Thursday, June 24, 2010

Team-Up Thursday

Week 22 Theme – After Dark

After Dark Diptych 2

Mine on the left, Gini's on the right.

No interesting story this week, really.  When I saw the theme, this was the shot that popped into my head.  I stepped outside the other night as a soft rain was falling, and started firing away.  I ended up with a bunch of good shots, but this one matched up exactly with what I had in mind.  I love that feeling.

As for my sister’s picture, I recognized the location pretty quickly.  I’m struck by how busy this shot makes the street look.  Longmeadow is a pretty sleepy town, but it’s interesting to see how much busier it can appear when street lights, traffic lights and a couple of cars run through it “after dark”.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Happy Father’s Day!

Father's Day

Happy Father’s Day

to

the world’s best Daddy!

We love you like crazy!

Y Matthew & Gabriella Y

(and Mommy, too)

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Team-Up Thursday

Week 21 Theme - Chaos

Chaos Diptych

OK, how funny is this??  Gini's on top, mine on the bottom.  That’s all boy right there!  I love that we both had similar ideas once again, and I love that Gini took a close-up shot.  LOVE the wreckage in the background, and that Thomas is just chugging on through with that perma-grin on his face.

I knew for our theme this week I’d end up taking a picture of some spot in my house.  Right now, pretty much every room seems to be in chaos, looking like a bomb went off.  Which, incidentally, is making my head feel like it’s in chaos – but I wasn’t quite sure how to take a picture of the inside of my head.  I’ll have to ponder that one…. 

Anyway…I decided earlier this week that I’d take tomorrow off.  For the first time, I’ll be sending my kids to daycare while I stay home.  My goal is to bring some order back to our living space.  I know there are much worse messes, but for someone with just a tiny bit of OCD (perhaps), it’s making me crazy.  I mean, come on.  Do you see two balls that aren’t in with the other balls?  And yes, I see the third one that’s not in there.  But that bowling ball belongs with the bowling pins in the green tub on the top rack.  Each in its place.  :)

I’m feeling pretty crappy about being home and not having my kids with me, but I know on the flip side if I’m able to get things more organized, I’ll feel much less stressed.  Less stressed Mommy is a good thing, right?  I know it’s worth it, and I know tackling the chaos in the house will tackle the chaos in my head as well.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Team-Up Thursday

Mirror Diptych

Week 20 Theme – Mirror

Gini's on top, mine on the bottom.

What can I say?  I love my little boy’s face in this picture.  And I love how he’s really looking at me, rather than himself, in the mirror.  First week using my new camera, which just arrived Tuesday afternoon.  Can’t wait to see what I can do with this puppy.

And as for my sister’s shot.  Aside from absolutely loving the reflection of those beautiful angels, it reminds me of my great aunt.  She used to have this huge, beautiful mirror with angels all around it at the bottom of her staircase.  I remember her going to see a psychic one time.  She told us how the psychic held on to her watch and was able to tell so much about her – crazy, little things that you’d have no other way of knowing.  Like the fact that she had this giant mirror with angels at the bottom of her staircase.  The psychic told her that if she sat down on the stairs, closing her eyes, and then opened them and looked in the mirror, she’d see her own angels behind her.  She was always too nervous to actually do it, a bit afraid of what she might actually see.  I think about that story often, most especially when I need to feel that my own angels are behind me.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Team-Up Thursday

SignsDiptych

Week 19 Theme – Signs

Back in the saddle again this week, and I think we done good.  Mine on the left, Gini's on the right.

I was quite happy with our creation this week, and when I went to draft this post, I got even happier.  In taking my shot, I had focused on the horoscope (get it, sign?) for Scorpio, since that’s what I am.  (You could have guessed that, right?  Yes, I am pretty much a textbook Scorpio.  Google it if you’re curious.)   What I didn’t realize until just now is that in focusing there, I managed to capture the 4 signs of my little family.  Dennis the Libra, me the Scorpio, Gabriella the Sagittarius and Matthew the Capricorn.  Cool, right?  OK, maybe it’s just me….

As for Gini’s picture, make sure you follow the link over to her blog, as I’m hoping she’ll share the story of how it came to be.  Personally, I love it, not just because I think it came out cool, but because of the memory it conjures up for me.  If you don’t already know this, our mother was a paraplegic, and had a handicapped permit as a result.  One time when we were shopping up at Ames in Sturbridge – gosh, it’s gotta be at least 25 years ago now – my mother had parked in a handicapped spot near the front of the store.  Gini, Chris and I were at the trunk, preparing to get her wheelchair out, while she was still sitting in the driver’s seat.  Well, this woman came out of the store, saw that we’d parked there and that the three of us were able-bodied, and I can only imagine assumed that the only person remaining in the car couldn’t possibly be handicapped, since she was in the driver’s seat.  She proceeded to come over and start yelling at us about parking in a handicapped spot.  What happened next was priceless.  My sister whipped my mother’s wheelchair out of the trunk and chased the lady through the parking lot with it, yelling “Do you see the wheelchair?”   One of my favorite stories of all time, and something I was always proud of my sister for doing.  Not sure I ever told her that, but I guess now I have.