Project 365: Day 272 Part B -- More Pre-school Photos!

Some kids LOVE being in front of a camera and having their picture taken.


Some kids don't. I mean, really, really don't.


But most are pretty cooperative, even if they aren't real sure about the whole thing.

Project 365: Day 272 -- Kitties

Just a couple of Woofey and Anna taken outside today...

Project 365: Day 271 Part B -- Pre-school Photos!

Every fall, Rebekah and I photograph the children at several local schools. We have a great time seeing these kids growing up from year to year, and creating some non-traditional school photos for them. We leave exhausted after shooting, but it's worth it.

One of the things we do a little differently is we will photograph the students with the siblings, of even their parents! In this case, the mom is a teacher at the school.

Project 365: Day 271 -- Props

I went shopping today for baby props. I got a heating pad to keep naked babies warm, a bean bag chair, and several blankets and rugs for texture.

Project 365: Day 270 -- That Strange Glowing Ball in the Sky

Today there was a strange glowing ball in the sky. Some called it "Sun." Not sure what this thing called "Sun" is, having not seen it in what seems like a month. But it sure was pretty!

The birds were enjoying it, too. This little guy and his friends were all over the place.

Project 365: Day 269 -- Another Weird Location

Woofy found another bizarre place to sleep today. Under my desk on my foot stool. He stayed there all day while I worked.

Project 365: DAy 268 -- More Fungi

Well, you've seen a few photos here lately of the mushrooms I've been finding around here. Today it finally stopped raining, and I took a brief walk around the yard. And found more mushrooms of several varieties.

Project 365: Day 267 -- More Weird Woofy

I swear, he finds a new weird place to sleep almost every day lately. This one is in the corner of the dining room, on the wood floors...

Project 365: Day 266 -- Fuzzy

I have no idea what these are, but I like them. They grow like giant Monkey Grass, but with these purple blooms.

Project 365: Day 265 -- The Bird Feeder

The birds are enjoying the bird feeder. We put some weights on it to help keep the squirrels out. Seems to be working so far...

Project 365: Day 264 -- Weirder & Weirder...

I kept hearing a rustling noise in the kitchen while I was working in my office, so I got up to investigate. This is what I found:

Project 365: Day 263 -- Fungi

Well, this has been the 5th wettest September on record for the Nashville are. It has rained, and rained, and rained some more. I think it has rained more days than not this month. In fact, it's been a very wet summer overall.

Because of all the rain, we have mushrooms popping up everywhere! All different kinds. Here's another from the front yard...

Project 365: Day 262 -- Things are a Little Squirrely Around Here!

Living in the woods the way we do, we have squirrels. Lots of squirrels. This was shot from my bedroom window this morning.

Project 365: Day 261 -- Weird Woofy

I swear I don't know how Woofy sleeps in some of the positions he does. Lately, he spends the entire evening laying in Kelly's lap. Here, he looks like he's falling off!

Project 365: Day 260 -- Squirrel Proof? Not So Much.

We've had such a huge problem with the squirrels devouring all the bird seed--and entire feeder emptied in a couple of hours--that Kelly bought a new feeder that's supposed to be squirrel proof. The concept is that when a squirrel climbs on, the frame which is spring loaded lowers to cover the openings. A bird isn't heavy enough to lower the frame leaving the openings there for the seeds.

Well, I discovered that the squirrels apparently don't weigh as much as the manufacturer thought and it isn't enough to lower the frame, closing the openings.

Project 365: Day 259 -- More in the Year of the Purge

It's still the Year of the Purge, but the project hit a few roadblocks. Mostly me being lazy or overwhelmed. But I got a little something done this week by sorting through some of the books on the bookcase--which you have previously seen is crammed to over-flowing. Today I packed up 5 boxes of books to be stored, and another big stack to give away. And there is still a lot more to go through...

Project 365: Day 258 -- Gloom Doesn't Always Apply Just to Weather

Today was Grandma Needham's funeral. Just as it was at Grandpa Needham's funeral years ago, it was pouring down rain. We had the service at the funeral home, and then she was placed in the family crypt. One request she'd always had was for Blue Danube to be played at her funeral. Well, the funeral home people waited until the last minute to acquire this piece of music, only to discover their internet connection was down. So no Blue Danube. I had my iPhone with me, so we immediately tried to download it through there. But the connection was so bad it took forever, and the song wasn't loaded until they were putting her in the crypt. But Kelly and I stayed behind while the rest of the family left, in the rain, playing Blue Danube through the speaker on my iPhone. With the rain and wind, you could barely hear it, but Kelly kept his promise to his grandma.

The weather finally started clearing a few hours after the funeral...

