Attempting to Capture the Moon

Sunday night as we were driving home a friend called to tell us to grab my camera and check out the moon. Rarely am I without my camera, but that night I was. So, I had to wait until I arrived home. Then, I had to wait until the moon climbed higher in the sky to be seen above the tree line! I did not capture a single photo the way I wanted to. Here are a few of the results of the things I did try. I will be reading up on more techniques for moon capturing now!

Lacey

I am the 2nd of five children. I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters. The youngest is my sister Lacey. I was 14 years old when Lacey was born and I considered her my very own, real live baby doll. I loved babysitting her, taking her places with me, dressing her up and of course taking pictures of her. I like to think I was a great help to mom with the little ones (my brother Levi and Lacey are both considerably younger than I).

Lacey was a very sweet, loving child and I enjoyed her very much. When I graduated high school and moved to Arizona to continue my education Lacey was 4 years old and cried and cried when I left. I think she missed me more than anyone else did, except maybe Levi. Even months later I'd call home and Mom would tell me that Lacey was still crying in the night for me to come home.

Lacey in our great-grandmother's big chair.

Lacey, age 3

When Lacey was 6, our sister Regina got married. What I remember most about Lacey that day was her broken heart because Greg married Regina and not her!

Lacey at her high school graduation.

Remember earlier, when I said what a sweet, loving child Lacey was? Well that all changed when she was a teenager! All that spoiling sure had a price tag. She was the moodiest, crankiest teenager I have ever seen! Thank God she seems to have outgrown that phase in the past couple of years! Whenever I become frustrated with my own moody teenage daughter, I remember Lacey and praise God again. (Sorry, Lacey, but you know how true it is! You also know I love you!)

Recently Lacey got married and unfortunately I was unable to travel to the wedding. Mom just sent me a cd of the pictures so here are some of them:

Lacey and Casey.

Grandma caught Lacey's bouquet!!! Go Grandma!!!

Mom and Lacey.

Virginia Beach

These pictures aren't all that recent, but I thought I'd share them anyway. A couple of summers ago my mom and I took a vacation together and flew to see my aunt ( "Nana." ) I've posted pictures of the lighthouses we saw there, but have yet to post these pictures.

One of the scenes from the window of the plane.

Upon arrival, this is the sunset that greeted us.

First Landing State Park

My mom at the beach.

2 of my favorite ladies (Mom and Nana) at the beach.

We each took turns "monkeying around" after our picnic lunch at First Landing State Park.

A Sand Castle Sculpture on the boardwalk at Virginia Beach.

The Boardwalk. (You're humming the tune right now, aren't you???)

Mom and Nana playing with the "beach balls" on the boardwalk.

After the rain...

I'm sure there are many in my town in agreement with me when I say I'm really tired of the rain we've had. But, I've never seen everything so green so late in summer. And there are still some flowers in bloom. And we've had some amazing skies as well. Today consisted of a few scattered showers. It rained hard at my house during lunch, but didn't rain at all 3 miles up the road at work. And the clouds in the sky this evening were just awesome. Well, take a look. These were all taken from within a moving car, mostly at 60 mph!!!

Driving over the Guadalupe River bridge.

Now, these were taken standing near the Wal Mart parking lot:

Nana

I have a favorite aunt. (Is it ok to have a favorite? I know we aren't supposed to have a favorite child, but isn't it ok to have a favorite relative??) Nana is one of my mom's older sisters. She lived in Virginia and we lived in Missouri. On holidays she always called wherever the family was gathered and spoke to each of us, making us feel important and loved. When I was a little girl to encourage my siblings and I to write to her, Nana would mail us postcards. I began saving all those postcards and decided to collect them. She sent me an album to keep them in. I began picking up postcards wherever I went. At last count (over 15 years ago) I had over 1,000. Who knows how many there are now. She still sends me postcards when she travels and she enjoys traveling a lot.

Nana and Me

When I was a teenager her military husband was transferred to Illinois for a few years. I got to see a lot more of her then because she was so much closer and weekend trips were sometimes feasible. The summer I was 16 or 17 I went to stay with her for 10 days. I still have many fond memories of that time. She took me to many places in St. Louis, including the St. Louis Zoo and the Gateway Arch. It is a tradition now for Nana to have tea parties with her grandchildren when she visits. Nana and I even had a "tea party" that summer I visited her. My uncle and her daughters were all downstairs watching tv and Nana was upstairs reading. I went upstairs to visit with her and my cousin Jennifer made us tea and served it in her best tea set. I felt so privileged. She still has that tea set.

Nana takes lots of pictures. Lots. and lots. (more than even I) She has always encouraged my artwork and my photography. This is a photo of the arch in St. Louis.

This is Nana, my nephew Brandon, and my daughter Heather (summer 1992). Nana had moved back to Virginia by this time. Heather and I had flown to Missouri to visit family and Nana was visiting at the same time. She has always been very involved in Girls Scouts and camp and brought all the babies matching camp tshirts.

Nana and I are usually both back in Missouri for Thanksgiving. Here she's making molasses taffy. Somewhere I have some great pictures of this evening. Somewhere...

After making taffy, we all went outside to roast marshmallows on the fire.

One of those Thanksgiving trips "home" Nana treated us to the Rockettes in Branson. It was a fabulous show and we enjoyed it so much!!!

All the time I lived in Missouri I had never gone to Branson during the holidays. I had always wanted to see the Christmas lights in Silver Dollar City. So, after the Rockettes show, we headed to Silver Dollar City to do just that! This is one of the floats in the parade.

In one of the shops there was a Santa statue so we all took turns sitting on Santa's lap!!!

This is a photo I snapped of the little old church in Silver Dollar City, just as the sun was setting.

Here is our whole group that day. (Nana has always said we are a "motley looking crew." I tend to agree with her.)

I love it when Nana comes to visit me in Texas. We find new places to explore each time she comes. These pictures were taken during her visit a couple of years ago when we went to Gruene.

Our waiter snapped our picture for us.

Thanks Nana for always making me feel special and always supporting me! You're one in a million and I can't wait until your next visit!!!

These are the scrapbook pages I created for a celebration for Nana a couple of years ago.

Mike and Marty, et al

I took Marty to Rudy's for BBQ for his birthday. Mike and Debbie were persuaded to meet us there for Mike's bday too. It's always a barrel of laughs when these two are around!

Mike: "Marty, you're REALLY not going to share those ribs with me?"

Mike: "You did NOT seriously just take a picture of me with a sausage in my mouth!"

Marty: "Mike, these ribs are TO DIE FOR!"

Marty: "Here Mikey, taste this. It's not hot!"

Mike: "Forget the spoon. I'm drinkin' my corn!"

This is me and my sister in law Debbie. She's brand new to the world of blog (just this morning!). You can visit her here. Drop by and leave some love in her comments.