Loving Life!

I talk a lot about how blessed Pat and I are, but we didn’t get here by ourselves. We have wonderful children, amazing grandchildren, family members that are always there with support, many great friends, both new ones and old ones (clear back to our junior high and high school days),  Our 43+ years of marriage has had it’s ups and downs just like most people experience. We’ve had our hard times and our not so hard times. Through it all, we’ve remained true to ourselves and each other. Though we do have many very very close friends, none are as close as we are to each other. We truly are each others best friend.

Pat was so fortunate to be able to retire at age 55. I am blessed with the skills to have my own photography business, and be able to make my schedule coincide with things we enjoy doing together. Making some extra money for that fun hasn’t hurt either. But I’m getting tired, and feeling like what has been a passion is not quite so anymore. I want to do more “me” shooting, and less “I have to” shooting. I’m adding more images today that have been taken over a various time period. These are from the “me” shooting times I’ve had. I’ll try not to bore you too much!

On With the Show

As you know we have 7 grandchildren. Each of which are very special in their own ways, and we love them ALL EQUALLY. But back in 2001, God decided to test our strength a little further. He bestowed upon our family “Joy”, grandchild number 6. Joy was born with Down Syndrome and her name is a perfect fit for this wonderful child. We already had 5 with “J” names, so with some serious badgering we got our way. Joy came in to this world six weeks early, but as beautiful as any other baby I have ever seen. When our son-in-law came out to the waiting room to tell us that after many hours of dangerous labor for “our” daughter, he had another daughter, we were elated. Then with trembling lips, he said, “there is a possibility that she has Down Syndrome.”  I asked if everything else was ok and if so, then what was the problem. We had a baby, we had a very worn out daughter. Both were alive, so let us rejoice! And to this day, we have never stopped rejoicing. I cannot imagine life without any one of our grandchildren. The first thing I told my daughter when we went to see her was this, “God only puts special children with special parents, and that is what you are!” 

Joy was so lucky to have been placed in the care of Jeni and Todd for whatever time God allows her (or any of us) to be on this earth. She has never been treated like a child with special needs. She has chores, responsibilities, goes to regular elementary school, takes dance lessons, swims like a fish, rides horses, and gets “time outs” occasionally.  Here is Joy with a couple of images taken after a week (a couple of years ago) at “Camp Courageous” here in Iowa.

 

Below are more “me shooting” images from various places around the country. It was my distinct pleasure to be hired by General Motors to hire and coordinate photographers in 37 different locations around the United States for 6 weekends  during April and May for a couple of years. They asked me to not only be the coordinator of this project, but to also go on some of the shoots if my own schedule would allow. I loved all of the great people I met and worked with, and especially the opportunity it gave me to do some shooting on my down time while in various cities. Here are just a very few shots from some of those trips. You’ll see more throughout my blogging, but didn’t want to overload you right off the bat.

San Antonio River Walk

 

Dancing Waters at Night at the Bellagio in Las Vegas

Sister Blandina Convent ~ Albuquerque Old Town

San Felipe DeNeri Church ~ Albuquerque Old Town

I know this next one looks like a “work” shot, but I was actually just strolling around Old Town Albuquerque, when I spotted this couple in the square. They were headed in the same direction that I was (over to the courtyard of the above church) and the bride was very upset. As I got closer, I heard the groom tell her it was ok, they would have some friends take pictures. Well being the nosey person that I am, I asked if they were having a problem with their camera, they said their photographer was a “no show”, I gave them my card as I introduced myself. This (since I’m a professional) is just not acceptable to me, so I asked if I could take some shots of them (free of charge) and email them the edited images. As you can tell by their smiles, they were delighted. It also made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Portland, Oregon Chinatown

Louisville, Kentucky

Entrance to factory where they make
Louisville Slugger bats

Downtown Louisville

Boston, MA ~ Glass skywalk from hotel to mall

Boston row houses

Atlantic City from room at Trump Casino

Marina is for their boating guests!

Tampa, FL

My footprint in sand ~ It was so fine it felt like silk.

Patsy is one of those long ago friends I told
you about earlier from our junior high and high school days. She lives about 2 hours north of Tampa and came down to spend the weekend with me.
What fun we had catching up!

Detroit, MI

New York City, NY 
This is the city I wished that I had had much more time in, and would have liked it even more if Pat had
been there!

Times Square

Ed Sullivan Theatre 

Broadway and 45th Street

Phoenix, AZ

Ok, for this last picture for today, I have to say, that since wintering in Arizona, I have taken many more beautiful images in the Phoenix area than this one, but in keeping with the theme of my GM travel images , this is the one I took at that time.

Because I was doing the flying around the country in April and early May many of the cities were experiencing their spring rains, so I had to work with what Mother Nature had thrown at me.