Project 365: Day 257 -- Visitation

We spent the evening at the funeral home today. Grandma's funeral is tomorrow afternoon. Lots of people sent beautiful flowers, and we talked about how much Grandma loved her great-grandchildren, and how blessed they were to have had as many years with her as they did...

Project 365: Day 256 -- Cat in a Box

I received a package today from my photo lab, and put the empty box on the porch to be burned in the fire pit. Next thing I know, Pete's decided to make it his new bed. Silly cat!

Project 365: Day 255 -- Skinny Cows

Skinny Cows. Sounds silly, right? But it's the name of a diet dessert. And as far as diet desserts go, it isn't bad. Unless you compare it to real ice cream. Then all bets are off and it's just fake food.

Project 365: Day 254 -- In Memory of...

In the wee hours of this morning, Grandma Needham passed away. It's been a week since her first stroke, and the seizures that followed. She lost consciousness at the ER, and never regained it. She was moved from Critical Care to Hospice last Sunday. Kelly went to visit her every single night after work all week.

So after we got the call this morning to let us know she was gone, I dug through my archives to find a photograph of her. You'd think that as a photographer who carries my camera just about everywhere I go that I would have a wonderful, recent photo of her. And I did have a couple of pictures of her with Emmy on her 85th birthday. But they were just snapshots, and not very good ones. I dug all the way back to 2006, shortly after Grandma's 82nd birthday, and found a shot Kelly had taken just before the two of them went up in a hot air balloon. The ride was a birthday gift from Kelly's mom, because she knew her mother had always wanted to ride in a hot air balloon. Diane didn't want to go with her because she was afraid (can't blame her there--the height-thing would send me into full-blown panic attack) so Kelly went with her. They had a great time, and Grandma loved it. Here's some of the photos he took with my old Fuji S2 Pro...

Grandma was blessed to live a long and active life with her daughter, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren nearby. Her 3 great-granddaughters love their GG, and spent a lot of time at her house. And she lived long enough to meet her great-grandson. She lived a full life, and she will be missed.

Project 365: Day 252 -- Notable Progress on the Paint!

Finally making some notable progress on the house painting. For quite a while there, the weather just would NOT cooperate. Every day that Cole could be here to paint, it rained. But now we are really making some progress. Still have to paint that frame on the glass in the door, but it's definitely looking good. The front porch will be a challenge, as we have not yet figured out a way to keep the cats off it while it dries. Any ideas?

Project 365: Day 251 -- Errands and More Books!

Today was the dreaded day of errands. So many! Grocery shopping (which was quickly becoming a desperate situation, with only two 16oz bottles of Coke and one roll of toilet paper left), Target for more storage containers (still trying to purge the storage--I mean Parrish's--room) Best Buy (returning/exchanging that crappy Motorola Blue Tooth Headset) Staples (pencils and folders) and Books A Million (for more Dark-Hunter novels.)

Project 365: Day 250 -- Chillaxin'

If anyone knows how to chill and relax, it's a cat. Let's face it, your typical house cat sleeps 13 to 16 hours a day--2/3 of his life is spent in dreamland. Well, it's no surprise that I'm very much a cat person, and I too can sleep up to 10-12 hours a day on a regular basis. I try not to, mind you, but that requires an outside force (i.e. alarm clock, husband, or a hungry cat) to wake me up. Left to my own devices, I would sleep 10 hours a day, every day. I can function on 8 hours, though.

I can also sleep, at least briefly, almost anywhere. Probably not on a rickety antique table, but certainly in the car, on the sofa, or even at my desk if I get desperate enough. One place I have a really hard time sleeping though is an airplane. That's miserable. When I was young and skinny and limber, I could curl up in the seat and rest my head on my knees to sleep. Not physically possible anymore! This, among so many other reasons, is why getting old sucks.

Woofy sleeps in the most odd places and positions. Sometimes he has all four legs up in the air. Seconds before I took this photo, his head was hanging upside down over the side of the table. He moved when he heard my lens focus. When he was a kitten, he loved to sleep in a dish of potpourri on the table. Made him smell pretty good, but made a mess when he climbed out. Some times he actually sleeps on the bed, with a pillow. He tends to have cycles of favorite spots. This week it's this table. Last week it was my lap every time I sat down. Before that it was the arm of the sofa.

Humans should take a lesson from cats and just relax. Our lives are typically so busy and over-scheduled that we never rest. Especially Americans. If we have an hour a day without something scheduled or designated, we feel that we are wasting time and being lazy. But we need down time. Time to let our thoughts wander, to contemplate, to just be...so take a cue from a cat. Chill...