The Story Of Us

The other day I was reminded by my kids that I never did a back to school post.. So to remedy that.. But today as I post this it is November.. two months of school already flown by. Two months away from the end of the year.  Those last few days of August and early days of September we spent on the Jersey Shore. We have a marvelous stretch of beach in our state and we have hardly ever really enjoyed it. So we lounged and ate and read and did what one does on the beach. The waves were very active.. and it made for some fun times. Lifeguards were always on duty so we felt relatively safe. We even spotted dolphins right off the coast.  View from the balcony. We had gotten a place with a little kitchenette.. so we cooked some meals I had pre prepped at home.. and watched movies and played games..  Labor Day weekend M was playing a cricket tournament in Chicago. We both have a lot of family in the windy city so D decided to tag along..  He spent time with his great aunts a...

Hello hello everyone.. what a crazy last few weeks I have had. But first I need to take you back to last year.. Last year I had been asked to be one of the speakers for a women's event in our local mosque. The topic was photography and how the elements of a good photograph can tie into our daily life. Thankfully the rest of the year went by quietly until a few months ago I was asked to take photos for a three day event taking place in early October. Our community hosted a medical conference where doctors from all across North America flew in to participate. There were over 200 people who joined the event. I was to be one of the two photographers to take photos of the event. Now here's the funny part.. I don't do events. I don't like dealing with people. I am not good at instructing people about their poses. But you do what you gotta do for the community. It was an exhausting weekend leaving me with 1000's of photos to edit.  There were multiple demonstrations showin...

North of Nowhere by Allison Brennan Synopsis  - After five years in hiding from their murderous father, the day Kristin and Ryan McIntyre have been dreading has arrived: Boyd McIntyre, head of a Los Angeles crime family, has at last tracked his kids to a small Montana town and is minutes away from kidnapping them. They barely escape in a small plane, but gunfire hits the fuel line. The pilot, a man who has been raising them as his own, manages to crash land in the middle of the Montana wilderness. The siblings hike deep into the woods, searching desperately for safety unaware of the severity of the approaching storm. Boyd’s sister Ruby left Los Angeles for the Army years ago, cutting off contact in order to help keep her niece and nephew safe and free from the horrors of the McIntyre clan. So when she gets an emergency call that the plane has gone down with the kids inside, she drops everything to try save them. As the storm builds, Ruby isn’t the only person looking for them. Boyd...

We woke up on Thursday and after a quick hotel breakfast we headed out. It was a three and a half hour drive to our first stop, we were so hungry by the time we got there that we first decided to have lunch.     We ate at Big Springs Tavern. It was in the middle of nowhere and it really was the only option for miles so we were very pleasantly surprised that the food was really really good.We have had some hits and  misses on this trip. Afterwards we headed to our first stop, Kitch-iti-kipi. In the Ojibwe language the name means big cold spring. Located within Palms Book State Park, it is Michigan's largest natural freshwater spring. While visiting the spring and riding the famous cable-drawn viewing raft is free you do have to pay to enter Palms Book State Park. the raft There was a long long line to get on the raft. The raft moved at a snail's pace and I was having my doubts about this whole venture. The boys were not impressed. After waiting half an hour we finally...