I am thankful...

I am very thankful this year. The list is long and certainly I will leave many things off that will come to mind later, but better to say what's on my mind. I am thankful for my little family - hubby, Big S, Little S and Little G, for our extended family (that continues to grow much to our delight!), for my many dear friends who mean more to me than I can express (you know who you are! you may be far away, but you are always close in my heart!). I am thankful for my good health and my family's good health, that we have a roof over our heads, food to eat, clothes to keep us warm, that we have more than we need and that we are able to share a little with others in need. I am thankful for my faith - it has gotten me through many tough times as well as many joyful and continues to grow stronger. I am thankful for the innocence of childhood - they make me smile, laugh, give me warm fuzzies... I am thankful for the technology that helps me keep in closer touch with those far away and reconnect with friends lost long ago as well as those I have made through technology!!! I am thankful for this and so much more.....

Dear Santa,

I know that I may be a little old for this, but just in case Santa reads my blog, I thought I'd put a couple things out there that he may want to drop off when he's flying over Indy Christmas Eve!

Yes, this is the main body of the D3000 - beautiful, isn't it? It's the professional version of the D80 that I currently shoot. Now let me justify this by saying that I love my D80, but 1) I really need to have 2 camera going at most of my shoots and 2) I rented one to see what it's like and the quality of the pictures is waaay better than what I can currently produce! Of course, the lenses for my D80 don't work on the D300, so I would need a couple lenses too! The number one is the basic 18-135mm or whatever the equivalent is for this model - it's the basic, must have lens that will do a lot, but not all, of what my current needs are! Then of course, there are the next line of must haves - we'll call it the 2nd tier of useful lenses!

You need something that will give you a lot more distance, something that will give you a nice wide angle, and a fish eye for those fun shots! Not, I don't currently own a fish eye lens, so I will be happy with one that fit the D80 or the D3000!!

I just want to put that out there for you Santa, in case you were wondering what to get me that I can't/won't get for myself!!

PS The girls are working on their lists, so I'll send them out shortly! Glad to see your mailbox is out at Circle City Center!!

A new kind of adventure...

Now you may not know this about me, but I have become a big fan of Goodwill over the last several years! Our local stores get good stuff and I can usually find stuff that my kids want that I am not willing to pay regular store prices for! They are happy to have the stuff regardless of how it made it to their closets and my oldest has even been known to brag about my bargain hunting prowess to her friends! Well, last week hubby and I had a little adventure together! We hear that there was a Goodwill outlet not too far from our house (how had that secret been kept from me? my dear friend who loves to get stuff at 'GW fashion' didn't know about it either!). So friday morning after the kids went off to school, hubby and I checked out GWO! I was excited and curious - I had planned on going on my own or with my friend, but hubby surprised me by saying that he wanted to check it out too! It was an experience like no other...

So, when you go to the outlets, it's NOTHING like the stores, let me make that clear... NOTHING LIKE THE STORE! Now there are no racks, everything is in bins, not like the one below, you could NEVER dig through that thing

the bins are fairly shallow, about 6-9 inches and they are lined up in rows - 2 bins wide and 5 bins long. So, you walk in and just start going through the bins - there are about 10 row throughout the store, so you just pick a starting point and work your way through. Simple enough, right? Not so fast....

All the bins are turned over every 2 hours on the odd hours, so you have to pace yourself! That's when the craziness begins! As soon as they start pulling bins out of a row, people start lining up along the lines waiting for the 'new' bins to brought into place! There is a specific etiquette that goes along with this process! NO ONE can touch anything in any new bin until all the new bins in a row are in place! It's hysterical because people stand with their hands behind their back so no one can accuse them of starting early! As soon as the last bin is in the row, there is a frenzy as everyone digs through the new bins. I must say that most people that are regulars are looking for specific things and they are after the non-clothing article primarily (the total opposite of what I was interested in). I learned to stand back and wait till the 'pros' were done, then step in! the only non clothing stuff I really had on my list were legos, most of which were loose in the bins, so I had to look carefully, but I left with a nice little baggy full to add to our slowly growing collection! Most of my "finds" were great name brand things in great shape that went straight into the washing machine before the girls even got a look at them! Hubby hung around for about 1 1/2 hours before he had to leave for a meeting, but truth be told, he was DONE! I made a few new "friends" who gave me some great advice - like next time wear gardening gloves and if you don't have 50lbs worth, ask someone to weigh in with you to get the lowest price (59 cents/lb for 50 lbs or over - the highest price is 1.59 for 10 lbs and under, so it's still a great deal!)

A fabulous assignment...

I had the very distinct pleasure of photographing a beautiful Persian wedding ceremony this past weekend! I have never attended anything other than a christian or civil wedding ceremony and I was so excited to have this opportunity! The bride was absolutely lovely, the groom was sweet and the entire extended family was warm and welcoming! Can you tell I had a blast?

