Saving Memories by D.K.Fisher

Scott Pallot sings Mary Jane's Last Dance "Live"

2010-07-27T09:36:00.001-04:00

Saw Pallot, Porters & Miller Saturday night at "HUGS" in Eatonton, Georgia. My understanding is that they will be back sometime in August to play again there. If you get a chance to see them, it is well worth it. They have a great sound and 3 of the members sing lead vocals. All are awesome and have a great harmony between them. I will definitely be looking forward to hearing them in person again. You can hear more music on their myspace page, Pallot Porters & Miller . You don't have to have a myspace account to listen and view their videos. I will add them to my calendar at the bottom of my blog when I find out a definite date.
Hope to see you there!

Copperhead Road by Scott Pallot "Live" at Harley Davidson of Macon

2010-07-27T09:25:00.000-04:00

Tom Petty cover or "Free Fallin" by Scott Pallot Live at Harley Davidso...

2010-07-27T09:21:00.000-04:00

Heart of the Matter Pallot Porter & Miller

2010-07-27T09:19:00.000-04:00

Scott Pallot sings Mood Ring Pallot Porter & Miller

2010-07-27T09:17:00.000-04:00

Angel From Montgomery Pallot Porter & Miller

2010-07-27T09:13:00.000-04:00

Purple Rain by Pallot Porters & Miller

2010-07-27T09:09:00.000-04:00

Purple Rain by Pallot Porters & Miller

Where does the time go?

2010-07-09T21:29:00.001-04:00

Where do I begin? Birthday parties, photo shoots, Sunflower festival, 4th of July parties, work, and helping my sister type up 75 hours of lesson plans for a class, and Editing pictures. WOW! I can't believe I am still moving. I am exhausted but enjoyed every minute.

Spent an entire day in Shady Dale, Georgia the weekend of the June 20th, at the Chester resident enjoying John Morrell's 60th Birthday. Met some great people, got some great pictures, and really enjoyed the cooking. John's and his family cooked a whole hog, made brunswick stew, and had lots of other goodies. It was a fun day and the Chester's were great host.

The weekend of the 26th, we went to my niece Lovey's 4th Birthday pool party at her Aunt Christy's and Uncle Jamie's house. Lovey and her daddy Ronnie were here visiting from Colorado before he deploys for Afghanistan and being Lovey's birthday was less than 2 weeks away it was a good time to have a party a little early.

Sunday, Sunflower farm and photo shoot with niece Emily. What can I say, we got some great shots and had fun doing it. I don't get to spend much time with my niece Emily, so having the whole day with here was great. She is such a sweet kind hearted person and absolutely beautiful. She wanted her Aunt Dana to do her Senior pictures and what was I suppose to do but say....WELL YEA! Still have a few other locations to go shoot with her and now we will just have to decide which ones she wants to use. :) She is my niece...I can spoil her, Right!

Several other days that week I was able to capture a few shot of my niece Lovey, Allissa, and my sister and her family.

The 3rd of July, we spent at my Dad's and Gloria's for a cookout and day with the family.

Back to the Sunflower Farm for the Festival on the 4th and back again the 5th with some friends just to get more pictures of the flowers.

During all of this, Kristie (sister #2) and I spent five or six nights working till about midnight on all her school work and a few hours over the weekends. Today was her LAST day of class. I think she and I both were doing the happy dance when she left. She was driving all the way to Alpharetta, 5 days a week working on Saturday's and Spending every night and her 1 day a week off doing homework for 5 weeks. And I thought I was busy.

Hmmm! I wonder if time will slow down now?

It's almost Time for the Sunflower Farm Festival!

2010-06-18T20:47:00.000-04:00

Are you getting Excited? I am! Hope to see you there. Looking for directions ...go check out there website.

Busy Few Months

2010-06-11T08:49:00.002-04:00

Well...The turnout for AmVets 1st Annual Ride For Freedom turned out great. I believe they had about a hundred riders. It was pretty chilly that day but it was worth every minute. For me this was a last minute idea to go shoot this event and even though I wasn't as prepared as I would have like to have been I still had a blast. My Hubby, Robert, was my pilot for the day and he did an awesome job at having me just a head of the group of bikes along their route 3 different times. We had so much fun. If you get a chance go check out some of the images captured on my dotphot site.

As for what's been going on since then...where do I start. Gallstones, my sleepless nights with gallbladder attacks and a trip to the emergency room. Well after a visit to the emergency room several months ago and the doctors at the hospital telling me they thought I had pleurisy (I knew that wasn't right) and a few more attacks a trip to the doctor and then several test we finally had a diagnosis...Gallstones. Surgery in May and was back up and running a week later or should I say back up and flying.

A week after surgery I was on a plane to Colorado Springs, Colorado to see my baby sister Kelly, her husband Ronnie and my sweet little niece Lovey. I was able to spend an entire week with them and had a great time. We visited the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, spent some time in Manitou Springs at the base of Pikes Peak, Picnicked at Garden of the Gods, spent some time with friends and went to there wonderful Church New Life Church. There was so much to do and weather prevented us from doing as much as we wanted but it was definitely a great trip and I guess we did need to save some things to do for the next visit.

Then it was time to come home and reality sets in on how short my visit really was. I had a very hard time leaving them. Ronnie will be deploying to Afghanistan in a few months and I really didn't get to spend much time with him at all that really bothered me. I am so proud of him and what he is doing for our country and also very scared for him and my sister. People really don't understand the sacrifices our soldiers make for us and they have no clue how hard it is on the families left behind to get through everyday life without their family member unless they personally have a member in the military. Everyday is a challenge to stay strong and keep the faith that they will return home unharmed. I can't imagine how hard it truly is on my sister to not have Ronnie there and how hard it is for him to be away. I pray for them and all our soldiers and their families and just ask that everyone keep our military in there prayers.

After crying almost the whole plane trip back because I had to leave my family so far away...It was time to get back to work. Morning after being back home, I helped a friend shoot a wedding in Athens. It was beautiful and we all had a great time. Congratulations Tom and Dawn! My friend Dege is working on weeding through all the images and I think the couple is going to be very pleased.

We also had graduation the 28th of May. My nephew Marshall graduated and our friend Katie! Congratulations guys!

