on Memorial Day

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses row on row,

That marks our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

-Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)


remember. be thankful. pray.

the things we take pictures of

While National monuments loom large and grand under a cloud painted sky,
all shape and shadow and form, begging to be photographed...

it is the little things along the path that seem to catch a tourist's eye.

Sorry, Washington and Jefferson, but apparently you've got nothin' on
squirrels and those blond American babies!

nightlife pensacola

I'm a little behind on my project 52. I have the photos, I just haven't kept up with the choosing or loading or entering into the group pool. I'm pretty sure I forgot week 17 completely. I'll get there and you can catch up on the series sometime if you like in my flickr set. This week's theme is "a need for speed". I would use one of these except technically they were taken one day too early. That seems to happen a lot, but I like the practice of going out and looking for one good intentional shot. I enjoy the challenge of trying to capture a specific idea. Sometimes I get the shot I planned and sometimes, more often than not, I get something totally unexpected. Downtown Pensacola on Friday night was one of those not-what-I-expected times that made for some great pictures.

things with roots

We're back here in Jacksonville, Florida after a successful house-hunting excursion to Pensacola. Shawn and I looked at something like ten properties in the area before settling on the very first one we were shown (therefore I've decided house hunting is much like wedding dress shopping.) The house is cute (despite its need for new floors and new paint and less wall-paper), and it will soon be the place we call home. I must say, I am most excited about the yard. It is big and green and full of trees and flowerbeds that we can't wait to make our own.

I've been looking around Christie's garden, learning the Florida plants and, I must admit, envying her vegetable beds, all the while growing more and more excited about becoming a garden-owner again. Beverly Nichols explained it well in Merry Hall when he said,

"It is ridiculous to rent things if you are a gardener; it fidgets you. Even a very long lease is upsetting. I once owned a house with a 999 years lease, and it gave me an unbearable sense of being a sort of week-end guest; it hardly seemed worth while planting the hyacinths."

Yes, it will be good to once again sink our hands into a plot of soil we call ours, and, even though it may only be for a little while, to enjoy the feel of roots.

a book release party | Craving Grace

My friend, Lisa, recently published her memoir, Craving Grace. The book is every bit as lovely as its author (inside and out).

At the party I most enjoyed listening to Lisa read her own words, out loud, carrying all their fullness of meaning and emotion. I love reading memoirs, so of course they take on a whole new life and meaning when you can attach to them a familiar face and voice.

And Lisa's writing is beautiful. She is honest, thoughtful, and witty as she chronicles her experience of realizing her need for God's grace, and his willingness to freely and extravagantly give it. Her story is our story, the Story.

Her story is one of searching for sweetness and there was certainly no shortage of the sugary cake variety at this party (I tried the lemon and chocolate thankyouverymuch!)

I do hope Lisa's first ever book release party was one she'll not soon forget. I know I enjoyed it, and the chance to photograph such a special event.

You can get to know Lisa at her blog and and pick up your own copy of Craving Grace.

pictures poolside

This is what I've been doing for the past three days -a whole lotta nothin' poolside at my sister's house in Florida. And it's been nice.

Today we are headed to Pensacola to find our own house (and by we I mean Shawn and I -alone!) It's kind of important that we find a place to live since we have movers coming to pack up our Virginia home in three weeks. Yes, a place to take all those boxes to will be kind of important.

I'll let you know what we find!

a family day

Did you know we're in Florida? We are! And today we got to celebrate my dad's birthday- with burgers and balloons and smiling grand kids and cupcakes. As a family separated by entirely too many state lines, these are the kind of get-togethers we live for.

Happy Birthday, Dad! We love you!

our Marine on a graduation day

We proudly watched as Shawn graduated from EWS on Thursday. The first time I sat in Little Hall on MCB Quantico was after his ten weeks at Officer Candidate School in 2001. We were one week away from getting married and I was so proud of him. Ten weeks had felt like an eternity but even then, I knew it was only the beginning.

When I say we proudly watched, I mean I proudly watched while the kids did something like this...

(Whatever it takes!) But they know. They know that their Dad does something pretty special. They know he's a great man, a hero -our hero. Looking at them, and thinking about all we've been through and all Shawn has accomplished in the past eleven years, I'm even more proud than I was on that August day so long (yet not so long) ago.

Shawn, we love you. We're proud of you. We'll follow you anywhere.

I'm here, just busy...

I'm working on the last of some recent portrait sessions that you can check out over HERE. I love that I had one more chance to photograph this cute family before they moved (we are supposed to move too but I am still just too busy to deal with that...)

I think this is one of my favorite shots -how perfect are Faye's pink ruffles in front of that gorgeous azalea? It was not planned at all yet oh-so-perfect!

It's killing me to say goodbye to the flowers and still-cool air of Virginia almost as much as my friends. (I said almost.)

It is getting harder and harder to ignore this whole moving thing as the trucks keep rolling by and the goodbyes keep having to be said. I have one more portrait session to edit though, so I'm just going to sit here at my little blue desk next to my open window and deny it for a teeny bit longer.

18/52 first thing in the morning

I heard her coming (that plastic clip-clop is hard to miss)

so I grabbed my camera and waited for her to step into the sunlight

she came to ask for toast
how could I refuse the toddler in the fuzzy purple princess shoes?

she had to take them off to climb into her chair
but that was ok -toast is way more important to this girl than her shoes.


project 52 ~ week 18 ~ first thing in the morning

portraits of little girls in tangles and curls

we want to take her picture

so we make a fuss with brushes and combs

and clips and bows

only to realize that to truly capture her personality

we have to just let it go, wild and messy and in her eyes, let it go

and that will be the one we remember.

dandelions and green

Enjoying another GORGEOUS day here among the dandelions...and a bunch of dandelion photos.

because "Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them." -A.A. Milne

It is so incredibly GREEN today! You know that color of green that only happens on a sunny day in spring? I love that green. And it's cool and sunny too...basically it's perfect.

 The kids are having some quiet time in their open-windowed, breezy rooms and I am catching up on all the pictures I took in April. Oh my there were a lot of pictures in April. Many will just be posted HERE or THERE, so check in over the next few days if you want to see them.

That is if I can fight the urge to head out to the porch right now with a book and my camera instead. It's so easy to take pictures this time of year, but so difficult to sit at a computer and do anything with them! Looking at these, can you blame me?