Pictures of Life

This Christmas Mike gave me a very very cool gift. My Sony picture frame is on my kitchen table and currently rotating about one hundred of my photos. The other day I sat and stared at snapshots of my life over the past 3 years and was bombarded by emotions.

There are many pictures of scenery since I love to photograph landscapes and nature. The pictures I have from my trip to Sedona and the Grand Canyon, fall leaves in Pennsylvania and summer scenes in and around my town are in it as well. All fun to look at and reminisce over but the best pictures, as always, are of people. Let me tell you about just a few.

Lois is very photogenic and I have a really cool shot of her standing on a big rock in a state park in Arizona just looking at the scene. She looks calm and relaxed and happy. It is how I always want her to look. Without the worry of the what ifs in life, just living it and smiling.

Adam is in a few pictures from when I visited him last summer and my favorite is of him adjusting his shades in Georgetown. I remember how blasted hot it was and yet he looked uber cool. We had such a good time wandering around the Inner Harbor and DC that weekend. It is really his home now and he is happy there. That makes me happy but I miss him everyday.

The picture of my dad that I took last Christmas is interesting since he is just gazing out the window, looking and waiting for his guests to arrive. What you cannot see is his anxiousness. He was ready to begin the party and no one was there!! Ten minutes later the cars arrived and he had a blast.

My son Shane is in only one of my pictures. That is not unusual since he will hide if he sees most people trying to take his picture (most family people I should say since I have seen lots of his pictures with friends) but in this one he is with his grandmother and his wonderful big dog Brutus after lunch in State College last summer. I love seeing him with this dog and what that unlikely pair means to us all. It also reminds me of how much that dog is loved and how much attention he gets wherever he goes. Brutus looks like a lion but he is as gentle as a lamb.

My friend Rebecca is in some pictures, too. We have had so much fun traveling together to Florida and NYC and out west. She is a skilled world traveller and I wouldnt want to be stranded without her. I have a great shot of her taking pictures at the Grand Canyon. I wish I could have caught a picture of her changing into cooler clothes when we first got there, no dressing room required, but that is a different topic. A great memory, but a different topic.

My favorite picture of my mother is also from our trip out west. She is gazing out of the window of a Pink Jeep, wearing her pink jeep baseball cap and she had no idea I took her picture (she and Shane share the same dislike of being photographed). What this picture shows is the calm before the storm. One month later she would have a confirmed case of breast cancer and begin a year of treatments and the long road back to health.

So here's the thing: I was never a techy and know I will never be a techy and yet this memory chip invention is a favorite of mine that brings a smile all the time. I know it is what is inside this box that really is the source of happiness and the memories it holds but the invention itself I am a big fan of! My mission now is to add many more photos to that frame gizmo. Apron pictures are not on there yet and I need some more of Mike, too. I have boxes of prints to scan and want more sisters, brother, nieces and nephews and cousins visiting me in my rotating memory box. I might even add one or two of me.

OOHHH, and baby pictures of everyone!!