sometimes we forget.....

something about these words remind me of a line in "country strong." a movie i loved. speaking of movies, we watched "arbitrage" last weekend and would love to compare notes with anyone else who saw it. well only the ending needs to be discussed. we were all like, "what?"
also, did anyone see, "happythankyoumoreplease"...it was really cute. i'm so thankful we have showtime, hbo and charter on demand to fill some of our evening hours now that it's cold out.

happy birthday, love.....

my gorgeous hubby is 50 today. not only is he my hubby, he's the love of my life. my rock. my soft place to land, when life beats me up. he's the one that lets me dream. alone or with him. when i'm up, he's flying with me, hand in hand. when i'm down, he gently stands me back up. 

~

we met in high school when i was a junior and he was a senior and we've been together ever since. if you do the math, i've been with him, thirty two of my forty eight years. together, we've had two amazing children, the best four legged baby ever and enough moves to last a lifetime. i think the last count was thirteen {moves get blurry after the count of ten} we've learned everything together and we've done everything together. personally, with him by my side, i feel like there's nothing we can't do. nothing we can't dream about. nothing we can't be.

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so to say i'm the luckiest girl in the world...well, i think i truly am. love doesn't find everyone and even when it does, it doesn't always grow like a wonderful weed that flowers unexpectedly, overtaking everything you're made of. we always say we're like two trees that were originally planted side by side, who now, after all these years have become one. our separate branches have wrapped themselves around each other so tightly and perfectly, that to the common passerby, they only see one tree.

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so today i celebrate YOU, sweet hubby of mine. fifty years looks so amazingly beautiful and sexy on you. being here today, in your arms, with the man i fell instantly in love with 34 years ago, wishing you the best birthday ever, is a blessing beyond blessings. 

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yes, it does.....

love always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always wins

choices.....

overall, this week feels like a quiet one for me. i'll still be here in blog land sharing some of my photos that i've laced with yummy words from pinterest, but that's about it. {oh pinterest, darn you. how in the world do you steal entire afternoons from me?} anyhow...oh and the best part of my quietness...you can "take" any of my wordy photos this week and use them however you want. you're welcome.

jump, laugh, don't touch me, smile.....

i love counting to three and yelling "jump," especially when it's my little sister's family listening to me. on thanksgiving, she asked me if i would take a few photos of them. yep, she actually asked me if i would do that. me, her crazy photographer sister and would i take photos. of them? it's kind of like asking a dog if it wants a treat. snort.

i tried to be a little creative, but it was colder than it looks in the photos and the wind was blowing and kids, including mine, were running amuck, so i shot quickly.

here's just one of the many outtakes from the day. the middle child {who i can point out and laugh at, as i'm one myself} on the left, thought everything was funny, which made his little sister laugh and tested his older brother's patience. we won't talk about his mom's patience. snort again.

in the end, it was a perfect afternoon and we all laughed. a lot. the best part, is that my sister took photos of our family, too. maybe tonight or tomorrow i'll have time to edit them and maybe, just maybe, they might get printed and used in christmas cards. oh wait. now i'm just talking crazy talk.

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day three.....gratefulness and making out

1. sometimes, we as humans say something that is not "heard" correctly by the person we're talking to, or heard the way they want to hear it.  i'm grateful i had the chance last night to be heard again, this time correctly and with an apology from the person who misunderstood me.
fighting sucks. making up does not suck. ever.

~

2. i'm grateful for making out. oh, stop rolling your eyes and keep reading. snort. 

do you still make out with your spouse? like really make out...or is it more like just a few kisses in the morning and then a few more or just a tiny peck when you go to bed? well this may be more information than you want to know, but i'm sharing it anyhow. my hubby and i make out. often. and we love it. 

so with the pressures of the holidays sneaking in, grabbing all of us by the wrists and swinging us around sideways, take a few minutes and make out. relax.

here's a great way to start. at night when you're watching your favorite show on TV and you're all snuggled up in your comfy chair or your side of the couch and a commercial comes on...get up and move closer to your spouse. if possible sit on their lap and make out. make out during the WHOLE commercial and when your show comes back on, go back to "your corners" and wait patiently for the next commercial to surface and then do it all over again. i promise you, you'll love it and so will your spouse. you're welcome.

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3. we've been watching our son mature into such a wonderful young man and loving every minute of it. he was a difficult teenager and those teenage years were filled with so much struggle and pain, that there were moments we felt like we were drowning. somehow, i guess because we're parents, we kept our heads above water and survived and now we're being able to watch our son flourish. he is engaging and funny and smart and kind and loving and so amazingly patient. actually, he's always been those things, but to see him as a man now, with those attributes...well, i'm beyond grateful that he finally grew up and  grew into himself.

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tomorrow is thanksgiving and i wish all of you the happiest turkey day ever. i hope you'll all be surrounded by the ones you love, have more food on your tables than can possibly be eaten and that gratefulness fills the air you breathe.

day two.....gratefulness

1. seeing the movie "the sessions" with my hubby and both of us loving it. i have to admit that in the past, i've picked some awful movies, but this one was a winner. score.

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2. being chosen as a POTW.

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3. i'm not one who ever really sweats and my acupuncturist told me that i needed to in order to release the toxins from my body. in my first ever, 95 degree, hot yoga class yesterday, i did more than sweat. i dripped every ounce of moisture that my body could produce. i literally looked like someone had dumped a bucket of water on me. and honestly, i loved all of it. i also loved that when i showed my hubby some of the really hard positions we did, that he could do them, too. i love you sweetie for trying those with me last night. 

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4. going to the food pantry today to sign up some less than fortunate families for their free portraits. once again, it's that time of year again. help-portrait. see if there's a group in your community that you can help with it. it's some of the most rewarding work i've done.

