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.