Now it is time to start working on the latest project shooting Senior pictures for my sweet little niece Emily. We are working out details now on our locations so that will be coming up soon. Can't wait!

Check back soon for more updates.

AmVet's 1st Annual Defenders of Freedom Ride

2010-03-25T09:11:00.003-04:00

This Weekend will be the 1st Annual Defenders of Freedom Ride in Winder, GA sponsored by AmVets Post 12. These guys are awesome, they do a lot to support our veterans and this weekend I get to do my part in helping with that cause. I have a great appreciation for our Veterans and our Military and have not ever really known what I could do to help them or their families until this event came up.

I will be donating 50% of all profits made from my shoot this weekend back to AmVets to help them with there cause and enjoy a day of being around a group of proud Americans. I hope that if you can't participate in the ride that you will go to there website (AmVets Post 12, GA) and make a contribution. Don't you want to help support the people that make it possible for you to live as Free Americans.

To View pictures after event go to http://savingmemories.dotphoto.com/ click on the AmVets Defenders of Freedom Ride. Enjoy.

Welcome Home Robert!

2010-03-25T08:40:00.000-04:00

Vacation

2010-03-14T17:54:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, Robert and I made a quick four day trip to Lakeland. It was a great weekend. We were able to see all of his brothers and sisters this trip and were actually able to get a family picture with all the siblings with Mom and Dad. I believe this is the first family picture that included all of them.

We were still missing 8 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren. Maybe one day we will have an opportunity to catch everybody home. While there we were able to celebrate Dad's retirement, his birthday, go to the Strawberry festival, spend time with family (including our new niece Cypress), make a lot of photos and enjoy our Anniversary together. We needed a vacation from our vacation, but enjoyed every minute of it. My next trip Colorado Springs to see my baby sister and her family. I can't wait!

Park Hopping

2010-02-26T20:36:00.001-05:00

Last Saturday was a beautiful day, a perfect day to go park hopping with the neices and nephews. We packed a picnic lunch and took off. We started off in downtown Madison at the new Town Park where the kids loved playing around the fountain, then off to the playground behind the Primary School and ended the day at Hard Labor Creek State Park. The kids played and we all made some new friends, Cindy, Buck, and little Annabelle. Here are a few photos of our day.

I think there will be a few play dates in our future! Nothing like watching the imagination of children.

God, Family & Photography

2010-01-18T13:12:00.009-05:00

What a year! 2009 has come and gone and it was another year of great memories of being with family, and friends. This past year we have all had our struggles some worse than others but thankfully we all still have our jobs, homes, and each other.

This past year I have tried to make every family event possible to capture those moments in photos. Birthdays, cookouts, kids award ceremonies, holidays with family, our travels, and graduations, to put together a slideshow for my family. This past year with pictures selected I have about 1300 pictures to put in a 3 part slideshow. I am working hard on getting my project done so I can share this with my family. The collage of photos is a small sampling of those photos taken. Part 1 is almost complete. Yeah!

This year's photos I am developing a new stategy to organize along the way. My goal this year is to weed out all my bad photos before waiting until the last minute to trash them and also to orgaize my 2010 album now so as to drop all the very best shots of each event there and save myself some major headaches later.

I have learned so much this past year with my photography and using my camera and I hope to learn even more this year. I will be taking a few photography classes this year and trying to get into more event photography to make some extra money. I could certainly use that...need to get a few more lenses. :)

I know my family gets tired of having a camera around constantly and would just like to let them know... It's not going away!

I know as soon as they view this slideshow they will truly understand why I love taking pictures. My husband has helped me select and put music to these pictures and I just can't help but to smile everytime I listen and watch this show. I see all those intimate moments that are preserved and not lost to time. I see those moments that made my family smile and cry that can be reflected on. I see what God has given us in each other and I thank him everyday that I am part of it. I love my family.

I know that this year will surely have it's moments of greatness and hardship and I also know that we will get through them. I also know as a friend so kindly reminded me the other day and was brought up again in church Sunday that through good times and bad we are never alone as long as we believe in our God. He makes the great times better and he is always there to hold us up in the bad. I am going to make my personal relationship with him stronger this year and am hoping that my photography work will help inspire others to do the same.

2010...Here I come!

Class of 1990, Girls Night!

2009-08-24T07:39:00.007-04:00

Saturday night I had the opportunity to meet with several ladies I graduated with for dinner. We had a great time. It was just for us ladies, no men. We were expecting about 15 people but only had 7 of us show up. It was so awesome to see everyone. I did not make our 10 year class reunion several years ago and don't know that I would have gone had I even knew that it was happening, I don't have the fondest memories of my high school years. I had very close friends that seemed to turn more into acquaintances and everyone seemed to go there own way. The ladies I met with Saturday were friends that never treated me any differently after getting to high school.

I think so much of these ladies and admire them. After spending just a little time with them and seeing how strong they are in their beliefs and knowing I was still excepted for just being me, it was awesome. We have all been through a lot in our lives and we all have accomplished a great deal. This small get together has made me look forward to our next one and even has me considering attending the 20 year reunion that should be coming up next year.

Thanks ladies!

Thematic Photography - Abandoned

2009-08-17T17:18:00.005-04:00

Go check out Carmi's weekly Thematic Photography

Sunflower Festival

2009-08-05T22:11:00.000-04:00

HE WAS THERE

2009-06-12T07:21:00.008-04:00

This past week a chain of events occurred that helped rescue a young lady and my family played a role. I would like to start off saying that I have always believed in God and have been saved, but this last week has truly showed me just how present he really is.

My family side of this story starts like this. My sister needed to take her two daughters to the doctor Monday, so she asked our new step mom to watch her two youngest sons, Coletrane & Chaz. These two boys were all about impressing their new grandma and were very excited about being able to go to her house and play but wanted to make a good impression. Coletrane went as far as putting on a button up shirt and his clip on tie and both were doing their best to be on their best behavior. They went over and had a really good time but when leaving,(here starts the real chain of events)Coletrane accidentally let her cat out of the house. My step mom lets her cat out regularly but always hooks him to a pet cable so as not to get into the street and so he doesn't run off.

