Merry Christmas one and all...

Dear Santa,
I'm sitting here waiting on my last photoshoot before I can begin celebrating and enjoying my Christmas Holiday! It just occurred to me that I haven't wriiten my annual letter to you yet. Boy am I glad that you are now hightek and have email. I hope that you and your lovely wife have had a very blessed and fruitful year. Hopefully the elves haven't taken too many cookie breaks and were able to get all of their tasks completed on schedule. I realise that you must have a million and one tasks to get through as this is a very busy time for you. I also hope that the reindeer haven't ticked off Rudolph bc the children are expexting your presence at their homes on Christmas Eve and since most of them have been especially nice this year, you wouldn't want to disappoint them.With that being said here's my Christmas list:
Please Santa let the Pittsburg Penguins win the Stanley Cup again this year...my boyfriend is starting to have doubts in you Santa and this would clinch his
believing in you...
Please give something special to all of those that can't be with their loved ones this Christmas. Christmas time is supposed to be about spending time with loved ones and with loved ones far away at Christmas it just makes one's heart heavy so send some good cheer their way...
Please give those that are grieving the loss of a loved one peace of mind this Christmas, help them to remember the special moments shared with their loved ones while they were living...
Please be with the ones that have lost their jobs this past year, help them to feel that the economy will turn around and things are going to look brighter, give them all a bit of Hope if possibble to help them to look forward to 2010...
Please be with those that have quit bad habits this year give them the strength that they need to endure and carry on...
Please be with those that have been elected to lead this great Country and give them the wisdom to continue what they are doing in a way that will truly make this nation as great as it once was...
Last but not least Santa please help everyone to remember the true REASON for the SEASON!

Stress!!!

Stress
A lecturer when explaining stress management to an audience,
Raised a glass of water and asked;
'How heavy is this glass of water?'
Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.
The lecturer replied, 'The absolute weight doesn't matter.
It depends on how long you try to hold it.
If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.
If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.
If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.
In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.'
He continued,
'And that's the way it is with stress management.
If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later,
As the burden becomes increasingly heavy,
We won't be able to carry on. '
'As with the glass of water,
You have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again..
When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden.'
'So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow.
Whatever burdens you're carrying now,
Let them down for a moment if you can.'
So, my friend, Put down anything that may be a burden to you right now. Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while.
Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:
* Accept that some days you're the pigeon,
And some days you're the statue.
* Always keep your words soft and sweet,
Just in case you have to eat them.
* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be
"Recalled" by their maker.
* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again,
It was probably worth it.
* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to be kind to others.
* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time,
Because then you won't have a leg to stand on.
* Nobody cares if you can't dance well.
Just get up and dance.
* When everything's coming your way,
You're in the wrong lane.
* Birthdays are good for you.
The more you have, the longer you live.
* We could learn a lot from crayons... Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.
*A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.
Have an awesome day and know that someone has thought about you today...I did

The ABC's of Christmas

The ABC's of Christmas

A is for the Angel who sang, "Peace on Earth",

B is for the bells that rang out the Baby's birth.

C is for the Christmas candle, lighting up the night,

D is for the drum that makes one boy's Christmas bright.

E is for the Eve when we're all excited!

F is for the fun when the tree is finally lighted!

G is for the gifts Santa leaves on that special night,

H is for the holly with pointed leaves and berries bright.

I is for the icing on our Christmas cake so tall,

J is for Jesus, the reason for it all.

K is for the kindness shown without reason,

L is for the Lights of the Season.

M is for the Manger bed for Jesus at His birth,

N is for Noel we all sing on earth.

O is for the oxen, the first to adore Him,

P is for the Presents the Wise Men lay before Him.

Q is for the quiet night, with hardly a beat,

R is for the reindeer with speedy tireless feet.

S is for Santa bringing Christmas Joy,

T is for the lighted tree, to amaze each girl and boy.

U is for Us--all the family,

V is for visitors stopping by for tea.

