Photography is savoring life at 1/100th of a second.

For the first time in the many times the kids have gone back and forth between the Ex and I... This time feels permanent. She is almost 18 this time, she has a partner that she is moving in with. She is making plans for her future. It has left me with a bit of an empty spot.

A scent like no other

I joked for years about how I would never NEVER suffer from empty nest syndrome. Actually looked forward to finally having time to do all those things that I wanted to do!  But with the daughter moved out and the addition of my youngest hardly ever home due to football and his new found friends. The house is just... too quiet. All the places I wanted to take the kids to see, the places to do stuff, movies, games... they are no longer young enough to appreciate it anymore. It's all a headache to them to do silly stuff like going sight seeing, going for long rides, having their pics taken in front of silly stuff. They have their own agenda's now.

Sooo... my secret is trying not to dwell on it. I have gotten alot of editing done and my house is really really clean lol. I am starting to have time to stop and smell the flowers. I got my backyard looking awesome yesterday, hammock is set-up. Workout bench and some seating for if the son has friends over to lift weights. Pic-nic table, yard is weeded.. yeah it was gorgeous outside yesterday and I didn't have to stop mid job to drive anyone anywhere woot!!!

Rays of night

I noticed a bit of change in my editing last night, I think it may be from the changes in my life, I got an invite from a "whimsical group".. a year ago I was getting invites from groups catering to goth and graveyards. So yeah things are starting to look up! :D

Macro-ology

So, where to start.
It's only 10:00 a.m. and I have...
half of my laundry done already
vacuuming done
dishes done
living room done
beds stripped

Still need to do...
yard work (that will have to wait now.. too hot!)
counters wiped down
floors mopped
bathrooms cleaned

So basically I am half done with chores yay!

Angel by the Wayside

The best and worst of the deal... I now have an extra room of my own to do with as I please. The daughter moved back to Illinois, Arizona was too hard on her. 18, out of school, no friends... She moved back to her hometown. I can't blame her, it's hard to start all over in a new place when you know no one. At her age you need friends, it takes years to learn that you can amuse yourself right? Ok.. we always need friends who am I kidding!

Arizona Sunset

So at first, I thought hey, I can get some stuff out of storage and go through it in there.. then I got it cleaned up and saw this little sign I had made for my last work out room and decided hell with storage space, I need my work out room back! So that will be my last chore of the day. Moving all my work out gear in there! One thing that is totally cool out here in AZ is that the weight bench can be left outside! Glad I don't have to bring that in. The nights and dawn are perfect for working out too, nice and cool.

Backroads

Fall is almost here, I am looking forward to a nice warm (not hot) season. I have intermittent bouts of missing New England, but we have plans to drive up to the Flagstaff/Sedona area soon. That should be enough to remind me of how green the world is  :)

Summers End

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I am also slowly getting back into editing mode. I have been scrounging around in my older albums and looking at alot of photos in a whole new light! It is such a good idea to never delete old photos, beauty that may not be here today, might show up tomorrow!

Hope everyones summer was great and not too wet!

Grungy Peony

Arizona Lightning

Glowing Iris

Light over the water

What are your fitness goals? What is helping or preventing you from accomplishing them?
Presented by Intel, Sponsors of Tomorrow.

My fitness goal is to get my out of shape body back on that elliptical and get back to walking 9+ miles a day so I can finally do my first marathon!

What is preventing it? Apathy? Still unpacking? No room to move ATM hehe

And ooooh we have sooo much sunshine!

I am loving living in AZ, quite simply it has given me the love of my art back again.

I spent the day editing and talking to an old  friend from my Star Wars Galaxies days. We reminisced and looked at old screenshots and sighed over the loss of what should have been one of the best games in the history of MMO's.

All in all, life is good! The hubby just got word from the boss that he is going to bumped up to Manager in about 2 weeks. This means guaranteed income now yay! But.. the best part is that means that he is going to be in charge of the store that will be opening up here in our neck of the woods.. double yay!

So yeah.. life is good, the sun is shining, the house is getting organized, the sun is shining, life is getting normal.. the sun is shining... :) Yeah, the sun is shining!

First is a lily of the valley macro that I took this past spring, I decided to look up a bit of the history about it while I was editing it and came up with almost a card look.

