Life

I haven't posted since December 8th. But I mostly kept my commitment to post every day of the year. This is the end of this blog - to document my life every day in pictures of the year I turn 60 years old. And it was quite a year.

My dictionary has many definitions for life. My very first post of the year had the words to a James Taylor song that I love - the secret of life is enjoying the passage of time. I guess I did enjoy the passage of time this year - mostly. Even in the loss of my mother, I can say it was a meaningful and a learning experience for me. I'm not worried about where she is and I know I will see her again. It's ironic that tonight on New Year's Eve, I am here alone with no TV on and have been reading a book. It's a little paperback book that belongs to my "baby" sister called Life After Life. I was drawn to it tonight. I do believe in life after life.

I spent a lot of time tonight also going back over this entire blog, reading every entry and all the comments. Thank you friends and family and a couple of "unknowns" for your comments and interaction. Thank you, Joan, for this idea. I enjoyed your blog and you inspired me with your last comment to finish this out and post one last night before the year ends. Finish what I started.

I learned a lot this year. I learned that I can learn first of all! ha! I've kept journals by hand before and when I go back and read them, I'm amazed at the things I did, not realizing how busy I was. I never think I do enough. But this year I've learned that I do what I can. For the coming year, I don't know if I will blog again or not. I do love to blog but I might take a break from blogging every single day. I just haven't made a plan or decided yet. I really did enjoy going back and looking at the photos and posts on this blog and the comments people made. The middle of the year was very tough but I'm glad it's documented. I have the name of a company who will print your blog for you. I am going to check into that about the cost, etc., and I may do that to preserve it.

I've learned that I play many roles. I, of course, started out as two people's baby, then a sister, niece, granddaughter, cousin, wife, sister-in-law, mother, aunt, mother-in-law, grandmother and, hopefully, friend. And all these people have played a role in my life. If I have any resolutions for the year 2010, it is to love myself so that I may love and do for others. I've learned that lesson this year. I'm not trying to be self-centered but selfish. There's a difference. By being selfish, which means just loving myself, I'll be better able to love others, give clean gifts, and serve as a better role model of someone who loves and gives to others but also has a life of her own to enjoy.

I plan to start the year of 2010 with art classes on January 4th. There are a few other things I have planned, too, but I'm just going to try to enjoy the ride again. None of us know what the next year holds but all we can do is our best. My goal is improvement for myself in all areas possible and to love my God, the life he has given me and my family and friends. I hope everyone reading this has a very meaningful 2010. Thank you for visiting my blog in 2009. It was a good experience.

Above is a photo taken this Christmas of my immediate family - my husband, my two daughters and their husbands and my granddaughter. I love them all dearly. But I have so much of an extended family that I love dearly, too. Life has been good to me in my 60 years and I'm so thankful for that.

I'm OK But. . . .

I know everyone is decorating for Christmas now and I have been, too, so why this Thanksgiving/Fall photo at this time of year? Well, the last two days I've been ok but. . . I still feel like I have these "moments" or "times" when I feel so down and I guess it's because I miss my mother. The photo above I like because I did decorate for Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas even though I really didn't feel like it. But I did it. And as I did it, I added in little things of my mother's that would remind me of her and make my home feel like she's a part of all this "celebrating."

In the photo above, the two little ceramic squirrels were my mother's. I remember them for as long as I can remember and everywhere we lived, I remember her hanging them on an outside wall of our house. That's why I love them - because she did and they were so important to her. They ARE cute, aren't they? I wonder where she got them. I never asked her and wish I had. She probably ordered them from a catalog. She loved to order things from a catalog. :)

After her house was almost empty, I went out on her screened-in porch on the back of her house and saw these still hanging on the wall outside. Everyone had been through her things and made lists and gotten things they wanted and no one had taken down those little squirrels. I just couldn't leave them yet I couldn't give them away so I took them home. They just seem to look perfect with the greenery and pumpkins, etc.

Today my husband and I took our granddaughter to the Shakespeare Theatre here to buy tickets to a play. As I was talking to the lady in the ticket office, somehow the subject came around to our mothers and holidays and I just broke down crying in front of the woman. I thought I was through with that but I guess not. The lady was very understanding and thoughtful about this with me. She told me that a time would come that I would treasure moments like I had today. I guess time will only tell.

