My Life

You know, when I was nineteen, Grandpop took me on a roller coaster.
Up, down, up, down.

Oh, what a ride!
I always wanted to go again. You know, it was just so interesting to me that a ride could make me so frightened, so scared, so sick, so excited, and so thrilled all together!

Some didn't like it. They went on the merry-go-round. That just goes around. Nothing.

I like the roller coaster.

You get more out of it.

~Parenthood~

Bridge Crossing

Jaime and her Dad were crossing a bridge.

Emil was kind of scared for her so he asked his little Jaime:

"Sweetheart, please hold my hand so that you don't fall into the river."

Jaime said...

"No, Dad. You hold my hand."

"What's the difference?" He asked puzzled

"There's a big difference," replied the little girl.

"If I hold your hand and something happens to me, chances are that I may let your hand go. But if you hold my hand, I know for sure that no matter what happens, you will never let my hand go."

In any relationship, the essence of trust is not in its bind, but in its bond. So hold the hand of the person whom you love rather than expecting them to hold yours...

School Daze

light saber ✓

goggles ✓

ready to go to school✓

Isa and Max

Creating Vintage

Before and after

Been having fun taking new pictures and making them old.

This was an old gas pump in front of the post office in Paint Bank, VA

One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure.
~William Feather ~

Study Time for Joe

Living in the mountains has been an adjustment for all of us, even Joe.

Brave Girls Club

Dear Traveling Girl,

Life is a trip with a perfect itinerary that we cannot see.

Imagine it this way -- that there really IS an itinerary, but you just can't see it. There is an amazing destination, but you just don't know where the stops along the way will happen where you will have to refuel, where your best memories and your greatest lessons will happen.

We don't know that what may seem like useless detours are where we might meet the most amazing people of our lives, or enjoy the best scenery, or learn the most important things.

Sometimes we fail to enjoy the trip because we are so hung up on wanting to see the itinerary. You will have the best times of your life when you just TRUST that you are exactly where you are supposed to be, doing exactly what you are meant to be doing, and that tomorrow you will be lead to the next destination.

You always have been, you always will be.

Remember to travel light, only take what you need with you. It will make things so much easier.

ENJOY YOUR FLIGHT,

little birdie!

xoxo

Our Next Chapter

On our way to our next stop on our road to retirement. This time we will be in the mountains of Roanoke Virginia on Smith Mountain Lake

Santa Barbara N Mission

Not just another sunset

" The rich fire of the orange sunset

gloriously announces the coming of the night."
~Susan S Florence~

Holiday Beach Bums

Our grandchildren accept us for ourselves, without rebuke or effort to change us, as no one in our entire lives has ever done, not our parents, siblings, spouses, friends - and hardly ever our own grown children.

~Ruth Goode~

Harbor Lights

Christmas is the one time of year when you can count on smiling faces and bright lights and awesome gifts and giant twinkling trees and family reunions and childish games and believing in that old man that you know doesn't exist. Christmas is the time when dreams come true.

Christmas California Style 2010

Christmas - that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance--a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved. ~ Augusta E. Rundel~

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree:

the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.

~ Burton Hillis ~