Creatures from the deep...

Ok, maybe not so deep. But these little guys were found in the water behind Cari's house on Saturday.

Believe it or not, but this is a shrimp. It doesn't quite look like the ones we had for dinner.
My pastor's son brought a cup up to the house. I thought he just had a drink. That is, I thought he had a drink until he pulled out this little fish. After I took a picture of the shrimp, the kids asked me to take pictures of the other creatures they found. It was sweet.
And no, I did not touch any of them!!

Say what?!?

For those who are reading and may not know, my mom is a teacher. Spelling, grammar, those sorts of things were hammered into our heads as we grew up. After all, a teacher's child should know more than the other kids, right? ;)

So, I have gone through life wishing I could rewrite signs, correct other's spelling mistakes, and fix their punctuation. This one though just leaves me wondering what exactly they are looking for.

Back to School

Back to school. First day griping. "I want to see ____, but I don't want to have to go to school to see ____." Yep. I got that one last night! Complete with the whiny voice.

This morning we took the required first day of school pictures by the front door. I think next time I may try to jazz them up a bit. You know, something better than the glare of the flash off the door with the child standing up holding their backpack, lunch box, and yelling, "I think that's my bus!!!" This morning was not that bad. I took N to school instead of making her take the bus. I figured starting the school year out with a "nice mommy" attitude would be much better than the tears and temper tantrums when A couldn't get on the bus too.

So....N all ready for school.

A was not quite there. I went in to get her and she did NOT want to get out of bed. Hmmmm. Remind you of anyone Mom??
The only pretty picture I was able to get of both girls. A didn't want to sit or take her thumb out of her mouth. And N was just ready to get inside to see her friend Lucy.

Party Time ~ Part 1

Saturday was a busy day. N's 8th birthday, a Bible Quizzing party and a surprise party.

N wanted a few of her friends to come over to watch a movie. She also wanted to go to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. I thought that sounded fun. Then on Sunday the 17th, I found out that a friend had scheduled a party for the children who wanted to be involved in Bible Quizzing at church. That party was from 2-4 pm. N's was supposed to be from 12- about 3 or 4 pm. What to do! Well, we decided to change N's party to 11am and then take the kids to the other party at 2. However, that didn't leave quite enough time to watch a movie AND go to Chick-Fil-A.

On Saturday, we ordered chicken nuggets from CFA and made french fries at home. The girls watched Ice Age: The Meltdown and ate lunch. Then N got down to business. Presents.

1st gift from Aunt Shery & Uncle Andrew. (Uncle Andrew didn't realize that he had even sent a gift)

Flowers for the girl who wants to grow things.
Blindfolded for the gift that was too large to wrap. Michael & I bought N a planter called an Earth Box. N wants to be a farmer when she grows up. We have asked what she wants to grow and she said, "things to eat." Now, we just have to find out what type of food will grow during this time of year....
After the gifts were all open, we took the kids outside to play. We had a race to see who could pop balloons the fastest. A had a little bit of trouble with hers, but she popped it eventually. After the 1st round of balloons were popped, we let the kids have the rest of them to pop. Once they were all done, it was time to change and head out to our 2nd party of the day.

Party Time ~ Part 2

Our second party of the day was a pool party. Both of the girls had a great time. Since N's birthday party time was moved up, we took cake & ice cream with us to the pool party to share with the other kids.

N swimming. And yes, she is trying to smile!
Ready to jump. Into the deep end! Yikes!
Finally the time came for our 3rd party of the day. My dear friend, Cari, is turning 30 on Tuesday the 26th. Someone, I'm not sure who, planned a surprise party for her. And no, I didn't spoil the surprise. I only have trouble keeping secrets from Michael.

We finally made it home around 7 pm. N had invited one of her friends to spend the night. They went off to play and I thought A had gone with them. Nope, she'd crawled up in her chair and fallen asleep.

Too pooped to party anymore!

When I went back to put her in bed, she had fallen face down in the chair. Of course, I couldn't resist taking another photo.

Sweet girl.

I am in awe

of what God is doing in my life right now.

