Craps

Last week I learned how to play Craps!

I can't say that I fully understand the game, but I get pieces of it.

Mostly I just throw things out there and see what happens.

I guess it payed off though, cause I ended up taking first place in the tournament!

Poor Tony should have won, but I am an expert trash talker and I got him to throw away all his money.

All part of the game, my friend.

:)

*Pictures have been blurred to protect the identity and pride of the "expert" men who lost to the first time Craps player (aka me)*

Braden's Visit

Last weekend my friend, Braden, came to Logan to visit!

Events included:

Drinking water!

He actually drank a whole water bottle right there. True story.

The zoo!

Sleeping albino porcupine

Each animal had a plaque telling about it. This one was my favorite.

The pet rocks

Terrorized the peacock

Walked around the park

Picnic at Braden's old elementary school

We picked out drinks we had never had before

Old Grist Mill sandwiches!

Marde bracelets

Braden's old classroom

Photography store

Modeling the tripod

And just hung out

Thanks for the good times!

To Be A Pioneer

A few years ago, my family took a hike up Mount Snuffles in Colorado.
It sounds like a little kid amateur hike, but let me tell you, it was one of the hardest hikes I've done!

Riding to the start of Mount Snuffles

We started the hike in good spirits as the sun shone down on us. It was such a nice day that we opted to leave our jackets in the car.
After all, how hard could something called Mount Snuffles really be, right? 

About half way up, the trail just stops and you start climbing straight up the mountain on loose rock. We could see the top and we pushed ourselves hard to get there. Dark clouds were forning above us, but we were determined to reach the top! Well, we accomplished our goal just as the first rain drops began to fall. We celebrated our victory for about two seconds before we were informed that our goal was not actually the top and we were directed to yet another mountain to climb over (at least there was a trail again)

Climbing up the loose rock

We still wanted to reach the top, but unfortunately the rain had other plans for us. We began our hike back down the loose rock. Once we made it to the trail, the rain really began coming down on us. This was not a nice summer rain, but a cold rain, that only grew colder as the wind set in. 

If you know me at all, you know that I do not do well in the cold at all. Actually, that might be the understatement of the year.
When I get cold, I just completely shut down. Completely.

With about a mile left, I was completely soaked through, I couldn't feel my feet, and I was so cold that I had to remind myself to breathe. My pace sowed and I had to convince myself to take each step. I was falling behind, and no matter how I tried, I just couldn't will myself to catch up with my cousins. I wondered if it might be better just to sit down and die. "I bet heaven is warm all the time" I thought to myself.

You are probably thinking that I'm exaggerating this story for dramatic effect, but I promise there are no embellishments. 

I think there have been two times in my life where I seriously thought I was going to die, 

and this was one of them. 

Suddenly, my cousin Sierra turned around to see me lagging far behind the group. She immediately stopped and waited for me, with the relentless rain still coming down. When I got to her, I told her I thought I was going to die. She linked her arm around mine and started marching down the hill. I staggered to get my feet to keep up with her pace, but she kept pulling me along. 

Soaking wet in the car with the heater on full blast

With Sierra still linked to me, we finally made it to the car which had the heater on full blast.

We drove straight to the hot springs and it wasn't until I was able to sit in the hot tub for a long time that I finally got rid of my chills.

Me and Sierra at the Hot Springs

I am convinced that if it wasn't for Sierra, I would have died that day.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I have been thinking about this story all day as I've been listening to talks in church about pioneers.

I'm a pretty determined person when I want to and I really believe in something.
I think as long as it was warm, I could keep trekking along.

However, I'm pretty sure I would be the first to die as soon as winter hit.

 I would be so ready to get out of that cold that I would probably dig my own shallow grave to die in.

I think I was born at this time for a reason.

I struggle with the cold enough as it is, and I have clothing, blankets and heat readily available to me! 

I am honestly grateful to be warm every day. 

It is not something I take for granted, and I'm not just saying that.

I don't know how the pioneers managed, cause I wouldn't last two seconds!

Hopefully I can be a pioneer today in different ways, and definitely in better living conditions.

My First Car Accident

I got in my first car accident today!

I took bridal pictures for my old roommate Brittany and I had just picked her up from her apartment. She was all dressed up in her wedding dress, veil in place, holding her sunflower bouquet.

We turned out onto Main and another car was also turning into the same lane and we just kind of scraped by each other. Niether Brittany or I reacted to it at all. We just kind of said, "oh, we just hit that car." Typical of me - under-reacting to important things. As I was pulling over I was thinking how I didn't want to wait for the police and fill out reports and spend a bunch of money and deal with insurance and all that this accident would intail. I didn't care if my car was damaged as long as it ran fine. 