Soap, Anyone?

I know this is a strange photograph but. . . . this is a journal done by photography for this year, right? I am constantly seeing things I can photograph now. I was in the shower and noticed what pretty colors were bubbling up on my bar of soap. So here I am soaking wet wishing I had my camera! That's pretty obsessive I guess!! Then I thought, "well, I can go get my camera and get the shot after I get out of the shower and dry off." By the time I got my camera, the pretty little bubbles were gone. I did not let this get me down. I took the soap out and rubbed around on it with my sponge and up came some more bubbles so I photographed away in the shower!! Can you imagine?!? ha! These were just not as pretty, though, as the very first ones I saw.

I guess my point I'm trying to make here is that my vision is constantly changing since I've started this blog which, for me, is successful and makes me happy that I've worked on this blog all year. I still have SO much to learn which is exciting, too!

Good Excuses!

I do have plenty of good excuses for not posting for a few days. In one word - Thanksgiving!! But it was so good. I spent it with all my girls and hubby and other family members I love so much. It was a lot of hard work, cleaning and cooking for hours and hours but it was worth it all. I have so much to be thankful for. There was a vacancy with my mother not being with us this year so I made sure I placed some things out here and there to remind me of her. And I attempted her famous caramel cake. It wasn't just like hers but it did taste good and was all eaten pretty quickly. I think she would have liked it, too.

Now it's December and thoughts are on Christmas. We already have most of our decorations out. I am almost through with shopping and have already done what few Christmas cards I am sending. For the month, I would love to enjoy Christmas sewing and I love to bake and decorate cookies. Maybe I will have time to do that, too. Simplifying things is the best way to go!

The Creek

This is a little creek close to my house. I don't know why it caught my eye this morning but it did. I just had to pull over and take a few shots. I think it's the autumn leaves. I love all that color. On one side of the road, the water was running (as in this photo) and on the other side of the road, it was still. This is my favorite season. It's a shame it doesn't last longer.

Tweaking

After church today, I spent the afternoon tweaking photographs. I love to do it but you can sink a LOT of time into this activity by playing around! I get lost in it.

The above is just an amazing look at nature. I was up early one morning photographing spider webs and came up with so many different designs. Some of them look like jewelry to me!

I love to stop and take a close look at the little things.

Busy, busy, busy!

I have been pretty busy lately and not had too much time the last couple of days to post here. I don't want that habit to continue and want to post every day until the end of the year. So I thought I'd post another photo from the foggy morning I was out at 5:30 am snapping these pictures. I put this one on here straight out of the camera but I'd like to take time and work with this whole group. I just love the soft and peaceful look of this peaceful morning. The colors are fall-like, too.

I have been busy sewing, crocheting, babysitting, some cooking, organizing, reading, working with Photoshop to try to learn some more about it, went to a baby shower, just a lot of things like that. I am ready for some down time and plan to take some within the next few days.

Lazy Daze

My days have seemed lazy lately. I've been doing a lot of reading, working with photos and files on the computer, photographing things outside, a little bit of sewing, and organizing things. I've cooked with my husband (which we used to do a long time ago when we first were married).

I've been waking up very early lately, too. Day before yesterday, I woke up at 3 am and yesterday I woke at around 5:30 so I headed outside with my camera when I saw this fog (as in the photo above). It was beautiful and I got a lot of soft photos. The one above is one of my favorites. It has the warm, fall colors in it with the hay bale and the mist.

I've been feeling a little low lately, probably because the holidays are approaching and this will be the first Thanksgiving and Christmas without my mother here. I want to draw close to my family but they're all so busy. At least we can keep in touch through all this technology. I love them all.

Art

Art encompasses so much - painting, drawing, photography, writing, music, cooking, just creating in any way. All my life, these are the things I've been interested in and they all kind of mix and mingle together. But there's one aspect of all these things that I'm not doing and I want to do. I want to take a photo such as the one above and paint it or draw it or re-create it in some way or some medium. I'm enjoying photography and learning more and more but I still have this urge to paint, draw, etc.