He escaped...He ran off and no one could catch him. Coletrane was very upset and worried that his new grandma was upset with him. Ginger, needed to get the kids home with one of them being sick so she left (with the plan of returning) and on the way home Coletrane had to take a good razzing by his older sisters about letting the cat escape. His mom, Ginger, just reassured him that she would be going back over to help find the cat and that everything would be okay. Ginger called me with her concerns about finding the cat. Our step mom has emphysema and is on oxygen therapy so I told her that I would go over too and we would find him for her and everything would be fine.

We left for our step moms house, I called on the way over and found out that she had been able to get him back in the house before we got there. I had just ended my phone call with her and started to call Ginger and her husband when I drove up on an accident.

This accident had occurred on a rural road thats not heavily traveled. I stopped my car put my flashers on and ran to the vehicle. I found a horrible sight. A teenage girl just able to wave her arms above the steering wheel asking for help, she was trapped. I told her to be as still as she could and I called 911. While trying to keep her calm, my sister and her husband had stopped just behind me and came to help. My brother in law has had first aid and CPR and really took over the scene while Ginger and I tried to get help on the way. The car was smoking from electrical wires burning and was filling the car with smoke making it difficult for any of us to breath. Todd, my brother in law, had me cover the girls face while he broke out a side window and using the deployed airbag directed the smoke coming from the dash out the window.

We had help on the way, Todd sat with her trying to keep her calm and still as I fanned with anything I could find trying to keep the smoke away from her as best we could. In this time we found out her name was Katie, she is 17,and has asthma. She gave Todd her dad's phone # and my sister called him and tried to keep him from panicking on his drive to the scene. Katie's dad was able to reach his mom that lived just a few miles away and she was on her way.

A first responder arrived about 10 minutes after we got there. We continued to help how ever we could until the ambulance and other emergency personnel arrived. As emergency persons arrived her grandmother arrived and was able to let Katie know she was there and that her dad was on his way. It was heart wrenching to watch Katie's grandmother watch the scene that was occurring. I continued to reassure her Katie was going to be fine and God was there with her with all of us. Katie's dad arrived just after she had be removed from the car and placed in an ambulance to do a quick evaluation of injuries before being put on the helicopter.

As we were getting ready to leave we overheard someone say that she would be lucky if she ever walked again. The three of us, my sister, her husband and myself were just a mess after we left. Very shook up and very worried about this girl and the horror she had just been through. I don't think any of us slept well that night worrying about her and still visualizing what we had just seen. I know for myself, it took me quite a while to get to sleep that night without seeing this girls face reaching and asking for help.

Morning came and Ginger received a call. Katie's dad. He told Ginger Katie was going to be okay. Her left hip had been dislocated and her right femur had been broken and her lungs were bruised, but the doctors had done surgery during the night and put her hip back in place, put rods and pins in her leg to fix her femur and said it would take about a year of therapy to get her back into the shape she was before the accident. Ginger immediately called and we were all breathing a sigh of relief.

Thursday night, Ginger, Todd, and I were able to go see her and her dad at the hospital. What an awesome day. Katie was able to walk down the hall earlier in the day with a walker. She is still in a great deal of pain but she looked great. She was very happy to see us and we were extremely happy to see her. We had a great visit and plan on keeping in touch which won't be hard considering she lives 2 miles from us.

This girl has impacted us so much. We talked on the way to the hospital about how this experience had impacted us and what we get out of it. We all agreed...God is awesome. We all felt his presence in this whole event, from the escaping of the cat down to the the realization of how much worse this event could have been. This was a horrible accident but as Katie put it "We have focused so much on the positives that came out of this". This has really brought a different perspective on our relationship with God and how he works.

GOD, He was there with us all that day. So those sister's that razzed Coletrane about the cat should remember God has a reason and purpose for everything even if we don't understand it at the time. And Coletrane should be proud that his mistake at the moment wasn't really a mistake at all, it was something that was meant to occur. And now Coletrane that felt that he had done something really bad became our hero for the day. If he had not let the cat out, this chain of events that brought help to Katie wouldn't have happened the way it did. Thank you Coletrane. We love you! Thank you God...We all needed you and you were there. You gave us new friends and we look forward to this relationship with them for a long time to come.

Class of 2009

2009-06-01T07:44:00.004-04:00

May 29,2009, my son graduated high school. I am so proud of him. He is planning on going straight to work for a while doing electrical work with his Uncle. I am hoping after a break he will want to go back to school but we will see. I know what ever his decision, he will be successful. He is a really smart young man with a good head on his shoulders.
Saturday after graduation, we had a cookout for John and had a blast. We ordered John a 27 inch pizza that we had custom cut a board for (pizza place didn't have a box big enough). We cooked out hamburgers & hotdogs and had lots of other goodies. He received several gifts of money, gift cards, and a first time flight experience with a friend of mine that owns his own plane. John wants to open his first checking account and savings with the money he received and is still in awe over being able to go flying. I can't wait to see his face that day.

Walk For Lupus Now

2009-05-03T17:46:00.003-04:00

Please check out the newest post from Keely's blog for updates on the Walk for Lupus Now event at Piedmont Park.

Crazy life

2009-04-30T07:24:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone...just wanted all my blogging friends to know what's been going on with me. I have been dealing with bad allergies that turned into bronchitis this last week. Monday and Tuesday were the worst days of it. After a round on a steroid pack, antibiotics and horrible cough medicine (that made me even more sick) I am doing much better. Even with all my illness I had several commitments over the weekend. I did the Walk for Lupus Now at Piedmont Park in Atlanta, Saturday afternoon and had to be in Athens to support my husband's bosses new bar opening at the Twilight Criterium ( A night bike race that happens yearly in downtown Athens). We got to our hotel about midnight that night. I was pretty wore out. Pretty much laid around Sunday trying to recover and still not feeling well. Monday...I was up at 3:30 in the morning to get to a friends house to help her move. We had her packed and moved out by 9:30 in the morning and settled in her new home by 2:30 that afternoon. 3:15...I finally got into the doctors office...so by that night I finally had some medication in me and then had a reaction to the cough medicine that made me very ill until sometime in the middle of the night. Tuesday morning... I could not move, I was so sore and exhausted that I could not get out of bed. My sweet hubby had spent half the night being so attentive and then had to call my boss and tell her I wasn't coming in. I think I slept till 4:30 that afternoon. I made it through though and I am feeling much better now. As soon as I can get things together at home and catch up I will have several pictures from the Walk for Lupus this past weekend. It turned out to be a really great day and look forward to sharing that experience with everyone. I will go for now... I have got to get to work. Please check back in in a few days and I should have a new post in. Thanks so much again to Sally and the award she sent my way. It is greatly appreciated!

