Hunt down!

1. Walking Empty Streets

Or empty dock landings...whatever!

2. Repeating Patterns



3.Floor

This is my upstairs landing at night.


4. Then and Now

The bridge before walking through the tunnel...


and after.
Then I was gonna walk under the bridge, now I did.
I suppose I had in my mind before and after as I was planning my shots!
hee hee


5.Fingertips


Ohhhhh HO!
My husband presented this to me tonight in front of all of our children.
It is the first time the whole family has been together in 2 full weeks and one of our kids is leaving again tomorrow and won't be home until after our anniversary soooooo....

There he was down on one knee, me with my eyes closed, our children all ooooohhhing and aaaaahhhhhing and being giddy in the waiting.

It is a cluster of Tanzanite, which is a rare gem found mainly in the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro

20 years!
This week!
What a way to wrap up my Scavenger Hunt, huh???

Hubble

Oh Hubble and Hudson, how I love to walk down your aisles!

Friday photos

I don't have much to say today, but I do have some photo work for ya.

I couldn't resist!

The colors.
The flippers despite any body of water near.
The awkwardness needed to make it to the rock to sit.

I just had to capture that!

I got an opportunity with some new eyeballs today!!

This little fellow has eyes that are almost black, making this a fun new experience for me.




Who says you actually have to see those eye sparkles to have a great picture??

I love his intensity here!


Thanks little fellow, I appreciate working your beautiful eyeballs today!


Every little bit of time behind the camera helps!

Leaves

First for today... my good to wow edit.

Here was my shot on Monday of Laughter.




I just tried to lighten it up a bit so those laughs could be seen even better.

I have learned a lot since taking this picture about shooting into the light.

Here is another from that day that I really love!!!

Tho managing that with my new 50 buddy is tending to be more of a challenge than I expected.
I know, I said that yesterday too.
Won't it be nice when I am no longer fussing about that.
I will work on that...sorry.



You know I meet with my bible class on Thursday.
I was sitting in a totally different seat today than usual because I was running late.
I couldn't remember if I had let The Shelbster back in the house and didn't want her stranded out in the hot with no water.
I had!
I was late.
Anyway, this would usually be behind me but was to the left of me today because of where I was sitting.
I suppose I didn't really need to tell you all of that, but I did. HA!

The sun was striking it, making it call out to me.

I almost didn't post the image though because of all the spent blooms.
I thought the imperfection of it ruined the beauty of the picture.
Then I caught myself.

I sure have some imperfections and don't want the good in me thrown away because of my flaws.

That is why God gave us friends I suppose.
They see the best in us and ignore or better yet, help to prune off the imperfections in our lives.
So the picture got saved and there it is for you.

There were three of these plants about, all with very different leaf art to them.

Enjoy!!!









God's creation is almost more than I can really take in some days!

Whoa, sorry that this post is so choppy and weird. I have done it in a big hurry with lots of distractions.
Such is my life...you know that by now right??

Lucky Duck

My kids are sick of me pointing my camera at them, so I figured a trip to another park was in order!

Because of that... you get ducks today.


Of the 60 or so ducks available for photos, this guy was the only sandy colored duck there.

Nice of him to pose in the sand for me to create a monochromatic picture.



He thought he was a duck?


These looked like some strange hybrid with their long legs and wonky knees.


Cloudy dull day of pictures.


As you can clearly see...I must keep practicing!
I had my ISO set too low today and I have yet to figure out the sensitivity of the metering in this new camera!
Sigh!
Oh the joy and frustration of a new toy.

This is a change of subject, but I wanted to post something other than lame-o pictures today!

20 years ago I went to college in a small town in Arkansas.
The year I got married, my husband and I joined in a group bible study with 5 other young married couples.
This was the lifeblood of our time there as we muddled through our first few years of marriage and college.
We met for food and fellowship and study. We supported one another and clung to the delights of youth and wedded bliss!
We exchanged handmade Christmas ornaments for years...dropping off on that as time and children and responsibilities took over the realities of maintaining those special friendships.

Then along came Facebook.
We soon found all of our lovely couples and reconnected on a more than once a year basis.

Last week I commented on FB that my son was at camp, so close to my Alma Mater.
One of these ladies reminded me that she lived just a few minutes away from the camp grounds and said she could run by there if I needed her to.

Well the amount of need could be questioned, but I sure did want her to!

Yesterday she packed up a box of sugar love and ran it over to the campsite.
Jolly Ranchers, Swedish Fish, Sour Patch Kids...and a note letting him know that this package was from a friend of ours from our old college days who just happens to live close by and had to bring him something when she heard he was there.

You know, when you are young and just starting out...you think that you think about the future. But this was never a scenario that I would have imagined!
I want so badly to wrap my arms around my big kid and do something special for him.

I can't...but my buddy from 20 years ago could.

Sigh!!!

Thank you God for the blessing of friendship through your family in Christ.

The treasure of it continues to amaze and inspire me!

