A growing family...

So the Ray family is growing again... Actually we've been growing since last January, but I have been so bad at posting that well, this is the first time I've taken the opportunity to post about them.

This first sweety is Roxanne, she is our female border-collie. She can be a pest at time, but what indoor dog isn't?

She is rather pretty though and can be a true sweetheart...

Then we have Oliver, our recently adopted Calico kitten. He was only 14 weeks when we got him back in September; turned out it's previous owner was actually allergic to it and instead of finding it a new home just opened the door and let him out. Poor guy... So there is a lid for a garbage can that we had sitting on the floor one day and when we went to pick it up to put it back on the garbage can we got a nice little surprise.

Oliver popped out and started attacking us. Lucky for us he doesn't use his claws if he knows it is your hand or foot... just to be safe we let him play with shoe-laces and pens.

The whole point we started looking for a cat, or at least my reasoning, is so Roxy would have a playmate so she would not be so bored during the day... Needless to say that after she got over her fear of Oliver they've gotten along just nicely. It's funny, sometimes he's not in the mood to play and sometimes she isn't... Now if only their moods would match.

We are slowly but surely teaching Roxy "Get the kitty" so that when the dad gets home from deployment he won't want to get rid of Oliver as much as he says he does right now. Though I'm not sure how much he REALLY wants to get rid of Oliver. It was mom's anniversary gift to herself :) haha.

So there you have it, it's our family pets. And aren't they fun!!! Poor Roxy just got spayed today so she's down there trying to get over the trauma of it all, while Oliver lays up here purring and nuzzling up against anyone he can find... He really is a sweet little boy.

Proof of Schizophrenic Germany

Oh, I remember it well, like it was only a week ago... oh wait, it was only a week ago! Just last week we were enjoying fall colors and cold. Sometimes even 50 degrees. But not anymore.

That's right, snow has finally hit Germany. Why is this such a surprise to me? For the past 2.5 years I've lived in Germany. For the past 2.5 years I've seen two instances of snow. For the past 2.5 years we have only had 2 days of snow. For the past 2.5 years it's been in March/April.

This is not going to be a nice winter if it's snowing before Turkey day... Any tips for a desert girl and driving in the snow?



Yep, this is the same field that I took a picture of two weeks ago... and now it's leafless and white. It's actually snowing right now and so in the morning I might have better pictures.

Schizophrenic Germany

Why can't things just stay the same? Last month when I came home from Venice I had the opportunity to take a rather nice picture of the field next to our house; but for heaven sakes it makes me realize that winter is on its way.


Oh, I hate winter. Sure I like dressing warm, and looking cute doing it, but seriously winter tends to bite.

In Germany the seasons are all sorts of messed up. Summer is rainy like Spring, Fall is situated correctly with changing leaves and cold but sometimes it can be HOT, and Winter is just absolutely chilly. So what is Spring like? My word... WINTER! The past two years I've lived here We've only had snow twice, first year it was in March and last year it was on Easter. Honestly, a green Christmas and a white Easter? I don't think so!

I hate snow, but I figure if it's going to be cold it might as well snow too and hard enough that I don't have to go to work! That's yet to happen, but maybe, just maybe... Ok, I won't hold my breath for it.

I miss Arizona weather. hot or hotter. When it does rain it's a gorgeous rain that lasts for all of a couple hours, floods parking lots, brings amazing thunder storms and stays warm all the while. Call me crazy for enjoying that but honestly it's amazing!

Alright, I think I've complained enough. More pictures of Germany during winter to come.

My Daddy, My Hero

So as many of you probably already know, my daddy is serving downrange right now, and I probably don't let him know I'm proud of him as much as I should. But I am. I love my dad and I think he's the best dad in the world. I stole this idea from my brother, but added my own personal touch to it. So daddy, just to let you know, I love you and I am way proud of you. Nobody else I'd want to be my father other than you!!!!

One Step Closer

Thursday marked a great day in the life of Sara... Final Exam for my German class!!! yay!

Now what this means is that I have one more class, which is a German life and culture and BAM! I have my Associates in German! I can't believe it's finally over. I NEVER thought last March that I would be where I am and finally finished with German. I'm glad it's over, but at the same time a little sad. It's now on me to keep the German going. Not sure if I have that much self-discipline :(

My Calendar

Alright, I need help. I want to make a calendar for the 2009 year but I want to use some of my travel pictures/other pictures I've taken. I've got it down to like thirty or something but obviously there are only 12 months...

