WOW! I have a lot to catch up on so just to let ya know, that I am not gone or anything. . .but have been going a hundred miles a minute, and hope to catch up tonight, after editing several batches of photos??? Oh geeze. . .

Well it’s been a BUSY interesting week. . .to say the least! I am just going to take a second to reflect because that’s about all I have, lol. Well Mom is now Married!!!!! WOW! The kids are excited to have a new grandpa! I got a phone call from Global news on Monday, and they asked me if I would like to be on the Friday news in an interview about my eco-friendly photography. Very unfortunatleyI had to turn the offer down, and almost cried to do so, but with everything this week and given that I fractured my ankle it was just not something I knew I could do.  Perhaps on Friday I will post the interview questions that were sent to me about my eco-friendly photography, and celebrate with “Global goes Green”. I am extremely flattered to have been asked!

It seems to be getting busy in every area of my life, I greatly need a breather! I will be taking a vacation shortly, so hopefully between that and prayer I will be able to take a step back and go over what my next goals will be, because I have so far reached all that I wanted to accomplish this year and more!!

More news is, next month an article written by myself, along with a featured spread will be published in an India Dog & Cat Magazine. I will publish the information once it is released! One of my Tiger photographs is also being considered for the front cover of a very popular Spanish magazine.

Well I have to go, as my company just showed up! But congrats to mom & her new beau and I wish you all the best of course, hugs! Martine & the boys

I am just sitting here editing pictures & thinking about my day. The boys were a handful, but they had their moments of endearment. Christian is getting better. . .I swear it’s not as bad with his head - banging. I am so relieved about this.  Maybe it is just my imagination, and he does still get his bad days but in between it is less and less. He is also starting to finally take an interest in potty training. . .which thank goodness! I am so sick and TIRED of diapers. Two down. . .one to go. Maybe I should start Nicholas early. . .lol! I HATE potty training. It has got to be one of the worst jobs out there! Well I have a busy couple of weeks ahead of me, and a lot of things to do! This upcoming weekend is mine and Christian’s birthdays. I’ll be 25, can you believe it!?? I feel SO old, lol! While I’m behind my camera though, I definitely feel younger, it’s such a love affair right now!! Anyway Christian will be three and his birthday bash is on Sunday so I have a lot of prep work to do. I found this article in one of my parenting magazines with awesome ideas for skewers so I came up with two of my own combos. One sweker will have a variety of cubed fruit & strawberries with little cups of yogurt for dipping, and one with strawberries & shortcake cubed with a little cup of whipped cream for dipping. I know MY kids will devour them at least! I also plan to make some little sammies (haha Rachel ray), and I will be ordering his cake. . . I wish I could say I was mother of the year and had time to put together an elaboratee train cake, but he prefers Thomas The Train, and the free toy on the cake will be a bonus. So that party is of course on my mind, and I am volunteering as a helper for Vincent’s field trip this week, and I also have a couple of pro bono photography jobs this week as well as some maintaining to do and a start on some new web design projects. Also I HAVE to plant my garden this week and finish a few decorating prjects around the house. I hope to take pictures soon! Oops and I have to bath & groom Leita (Our German Shepherd) too! Geeze I don’t know how I will do it, but I will (just lots of TAB energy drinks, lol).  So that has got me pretty busy. BUT this big thing is, I am starting the “Self Help Challenge” lol. I KNOW what you are thinking, but okay, I got the idea from the Rachel Ray show and it proves to work eventually, lol. I am going to be reading several self help books in areas I want to do better in, and apply the words of advice and see if they work! I of course will be reading a Suze Orman book!! :0))) Well the first book that I am starting off with is the “Bob Green’s The Best Life Diet” Hmmm . . .will I finally be able to stand eating healthy, lol. I need to stay healthy regardless of weight. It will teach the boys healthier habits young too. Too much mac and cheese around here lately (though I must say, it is their favourite and I always know they’ll eat it!).

So I will keep the blog updated on my progress, and if the book sucks and the advice sucks I am definitely going to say that, but if it’s good, I will recommend it absolutely.

So since I have been chattering away about basically nothing, I think it’s time to say good by.

Hugs!

Martine & the boys

Lol, so yesterday my troop of boys was loaded into a Step 2 red wagon, and boy is that thing nice! I love it so far. . .the boys LOVE it! We made a trip to the park for a picnic lunch and then to the playground. It was . . . fun. Anyway I am really glad I finally got one, they go fast when they are in store, so I basically raced to Walmart when I found out they had three in stock. It will definitely be a life-saver for many things, but I am not sure that with the wheels on it will fit into my trunk! Can’t win em all I guess.

Well I really had nothing to say, other than that. AND my vacume cleaner broke so that will be something FUN to spend money on. Ugh. Better go and tend to my naughty boys. . .

