towers and horses

A frequently asked question I get when referring to my husband, Derek, is "what does he do?" This gets asked so often because he works from home and most days can be found in his casual t-shirt and shorts. Just a year ago we transformed our dining room to an office to better accommodate him. {He was growing tired of sharing his office with our guests} I would say he enjoys this set-up most of the time... but as you can imagine, it isn't the quietest of environments, as I am home with our two youngest. Our kids have no idea how fortunate and rare it is that there daddy is here almost everyday. Don't get me wrong though, there are times we are both a little relieved to see a short business trip on the schedule.

Well, anyway, this is what he does.

Towers.

He works for SBA Communications. I can't tell you a whole lot more because they speak a different language than I do. Simply put, he tries to find the need/space to build new towers for his company. Like I said, much more to it than that but that is as good as I can do.

His company sent out an email a few weeks ago that they were going to hold a photo contest for a picture to go on their annual report. Of course my ears perked up. Contest. Photography. Fun, you are in! Well, truth be told, towers aren't very pretty and aren't really that easy to get creative with. Especially in the middle of Kansas winter. We didn't have the best weather during the time frame given to do this. Freezing, snow, fog! But we went for it anyway. We loaded up the girls last weekend and drove out to see a couple of his towers that were close to home. Bad news, it was so darn foggy you could hardly even find those huge eye sores. I was really hoping for a cool silhouette picture at sunset. No such luck.

We got this one in my hometown, it wasn't foggy but freezing cold out. Not that you can tell. Pretty representative of a typical tower out in Kansas though.

Trying to get a creative view

These next ones are what we got on that foggy Saturday afternoon last week. Much to my excitement as we pulled up to the gate of the tower I saw some horses in the field. I got out to unlock the gate and they were not shy at all. In fact what started at two horses quickly turned into about 15 horses... running towards me. Feed truck, nope sorry, we are just here for the tower. Country girl I am not, so I will admit I wasn't sure how to react.
But what they did next cracked me up. The pretty much started attacking our suburban. Licking it all over. My assumption is all the salt that is on the truck from the roads. We were a huge salt lick for them. To say the girls liked this would be an understatement. {We get asked for horse all the time.} Sitting in the car was funny as huge horse tongues are working up and down all the windows. We did end up getting kicked (the truck that is) and have teeth marks on our front hood. Derek didn't find it as entertaining as we girls did.

Like I said, the girls thought it was great!

Bye horses, thanks for upstaging the tower!

Valentine Mini-Sessions

Celebrate LovE.

Valentines Day is approaching... take advantage of a mini-session! Young, old, dating, engaged, friends, kids, whomever you think of when you say "LOVE". The session is $75 and will give you 30 min on the other side of my lens. What do you get? 5 of your images on disk to keep and an 8x10 of your choice!

I am taking appointments for Saturday January 23rd and Saturday February 6th. Call 785-748-1180 or email me at amykdye@gmail.com to book your time!

Hello?

NEGLECT!! No new posts since the start of 2010? What is wrong with me? If there really are people that read this blog I have failed for the first two weeks of this new year.

Well, to be honest, I have still been catching my breath from Christmas. I have been doing lots of exciting things that I am sure you all would have love to hear about. Taking down decorations, cleaning, laundry, shuffling kids back to school, an out of town gymnastics meet and taking dogs to the vet. Oh yes, the four legged children gave us quite a run last week. We have two dogs (along with two cats, two frogs and a beta fish) Petey who is a dachshund and Piper our 5 month old yellow lab. Last Thursday, day one of two the kids were out of school due to snow, our dogs thought it was their turn for some attention. Petey must have gotten into something, which I hate to say I think was a rabbit, that made him sick. I am talking the sick out of both ends no control kind of sick. Ummm, did I mention I have been doing some cleaning. Yeah. Round 1 to the vet, Petey got a shot and some medicine to get him back under control and I am happy to report he is back to himself.
Piper on the other hand, was chasing after my outdoor cats who were currently indoor because it was too dang cold for them outside and fell between the mattress and our bed frame. Outcome: a broken leg. Yes, a broken leg. Round 2 to the vet, the very same day, Piper underwent a surgery to fix a spiral fracture in her back right leg. {I cried all the way home.} 90% because I felt so bad for her and 10% due to the bill we were going to get. Did I mention that we got her for free this fall? As Derek continues to say "there is no such thing as a free dog!" She of course is worth every penny but it is always a tough one. She was able to come home on Saturday with screws sticking out of her leg, our very own robo-dog, and very strict recovery instructions. No running, no jumping, pretty much bed rest for 10-12 weeks. Did you read the part that she is a 5 month old lab puppy? Confine? All day? 3 months? Seriously? Well, I can't say we have followed that too strictly. She hops around on three legs quite well and I carry her upstairs when needed. Don't get me wrong I am doing my best but we are all home and it is pure torture on her to sit and look at us in her kennel. She can't quite get comfortable in there that and the rods sticking out her legs have gotten caught on the kennel. She is a pup and is handling it amazingly well which made it easier on me. I think she will recover quickly and they say you will never even know this had happened.

So I found it appropriate to leave you with some pictures of Piper today. She is a cute, sweet, spunky little girl and we love her dearly. We pray for quick healing!

On a business note. I just got a facebook business page going and I am working on my website, in all my spare time. Might take me a little bit to get that one going. I am going to be doing some mini-sessions for Valentines Day and will post more on that next!

Hope your new year has gotten off to a good start!

Had to start with a couple of her when she really was a itty bitty puppy. Oh, make you melt.

We had a ton of snow and Piper was loving playing in it! She dives her nose down in it.

Bed rest for this puppy?

This one flat makes me laugh. Those lips.

Not the best picture but here is her post surgery leg. She had a rod put in her leg and now has screws that are attached to the rod and sticking out on each side. She will have to keep these in for 10-12 weeks. Joy.