Texas to Mississippi...

We just got back from a big ol' trip...I choose not to post until I got back...

I suppose for the safety of it...

These next few posts were written in the last few weeks.

 

I love to take pictures.  It really does bring my heart joy to look through the lens and capture what my eyes are seeing.  And I love looking at the pictures later, remembering the moment, and letting my eyes remind my nose of the smells and my body of how it felt to be right there, right then.

And, years later, when I look at the pictures that I took, I'm pulled right back to the smell of the grass, the blue of the sky, the giggles...So I always take TOO many pictures, case in point, I have 10 pictures of our shoes to choose from...10.  Excessive?  Maybe. 

 

Add to the fact that I already take too many pictures that I'm also not a terribly good "photographer".  I subscribe to the scatter shot mentality.  Take a dozen pictures, one of them is bound to be good enough.

Since we all stopped printing pictures oh, so long ago, and because I haven't the patience, even when I do print out pictures, to honestly scrap book, I've found it really REALLY hard to weed through the pictures. 

How do I choose which of the 83 pictures that I took (on this DAY) that will tell the story best in THIS venue? Which will solve the issue of both reminding US and sharing with YOU, all the while not overwhelming either of us?

I mean really...do you NEED to see several pictures of the Welcome to signs in each state?  Probably not...but my kids...OY! They make my eyes so happy that even my inner scrapbooker, the one who actually cries when she sees a tableful of cardstock, says, "But ya GOTTA see this one too... 

I'm also finding, as I write this post, that I have very little control over where the pictures go...they just jump around and re-order themselves at random...sometimes coming in over the top of other pictures...sometimes shoving everything to the bottom.  I've found the only real control that I have is, small-medium-large and if they are on the left-center-or right...that's it.  So it IS a little intriguing to see what is going to happen next...

I'm actually on the third re-write, saving and previewing as I go,
because I discovered that my edit screen and my actual blog are so different in size that I have no real concept of even which paragraph is going to anchor the picture from my edit screen.  I guess it's good that I have too many pictures...more opportunity to learn.


I suppose you'd like to know about the trip.  Well, on day one we traveled from our home near Dallas, Texas to Vicksburg, Mississippi.

It was a beautiful day and as we traveled we noticed the different types of trees as we traveled.  It was hot in Texas and it stayed hot all through Louisiana.  The farther we went, the more humid it got.  It was weird, because compared to California, Arizona and Colorado, Texas is humid.  But compared to Mississippi?  Texas is a lovely dry towel and Mississippi is the sauna.

Not much happened while we were on the road...and I'm talking about the whole trip.   Seriously, except for one very short cloud burst in Georgia, we had virtually no precipitation while I was driving...

And that's just the way I like it.  You may remember how much I dread precipitation, and I really expected some this trip...I mean...end of summer, crosses Labor Day...storms could've happened. 

The only time we had any rain was when I was on a mountain road and as that ALWAYS happens...ALWAYS...I figure it's my own fault being on a mountain road.  I attract rain to mountain roads...it is my cross to bear...I either need to come to grips with mountain roads in the rain, or stay off of them...

The whole trip...every travel day...we listened to Harry Potter.  We fell in the love with the series on the Girly trip this year...and now we are on the final 3 books.  We barely spoke to each other...we found it hard to stop for meals...riveting.

I did make them sing though.  I discovered on this trip that they had forgotten a couple of songs that we used to have nailed.  So in between CDs or just whenever I was feeling snappish...I made them sing.  And in bathrooms.  I have ALWAYS made them sing in bathrooms.  They pretend to hate it.  And then the sound takes over and they (for a moment) understand what all singers have always understood...bathrooms make you sound like a ROCK STAR...and so then they sing, and loudly.

Also, I let them play with the hand dryers...cuz really, what would life be without playing with a few hand dryers...

Things are just better when you sing and play with the hand dryers at every potty break...and listen to some really interesting book in between...at least that's our travel plan...

So there it is, dear reader, a quick over view, too many pictures and a small lesson on placing pictures where you want them in blogger...the take away...devil-may-care attitude, save often, preview much.  My work here is done.

See ya around...