My Town Shoot Out - Memorial Day

Memorial Day is the choice this week from the TownBlogger Team. "Every town has a hero. From the past, in the here and now, or someone we know will make us proud in the future.

If out of ideas it always helps me to look up the definition of related words – so here is a list of definitions gotten from an online search -

Definitions of Hero on the Web:

a man (or woman) distinguished by exceptional courage and nobility and strength;

the principal character in a play or movie or novel or poem
champion: someone who fights for a cause
(classical mythology) a being of great strength and courage celebrated for bold exploits; often the offspring of a mortal and a god

bomber: a large sandwich made of a long crusty roll split lengthwise and filled with meats and cheese (and tomato and onion and lettuce and condiments); different names are used in different sections of the United States

Or heroism – heroic
heroic - epic: very imposing or impressive; surpassing the ordinary (especially in size or scale); "an epic voyage"; "of heroic proportions"; "heroic ...

heroic - relating to or characteristic of heroes of antiquity; "heroic legends"; "the heroic age"

heroic - having or displaying qualities appropriate for heroes;

heroic - expansive: of behavior that is impressive and ambitious in scale or scope; "an expansive lifestyle"; "in the grand manner"; "collecting on a grand scale"; "heroic undertakings"

heroic verse: a verse form suited to the treatment of heroic or elevated themes; dactylic hexameter or iambic pentameter

heroic - desperate: showing extreme courage; especially of actions courageously undertaken in desperation as a last resort;

This topic might not lend itself to photos but I look forward to all of your takes on the topic and the stories of heroes from each of your towns."

I encourage you to go and see everyone's contributions here or here.

I happen to think this topic does lend itself to photos. Here in Dublin, we have a Memorial Day Celebration to honor the people who have given their lives in service to our country. We also honor curretly serving and retired military personnel. With an Army base in town, we all have friends and neighbors who are involved to some degree.

This year, The Oldest signed up to sing in the School District Elementary Choir, and their performance at the Memorial Day celebration was really great. There were speeches by our esteemed Mayor, Tim Sbranti:

Our School District Superintendent, Stephan Hanke:

And The Choir Director Irene Fong:

There was the presentation of the Color Guard from base:

The Leading out of the family members of fallen soldiers.

The Oldest was especially proud to lead the Marines:

There was singing, of course:

Because The Oldest has a loud and clear speaking voice, he had the honor of reading all of the Presidentioal quotes:

While The Youngest only wanted to play with a friend in the last light of day:

I hope you take the time this weekend to remember those who have fought to ensure we live in freedom.

One last image from the series for Sacred Ground:

Enjoy your weekend.

It's been one of those weeks.

You know the ones - you try to smile and be cheerful, but are just slammed in the head and heart repeatedly.

I have friends who are facing serious health situations, life ending health situations.

BF - he's been battling cancer - esophageal, and now it's in his hip, ribs, spine and possibly lungs.
HH - she was breast cancer free for the past 2 years - this week she had a rod put in her spine because it has been weakened by cancer, which they found in her spine last week.
JC - a nearly 2 year old who received the news this week that his life expectancy due to Leigh Syndrome is around age 3. His family is trying to handle as best they can.
GG - went in for routine exam and is having bypass surgery today.
AZ - attended his funeral yesterday and he was 45.

All I can think is WTF. I am taking deep breaths, hugging my family extra long, and bawling my eyes out.

I did find out one piece of relieving news yesterday that the program The Boys attend is expanding to include all elementary grades. I won't have to stress about standard classrooms and environments for another 2 years - when The Oldest enters Junior High. By then, he will be ready. I'm also looking forward to teaching art to the older kids. We'll be working on 1 and 2 point perspective, negative space and life drawing. I've been wanting to do that for a while, but they are not topics for K-3rd graders. I'm sure we'll get in more ceramics, water colors, and dabble in photography.

Tableau Tuesday 5/18/2010

I am finished with my final portfolios for Photo 68 - Color Field Photography, so I thought I'd share the digital portfolio with you:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

If you want to see the printed portfolio - I made a blurb book and turned it in this past Saturday.
Look here!

Music Monday and Weekend Wrap Up

In honor of yesterday's Sunday Stills theme:


The weekend held the usual business, with the addition of The Dude holding an open house Fri-Sun, and having 2 soccer games on Sunday.

Friday, I worked in The Boys' classroom for 2.5 hours, helping the 1st and 2nd graders make ceramic gifts for Father's Day. A half hour of clean up, and then an hour unsuccessfully sifting through lost and found for The Youngest's lunch box.

Saturday, The Youngest had a Baseball game, and Teh Oldest made mud balls coated in sand. I did the majority of the laundry and that night we went out to dinner with friends, and got home late.

Sunday I had the itch to do SOMETHING about my house. So I changed and washed all the linens, and scrubbed both bathrooms. I hung up the final tomoato bucket, watered the garden and wrote the list of needs (as I was working I busted one of the sprinkler heads...). I also scooped all the poop from the last 2 weeks, and vacuumed the house. Oh, and I reorganized ALL the legos and duplos in The Boys' room. That required one boy climbing under the bunk bed to retrieve all sorts of things from the far corners, and me sitting on the floor pulling apart legos until I couldn't feel my finger tips. However, now their room and dressers are clean, and there are 4 bins: 1 for duplos; 1 for legos colors of Black, Brown, Grey (all shades), and White; 1 for legos of other colors; and one for pieces of and accessories to mini figs.

Created a grocery list and decided to cook a decent dinner of tri tip, baked potatoes, roasted beet salad, and steamed broccoli. I am feeling very much like I need to cook more healthy alternatives to kid food. Last week I picked and cooked all the Swiss Chard, and The Youngest LOVED it, while The Oldest didn't.

And now a song that comes to mind when thinking of the upcoming Friday Shoot Out Theme:

Sunday Stills - Wildflowers

Now that I have completed my final assignments for Photography 68, I can return to the things which I love - actually capturing images and sharing those with like minded people!

I am back to Sunday Stills, hoping to be able to look at and comment on all the participants.

This week is Wild Flowers, and all images were taken yesterday on Croak Rd., a frontage road that is little used these days, and resplendent with weeds that make me sneeze, but have interesting flowers.

Mustard seed fields cover the surrounding hills:

Close up, and between sneezes:

Another flower that grows within the mustard:

These grew behind my house as a kid, and the spikes on the stems and leaves are NASTY!

The rest of these were all in one small area, and I think the result of some neighbor dumping one of those wildflower cans along the barbed wire fence.

Tableau Tuesday is Back!!!

Yeah! These are all DOOC, snaps really, no time yet to fine tune, rotate and crop, but wanted to show youwhat a great time we all had on Sunday at the beach!

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Mother's Day wrap up

I had a FANTASTIC Mother's Day!
The Dude and The Boys let me sleep in.
When I did wake up, I had a fun time opening my ceramic creations from the boys, BVI French Toast, coffee and a lovely card from The Dude.
We packed the car and headed to the beach with My Folks, My Aunt, My Sister and My Nephews. It was windy, a bit cold, and SOOOOOooooooooo relaxing and delightful! I felt rejuvinated by the smells of sea air, the salt, the sand, the sun, the wind and the sounds. OMG, this is my FAVORITE way to spend time. Seriously. Favorite.
We came back to town and had dinner at The Dude's Mom's home, and that was relaxing too - I didn't have to cook or clean all day, The boys had a blast, and I was able to breathe and NOT WORK. I stayed off my work computer all weekend, and slept instead.

As a result, I feel WAY better today than I have in weeks, and my patience has been extended.

Pictures to come for Tableau Tuesday's return!!!!

Yeah me!