Purity

Our Pilgramage

Farewell Ozarks

My first incoming monsoon. I took this pic as the storm was deciding on if it wanted to grow or shrink!

Eye of the storm

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Backing up to 2008 and our cruise on The Music Boat. Leaving port in Miami.

Miami

Another pic from The Music Boat Cruise. We took an off boat expedition to Tulum Mayan Temples. This piece of art pre-dates the 1600's!

Mayan Carvings

A boat that someone had pulled ashore on the Tulum Mayan Temple shoreline.

Tulum Mexico

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I like to call it *Home*... Arizona baby, granted this is a bit farther north. Heading up towards Sedona. Such grandeur and beauty.

Arizona

And with that title it kinda says it all!

I am still unpacking.. you know this ;)
I am still adjusting to Arizona.. you know this ;)
I am still using way to many emotes.. you know this :D

I don't have a whole lot to write, I haven't gotten a whole lot of chances to do any photography yet, monsoon season has been hiding, other than a couple little blowby storms, there just is not a whole heck of a lot going on in my life!

I did have time to edit a few of pics though, so I will at least share those to those of you who care lol.. So, back to unpacking and or.. editing more pics. My life is so redundant atm!

Flashback

Welcome to Arizona

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Textured, grungy grains

Lightning Strikes

Yes, I sat down today and spent the day doing near nothing. Well besides waiting til almost noon to go to the storage shed when the weather warnings said not to do anything in the mid day due to the heat warnings.. So I am a newb to the desert... hang me out to dry with the rattlers ;)

As to the rest of my lazy day, well I actually got some editing done. My new header for instance. That moon is smiling over Texas. The first rest stop that we got to after entering that beautiful state we had to pull over so that I could photograph a monsoon cloud that we had been watching off to our right. Then I turned around and saw a beautiful full moon watching me, so I decided to watch him! I finally got to use my big telescopic lens yay!

Here is the monsoon cloud that we pulled over to watch. It is a bit grainy due to the fact that it was nearly full night time when I took it so I had to leave the shutter open for a bit to catch it.

Death of a Monsoon

We first saw this cloud starting to bloom in Oklahoma just before the Texas state line. We pulled over to take pictures of the beautiful sunset and ended up finding a field of Texas Longhorns waiting to be picked for the next California happy cow! (j/k) They were very friendly though and curious, one of them really took a liking to me and kept trying to reach through the fence to lick me. My son ended up letting Bessie lick him and she pulled his hand right into her mouth and left a drool trail about a foot long when he pulled his hand back.. I will post that pic later! ;)
But without further ado, here are the cows with the blooming Monsoon cloud in the distance.

Longhorns & Sunsets

So while I was sitting here editing happily away I noticed lightning. This is monsoon season, I have been here a week and not a single storm has passed. So I ran outside with my trusty Canon and just started randomly taking pictures and finally caught a lightning strike... So with that my day has been made. Enjoy!

Lightning!

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Are you interested in intergalactic travel? What would you hope to discover?
Presented by Intel, Sponsors of Tomorrow.

I would hope to discover that Han and Leia really did have a happily ever after. 

In a geekish way this is my wish, I really would love to find "life" out there. I am not so vain as to believe we are the only marble spinning away in space that has advanced civilizations.

Mos Eisley has to be out there somewhere and I would love to be the one to discover it! :)

Anchorhead

Well technically it has been around a week.

Somehow, unplanned, we pulled into Arizona on our 4 year anniversary (June 9). We were so delayed, so many times that we completely missed the fact that 4 years ago on July 10th I fell in love with AZ and told the hubby that we were going to move here some day. It just made the move seem that much more right to us :).

I have many photo's to share and many stories to tell, but I have not got around to editing any of the pics as today is the first day that my computer has been set up and our internet just got turned on today as well. Our movers somehow not only broke my desk, but they also broke our only other large sturdy desk. It took the hubby a few days of using hand tools and imagination to build me a desk out of the debris that they left of the desks.

Hope everyone's 4'th was wonderful and looking forward to alot of catching up!

With Love... From Texas :)

DSC00189.JPG

So, for reasons I can't divulge yet our move has been waylayed to the end of the month.. is the waiting never going to end?

Oh well, back to packing...