I am still alive

2009-04-21T07:04:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to drop a line and let you all know that I hope to have a new post up by this weekend. We have had family in from out of town and been extremely busy the last 2 weeks. I plan to update everyone on our latest events by Sunday. Hope everyone is doing well and will be checking in on everyone soon.

D.K.Fisher

Thematic Photographic 43 - Reflective

2009-04-05T19:20:00.005-04:00

Going along with Carmi's theme this week is reflective. Here are a few of my photo's that I feel fit this weeks theme. Go check out Carmi's blog on Thematic Photography. Awesome site...Really cool photo's.

Drab- Thematic Photography

2009-03-27T20:02:00.006-04:00

I stumbled upon a cool web site this week Written Inc. Carmi host a photographic theme each week. I thought I would join in for fun. Check it out. This weeks theme is DRAB. I think these photos fit. What do you think?

March Birthdays

2009-03-21T18:43:00.007-04:00

Two of my nieces just had birthdays and my brother in law's birthday is tomorrow. I am going to create a birthday collage for each birthday and post them. I promise I will not post everything as a mosiac ...I just got a little carried away today. This is my niece Paige. She is so sweet. She is our little take charge girl and super smart. She is definatley going to be a leader.

And here is my neice Allissa. She is our little song bird. She is big into reading and movies. Favorite right now "Twilight". And she loved her pet rock....

She has started a new tradition. I asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she kept telling me she didn't know. I told her that she was going to get a pet rock if she couldn't tell me something. She made the mistake of telling me that I wouldn't do that. She named her pet rock Patricia. (She also got money and a card.) LOL.

Our Anniversary

2009-03-16T14:35:00.017-04:00

Last weekend Robert and I had our 6 year Anniversary and we decided at the last minute we needed to get away. The last weekend we had had alone was our anniversary the year before so we were due. We had an awesome trip.

We decided to take off towards Gatlinburg, TN as soon as we got off work Friday. I couldn't get home fast enough! We left about 6 in the evening and wanted to take our time and explore along the way so we stayed over in Clayton, GA. My grandparents retired to Clayton from Florida sometime in the 70's, so I wanted to show my sweet hubby where my grandparents lived and some of the places us kids liked to go, plus this was a great opportunity for me to get pictures for my genealogy records.

Our first exploration early Sat. mourning revealed my grandparent's home had changed very little and the pond across the street from my grandparents house that has a gazebo right over the edge of the water is still there. As kids we would run over and feed the fish my grandmother's sugar free candies she would give us. The fish loved them!

We then rode up to Black Rock Mountain state park and watched the fog roll over the mountains, it was so beautiful. This was another location my grandfather would always take us when we would visit.

From there Robert and I rode up Hwy 441 into the Smokey Mountains and stopped along the road side and grabbed a few more pics at the Oconaluftee River, stopped for a little gold panning in Cherokee, NC, took a few shots of the Rockefeller Memorial where President Roosevelt dedicated the Great Smokey Mountains National park in 1940.

We rode into Gatlinburg about 1:00, found a room, and decided to walk to the Aquarium. We loved the Aquarium! I captured several nice shots there. My favorite was the sea dragon.

After the the Aquarium, we rode into Pigeon Forge and explored a little bit, came back to have dinner in town. We had a great meal at Lineberger's Seafood in Gatlinburg for our nice meal of the trip. We wandered around for a little while and decided to get some sleep, we were exhausted. We left about 10:30 the next morning and headed back down 441 south, and thought we would just have another long day of exploring on the way home.

We stopped at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center toured the farm site museum, left there and took a short walk down to Mingus Mill.

Our last adventure found us in Cherokee at Harrah's Casino. Neither of us had ever been in a casino and decided that we would check it out for fun. We each had a $20.oo spending limit and then we were quitting. Between the both of us, we lost $20.00, it was time to head home.

It took us only a few more hours to get home with another stop in Clayton. We tried to locate my grandmother's grave site but not planning this trip in advance I could not remember the name of the cemetery and after wandering through three cemeteries it was definitely time to get home. We got in just after dark and were wiped out but we had a blast. I can't wait to do that again, hopefully though, we won't have to wait another year to make it happen.

Snow Day in Georgia

2009-03-02T17:38:00.011-05:00

Georgia had snow! I could not believe it, the weather man said it was coming but I just didn't think it would actually happen. I thought okay, if we do get any, it won't stick. Boy, was I fooled. It came....it stuck.... and it definitely caught me unprepared. We started off with flooding rain, moved into sleet/snow mix, to snow flakes the likes I've never seen. They were huge. I wandered around the property Saturday afternoon to capture a few shots of our stream behind the house that about flooded our backyard at one point. I also caught a decent picture of one of the cardinals that hang around our bird feeders.

Then... it came. It wasn't long before it started sticking. Time for more pictures...off I go wandering the property again to capture snow pictures. We had areas around the house that were 5 to 6 inches in snow. Definitely a rarity around here. I'm not missing this opportunity. I spent almost 3 hours walking around the place capturing everything white.

While I was out taking pictures...we lost electricity. Ugh...I didn't think we would lose power that quick, so I hadn't bottled any extra water, hadn't planned what we might eat with no power and no water in the tubs for toilet flushing. What a pain in the butt. Luckily, hubby had a generator on his truck from a job he had been on, so we were able to keep the fridge going and plug in the TV to catch the weather. We did plan ahead for no heat and managed to fill the kerosene jug for the heater. I had just made a pitcher of tea, so we wouldn't thirst to death for a little while. After a quick panic on the food situation I realized we did have milk, cereal and bread. We weren't going to starve. Okay we were good for the night except for the bathroom situation. Ah ha! Snow! I brought buckets of snow in and melted on the kerosene heater... toilets flushing... we're good now till morning.

