(Photo by Maceo Photography)How many songs never sung, poems never written, pictures never painted, risks never taken, bridges never crossed, romantic words never spoken... locked inside a lonely heart the prison of another's making... are left unexpressed because somebody shamed us, abandoned us, or perhaps silenced us with a cruel word, a thoughtless deed, and said or just implied we were not good enough, and tragically we believed them? Let this be the moment we choose to believe them no more... and sing, sing, sing. ~author unknown~
Serious Fodder....
Fun Filled Weekend - Monday 5/26/2008
Yesterday was church and how awesome it was. We had a new lady from Lyons, KS that came and received the HG.
Today is Memorial Day. First, a BIG Thank You to those who gave their lives for our freedom. I am so thankful that we have the freedom to worship, to speak, to live and to make choices. We cannot take this for granted. This is a crazy year thinking ahead to the elections. Much is at stake. When choosing candidates, choose wisely and do your research. If they have Marxist ideologies and were educated in that manner, then expect to be governed by a Socialistic government. We don't have the greatest choices ever this year for sure, in candidates. What a sad state our nation is in. We truly need the Lord to guide us through the days ahead. I visited Dachau, Germany in 2001. I can tell you who I won't be voting for. "He" sounds way too much like Hitler to me, after listening to Hitler in his documentaries. Germany thought Hitler was "the voice of change" also. He sure was, just not in the way that they expected.
Moving on...... Today I slept in a bit, but my feet hit the floor running. I cleaned and organized at the house for the first part of the day. Around 3:00 friends started coming for our Memorial Day get together. We had the yard set-up for Croquet, Badminton, and Volleyball. Dad and Joe grilled while the other guys set up the fun stuff in the yard. Finally, the goodies were prepared and we all gave thanks and sat down to eat. Yum!! Barbecues and grilling are the best. After eating and visiting for a couple of hours we noticed a storm rolling in.
We ended up riding the four wheeler and rushed to put the yard games up before the storm hit. It started raining and we headed indoors to finish off the evening with skip-bo and whatever other games we could come up with. Then, the associate pastor called. We were under another Tornado warning. We all piled in the cars and headed back in town to the church, where it did nothing but rain in sheets for a long time. We all left and headed to our respective homes. What a fun-day once again. Good friends and wonderful family create great memories all around.
The partying is over! Tomorrow it's back to the real world........ :)
Fun Filled Weekend - Saturday 5/24/2008
(My Gorgeous Birthday Bouquet of Peonies that Neria, my Filipino friend brought me.)
Finally, around 1:00 the parents came to get me and headed off like they knew just where they were going. I figured they had something in mind so let them do their thing. They took me through a neighborhood where there were no restaurants. I could not figure out why until they pulled up to this park with piles of cars from church parked around. "Oooh, those sneaks!" I told them as I looked over and saw a gazebo all decked out for a Birthday celebration. My Parents just started laughing. When I got out of the car and headed across the lawn, the "Friend" who wanted to "take me to lunch" was attempting to hide behind a tree. "Surprise!" came the cry that greeted us. "Liars, liars, pants on fire" was my childish, goofy chant as I, with a grin on my face, walked up to my sister (she had dropped me off to supposedly go pick up her husband so they could go out and eat) and friend. The whole crowd laughed and loved it.
For once, they had truly bested me. I had not a clue what they had up their proverbial sleeve. Another friend, who is from the Philippines, had been planning this since January. I have not a clue how they kept it such a good secret. She and a Costa Rican friend had fixed most of my favorite Filipino and Costa Rican dishes and the "lunch friend" had gotten a cake depicting a super humorous event in my past. Which, they made me tell the story to the whole crowd. My Father blessed the food and we all ate, then I opened gifts and read all of the kind cards that were given to me. Let me tell ya', I had a bounty of goodies to take home. My dad gave me an all day sucker with a goofy card that said "your real gift is on the way." We had cake and ice cream and then the crowd that was about my age headed over to play the most redneck game of volleyball ever. It was quite hilarious with no true organization. However, we had a blast and laughed ridiculously hard!
After the party, I headed home and took a good, long much needed nap then headed to the church for music practice and Saturday evening prayer. What an incredible, unexpected day! I have some exceptional friends and am truly blessed by the love and camaraderie of my church family. My heart is overflowing with happiness and gratitude. It seems today that I have had a perpetual smile on my face. Who said that getting older is no fun?! :)
P.S. The "later" birthday gift from my parents was a very nice, quite expensive camera. I finally got my "really nice" camera. Yay!! Can't wait to go shooting.
