On This Day

Thirty years ago today, something amazing happened. Thirty years ago today, our youngest daughter, Amy, was born.

I wasn’t present to witness the event myself, but that’s okay. Because I am here now.

A Serious Occasion

Amy is a smart, beautiful, funny, unique, complex, loving individual. If you’d asked me 15 years ago where Amy would be on her 30th birthday or what she would doing, I would never have guessed she’d be waking her three children and getting them ready for school. I wouldn’t have imagined her married to TJ, who is still deployed. I wouldn’t have believed she’d be a college graduate, well on her way to a Master’s degree.

Not that I didn’t think she’d be capable of all that, but because 15 was a difficult time for Amy. And that made it a difficult time for all of us. But we all persevered. And we’re all so much better for it. It makes looking back on all of the happy times even more special somehow. It also gives us some pretty good stories to look back on and laugh about. Stories that maybe we’ll even share with Amy’s kids one day. Selectively, of course.

She still smiles like that 30 years later!

Anyway… back to Amy’s birthday.

Hubby and I were talking about it the other day. He said, “I can’t believe Amy will be in her thirties.”

“She’s not ‘in her thirties’,’ I immediately corrected him. “She’s 30.”

“Did she tell you to say that?” he laughed.

“No. But I know Amy. She’s 30.”

We both laughed at that one because we both knew I was right.

Amy at age 7.

Amy has always had a very definite, and sometimes unique, way of seeing things. One of her favorite sayings, when corrected, used to be, “Well, in Amy’s world, it is that way.”

I could give you some examples, but I don’t want to pick on the girl. It is her birthday after all.

Amy's engagement picture.

It’s been fun seeing Amy grow into the beautiful young woman that she’s become.

I don’t know if there’s ever been a more-dedicated wife and mother.

Amy with her family, late-December 2010.

Hubby and I are both very proud of Amy and everything she’s been able to accomplish. Even if I wasn’t there at the very beginning, she’s still my daughter. But you know what is sometimes better?

Amy and Me in April 2010

She’s also my friend.

Happy Birthday, Amy!

Dad and I both love you very much. May you have many, many, many more happy years to follow.

Wanna know what else has happened on March 1 throughout the years? Follow this BBC link.

Images of Warmth

Look what’s sitting on my kitchen table.

My Happy Birthday bouquet of tulips.

Aren’t they gorgeous? So warm and Springy looking!

I just love the colors!

These arrived via UPS two days ago. My brother, sister-in-law, and nephew sent them as a Happy Birthday surprise.

Getting flowers unexpectedly is always awesome. Every time I see these sitting on my table, I smile. Because nothing says Spring like tulips. And I could use a dose of Spring right now.

For the record, some chocolates came along with the flowers. I would’ve taken some pictures of those too, but chocolate doesn’t last very long around here.

I’m guessing right about now Hubby and Shannon are thinking, “Chocolates? I didn’t see any chocolates!” 🙂

You Capture – Favorites of 2010

The “assignment” this week was not to take pictures. It was to select our favorite 10 photos of 2010 to share. Taking new pictures would have been SO much easier. Really. As I said the other day, I took more than 10,300 pictures in 2010 with my digital SLR alone (big camera)!

But I did it. Finally. It took quite a bit of time and required a plan. First, I went through lots and lots of pictures and copied my favorites into a separate folder. That was the top 65. From there, I narrowed it down to the top 25. Finally, I was able to narrow it down further to my top 10.

Remember, the theme is my “favorites,” not “my best.” What makes a photo good anyway? Does it always have to be in focus? Nope. Does the light always have to be perfect? Nope. Does your subject have to be looking at the camera? Must his/her entire face be visible? Does your subject need to be centered? Nope, nope, and nope again.

This assignment has already consumed so much of my time that I am just going to shut up and post the darn things already. Okay? Here are my favorite pics of 2010, in no particular order. Don’t even ask me to rank them from one to ten. The mere thought of having to do that has given me the cold sweats…

Go ahead, knock. I triple-dog dare you.