We woke up and luckily my MIL had filled the coffee pot early in the afternoon yesterday for coffee this morning a quick unplug of the fridge and into the coffee pot. We have coffee ...Life is good. Time came for a hot meal, hubby and I wandered out to see if we could round something up in town, and as luck would have it Micky D's was open. On our way home, our son called to report we had power. 16 hours with no electricity. I don't want to repeat that again ever, ever, ever again. We got home, we had water, heat, and hot food. What a weekend?

Here are a few more pics of what I thought were worth sharing.

Card Making Mood

2009-02-19T18:50:00.004-05:00

I have had so much focus on my photography and photo restoration this past year to get my home buisness going that I haven't spent a lot of time on my scrapbooking or cardmaking. I have had to teach myself a lot with a new slr camera and photo restoration projects and still have a long way to go but decided to do something different for a change and make a few cards. I managed to make a couple of cards, two being for my dad and my MIL and one UN-Valentine card for a friend.

<<<< The Un-Valentine Card ;) for those friends that say they don't like Valentine's Day.

See there is a card for every occasion!

Another weekend of Exploring

2009-02-15T18:25:00.013-05:00

Last weekend, my MIL and I decided to look for another trail to explore. We had to make a trip to Monticello, Georgia, so we were looking for something close by to check out. Well...we thought that we might find a walking trail in the Oconee National Forest, Cedar Creek WMA, but wound up just riding down I think every dirt road in Oconee National Forest. We found several spots that we could have jumped on a trail but decided to just ride and see what we could get into. What we found.....

Several sites for mating and nesting of the Red - Cockaded Woodpeckers. We stopped several times and listened to their calls and only caught a glance at one next to a creek. I tried to catch a picture but I believe that little guy was a bit camera shy. He darted around the tree hanging in the shadows making it just about impossible to get a picture. I hope to go back soon and see more and maybe I will get a picture then. Until then, you can follow the link above and learn more about these woodpeckers. A very interesting read...they actually form family groups with one mating pair and the group members help raise the young.

We also found several very well maintained ponds with duck nesting boxes. We did see a few geese and a wood duck but they were just to far away to get any good shots of them. I didn't have a lot of luck in the nature photography department this trip at all.

Our mystery find was Lane Creek Cemetery in the middle of the National Forest. It is very overgrown and has not been maintained at all. I believe it to be a family graveyard. At first, I was a little creeped out when we walk up to this site finding a fire pit at it entrance, like someone had been camping out right there in the cemetery. Don't know what that's all about and not sure I want to know but you wouldn't catch me wanting to be in a cemetery long enough to have a fire there. Anyway...we walked around checking out names and dates on the headstones that were readable and found one that really just caught our interest. Pictured here is the headstone for Corp. Littleton Johnston. He was in the Revolutionary War. I found on ancestry that he died July 7, 1842. I have requested more information on Mr. Johnston from his family through Ancestry but have not received a response yet...so he is still a mystery but I thought I would include him in my blog today to remember him.

My Blog message for today... Explore what's close to you, you never know what mysteries you might find.

Pictures along the way

2009-01-31T16:27:00.012-05:00

Today, my mother in law, Laura and I decided to go check out the trails in the Hard Labor Creek State park close to home. It was a gorgeous day for a walk. We walked both the Beaver Pond Trail and the Brantley trail and captured a few pictures along the way. I thought today I would share our walk in pictures.

My Friend Keely

2009-01-25T20:19:00.000-05:00

I have a friend, her name is Keely, she has lupus. She's 10 years old and was diagnosed in March of 2008. I have not known Keely that long but I have an attachment to her already. I helped her grandmother with a project for Christmas and Keely was there several days while we worked on things. The day we finished the project Keely had been working on her Christmas cards for family and friends and she made a point of giving me a card. She overheard her grandmother and I talking about the project being done and asked me if we were still going to be friends. I am guessing she thought because we were done with the project she wouldn't see me anymore. I told her she would see me again and that I would always be her friend. I went home, which is just up the road from her grandmothers, and picked one of my home made cards with a quilled snowflake I had made and carried back to her. I think that sealed our friendship.

Keely, the last few weeks, has really been sick with her lupus and been in the hospital with a really bad flare up that had prevented her from being able to eat. The doctors have tried her on many medications trying to find that one that would put her lupus in remission to no avail. This last flare up has caused the doctors to resort to chemotherapy and it may be several weeks before her doctors will know if this is going to help. She is doing better and did get to come home this week. I don't know a lot about lupus but am learning more every time I talk to her grandmother and mom. Her grandmother told me that this is a disease you don't hear a lot about like other diseases and I told her that I wanted to help people learn more about this terrible disease.

Keely's mom and grandmother are working on getting together a team to walk in the Walk for Lupus Now campaign to raise awareness and funding to help patients and families and national research efforts. I have joined their team, Keely's gang. If you would like to make a donation to help Keely and others with this terrible disease, please follow this link. https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=292575&lis=0&kntae292575=1C8FE988E81749E294773210792B2740 Event information from the Georgia Lupus Foundation of America's website: The Georgia Chapter’s Walk for Lupus Now is a 1.5 mile walk, beginning at the Meadow at the 10th Street entrance to Piedmont Park, opposite Grady High School.

Crafty Salutations: Mushrooms!

2009-01-24T13:56:00.000-05:00

Crafty Salutations: Mushrooms!

In the meantime....Mushrooms

2009-01-24T13:53:00.008-05:00

I am working on a few different post, believe it or not. In the meantime, while trying to finish those up Crafty Salutations inspired me to post a few of my mushroom pictures.

Goals of 2009

2009-01-12T08:42:00.005-05:00

I have really been drawing a blank as to what I wanted to post about next on my blog, until reading a blog of note this morning. It is a great blog that you should check out http://lifesfreetreats.blogspot.com/ . Her post on Letters really inspired me and got me thinking about my goals for this year.

If you have read any of my previous post, you can tell family is very important to me and this is where my first goal of the year begins. This year, I plan on spending as much time with my family as I can, taking lots of family pictures, and making as many special memories as possible. I just put together a family slide show of events that happened with my husband I and my entire family that started with photo's I had taken from January - December. I included pictures that didn't always include people pictures but pictures of places we had been and things we were working on like family headstone pictures for our family genealogy and pictures of the lunar eclipse. The major part of the slide show was about family events...kid's birthday parties, school plays, family vacations, family gatherings during a loss of a family member, and just random snapshots of all my family. It included happy times and sad times. It was 2008 in pictures. I tried to remember our loved ones that passed as well as the new loved one that were born (3 babies this year) I plan on making it to more family events and making my slide show better next year. I think this will be a major part of my genealogy from now on as well. Which brings me to my second goal of the year.