Hugs!

Martine & the boys

I thought I would give out some love to my two favorite shows on the tele right now, and encourage others to watch them too. These are two shows I definitely NEVER want to see go off the air!

BREAKING BAD - Channel AMC

Wicked awesome show, starring the dad from the old Malcolm In The Middle, but don’t be fooled by his past under looked role!! He is a STUNNINGLY amazing actor and shows off all of his skills in Breaking Bad. It’s got me addicted for sure! He is basically a Science teacher in a high school who finds out that he has Cancer and not much time left.  To ensure that he leaves enough money for his family (his pregnant wife and a handicapped teen-aged son), he starts up a meth lab partnering with an old student of his. I should add that he is soon called a “king pin” because he is so talented with science and in the lab, that the meth is of course of phenomenal quality.  A twist is that his brother-in-law just happens to be the head of the drug unit with the police! It’s SO well done, the acting & writing of this show is impeccable.  Seriously if you haven’t tuned into it yet, DO! The first season has now ended and should be available on DVD soon, but the second season has now been ordered for 13 new episodes. . .I can’t wait!!

FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS - HBO

Man this had me laughing so hard the first time I saw it, I could hardly control it, and the sad thing is that it gets even funnier the next time! This duo is HILARIOUS, and they are SO amazingly talented it should be illegal. Two guys from New Zealand have a real band, and they incorporate their songs in with their show. If you do not have that great of a sense of humor, it will be interesting to you (there is never a dull moment), and if you do, you will need to grab onto the sides of your chair to keep from falling!! Watch it! You will NOT be disappointed!

Of course an honorable mention HAS to be said for my favorite British com, called TWO PINTS OF LAGER (and a packet of crisps). About 5 Brits who are hilarious, weird and really likeable. I wish the show hadn’t ended at season 7. . .

Anyway just thought I would share those tidbits of info with you about some really good shows to check out this year! THEY will have you addicted!

Much love!

Martine

Oh I am tired! In between doing photography shoots, trying to keep an eye on the boys, and web design, I had a dog show this last weekend. Even though I was only showing one dog for a friend of mine, I am exhausted, just not as used to it as I once was!! Not to mention the boys were all there, and very much work.

I REALLY screwed up today though. . . Vincent was SO excited and has been SO excited about going into Junior Handling for this dog show and competing in Pee Wees, and I showed up right at noon as was LATE to enter him, so he didn’t get to go! Poor Vincent, he sat there at ringside staring forlornly into the ring while the other kids showed, and he just looked so disappointed! The worst part is, I have no one to blame but myself!! I will say though. . it is hard to get three kids and a dog out the door! I just can’t believe I did that to him. . I feel terrible, and he says to me when we got home that he thought his heart was broken because he couldn’t show a dog. I wasn’t expecting that he actually would love it so much, it looks like I might have to invest in some handling classes for him! Anyway, the Juniors judge or girl in charge of Juniors told me I should have come and talked to her to get him in the ring. Really, she’s such a nice girl, I appreciated her saying that anyway.

Otherwise the weekend was good. Yesterday the judge didn’t even glance my way so I knew we didn’t have a chance, but today, I noticed the judge was REALLY looking at my bitch for breed, and she did really well so the owner and I were both happy! The boys were a bit of a challenge for everyone, I will NOT be bringing all of them to a show together until they are much older, or unless I invest in BULK leashes for the boys, lol. Vincent was telling what a great job I was doing WHILE I was in the ring and even tried running in, lol! Too cute, but it sure wasn’t the time, hard for me to ignore it, that’s for sure!

I took some pictures of the Juniors because my friends daughter was showing a fox terrier and it’s AMAZING the things, and people that it picks up in the background, stuff that I wasn’t even paying attention to . . .some pretty FUNNY stuff I must say, lol! You can just zoom right in to anything that it picks up on the wide angle. I just love my camera for action shots, it’s so much fun! I feel like the paparazzi, lol, snapping away, it’s GREAT!

Well we did some show training & photos with my friends German Shepherds, and here’s a tip: Never allow children to participate, they get in the way of the best shots, I SWEAR, lol! But so it goes.

So I am sharing some pics from the Saskatoon Show, and I stopped by the traintracks afterwards and did some pictures of the boys, but unfortunately baby Nicholas was too afraid to go anywhere near them, he just booked it right back to the car, lol! Oh, and of course a pic of my male German Shepherd Bob, he is the BIG black one!!

Let me know what you think!

Thanks to everyone for your letters & notes of support about my son. . .greatly appreciated. He is doing well, but still we have not found a diagnosis. It is highly unlikely that he is autisic, or has aspergers, because of the high level of communication/eye contact he has.  It was nice to meet someone today that had a child with exactly the same issues!! The only downside was that her son did not outgrow the bahaviours until he was 12 years old!! Eek! It’s just been such a stressful issue, and one that really is very unique, so people really have a hard time understanding. . .good thing my landlord does, or I would be out of a place to live!

