13 Things to Bring on a Long Car Trip

1. Snacks of various kinds.

2. A flashlight or reading light to keep the kids busy.

3. CDs of music you actually like for the long drive in the radio station wastelands.

4. A blanket because the husband keeps the car too cold.

5. A pillow because the daughter wont let me use hers.

6. A water bowl and water for the dog (its hard to get him to drink out of a regular water bottle).

7. A pooper scooper for use at rest stops (using a plastic bag to pick it up is real yucky).

8. The TomTom so we don't get lost, again.

9. Books, magazines, fill in puzzles.

10. The cell phone car charger because the family calls every 5 minutes to see how far we have gotten.

11. Water, lots of water (for me).

12. All the luggage, double check the house before you go.

13. The family, although sometimes you would prefer to leave them behind :)


For more participants, visit Thursday Thirteen.

Wordless Wednesday

Camera Critters

This is the first week of the new Camera Critters meme, showcasing the animals in your life.







What can I say? I have one lazy dog!!

A Friendly Face

Until he gets tired of the pictures and sticks his tongue out at me!!

Thursday Photo Challenge - Pets

This one is easy because I take millions of photos of Mischief. The hard part is picking just one :)

So here you have it, Mischief's shadow!!

Odd Shots Monday

This of course, is my Mischief. I just love the way this picture came out. Obviously it wasn't supposed to turn out this way, but I think it's pretty cool the way he is barely there and it looks like he is staring you down :)

For more odd photos, visit Katney's Kaboodle.

Weekly Winners

The first sign of spring in my yard....




My beautiful dog, able to lay outside because its not too cold or wet....




My beautiful dog again :) Does anyone know how to get rid of the "pet eye" he has? I would love to see his pretty brown eyes in a photo instead of always yellow....




A gorgeous plant I bought, can't remember what it is called....




Again in black and white :)




Azaleas....




And more azaleas :) Love the water drops....



Visit more Weekly Winners.

Lens Day - Toys

One of Mischief's favorite outside toys, a soccer ball. He likes it even more now that it is popped, because he can get it in his mouth and carry it around :)

Blog Carnivals #2

This week a couple of my posts are featured in five new blog carnivals! They are the Carnival of Inspiration and Motivation.... The Mommy Blog Carnival.... Mom's Blogging Carnival.... The Carnival of Positive Thinking.... and The Dog Blog Carnival. I want to thank the hosts of these carnivals for letting me be a part of them :)

Check them out, there are some excellent posts listed in there :)

Photo Friday - The Good Life

My daughter is going to be mad when she sees this one lol. This is Leanna and Mischief about 3 or 4 years ago. Both of them sprawled out asleep :) I thought it was perfect for The Good Life Challenge over at Photo Friday.



What do you guys think?

Blog Carnivals

I have recently discovered the world of blog carnivals. The purpose behind them is for bloggers to write on certain topics, post them on their blog and then submit the links to be included in one big blog post on that topic.

So I picked a couple of my posts and submitted to a few of them. Well....

This week I am featured in The Carnival of Family Life.... The Mothers and Daughters Blog Carnival.... The Friday Ark.... and The Canine Carnival!!

Pretty cool huh? I'm just tickled pink :)

The Ultimate Blog Party!!

Welcome to my blog!!

For those of you that don't know me, I'm Gloria, married and a mom to a teenage daughter. (Guess you probably saw that stuff in my About Me section, didn't you? Well I'm new to all this and a bit nervous so I'm just not sure what to say .:grins:. )

I started this blog way back in 2006 to showcase and give away my digital scrapbooking freebies. Then when my husband went to Iraq I kind of lost interest in a lot of my hobbies and the scrap freebies and the blog fell by the wayside. Well my husband is back safe and sound from Iraq, so with less things to worry about, I started picking up some hobbies again. I've dabbled a bit with the scrapping but my newest adventure is with photography. My husband bought me a Sony H9 for our anniversary. You'll see I have photos in most of my posts, I do a lot of practicing :)

I've gotten addicted to doing memes as you may have noticed. I think they are a good way to get to know people. Most of mine are photography related, but I have seen some others I've liked. I've never been tagged though, maybe I haven't been around long enough for that....

I've been working on making my blog better and more friendlier, so if you keep checking in, you'll see good things I hope.

So take a look around, meet Mischief my dog, and my daughter Leanna, and even see an OLD picture of me. (There are no recent pics of me on the site, I can't find any I like, lol.)

I'm looking forward to meeting all of you and hopefully making some new friends :)

Jump on over to 5 Minutes For Mom to catch up with the rest of the party goers. See you there :)

OH!! I forgot to tell you about the prizes! This party has some awesome prizes. Since I don't have any little ones running around some of the prizes wouldn't pertain to me, but here are some of my favorites.

91 - Burt's Bees Naturally ageless skincare, provided by Geggie.
58 - Customized 6 Week Fitness Plan, provided by Cindy Posey at Go Workout Mom.
113 - Arbonne Pampering Basket, provided by The Truest Thing.

I also would love to win any of these, in no particular order:
60, 70, 46, 21, 39, 45, 114, 124, and 152.

See you around, I'm going blog hopping!

No More Pictures!!

Since I got my new camera, Mischief has been my one willing subject for me to practice on. My husband hates to have his picture taken, and my daughter will only let me take hers when she is "ready". Things started out well with Mischief, he was willing to pose for me....



.... At first.



Then he started getting a little more reluctant when I started putting the camera in his face....



"You mean you want more pictures?"



"Not now mom, I'm busy!"



Then he started getting stubborn.... "I don't want to do it anymore!"



Now we are at the point where he sees the camera....



.... And ducks!!




There goes my willing participant, lol. I guess I'll have to go back to taking pictures of trees.... sigh.