Pays to be nice

So here is my story about how it totally pays to be nice to people. I went to the DMV this morning to get my license plates and car registration. I walked in, took a number, and sat down. I was about 30 people away and it seemed to be moving at a decent pace so I commented out loud, sort of to the girl next to me, how I was shocked it wasn't going to be a longer wait. We started chatting and it turns out she is from Texas too so we had that in common. Turns out she was friends with the girl at the counter so as soon as it was free she walked up without having a number. She got her stuff taken care of then waved me up. She smiled, said it was nice to meet me, and left. I got to cut the line and was in and out with license plates and registration in 10 minutes! Unbelievable!! Just goes to show what happens when you are friendly to people :)

That totally made my day!

Lights

Christmas = Love

Fall Leaves

Seriously, has anyone else been amazed by how beautiful it has been this fall?!? Texas is definitely not known for having a fall season; and the leaves definitely do not usually change to beautiful colors. They go from green to brown, and that's about it. I don't know what it was about this year, but it's been different. Everywhere I go, I am drawn to the beautiful colors of the trees. I snapped this picture this morning. Who knew Texas could look like this?!?

leaves as bright as fire

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!

Today was one of the best, if not the best, days of this school year. It started snowing just as school was starting at 8am and it never let up. It's still snowing right now. I'm not talking little snow flakes, I'm talking monster sized snow flakes. The kind that are so big that when you look out the window all you can see is white. Today was one day I was glad that you can see out those big windows by the library from my classroom. I was able to watch it snow ALL day! I felt like a kid at Christmas. It was wonderful!

Fairly early in the morning I had my kids put on their coats and we went outside to catch snowflakes on our tongues and dance around in the snow. You should have heard the squeals of delight. Most of them had never seen snow like that before (yeah we got a little last year, but it was nothing like this). The whole thing made my heart smile :) I ended up taking them outside 2 more times later in the day just to run around and feel the snow for a few minutes. They were on top of the world all day! I got so many hugs and "this is the best day of my life, thanks Ms. McCormack" comments. I LOVE those kids to death! I wish I could share pictures here, but I can't post pictures of students on a public blog. Just imagine 22 kids running, screaming, dancing, and sticking out their tongues while staring up at the sky haha.

In the classroom we did minimal work. I mean really, I didn't want to be in school today and I wanted to sit and watch the snow fall all day, so I KNOW those kids felt the same way! We listened to a lot of Christmas music, sang along, and had a blast.

Christmas music, kids singing, laughing, and smiling, and snow ... what could be better than that? I swear the kids eyes just sparkled a bit more than normal today. There is something that feels very magical about snow falling. :)

It is so sad to me to think that tomorrow I will wake up and it will all be over. It will be like today never happened. The magic will be gone and it will just be another cold day. It makes me yearn to live somewhere where it snows often in the winter ... maybe someday ;-) ...

On the plus side, I am going to Colorado next Thursday night, so hopefully I will see some more snow while I am there as well.

Color and a blurry background

As I've started to get into this photography thing I have found that I love any picture that has two specific elements: bright colors, and a blurry background.  If you hadn't already figured it out by looking at my pictures, I'm a HUGE fan of the blurry background. It's my most favorite simple camera trick, and I use it all the time!  It takes what would be an everyday normal picture and turns it into something a little more fun and special.  I love the way it draws your eye directly into the part of the picture I want the focus on. And as for color, have you noticed how many things I photograph with a bright blue sky? Did you notice how I always enhance the color in my photos before posting them to make it really pop? I LOVE color!