My second goal of the year...get my genealogy information organized. I have heard from yet another long lost family member through ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com/) and now I am faced with sharing information. Time to get organized. I have created myself a project box of information that I need to get into my Family Tree Maker program. My goal is to try to spend at least 1 hour a week getting this information where it needs to go to make it a little easier to share with family.

Number three goal, inspired by lifesfreetreats blog ...is writing letters. I have never been very good at writing letters because I have grown up with the conveniences of email and cell phones but can appreciate the timelessness of a letter. How priceless it would be to me now to have letters that my grandparents had written or even my parents. I personally can not remember ever receiving a letter in the mail. I have received a couple of post cards and have received numerous cards from family but to receive a hand written letter... that would be special. As much as I am into photography, scrapbooking and my family genealogy, I think that adding letter writing would be a natural thing to add as one of my hobbies. How awesome would it be to actually have some family write a letter back and add it to my genealogy and scrapbooking pages.

There are many websites out there now that talk about how to construct a proper letter that are quite interesting. I plan on checking some of these out and honing my skills in letter writing. So..that next big event in your life that you would love to share with family....put it in a letter so your words and your memories can be enjoyed, saved, remembered and maybe added to your family history.

Old Friends

2008-12-28T17:13:00.007-05:00

I know it's been a few weeks since my last post, but it has been a hectic few weeks. I had several photo restoration projects that I finished, several Christmas parties, work, and my own shopping that had to get done. Thank God for my sweet husband, he really helped out with all the shopping and the wrapping. I don't know what I would do with out him. Anyway.....Christmas was wonderful! John Wesley is having a blast with his new stuff and Robert and I really enjoyed the time off.

Saturday after Christmas, my dad and I visited with an old friend (Gloria) that we had not seen in about 20 years. We had thought of her and her husband often and tried to locate them several times. We finally found them about six months ago, and were finally able to visit them. They couldn't believe that we had been looking for them for so long. She actually said she couldn't believe that I thought that much of her. This is the lady that taught me how to crochet a granny square and inspired several afghan projects that the whole family took part in. I guess being a kid and her being an adult with kids of her own I can see how she might have thought that I didn't really have an attachment to her, but I did.

I am amazed at how my curiosity has grown about where all my friends have all gone as I've gotten older. I guess most people follow the pattern of finishing school, going to work, having kids and getting into that routine of taking care of family and working. Then as your kids get older and they get ready to move on with their lives you start to reflect on all the time that has actually gone by and you remember the friends that you haven't spoke to in years and have lost contact with. Well, I am working on changing that and with a little help from another friend and the Internet that all might change.

Sunday, a friend sent me an invitation to join Facebook so that I could view her profile. How cool is Facebook? I found several friends that I went to school with (20 years ago or more), I couldn't believe it. I know we all have friends that come and go, but when you find friends that you haven't seen or spoken to in years you realize how fast life really is going by. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that all those friends were in my life. I know that they may not become an active part in my life now but it is nice to find a place where you can catch up with what's going on with them and remember all the fun times you had growing up.

I look back and remember a lot of good and bad times I had with those friends and think of how those people impacted my life. I will say that those years definitely influenced who I am and how I treat people today. I am no better or worse than the person that stands next to me. I may make judgements at times that I should not make but I am quick to rein myself back in and remember that I don't walk in there shoes and they certainly don't walk in mine. So...good, bad, or indifferent I try to learn something from all my relationships and treat people with the respect they deserve and sometimes even with respect they don't because who am I to judge.

Today....I say find an old friend....remember the good times and the lessons learned from the bad.

Positive things in Life....They are still out there!

2008-12-10T08:38:00.007-05:00

A lot has gone on with my family and friends lives in the last few years. We have lost several loved ones, dealt with a lot of financial difficulties, and had to deal with several major family issues. Lot's of negative impacts to our families. With all these terrible things happening it is easy to see how we get completely distracted by all this negative energy and how that negative energy seems to just continue to pour out of people. I had a friend the other day say that, "this is just a season, and it will pass." I see my family and friends trying to see the positive things in life, but that negative just seems to keep creeping back in. What is going on?

As our lives continue to evolve, I think everyone tends to lose sight of the important things in life. Today, Life seems to revolve around nothing but what we have, what we don't want to lose, and just the udder chaos of everyday life in world of satellite TV, video games, computers, cell phones, etc..... When do we take time for our families? When do we take time for our selves? Is there ever a moment that we can just stop and think about what we are even doing to ourselves and our families?

I see people around me every day that could care less about being part of a family or even a work team. There are so many people that can not see past their own petty issues to want to help someone accomplish even a simple task. I do have my own issues too and I have my days, don't get me wrong. I am not perfect and never have claimed to be! However, even if I have some kind of petty beef about something, and I see that something needs to be done, or that someone needs help (even if it is someone that could care less about helping me), I get up and help. I figure that even if it doesn't change that person's laziness, or carelessness, or whatever issue they may have...I am not going to be that way. It is not in my nature to just let someone else handle it, or say that ain't in my job description. Like my boss has said so many times, " We get paid to work, We don't get paid to play, If we got paid to play they would not call it work". And I am sorry, but unless you are getting asked to do something dangerous or something that is completely outside your understanding, why not just do it, why has it got to be ...."that isn't in my job description"? To me this is just the devil at his best. People just harbor so much resentment when asked to do something, and never seem to get past it and that attitude seems to breed more negative energy. You would think people would want to do for the company that provides them a job. Look at how many people right now that would love to have your job, that can't even find work at a fast food place. HELLO! It's time for people to start appreciating what they have and taking care of it.

