I am guilty of it too. Heck, this post is going to be a whine about whining. I came back today feeling completely refreshed. After checking my email (only 202 messages in my inbox and 2032 in my spam inbox), I checked out some of the forums I hang out in. It was such a downer. Now, I don’t mind threads that say I need to rant, because I do that and we all need that sort of outlet. However, it was everything else. I never realized how much negativity was there until I walked away for a few days. It is a real eye opener for me. My goal for next year I think is going to try to be less negative. Granted, this isn’t like curing cerebral palsy or anything. However, it is the baby steps that lead you in the right direction.  Hopefully, this change in attitude can be reflected in all aspects of my life.  We’ll have to wait and see . . . .

Here’s my dilemma with Madison’s birthday — do I make her a cake or order one? I found a cute recipe that I could make her a cake in the shape of a ice cream cone. However, this cake is semi-labor intensive and will take a good amount of my time. My other option is to go to our local grocery store and order her a cake. Last year, I had them do a Tinkerbell Cake and it was super cute. They have pretty much everything to choose from. I stood there for a least 30 minutes last year trying to decide which one to get. They are very detailed cakes too — they don’t miss the gold chains on the cartoon characters or the little things that kids will notice. On the Tinkerbell cake, there was a toy she could play with. It was Tinkerbell and when you rolled it across the table, the wings move. She still plays with it.

Do you make your children’s birthday cakes?

You may have noticed that I took a small hiatus over the last couple of days. Well, we went up to Green Bay to visit my family, and I swore off using the internet. My parents also only have dial up, and well, I don’t have the patience for that. We drove back this afternoon and now are getting ready for Madison’s birthday party (which will be on the 5th). I have so much stuff to put away as is just from Christmas, so this will be an extremely busy week. Bill has been off for a week from work, so he’ll have a ton of catching up to do. I was sick for about a week before Christmas, so I let a lot of stuff just slide. Now, we have a major house cleaning to get done. I know it isn’t anything as difficult as rental property investment, but it is just as time consuming.  Plus, we are trying to get the kids back into a routine.  The trips up there are hard on them.

I am hoping to get back into the swing of things, but this week will be super busy for me.

PhotographyCorner is having a contest called the 2007 Photograph of the Year. You have from now till January 15th to submit a picture that you took in 2007 and you have to be a member of good standing on their forums (which means you can’t be banned from there and you need to have at least five posts). There are a few more rules but that is the jist of it. If you win first place, this is what you are looking at getting:

• A Lifetime Pro account courtesy of SmugMug (value $1,050)
• Free Customization of your SmugMug Pro Account courtesy of SmugMug (value $500)
• A $200 Print Gift Certificate courtesy of SmugMug
• A $200 Visa Gift Card courtesy of PsPrint
• A $250 Gift Certificate courtesy of PsPrint
• Copies of Masters of Wedding Photography DVD sets I & II courtesy of Masters of Wedding Photography (value $338)
• A $250 Gift Card courtesy of ScanCafe
• A $175 Gift Certificate courtesy of Frame Destination
• Copies of Arcadia PhotoPerfect, i2e Standard, PerfectlyClear & BackupCD courtesy of Arcadia Software (value $164.95)
• A copy of Photoshop Trio courtesy of Digital Anarchy (value $499)
• A copy of Photo Creative Suite Single-User License courtesy of Wondershare (value $129.95)
• A copy of the Photoshop Plug-in Suite courtesy of OnOne Software (value $399.95)
• A copy of Photobot courtesy of Tribeca Labs (value $29.95)
• A Lensbaby 3G courtesy of Lensbabies (value $270)
• A camera bag courtesy of Lowepro
• A PhotographyCorner.com Pen & Business Card Holder set, 10 PhotographyCorner.com Pens, and a Lifetime, Level II PhotographyCorner.com Premiere Membership (Value $179)

That is just first place! They are giving away over $20,000 in prizes, so it is definitely worth your time to enter! The community will start voting on the pictures January 18th and the winners will be announced January 30. I know that I am going through my pictures to see if I have anything worthy of winning. I also found some interesting information over at the Photography Corner Blog , so I would recommend checking that out too.

I have been pretty lucky this last year, so I thing I will enter this, and I hope you do too!

If this doesn’t put you in the Christmas spirit, I don’t know what will:

I saw this over at The Pond and knew I had to share it. Happy viewing and Merry Christmas everyone!