Fun Filled Weekend-Friday 5/23/2008
We had a floating holiday at work so got off today whoo hoo! I slept in and then got up and started working on getting some things together for our rummage sale next weekend. Went to lunch with Mom and Dad then headed to the Chiropractor. In the evening, Dad, Joe, Sarah, Toni, and I headed to the Antique Truck Show held at the fairgrounds. Some of those trucks were incredible! The time, the effort, the money, and the care put into them were definitely impressive. As a female, I even enjoyed myself. The history was awesome and most of the trucks were beautiful. I was wishing the whole time I had a better camera. Following the show, we met up with Mom at Anchor Inn for supper and just spent a nice evening hanging out together. I went to Target and then Hastings and headed home early.
My intention was to chill out the rest of the evening, but that did not last for long. It is Tornado season in KS again. About 10:30 pm my sister called to let me know we were under a Tornado Warning and that Pratt and Stafford had already been hit. Stafford is only about 30 min. from my home. We live about 15 minutes out of the city limits and can only hear the Tornado Sirens if it is not storming and relatively calm. That was not the case tonight. There was an insane thunderstorm in progress. The sirens went off in the middle of it and we could not hear them. My sister called and we headed into town to the church as we have no basement in our home. When we got to the church, many saints were already there. It is ridiculous that we all live in Tornado country and do not have storm shelters or basements in our homes. :) Oh well, we stayed at the church until the warning was lifted and luckily did not have one hit H-Town, although, one was on the ground headed our way. We headed back home around 1:00 am, Happy Birthday to me. I think the Sirens are freakier than the actual Tornadoes hitting.
KJ Charles, GCHS Class of 2008
My Nephew, Kyle James, graduated this weekend from High School. I am a proud Auntie to say the least. He is fine young man, with a touch of God on his life and I can't wait to see what the future holds for him. We headed to GC on Friday evening and went non-stop 24/7. No complaining here though, we had so much fun. Our family has good times when we get together. This time it was Kyle's special day and we celebrated his great accomplishment. I love you KJ, you are awesome and I know that God has great things ahead for you.
This has music with it, so you may want to scroll down to the bottom of the page and pause that music player before playing this slide show.
African Proverb
(image found on google images) Every morning, when the sun comes up in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows that it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.
If that doesn't sound like this crazy rat race world we live in.......
Photography....
I took my first photography class this semester, basic photography. It was a blast and I absolutely loved working in the darkroom. I don't have any images on my computer from class yet as it was a film only class, but hope to get some uploaded soon. I am getting all the negatives transferred to cds.
I started playing around with getting a little more serious about photography a couple of years ago when I got my first decent digital camera (which got stolen over Christmas this year, grrr..) I now only have a 3 pixel but had fun with the Canon Rebel SLR I used for class. My goal to meet by the end of June is to have a very nice, serious camera. Currently, I am still definitely an amateur, but have fallen in love with seeing things from the different aspects seen through a camera. I never dreamed I'd enjoy it so much.
Here are a few images that I've caught through the last couple of years of practices. Some of these I'm simply playing around with angles and they are in no way professional. I have a long ways to go, but am sure having fun learning the process. My next step is to take a digital image editing course.
Took this on the way to Florida last Sept.
The only editing done was to remove 4 spots visible from taking
The only editing done was to remove 4 spots visible from taking
the pic. through the plane window.
Taken on the way to GC to see my sister at a WindFarm in Spearville, KS.
Waterfall at Garden City Zoo. Taken at a family get together.
Taken at Gaeddart's Corn Maze. Made me think of "Children of the Corn."
Monarch Pass, Colorado, Summer 2007
Flying into Tampa Bay.
Wish I would have angled this a bit more, maybe from corner to corner...
Toni, Spring 2007
Ahhh well........must keep practicing. There is so much more to learn. The post box on here is on transparent so you can't see the actual color of the pics. I will try to fix that.
Pretty Close....
I'm a Talent!
(Photo taken by Maceo Photography of Pueblo, CO.)
"You're a risk-taker, and you follow your passions. You're determined to take on the world and succeed on your own terms. Whether in the arts, science, engineering, business, or politics, you fearlessly express your own vision of the world. You're not afraid of a fight, and you're not afraid to bet your future on your own abilities. If you find a job boring or stifling, you're already preparing your resume. You believe in doing what you love, and you're not willing to settle for an ordinary life." This pretty well sums me up for the most part.....
I don't really enjoy confrontation the older I get. When I was younger, I did. I'd argue about anything and was sure that I was always right lol. Now, I hope that I've gained some maturity, wisdom and discretion. I like to think that I have; however, one thing I have no qualms about is standing up for truth and being true to my belief system. My relationship with God is incredibly important to me. As it should be to all of us...... :)
What are you? A talent, a lifer, or a mandarin? http://tomorrowland.us/tlm/
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