Sunday Stills - letter T

Today's Sunday Stills challenge is 'The Letter T'.

With Thanksgiving just this last Thursday, I decided to list some of the things I'm thankful for.

True friends.


Time with family.

Tiny blessings.

And all the things God has made.

So how was y'all's Thanksgiving? Ours was nice. A friend from church as well as a family friend who we've known about a year now (they both were with us for Thanksgiving and Christmas last year) joined us. We had -- gasp -- not turkey, but manicotti! We're planning on turkey for Christmas though.

Thursday night I went to bed with a stuffy head and sore throat, and whatdoyaknow but Friday morning I'm down with another seasonal sinus attack. It's mostly the weather -- I don't know about your weather, but ours has been fluctuating between cool and warm and cold and warm and cool...you get the idea. If it would just settle down to the business of being cold for a while, I would probably stop getting these sinus clogs. Oh well. It seems to be running its usual course, and as I get these 4-6 times a year, we're all pretty used to it. I just spend the day in my pajamas, do some sleeping, I also did some studying, just a low-key day of constant apple juice and/or 7-up, and regular trips to the bathroom, and a steady supply of tissues. Like I said, I'm used to it. It's not usually contagious either, just a mild, regular sinus infection. Nasty.

And yesterday my mom and I drove to Blythe to meet an aunt of mine who lives in TX but was in AZ for Thanksgiving. It was nice seeing her again, although I did not feel very good. After a tylenol and decongestant I felt better, but a lack of sleep Friday night and a stuffed head, feeling like a balloon about to pop, did not make it easy to visit. Which was a bummer.

Anyway, I'm hoping y'all had a great Thanksgiving, and happy Lord's Day to you all!

Now bring on the Christmas decorations!!!!! :) Do y'all like the Christmas makeover?

Hymns by a Men's Ensemble

Beautifully done. I love men's choirs and ensembles, and this one did a marvelous job with 'God Wants To Hear You Sing', and 'Beautiful City of Gold'. Enjoy! :)

Sunday Stills -- HORSES!!

So today's Sunday Stills is HORSES. Which, as you know, is not a topic I like photographing. At all. Which explains why I had to go through my archives to decide which photos I liked best out of the hundreds...... you get the idea.

As I was going through said archives, I decided to handle this Sunday Stills in a little different way than usual. I'm about to do a very humbling thing, folks. I want to show you, from the archives, my progression of photography through skill, different cameras, and opportunities... What I'm trying to say is, the photos I'm about to post, in more or less chronological order, were each, at one time, the best photo I'd ever taken of a horse. Like I said, this is going to be rather humbling. And I know even the best to date is not much compaired to what a lot of other folks are going to be posting today. But I digress. (I always wanted to use that phrase!!) No judgment, folks. This is a trip back in time. Oh and by the way, I put my name on some of my favorites...you never know, they might be somebody else's favorites too, you know??

For a while, this was the best horse photo I'd taken. I believe this mare's name was Dusty. She was boarding and being trained at my aunt and uncle's house.

Different camera from the first photo. This was an ancient 35mm SLR that I later used for my photography class. I can't quite tell which mare this was. Possibly Lakota. Kryssy or Loi, can you help me out here?

Sultan -- while he was still a stallion! Now that was a while ago.

Again, Kryssy or Loi would have to tell you which gelding this was. I don't remember them well enough.

Thundering hooves! This was one of a couple mustangs being trained all in about the same time period, and I don't remember which one he was.

Ah yes. This was again one of several geldings whose names and distinctions I do not now recall. This photo did not turn out as well as I had originally thought, but it's still not bad, and the concept was good. I'll try it again at some later date.

Sultan being used to pony a mustang.

My uncle on Sultan.

Another mustang, whose name (forgive me) I have also forgotten.

What a head. Look at those pointy ears cocked so intently. He's got a straight nose, a square muzzle, an intelligent, alert eye, and a not overly-thick neck. He surely was a pretty horse. I do wish I could remember his name.

Whatever-his-name-was didn't much care for the saddle at first.

A sister of mine. I love the silhouette. Oh, and those pole-thingies? They marked the boundary of the property. I know they're kind of random, but I didn't think until later that I should've moved her away from the poles. Oh well.

Sister again. Kryssy's hair is flying back, her face to the sun, her pony in a canter...does life get better than this????

This was just last July, back in TX. I love the introspective quality of this shot, it's almost like the horse is looking back and reflecting on something. His face is in the dark, mysterious...you get my point. Enough being weird. Seriously though, I happen to really like how this one turned out.

I don't title all my photos, but this one is called "Buddies".

Well, there's the best of each time period in my photographic progression, and of each camera that I've used to photograph horses. I know several of these photos are certainly nothing to brag about, but all represent times, memories, and points in my life. What do you think?

Rhinestone Cowgirls giveaway!

