There is always time to reflectMaui Missionand a time to choose Which One? A time When it takes two Tu Tu Tango Like the flamingoes Pink Flamingoes finding peace with each other or praying for others 1869 Bell Tower With our own two handsTwo Hands to open the right doorMission Doors Not the one with danger lurking Two Sharks But the one where you will find peace Buddah and thats my story on twos.... and a pink two too!

Meet Gary. Gary is a staunch Democrat in a town in a county in a region that is overwhelmingly Republican. He and his wife have decided to use their house and garage to let people know their feelings about the current administration.

I really just wanted to share this one, but I threw this one in just because.

 I've been sick the last couple days. But I had to go to the clinic yesterday so I was out and about.  Didn't take many pics but here are a couple.  
  The first was a photo of opportunity, nearly, Barb was driving, and there was a flatbed tow truck in in front of us and he didn't have the car on back chained down.  He had the chains on, just didn't tighten them. When went across the railroad tracks the car started hopping and almost hopped off the side.  I was ready, if it went off I was going to jump out and take pics but he seen it when he stopped at the light and tightened the chains down to hold it on, dang it!
  The second is an entry in the emotion challenge, the emotion is mine though. This innocuous looking utility pole, #308 260 , about 2 miles down the road from our house, killed my Dad. Well, actually, not wearing a seat belt killed him. He slid on a slick spot hit this pole, didn't even hit it hard enough to damage it.  When he hit the pole he flew into the steering wheel and it split the aortic artery lengthwise and before they could get an expert surgeon from Indy, he died.
  But everytime we go into town we pass this pole and it always reminds me of that Saturday afternoon, November 11, 1995.  I had the boys at high school for basketball practice. When Barb called, and said they took my Dad to the hospital, he'd been in a wreck, she didn't know how bad it was, but he was consciuos and talking.  Not expecting anything real bad, I pulled one of the coaches off to the side explained and told him I'd try to get back to practice but if I wasn't to tell the boys to go home with their cousin, he was on the team also.
  Well, when I got there everyone in the family is there, he's in the ER and they are letting us go into see him. He is awake and talking but he's bad and he knows it's bad. One side of his face, neck and chest is horribly swollen from the blood leak. The artery is split lengthwise so the doctors are afraid it will rupture and he'll die if they operate. They've sent for a guy in Indy who'd done this before but he doesn't get there in time they have to operate and he dies.  When we left the hospital all the coaches were there and the boys and some of the players and their parents. Everybody knows everybody in West Terre Haute and my dad knew everyone.  After my mom died, he spent all his spare time at local sporting events and he worked nights as a watchman at the newspaper and every morning he'd take papers around to people he knew.
   The funeral was the biggest thing I'd ever seen, there were close to 500 people there, overflowed both sides the funeral home and people were waiting outside in the cold.  He worked at the university for about 25 years before retiring and the president, and all the coaches were there. He got flowers from Larry Bird and his brother. A lot of the old players at ISU came. All of the area high school coaches came. Tons of people I didn't know.  He always wore ISU logo clothing, hats, shirts, sweaters, etc. so we decided to bury him with his ISU baseball cap... he was friends with Coach Warn.  We couldn't find it. So, I went to ISU and seen coach Warn and asked him if I could buy an old baseball cap since it wasn't baseball season. He said hang on. Well, when he came back he had a cap, shirt, and sweater and with him was the athletic director and football and basketball coaches. They loaded me down with stuff and we put all of it in his casket.  Amazingly, they even had an article in paper about his death. We'd had no idea that so many people knew, let alone, cared about him.
  Sorry for this boring,(hence the thumbnail) long-winded eulogy of sorts. At least, you don't have a lot of pics to look at.

I have always said that photographers have a third eye that sees from the heart, but it took me a while to express it in photography. Well, here is my best photo to deliver the message. Thanks to photoshop. I used the lighting effect in the filter menu to put the lens glare which symbolizes the third eye.The Third Eye

As I was preparing the ingredients for the beef stew I planned to cook for our family dinner, I was pleasantly surprised to see the red pepper I just sliced, appeared to be laughing at me. My wife was not home at the time, so made sure I photographed it for her to see. This was shot with Fuji S2 Pro. .Happy Peppers

My husband has had a bad time of it lately. He has been out of work for 7 months.

Easter sunday we took our boys to the amusement park. The pure joy on his face had to be captured when he and our little one came off a ride. I am sure he was not thinking about being out of work at this very moment. Aren't kids great?DESCRIPTION_HERE

I shot my daughter's preschool graduation photos today. I'd like to know what you all think of the final product and if anything on it needs to be changed in PS before I edit 14 more images of the rest of the class. Thanks for all the input on the last shot I posted yesterday. I decided to use the chalk board as a back drop because it's still raining outside. I do like it better then the wall I used in the last ones.