August 12th, I saw my doctor and he gave me permission to stop taking one of my antidepressants. After I left his office, I went to the groery store on our military base where I promptly pulled too far into the parking space & bumped someone's car. Not a good start. That day I also got an email from a friend asking me to let her know my prices for the traditional pg photos. The next day, my mom emailed me & suggested that I take some business classes at our local college to help with starting a photography business. The following Saturday, 8/16, a good friend asked me to put together a portfolio and apply for a part time job taking team photos of the children's soccer teams.

All of that in one week. I am not confident in my abilities as a photographer. I know I can take a decent photo, but I certainly don't think they are quite professional quality. I was feeling fear creeping in.

Over the past 2 weeks, I asked a couple of families if I could practice portraits with their kids. Saturday, 8/23, I had 2 ladies ask me to do portraits of their families as well. So, I now have 5 families that I have to schedule. But, God has taken the fear I was experiencing and has turned it to excitement.

This weekend, I also felt very strongly that God wanted me to talk to my pastor this week about 2 different, yet related, things. First, to share my testimony and second, to ask about starting a program called Celebrate Recovery or a similar program in our church.

I walked into church this morning wrestling with God's direction to share my whole testimony. I would gladly share the short version. But no, God kept telling me that He wants my whole testimony.

When I entered the church building, I saw that there were sign-up sheets for the next round of discipleship classes. The first one that caught my eye was..............Celebrate Recovery. I was speechless. God told me to talk to my pastor this very week about CR and here was a sign-up sheet! Even more amazing to me, my pastor told me this morning that he was debating on if he would be teaching that class or another one. My response was to tell him that I went through the leader training one month before I moved here.

As for my testimony....the one I am being led to share is the one I shared at CR shortly before I moved.

So, God is preparing a career for me. Something that I love. Something that I have dreamed of doing for YEARS. And, God is opening doors within my church for me to share a part of myself and possibly help launch an incredible ministry.

I have wanted to share this all day, but I have been just so in awe of what God is doing, I have had trouble finding the words.

And for anyone who is wondering about why I have not posted any recent photos....I need to recharge my camera battery and I just downloaded the photos to my computer last night! I promise there will be more pictures soon!

Challenge

A friend of mine issued a challenge today. To take a word and illustrate it with a photograph. These are the words that my friend's photography class used.

Lines

Mechanical

Stretch

Through

Bottom

Organized

Different

Far

Away

Green

Mug

Dummy

At Night

Liquid

Artificial

Out of Reach

Switch

Relief

Blades

Missing

Underground

Historic

Button

Popular

Grand

Exotic

Delicious

Sounds simple, right? We will find out. I'm going to take her challenge and post the results here for you to see.

Happy Birthday!!

Happy birthday Laura! Hope you have a wonderful day!

We love you!

Rachel & Andres

Hope you two have a wonderful day. Happy Anniversary!

Love you!

Reunion ~ People Part 2

"Sweetness", my sister-in-law's second daughter.

"Stealth-Man", Laura's oldest boy is just hard to resist. It is so much fun to take pictures of Laura's children.

Daddy loves his girl! And she loves him too! This picture was taken on the trail up to Haceta Head Lighthouse. 'N' and Sweetness. These cousins had a wonderful time playing together.

Beach trip!!

I took the girls to the beach on Tuesday evening. I was hoping to be able to get some good pictures of the moon rising over the Atlantic. Well....I got some good pictures, but not of the moon rise. It ended up being too cloudy on the horizion. Maybe next month...

Playing in the sand...
Sunset.
The top of the dunes.
Pretty girl.
I was trying to get the same pose out of both girls. The little one kept her hands up, but only when her hair was in her face.

Reunion favorites ~ Part 1

My nephew, aka "the Ark."
Playing on the tire swing...
My niece, aka "Miss Arty-Pants" (my SIL's names for her kids)
I really want to share all 400 some odd photos from the reunion, but I'm going to restrain myself and only post a few at a time. Today, I'm sharing people. After all, what would you call a family reunion if there aren't any people?