Today

Well, me and my two available munchkins hit the pool today.



This particular pool is next to a large pond.

Or it is a small lake.

Or it is an unrelated body of water of which I have no idea what to call.

It connects to the pool via a balcony overlook type platform.
Wow, my describer is waaaay off today.

At every safety break all of the children at the pool run over to look over into the water and feed the fish and turtles all of the snacks their parents brought for them.

Oh boy, the children...not the turtles.

It is exceedingly gross.
Green foamy slime yuckness!!

Let's just pretend it is ice on the water!


MmmmmKay???

I will be here all week!

unfinishe

I started taking pictures today of my process of making homemade cream of mushroom soup.

It really isn't hard!

Cut up some onion (or leek) and some mushrooms.

Saute' them until clear and/or soft.

Add flour and cook for about a minute.


Add chicken stock (white wine) and herbs.


And that is as far as I got before life took over.
I got so close!!
Really all that is left is to let it cook down a bit and add some cream!

I used my immersion blender to take down the chunks of my baby bella mushrooms and this ended up looking like some sort of gruel.
My kids just had to know what gruel was after hearing my husband make this proclamation.

My advice...use white button mushrooms until the peanut gallery becomes accustomed to your attempts at real food.

This became quite the dinner conversation tonight, with lots of laughter as usual.

Laughter! That is our Monday good to wow theme.

SOOC week 29 "Laughter"

I had to go to the archives for this one...though I did take the time today to work on this skill.

The only person around here was my middle son....well, and my dog.
Not sure if I could really get away with a laughter picture and the Shelbster!
That makes you wanna see her doesn't it??
Okay since you asked...

I do truly think she was just laughing at the squirrel which she has treed.
Tree'd? Tree-ed? Treed? Hmmm?

I better get, this post can't go any more downhill.

Hunt done!

I spent today traveling in the car with a buddy.
(Long story, no need to bore you with the details)

Our 6 hour round trip somehow turned into a most of the day excursion, which means I am getting to my Sunday post...almost on Monday.

I spent the whole day hunting for 3 pesky scavenger hunt items which you may or may not go for!

Loosely interpreted...and here we go.






"Music To My Ears"

My phone rang today, and it was my son who is away at camp.
I truly did not think he would call and he did.
I smiled for hours.
Actually I am still smiling.



"Hat"

Okay, I know YOU don't SEE a hat there in that image BUT the fellow driving that truck was wearing a hat. I thought I might just be able to get him in the reflection of the mirror as we were racing down the highway. Uhhh I was not driving btw!
I didn't want to just straight up aim the camera out the window at him...you know, so I tried and failed on this attempt.
OH well it sent my buddy and I into fits of laughter, whatever.

For those of you who are sticklers...here is a more literal interpretation.


ha ha ha, kind of!


"Clear"



"Out Of This World"

Took that one Saturday night...caught myself when scrolling through them and remembered this weeks hunt! HA!


"Sprinkles"

on the windshield

AND

this kind too!!


Off to bed, so tired!

This kid...

and his family, came for lasagna and a nerf war at my house tonight.

He ran around pointing his weapon at everyone, but never quite figuring out how to shoot.

It was really adorable.

Just take in those big eyes! What a cutie.

Photos taken

I put my long lens on my new camera and headed to the park.

The lady there seemed to hustle off her children pretty quickly even though I was very specific not to aim my camera at them.
Sigh, I bet I should have just taken my kids along, but they were not available.

Perhaps I am too sensitive.
Yeah, they had probably been there for hours and needed a break.

We call this the gorilla park.





Here are a few more shots from yesterday.









I think I need a nap!
See ya tomorrow!

Another rushed blog post!

It is Thursday!
That means my link up to our SOOC to Wow edit day!

Here is my original.





And here is my edit.


Not a whole lot of difference, but it is as hard as I could push it.


I went out to my friend Rachel's house today.
She let me take pictures of just whatever my little eye could find.
I don't have time to share all that with you today, but will post a few.

I just wanted to say...did I get the catch lites on this cat or what???

ha haha!!
Easy right?

Rachel's daughter (like mine) is used to the camera being out often and was more than willing to pose for me today!
This is my fave!!!


Her kids both have the most stunning eyes!

Oh and before I forget, you need to head over HERE to read this lovely article.
(notice anything exciting for me there???)
I know I have told you about Laura Kurk and her superb book Glass Girl.
If you haven't taken the time to read it, well then you must!
No really you must.
The sequel is coming and you don't want to be behind.
In this post on Mara's blog, you will read an interview Laura did with her amazing artist friend!

It is a lovely thing between friends and artists, and though they work in different mediums their goal is basically the same.
I find myself agreeing right along with them and am so proud to mingle among those who love God and want to please him with the talents he has blessed us with.
It makes you want to do more and better and find ways to bring the beauty of Christ right along into it somehow!
OHhhhh I must get, once again!
See ya tomorrow!
(no editing of this post will occur)