A very "Picture" type of post!

 

The sun just rising in the sky,
The waking birdlings as they fly,
The grass all wet with morning dew
Are telling me, I've just met you!
~Helen Steiner Rice

Oh, I do so love the poetry of Helen Steiner Rice.  It always uplifts the soul in amazing ways.  I am going to see a friend today that I have not seen in a while.  When I first moved over here to the UK, she and another lady were my first Visiting Teachers.  We became good friends, and then her Visit Teaching partner passed away quite suddenly.  We were all shocked at that . . . but I think my friend was the most shocked of all.

After that we became Visit Teaching partners and also worked together in Primary.  Since then she has become sick with a disease called ME, which is very similar to Chronic Fatigue.  I have not seen her a lot since we moved back here to the UK.  Her disease means she is never really able to come to church and I have been hesitant to go over to see her because I never know if she will be well or not.  Well, she is coming to see me today and I am really looking forward to it!  This is the silver lining of my week and a great way to begin it for sure!

 

We got our photos back from the photo session we had with Mitzie.  I have come to a conclusion.  That is this.  Mitzie is very photogenic, whilst we are not.  Or maybe I am just more critical of pictures of myself.  Probably a little bit of both.  Out of all of the photos, there are not any of the three of us together that I really like.



I like this one of Todd and Mitzie, but Todd doesn't.  He never likes his photos because he thinks he always looks like he is grimacing in them.  I think he looks fine in them.  I think this one shows his cheeky side.  He thinks he just looks silly in it.  Mitzie is keeping her opinion to herself.

 

This one is ok, although I don't really love it.  It would have been nicer if Mitzie's mouth was closed, and I am not liking my neck.  Blah . . . kind of hard to hide that, but . . . that's life!



This is a nice one of Todd and Mitzie.  Or at least I think it is.  Mitzie was so excited that day it was hard to get a photo of her with her mouth closed.  It was hard to get a photo of Todd with his mouth closed too.I am not sure what his excuse was, but I don't think it was excitement.

 

I kind of like this one of Todd and myself.  Todd is a fat woman's worst fashion accessory.  He is so thin . . . he makes you look even fatter, but despite this, I am liking this picture somewhat.



I also like this one of us.   We don't really have many pictures of us together.  I think this or the one before may be the ones we go for, but I don't have my mind made up 100% just yet.



With Mitzie on the other hand, we are spoilt for choice.  She looks beautiful in most of her photos.  She's just very photogenic I think . . . if not co-operative.  I had a licorice all sorts in my hand that I was using to get her to  pose and every few seconds I would give her a little bit of it as a rewards.



Maybe someone should have done that with Todd and me . . . held up a licorice all sorts to help us pose.  In any case, I would not say that our photography session was not 100% to my liking.  I think the photographer is a wonderful photographer . . . but we are not the best subjects.



So it is back to the drawing board and I think it's pretty safe to say that we are still looking for a good "family" picture of the three of us together.



Some people are just naturally photogenic.  They always look nice.  This is my youngest son Bruce.  I love this picture of him.  I wonder when he started looking like a man and not a boy . . . is it possible that my baby is all grown up.   That may be . . . but he will always be my baby.

 

I can remember when the children were growing up, it was difficult if not impossible to get pictures of them all together where everyone was looking at the camera, or that one of them wasn't poking another, or grimacing, or frowning, or that everyone was smiling.

 

I have always loved this photograph of my oldest son Anthony and my oldest daughter Eileen.  He was almost 3 1/2 in this one and she was about 22 months old.  Amanda had not yet been born.



I have always loved this one of Amanda.  She was about 9 months old in it.  She was wearing a little red velvet dress.



And I love this  Christmas morning one of our Doug when he was about 3.  It was  really hard to get a photograph of Doug when he was younger, as he was always on the go.  He was really enjoying his new toys here . . . a cowboy outfit and a pretend driving toy.  Those poor old Winnie the Pooh Pajamas were about worn out.  They had been through 3 other children by the time he got them . . . and as you can see I had had to cut the feet off . . .

We did not have much, but we had each other and we had love.

So, a very photographic post here today.  I hope you've enjoyed the photos.  It could just be possible that  nobody ever really likes pictures of themselves . . . and I wonder why that is?  I don't expect we ever really see ourselves as others do . . . and I, for one, am glad that God only looks at the heart!

 "Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others."
~Jonathan Swift.



Cooking in The English Kitchen today . . . Baked Chicken Tetrazzini.
Funny how most food looks good in pictures.  It doesn't have to pose, or smile, or look at the camera does it??  It just has to exist.