Busy, Busy, Busy

Phew, that was one busy holiday week!  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, very relaxed and subdued.  We ate ourselves into a Turkey Coma then had some pie to top it off.  Everything was wonderful and we had such a good day.  

Then it was time to finish decking the halls.  Now those who know me, know my house fairly pukes Christmas cheer.  I put up 5, yes, 5 Trees of various sizes throughout my home.  I love Christmas!  I did have to cheat a bit and start early this year though, I have a 4 year old so you have to work when you can.  He did have a wonderful time "helping" this year.  He is going to be so much fun on Christmas this year.  He has finally got the whole present thing and totally enjoys it.  Then of course I had to take his holiday picture in his Christmas outfit.  He didn't really enjoy that but he was a pretty good sport and I did get a few that I was quite proud of.

 

 I loved the ones with the trees.  He did too, because he got to touch any ornament he wanted to. He was not happy however when I made him sit in the foyer.  His expression confirms that he was a bit mad at me.  I love the darker                                                      look of this photo, reminded me of

                                                 candlelight.

 I also had the opportunity to  photograph one of my favorite families.  They have 9, yes, NINE dogs and  wanted them in the family portrait too.    Hard work let me tell you.  They also  have several other different kinds of  animals, pigs, chickens, ducks, cats and  probably a few things I missed.  It is  like they have their own personal petting zoo!    I was hoarse when I left there, because I had to make all sorts of funny noises to get them to look at me and not the squirrels!  It was a bright sunny day, which sometimes is a challenge, but I managed to get quite a few shots I was pleased with.  They loved them and that is all that counts.  My hoarseness was totally worth it.

The Roots and their pups
All of these are rescued dogs

Darla, 1 year pit, such a sweetie.
She is a rescue.

Told you they had a pig.  Shadow.

After that, we had another big event here.  Jordan's 4th Birthday!  November is the month of birthdays in my family, my husband, goddaughter, both of my brothers and my son were all born in November. So we celebrate one a week, literally.  This was the first year Jordan really "got" that it was his birthday and he was so excited.  I had to peel him off the ceiling a number of times.  He was a having a small party at his favorite pizza place with the family, but before that we gave him a choice of what he wanted to do, with me and his Daddy and his choice?  Go to Kmart!  I don't know why, but that is where he wanted to go so that is where we took him, I needed some soap so it worked out for me.  He picked out his toy and was a happy little man.  Then of course we headed to his favorite place for pizza and he got all his presents and his cake.  His Great Aunt Katherine made him a "dinosaur banilla cake" per his request.  He of course, couldn't keep his fingers out of the icing.  It was his cake so I didn't say much.   He had such a good time and it gave me a lump in my throat to see him so happy and excited. 

If you look close,
you can see little fingerprints

See? Told you, he kept poking it.

Even though it was a wild, busy, holiday weekend it was wonderful.  I am so blessed to have an awesome family and friends to share it with.


Until next time.

A little Thankfullness on Thanksgiving

Me and my mom, I was just a few weeks old.

This week is Thanksgiving and while it is a festive time of the year, it is also a bit sad for me.  A year ago, my Mom passed away.  She fought the fight for a very long time and did a very good job but in the end the Carcinosarcoma won.  While I was sad she was gone, I was also at peace with her passing, because I knew she was ready.  She never did anything that she didn't want to and she lived life on her own terms so I knew when she passed away, it was on her terms as well.  Thanksgiving was at her house last year and ALL of us were there, for the first time in many, many years all of her children and grandchildren were in one room for a holiday and I think she was happy with that.  The next week, she passed away quietly in her bed, in her house where she wanted to be.  

I am thankful for the time I had with both of my parents, they helped shape me into who I am today.  I am, who I am in part because of both of them.  The relationship we had was just that, our relationship, it was unique to both of us and different from anyone else's.  Good, bad or indifferent, it was ours.

I think I got several things from my mom, she was an avid gardener, she liked flowers much more than people I think, you could often find her in her garden, dirt all over her, with a coffee cup in her hand (it didn't matter if it was 25 or 100 degrees, she drank coffee!).  I am also an avid gardener, can often be found in my yard with dirt all over me, though no coffee, I only drink that in the morning.  I also think she passed on a love of photography to me as well, she took tons of pictures, my whole life.  We each have tons of photos she took of us as kids and adults.  She bought me my first camera in fact, when I was 11, and I took bunches of photos.  That was in the day when you sent your film off to be developed and had to wait for it to come back, I remember how excited I was when they came in the mail!  I even have those photos, they are in a album in my attic.   She worked as a printer for years so she was very good at color selection, placement, lighting and composition of subjects.  It amazed me she could look at a color and tell you what different color combination made that particular color.  She learned in the day before computers, she did it all by hand and by sight and that to me is amazing.   