This is definitely my favorite dog pic of the year. I like the reflection of the sunset, but I love the look in their eyes. They are scanning the horizon, anxiously awaiting my return. It doesn’t matter if I am gone for five minutes or five days, the girls are ALWAYS glad to see me when I return. As with many of my favorite images, this one was completely unplanned. I’d actually been outside taking pictures of the sunset. When I turned to go back inside, that is what I saw. I had to tweak the lighting a bit in PS Elements, mostly to get rid of the ever-present nose prints on the glass.

Are They Crazy or What?

This shot makes me smile. Every single time I look at it. I could’ve removed the red eye, but I think that adds to the craziness. These two play like this practically all day, every day. Yes, they really are playing and not trying to bite each other’s face off. You’ll have to use your imagination for the growls. It can be quite entertaining to watch. Sure it gets annoying at times, too, like when I am trying to participate in a teleconference. But I’m so glad all of our dogs are here.

I chose this picture not because it shows off our grandchild. If that were my goal, I’d post a picture of all of them. (In fact, I’m going to cheat here a bit and give you a LINK to my favorite picture that features the grand kids.) My goal here really is to show how “favorite pictures” don’t have to be favorites because of the subject, quality, composition, etc. My favorite images are usually the ones that evoke the strongest/best feelings, reflect a certain mood, capture a particular moment, etc.

A Great Day for Soup

This picture of Joey was shot during the late Spring. Actually, I think it was Memorial Day weekend. We had made all these grand plans to take the kids on a bike ride, but then Joey got sick. I volunteered to stay behind with him while everyone else went riding. He sat for the longest time making “regular soup” with water and rocks in these containers. All I could hear were the sounds of the birds and insects in the forest, Joey’s giggles, his running commentary, and the dogs playing.

Even the weather was perfect. It was one of those moments you just want to freeze in time because it feels really, really good to be alive. When you realize wouldn’t change one single thing about your life, no matter how difficult, because if you did you’d erase all the good, too. And moments like these are definitely good. The best, actually.

Loving Nature

I like this shot mostly for its symbolism. As the caption says, I love nature. I’d rather be outside doing stuff than inside, that’s for sure. I especially enjoy watching the seasons change. The Winter to Spring change is one of my favorite times of the year. I always look forward to the blooming of the Redbud trees. This heart-shaped leaf is on a Redbud tree at the end of our WV driveway. If you look closely, you can seem some pink in the background. I could have chosen a shot where the pretty, pink flowers are in focus. But I like that the emphasis is on the leaf here. The heart-shaped leaf to be exact. You’ll appreciate this picture so much more if you click on it to see the larger version.

Details

When you look closely at stuff, you really do see so much more. That’s the theme for this selection. It really is true, too.

This image is simply a fern frond. Not real exciting, right? But if you look closely (click on the image to see a bigger version), you’ll see the intricate patterns on each leaf. The depth of field in this picture (how much of the image is in focus) is what makes the image so powerful to me. It draws your attention right into the middle of the frame and makes you look at the individual leaves. And, as the photographer, that’s exactly what I wanted you to see.

Art Interrupted

This reflectofrog shot is the perfect example of how unplanned stuff sometimes makes an image. I was trying to get a shot of myself reflected in the frog’s globe. I did. But I also got a shot of K’s leg in the foreground with her whole body reflected between me and the frog. Because I can’t go anywhere/do anything without the dogs coming along to see exactly what it is I am doing. They’re nosy like that. I don’t know if that’s a dog-in-general thing or a Brittany thing. But these three dogs of mine are VERY curious about everything. And they are rarely far from us at all. Not that I am complaining. My dogs make me happy. But it really is like having little kids around trying to “help” you do stuff.