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Seriously, I need help... if you have any thoughts on which I should or SHOULDN'T use... let me know... I have to get working on this soon. I'm going to Venice on Friday so I may have others to choose from. Or if you have seen another of my photos and think I should use one of them instead, I'm all ears. I wish I had access to everyone in person so I could just spread them all out and say, ok, which grab your eyes?

Looking forward to the Year

Has it been long enough since I blogged? I think so. So this blog is to update on life, so much has happened since May and I've been bad to keep up on it all.

First off, dad is gone. He deployed mid-July and is doing well thus far downrange but of course misses us and we him. We are doing ok though. This will be the longest deployment we've done at one time, but lucky for us it's not our first. I will keep everyone updated on how the family is doing.

I started my job in June, which is a large part of why I haven't been more faithful in writing. I work at US Air Force's in Europe (USAFE)'s HQ. I'm just a little ole secretary, but hey, I get paid well. The hours are tough, 8-1700, but it's helped me to realize that I don't want to work full time like this unless I'm doing what I WANT to do with my life which is more hands on and less behind a desk telling my boss when he has a meeting to go to or planning his TDYs.

This realization brought me to the next item of the next year: ASU is where I need to go! It's where I WANT to be.So come next fall, no matter what, no matter how, I will be going to ASU. I need to finish my education and this is where I want to do it at. Now of course is some freak thing happens and I truly can't get there I'll have to take that into consideration. But I don't see that happening. ARIZONA, I'm coming back after 4 years of being gone!!!

I start class again on Tuesday. I'm not looking forward to this. I am in my final German class for my AA and I haven't studied German for almost a year. I'm not sure how I'm going to pull this one off. I'll be praying. That's for sure.

I think that's all for what this next year is going to entail but it's going to be a good year as long as it flys by quickly.

I need PHOTOSHOP

So with my band pictures this past weekend I took this picture:

I liked it, but with the kids in the background and the directors hand in the middle of the side I really didn't want to leave it as that. So I adjusted and edited it to look more like this:

And I did this all with the silly program of Paint; not nearly as good as Photo-shop. It is now that I'm starting to really want to edit my pictures that I see the need for photo-shop. The only problem I can see with this is the price of about 400-1000$$! Yeah, that's a hard one to swallow!

Black Lights, Puppets and Music

I've been working at the Middle School on one of the bases here in Germany where my mom also works. I've been deemed the 'Official photographer for the Rising Stars' which is the special education class at the school. Throughout the year I've taken pictures for them and by word of mouth the Band director found out about me liking to take pictures.

Every year they do a really good spring concert. Last year they used black lights and neon cups to go along with some beats they made up. It was really cool! So the Band director got special permission to ask me to take pictures of the concert. Here are some of the pictures I got to take.

This years theme was Flash from the Past so these were some of the outfits they showed to the crowd to get things started.

So of course we started with the 50's.Moved onto the Beach Boy era of the 60's.The hippy era of the 70's.Then moved onto the Punk Rock era of the 80's.
The band then played songs such as Scooby Doo and Adams Family theme song, James Bond and Beach Boy songs. The trumpet player on the end is the son of one of the girls mom used to work with. Good kid.
I thought this kid was really cool and the instrument he plays is a pretty neat one as well. I've subbed for his class a couple times and he's a good kid as well.
The band director teaches exploratory music which is focused a lot on recorders. I dn't know if you can see that big recorder the kid on the end is holding but it's half the size of him. They played "Stand By Me".
Ms. Remley, the band director, leads the 4/5 grade classes and exploratory class in some Elvis Presley songs.
Ms. Remley really teaches these kids new things; here the kids sign "Over the Rainbow".
Two of the Rising Stars signing along with the class; Britani and Terrace.
The grand finale.
After the seriousness of the concert it was time to get moving and having fun again. I know this picture isn't completely in focus, but I like the effect of the blur with the streamers.
Can you guess what song they are dancing to? Car Wash Haha!
After the dancing we moved onto the black light. I used night mode for a lot of these pictures, so the blur is supposed to be there.
Here they were using the song "Wonderful World".
They then moved onto "Dueling Banjos" with white ribbons.
Here you can actually see the kids doing the routine.
The night mode really did some wonders for these pictures.
Now, I'd like to introduce you to...
Buzzy!
Buzzy has some friends and they are all puppets.
The music class was learning about puppetry and black lights so they got to play with Buzzy. They all look like neon colored cookie monsters.
These pictures really looked good with the different setting too.

These guys are Noodles.

They were dancing noodles which ended the show.

It really was a good concert, I'm glad I was asked to be the 'official' photographer for it.