Kenny

It seems like a lifetime ago when I was a kid...I remember some things very clearly. Going on road trips with our little family. My parents would listen to Dolly Parton, The Oakridge Boys and good ol' Kenny Rogers. We would listen to all of their cassette tapes over and over again. I'm pretty sure we knew all of the words to each song. All these years later when I play or hear certain songs it reminds me of those good ol' times, and good ol' memories. In fact, we listened to The Gambler the other day with our kids and we talked about those road trips, and memories associated with the song. It also reminds me of my Mommas, Daddy...boy, do we miss them both. I honestly think this song has some really good advice in it for us to follow. To me it is not just about gambling, it's about LIFE...just knowing when to hold on, walk away, knowing when to run. I mean, Life feels like a gamble at times, but we keep going, and we don't give up until it's done.  Every single day we have choices before us, and at times we may feel like we have a losing hand, but we play what we have and do the best we know how...and the rest we just gotta let go sometimes. As my daddy always tells me; "It will work out", and you know what? It always does...especially with Kennys help.

Photograph

I get teased often because I take a million pictures. I don't even really ask people to pose or to look at the camera, I just take it as is. In the moment. I used to get asked a million times why I needed to take so many dang photos. Now, it's just known that I am that gal who does.
To be honest the reason I do it, is to capture the moment, the second where everything is still and we are happy. Where we can look back on them when life is hard, and we can feel all of the love that is in these photos...we can share memories and stories of young and old.
The first time I heard Ed Sheerans song, Photograph I cried. He said everything that I feel when I look at the photographs of my loved ones. We all have hard things to face in this life. Life is hard, and in the same breathe it is beautiful. I strive each day to find love and point it out to my family. Love is everywhere and in everything, and in really dark and bleak days it can be in that photograph...which can remind us of happy times, of being care free, living and enjoying each other...giving us that warm hug we just need sometimes. I want my babies to know and remember this, all of this is for them, all I have chosen to do is for them...they are my everything...they are the reason I feel alive. Even though life is not perfect, I want them to have these photographs to look back on, to remember, to remind them of the love that we have...the hope in our eyes. It's always been there, and will be there till the end and beyond. It's intertwined in each part of our lifes...it's in all of us. It is one of the greatest gifts we have.