got my AARP card in the mail today.

My New Year’s Resolution to eat less junk food, that is. But oh so worth it! The whole world looks better.

Just go get these. Right now. If it’s not convenient, order them online here

In my travels across the Web the other day, these homemade snowflakes caught my eye. They are so pretty, and would be a perfect thing for kids who are stuck inside for the winter to work on.

How to make a 3D snowflake

Allison has been visiting us for a few days. She drove down to see a friend in Savannah, then came here. She is leaving for a semester in Argentina next week, so this will be the last we will see of her until June. She cheerfully agreed to pose for some pictures for me even though it was a damp overcast yukky day with temps in the 40’s. We just kinda rifled through her clothes and grabbed an old skirt of mine, then I saw that she had those cute rainboots that all the girls are wearing and voila! gorgeous pics of a gorgeous girl!

So we go to the SCDMV to get our car registrations and drivers licenses on Friday (I left out that first we had to get insurance, then take proof of that to the county and pay personal property taxes on the cars then take proof of all of that to the SCDMV along with 10 pages of completed applications, titles, and PA registrations). Everything is running smoothly until I have to take my eye test. It’s not a chart on the wall – it’s a machine that you press your forehead against & look into. The woman asks me to read line one and I do, which is two boxes of 5 letters. She asks me to do it again & I do – the letters are bright & clear & easy to read. She looks at me puzzled and asks me to read the first set. There are apparently supposed to be three sets, but all I see are two boxes. Everyone is puzzled. She checks the machine which appears to be working. Jim looks through it and sees all 3 boxes. THEN we figure out that the machine tests distance vision in both eyes, and I have monovision contacts – one for near, one for far, but when worn together trick my brain into combining them! I don’t have my glasses with me, and only have one spare contact in my purse and it’s not the distance one – so I flunk the eye test and can’t get my license. Now I have to make another trip this week to do it all over again!

It actually snowed a few inches here on Wednesday night, and the snow lasted most of Thursday. It barely registered a blip on my radar, and Jim didn’t even think about it affecting work or not – he didn’t even leave early since the roads were clear. But when he got to work at 8 am, no one was there. They had decided not to open until 10, and didn’t realize he had switched with the other Doc to work, so no one knew to call him. Schools were cancelled, & there was also no milk, bread, or hamburger in the stores because there was a chance of freezing rain. It has been pretty cold, in the 30’s, and yesterday I snapped these pictures of the lake – the water is still in the mid 50’s, warmer than the air, hence the mist which is really pretty! And how crazy is it that our boat can still be in the water without any worry about it freezing?

This was our last wedding of 2007, on a gorgeous October day! One of the things that makes shooting weddings a challenging task is that it makes for a very long day – I typically start at the bride’s home in the morning, and spend several hours there getting shots of her getting ready & of course shots with her family before we even START the actual wedding coverage which goes well into the evening. Lindsey & her mom made me feel so at home and so welcome that I felt more like an honored guest than a hired photographer! They also made sure that we had enough time to find some creative places to take pictures. This first one of Lindsey was taken across the street in her neighbor’s yard with the wind blowing like crazy – and not one complaint from her worried about her hair:

A beautiful day:

The beautiful bride:

Love the emotion in this shot of the groom & his father:

Jon & his groomsmen:

A few pics at W&J:

Lindsey’s sorority sisters surprised & surrounded her in a candle-lit circle of love and best wishes:

You know you’re living in the South when this is one of your license plate choices:

Or this…you can get a few drivers, but not Tony darn it!

Even though we’ve been living here since October, I have to say that we really sort of treated it like we were just on vacation, and not actually permanent residents or anything. After all, we still had our house in PA and we could go back anytime we wanted to. But now that the house is sold and we really, seriously, can’t go back there after February 28th, it has occurred to us that we probably should do something about becoming official SC residents. Especially since we are signing a building contract & applying for a mortgage this afternoon. And both of our car inspections from PA are expired, which could be a problem when we go up there next weekend. So this week, we were all like, HEY we need to get South Carolina car insurance and vehicle registrations and drivers licenses and voter cards and change social security addresses and all that. I’ve actually been busy this week for a change. I’ll be catching  up with all of you soon!

I can’t even WALK on the stupid treadmill if I take my eyes off the gauges…check this out!