I left Brittany sitting in the car in her wedding dress and got out to quickly inspect my car as the other car pulled over as well. I couldn't see any evidence of the scrape, so I was hoping for the best as the girl came walking over from her car. She asked me if my car was ok and I told her it was fine and asked the same of hers. She replied that her car already had scratches on it and she was fine if we were fine. Then she added, motioning to Brittany, "And she has her wedding dress on." 

And that was that! 

We apologized to each other and both went our separate ways.

The end.

The moral of the story: Always remember to have someone wearing a wedding dress when you get in a car accident.

I Accidentally Threw A Party . . . .

Last week was quite eventful and I have a lot to catch up on. Today, you only get the story of the accidental party that I apparently threw.

I have a friend named David Loomis who is not very good at being spontanious. We've been working on it, but he can never quite grasp the concept that there is absolutely no planning involved.

One night, I was talking with Chelsey and she mentioned that she wanted to clean the sink at Angie's some time. For those who don't know, "cleaning the sink" means you eat a whole bunch of ice cream that has been put in a sink. It's fun. Anyway, because we had recently talked to Dave about cleaning the sink, and because we were working on his spontaneity, and because I knew he was horrible at spontaneity and the chances of it actually happening were slim to none, we decided to text him and see if he wanted to clean the sink that night. There was no response and I chalked it up for another failed spontaneous moment, as I had predicted.

About an hour later, Dave decides to text me back and ask what time we were going. Because I hadn't planned on going to begin with, I hadn't actually told anyone about it. Not wanting to say this to Dave, however, I told him 9:00 and that he could invite whoever he wanted. He told me he would "let me know"  I was still confident that he would back out and was just humoring me, but I sent a quick text to everyone I knew in Logan (probably 10 people tops, and only 4 of them well enough that they would actually have a possibility of coming).

Text:  "clean the sink at angies tonight at 9"

Nothing fancy or encouraging. It was around 8:30 when I sent it, so I thought it would be way too late and short notice for people to want to go. No one responded back and I was sure that was the end of it.

Chelsey left to visit a friend. Kandace called me and we had a great conversation (we really need to talk more often!) As we were talking, Eric/Patux called. I figured I would call him back after I finished with Kandace, but he called again and I felt bad ignoring him twice. Kandace and I finished our conversation and I called Eric back.

Eric:  "Where are you?"

Me:  "Sitting on my bed. Why?"

Eric:  "Uh... Are you coming to Angie's?"

Realization set in of what had happened, and I felt so bad! He had never told me he was coming!?

I quickly apologized, told him it was canceled and that he could still come over and we would do something. We hung up and he started driving over to get me.

It was at this time that Dave texted me, telling me that he had 5 people and was on his way to Angie's at that very moment. What!?

Eric pulled up then and I told him that plans had changed and Angies was back on! I texted Chelsey and she said she and her friend would get to Angie's as soon as they could. Just then, I got a call from my roommate, Catherine (another person I had texted)

Cate:  "Hey, where are you guys?"

Me:  "Um... Are you at Angie's?"

Cate:  "Yeah, are you here?"

Me:  "Uh... I'm on my way right now! (I was sitting in my living room) But Dave should be there. He just texted me"

Cate:  "Dave isn't here...."

We decided that they should just get a table that would fit a lot of people (I had no clue how many people would actually show up for this!) and that we would get there as soon as we could.

It was some mass confusion that ended up being a really fun spontaneous time!

This is the only thing I got from the night because my camera died right after.

We had a good number of people come! I ended up getting breakfast (so good!) and Cathrine and Tyler got dinner because we hadn't eaten yet (yes,  it was at least 9:30 by this time, and I still hadn't eaten anything) Two people didn't eat anything, but came for the company, and everyone else got the Kitchen Sink and finished it off nicely.

Let me say again that none of these people told me that they were planning on coming! I had no idea that I was really throwing a party, but I'm sure glad that I did! It ended up being such a fun night!

Thanks everyone for your spontaneity!

P.S.  Let it be known that we counted it up and there were more people there off my invitation than Dave's. Winner!

P.P.S.  It can also be known that, against all odds, Dave was spontaneous. Way to go.

Toilet Miracle

Ever since I moved into Bridgerland, there has been this nasty black mold stuff growing around the inside of my toilet. 

I hate cleaning bathrooms, so I keep pushing it away, but I knew I would have to face it one day.

Friday night (or Saturday morning) I got to bed late (or maybe it would be early?). The toilet was so gross to me, but I wasn't going to clean it at 2:00 in the morning! In a desperate attempt, I grabbed some Clorox from under the sink and sprayed a few squirts in the toilet. I laughed at myself as I went to bed, thinking how ridiculous it was to think that those few squirts would make a difference.