I guess I really have no excuse not to do this but I make excuses and I procrastinate and I do all kinds of other things, tip toeing around this. So this is what I've decided to do. When this blog is done at the last day of this year, I'll will not post on this one anymore. It will be finished. I will go back to my art blog and start trying to concentrate on that and post there.

I read somewhere (in an art magazine, I think) about a woman who is an artist and she decided to take one photo and paint it or re-create it 100 times in different ways. She talked about how much she learned by doing this. I am CONSIDERING this with something simple like the photo above or a similar one. I know I would learn a lot and I have to challenge myself most of the time to make myself do things.

I know this is a weird post but I'm in a weird mood. ha! We'll see what happens but that's kind of a "half plan." Just an idea. I have lots of other ideas in the making. I'll see what materializes.

The Golden Hour

Professional photographers are always talking about the Golden Hour. As I understand it there's one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I took this photo this afternoon and have titled it The Golden Cat in the Golden Hour!

This is Peekie (short for Peek-A-Boo), one of our three cats. He IS a beautiful cat and the sweetest cat in the world. He followed me around outside this afternoon as I was roaming around with my camera. I kept trying and trying to get a photo of him but he just wouldn't settle down. Finally, he did and was sitting out close to the pond in the front yard cleaning himself and I got one. I love our Peekie and he does look beautiful in the Golden Hour, doesn't he?

A Haunting Question

This is the toughest post I've made this year and it is a haunting question. I've thought about it all day.

Above is a photo from yesterday when we took Paige to the zoo. They have a nice playground there which she enjoys so much. It is one of the first places we took her to enjoy. When we got home, I loaded the pictures on the computer and she was sitting in my lap looking at them. When we came to this picture, she got really excited because this was one in which she was trying to help a little boy come up the slide. He was younger and she just loves to be a helper when she has an opportunity.

She asked me why I didn't take a picture of the little boy :( That question really made me stop and think. I remember the moment. I considered taking his picture with her but decided not to do it and just have a picture of her. She wanted him in the picture because she was helping him.

I'm not proud of the fact that I left the little boy out of the picture and I won't do it again. This has really bothered me all day today. I'm glad she pointed out this character flaw of mine by asking this question. We can learn so much from little children if we'll only listen with our hearts.

Zoo Trip Again

We took Paige to the zoo again today. The weather was perfect and there were only three families at the zoo, including us. It was great. The above photo is my favorite from the whole group. I didn't tweak it at all because I'm too tired but I just like the expressions I caught. They were both saying, "cheese."

I did play around with my camera a little today and I used the bracketing feature. It just shoots three exposures in a row and I can choose which one I like the best and delete the others if I like. And I found that at this same spot where I adjust this, I can also set up continuous shooting, self-timing and remote control shooting. So I'm having fun and learning at the same time.

I also played around with Photoshop tonight a little while and learned a few things. But I'm just so tired that I'm going to call it a night.

Cinderella's Grandmother

You can barely see her but this is Cinderella's grandmother in the mirror on the merry-go-round. I didn't tweak this photo at all.

Cinderella's grandmother had a lousy day today even though she was productive - cleaning house, doing laundry, went to choir practice and even cooked a very good meal for tonight. She has just been in a lousy mood. Guess even members of Cinderella's family have those kinds of days.

Front Yard Wildlife - Five Views

Yesterday I saw this turtle in our front yard. Even at a distance, he looked huge! So I stepped into the front yard a little closer to him and decided to go in and get my camera. I decided to put on the long lens because I was a little apprehensive about getting too close to him. I was scared he might be a snapping turtle and I didn't want to get "snapped!"

Hello!

A close-up of his tail. This looks very prehistoric!

And here's a side view of his head.

Goodbye!

I looked him (or her) up on wikipedia. It IS a snapping turtle. They can weigh from 10 to 35 lbs. and even up to 75 lbs, the shell on an adult can grow up to 20 inches (he was pretty close to that in length, I believe), they have very strong jaws and can also injure by their claws (especially the back claws), can defecate, urinate and/or musk on you and should be avoided. The females lay 25 to 80 eggs a year.

He was headed for our little pond in the front yard probably to eat well. They will eat other reptiles, small mammals, and even snakes which I like!

So I kept my distance and photographed him and let him go!

