Easing back into blogging

After a long lapse in blogging, the easiest way I know how to approach the daunting task of catching up is via a couple of quotes, pictures (which are worth a thousand words) and minimal commentary.

“The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy.”

"You don't raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they'll turn out to be heroes, even if it's just in your own eyes." ~Walter M. Schirra, Sr.

My weekly visits with Tammy is girl time I really look forward to.  She always brings me amusing things to read or look at.  We like to hang out at Stork's Restaurant, where they have gourmet-styled food and baked goods, including Barbie cakes!

We recently went to Orlando, where we visited Gatorland (laden with gators and wild birds), Audubon (bird-of-prey sanctuary) and Downtown Disney, where we perused several shops, enjoyed outside entertainment, indulged in a brownie sundae at Ghirardelli's cafe, and of course took lots of photos!

I also went to Naples for Laura's birthday, which was also the first day of Spring.  We went to Tin City, with our cameras naturally in hand.  We ate at a cafe, browsed through stores at an outside shopping strip and visited a store of miniatures.  We were goofing around with fun glasses at this one store; She tried to imitate a school teacher with the glasses below.  I saw it as a base for Photoshop art :)

What has occupied a great deal of my time and energy has been work. Here, I am working from home, which is not unusual at my new place of employment.  I was wearing sweats and a T-shirt, when I decided to change and put my hair into the the cliche bun (of which I never do) for this shot.

CS with Laura have not fallen by the wayside.  Prior to yesterday, our last CS was spent on digital art tutorials.  Laura seems to pick time-consuming ones, but once complete, it's always an amazing masterpiece!  Her piece this time was imposing four seasons onto one tree of which she's completed Fall and Summer; the quadrants have been quite the challenge.  Mine was completed the same afternoon; I turned a picture into a watercolor, which I did below:

Yesterday, our CS consisted of a photoshoot at Blowing Rocks.  Our objective was to stay dry while we obtained stock images of us in various costumes to incorporate into our stock images.  The sudden onset of high tide and the playful waves changed that.  We surrendered to the organic fun of it, although it left us cut, scraped, sprained and bruised.  

What I like about this picture of me, is I appear to be looking into my unwritten future with hope, determination and optimism =)