Both of my parents passing made me realize how important it is to take a breath and take the time to preserve the memories in some way or another, because that is all I have left of them, is pictures and memories. In my life, my camera and/or phone sits on the counter, ready to capture the funny face or special moment that makes me get a lump in my throat.  Like Jordan, being a doctor at the "hobstable" (hospital) when his Daddy has a cold, taking his temperature, and listening to his heart beat and helping him feel all better.  This is also why I make my family do a formal family portrait every year.  My biggest regret is not having one last photo of my siblings and I, our spouses, our children and our mother together.  So every year in the fall, I make my family take one, because Jordan will only be this age once.  Whenever my siblings and I are all together, I make them take one as well, because it is rare when we are all in the same place at once so I torture them too!  It's important to me and even though they grumble, I think one day they will be happy we did it, if not, our kids will at least get a good laugh out of it.

So while this time of the year is happy, it is also bittersweet, but again I am thankful for the time I had with her and I know she is at peace.  I am also thankful for the things she taught me, and for how she helped shape me into to who I am.

Happy Thanksgiving Mom, I miss you!

Mom at Christmas, saying "Cheese"

My mother's family.  They have very few photos of all of them
together,  so this is very special to all of them.

Clementine and What Kevin Taught Me

So I had this plan to continue writing about my love affair with Clementine, but then I met Kevin.  I did do another project with Clementine and they did come out wonderful.  I was so proud of these.  My friend, Jennifer wanted her kids pics with Clementine, so we loaded up, hers, mine and my niece and off we went.  The kids are all 3rd generation of my husband's family so I got some of all of them together.  I would of love to have all of the cousins in there, but that wasn't possible so I made do with who I had.  The kids were great, as usual, I can't say enough about how good they are. They had fun, we laughed, we did silly faces, we did funny poses, they photo bombed each other, they ogled Clementine and climbed all over her and basically we just had fun.  Ms. Maggie, has turned into quite the model, she throws her hand on her hip and cocks that head and turns it on.  I really enjoyed it.     

A love affair with Clementine

So for the past few weeks I have been having a love affair with Clementine. 

As soon as I saw her, I knew her name should be Clementine.

Moving Clementine for me

Clementine is a 1966 Chevy truck that I found in my father in law's pasture. She was his truck for many years and I guess he didn't get rid of her for sentimental reasons.   Now I have walked past this truck a million times, but for some reason I didn't NOTICE her until a few weeks ago.  I asked my FIL to move her to a more aesthetically pleasing location for me, he looked at me as if I had grown another head when I said I wanted to take pictures of her. Because he likes me, he did it, with a minimum of head shaking.   I just love her, she is weathered and rustic, I refuse out respect for her to say, rusty and old. 

I am quite sure my father would approve of my love affair, she is a 1966, she is a Chevy and she still has a 327 in her.  My mother would also approve, she is "weathered and rustic",  my mother hated anything modern.  

Have you ever just wondered?

I often wonder why I love to take pictures so much? Then I realized in the "real world" I wade around in cancer all day, every day, for the last 15 years. Data on cancer, treatment information, survival statistics, Case Studies, and annual reports, etc. I love my job, but it is sad sometimes because people suffer and let's face it, sometimes they die. Taking pictures for me is creating, it's happy, it's color in a world that is sometimes black and white and it is peaceful, in the midst of a gaggle of giggling tweens waiting to have their picture taken it is....well LIFE. There is a certain calmness in that for me. This weekend I got to take some pictures for Dylan, Patrick and Maggie, awesome kids who I really enjoyed hanging out with. Each has very different interests so I tried to give them each their own time as well as some time for silliness. Because there has to be room for silliness in everything. When I left there I decided that I wanted to do this for more than just my family that I would really like to do this for more people. After talking with hubby, we decided that it might be a good outlet for me to offer my services on a part time basis to the people in my community.  So here goes, wish me luck.