Dolly Park

I'm back from Tennessee. The four of us had a wonderful time although I hated my oldest daughter did not get to be with us at "Dolly Park", as Paige called it. The above photo shows how beautiful the lights were there.

Paige was CRAZY about Dolly Parton. We went into her museum on the park and we could NOT get her out of there! She loved looking at her clothes, shoes, photographs, musical instruments, listening to her music, etc. She wanted to go to Dolly's house!

It was a good visit with Erin, too. We spent the night with her the first night and had a great time. Then we rode from Nashville to the Sevierville/Pigeon Forge area. Erin had a gift show to attend while we went to Dolly Park. Then we were able to shop some, eat out and enjoy some more time with all of us together. I love my girls. :)

A Mini Vacation Coming Up!

Here are my three favorite girls! Tomorrow I'm leaving with the two on the left and going to visit the one on the right! ha!

We're headed for Nashville and then to Gatlinburg for a mini vacation. I'm very much looking forward to just being with my girls. :) May not post again here until I get back but hope to have a lot of good photos to post.

An Aha Moment!

This is the back of our house. This was Halloween night and I know it's dark and difficult to tell anything about it but it's a pretty big house to clean - two story. (*As a side note, one of our neighbors that lives across from the back of our house came over the day after Halloween and told Johnny that it looked like our house was on fire! ha!*) Anyway, most of the time I don't like to clean house but somebody's got to do it and we really can't afford to pay anyone so that leaves me. Sometimes I AM in the mood and actually enjoy it. But I ALWAYS enjoy having and being in a clean house.

Last night, I decided that today I would take Paige to her Mothers' Day Out school and then just come straight back home and use that four hours to clean house. I didn't finish but I did get a lot done. Being surprised about how much I did accomplish, I had an AHA moment! I thought, you know, I could do this every Tuesday (or Thursday) if Emily's working on Thursday and I'm taking her to school. I could come home and clean house and get some things done around here instead of wasting time just looking around, etc. in the area where her school is. Then having that done, I could run any errands or do any shopping with her after I pick her up! What a grand idea!

I still have some cleaning to do but I got most of it done today. I will definitely do this again!

A Sewing Day!

Today was a sewing day for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Above is one of the things I worked on. It was very tedious with little bitty pieces of fabric to cut and applique but turned out cute, I thought.

For more, go to my other blog, bearbear to see. I think this is the first time I've posted one photo the same on both blogs.

Decorations Came Down Today

I have never in my life put up decorations for any holiday one day and take them down the next! But that's what I did for Halloween this year. It all went up amazingly fast and taking it down was fast, too. I think my husband and I enjoyed it more than anyone! Had a great Halloween with only one trick or treater but she was a special one. :)

Happy Halloween!

Our pumpkin this year was a gift from Paige and her mommy. Paw Paw and Paige carved it together. We decided at the last minute this afternoon to decorate a lot for Halloween. It was so much fun and a perfect night. It was chilly, foggy, full moon and while we were decorating, we could hear coyotes howling. Spooky!!! Here is the jack o' lantern in all his glory!

Cinderella was our only trick-or-treater. Here SHE is in all HER glory! She's making a scary face for me in the mirror. I took about 20 photos of her tonight and only about three of them were in focus! Just too much excitement, I guess. But we enjoyed her visit so much and haven't laughed so much in a long, long time.

We had a wonderful Halloween.

Blount Park Outing

We have a very beautiful park here called Blount Park. Above is just one area of the park with the red bridge. A lot of photographers bring their subjects here to photograph engagement photos, children's photos, etc. because it is such a beautiful location.

Today I took Paige to the park just to have a picnic and play ball and enjoy the day. The day before Halloween, we had a beautiful, sunny 80 degree day!

We took a big blanket, got our "picnic" lunch at Chick Fil A (ha!), took a big ball plus a bat, ball and glove, about four stuffed animals, books, some bread to feed the ducks and, of course, my camera. :) We gave Mommy a day "off" to sew in peace and quiet.

Hammin' it up for the camera while we were feeding the fish, turtles and ducks. I think Paige ate more of the bread than she fed the creatures!