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day one.....gratefulness

thanksgiving and being grateful surely work well together, so i thought maybe all this week i'd share a few of the things i'm currently grateful for.

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1. walking  hand in hand with the love of my life through the conservancy this past weekend and realizing that five miles is so  much longer than either of us had imagined and being grateful that we were doing it together. 

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2. weather that has been more than wonderful for this time of year.

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3. having "the kids" {which include a fiancé and a grand-dog} over for sunday night dinner and being able to grill burgers {stuffed with onions and gorgonzola} because of the wonderful weather.

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4. my acupuncturist who always makes me laugh with her broken english and who gives me the ability to completely relax and clear my mind.

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5. morning hugs given so tenderly and never forgotten

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come a little closer.....

come january, or maybe february, my plan is to share "twice weekly" photography tips with all of you. after having taken a few online classes for photography myself, that were usually mixed with motivational and editing tips, i decided that i want to try being the teacher this time. i want to share with all of you how i see things, what lenses i use and why, why i shoot in aperture mode, what spot metering is and most of all, why photography and photos are therapeutic...which after my last post regarding depression, is terribly important to me right now. oh, and it will be free.

so here's a quickie example. the first and second photos you see here i love. why? because i got a little closer. when i first saw this fence, the hole in the side of the barn {in the photo below} equally caught my eye and i shot the whole thing, as i saw it. but for me {because you might love the bottom photo and there's really no right or wrong here} i didn't like what i saw once it was on my camera. so like i said, i got a little closer and seeing the detail in the vines and the fence post were what made me smile.

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now a little something for the weekend. for all you cat lovers out there, you'll love this tumblr site and i'm also crazy about this site and am hoping i didn't already share it somewhere in an earlier post.

this photographer always blows me away, especially the way they live on the road and if you're an "instagramer" which i hardly am, as i find it one more thing to do, you can now have your instagram photos online for those who would otherwise never get to see them. here's mine. 

i fall down. i get up again.....

i knew it was there. i just didn't know what to call it. 

actually i did, but nobody likes the d-word. i kept thinking, "i can't be depressed." i have more than i could possibly ever need or want, in every way imaginable. recently, while watching the news and the devastation out east, i thought,  "now those people can be depressed." i can't be. 

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in the blogging world, it seems most of us talk about all the good stuff. we show all of our pretty pictures and talk about how wonderful our kids are and how amazing our weekends tasted. sure, every now and then we might say we had a crappy day, or even a crappy week, but for the most part, we all pretty much live in the land of rainbows and unicorns when it comes to sharing. myself included. 

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i don't think i surprised my doctor when i asked her what she thought. she loves that i've started going back to my to my acupuncturist {who i love more than i could ever tell you} and who i truly believe can get my yin and yang back to where it should be and that yoga classes are back on my calendar, but she also thought "a little more" couldn't hurt. i'm already on a migraine preventative that just happens to be an anti-depressant, but in a very low dose. she decided we should "up" that a bit and she also put me on a much higher dose of vitamin D. oh, and this winter, i think a "light box" will be living with me. {she said those little suckers can be miracle workers}

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living with me now,  is the most amazing husband, ever. how i can be so blessed as to have this incredible man in my life and by my side {for almost 32 years} is a gift that i wish everyone could experience. well not with him, but you know what i mean.

~ 

i used to pride myself on blogging daily or every other day, but right now that seems so hard to do. {even though i know writing is an amazing form of therapy} so bear with me, as i hope to be back to my own "self induced" frequent postings as winter moves through me. i adore all of you and miss sitting side by side, holding hands while playing in the "blogging" sandbox together.

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 i'm taking deepak chopra's 21 day meditation challenge and wow, just like i can't paint, i can't meditate...but i'm working really hard on it. seriously though, do you know any woman who can completely clear her mind? just when i think, "okay here i go" my monkey mind jumps back in and starts swinging from the tree tops and i start all over again. for some reason, i keep picturing myself sitting next to julia roberts in "eat pray love" when she was struggling with meditation and then once again, my mind is filled back up.

at least this time i'm in india and indonesia and i'm petting an elephant. 

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so why am i sharing this? well, because as i see it, any time you visit me here, you see "be yourself" and if this isn't "being myself," well then i don't know what is. because life isn't always perfect. because sometimes we need a little help. because sometimes being open feels good. because sometimes emotions just find their way out, no matter how hard they want to hide.

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the sun will come out tomorrow.....

it's been grey for two days and yesterday it snowed. 

granted, the air was warm enough that the snowflakes didn't have a chance of surviving once they hit the ground, but still, it was snow. in case you didn't know, snow and i don't actually have a very good relationship with each other {at all} and if i'm going to be completely honest, the cold and i don't get along very well either. now don't call me a grinch, as i happily welcome both of them with open arms on christmas eve and christmas day and maybe even the day after that. but then that's enough.

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i normally read one book at a time, but for whatever reason {call it craziness}

three of them, right this very minute,  are staring at me from their home on my coffee table.

the first one is, "beginner's grace" which my little sister recommended and i just started. the second one {that i actually just finished} is, "do dead people watch you shower?" which i found to be so

interesting. it was often times funny, mixed in with lots of "really, no way"and by the end, it confirmed one of my many beliefs regarding death. the third one, which i've read at least two other times {because i think it's that good" is "the invitation" by oriah mountain dreamer.

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i wish the friends i have here online, lived just down the street from me. or in my basement.

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hey, about that president of ours being re-elected? i know this is where you either pull out your pom poms and cheer or throw eggs at me via your computer screen, but either way,

we're all in this together.

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looking and finding.....