My Camera is like my Arm

I am happy to say that after a brief separation, I have been reunited with my camera. My wonderful camera was feeling under the weather. She is new to the family. The last camera I had finally just gave out from sheer exhaustion. I do take a lot of pictures. David says that instead of enjoying moments, I photograph them. He says I never live in the present because I am always worrying about how to capture it. I suppose it is true somewhat. But time goes so so fast. And besides my precious babies and my wonderful family, the only thing that I enjoy more is looking at pictures of my precious babies and my wonderful family. I am not even a great photographer, but I love to take pictures. I love to print pictures. I love to make picture books. And I will say that as much as David whines when I make him wear a polo shirt and jeans to match my polo and the kids' white polo shirts to drive 50 miles to the closest Sears to sit in a hot studio and beg and plead and promise bribes to the children to just smile one more time, he sure does enjoy having cool pictures on his desk. . .

Did I mention that I love pictures? (Even the stiff portrait looking ones) I always have. One time, my grandmother came to visit my house in Germany. She had not been to see me very much since I became a grown-up, married lady since we were overseas. Even before I had kids, I wanted pictures everywhere. My Mimi went from frame to frame all over the house over and over again. She finally said, "I love all your pictures. I feel like I am in a museum where I know everyone!"

For many reasons, I felt that my brother and I had sort of drifted apart. I had been missing him. We used to talk all the time and were a part of each other's lives no matter how far away the army took me. He even spent a month with me in Germany. That was his college graduation gift from my parents! We had so much fun together, as we always have. Anyway. I recently spent a weekend creating a slide show for him about us. I wanted to show him how much he meant to me. And pictures really do speak a thousand words.

Pictures are therapy for me. I can remember times, places, people. Pictures make me feel better. Pictures make me smile. Pictures make me feel closer to far away people - like David:<(

Pictures are fun and I am always looking for a good shot. Yet, I think I am more of a snapshot girl than a photograph girl. I am not a big fan of pictures without people in them. My Daddy makes fun of me about this. When I send pictures of David and me taking the kids to the zoo, there are rarely any animals. It is always the backs of Jessa and Spencer's heads looking at a fence. It is hard to get them in the frame with a monkey or the ocelot, so I am not wasting my time taking pictures of the ocelot. I do not even know that ocelot! And the backs of Jessa and Spencer's heads are 2 of my favorite head backs in the world! He says that the pictures could be anywhere since you cannot see the lemur in the background or what is inside the fence that they are hanging onto.

I digress. . . So, I sent my dear camera to a Sony approved repair place in Texas. The whole process only took 10 days. Thankfully! I do not think that 10 days seems very long to other people. But to me it was torture. I used my cell phone and I even bought some disposable cameras to get me by. It was not the same, though. AND the camera arrived ready to be back in action just in time for the kids first day of their preschool program. I was able take the pictures and e-mail them to David immediately. Isn't technology wonderful?!

OF COURSE, no matter how awesome your camera is, it cannot make your son pose if he does not want to. Nor can it control the weather - I had the perfect picture planned in the front yard by the tree with the yellow ribbon on it, but it was pouring rain. The responsible non-photo obsessed thing to say would be "well, we needed the rain." But I am still lamenting the missed photo op. . . I love pictures!