A Picture-Perfect Motorcycle Day

This shot represents a picture-perfect motorcycle riding day in the Greater Appalcahian Valley. Blue skies. Big, puffy white clouds. Smooth, empty road winding through the foothills and into the mountains… does it get any better? If you look really close, you’ll see Hubby in front of me. I was lagging behind a bit since I was riding one-handed at about 45 mph while shooting pictures with my point-and-shoot camera. None of that craziness in 2011. This year I get to use my new HELMET CAM! 🙂

Almost Heaven

This picture is a great example of why we chose to build a house in West Virginia. Mountains. Lots of mountains. They’re no Alps or even Rockies, but you know what? We have discovered plenty of great motorcycle roads. I’ll begin sharing that info pretty soon (stay tuned for new project announcement). For now, you’ll just have to look at this picture and the previous shot to enjoy the scenery we encounter on a regular basis near our WV place. This picture was actually taken from the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area.

The Kids

The kids together at Christmas. They’re not all here. Amy’s hubby is deployed. But this is the first time in a while that Shannon, Amy, and Eric have all been together with us at the same time. (That’s Eric’s girlfriend, Kelsey, on the right. She’s a real sweetie.) It was nice having them all here relaxing and enjoying each other’s company. I was enjoying it, that’s for sure.

Jaufenpass!

And finally, Hubby and me right after climbing the Jaufenpass on motorcycles during our tour in Europe. I’m with my favorite guy on the trip of a lifetime. What more could a girl ask for?

There’s no way for words to describe what it felt like to ride on the Jaufenpass. For me, this was my favorite part of the whole Europe trip. It was fun, Fun, FUN! The road was technical, but not so technical that I couldn’t race through it. I think I smiled broadly the entire way, feeling like I was riding in a video game. (Wanna know what it felt like to ride the Jaufenpass [pronounced hoff en pass]? Watch the first 60 seconds of this YouTube video [not mine]. Be sure to leave the sound on so you can hear the engine scream. It gets particularly interesting around the five-minute mark as the road climbs higher and higher. You get to see what it feels like to encounter a bus coming in the opposite direction and how I wasn’t exaggerrating when I said the road hung onto the side of the mountain.)

That trip was by far the most fun vacation ever. And we’ve had some pretty cool vacations. It wasn’t just the motorcycle part either.  The tour was awesome in every regard, but the week after the tour we got to visit two different sets of friends in Switzerland and Belgium. Even if we hadn’t seen more really cool stuff, seeing our friends would’ve been enough to make me happy.

Anyway… that was my 10 favorite pictures of 2010. I can’t wait to see which ones other people chose. If you’d like to see, too, visit Beth’s You Capture page.

The Look Back

I actually managed to zip through a whole bunch of pictures over the past few days to pull together my year-in-review slide show.

I went through various folders and copied the pix I wanted to share into a separate folder. Then I added all of the pictures in that directory to a slide show. The duration for each slide was three seconds with a one-second transition between images. Any idea how long the initial show was? You’ll never guess so I’ll just tell you… 19 minutes.

Dang.

So I made each slide duration shorter and deleted a bunch of stuff. Now it’s just under seven minutes long.

Watch if you like. I did it mostly for myself. I know seven minutes is long. But remember, I shot over 10,300 images last year!

I hope your 2011 is going smoothly so far. I have the day off, which is awesome. Only because January 1 fell on a Saturday.

I’ll be heading down to Southern Maryland to visit with my girlfriend Carol today. It’s her birthday. We’ve been friends for more than 30 years. That’s a long time.

I’ll take my camera, of course, but won’t promise any great pictures. We’re just going to hang around the house, and she’s not a photographer-type. I’m not even sure if she owns a camera to tell you the truth.

Crazy, I know.

By the way, I did not get to test this video before I left. I decided to add audio at the last minute. So, I apologize in advance if it doesn’t work.

On the Rewind Bandwagon

Happy New Year!

I hope all of you had a safe, warm, and happy New Year’s Eve celebration. And I wish you a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2011.

