A Family Tradition

It may be known by some of you that every year (or almost every year) the Scott Family takes a "little" vacation. Now, when I say the Scott Family, I suppose I should clarify as it seems to fluxuate as with any family...Joshua, Bobbi, Andrew (Andy), Barbara (Barb or Granma Barb), John (Granpa John), and my niece Layla.
This year's trip encompassed 2992 miles in our Dodge Ram 1500 with our pop up trailer and six people fit snuggly inside like sardines. We travelled through 7 states (if you include the starting state of Missouri) and saw sights of Garden of the Gods; Pike's Peak; Agate Fossil Bed; Fort Robinson; Scotts Bluff; Chimney Rock (from a distance); Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, South Dakota; Spearfish Canyon; Mount Rushmore; Custer National Park; Crazy Horse; Sturgis; Wall Drug; Deadwood; The Badlands; Sioux Falls. We also crossed numerous rivers, streams, and creeks, swam in two lakes, went without showers for 5 days (imagine sunbaked sardines...good thing the windows were always rolled down!), ate Taco John's twice, paid bookoo bucks for repairs to the truck and gas, and had a jolly good time.
Two persons got sick. Andy had a terrible migraine the day we arrived at The Badlands and took some asprin and went to sleep. Bobbi took a severe soar throat the same evening and vomited twice. The doctor has confirmed I will live...but I'm on heavy meds for the next 2 weeks to recover. (It is not at all what I wanted for vacation...severe soar throat, vomiting, shakes, chills, fever, lack of sleep and food/drink due to my throat and now I have to use another day of PTO because I'm contagious.)
Anyway, I'm off to make some chicken noodle soup and then go back to bed. I will hopefully be awake later or tomorrow to post a few pictures...my laptop will not let me post a lot because it hates my camera software.

Lucky Lucie Goosie

Anyone who knows me knows I love animals...all kinds. They would also know that I wanted to be a vet, but couldn't afford to go to Vet school and chose business instead. They would also know that I believe God puts individuals in certain situations to assist when He sees fit. Last night was one of those nights.

Josh and I went out with our friend Burnie and his fiance Starla for some ribs and miniture golf. During the golf game, we made teams and whoever lost had to buy Foo's Ice Cream after the game. On the way to Foo's driving a way we do not normally take, we noticed and injured goose. We were in Burnie's car and of course he would not stop. However, I declared that after Foo's when Josh and I were dropped at home, we would see if the goose was still there, and if so, bring her home for the night so he wouldn't get eaten by any animals.

Well, she was still there. We had a blanket and our large dog kennel. Josh shook his head and said it would never work, but I knew it would. I tossed the blanket over Lucie's head and carried her to the kennel (this allows them to calm down so they don't injure themselves or the human assistance.

We were tailed home by a car. Josh went to talk to them because the stopped one house short of ours. They were none too happy with us and started yelling and cussing at Josh. Josh explained that I was an animal lover and I couldn't stand leaving the goose there to become dinner for some animal so we brought it home. This calmed the older couple down and they explained people had stolen their neighbors fowl before and thought that that is what we were doing!

Anyway, it all worked out as Lucie does not belong to their neighbors and the animal control will come out to pick Lucie up and get her taken care of...I like happy endings!

Lucky Lucie Goosie - full view

Lucky Lucie Goose - Profile shot

Suspected bum left leg - keeping her grounded and at danger.

Working Hard

So, a quick update in my busy little life...
1) I am transitioning into a new position at Heartland Services (www.heartlandsi.com). That position is the Assitant to the Vice President. It's a great honor and something that has been buzzing around us "oldies" since I first became full time 4 years ago. I am excited about working with Shannon because he reminds me of Josh in personality and humor. This should be exciting.

2) Today I had my review for Heartland. I will post parts of it later and how I did, but it was a good review and it came with a raise. You can never argue if they're going to pay you more money and say you did a good job.

3) Fuzz-Bucket went to see the vet for the first time since we rescued him. He is now a eunuch and has had his front claws removed. The vet really frustrated me though! The receiptionist told Josh Friday morning that Fuzz would be ready by the end of the day. Josh shows up and she says that they have to keep him overnight, but they'll be open til 6 p.m. Saturday (which is great because I had to work). I go to pick him up at 4 and was told they closed at 12 and I'd have to wait until Monday...this because they could not verify that I had paid for the procedures. Which is quite hilarious because they misscharged Josh Friday for someone else's pet, had to do a refund to our card (which takes 4-5 days to appear back in our account), and then recharged our card the right amount. Needless to say, we were down over $500 and still didn't have our cat back! But he's home now and doing great...our little "Insta-purr"!

