Photography

I went to the eye doctor yesterday, and I saw the coolest thing on her wall. There were seven different pictures of designs, textures, and shapes all mounted on this black rod. The photos were pictures that formed her name. It was so cool. I started on mine today and want Jessica to see it. I formed a collage but still need to gather photos. I am so excited about it. The quality of the downlod stinks. They A is the swing frame.

Pastor Smitty

Sometimes, it is hard to put into words all the special thoughts that we have about people in our lives especially when someone passes. All the emotions come flooding back all at once riding the waves of tremendous memories. In the past, I and many have said, "We all handle death in our own ways," and that statement is still true. Funerals cause turmoil, because while we celebrate the victory for our loved one, we also mourn the loss and company of special people. The smile that lit up their face, the sweet laugh that flavored the air, and their hugs that comforted us leave us to deal with tearful eyes, heavy breaths, and empty arms.

Sunday night, Steve and I went to the visitation service of our dear Pastor Smith. The visitation was more like a church homecoming or family reunion. It was wonderful seeing people who shared this man with us. It is true that the memories they had were not the same as ours, but we all loved him. We comforted each other with stories, held each other with hugs, and shared tears of sadness and joy. It was wonderful to see people we had not seen in years all celebrating one man's life and his love for people. I was so excited coming home and into the night thinking, what a day of rejoicing that will be and posted about my feelings.

Yesterday, I went to the funeral and graveside service. With permission, I was there early to take some pictures of the flowers and set up some camera light settings for the service. First, four ladies sung together two songs to open the service. Pastor TR Harper prayed. I am not sure if he prayed before the opening songs or after. Pastor Harper then spoke about special events and mission trips that he shared with "Smitty," and how that after a few trips, he realised that he was on the trip to help keep Smitty's hair in place.

After Pastor TR spoke, Samantha Brown sang, "We Shall Behold Him," followed by Ricky saying a few words.

He thanked everyone for coming and for the outpouring of comments and respect for his dad and the family. Ricky went on and spoke him being a husband and a father. He said that some people called him Sargeant, some Pastor Smith, some Brother Smith, and some Smitty. "Some of you may call him other things," which brought laughs from the crowd. He went on the say that he had three important things in his life. He had his Savoir and Ricky told of his dad's salvation experience. "Another thing my dad had in his life was his Bible," and Ricky took the Bible carefully and lovingly held it high in the air. He placed it back on the pedestal and went on to say, "The third thing he had, and every good man needs one, is a good woman." Ricky took a rose from the flowers and on his father's behalf, presented it to his mother as we all teared up at this gentle gesture of love and compassion. He then took his seat on the left side of his mother. (Jerry was seated on the right.

Shelton and Samantha sang a song that had been stirring in Shelton since the service had started. He had not planned to do it, but he had permission from the family to do what he felt he needed to do. After they sang, all the singers involved in the service lead the whole congregation in a song. Everyone stood up as we cried and sang, "When We All Get To Heaven," which was the song Brother Smith sang right after getting saved.

Pastor TR closed the service with an altar call. Even in the funeral procession to the Fill Military Graveside Service, I was seeing life differently. Here we were in a line, going through town, driving through stop signs, following the car in front and honoring a man who is still leading the way.

Once the family has had a chance to see the pictures, I may post some.

photos, fellowship, and funerals

Someone asked me last night, "Where have you been?" I wondered about my blog. Yes, I have been slow to post. On the 18th, I posted about how quickly January seemed to be going by. Here it is the last day, and I am amazed at how fast it went.

Ten days ago on a Saturday, I went to a neighbor's basketball game because they wanted to know if I could try to get any good shots of the playing. After taking them, it was time to sort through them. Now, I am waiting for her to come look at them.

Last Monday, my father-in-law went into the hospital for a "routine" double bypass surgery. Once they were in to see the mess, the doctors realised it was worse than they thought. It turned into a triple bypass, valve issues, vein transplant from the leg, and installing a pacemaker. All of this was still somewhat routine, but because of his medical history and age, his recovery is possibly the slowest one. It seems so slow to me. Looking at brochures that tell you this is what you should expect on day one or two or three IS NOT a good idea. Due to the slow recovery, I headed over to be with his girlfriend until the danger passed. I left Tuesday morning with my house totally clean and in order. Thursday evening, I pulled the doctor to the side and asked if I should head back to Alabama now or was he still in danger. The doctor looked at me and said, "Stay one more day." By the next night they moved him from ICU to a regular room and the nurse told me he had passed critical. Friday night, I headed home.

Saturday, Steve and I headed out for a day in the woods looking for caves, taking pictures, and enjoyed being together.