Odds & Ends

I enjoy looking for odd angles or things that remind me of something else. Below is the "face" of a Generator Field Rheostat & Voltage Regulator Panel on the USS North Carolina. The full panel is pictured above.

I get by

With a little help from my friends...



We went ice skating with a group from Salem as the last children's activity of the summer. 'A' was determined to get out on the ice. One of our youth was sweet to help her. Here, he is picking her up after she fell.



It didn't take long though before she was out by herself. As you can see, she had a great time.
A while later, one of the adults with us pointed out that 'A' had fallen. And that she was eating ice off of her skates. I did what any good Mama would do. I grabbed my camera.
'N' had a great time as well. She has been practicing on her rollerblades, so the ice skates were not much of a change for her. The skating rink has these neat contraptions made out of PVC pipe to help beginning skaters keep their balance. 'N' didn't really need one, but she enjoyed having one for a little while.
Leaving was another challenge though. 'A' did not want to take the ice skates off. After avoiding the blades and trading the skates for her shoes, I walked back to the bench to find 'A' walking out onto the ice. Barefoot. She did say it was a little cold. Once I got her shoes on, she was off again. Halfway down the rink. The young man who was helping her in the first photo grabbed her and handed her off to me. Now every day I hear, "Mommy, I want to go ice skating!"

Signs You Don't See Everyday

A little different from the usual Pedestrian or Railroad crossing signs.

Did this person have children? (taken at the NC Aquarium)

Need I say more?

I think this may be a book idea...

Girls, girls, girls

These are for my mom. 'A' decided to do several "poses" which all included hands on her hips and her head turned in different and sometimes painful looking directions.

One of the less painful looking poses in our living room. (and yes Mom, those are the pictures you gave me at Christmas in the background)

Having a good time in the truck. 'A' and 'N' were having a great time together. I believe it was Memorial Day when this was taken. At any rate, it was that weekend.
And one more of 'N'. This was another one taken at Ft Macon, NC. The original color picture was nice, but I just loved the feel of the black & white. Plus, 'N' has a pretty smile instead of the grimace she sometimes has when trying hard to hold the smile for her picture.

I love you Mom and I have more pictures to mail to you once I find your address again.

Ribs, flowers, and birds

The carnivores at work. My sister & I had a discussion the other day about ribs. She posted on her blog that Texas Roadhouse has the best ribs. I say it is my friend who makes the best ribs. Either way, my girls were tearing into the ones I made. (they were kinda tough though)


Taken at my pastor's home. His wife is Romanian and a wonderful gardener. She has some of the largest squash I have ever seen. She has promised us some eggplant when it is ready to pick. I am sure it will taste wonderful.
Also taken at my pastor's house. I had seen the hummingbird several times, but I was too far away to get a good picture. The bird feeder is right outside the window by their kitchen table. When the person who had been sitting there finally moved on, I claimed the seat and waited. And waited. And waited. The bird returned and as I reached for my camera, the bird flew off again. So, I got to wait some more. Finally, it returned & I was able to get this picture and the one at the top of my blog as well as several others.

Also, I think I finally have it where comments can be left. I'm still figuring all of this out, so please be patient.

Some of my favorite things

The stone walkway up to Ft Macon, NC. I am sure if anyone saw me they would have wondered what I was doing. I got all they way onto my stomach to take this photo.

Ft Macon, NC was wonderful place for photos. The lines and shadows just melded beautifully. I loved the way the stone arched upward below the steps.


This was just outside the Bald Head Island Lighthouse. The boat under the trees combined with the light and shadows was irresistible.


On Bald Head Island, NC there are many places to access the beach. At each one we saw a life ring. It reminds me that whenever we get in too deep or get swept away by the raging currents in our lives, we have a merciful Savior just waiting for us to cry out to Him.

This is outside one of our local restaurants. I loved the single shoe out on the dock with the anchors. The lighting that night was wonderful.

I found this little guy on the side of the road one night. I looked down and there he was. I took him home and let the girls and a little boy I used to babysit hold him. Then I took him to my friend's home to let her children see him too. My friend is a wonderful photographer and she also took some pictures for me. Since she lives near water, we decided to let him go at her house.