I wanted to include this photo because I thought it turned out so unusual. Paige is always noticing the flowers, especially wildflowers (aren't children wonderful?) and she's constantly picking flowers for me. Here's a wildflower she found and I snapped just as she was handing it to me which distorted the hand giving the flower which I think emphasizes the gift. :)

As Paige would say, it was a beautiful day!

A Visit From Cinderella :)

Had a visit from Cinderella today. She and Paw Paw wanted to carve a pumpkin together. Here they have removed the top and I don't think they're enjoying the "aroma" of a pumpkin! ha!

I think I took over 40 shots of Cinderella but she was so excited and had so many treats today that only a few were not blurred. Her school Halloween party was today. I think her mother got better photos than I did. She also had pictures of Tinkerbell and Snow White along with a cowboy and an astronaut. Cute, cute, cute!

Laundry, Reading and Sewing Today

Just using a public photo today. Nice shot of a beautiful autumn day which is what we are having (when it's not raining - we've had a lot of rain lately!).

I was going to read all day today and try to finish a book in a day but the laundry had to be done and my sewing machine kept calling me! Had a good day.

Brother Bob's Birthday!

Today is my brother-in-law's birthday. His wife, sister, my husband and I met for lunch to celebrate. Above are the siblings:)

Brother Bob and wife, Kay:)

Brother Bob and Moi :)

Life's A Beach!

I haven't posted in a few days because we went to the beach. Left on Thursday, the 22nd and got home last night, the 25th. We had a good time. For me, it was relaxing and just getting away for a few days.

The guys played golf every day and one of the women played with them. We "girls" just relaxed and did go out to eat a lot which was good. We went to some consignment places the first day and the shopping I loved the most was traveling to Panama City to a very nice quilt shop. That was the highlight of my trip!

The photo above was taken at a little secluded area that I'd never seen or visited. I really enjoyed this, too, with my camera. I have a lot of photos from this little hike we took thru a trail on an island. It was very swampy but well kept.

Looks like a great place to spend the day reading a book or doing some needlework with an iPod, doesn't it?

An Electrifying Day!

All I have to say is WHEW!

An Inspiring Day

I took this sweet little angel to her Mother's Day Out today. This month she is staying an hour afterwards for art and really seems to enjoy it.

While she's in MDO, I usually go to Books A Million and relax just looking around. I am taking a 12-wk. course (on my own) to help the creative process called Finding Water by Julia Cameron and it is wonderful!! Today my assignment was to go to a children's book store and look for an hour through children's books. It was quite an experience. Not what I expected at all. I was SO inspired and it was very interesting to see what books I chose. They parallelled what I choose in adult books! Very interesting.

Celebrating 82 Years!!

I didn't post yesterday but we did go to my mother-in-law's 82nd birthday celebration at my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's home. The meal was fantastic, like a big Thanksgiving or Christmas meal! Emily, Garrett and Paige came and as you can see, Paige loved helping Maw blow out her birthday candles.

It was a fun family time and we're so happy for Maw's 82nd birthday. I think she celebrated all week with her friends, too. Her birthday was really the 17th but she just kept celebrating. The more they come, the more special they should be. I wonder what it feels like to be 82. Happy Birthday Maw!

A Shocker!

I shocked my husband today and did some work outside! ha! Just went for a little stroll around the yard to breathe in the cool air (which is now very cold!) and saw so many things that needed to be done outside. So I went into the garage and got the clippers and trimmed the crape myrtles, stacked up the trimmings into a pile, pulled up some dead flowers in a long planter and thew them away, swept the porch, and brought in the outdoor pillows to wash. It was about 45 minutes of work, not much.

But, a SHOCKER to my husband! Gotta love it!

I Need to Pay Attention More!

I went for kind of a meandering walk today around 10:30 to 11:00 just looking around to see what I could find interesting in our yard. This was the most amazing thing I found, I think. These "pods" were all over the ground underneath our small magnolia tree that is right next to the house.

I was just looking over the magnolia tree and then looked down on the ground and these were everywhere. I've noticed them when they're green and on the tree right before they bloom but never knew they turned like this and fell to the ground. Then I noticed the beautiful red seeds (and some white) in them. I never knew this existed! How interesting and how beautiful!

I'm so happy life is still full of surprises and things to learn. I will start paying attention more!