In the morning, I was astounded! My toilet was clean! there wasn't even a trace of the nasty black stuff left in the bowl! 

It was a toilet miracle!

I wish I would have gotten a before and after picture!

I never knew cleaning the toilet was so easy.

It might just be my new favorite job.

I'm trying it out on the bathtub next!

The Website Saga

The Website Saga

Remember how I have a website? Well, it has been causing me such a headache for the past two months!

First you have to understand that there are three parts to a website:

1.  Web Builder (Wix) - This is how you made your website

2.  Domain (Network Solutions) - This is your web address, like allisonkayphotography.com

3.  Host (DreamHost) - They make my website show up on your computer

Now, if you're smart, you do all 3 of those with the same company.

Obviously I missed the memo on that one.

When you first buy a website it's super cheap cause they want to pull you in. I think I got mine for something like $6 for a full year. Renewing your website and upgrades is where it can get pricy. 

At the beginning of May I received an email from DreamHost telling me that it would cost $119.40 to renew my website. I tried to make the payment, but my card had expired and I needed to update my information. I couldn't figure out how to update it, so I left it alone.

The emails continued to come and in June my website disappeared. I still couldn't figure out how to update my information and there was no contact information to be found for DreamHost. I decided that I would just use my blog/facebook and let my website expire. Not many people look at it anyway and I was short on money this month, so I figured it would be fine. 

Then July came.

This month I have engagements, bridals, and a family to photograph. 

I suddenly remembered why I had made my website! 

Without it, I had no way to show my clients their pictures! 

I was suddenly frantic to get my website back, but the situation was much more complicated now. I had let my website expire, and I didn't know if I would be able to get it back. 

If you didn't already know, I am not afraid to be that customer that just doesn't go away. 

I started by calling Wix and making sure my page was still alive somewhere and that I could make it appear again. I have Wix in my phone and have called them so frequently in the past that they knew me by name. Raul was always the best. Anyway, all was good on their end, so I moved onto DreamHost who has very limited customer service.

As I said before, DreamHost has no phone number and the email they had sent me said there was no reply. I was diligent though and found another email address for them. It was on!

I began a series of questions. For every email I sent, they would reply with two - The first telling me not to email them and look at Wiki, and the second answering my question (after long amounts of time) About every other email I would ask/beg for a phone number. I knew it could be cleared up so quickly if I could just have an actual conversation! After telling me not to email them, they would always answer that they didn't have a phone number. It was a very slow and painful process. 

Anyway, at one point they told me it was a problem with my Domain - Network Solutions. So I called them and the guy told me that my domain name was expired. I had 3 choices:

1.  Buy my domain name back for $3000 (yes, that is a three and four zeros!)

2. Wait for like another month or so for it to go back in the pool of names and hope that I'm the first one to get it

3.  Buy a new domain name

I decided that option 3 was probably my best bet, so I changed my domain from allisonkayphotography.com to allisonkay-photography.com (if you missed the difference, there is a dash in the second one) I also decided to get the name for 10 years instead of just one so that 1.  I could get a better price, and 2.  I didn't have to go through this mess again in 12 months. The guy also ended up talking me into protection, so the grand total of my phone call was $169.80

It's also important to note that while I was on the phone with Network Solutions, I was also on facebook with my friend, Jared, who was researching the company for me and helping me make good choices, since website choices obviously aren't my strong point. Thanks Jared!

So now I'm paying $169.80 on top of the $119.40 bringing my website to $289.20

This is also on top of me having to pay double rent for the month of July because I wasn't able to sell my contract at Maple Valley

This is also on top of having small paychecks because we have been taking vacations for the 4th of July and such.

I was a little stressed about money.

July 9th, I check my email and I have another message from DreamHost (they have been coming faithfully through this whole ordeal telling me that I owe $119.40) This one, however, is different! It tells me that I have no balance and it has been automatically paid! I try to get on my website and, voila, it's back! 

Now, it sounds like everything is good, right? But, there are a few problems with this:

1.  If it was an automatic transfer, why was I getting a million emails for the past two months?

2.  They still don't have my updated card information, so how has this payment been made?

3.  I just wasted half my life for the past two months on something that didn't even matter!

Of course, I email DreamHost and they send me the answer not to email them and to look at Wiki, and I wait for them to get the real answer back. I'm sure I begged for a phone number for the millionth time, and I'm sure they told me there was none.

I checked my bank account, and there are no transactions for DreamHost. There are, however two transactions for Network Solutions. The first is the $169.80 for my new domain name. The second is $41.98 for who knows what. 

I immediately call and ask what the $41.98 is about. They tell me it's to renew allisonkayphotography.com (no dash) So why was I told that I no longer had that name!? 

I was so mad. 

