Moving - Today

I am moving to a new blog address -

http://married2mydreamman.wordpress.com/

Stop by and take a look around!

: )
- Bev

Re-committed

Last night we went to a the Hot Air Balloon Festival for the Night Glow, it was fun and beautiful. I had gone in years past but was never able to get any good shots. What I have learned in the last 6 months of my POTD project really helped me get a few nice shots of the lit up balloons.

Then this morning my alarm went off at 5:15 so I could get back to the festival in time to see them take off. There were probably about 20 or so and we were able to wander around them while they were filling them.

Then I wandered of the other side of the fairgrounds to check out the car show.

On my way home I stopped and took a few pictures of some old barns and fields I have been wanting to for awhile.

When I looked at my memory card I had taken over 200 pictures before 10:00am this morning. I am jumping in with both feet on a my new commitment to my POTD project.

Ready or not . . .

Here we are already at the end of summer. Seems like it just began, but here it is at the end. Leaves are turning, it it getting to be time to take up the potatoes, (a project for this weekend), the evenings are cooler, and the days are getting shorter. I love the change of seasons, but for some reason this feels too soon this year.

 I am not ready to give up the long evenings, or the warm mornings. I wish for more picnics and barbecues. But summer is coming to and end, and fall is knocking at the door - ready or not.

Beautiful Everett Girls Photo Shoot

 I did a photo shoot of my nieces last evening. It was a lot of fun and they were great sports. The got into it in the end and I was sad we ran out of light.

These are just a few of my favorites.

 Carmin looks so much like pictures I have seen of my mom at this age.

 Kenzi loved the feathers, she was a natural at the posing.

 Aren't they beautiful?

Sunday Creative - Orient

Orient  vb 1: to set in a definite position esp. in relation to the points on a compass  2: to acquaint with an existing situation or environment  3: to direct to the interests of a particular group 

So the first thing this word made me thing of was disorient. I feel like I am teetering on the edge of something. Do I jump? Do I keep peering over to see if I can tell what is there? I would love to set myself in a definite position, or direction, but here I sit, on the edge, not quite ready to jump. I know I will set myself, someday, this is the way I operate. I am cautious, not wanting to make a mistake. I know this about myself, and I am enjoying the journey.

Someday I will be oriented to this thing, right now I am disoriented, but that is ok for now.

Dunes

Today I got my birthday gift from my husband. We went on a beach and dune tour in Florence. It was beautiful. Twenty of us loaded up into an old converted school bus, and took off towards the dunes and beach.

It was a bit chilly but it was clear and sunny. The views were gorgeous. The driver took up up and down the dunes. It ws so much fun. I would do it again in a heart beat.

Can it possibly be?

As we were driving home last night, I felt it. Ever so slightly but it was there. Fall, a slight feeling of fall was in the air. How could that be? We have hardly had summer yet.

Then this morning I walked out to the garden, it was there also. The pumpkins have begun to turn, ever so slightly, a tinge of orange. I still have only harvested 2 ripe tomatoes, it can't really be fall yet, can it?

I love the turn of seasons, I usually embrace them. But I don't think I am quite ready to let go of summer yet.

Summer - please stick around awhile - please?

rural life - loving it

Last night as I was walking around the yard, I realized again how much I love it here. I love the quiet, the open spaces, and the smell of farming. We don't farm, but we live in the middle of fields and people who do farm.

I love watching the weather come and go. I love watching the tractors run up and down the road. Even the "harvest haze" it beautiful to me.

There is something wonderful and calming about just taking a walk out to the garden, or just around the yard.

Sunday Creative Challenge - Ethereal

There is nothing more heavenly than a baby, it seems to me they are so fresh from heaven that you can almost see heaven in their eyes. Is that sweet baby smell, the smell of heaven?

(This is Emily from her One Year Photo shoot a week or so ago. I loved the way this dress went with the quilt I brought along. She was such a trooper but we sure knew when she was done.)

Naked (Sunday Creative ChallengePrompt)

I find it hard to leave my self open and naked for others to peer into my soul, the real me. I am more like this moon, baring some but not all. What if they don't like the real me? As I get older this is mattering less, but it still matters. I am working on it, loving my self enough to let others peer in to my nakedness. My amazing husband has helped with this, he knows all of me an still loves all of me. Now, if I could love myself like this -

Loving My Life Right Now!

I listen to mothers who are so sure they will miss the days when their children are small. I use to think that, don't get me wrong, I loved those days. Even the hard ones. As a single parent there were times that were harder than others but I loved them, all of them. I loved every stage that my children passed though. Okay, so it took me a while to appreciate the junior high days of my son, but I see now how all the stages made them the amazing adults they are now. I love this stage. Watching them make their own decisions, yes, that too is hard to stand back and watch sometimes. But, my children have grown into wonderfully responsible adults, and I could not be prouder of them.

So, I don't miss those days when my children were small,  I remember them fondly, with a smile and without regret. They were wonderful, but I would not trade them for the independence we all have at this stage either.

I am free to try on "new shoes" (see post below) They are free to use the tools they gained growing up to make decisions, good and bad, and grow even more. I love the stage I am in right now.

New Shoes

I just read a blog that got me to thinking about where I am in my life right now. I am teetering back and forth about where my photography hobby will take me. I am a new wife. I have a fairly demanding job. I love all these things, but how to balance them is the trick.

It is like new shoes, you love them, but they are a little stiff. The old worn out shoes are the most comfortable, but they aren't what I need any more.

I would love to make photography into a side business, but am a little lost in how to do it. I also don't want it to become a chore. I love the feeling of taking a really good picture.

I love being a wife, I never knew it could be like this, a real partnership.

I love my job actually, even on the hard days, it is a great job.

I really do love these new shoes I am wearing, even if they are still a little stiff.

Traditional

This weeks prompt seems to fit right in with the thoughts I was having as I took these pictures last night. These men & women who live this life do so mindful of the traditions passed down from generation to generation. This must be a wonderfully peaceful sight to the loved one of the fleets. Everyone safe in harbor.

Connected

This morning I took a walk in the woods behind the cemetery. It was quiet, I could see that someone lives on the bank of the creek. I could not bring myself to take pictures of this "home: with out permission, it seemed like and invasion of privacy. But I wonder what about this place, the back side of a cemetery makes this person feel connected to this spot. I could see they had made their own memorials out of discarded items from the cemetery. This line of cement made me think of the word connected, and so many other things make me realize we are all connected in some fashion. By our love for art, our beliefs, our humanity, our wanting a place to belong, even if it is only a rug and a few odds and ends by the creek bank.

taking a break

I have felt lately that I needed to take a small break from my POTD project, I am taking pictures everyday but not really posting them or processing them. Here are a few I have taken in the last few days.