Gone Blonde!

It seems I have been taking my photo a lot lately -- so I have a bunch to share on the blog today.  

Here is our wedding photo ---- a day I celebrate every day in my heart.  

October 20, 2007

LOVE this photo of me with my true love. Truly - Madly - Deeply 

For our first and second wedding anniversary dinners we dressed up in our wedding clothes.  This photo is from October 20, 2009.  Love the dress and the little white fur.  :)  Still looking as great together as we always have!

At the Marine Corps Marathon in DC in November 2009

Then today ---- the day he shaved my head.

The day I turned blonde.  

For in the photo Friday & Flashback Friday too!

Hope you like me blonde!  I like me brunette -- but blonde is fun!

For more on my journey link here. 

For more Flashbacks and IN the photo Fridays link below!

You Capture: Summer Shots

Sharing my favorite Summer Shots for You Capture Photo Challenge


On the river --- our sweet son Schuyler - this was the first time for him on the rope swing - he had such a great time and can't wait to go back each time we go to the River.

Having fun together on the river!  

My amazing husband the golfer

And one I took today of Schuyler at Karate Camp
I have some more of this that I will share later.  He had such a great week despite having poison ivy head to toe.  He finally felt better today to attend the camp.  What a great group --- I think we are signing up for karate in the fall.

For more great summer shots and to link up your photos of summer fun go to:

Black & White Wednesday: "The Lone Tree"

This tree is just so beautiful.  I saved this perfect shot for Black & White Wednesday.....
Location:  Hadley, MA
  

Hope you like it as much as I do....

Please leave a comment if you stop by.  I posted both color and black & white

For more great Black and White photos and to link up your own photo go to the below link

Feet!

Mama & Dudes is having a photo challenge and it has one of my favorite thing to photograph ---- FEET!  Way cool.

So here is my latest feet photo.  From the golf outing... :)  I took this shot to show off my OH SO CUTE adidas golf shoes.  I love my golf bag with the matching blue shoes.... I have this great golf shirt from the Phoenician when we played 9 holes there a couple years ago and with a Nike skort the fashion ensemble is complete.  And style on the golf course is soooooo important.

Please leave me a note if you stop by!  What are your favorite athletic shoes?

I have some shots of our ski boots and lots of bare feet photos (my husband Steve has GORGEOUS feet!) ---- but this challenge has clued me in that I need some more recent shots.  :)

Link into the fun at Mama & Dudes (recommended by Ashley) for more FUN FEET photos!

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I Heart Faces: "Random Acts of Kindness"

This week over at I Heart Faces we are putting the spotlight on an amazing charitable organization called Inspiration Through Art (formerly Littlest Heroes Project.) Read the blog using this link or the link below.  Truly an inspiration. 




Those of you who know me or who have been following me know I work for the American Cancer Society (15 years as a National Director) and that I have been involved in Relay For Life as a team captain and committee member, raising dollars through team participation.  In the past 1 1/2 years the ACS has brought in a new event based on a successful Charity Runner program in Illinois.  DetermiNation has been recently branded and promoted nationwide.  This year I have run 3 marathons raising dollars for the American Cancer Society through DetermiNation.  And I am currently in training for my 4th marathon and hope to raise my total to more than $8000 collected through my efforts! I am very proud of my endurance athletic participation and this dedication and commitment to the fight against cancer really makes it an even more incredible give back opportunity.  

Link here to see my personal page for ACS Determination - Chicago Marathon 2010.  

The crazy thing is --- I have been recently diagnosed with lymphoma and currently undergoing treatment.  The cancer is curable, but it is a 4 month process to rid my body of these bad cells.  :(  I am still doing Chicago -- actually in costume as Wonder Woman (with my friend Cara - who will be Batgirl!). I am sharing my own story of DetermiNation on another blog where I can update and share my experiences. I have named it "The Toughest Marathon of my Life".  Please check it out -- you too may be inspired!  :)



SO back to photography - random acts of kindness and how I have been using my skill in that area to raise funds for my DetermiNation events.  Last fall I put together this idea "Families Fighting Cancer" and each family would write their check to the American Cancer Society for my fundraising efforts.  The sitting fee "donation" could range from $150-200 and then their photos would be posted to my NancyE Photography site so they could buy prints.  I had 4 families total and raised $500.  I hope to do this again this next fall again as the foliage really is an amazing background for photography here in New England.  Here are some selections of the families I photographed last fall!  Such beautiful generous, kind and loving families -- our neighbors, our friends. 


The Courchesne Family

The O'Connell Family

The Seifel Family

The Barbour Family

Thanks for stopping by!  Please leave a comment below --- I love to hear from you all!  

In a Yellow House: Animal Kingdom

"Beautiful Birds"

The Red Tail Hawk

Photo taken at the soccer fields by Swift River Elementary School in Belchertown, MA

This bird was so beautiful --- in the tree and against the blue sky.  I was so thrilled to get these photos!

The Birthday Peacock

We saw this peacock at this farm in Granby, MA while on a drive on my birthday. 

He slowed down for a quick pose before he jumped over the fence and on her way.

What a beautiful bird!

Hope you like these photos --- they are from my archives, but worth sharing for the Animal Kingdom theme this week.  Please leave a comment if you stop by.  Thanks!

Buddies: Schuyler's Team Photo from Coach Pitch & Erik!

We are so fortunate to live in a town that is actually in the top 3 for MA for land mass..... equaling a large school with lots of kids!  Schuyler's class alone has more than 200 kids for the 3rd grade....  When we started playing soccer there were 8 teams to play against in just his group, which includes 2 grades.  Because of this Schuyler has made lots of buddies and had a great time playing so many different types of sports that a small town just cannot offer.  We are truly blessed for the coaches and kids that make up this opportunity through our Rec department. 