This first picture is of the sofreh aghd - it is a low table covered with all sorts of lovely things - all of which represent something important for the couple's future life together.

These men were on the sofreh aghd and are a personal favorite of the mother of the groom!

This is the couple's name in a middle eastern calligraphy

I love this picture! I worked pretty hard to get their reflection in the mirror to be in focus! The mirror and matching candlesticks on either side were hand carried from Iran by one of the family members -it is old and beautiful and hand carved in silver!

The wedding cake was beautiful! It had the paisley from the sand art on the sofreh aghd and their names in the same calligraphy as the red painting above.

Aren't they sweet?

A few of the guests dancing! It was quite a party! Lots of fabulous middle eastern music and beautiful dancing!

I couldn't get enough of the two grandmothers - I just thought they were darling!

The immediate family on the grooms side - I think some of them might have even left before we took this picture!!

Thank you so much for sharing your special day with me!

Fall in Indiana..

I took the girls out last week to take some pictures in the corn field across the street from our neighborhood. I have wanted cornfield pictures of them for years, but I always put it off and then they plow the fields and I'm so bummed and have to wait another year, so this year I got them out there early! Of course I'm hoping to use them for our Christmas cards, so I'm not posting them here yet! This is what fall looks like in Indiana!! At least on a good day ;)

Can you see me in the picture?

The sun was already getting low and it was only about 4:30pm - the down side of ending daylight savings time!

I love this one of the cob of corn -kinda cool, huh?

Halloween...

Ok, so it's better late than never! I of course HAVE to post Halloween pictures! The girls were cute again this year - of course! Big S wore her fire suit and sunglasses with her .25 hat (her favorite racing hat I think!), Little S wore the same cat costume as last year but had a different tail, ears and shoes (had to mix is up a little!), and Little G wore a cute little witch costume (she definitely was a good witch with all that pink and flowers!) and for those of you who were curious, I included a picture of me in my handmade kimono (I'm holding a friend's darling little super girl) - It's not a great picture, but all the full length pictures were taken by a child (who will remain nameless so as not to appear chastised for their skills) and because of the angle, I look like a complete cow! I sprayed my hair black and tried to do some geisha makeup (but didn't have any white cake makeup for my face, so I had to make do! I did put some chopstick in my hair that my parents brought me back from China (my parents went to China and all I got were these lousy chopsticks! not really, they brought us lots of cool stuff, but it sounded funny in my head!)

It was a little nippy out and no one wanted to wear a coat - they look chilly, don't they?
Big S - we made the chechered flag bag to go with the outfit!!
Little S - my cute kitty!!!
Little G - loved the cute feather broom!!
me and Super Baby!! Her "big" sister was super girl - it was waaay too cute!

One holiday at a time please...

Halloween is over. True. Time to decorate for Christmas? Seriously? I can not stand to walk into store in October and find Christmas decorations up already. Little S and I were in the grocery store on friday and there were NO Halloween things out at all, but Christmas candy took up 1/2 of an aisle and misc Christmas took up half of another. It's ridiculous! I love christmas, don't get me wrong, we even had a December wedding because I love Christmas so much, but did everybody forget about Thanksgiving? I am ready to put all the Halloween stuff away and move on - I always feel that way once a holiday passes, but I love getting ready for the next one and unless there was a calendar change made that I am not aware of, Thanksgiving is next! Time for turkeys, pilgrims and yes, still pumpkins (that's when the fact that we didn't get around to carvings ours comes in handy!); but NOT snowmen, stockings on the fireplace or santas - can we please wait until December to get them out? They will have the entire months to be on display. Until then, show me some pilgrims!!

All Saints Day

PRAYER OF REMEMBRANCE

By Bruce Prewer

Uniting Church of Australia

Living God, in whom there is no shadow or change, we thank you for the gift of life eternal, and for all those who having served you well, now rest from their labours.

We thank you for all the saints remembered and forgotten, for those dear souls most precious to us. Today we give thanks for those who during the last twelve months have died and entered into glory.

We bless you for their life and love, and rejoice for them “all is well, and all manner of things will be well.”

God of Jesus and our God, mindful of all those choice souls who have gone on ahead of us, teach us, and each twenty-first century disciple of every race and place,

• to follow their example to the best of our ability:

• to feed the poor in body or spirit,

• to support and comfort the mourners and the repentant,

• to encourage the meek and stand with them in crises,

• to affirm those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

• to cherish and learn from the merciful,
  

• to be humbled by, and stand with, the peacemakers.

Let us clearly recognize what it means to be called the children of God, and to know we are to be your saints neither by our own inclination nor in our own strength but simply by the call and the healing holiness of Christ Jesus our Saviour.

Amen!