On another note (a personal one), there is a paper I like to pick up at the grocery store. Actually I pick up every free local paper I can. But this one is Southern Maryland Woman.  There is an article on page 8 of the January/February issue called "Dealing with the winter Blues". This is something I believe MANY of us deal with. The article talks about some of the reasons Dr.'s say we go through this. Such as sleep patterns, brain chemicals, lack of sunlight etc... It also lists somethings we can do to help. Like therapy, meds, exercize and so on.

Good article, full of great info but here is my take on the subject.

Do I suffer from this? Sure do, so much so that I annoy myself with my crankiness and attitude sometimes. I really feel for the people around me on some days. I stay indoors, usually hiding behind my computer. My van is a disaster, I'm not going out there in the cold to clean it. I feel like someone pushed the pause button on my life.

Do I think it's due to brain chemical levels, sleep patterns or any of the other things listed? Maybe. But I also think it's because I miss having my windows open. I miss going outside barefoot in tank top and shorts. I wanna drive with the windows down without shivering. I wanna go to the beach and the pool. Wearing 6 layers of clothes just to keep up my body temp is confining. Bottom line...I'm cold and confined. I want to feel comfortable and free.

There is one part of the article that made me snicker. One of the things it suggested to do is go for a walk. Ummm NO! I am not walking even to the mail box in this cold.

Ok enough with the me me me, time for some you you you. That's right contest announcment time. What I'm offering is a Dirty Formals Party. Actually 2 of them. It's a few hours of you and up to 4 of your closest girlfriends all dolled up in formal wear, getting silly and having fun.  Would you like to know how to enter? Of course you would or you wouldn't be reading this. Send an email to sarah @sarahlynnphotography.com. In this email you should tell me the 4 friends you would invite to join you if you win and why you chose them. That's it pretty simple huh?

But wait, there's a catch... ok a few catches. You must be 18 to enter. You must sign a model release. And I must have permission to publish your entry online. Ready....set.....TYPE!!

Isn't she beautiful?!!? We went to PetCo this weekend looking into getting the kids a hamster. But as soon as we walked in the door all we saw were cats. There were a few different rescues there. This one was the first one that caught my eye. And I'm sure you can all see why. After admiring how pretty she was we moved on to looking at hamsters. Where Nick looked at me and said "choose". I looked at him and said "choose what? A hamster, or between a hamster and a cat?" All he said again was "choose". And I'm convinced that was his way of telling me he'd rather have a cat. So I left it up to the kids, and well as you can see they chose cat. So Alysa and I walked around looking at all of the cats and reading the descriptions with all of them looking for the best fit for our home. And wouldn't you know it, she's good with kids, and dogs, and is litter trained. And well she is just a perfect fit. You can't imagine how happy I was.

So we brought her home and let her loose for a bit. Then attempted an introduction to the dogs. That went as well as I expected, it's going to take some time for them to warm up to each other. So we put up a baby gate at our bedroom door with stools on either side so the dogs won't go in. But if she wants to she can come out. And she will in her own time. She spent her first night under our bed. Coming out for only a few seconds of attention at a time. We have only had her since Sunday and she now owns our room. And is making slow progress with the rest of the house. But I just can't stop looking at her.

And the one thing we weren't too sure about while reading her history and bio is she had never been around small children. But Isaac loves animals so much, and wanted a cat for Christmas (I guess Santa couldn't fit that into his bag).  wasn't worried, just a bit cautious just in case. Turns out they get along great. Although in this pic she was not too happy that I interupted her getting attention for a pic.

To those of you who may be following my 365 reflection pictures. I didn't quit. I am taking them everyday, just not uploading. I've just gotten a little distracted.