Here is one of the group photos that I shot when Schuyler played Coach Pitch baseball.  Many of the boys and girls here are his buddies and the goofy photos are my favorite when ever I do the team photos.... :)

You need to search each and every face...  they all will make you smile!  At least they make me smile....  :)

Sharing this for the Paper Mama Photo Challenge:  Buddies  

When I thought of who to take a photo of Schuyler with for the buddy challenge, I couldn't make up my mind, so here the ALL are --- and there are more!  :)  He is such a likeable kid and really makes friends so easily --- it warms my heart.

One more photo of Schuyler --- this one is of him and his best friend Erik.   They are so excited that they both have Mrs. Opalenik for 3rd grade because they had such a great time together in 2nd grade with Mrs. Niquette & Ms. Harris.  This is the 2 of them at the World Record Breaking Twister game in Belchertown in June!

Thanks for checking out my photos!
Please leave a comment if you stop by!

Mellow Yellow Monday: Daffodils, aka Lent Lily - First flower of spring

Daffodils are the American Cancer Society Flower of Hope

Each spring it the Daffodil campaign that has brought in more than $3 million each year to the New England Division of the American Cancer Society.  When I was a field rep I recruited Daffodil Chairs in each county, helped to train and then work to get pre-sales and set up sites to sell onsite at grocery stores, malls and other locations as a part of the overall campaign.  We waited while the trucks came from Oregon to deliver pallets of the flowers and then delivered them to the sales and the on site locations.  It was quite the fundraiser and has been a part of the Society's event lists for so many years. 

I love daffodils, I have a beautiful throw and a stain glass daffodil in my window.  

Hope you like my daffodil flowers featured here for Mellow Yellow Monday.  :)

Here is a link to a site that shares meanings, songs & poems about daffodils.

And here is a shot of my stained glass daffodil --- just to share!  ;)

The rules are pretty simple:
1. Every Monday post a photo with a little or a lot of yellow.
2. Please only post photos you have authority to use.
3. Include a Mellow Yellow Badge or a link to this blog in your post.
4. Leave the link to your Mellow Yellow post below on Mr. Linky that you can find by linking on the below icon. 
5. Visit other blogs listed ... comment & enjoy!

Macro Monday: Golf balls

I shared earlier our golf practice outing.... we really need to get out more and Steve loves that I like to play golf too.  Or at least I like to smash the ball.... we haven't made it to a course yet.  That part frustrates me, when you hit it in the trees, or miss the ball and are keeping score.  I am just too competative and want to do well, so when I mess up and it shows on the little scoring sheet, it just gets to me and I get really mad.  I know others of you play golf and can relate.  SO for now I have been sticking to the driving range and putt and practice chip shoots to a flag.  I am good enough to play, but the psycho part of it.... well.  OK - when we finally get out there I will let you know!  Here is a link to my shots from the Phoenician - an amazing beautiful course that we played at -- one of my 3 actual golf games in the past 3 years.  :)

Here is my Macro Monday selection.  Various views of the golf balls.  I posted one of these earlier, but I thought it was cool for a macro shot too.  Love the greenery in the background.

Macro Monday is easy to play, snap a macro (or any close-up) photo, post it on your blog and link up at the link below!  

 

Scavenger Hunt Sunday: August 1

Yay!  It's Sunday and I can post my scavenger hunt photos.  It seems silly, but I have been become addicted to these photo challenges and have truly enjoyed getting lost in my photography.  I put the list on a sticky note (as well as engrained in my head) and I think about it during the week and try to get out and take photos.  It has motivated me to become a better photographer when I click the linky and visit other photographer sites all over the globe.  Very cool indeed.  So with that introduction here are my selections of my original photography (with little or no editing, because I don't have a ton of time with my other job and duties around the house to add one more thing that puts me in front of the computer...... ) :)  ALthough I think I am going to try Aperture --- hoping it may be easier to learn than Photoshop?  Any whoo -- hope you like my photos and as always --- please leave a comment at the bottom.  I LOVE COMMENTS~  :)


Wide Open

Another selection from my photo shoot of the Seven Sisters at sunset.  You can see the wide open corn fields with the mountains in the background.  Just a beautiful area to live. 

 Clock

I was fixated on clocks on our "photo walk" in Northampton and this is the second clock photo that I really loved.  The history and the architecture in that city was just so much fun to photograph.

 Shiny

This photo is Samantha and her belly button piercing.  We are not big on body piercings in our house, but I thought that this was a cool thing to photograph and actually is very tasteful. Very shiny! :)  Especially in the sun. I was going to use this as a macro shot.... but I like it for this category and it didn't seem close up enough for macro.

Junk 

This is also from my Northampton photo walk --- this chipmunk was running from me, but stuck around on the rusted fire escape long enough for me to get this shot.  Rusty stuff always makes me think of JUNK.  :)  I grew up with my dad fixing old cars and a lot of rusted out doors and bodies of the cars.... my mom was always so sick of the junk in the driveway.  But now it all reminds me of my dad and makes me smile.  I miss him so.

View from Below

I couldn't chose between the 2 of these shots --- again from Northampton Photo Walk.  The churches are so beautiful and the crosses so high in the sky --- I took these two shots with the View from Below perspective.  Looking up to the Lord.   Praising and Thanking God.  

Thank you for taking care of us all.  

PLEASE leave a comment if you stop by - I would love to hear from you!  

The rules are simple:

1. Anyone can participate (although it started in a photography board on The Bump). 
2. You're encouraged to take five new photos this week for the challenge. 
3. If you get stumped, you may use one photo from your archive 
4. Link up here on Sunday (or Monday at the latest) - you can use the new button. 
5. Have fun!