Well, in the midst of all of this, we are getting excited as we have made the bookings for a camping trip this summer!! I haven’t been camping in a long time, and the kids have not been yet, so this will be such a blast!! Vincent is already asking so many questions and thinks he needs to pack already, lol. I am really excited about this, I really need a vacation too!!!!!

Haven’t had much time for anything lately! It’s been hectic here, there is so much going on right now, it’s fun, and exciting, but sometimes stressful. Sooo, I guess I will try and keep this updated more often, it’s so hard lately; I’m sorry!

Hugs and have a great week!

Martine & the trio of boys

Well I must say I am not too impressed by the changes at wordpress and I hope they get all the glitches and problems fixed soon! I am not able to upload any photos because the box pops up so low on my screen and I am not able to move it up. I have switched one of my blogs over to blogger.com because it was the second site that came up on googling “free blogs” but I hope I don’t have to!! I much prefer wordpress.

Things have been busy around here for sure! I have been doing a lot graphic design for various dog breeders, but lately my hands have been giving me a lot of problems with the long hours and my back as well. I am not sure what I will do with my web design, I LOVE it, and I love doing the Victorian designs the most, however, I am finding it hard to get a good market out there for the Victorian themed designs.  There are a LOT of amazing competition out there!! It just seems such a shame to give up something that I have been doing for many years and toss it aside, but it’s definitly not something I want to make my career.  I would like to continue doing it now and then when I am asked, as a hobby, but other than that I really don’t see how I can keep working steady full time on designs when I am incredibly busy with everything else in my life!

Other than that things have been good. . .struggling as this is the first month my rent went up by $150 and sad because I am still having problems with my soon to be 3 year old. The doctors suspect he may have a form of high functioning autusm called Aspergers. I have been doing a lot of research on it, and I am still not convinced, but he is such a young child too so we will see. . .Let’s just say I definitly have more stress then I can handle right now, so I hope that NOBODY gives me a hard time, please and thank you.

Well it was nice to check in again, but I have really been slacking off when it comes to reading my bloggy friends new posts, I am so far behind I am scared I don’t have the time now! I am so sorry! Anyway hopefully I will catch up sometime this week. My goal is to spend as much time AWAY from the computer as possible so who knows how those two goals with collide.

Sincerely,

Martine

Well here it is. The month I have been dreading. Rent goes up by $150 but nothing else does.  Somehow I know I will get through this, I have to for my children.  My boys? Well they are bratty to say the least.  Vincent got up before the break of dawn and him and his brother snuck down the stairs whilst everyone else was sleeping and took every single Easter egg in the house and ate the majority of poor baby Nicholas’s Easter basket treats.  Yes, that would be Easter in my home. I was not pleased.  Going to the church Easter service was, however, lovely. My mom and Aunt & Uncle met with us there and it was a little bit of a struggle to get all of the boys through the door and pretty much shoved into the playroom. Let me tell you, my patience has been short lately with my little terrors. There is not much that they won’t break, mess, wreck, or puke on.  My whole house looks like a tornado came through it and two out of three boys have bright red marker all over their faces that is NOT coming off. Not only that, but my vacuum cleaner is practically broken because of all of the plaster it has had to clean up from Christian’s obsessive head-banging. Oh well. . .

I am not exactly looking forward to this week, since ALL of them will be home.  It doesn’t leave me much room for any sort of productivity around the house, but I suppose I have to force myself to drudge along and spend some quality time with the boys. It always makes me feel like a spectacular mother when I am done, but just pushing myself to actually do it. . .is another story all together.

Well there. I said it. I am completely busy and not committed to it at all. Yet I love & miss my bloggy friends and my family always nags me about keeping it up better. Don’t take it personal, it’s not you. It’s me.  I have given myself a very small window of time to spend on the computer so that my kids get my full attention, my back doesn’t ache and my hands don’t have carpal tunnel attacks. Within this small window, I put my work obviously as a priority, and if getting to your e-mail doesn’t fall within that time bracket, then I am sorry, you probably won’t hear back from me for about 2-3 days tops.  So friends, stop being concerned and bugging me about my poor responce times, it’s hard!

 Anyway, I am definitely very excited about the upcoming week. I have a lot of wonderful opportunities awaiting me, and I am really anxious to get going! I have briefly put my web design to a slow down, because of my carpal tunnel and the fact that I burning out from being so busy all of the time, in between raising my three adorable yet naughty little boys.  So be patient with me. . .I will be back soon

 Miss you all, God bless!

Martine & the boys