Giveaway over at A&MD Ranch!! She's giving away something from her store as part of the grand opening. Go take a look!! :)

Sunday Stills -- Feathers, Fins, and Fur

Today's Sunday Stills challenge is Feathers, Fins, and Fur. Woohoo, I got all three!!! :)

Feathers -- isn't this a cool formation? Too bad I didn't get it closer up. This was one of those "Oh look at that -- point and click" moments (and all things considered, it came out pretty good!).


Proud Mr. Seagull.

I love the colors on this fella.

Flamingos are so elegant! (or, if you watch the old Beverly Hillbillies show, they're just tall pink chickens)

Now to the fins. This guy doesn't look too friendly, does he?

This (below) is a shark, if you can't tell. I've been waiting to post these for quite a while, I have many others too. We went to an aquarium not long ago and I took photos galore. Unfortunately, it wasn't until about halfway through that I figured out the correct light setting :( So a lot of them didn't turn out too well. Anyway...

Here are some exotic-looking fins. Pretty, isn't he?

Look at all the colors!!

I found Nemo! Oh wait...wrong fish.
I know these aren't exactly fins, but I find jellyfish extremely fascinating.

This is a Leafy Seahorse. The Aquarium of the Pacific was the first to successfully breed these guys in captivity. Again, not exactly fins, but still water critters.

OK, now on to the fur. Here's some exotic fur. It's not everybody who sees a live Panda bear snoozing. This was at the San Diego Zoo, back in 2007.

Here's somebody else who has quite a bit of fur. Who can it be? Why, the Casey-dog, of course! :)

Sweet Skeeter. She was snoozing so peacefully, so I decided to photograph her cuteness.

But as I used different angles and the light repeatedly flashed in her face, she got fed up and decided she was done!!!

Well folks, that's all I got for you today. But check out the other Sunday Stills!

Happy Birthday, USMC!

Happy 234th birthday, Marine Corps!

All jarheads out there -- please go have a piece of cake!!

Marine Corps Band, Marine Corps Hymn (Halls of Montezuma)


USMC Silent Drill Platoon

Beautiful version of Greensleeves

This is an absolutely beautiful rendering of one of my all-time favorite tunes "Greensleeves" (also known as "What Child Is This?" and "Home In The Meadow"). Harp, flute, and cello. This is SOOOOOOO pretty!!

Sunday Stills -- Currency

Today’s Sunday Stills challenge is ‘Currency’ – and he advised us to ‘be creative’. Well, I don’t know what everybody else is doing for this challenge, but I decided to take him up on that and be creative. So folks, here we go.

Now, I’m sure I’ve mentioned on this blog somewhere before about my coin collections...anyway, you’re in for a treat. You see this?It's my desk in my bedroom. Yes, it's yellow. No, that's not what you're looking at. You're looking at the two coin collections. Right in the middle, on the right of the bullet collection and behind the rock collection. Yeah there.

OK, the top collection is my odd/strange/rare coin collection (the adjectives refer to the coins, NOT the collection. Comprende?). The bottom is my smushed pennies, but we'll get to that in a minute. Let's start with the odd/strange/rare coins.

An Indian rupee. (Indian as in East Indies, not as in feathers and warpaint. You know what I mean. Oh, and if you're a Native American reading this...eh, no offense. *grin*)

Here's a peso. (Un peso, I should say)
A 1925 Wheat Penny.

A Canadian cent. I love the leaves, aren't they pretty?

This is a New Zealand coin. I guess it's worth 5...something. I'm not quite sure what.

This...well, I have no idea what it is. Anybody have any idea?

Neither do I have any idea what this is. Ed says it's Saudi Arabian. Thanks Ed!

Nor this, although it's the same as the previous, except that it's worth 10 instead of 50. It has the same picture on the back so I didn't photograph the back of it.

Not to be anticlimactic, but there's nothing odd or different about this coin except that it's an extremely rusted nickel and I thought it looked interesting.

OK, now for the smushed pennies! If you know me personally, you may already know that anytime I go somewhere special, I get a smushed penny for a souvenir. It's small, inexpensive, fits easily in a suitcase (or a pocket, for that matter)...in short, the perfect souvenir. I'm getting to have quite a collection of the little things.

Tombstone, AZ. Boot Hill. Back in 2004.

Cabela's in Glendale, AZ. It's a sporting goods store. I believe that was 2007.

San Diego Zoo, CA. Also 2007.

St. Augustine, FL. It bears a representation of Ponce de Leon. Got that in 2008.

Knott's Berry Farm, CA. Another 2008.

Two from Longhorn Cavern in TX last July.

Aquarium of the Pacific, Long Beach, CA. Last September.

Finally, last but not least, my mother and I have been collecting the state quarters. We're still missing about 5 or 6 out of the 50, but here's what we got so far:

Close-up view.

Well, folks, you now have the inside view of Rebekah's coin collections. Would you like me to post a photo sometime of the bullet collection too? Y'all know I already got rid of the candy wrapper collection, and other than that, the bullets, birds' nests, and dead bugs are the only other collections I have...and I have a feeling several of my feminine readers would prefer I did not post photos of my dead bug collection. *wink*

Mosey on over to Sunday Stills, though, and see everybody else's Currency posts! :)