the visit

Dad finally made it to Kansas City this week to visit his brother, Butch. It was a group effort. Dale said "you're going!". Don & Cheryl drove him to Kansas City & Roy drove him back home. (It really is a blessing to come from a large family.) Dad was unable to attend Butch's birthday party earlier this summer so I'm he finally made it down. Photo compliments of Elaine.

Austin's motorcycle

Don was on Facebook the other day & I caught sight of this photo Austin had posted of his motorcyle. Cool photo! He photographed his '82 Honda V65 Magna with his Canon Elph camera. He lives on the outside of town & parked his bike in the middle of the road with this beautiful sunset as the backdrop. Thanks for sharing this photo, Austin!

St. Stephen's Church

I attended grades first through eighth at St. Stephens' Catholic school. It was a country school with the church right next door. I say "was" because the school is no longer in use. Except for the occasional party or reception. And now it sounds like the church is hanging on by a thread. The church suffers from an assortment of structural problems that plague all buildings of this age. Dad remembers this building being built. He helped a little too. I don't know what the future holds but I stopped by this summer to say a prayer for that uncertain future & brought along my camera. These first two photos were taken in June of 2006 on another visit.



















When I was in school here we attended Mass daily. I remember one Sunday I slipped in the aisle wearing my patent leather shoes. I was so embarrassed. I quickly got up off the floor hoping no one noticed. Father John always chastised us for exiting the church in such a hurry on those weekday mornings. I know I was always glad to have Mass behind me & getting on with the school day.



















We had a big playground.



Standing behind the backstop. We had three recesses a day & we spent them playing ball, tag, jump rope. I loved recess!

gazpacho

I have started a tradition of taking a large bowl of gazpacho to work every summer to share my tomato bounty. This year the tomatoes were again fruitful so yesterday I took in my gazpacho. I had forgotten that the hospital was treating staff to a free barbeque so I initially was sorry I'd gone to the trouble. But by the end of the day the gazpacho was all gone. A testament of how good it is. Yes nurses love to eat but I also work with a few picky eaters who wouldn't touch it either (it has avocado in it). If you like avocado, here's the recipe:

Gazpacho
3 large tomatoes, peeled & chopped (I don't bother to peel mine)
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 cucumber, peeled & chopped
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped green onion
4 cups tomato juice
2 avocados, chopped
5 T. red wine vinegar
4 T. olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a non-metallic bowl. Chill. (Best to chill overnight to let the flavors combine.) Serve cold. Can garnish with sour cream (I don't).

Dale

I was digging through my digital archive of photos & found this photo of Dale I took on June 12, 2008. He was in Lincoln & stopped by. I had just gotten my new 50mm f1.8 lens & he let take a few pictures.



Still going to work on getting another of him in 2010.

Happy Birthday, Dale!

Today is Dale's birthday. I realize I haven't taken a single photograph of Dale this past year. So again I am relying on an old photograph. Dale is in the front row on the left & is standing next to Jim. Roy got caught in the back row buttoning his jacket. I believe they are standing in front of the door that opened up onto the back porch in the old farm house. Mom & Dad finally had the porch enclosed to enlarge the living room so this door is now gone. I love these old black & white photos with the white border. That's how I get my portrait photos printed now at a local photo printer called the Photo Shoppe.



If I manage to photograph Dale yet this year I will share it with you!

some celebrating going on . . .

Well, it hasn't been a good day for remembering to round up photos of people. I just saw Laura on Saturday & noticed her birthday was this week after I was back home again! I did get her in a few photos painting Jayden's toenails though. That's one of my favorite ways to photograph people anyway. When they're doing something. So today is Laura & Nate's birthday! I consider our family to be quite fortunate to have them as in-laws. My niece & nephew found good partners to share their life with. Happy birthday to both of you!





Today is also the 31st wedding anniversary of Jean & Gene. So they did something they don't do very often. They took a trip together. To the Badlands. Got out of Dodge. I don't see them do that very often so glad they celebrated another year of marriage. I dug up a wedding photo of them.