Glad to be alive ~ Thank you God!

Sedona  Sunrise

When I arose this morning and saw the beautiful sun shining out on our green backyard, it just filled me with such joy that I had to let everyone know how I was feeling! I thank God everyday for the life he has given me! I know that at any split second he could take it away just as quickly. I was online  earlier today with one of my wonderful “adopted” nieces, when she said, “Aunt Klod, I’m trying to get through life right now with Romans 12:12.” So I told her to hold on, while I grabbed my bible to look it up. Here is the scripture ~ Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.

If we all try to live this scripture, I’m sure it can only make our lives better.

Our Seven “J’s”

Many of you have heard me brag on and on about our grandkids, so I thought I’d just take a second to introduce them to you. Here they are in order by age, because they are definitely loved equally. They are all as beautiful on the inside as they are on the outside.

Jessica is 24, and we call her
our J-Lo look-alike, but even prettier.
She’s  as sweet as she is gorgeous!

Josh is 24, and our musician, playing violin,
guitar, and probably other instruments
that I’m not aware of.

Jana is 21, a surgical technician
along with many other talents including doing promo work for her boyfriends’ band “The Digg Angees”

Jon is 20, and could easily be on Jay Leno
or David Letterman as a standup comedian.
Always keeps us laughing.

Jenna is 18, and an amazing softball player
on the Roosevelt team. She is headed to the
University of Iowa on an academic scholarship.
Go Hawks!

Last but definitely not least are the two youngest members of our Fabulous Seven!

Joy, on the left is 8. 
Jordan, on the right is 7 .
Don’t let those smiles fool you, they are our lil’ “energizer bunnies” in every sense of the word.
What one doesn’t think of the other one will. But give them the Barbie basket and they are very content!

It would be a huge understatement to say grandpa and grandma are proud of these seven wonderful human being, but we must also give credit to their parents.
So kudos to our kids for giving us such treasures!
We are very lucky to have raised kids with true values and are wonderful parents.

Bike Night!

Here is what we will be doing the 3rd Friday of each month April-September, as long as the weather allows. Mother nature sometimes has a mind of her own!

http://www.bikedowntoitown.com/index.html

This is the largest and best bike night in the state. You usually can’t walk ten feet without coming upon someone that you know. There is wonderful food, good music and just a lot of nice people all around you. Not all are bikers either, many are locals that love to walk around, look at bikes, or bring their lawn chairs and setup on the sidewalks or in the grass of the town square and take in the scenery. Join us sometime and find out for yourselves how to enjoy a summer Friday evening.

Our Arizona Winter!

Most of you know that we now winter in Casa Grande, AZ. We have decided that it is about the best place in the U.S. to spend winters away from Iowa. Bob and Connie Roberts started all of that. They spent their first winter there, and when they heard rumblings from us about hating Iowa winters, they started in on us to join them the next year. Well after a lot of budget crunching, soul searching (can I leave the kids, can I leave the grandkids, can I leave the snow)..wait that wasn’t part of it, anyway, you get the drift…and we packed up the next December (2009) and headed to sunny and warm AZ.

This is us all setup last year. I must say, we have never looked back, except to say good-bye to some really wonderful friends and neighbors after wintering with them. So, since we had this wonderful experience (thanks Bob & Connie for your badgering) we made a pact to never spend another winter in Iowa. We followed through and spent the winter of 2010 in this very same spot. We have already reserved the spot for the winter of 2011 and God willing, we will again enjoy sunshine and warmth for these tired ol’ bones.

The difference this year was the fact that my brother and sis-in-law were right across the street from us this year and Corky was just around the corner and over a couple of streets. We have our own satellite HOG chapter right there.

I promise to keep this blog up as long as people show an interest in my ramblings and images. Enjoy!

Sedona Sunset

Sorry for the earlier jumbled pictures!

I had a bit of a problem adding the images along with the subtitles or sentences, so they aren’t in quite the order that I had put them. I’ll try to get this under control soon. In the meantime here is another image to see if I’m doing this correctly. Enjoy!

Rodeo

I took this image at the O’Odham Tash Rodeo in Casa Grande, AZ. It is an all Indian rodeo and we had so much fun, but I wouldn’t want to be this fellows backside the next day!

Mike & Ricki made their way across the street between dust squalls and we played board games and ate junk food all day. So we all just hunkered down and let it pass! Thank heavens it only last one loooooooong day!!

These next few images will show what our motorcycles looked like the next day...AFTER...we removed the covers. The dust just seeped right through the fabric and covered everything. Nasty!!!

Our neighbor's palm tree looking out our living room window.