Graduation

*Bonus
At recess my daughter and her best friend decided to roll around in the  dandies.

My church (Garden of Grace United Church of Christ, www.gogucc.com) recently joined the United Church of Christ (UCC - www.ucc.org), and while attending the Southeast Conference this past weekend, I did some picture taking...  

My entry for the bi-weekly challenge for Strangers is (ALAS!) too late, but I liked this picture so much I thought I'd share it anyway.  The Beautiful Stranger  I believe it also fits the Emotion challenge this week.

Also, Niki in the Garden, the world's largest exhibition of internationally renowned artist Niki de Saint Phalle's outdoor sculptures ever presented, at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, was a great source for intersting subjects.  Here is one example:  Waterplay

Haven't posted in a while, thought today was a good day!

   By this time, most of you know that I have a wonderful son named Matthew. He's a happy boy. Here he is on a speed boat on Lake Tahoe.
   When he got baptized Febuary 13th, 2005, I could tell he felt pride in what he was doing.
   And he has 2 other brothers that live far away from us, so when Jeff and Rick come here, the boys show so much brotherly love towards each other.
   On his birthday, looks like he was  suprized.
   And on a sunny day in the backyard, cuddling up next to his Mom and Dad,I'd say he felt content.

   Here's an extra emotion from my grand daughter Natalie...I call it joy !!!

Well I just had a few pictures I thought I'd share. Enjoy!
out my front door
orchids
 fangs
crying over spilt milk very emotional.
Aloha

four emotions in 5 minutes on my front porch
- you match the emotion to the correct pic.
  happy , curious, thoughtful, coy.
more tests to follow- lllol

DSC03895 DSC03898 DSC03912 DSC03901

I looked among my collection of pics and came up with some emotions to submit.
 LOSS - this is the gravesight of one of my very best friends childrens' grave.  She had triplets, and they were born very early.  Katelyn didn't make it to see one month.  Nathaniel was about 4 years old.  He had cerebal palsy, and he passed in his sleep.  This small, smiling boy was so sweet -- the room LIT UP when he let loose a smile.  I held him, a tiny newborn of under 2 lbs, close to my heart before he grew enough to leave the hospital.  He's still there, close to my heart.  Alex, the surviving triplet, is doing very well.  He's excelling in school, and is the handsomest boyscout you ever did see.

On the lighter side:
Getting caught red-handed
Mutual appreciation
But Mom, the VCR is broken
and my all-time favorite:  Kissing Up Cuz She Wants Money

Everyday I see lots of different people showing different emotions such as happy,  excited , dislike , funny and duh

We went camping last weekend, and of course took some pictures.  These I think reflect some emotions:

Hope

Love

Watchfulness

Proudness

And while not taken durning our outing:
Fear

We have an annual Christmas party in January and I organize it for my husband. Anyway dummy me planned it on our 12th wedding anniversary. (I forgot) When my husband got up to do his thank you to everyone,he proceeded to ask me to  remarry him. He had invited my sisters and other family and hid them until the appropriate time. He had lost his wedding ring years before & had the ministerbless his new one with this union. Our 1st wedding consisted of 30 people, 10 of which were our newly combinedkids.This time there were 250. The emotions that night for me ran from Love, to surprise,to elation. I am a very lucky lady! P.S. We are down to only 3 kids left at home!!

The new thing in our lives these days are grandbabies, and new grandbabies. Thinking about this weeks challenge, I started wondering about emotions of children. Are they happy, excited, confused, or even curious?

  The first picture show a little of the range of emotions a bride can go through on the way to the altar.  She's being escorted by her father and stepfather and looked so distressed and about ready to break down. It looked like they holding her up. One of them said something to her and she switched right over to LOL.  In the space of two seconds, she's nervous about ready to cry but trying to grin the next she's laughing but you can still see she's nervous.  First

  The second pic needs some explaining. I was just trying to catch the bridesmaids as they walked in before hooking up with the groomsmen. I was planning on cropping them vertically later. And if I didn't know what was going on here I would have done it but there's a reason to leave the guys in this pic.  Check out the guy in the blue striped shirt almost out of frame on left.  He's engaged to this bridesmaid and works with her at roadhouse, those are his two buddies to the right of him. Well, before the wedding they decide to go to a bar for awhile and just got there before the wedding and he was half tight. She was not happy. When she walked by she said something to him, his two buddies are looking at him to see his response.  He's got the big old grin on for their benefit but look in his eyes and you see a dead man walking. It was just luck to get them both in the shot cause I didn't hear the story till later at the reception.  I may add this to the slideshow I'm making for their wedding. Second

  The thumbnail is Jayden, her mom is a friend of ours from Roadhouse. This is the typical response of babies when Barb holds them!