Pre Hurricane Pictures

Life in Texas, Pictures
Here's my Early AM pics of Ike. None have been post processed, maybe I'll get to that later. 7:00, he's still just on the horizon. A chopper that kept flying overhead. After sunrise, 8:45 The clouds are getting bigger and closer, but still could be mistaken for any other day's clouds.  Looks like I have some sensor dust. And just now, about 10:35, still sunny and just a touch of breeze. Looking South-SouthWest. Looking directly East. My shadow, told you it's sunny. :)
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A little bit of Panic

Aiden, Baby Joey, Bella and Edward, Family, Family Fun, Humor, Kevin, Kevin and I, Life in Texas, Me, Memories, Michael, Pictures, The end is near, Twilight
The area that we used to live in, just twenty something miles away was evacuated this morning, but we've been told to "shelter in place," so unless there's some other mandate, we're sticking around.  When Allison was here 7 years ago our home was safe (we know the woman who lived here at the time) so that's somewhat comforting. Little Aiden is sick with a head cold.  He's not doing to well with that, I don't want to consider cramming him (and the rest of us) in the car for a long evacuation.  So gratefully we're hopefully not doing that. We were already well stocked and ready, but I went to the grocery store this morning to pick up just a few more things, a long burning fire log, another…
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Which clothes on Joey for our family pictures?

Aiden, Baby Joey, Family, Family Fun, Kevin, Kevin and I, Me, Michael, Pictures
We're getting family pictures soon, and are wondering what we should put on Joey. Vote on our poll at your right please!  And if you have any other suggestions for him, please let us know.  either another combination of the outfits we have for him, or if you can find something online for less than $15. Oh, and we'll all be in jeans in various darker blues. Mock Blue Jeans with darker blue wolf shirt (the tiny logo is a howling wolf and a couple pine trees). Brown pants, lighter blue dinosaur shirt with brown jacket First outfit with brown jacket Here are the shirts I'm planning on using for the rest of us, with both possible shirts for Joey. Also what about shoes?  We don't all have dark shoes... …
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Hayez; The Kiss

Dreams, Grief and Loss, Kevin and I, Me, Memories, Pictures, The end is near
Image from Wikipedia Moved?  I am. I LOVE this painting.  It means more to me than any image I've ever seen. It was painted in Italy by Francesco Hayez in 1859, as I understand, it portrays a goodbye kiss of two lovers as he leaves for war.  How passionate, loving, tense, sad, electric, and compelling.  What would it be like to kiss your husband knowing it may indeed be the last time you kiss, last time you touch, last time you see?  So sad, but you want sadness so badly not to be the memory of the moment.  The colors are just vibrant enough, yet subtle enough, the shadows deep yet well placed, the cloth and texture of the stones.  The shadow of a waiting soldier in the background. I…
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My Grandpa, My Parents, and My Brother

Aiden, Church, Family Fun, Grief and Loss, Health Concerns, Me, Memories, Pictures, The end is near, To new beginnings
My 80 somthingish Grandpa broke his hip lastnight and fell, they're not sure what happened first.  He was carrying a BIG watermelon and Grandma seems to think it landed ON him and that's what broke it...  So I guess there's three options.  He was supposed to go into surgery earlier today but it kept getting knocked back.  So I'm not sure what's happened. My parents are currently at a neighborhood/stake (gotta love Utah) meeting concerning a woman in their neighborhood who was badly beaten this week in her home by a door to door magazine salesman, who'd been to my parents home earlier that day.  I'm not sure if it's so much concerning the actual incident, local emotional control, or information to help protect themselves.  The hazy details I have…
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My turn with Nifty #2

Baby Joey, Games, Life in Texas, Me, Memories, Michael, Pictures, Vacation
I'm on a Canon photography forum where we have a special lens that's being passed around the world from member to member.  After more than two years on the waiting list "he" arrived HERE Friday! It's a Canon EF 50mm f1.8 II (on Amazon), they retail for about $80 (which is really cheap for a good lens).  It's called the Nifty Fifty or just Nifty because it's amazing sharp focus and soft bokeh (the out of focus blurry areas in the background and foreground) and is a tiny little things as lenses go.  It 's a good travel lens because it's compact and out of the way and inconspicuous to the unassuming average eye.  I have one and it's been my buddy and was my first SLR lens, even before…
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The most handsomest boy who wears glasses!

Aiden, Baby Joey, Family Fun, Me, Michael, Pictures
Michael boy just got glasses yesterday.  Here's the story in pictures. Contemplating this new milestone on the way to pick them up. Putting them on for the first time with prescription lenses. Help adjusting them. First impression of having glasses (sadly, I don't think it got much better). Aiden, he kept whining "I wants glasses!  Where's my glasses?" Getting a little warmed up, but mostly making faces about it. Trying on the other pair. Hmm, Brown, for the last three years brown has been Michael's favorite color, only last Friday, the day we went to the optometrist and ordered his glasses, he switched to blue. Joey just along for the ride. Aiden's new glasses.  Yes, I caved, but given Michael's mood, I needed SOMEBODY to be excited about glasses.  And…
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Adorable Stray Cats Need a Home

Adoption, Animals, Cats, Family Fun, Grief and Loss, Humor, Life in Texas, Me, Pictures, Pregnancy, The end is near, To new beginnings
They have a home!  Someone's coming to get them! OK, these are some of the adorable cats that hang around my neighborhood, they can't stay long because well, we're in apartments and it's not the safest environment for them and I think there are legal issues... So these little guys are free to anyone willing to catch them, take them to the vet, and care for them. This is a Mama, probably not more than a year old, and her final kitten left from what we believe is her first litter, born earlier this summer, 6-8 weeks old.  I don't know where the other two kittens are, hopefully people were able to take them in rather than having them found by predators or hit by cars.  The girls downstairs have…
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