4) We are in the works of planning our 2 week vacation for this summer. We will be traveling to Acadia National Park in Maine, down to DC and then home again. Keep an eye out on this blog for our miniseries "Vaca with the In-Laws and Such". It should be good...a few stories and a few pictures.

5) Tomorrow night we will celebrate Andy's January birthday. He chose to go to Garozzo's Italian Restaurant. It'll be really yummy. We had to cancel Volleyball to make it work though...so instead of getting the MUCH needed exercise, I will be chowing down on pasta and Italian desserts! Happy Belated Birthday, Andy!

6) Spring time is just around the corner and with that comes lots of yard work. We have some flowers in bloom (pictures coming soon) and gardens to cultivate and glean. Also, with the change of weather, there will be some friends in town. Jason and Jana will be coming to visit us in May. I will have pictures of them and our fun time spent together after their visit.

Well, there's the quick story of my life. No childern, no big plans, but everything is in God's hand on this in. We glorified him with our work for him and he has answered our prays. Praise be to God for guiding us through our journey.

Pet Pictures

These are just random acts of petdom.


Intense focus...


Listen, Kitty, I might be smaller than you, but I'm ferocious!


Kitty night vision?


I am NOT vertically challenged...he's just holding the toy too high!


I might be the old man around here, but I can be a playa.


If I were really like this, I'd sell for millions, baby!


Honest, Ma, I wasn't gonna mess with the flowers.


On 2nd thought, they smell very funny...


Young pounce done in by old tailer!


I'm Italiano for a reason - Whatcha want?


I'm feeling tense with that thing looking at me!

Pets Galore

So, since we got our new gadget, I can actually take good digital photos and upload them for all the world to see. Anyways, here are some photos of our pets in the order that we actually owned them. Enjoy!


Wiloe Mae (aka Lil Bit) - female - 7 year old long hair Chihuahua


Roseco Roscisimo - Male - 9 year orange short hair tabby


Aspen (aka Big Bit) - Female - 2 1/2 year old Jack Russell Terrier
Aspen was rescued from Wayside Waifs.


Peaches - Male - age unknown Betta



Goliath - Giant White Snail


Blueberry Muffin - Male - age unknown Betta


Fuzz Bucket (aka Fuzz or Fizzle) - Male - 8 month old long hair tabby
Fuzz was a stray picked up in Lamar Colorado

Digital Canon Rebel XT

So, yeah, maybe I'm spoiled. But don't I deserve to be spoiled once in a while? We finally got the camera and like everything in my life, there's a story to go with it...

We originally ordered this professional SLR over our Thanksgiving hiatis in Colorado. The camera was on backorder, but was to arrive right around or very shortly after Christmas. It never showed up. Upon further investigation, it was found that the company we had bought it from had sold out to another company. This infuriated and frusted both myself and Josh as the company didn't even both to tell us. Furthermore, the new company didn't even call to confirm that they had our order and it was still on backorder.

I found it to be a ridiculous cycle as we were seeing other sites selling our camera and it was in stock. Why couldn't this company get us what we wanted? Needless to say, in the middle of this month, we placed our order with the trusted KEH (http://www.keh.com/) folks. The camera was to arrive in one week. I had to wait again...but KEH succeeded in getting the camera to us in 3 days!!

So, short story long, we got our new professional digital Canon Rebel XT and have been playing with it all week.

P.S. It's the best professional SLR to have if your seriously into photography as a job or hobby.

BS & J PHOTOGRAPHY

Well, we're legit! Anyone who knows me, knows that I love photography. They also know that what started as a hobby has become a great passion...and I'm good at it! Josh and I (I filled out the forms and stuff!), now are legitimate and so is BS & J Photography!
You can check out some basic pictures at: www.bsjphoto.blogspot.com. I will be update with some wedding photos shortly.
We specialize in all sorts of photography from weddings, senior pictures, toddler/babies, to basically anything you need. Right now we are "By appointment only" business as we both still work regular jobs during the days.
I will shortly have a business card posted to this with our information. In the mean time, enjoy our other site.

God Bless!