Here is what a dust storm looks like. That is Mike & Ricki's RV
across the street from us. Notice the sky behind it.
That's not clouds, that is the desert coming our way!

Mike & Ricki sharing a ride!

Pat & Corky racin' around the oval!

C'mon Trigger, get goin' for Connie!

Bob on his lil' pony!

This is looking up in to the top of a carousel ride that we were on while in Old Tucson. What a wonderful day to share with our friends, Bob/Connie & Corky, and my brother Mike and sis-in-law Ricki. We were having such fun that the operator gave us an extra long time. We were the only ones on it!

Ok, I promised more pics and I'm holding to my word. While away for the winter it gave me tons of time to do what I like to call "me shooting." No schedules to meet, no late nights in front of the computer editing, just plain ol' out in God's beauty to do what I want with my camera.

I hope you enjoy what I'm about to post. They are in no particular order, just a few of my favorites.

Back at It!

Well, my sweet husband was kind enough to share his cold with me. Unfortunately, he got over his in a couple of days and mine has held on for over a week. It has landed in my left ear and sinuses. Hopefully it will vanish soon.

We have been busy putting in our garden. We have our potatoes, onions, radishes, lettuce, carrots and one surprise veggie already in. Will wait a bit longer for the green peppers and tomatoes.

Our weather has been wonderful. I love spring in Iowa! Pat mowed for the first time yesterday. The yard looks lovely. Our trees are starting to bud out. Our Redbud is a little late this year. I'm praying it didn't get too much cold and snow from the winter. I love that tree. It came from Pats mom and reminds me so much of her. It is beautiful and gives me comfort.

While reading the latest post from LaVon Baker, the sadness of missing them returned, but I know that we'll meet up again one day, either in this life or the next.

We went to our first HOG (Harley Owners Group) meeting last nite since our winter return and it was such fun hooking up with the friends that we hadn't seen in a few months. There is a lot going on in the chapter this spring and summer, so we'll be plenty busy. Lots of fun rides, doing things for charity and just enjoying our bikes and friendships.

Our summer is jam packed with things to do. Jenna (granddaughter) graduates this June, and since this is her last year to play high school softball we have vowed not to leave the area until districts and state tourneys are over. I can't believe that next fall she will be off to the University of Iowa. She is the last of the original first 5 grandkids) Where does the time go? That only leaves our two youngest granddaughters still in school. They are almost 8 and almost 9. Guess we'd better savor the years with them before they grow up and are gone. I can't believe we are about to sit through our 5th graduation ceremony. Feelin' kind of old about now!

I promised LaVon I'd start adding pics and I'll do that just as soon as I remember how. Help LaVon!!! Ok, I think I have one added. It is a beautiful sunset in Sedona that I took just a few days before our departure from AZ. I'll add more later. Now I must go workout on my Wii. The kids got it for us for Christmas and I rock on that thing.

Long time coming!

Hi, it has been quite a while since my last post, so thought I'd better do an update. We had a great summer in 2009, went to a lot of our granddaughters high school softball games, rode the motorcycle with friends, worked on the house and enjoyed our family. As of 12/26/09 we headed back to our beloved Sunscape RV Park.

Our winter was especially good because Mike and Ricki joined us this year. They live in VA and Mike is my brother. They had a spot that was just kiddie corner across the street from us. So, with Bob & Connie Roberts down the street, my family across the street and Corky around the corner and a couple of streets over, we had quite a wonderful group to hang out with and go out on the bikes with.

The weather this year was not quite as warm and dry ans last year, but it was still a heck of a lot better than an Iowa winter. We managed to put several thousand miles on the motorcycle and many many miles on our bicycles. Spent several lazy afternoons by the pool and went to some of the good movies that were out. Experienced a very bad dust storm and survived it! We went over to CA a couple of times to visit with Pat's oldest brother Johnny and his wife Paula. Johnny was facing heart valve replacement and we wanted to have a nice visit with them (which we did).

We left AZ on 3/18/10 headed for CO and a week of skiing. Our trip to CO had a few scary moments after leaving Albuquerque. The weather was really bad (snow & icy), and we were in the mountains. It was what I call "white knuckle". God got us through it and in to Colorado Springs for an overnite stay before heading on to the Denver area. Once we got the trailer parked at a friends, we were able to visit with them and do some catching up. The next morning (Sunday) we headed up to the mountain for the week.The snow was perfect up in the mountains and we had another great time. No injuries, just fun.

Our trip back to Iowa was a pleasant one with pretty much sunny skies and light winds. We stopped in Council Bluffs to visit my 91 year old uncle (still going in to his business every day) and 86 year old aunt. Then on to Granger, Iowa.

We love being on the road and are discussing the possibilities of becoming full-time RV'rs. Have a wonderful summer and I will try to post more soon.