WAY back on December 10, one of my blog buddies (Fuzzy aka Rachel) posted a very cool slide show featuring her motorcycle memories from the year. That’s what first got me thinking of stuff that had happened to us or that we did during 2010. Coincidentally, Rachel and her boyfriend spent some time in the same region in Europe where Hubby and I went in June. Her slide show includes pictures from that as well as stuff she’s done here in the US. Rachel rides a street bike AND a dirt bike. She’s a Mom, too. You go, Rachel! Thanks for entertaining me throughout the year. And letting me do that virtual ride along through the Dolomites.

So I was already thinking about doing a year in review post when I saw that this week’s You Capture theme/assignment is to pick our 10 favorite pictures of 2010. I told Hubby I needed to get to work on that one immediately. Do you have any idea how hard it is going to be and how long it will probably take to narrow that down?

How many pics do you think the ole ToadMama shot in 2010?

A lot!

Ready for this? I shot 10,350 images since January 2010. And that’s just with the digital SLR. I’m sure there were a couple of hundred other images captured with the point-and-shoot.

This is not one of those images, but I thought it was funny. I found it by accident when searching for the party wallpaper I needed for the first image in this post.

I did start going through images yesterday. But then or server crashed. Hubby told me he could rig something up so I could access the files, but you know what? I just don’t feel like sitting here today, staring at my computer. Maybe I’ll do that some other time.

For now, I’ll tell you about the new tradition I started this morning. I didn’t intend for it to be a tradition, but Hubby declared it to be one. So… drum roll please… the new New Year’s Day tradition in the ToadMama abode is a breakfast of Stuffed Blueberry Pancakes and bacon.

Stuffed Blueberry Pancakes with Bacon

I am a decent cook. No gourmet chef, but I can whip up some pretty good stuff. This wasn’t good. This was one of those “Oh My God” dishes.

Really.

Blueberry pancakes with big, fresh blueberries in the mix. The stuffing was a thick pastry cream. Think of the kind of cream that’s in a chocolate eclair or Boston cream pie. Only thicker. And richer. It was all drizzled with real maple syrup. And served with baked bacon that was perfectly cooked.

Really. Oh. My. Gawd!

Hubby and I both want to lose weight this year. So we can’t eat like this all the time. But I’m glad we had this today.

Now hurry up January 1, 2012!

I’ll do a year-in-review post one day. Maybe.

For now I am going to relax and enjoy my day. I hope you do the same.

You Capture – Holiday Favorites

Those of you who saw my post the other day know that my currently deployed son-in-law is home for a brief visit.

What I did not explain is the fact that their three kids were at another grandparents’ house for a few days so they could have a little bit of adult time. They knew, once the kids saw their father, there’d be no such thing as adult time. They’ll be on him like glue. Not just any glue either. Super Glue.

I’m proud to say that my obsession with photographing or otherwise recording special family moments has completely rubbed off on Amy. It was her idea for me to accompany her to the airport so I could get pictures of the reunion. And we were both thinking about possible video opportunities. The only problem was that the kids weren’t staying at our house.

No problem. At a little after 6:00 AM, she called us (under normal circumstances, that would be a no-no) to say she was bringing her husband to our house. She dropped him off here then went and picked up the kids and brought them here, too. At Hubby’s insistence, I was positioned behind TJ with the video camera. Shannon was on the sofa with the still camera. It was Hubby’s job to answer the door and corral the kids in the foyer so they could remove their coats before coming all of the way into the house.

It worked like a charm.

Oh wait. I forgot to tell you to grab a tissue, didn’t I? Sorry!

The video is awesome, yes. But this next picture is most definitely my holiday favorite this year. Can you see the glow of happiness on each and every one of their faces?

The Happy Family

I told Amy I thought this just might be her new favorite picture. I wonder if I was right?

As an aside… this is the sort of thing these soldiers of ours and their families, both here and abroad, have to sacrifice every day. So the next time you see a soldier, be sure to say thanks. Okay?

To see what everyone else is calling their holiday favorites, be sure to visit the You Capture page on Beth’s blog.