I told them I wanted my original domain name and I wanted a full refund for the $169.80

Meanwhile, DreamHost can't figure out what is going on with my hosting. The long drawn-out emails continue, and I am growing more and more frustrated.

Then I get a phone call.

From a number I don't recognize.

It's DreamHost!

The first thing I say is "you told me you didn't have a phone number!" 

I guess the DreamHost finally decided that I really was a lost cause and I wasn't going to quit and they had to give into my demands.

:)

Apparently, allisonkayphotography.com is not hosted through DreamHost, but is actually through GoDaddy (another hosting company). My DreamHost is for two other websites that I made for classes two years ago! Why are they contacting me now when I haven't heard a thing from them in two years!?  An unexpected twist to the story, for sure. 

Jamie (the DreamHost girl I was talking to) told me I could go in and cancel my accounts. I asked for the phone number so I could have it if I had any complications (something I am well known for in every technology circle) It turns out that the she was calling from a skype line so I couldn't call her back, but she was super nice and gave me her personal email and told me if I had any more problems or questions I could email her and she would call me back. She was like an angel!

Well, I went to cancel my accounts and my page is not what it is supposed to be. I even checked Wiki - definitely not the same as what my screen looked like. I emailed Jamie and she sent me what it should be. I tried again and my screen was different this tim, but still not the right one. I email Jamie again and she tells me she doesn't know why that would happen (I hear this all the time!) but just to wait for it to expire on it's own. 

So, to recap - The first email was sent May 6th and the saga has been officially ended (hopefully) with my refund today of $169.80

Do you realize that for all my efforts at being responsible and getting things paid, it all came to nothing! Everything that I did had to be un-done!

Literally, not one thing that I did mattered!

The moral of the story:  If you sit back and do nothing, everything will take care of itself, and your life is much more stressful.

Lesson Learned.

Next time I will be much less responsible.

p.s.  If you made it through this whole saga, you might as well go the whole way and visit my website!

allisonkayphotography.com 

Flash Back

Back in the day of Kensington 105 we would quote Kid History all the time!  

I came across this little clip the other day and it brought back such good memories of living with those girls!

Love Kensington 105!

Welcome to Bridgerland Meadows

I woke up this morning and decided that it's about time to do a tour of my new little town house, so that's what I did, first thing - before I even washed my face or put real clothes on.

enjoy!

Camera Fails & One Success

My brother and his family came to Rexburg last weekend, so I decided to go up/down (does it really matter!?) and spend some time with them too! I have forgotten/lost my camera every time I am with these guys, so this time I made sure to cover my bases and brought both my point-and-shoot and my Nikon.

I got there before they arrived so I could have some time to spend with friends. I have been dying to go rock climbing all summer, so Porter was so great to organize a trip for me! It was so much fun, but you could definitely tell this was my first climb of the summer. I really need to go more often.

Of course, I left my camera in the car, so I have no pictures.

Fail!

After climbing we grabbed a few more people and went out to ice cream at G's Dairy. Only half of us ended up actually eating ice cream, but it was more about being together. It was my favorite part of the night, so I made sure to document it this time!

Of course, my camera died right after I took this picture, but I still had my Nikon.

Half Fail!

Logan and Rachel and their cute kids came that night and the fun began!

I decided that I wanted to try making a movie of our adventures.

Unfortunately, my camera died about 1/8th of the way through the day. It didn't even make it though the first activity!

Fail!

It was probably for the best though, because the movie still ended up being about 15min long. My family will probably appreciate it, but everyone else can feel free to skip it, or watch the first 30 seconds and then get bored with it. I won't be offended, but you can still appreciate it  :)

Our day started out with Bear World! 

For those who don't know, Bear World is a park/zoo that you drive through and they have "wild" animals like goats, elk, a moose, and (of course) bears. It was invented because Yellowstone is boring and they were trying to compensate for the disappointed visitors who traveled hundreds of miles and all they saw was a squirrel. (That isn't a joke. It's even called Yellowstone Bear World)

Aaanyway, If you go with little kids Bear World can actually be a lot of fun! After looking at the bears we fed the ducks, went to the petting zoo (my camera died right as we went in), and then rode the little rides they have there.  

After Bear World we made a picnic and went to Porter Park to play in the splash park and ride the carousel.

Side Note: I saw my 6th grade teacher at the carousel and he told me that he tells his class about me every year and that I am a legend. He is my favorite teacher growing up... probably because I am his favorite student  :)  

After Porter Park we came home and had a barbecue with delicious hamburgers, followed by good conversation into the night. 

Can a day get much better? 

It would be tough.

Sunday was much more laid back, but I still loved every minute. 

We had another barbecue with possibly the best food and company ever!

And no documentation.

Fail! 

You can't say I didn't try.