In The Bellagio they have this atrium room that is FULL of color! Everything in there is incredibly bright (and also incredibly random).  Seriously, this room is a dream to photograph in, and I took quite a few pictures there haha!  Good thing Kristen was enjoying photographing it as well, otherwise she might have been annoyed at me for needing to take pictures of every single random thing in the room.  One of my favorite things about this room though, was the flowers. I love how the colors pop, and of course I had to use my blurry background trick haha

In this last one I set my focus to the pink flower on the side. I love how it normally would not be the point of focus in this image, but because of the blur, your eyes are drawn straight to it. I love how I can actually choose the point of focus with my new camera! Actually, I just love my camera! I'm about ready to buy my next lens; maybe I'll put my Vegas winnings toward the purchase :)

Happy Birthday America

It's been a few days since I have posted, I just haven't been home much.  I cannot even explain how much I am loving having the summer off! I had forgotten what this was like after having taken class or worked through the past 7 summers. People ask if I get bored, and honestly I haven't at all.  I've managed to fill my time and enjoy every minute of it.  I cannot believe it is already July though, where in the world did the month of June go?!?  I'm going to be very sad to go back to work in the fall.  I need a job that pays me to be on vacation all the time; that would be fantastic haha.  Maybe my new career aspiration should be to become a traveling photographer.  Travel the world, take pictures, and get paid.  That sounds pretty awesome to me! haha

I spent the 4th down at the beach with some friends and had a fabulous time! We spent the entire day just relaxing on the beach and then got to watch some a great fireworks show (that lasted FOREVER) right from the rocking chairs of the porch.  Between the food, fireworks, and the strong breeze, I could have sat in that rocking chair forever haha

I took a bunch of pictures, but this one is my favorite.  I LOVE the colors! (have you noticed I'm all about color in my photos?) This one has a gorgeous bright blue sky, a faint purple tint to the clouds, dark blue ocean water, and I love the way the sand has a sparkling golden look to it. That, along with the contrast of our dark shadows stretching towards the water makes this one really eye catching to me.

"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

At one point in the day the boys walked across the street to the convenience store to buy something.  One of them must have said, "happy birthday America" in front of the cashier, because she responded by saying, "so, does that mean it's everybody's birthday today?".  Happy birthday America means it's everybody's birthday then became the joke of the day.

"Happy Birthday America!"

In all seriousness though, how blessed are we to be able to live in such a great country. And how blessed are we to have people willing to fight for us so our freedom is not taken away. We had a great tribute to the armed forces at church yesterday.  I for one, feel extremely blessed, and am extremely thankful.

Look closely or you might miss it

I'm working on a post about VBS, but I'll probably finish it up tomorrow after all is said and done.  In the meantime, here are a few shots I took this afternoon:

All is stripped away

It's in the details

The light shines on in the darkness... (John 1:5)

Love is everywhere

Sustaining life, one sip at a time

And finally, as I was going through all the pictures I took today and doing some editing I came across this picture:

Do you see the face?!?!

Let me help:

I honestly think it's a little creepy. I can't look at that photo and not see the face staring back at me.  How very strange ...

Anyway, tomorrow is the last day of VBS which I am quite sad about as it has been an amazing week!  After the kids leave I will be spending the afternoon at the house of one of my first graders, having lunch and doing some swimming.  :) Should be a wonderful afternoon; I've been looking forward to it all week.

Finding Beauty in the Small Things

So I decided to start a new public blog.  If you already read my other blog, feel free to keep doing so; I'll still use it, just for a different purpose.

One of my new years resolutions this year was to make it a point to notice the beauty in the small things.  Be that beauty in small things around me, or small moments in time.  It's amazing what you can find when you seek it out!  Since I also bought a new camera recently, (which I LOVE!) I had decided that I could use it to document some of this.  I haven't done a very good job of that thus far (the end of the school year is busy I tell ya!) but I'll be better at it now.  This evening I took a walk with my camera. Here are some of my favorites I ended up with:

we're all connected

the road less traveled

fallen beauty

Oh the tangled lives we lead

I love these next two pictures.  They have good symbolic meaning; or at least I think so.  In my effort to seek out the beauty in small things, I realized how easy it really was.  It's not that those things weren't there before, I just wasn't taking the time to notice them.  Life is much more inspiring when you make it a point to notice the small things.  It's all about your focus. Which leads me to my next two pictures:

You can choose to focus on the big things, the things that slap you in the face, the things right in front of you ... OR, you can choose to focus on the small things, the things that are maybe farther away, or not as easy to see. It's a choice...

So, what will you choose to focus on?