now. Maybe it's a good for him that he's not here working (on a nice sunny day when he COULD have gotten a lot done).

   We are starting to decorate for Christmas here. At least our tree is up. I'm hoping we will get to decorating this weekend. I started pulling boxes of Christmas decorations out and putting a few things out. Wow - I just realized I have BOXES of decorations. I remember when I was younger I would say that I would NEVER have so many decorations to necessitate multiple boxes. I was going to keep it simple. And my grandmother, mother and aunts laughing and saying "yeah right". Well look at me now. I have BOXES of decorations and I love it.

   I do have more updating to do, but I'm going to sign off for now. I will be back tomorrow with pictures of english bulldogs, Christmas decorations and Miss Lucy.

Love,

Growing and Expanding

  Big news at Casa de Joy (insert drumroll) . . . . Mr. Timothy Joy has been promoted! He is now an Associate Director. I know that different titltes mean different things at different companies, just know this is a big thing for Tim. To have this position as young as he is, it's a big deal. Just wanted to brag for a minute about my cute husband. (How perfect is this picture of him? Very corporate america huh? Funnily enough it was taken on our wedding day.)

     At the other Casa de Joy (Kathy and Bob's house) the breaking news story is The Chicken Coop Expansion. Tim and I gave Bob a gift certificate for some chickens this last Christmas (apparently you can now buy GC's for anything). They were shipped to him a few months ago and, with Bob's love and care, they are now ready to join the general population. The problem was his existing coop was not large enough to properly house all the chickens. So enter yours truely to save the day and build the entire thing. By myself! Not buying it are you? Hehe. Alright the truth is that Bob did 95% of the work himself BUT I did go over yesterday to help (read hand him nails and hold chicken wire) at the end. Perfect timing right? Better late than never. I did get to be there for the big release. And it took a while! Who knew chickens were so chicken? Pun intended. It took them quite a while to bet their little chicken butts out there. Then, once they were outside, they didn't stray too far from their little house. Hopefully today they spread their little wings and explore a bit.

The humidity has left for the day so The Goose and I are heading outside to enjoy the nice weather. Have a wonderful day!

Love,

I know it's been waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy toooooooooooooooo loooooonnnnnnggggg! We've had a busy summer so far - but I have been neglectful. So let me get you up to speed.

My mom was in town for about a week. So nice of her to make the trip from PHX. We took lots of walks on the beach and found all kinds of goodies (shells, drift wood, etc.). Of course Miss Lucy looooved having her here. I think she was averaging two new toys a day! We also did lots of grilling - Mmmmmmmmmmm grilled pizzas.

Our July 4th was a bit off. We went to Kathy and Bob's for Tim's annual fireworks extravaganza. Unfortunately someone forgot to tell the weatherman. It was off and on sprinkling all afternoon. Then as soon as it started getting dark the rain came POURING down. Poor Tim was very disappointed. The weather ended up clearing a few days later so we had our fireworks then. How cool is this picture of Tim and Bob? It looks like they have light sabers!

Tim and I went here to go blueberry picking this last weekend. My oh my there were so many bushes of berries. We were actually directed to a bush by The Blueberry Nazi. We could only pick from that one bush. Anytime someone would stray from their own he would yell at them to get back. It was a little crazy. But each bush was chock full of ripe berries. And man are they delicious! I actually eating some as I'm writing this. We were going to make some muffins but we've eaten so many there's not enough left! Oh well  - I guess we'll have to pick some more.

I will leave you now with a cute picture of Lucy ( I know that's what you come here looking for - hehe).

Love,

Strawberries, Cherries, and Butterflies

Lots to talk about today! Where to start? Ok - my Aunt Cathi and Megan are here visiting because Miss Casie Had her swearing in yesterday. She is an official RI lawyer! Yea for Casie. So Cathi and Meg came to visit Casa de Joy on Tuesday. Lucy was soooooooooo happy to have more people to love her. It was a great day. We played outside, picked strawberries from our garden, mage some cool magnets in the craft room. Very fun. Oh, I also made some curried egg salad for lunch. (I'll share the recipe at the end.) Then Casie came over that evening after she got off work and we made individual pizzas and Tim cooked them on the grill. Mmmmmmmmm.

So I found this great site called CafePress. It's really cool. They have all of these items that you can personalize. Or you can buy something from a "shop" of predesigned images. Guess who has a shop? Yup, ME! actually I have two right now. One has a butterfly theme, the other a cherry theme. Let me know what you think, I love getting feedback!.

Tim is on vacation next week and I couldn't be happier. A whole week to hang out and puddle around. Is that even a saying? It just popped into  my head, maybe I'm mixing something together - oh well - you get the idea. Whatever we do I'll have lots of pictures to share with you.

Hope you have a great day!

Love,