Friday Night Lights (the Homecoming Episode)

Monday has come and gone, and I'm still drowning in to-do's.

Part of it is because I took hundreds of photos over the class reunion weekend - I'm trying to edit and post those before my weekend at the coast... which is just a day or two away! 

(I still haven't finished editing my coast photos from last year, or my Florida photos from July, so you can see why I'm nervous.)

Most of the reunion photos I'm just posting on Facebook for friends, but here are a few I took from the Homecoming football game last Friday night that I think you'll enjoy.

Hope you're having a great week!

I don't know this cute couple but they posed for me, anyway. Sweet kids!
Homecoming mums - do other states (or countries?) do this, or is it just a Texas thing?

It's alive! (A mom was wearing this one.)

We're special.

I loved the Gator standing out there. So solemn. 

The 'other' team exploded out of the Gator's mouth in a cloud of steam!

My team is old school, crashing through a paper banner made by the cheerleaders.

I like old school best. What do you think?

Paying respect to the flag and our country. 

Glad some things never change.

Who needs fancy stadium seats?

I actually watched some football this time.

Some things do change!

Halftime is still my favorite part though. 

Can you believe these are high school girls? They were awesome.

No, I wasn't one of them, way back when.

(I kinda wish I was, though. Just too chicken back then.)

But I was Homecoming Queen, 35 years ago or so, so I'm posting this one of the newly crowned HQ, even though it's blurry.
(I'm still not sure my zoom is back to 100%.)

Congratulations, whoever you are, and good luck on the rest of your life! 
There will be ups and downs, but I hope you continue to be blessed, as I have.

Homecoming means coming home to what is in your heart. ~ Author Unknown

~~ Have you returned to your old high school since graduation? ~~
For more on my Homecoming homecoming, go HERE

Boy, do I feel stupid... and other updates

Last night I slipped my camera's SD card into the CD slot.

Oh, no!

My wise son said, "Google it. You can't be the first one who has done that."

He was right. 

Thanks to all of those who went before me. 

I folded a business card, taped one end, and went fishing.

Whew!

My zoom lens is home from the hospital.

It's not quite its old self, I'm afraid.

But it's doing the job

and for that I'm grateful.

I haven't been around to visit blogs lately.

I had a BlogHer book review due and barely finished it under the wire.

It was on Daring Greatly, by Brene Brown.

I loved it, but there is a LOT in that book.

All I'll say is, you should read it.

You can read my official review here.

Now I'm off to my 35th high school reunion. Whoo-hoo!!

I wrote more about that here.

So those are my excuses. Just in case you missed me.

I'll be back around to visit you Monday! 

Hope you have a great weekend!

(Just random photos from a walk right after the rain last week!)

A Typical Morning Walk

We finally had some rain around here, but these photos are from the day before the rains came, when the corner pond had just enough water for Max's therapeutic swim. 

Just a typical morning walk with my puppies, when I have to search hard for something different and interesting to photograph in the same places, every day...

I snapped several shots of this tumbleweed. 

That's just what I do on morning walks, take photo after photo of the same thing...

I'm very fond of these feet. 

Oh, the places we've been together...

Max never passes up a chance to go swimming. 

It's a great way to take the weight off of his old, achy muscles - and also to cool down in the triple digits we were having.

Belle is happy to wait on the sidelines with me while Max swims. 

She prefers wallowing in the dirt on the walk back home. 

This heart-shaped leaf waited for me on the dry pond bed. 

A little country love. 

What the dry creek bed must have looked like to the porcupine last week.

This peeling bark just caught my eye.

It's pretty in its own way, isn't it?

Baby acorns. 

A sure sign autumn is right around the corner.

I'm not sure what these tiny purple-tinted flowers are called, but they're one of my favorites, just because they show up when everything else fades away, giving the Hollow a bit of color.

I'm spinning a lot of plates right now... writing my children's book, editing two photo shoots, learning PSE, searching for an anchor job, a book review... those are just a few I'm trying to keep from crashing to the ground. 

But I'm never (okay, I'm rarely) too busy for my morning walk. 

Where else would I find the oomph that keeps them all spinning?

Hope you're having a week full of oomph!

I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read and all the friends I want to see. 

~ John Burroughs

Are you sick of horse photos yet?

I'm not.

Linked to

Playtime

I'm still going through my horse photos from a few weeks ago. 

She asked for a few to post in 'for sale' ads. 

I took over 200.

It's a sickness, I tell you.

What did I learn from this shoot, besides the fact that I take way too many photos, which actually isn't something new?

1. My 50mm lens rocks. It was on this shoot that I discovered my 70-300 zoom - my favorite - was sick.  It's now off in the Nikon hospital, getting its focus mechanisms repaired. I miss it, but its absence forced me to lean on my little 50, and it jumped at the chance to prove to me what it could do!

2. I learned other things about courage and stepping out of my comfort zone, but I already wrote about those in Long Hollow, so on to #3.

3. Horses like to play... with actual horse toys! Who knew?

I'm a sucker for a pretty face...

...and also for those full of character like Buster's here.

Someone found him, abandoned, near the Florida prison where my brother-in-law Robbie works a few years ago. 

Because Robbie's daughter had been asking for a pug... going so far as to carry a plastic one around with her pretending it was a pet... Robbie figured it was meant to be, ignored his dog allergies, and brought Buster home.

Ah, a father's love.