Sunday evening, last night, we went to the visitation of a dear dear dear man. He is the spiritual father that God placed in our lives to help us grow during our younger years. For about 20 years we listened to his common sense and heard his loving heart beat for the Lord. He always warned against building pedestals because they cause people to trip. We are all inclined to climb up on pedestals when other build them for us but usually fall in the end. He always felt inadequate to speak words because of his slight speech problem. When our youngest graduated we asked him to please pray over her during the ceremony. He declined saying something about not speaking in public anymore because he did not want to embarrass anyone. I still cry at that idea. I told him and whole-heartedly believe that he would never embarrass our family. He finally agreed and the spiritual impact of his heart in our lives will always be there. The funeral is today. Due to rain, I may not get very many pictures, but I am open to what God wants to do with my lens.

I started going to a Bible study in Pleasant Valley at a friend's house. The study guide is called "Esther: It's Tough Being A Woman" by Beth Moore. We meet Wednesday afternoons.

Today I have a small list of big chores. I came home Friday and unloaded the car into the floor. Steve and I went on our outing Saturday and unloaded into the same pile on the floor. With a little time I should get caught up pretty quickly. Couple small loads of laundry, photo orders (a good thing), photo appointments (also a good thing), get contact lens order straightened out (the sent me the wrong contacts-What's up with that), and catch up on my study guide for Esther.

One big thing that I have not mentioned. Steve says I seem depressed. I think about it and maybe I am. I was in and out of the Cardiac and Vascular Center for 4 days looking at the future. Seeing heart problems everywhere as I walk down the halls makes me wonder if this fat, overweight body is the body I want to take with me into old age. Then I get back and a dear dear old friend, mentor, and pastor has passed. Pages keep flipping. The winds of life keep blowing. And looking out the window on rainy, winter woods Shake it off, get to my chores and look in the mirror and say to self, BE BLESSED! God is Good! All the time!!!

mailman

I forgot to mention in my last post that our snow fell on the 9th and our mail did not run until Thursday, January 13th, because the mountain road was officially closed.

January

Wow! January barely has started, but here it is the 18th day already.

SO much has happened.

Aside form the white Christmas, I found myself much more relaxed this year. I took time to enjoy the special people in my life. All the kids were home. My husband was off until the 3rd. Then we heard around the 5th that snow was on the way. For four days, I feel like I sat around and waited on the snow. It was worth waiting on. January 9th it snowed 3.5 inches and then added about .5 to 1 inch of slush ice on top of the snow. I built a snowman this weekend that still has remnants sitting on the ground by the mailbox. After nine days later, some warmer temps, and a rain shower or two, the bottom of the snowman still remains. WOW!

Sunday, since our woodstack was getting low, we tried to split some firewood. The electric splitter that we bought in Nov of 2009 quit working right. We took it back to Lowe's. It is on recall so they could not replace it. In the end, they just refunded our money.

Monday, we cut down several smaller trees to restock our firewood supply. We also took a walk around the property looking for standing dead trees that would be good to use as well.

Today, I feel stifled. I have tons of motivation but lack the focused goal. I have decided to work on my living room. My Christmas tree is still up and I am very glad that it is.

Thrifting

This morning, I woke up in Huntsville at my daughter's house. She asked me to come up and take her to all the thrift stores so she could have bargain hunting time. Yesterday, we went to five thrift stores along Memorial Drive. Today, we headed south and then circled back north and back to her house going to five different thift stores. There were three that we could not find today but plan to go back to today. When I get back home, I am going to create a guide to Thrift Stores in Huntsville. Just in a quick search on line, we found the 13 stores. No telling how many more there are that we never found. I might just sit down and do a guide to my area as well.

Lists

I am starting to feel the need to create a list again. The last week, I have done fine without any lists, but now that tomorrow is a "back to normal" day filled with goals, plans, and actions, I feel a list is in the making. Just now, I am pulling down my list making paper and starting a list.

One thing at the top of the list is to update my events excel file. About 5 years ago I went through all of our family diaries, newsletters, and pictures to create a timeline of happenings in our lives. It is amazing how often we use it for reference to important and not so important dates. Day trips and hikes are all included. I opened the file the other day and 2010 is empty.

Realising that I am behind on my events list gave me incentive to get some things logged. As I go through pictures to get dates, I will file them into the photo database. I feel so overwhelmed by the whole "tag" process that needs to be done.

One thing that is not on my list is taking down the artificial Christmas tree.

I have decided to leave it up through Valentine's Day. Steve thinks it is already in the way, but I find it really enjoyable and pretty. On Christmas Eve, I stripped it down to bare and redecorated it. I love all the white lights with gold, silver, clear, and white decorations. It gives it a Victorian Country look. I did not allow myself to put any color on unless the overall color of the ornament was white.

If you look close, you might find a red scarf or a red hat on a small white mouse.

I also love country snowmen and rocking horses.

There was one exception to the theme on the tree.

My daughter gave me some red clear crystal doves, and they were too pretty not to let them nest in the holiday fun.