Monday, October 17, 2011

In The Still Of The Night......

I can not sleep tonight. I am not sure why, but I just can not sleep. It has been almost 9 months since my last post. Why? I really don't know.....
Much has happened during this time, in our Photography business, our family life and in our personal relationship.
We continue to work hard in the Photography business as we have found a new dynamic lab to work with for our school division, In addition to that, every day brings new and challenging options for us to implement for our photography clients.
Our family is still trying to adapt to the sudden deaths of John and Jim at the end of last year, I am not looking forward to the first anniversary of their deaths. Our hearts ache so very much and they are both missed daily. I am amazed at the strength Nancy appears to have in dealing with her loss. She is a loving Mother in Law and I am blessed. Just wish we were closer to her. We have spent much time together in the past 9 months but still being able to just "drop in" would be great. Wish we lived in the age of the "Jetsons" it would make life so convenient when distance is a concern.
We just returned from a great 5 days with my family, celebrating my Mothers 77th birthday. It was great to see my Mother smile, laugh and enjoy her children and grandchildren. Family times are so nice.
Our personal life has been great, we discover and remember so many wonderful things daily. Our love continues to grow each minute. Yes there are trying times, but you know, our love for each other seems to diminish the trying times. I want to say I an so very blessed, but I will say WE are so very blessed. We will celebrate 25 years in April 2012. Where has the time gone, it seems like yesterday when we took off to Gatlinburg to "secretly" get married on April 1st. Mikes boys knew but thought it was great to be able to keep our "April Fool's Day" wedding a secret. And when our family and friends received the announcement on April 1st they were surprised, but were happy for us..."No Foolin" ! Yes 25 years; my we have grown, loved and lived and I hope for at least 25 more!
So in the Still of This Night, I can not sleep, but I can relax and reflect. And I thank God for all my blessings.
Good Night, Sweet Dreams!

Monday, January 31, 2011

It Is In The Eyes & The Soul.......

I call my blog SMILING EYES for many reasons. When I was a child, one of my friends Mother told me I had a great smile with high cheek bones and I even shared this smile with my eyes. I remember that my Grandpa Ward would set us on his lap or next to him and challenge us to remain sober and not smile. Then he would stare us down and we would forever break out with a smile and giggles as we failed his challenge, Grandpa stared at us with a twinkle and a grand smile in his eyes that we could not resist responding to.
On a side note.....I love to tease people but can not get away with it too much because of my eyes, I must have inherited this from Grandpa.
There is a saying that goes something like......Smile and they will wonder what you have been up to. Hmmm I believe this is true.
When we were in trouble at home as children, we did not want to fess up, a smile most generally gave us away, unfortunately we could not win our Mom over with the smile so a punishment was inevitable.
This past weekend we had a SNOW BALL for our Service Unit's Girl Scouts who range in age from Kindergarten through Juniors in high school. There were many girls there with oh so many smiles, one little girl told a leader "this is the Best Night of my life!" Wow what a way to make an adult smile, when a child smiles.
As a parent I am sure there is a joy when their infant smiles for the first time. As a photographer, it is an accomplishment to make a child smile to make a parent happy. Somehow I feel this is related. I am not a parent so my joy does come from making a child smile for their school picture as each year passes. I have been a school photographer for 30 years now and have photographed many children during this time span. I have realized that I have to smile as I take each and every picture. Oh my, I sure am glad that it takes less muscles to smile than to frown or I would have so many more crinkles in my face.
The past two months have been full of emotions for us. We have lost loved ones, shared a wonderful surprise at Christmas and are now learning to accept the loss of our loved ones. There have been smiles through pain, joy and even sorrow. Smiles of thanks and most especially smiles of love. God knew what he was doing when he allowed us a smile as an expression to be shared.
When my Nana died the priest spoke about Jesus laughing and how it was rare to see images of him laughing in the bible or other art work portraying Him. After we left the cemetery we stopped at a Religious store to look for a book. My Mother remained in the car and as Mike and I went through the store we came across a framed picture of Jesus laughing. How fitting to come across this at this particular time, we purchased one for us and one for my Mother. We went out to the car and I saw the sadness my Mother was experiencing, I handed her the picture and she smiled and we all knew God had reached out to give us this smile to help our heavy hearts.
And in this picture Jesus is smiling even with his eyes!
My wish today is that with your mouth or with your eyes, share a smile today!