If people would try to look at what is really happening and look at the big picture, maybe they could see past all this petty stuff in life and move on to what is really important. God, Family, and Friendship! I know it is far fetched to think about everyone you come in contact with as a friend but if people would just treat other people with consideration, and understanding maybe everything else would fall into place. I try to treat every person I come in contact with respect and consideration even driving down the road. What is wrong with, walking past someone and acknowledging their presence with a smile and a hello if they make eye contact, or holding a door open for someone, or helping pick something up that someone else dropped and handing it to them, or not blocking a driveway and letting someone get out of a parking lot? What is it going to cost you?, 30 seconds....5 minutes? Big Deal! That's better than wasting the 15 to 30 minutes at work talking or goofing off that you got paid for that you could have helped someone complete a job task. Why not do something nice everyday for someone even if it is just smiling, saying hello, holding the elevator door, or even saying THANK YOU! Think how good it feels every time you do even the smallest good deed. If everyone would make that kind of effort, think about how that POSITIVE energy could grow.

Now family, It used to bother me every time I had a family member ask me for help with something. And several of us had a lot of animosity between us that has sense gotten 100% better after some realizations about family members fueling some fires. I was so wrapped up in what was happening in my own household that I didn't want to see the big picture with the entire family and how the whole family was effected by our fire starters. Well, as I have gotten a little older and more into my family history, lost several loved ones and really realized the importance of keeping the whole family close. I see how little we communicated with each other about was was really going on. That negative energy just bred more negative until it snowballed into an almost hate for several of my family members and after a few reality checks things took on a whole other dimension. I and the other family members are seeing things for what they really are and realized how petty a lot of our differences were and just in the nick of time. Since our kind of reuniting of the family we have really been there for each other. I am truly humbled now by all the wonderful things I missed out on with my family because of that negative energy and am doing everything I can to make sure it doesn't happen again.

I know that I can't always do everything I want to with or for my family but I am sure looking at my time with them in a whole new way. I try to see things from there side now and not complain if I am needed. I try to see any inconvenience to me as an opportunity to share something with my family and be a part of a moment that I might have missed if I had not been inconvenienced. So it is no longer an inconvenience, it is a memory, a memory of doing something good for my family and showing them that I love them and I will be there for them. Get away from the T.V, video games, and other things that just don't matter and do something with your family or for them. Do something for your neighbor or your friend. You never know when you might need them and they might just be there! Find the positives!

"Remember there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end."- Scott Adams

"There are Gains for all Our Losses"

2008-12-01T18:40:00.002-05:00

November 16, 2008, Our Family lost another family member. Robert Anthony Fisher, December 4, 1966 - November 16, 2008. He was 41 years old and is survived by 2 beautiful daughters, 2 sisters, 1 brother and his mom and dad. His family was very hard hit by his death that was not at all expected. His death was such a horrible lose.

I personally never had the pleasure of meeting Robbie, but did get to hear lots of stories about him as a child. My husband, Robbie's cousin, actually lived with his family for a while as a child and grew up with Robbie. I have heard Robbie's dad and my husband talk about him often and from everything I've heard, he was a wonderful person and truly loved his family. He loved to spend time with his daughters and loved to fish and play darts.

My husband and I picked Robbie's mom and sister's up in Tennessee and drove them to Florida to be with the family and go to the viewing. Robbie's mom talked all week about the many phone calls she had with Robbie over the last couple of months and talked about Robbie and his oldest daughter's trip up to see her a few months ago. She talked about Robbie wanting her to write down all the things she knew about their family history and to gather family photos. He wanted it for his daughters and the rest of the family.

My experience while in Florida was just overwhelming. This family has not been all together in years. Nana is now 83 years old and it has been at least 25 years since all her children and grandchildren have been together at one time. As horrible as this death was it brought this family together like nothing I have ever seen. I know that families are usually brought together during times like this, but this to me was different. Everyone gathered everyday at Maxine and Steve's house. Everyone, was together, sharing stories, memories, food, and friendship. The kids played together and everyone took pictures. The bonds that had been lost seem to reconnect. It was awesome to see so many people so happy to see family they had not seen in years.

The family had decided to have a early Thanksgiving together Friday. No one knew when this many family members would be together again and wanted to share one more day together before going home. It was a great day! Nana, all her children, and almost all of her grandchildren, great grandchildren and even great great grandchildren were there. There were a combined total of 10 people not there. And we got lots of pictures. I remember someone saying to Nana, "Do you see all this Nana.....This is all your fault!" LOL! If all her descendants had been there (including the in-laws) there would have been 52 of us. Before everyone left, Maxine and Melissa had a list going around getting addresses for everyone. There were several copies made before it was all said and done. It was an amazing day!

As horrible as it was to be there for the reason we were, It turned into such an Amazing time for my husbands family. I feel like his cousin Robbie, in spirit, was right there in the middle of it all enjoying his family being together. I have a feeling that his death created a time of bonding that will not be lost any time soon. They say that good things come from bad things. I have to say this family coming together was a really good thing. Today ....while at my sister's house I was looking at her blog and on her profile she had this quote and I knew that this would have to be the title of my post today and I truly believe it.

Remembering on Veterans Day & Restoring Memories

2008-11-09T16:05:00.000-05:00

This past week, I have had the pleasure to restore several photo's of my family and several for a friend. I wish I could explain the feeling it gives me to restore a photograph of someone that is no longer with us. When I complete a photograph for someone It gives me a sence of being part of keeping their spirit alive and in the present.

I feel that our loved ones stay close to us even after death and in restoring a picture some how I play a part in keeping that spirit close. Maybe....It's knowing that that person or the memory that that picture brings to the forefront isn't forgotten.

I believe that my passion for doing genealogy and wanting to restore photos for people came from an experience my family had when my Uncle was recovered from Vietnam. I feel that I need to tell the story behind my interest in finding my family and my interest in photography and photo restoration so that people can understand why I do this.

I have an Uncle that died in Vietnam (May 10, 1967) before I was born, he was considered MIA, until 2005. I grew up hearing stoies of him from my mom and my aunt and always wondered if he was really gone. I had always had a sence that he was still around us. April 2004, I found the Vietnam Memorial Wall Page and saw where a friend had left a message. That message triggered me to start looking for other friends of his. I had no idea, until almost a year later that there was a team in Vietnam that same week that I made my first contact with his friend Frank Morrelli, that his remains and the remains of his comrades that died with him were being recovered. From the start of my first contact until I had information leaked to me that his remains had been found, I felt like my Uncle Mac was with me guiding me to find more information. When we found out that indeed his remains had been recovered, I knew that even though I did not know him in life, he was using me to prepare my family for his coming home. He and his comrades were laid to rest 38 years later on the anniversary of their deaths in Arlington National Cemetery.

