As a general rule – I don’t like my birthday – something always happens on my birthday that isn’t fun. Birthdays aren’t really a big deal to me. In 2005 – I was working with Jared’s cousin Alyssa. She set up a surprise for my birthday – FIRST she had a cheescake waiting in the kitchen at work with Jared and his mom there waiting for me – YAY – but I knew the surprise wasn’t over – I thought it was to go get my belly button pierced – OUCH – but I was prepared for that. We went to the mall and to Olive Garden for dinner – where Alyssa had managed to get my family and friends all together for a surprise birthday dinner! I was SHOCKED – it was a wonderful time being with those I love dearly.

That year I wanted a new lens for my camera – so much so that I threw baby fits when I would think about the fact that I didn’t have enough money to get it. Jared would get pretty frustrated with me – bless his heart. Well, at this dinner – Jared’s parents got me this lens. I didn’t react the way everyone thought I would – I didn’t scream and jump – just said OH THANK YOU! I was so surprised that they would do that for me. We had only been married 11 months at that point – and I knew and KNOW they love me – but WOW!

Fast forward to now – that lens has gotten me through a lot – weddings, the beach, basketball games, Wyoming, and so much more – I love that lens. For the past two months I have noticed that it has been slow to zoom and focus. I have been holding it together and praying it through – but when I went to use it for the parade – it gave up it’s last breath. One of our Powerkidz loves the idea of my camera insurance and would love to do nothing more than bash it to bits with a baseball bat – after a recent incident where I found that my very expensive insurance isn’t what I thought it was – he was pretty sad to know he couldn’t bash my camera. So – I took my lens to the store where it was purchased – and  OF COURSE they cannot do anything except send it away to be fixed and wait 6 to 8 weeks – I have weddings coming up – I can’t be without it that long. So – we bought another lens at Best Buy – but it turns out to be the wrong one – it does not have the macro feature that I love so much. I will be returning that lens this weekend – but I also got a Canon 40D – which I am still trying to figure out and be impressed with it. I might make the decision to exchange that too for the same make as I have already.

Either way – we came home and I let “K” take the lens apart to his desire – and of course I had to document it.

So – I wanted to say THANK YOU to my dear lens and my in-laws for getting it for me.

One of the first shots with the 40D.

“K” took advantage of having a second camera on hand to snap a few of me.

No wonder my neck hurts – look at the posture – HORRIBLE!

And Jared caught a few of me with the new one to test it out –

It amazes me how much I look like my mom – especially in that last picture.