Shanna and her road trip friends made it from Portland, Oregon to Florence, California (a distance of 985 miles) in a record-breaking 12 hours. They left here on Tuesday night at 11:40, had dinner in Hollywood on Wednesday night, spent Thursday at Disneyland, part of Friday at the coast and got home about 1:00 pm on Saturday afternoon. A trip to California and back in 85 hours…holy smokes. Now that’s a road trip!
It’s no secret that I love photography. We have a Canon “point and shoot” and my Canon Xsi that I got when I enrolled in the Integrated Media program last fall at the community college. I have to admit that Russell was a fan of SLR cameras long before I was…when we first got married, he owned a Minolta SLR (those were the days of film). I was never interested in learning how to use it and was quite happy with an “automatic camera” but now that I know the capabilities of an SRL, I can’t bring myself to use the point and shoot anymore. I’m in week four of Karen Russell’s photography course and Russell has gone with me on all my assignment photo shoots…and we’ve taken turns using the DSLR camera. Russell and I have always enjoyed being together and spend a lot of time in our craft room (he model railroads and I scrapbook).
Photography is the one h
obby (other than Disney) that we both love. I’ve been selling stuff on Craigslist and we decided to use that money and Russell’s birthday money to invest in another camera so we could both learn and have fun together. I’ve been watching Craigslist and Ebay for a good bargain on a camera. We wanted to buy from a proven seller and didn’t want to pay full-price. After a couple weeks of research and several tries, I finally had the winning bid on an Ebay auction and we are now the proud owners of a Canon T1i at about half the regular price! Our assignment that we turned in yesterday was about depth of field and creative apertures, something I’ve never really experimented with. I spent several hours on Friday trying different things on my camera…all I can say is “thank God for digital”! Since our daughter is all grown up and not that camera-friendly anymore; we don’t have willing or available subjects to photograph so we have to get creative. We’re making a list of photography dates for the next several weeks, and the best part…other than developing (and I only print a fraction of the photos I take), is that there’s no “additional” cost for this hobby of ours.
My brother, Curtis and his
wife Jennifer hosted a family barbecue at their house. I’m not sure why we don’t get together more often but we had a good time. I consider Curtis and Jennifer to be “master gardeners” (the flower arrangement is all from their garden!). They have an incredibly beautiful yard and waterfall/pond. Shanna brought her friend Jason over and he was treated to the full force of our little family. We are a loud, everyone talk at once kind of family…lots of jokes, movie lines and remember when stories.
Traditionally, Sunday is my worst sleeping night, and last night was no exception. Went to bed at 10 pm, felt really tired…dozed, tossed and turned until I finally gave up. I was up until about 3:30 am. I’ve learned there’s no use lying in bed trying to fall asleep…it doesn’t work and I don’t want to be the cause of Russell not sleeping. There’s something about being up in the middle of the night like that. I would have sat on our deck but the mosquitoes are really bad this year – very unusual for Oregon. So I settled for opening the sliding door and listened to the night sounds. We live in a quiet neighborhood and with a wooded section behind us, are blessed to have the sounds of nature right outside our deck door…an owl, the occasional howl or bark of coyotes, frogs and in the distance, trains and planes.
As I sat in our living room listening to the night noises, I was so thankful to be living my life and am really trying to focus on the positive…to be thankful for who I am and what I have in my life…to live more in the moment. I’m thankful my daughter is home safe from her road trip. I’m thankful that I have a husband who wants to spend time with me and that we share such a wonderful life together. I’m thankful for family, and who loves me for who I am. One of my dear friends is going in for a biopsy tomorrow and I’m reminded once again of how precious life is and how much we take for granted. You’re in my thoughts and prayers Sue.
The fabulous view from our deck...
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