Fair Day!

The sky was NOT this blue today at the fair! I played around with color because we had such a good time, I just couldn't stand to post a photo with the grey skies. It never rained on us for the 7 to 8 hrs. we were there, but the threat of a storm brought us wonderful breezes and cooled things off very nicely.

I think we covered everything pretty much that we could that was age appropriate. We looked at the exhibits, had cotton candy, fudge, ice cream, hamburger and fries, rode just about every ride that Paige was "qualified" to ride, watched the sea lion show, went to the petting zoo, visited with some old friends we saw, and saw a puppet show at the end. I'm sure I left out something but we had a great time and everyone should sleep well tonight:)

It just wouldn't seem like Fall without going to the fair.

Reflexology Again!

Of course, these sweet little feet are not mine. They belong to my granddaughter. But I had another hour of reflexology today which was heavenly and made my feet feel this young:) I would recommend it to anyone!

As for my post yesterday - my youngest daughter informed me in her comment that it was funny that I posted Rudi's photo because the day before was his birthday. I didn't realize that but that was the day that I took his picture! ha! Happy Birthday Rudi!

Playing Around

This is one photo that I made while just playing around with using old and new equipment together to try to get macro photos.

Very tired tonight. Stressful day driving on the highway today. A man ran me off the road this morning and it just seemed like there were so many crazy drivers out there. I just couldn't wait to get home and "nest" on my couch. whew!

Orange, Orange, Orange!

Out and about today and saw this cute pumpkin patch.

Happy Fall Y'all!!

The Boat

This is our backyard. And this is straight out of the camera! I did not do anything to this photo which is amazing. I saw that clouds were in the sky and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful sunset so I just walked down to the water and waited. Then when the color started appearing, I just started shooting and thought the boat would make a good silhouette against that orange water and sky.

I really, really like this photo!

Yard Sale

My youngest daughter and I had a yard sale today and did twice as good as I expected to do. I think she was pleased, too.

So we decided to do it again tomorrow afternoon after church and reduce our prices on what's left. We'll see how that goes.

Great Day! Hard work but great day!

Strange Day!

"It's a beautiful day, Paw Paw." That statement will make you feel so bad when you wake up with the devil in you as I did this morning. I don't know what was wrong with me! I was in such a bad mood. Johnny left (for which I don't blame him) and took Paige to the park and then when they got home, rode the 4-wheeler. During that time, I cleaned, cleaned, cleaned and then I started feeling like the devil was leaving me! ha! I felt so much better.

I also got hot and sweaty and it WAS a beautiful day. The sky was a beautiful blue with beautiful white clouds and a breeze blowing, in the 80's, so I asked Paige if she wanted to go swimming. The water temp was 80 degrees and it was just a little bit chilly but the sun was so warm that it really felt great. We went swimming in October! You know you're in the deep south when you can go swimming in October when people are decorating for Halloween and Fall! ha!

So, all in all, it ended up being a beautiful day (just as Paige said). Out of the mouth of babes:)

Calgon, Take Me Away!!!!!

Those of you out there who are old enough to remember this phrase and this commercial know what this means! I'm am exhausted. Still have work to do. Woman's work is never done! I'm eating and going to bed to have peace and quiet and read and gear up for the weekend. Keep Paige tomorrow and yard sale Sat. Church Sunday. Whew!

I've been working many, many hours getting ready for a yard sale lately. I hope it's going to be worth it. Worked just about all day today.

I needed to get the photos ready and on a disc for the director of the concert I photographed last week (program pictured above). I just haven't had time to work on them but hope to get it done and in his hands by Sunday.

This is #1 of about 135 photos I need to work on and then get transferred to a disc for the music director of the Capitol Sounds band/orchestra by tomorrow night to give to him at choir practice. There aren't enough hours in the day lately. I have been so busy with so many different things. This is almost a post just to have a post tonight. My year of turning 60 is almost over and I really would like to have it printed in book form to keep if it's not too expensive. But I will get to work tomorrow working on these photos. This is a photo of the First Baptist Church in Montgomery where the concert was performed right before the sun went down. It is a beautiful building and, of course, I love the dome. But I'm so tired tonight this will be cut short. Tomorrow is another day.