This was the most awesome experience for me. I felt a part of my uncle's life, I was finding his friends and hearing stories of his life. I was part of keeping his spirit alive. I will never forget the people I met and the things I got to participate in because of my Uncle Mac. I made a scrapbook for him to remember him and carried the incomplete book with me to Washington, I had no idea how I was going to complete some of the pages for that album until a friend of his gave me a photo to complete a page and the pictures taken there helped to complete this book. Every picture told a story.

Take care of your pictures & Don't forget the stories!

Family History

2008-11-04T11:29:00.000-05:00

I didn't know a lot of my family growing up, why? I still don't quite understand how my mom and dad's families grew so apart. I have heard stories from my dad about how close his whole family was growing up and how they grew apart after he moved to the small town I still live in. I can understand how distance can create barriers and make it difficult for families to be together, but it still bothers me that there were never any occasions that our families, his cousins and Aunts and Uncles, ever really got to know us kids. I remember meeting some of my Great Aunts and Uncles at funerals and a few brief visits at my Paw Paw's house, but nothing significant enough. This may sound terrible, but I wanted to go to funerals just so I could meet some of my family even though it wasn't a good time for that. I wanted to know who they were.

I am not sure that my mom's family were ever close. I know that growing up my mom and her brothers and sister moved a lot due to the fact my grandfather was an immigration officer, but I never heard many stories of them having a lot of real family fun together.

I guess that is why I do genealogy. It's like detective work trying to find out who they were, what they did, where they came from, etc...etc. I want to know them and I want the rest of the family to know and remember them. I am guilty of not spending enough time with my family and guilty of not seeking my living family members that I didn't know, out sooner, but I am trying. I have made several family connections just researching our family history and it has been so awesome. I found one of my dad's cousins that he had not spoken to in a long while, Claudine, she is awesome. And in the last couple of weeks heard from another cousin of my dad's, Shirley Ann. We have all been trading information and pictures. Both, Claudine and Shirley Ann had pictures of my great grandparents and other family that I had never seen. How awesome is that? The biggest disappointment I have had doing genealogy research is realizing that one of my grandmother's sisters had just passed away a few years ago. I didn't realize that she had any living siblings (very bad assumption on my part). My dad's mom died of breast cancer before I was born and I have heard lots of stories about her from my dad, my aunt, and a few other people that knew her. I feel personally cheated that I didn't get to know my grandmother at all, and to find out that she had a sister still alive until a few years ago, hurt me inside. I had a great aunt that I could have known and some how been close to my grandmother at the same time.

This is the point of my blog today.....Get to know your family, Don't wait until it's too late. Be a part of your family. It may not seem convenient at the moment, but you never know what wonderful memory may come out of that time together. Don't miss out!

It was a Party!

2008-09-28T13:00:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, my Dad, Robert and I went to a birthday party for my Uncle Jim. We had a blast! My Aunt and Uncle are into so many neat things. They have a little farm and are both into collecting, taking care of their pets, animals, gardens, bees, and things they can make themselves. They are both so down to earth and very thrifty, I have to say. They love raising their own food....meat and vegies! They love old things and love using them. I hope that one day, I will be as cool as they are.

Back to the party... Started with us getting there a little early so we could help out. Jim and Robert ran around outside getting power going for lights, stereo, running the grill, and boiling the peanuts. Aunt Pam and I worked on getting food outside, organizing food and drinks that were coming in from guest. They wound up with between 30 -35 people all together. Jim and Aunt Pam had the yard fixed with about 4 different seating areas under the big tree next to the house. Had candles and christmas lights for after dark which turned out really cool.

But the best part.....

The people, what a wonderful group of people. Jim and Aunt Pam have some awesome friends and neighbors. Everyone seem to get along with everyone. I didn't get to sit and talk to every person there but the one's I did get to sit and talk to ....Linda, Joyce, Connie, Shanon, Elizabeth, Bill, Jackson, Scott, Peggy, Michael, Justin, Jody, Kristina and several others (I am horrible at remembering names)......All so cool! I enjoyed talking to and being around everyone. Great food...great people and a nice way to start the Fall season. Thank you Aunt Pam and Jim for inviting us. We had a great time and look forward to doing that again!

The Public Library!

2008-09-24T20:28:00.000-04:00

This week I actually made it to our local library. I sometimes forget the resources we have right at our fingertips. I have wanted to buy a few books ever since getting my new camera but just haven't wanted to spend the money. The way things are with the economy, it is getting harder to justify spending on the wants of life and I have really had to start thinking about the necessities and figure out creative ways to have my wants without spending a bunch of money. Anyway, back to what I was saying about resources, Monday I had a few minutes to kill while waiting on my son to get out of school, and I didn't want to spend a dime anywhere. Ah ha! The library, I can check to see what kind of books are available on photography (my #1 hobby right now) and check to see what our library has to offer as far as genealogy (my #2 hobby when #1 needs a break). Wow! Checked out some great books and found that our small county library has a genealogy room. I don't know why I haven't thought about checking there before. Major Duh on my part.

I think we make our lives so complicated sometimes with all the conveniences we have around us that we forget that we can simplify things and save our selves money at the same time. Why spend all that money on books that you aren't planning on keeping when you can just borrow and return it. http://www.morgan.public.lib.ga.us/

Where to begin?

2008-09-19T11:12:00.000-04:00

This is my first time at blogging and I am still not quite sure where I want this to go. I guess I start by telling a little about myself. I am an amateur photographer (very amateur), newbee to genealogy(off and on for about 2 yrs), and love sharing all my pictures and found family history with my whole family.

I work full time as a Secretary four days a week. I am married to a wonderful man and have a 18 yr old son that will be graduating high school this year. I have 3 wonderful sisters and 4 nieces, 3 nephews, all live within walking distance except for my youngest sister and her daughter. They are in Texas, Her husband is currently serving our country in Iraq. I miss them so much.

I am hoping this blog will give me an outlet to talk about my passions and give my friends and family a place to express things that mean a lot to them in there lives. I would like for this to be maybe a place for us to talk about our current goals in life and give our kids a way to express themselves.