"The Secret Life Of Bees" is what I am reading now...it was first recommended by my daughter Finesse, she absolutely loved it and kept telling me that I have got to read that book soon. She read that while we were in Texas in July. I told her I would love to borrow it from her and read it soon, but first I was trying to read all the Nicholas Sparks books I could get a hold of.

After posting one of my last blogs about the books I'd been reading...my niece, Hope, also raved about how wonderful "The Secret Life Of Bees" is, along with so many other books and authors that she loves. So I already had plans to read it, because of Finesse's recommendations, but Hope also speaking so highly of it motivated me to read it next. I am only in Chapter 1 but it is great so far, all the characters are pretty interesting. So far it is following the movie to a "T". Can't wait to dig deeper into it, just have to find the time to sit and read now. Training Paris and taking care of Jewels is taking up some time.

I think Jewels is getting arthritis...in her neck and shoulders. 2 months ago we had to take her to the vet for a check up to see why she was walking with head down and and tail between her legs it looked like she was in pain when she would come down or climb stairs. I had remembered that the day before she started walking like that she had gotten so excited when Adam came home that she started running around the house so excitedly and she ran upstairs we heard her from downstairs running around up there and jumping on things and jumping off and then when she came back down she jumped down from like the 5th step and ran to us. She seemed like the jump didn't phase her, but maybe that is what started this whole problem, I thought. At the VCA Clinic, They couldn't find anything wrong in her x-rays or bloodwork...but when the vet touched her neck/shoulder area, Jewels Yelped a bit. So Dr. Fruit gave her anti-inflammatory/pain medication. Jewels started to feel better after a few days, I continued the course of medication for 10 days, and I hoped that she had just pulled something and that she was better now. But now she is acting the same way again...So we called Dr. Fruit and she refilled the medication for 7 days today is the second treatment, still not much improvement. The Vet said if she does not improve by the end of the course of meds. they want to re-examine her. I have a feeling she is getting some sort of arthritis, afterall she is around 11 or 12 years old in human years, so either because of age or because of the jump off the steps along with her age...she may have a lasting problem : (

So, in my spare time I have been reading Books by Nicholas Sparks...I fell in love with the motion picture "The Notebook", when I saw that it was taken from the novel written by Nicholas Sparks, I started to collect his books. I absolutely love them! On days when I am not studying for meetings you can find me curled up in a chair by the fireplace with a glass of wine ( a yorkie on one side of me and a chihuahua on the other) as I read a good book.

On our Trip to Texas, Finesse and I each took lots of books to read...we didn't want to spend too much money down there, so we sat by the river and read together. In Texas I read "The Notebook"( novel was very close to the movie), "The Last Song" ( quite a bit of differences than the movie), "Message In A Bottle" (some differences but very similiar to the movie...I was hoping the ending would be different , but it wasn't), "A Bend in the Road" ( very good twist in the end).

So since we've been back home Adam took us to Half Price Books and bought me more Nicholas Sparks books. I've read "The Rescue", "The Guardian" ( I think this is my FAVORITE Sparks book to date, this should be made into a movie...it would be awesome, as I was reading it I was thinking 'Wow this is a thriller it's a very different style of writing from the rest of his books... and then at the end Sparks himself says that he had never attempted this style of writing, he'd always wanted to write a thriller but this was his first).

Adam also bought Sparks' latest book for me at Fred Meyer a couple of weeks ago "Safe Haven" ( kind of a thriller as well...very good book). And yesterday Finesse and I went driving...she's been driving me around everywhere for the past couple of days so she can get more comfortable behind the wheel, before I feel safe enough to let her out on her own, anyway after our drive we stopped at Goodwill and she found me another Nicholas Sparks book that I haven't read yet "The Choice" (cant wait to read it!) it is a nice hardcover in mint condition. I also spotted a Sequel to my all time favorite movie "Gone with the Wind" this sequel is entitled "Scarlett" was written by a different author, Alexandra Ripley, "Gone with the Wind" was written by Margaret Mitchell...but according to the sleeve of the book...Alexandra was chosen to write this book by Margaret Mitchell's estate, So I am very excited to start this book. I have always wished that they would make a sequel to the movie, as a matter of fact when I watched it recently I said that to Adam and Finesse again. I always wanted to see if Scarlett ends up with Rhett ( I hope so, I guess I'll find out how Alexandra wanted it to end).

WooHoo....I just went to Netflix to see if they did make a Scarlett sequeal to Gone with the wind and they did in 1994, so I will be getting it in the mail in a couple of day. Now I am really excited...Hmm, should I read the book first or watch the movie? Pros and cons to both. If I read the book, then I am talking throughout the whole movie saying stuff like " thats not what they did in the book" but if I watch the movie first....I may not be as excited to turn each page in the book in a rush to see what happens...unless of course the book and the movie are different. What to do, what to do!?

So any Book Lovers out there? If you've read any of the above mentioned books...I'd love to chat about your thoughts on them. By the way I do read books by other authors as well, just trying to collect all of the Nicholas Sparks Hardcover books right now, If you have any suggestions for books that you think I would enjoy, I would love to hear about them ( it'll give me a reason to relax and have another glass of red wine  ( which by the way I just started to acquire a taste for...prior to a few weeks ago I only drank white wine, but Adam introduced a nice sweet red wine to me called "Madria Sangria", I think thats the name).

Gonna work out in a little bit, then let Finesse drive me around again today. Maybe do some Photography school as well, since I am always taking continued education courses to advance my knowledge of the ever changing world of Photography. One other hobby that I really want to start doing more of is sewing, I have a nice new Embroidery sewing machine...I need to get some more fabric tho, okay this last paragraph was kinda random, along with the whole red wine thing, in the last paragraph...but that is how my brain operates unfortunately, it changes channels on me without any warning, very TIRING...whew!

Feel Free to comment on my blog...would love to hear your thoughts!

Talk to Yall Later : )

P.S. *Just this morning I sold 4 stock images on Fotolia (the stock photography site I work with), 1 of the images being from the tons of recently uploaded images I just submitted last week, of my last family portrait session, this particular image was of a mother and daughter... 

 And these are the thumbnails of the other 3 that sold:

 ( yes, those are my legs)

 (Daniel and Kasandra, pregnant with Danyel)

  ( and images of Adam are always my #1 selling images)

Surprisingly...this next image has been selling like hotcakes lately, I guess bcuz of the Autumn Season.

This image has sold 72 times ( this was taken about 3 or 4 years ago, when we lived in Cedar Downs)

And these images have been my most Popular ones from the beginning when I started Stock Photography 4 years ago:

 Sold 103 times

 Sold 65 times

Sold 31 times

 This image is tied with this one of Jewels they have sold 26 times

All together I have 1,401 images  For Sale on "Fotolia" and about 500-800 images on "BigStock"