W is for the wreath hanging on the door,

X is for the X-tra special feeling Christmas brings and more.

Y is for Your Christmas joys, may they be bright,

Z is for the animal zoo at His feet that night.

A to Z, all the alphabet you see!

Merry Christmas to all, wherever you be!

~Donna O'Briant~

So long Miss Peggy...

It was with a tearful sigh that I bid Miss Peggy ado when she left for Ohio this week.I know this may sound crazy but let me back up...I've only known Miss Peggy 2 weeks. However in that 2 weeks I've become quite attached to her. She and her husband hired the company that I work for to help pack up her house before they relocated to Ohio...when we all showed up to work on the first day, we knew Miss Peggy was going to be hard to forget...She's 81 and lived an amazing life thus far. She's been in showbiz since she was 3 and has tons of wonderful stories to tell...you just can't help loving her. She truly lives her life as honest, geniune, and sincere as possible...she makes you feel very important and special...but mostly she makes you feel loved...she's ALWAYS willing to give you a hug and tell you you how special and precious you are to her...she made all of BST Concierge feel like we were family to her...she made us stop for frequent pie breaks...insisted that we eat a hearty lunch and constantly worried if we were warm enough...I'll say they just don't make people like Miss Peggy anymore...On our last day everyone of us cried bc she was leaving...she gave my boss an envelope and told us not to open until after we left her home...when we did open the envelope she had wriiten a $25.00 check to each one of us and had addressed the letter she included with her very generous checks to her dear ones who were her treasures on earth...As long as I live I'm forever going to remember Miss Peggy's kindness and loving personality...So fare well Miss Peggy...Ohio is getting a rare and precious treasure!

Do you want to know a secret?

How do you say Merry Christmas around the world....

Afrikaner (Afrikaans): "Een Plesierige Kerfees"
Argentine: "Felices Pascuas"
Bohemian: "Vesele Vanoce"
Brazilian: "Boas Festas"
Chinese (Cantonese): "Saint Dan Fai Lok"
Danish: "Glædelig Jul"
Dutch: "Vrolijk Kerstfeest"
English: "Merry Christmas"
Filipino: "Maligayang Pasko"
Finnish: "Hyvaa Joulua"
French: "Joyeux Noël"
German: "Froehliche Weihnachten"
Greek: "Kala Christouyenna"
Hawaiian: "Mele Kalikimaka"
Hebrew: "Mo'adim Lesimkha"
Icelandic: "Gledileg Jol"
Indonesian: "Selamat Hari Natal"
Irish: "Nollaig Shona Dhuit"
Italian: "Buone Feste Natalizie"
Japanese: "Kurisumasu Omedeto"
Korean: "Sung Tan Chuk Ha"
Lithuanian: "Linksmu Kaledu"
Malay: "Selamat Hari Natal"
Maori: "Meri Kirihimete"
Norwegian: "God Jul"
Romanian: "Craciun Fericit"
Peruvian: "Felices Fiestas"
Portugese: "Boas Festas"
Slovakian: "Vesele Vianoce"
Spanish: "Feliz Navidad"
Swedish: "God Jul"
Welsh: "Nadolig Llawen"

Source: www.allthingschristmas.com

Look what I found...

I've just stumbled across a very cool website...it's www.crayola.com, I used to go to this website often when my little brother was younger but as he grew older I visited less frequently...however I've recently returned in the hopes of finding something special for my nieces to do over their Christmas break and discovered a brand new activitty...crayola is always making an effort to bring new and exciting crafts for children to do ...now I think they have exceeded my expectations bc now you can upload a picture of your child and print it out as a coloring page...what better way to teach your children about the importance of family than letting them color a picture of themselves...you can get codes on special boxes of crayola crayons but you can upload your pictures straight to the crayola website and print them out and color them...I think this is really awesome...

Thanksgiving Happened!

For me Thanksgiving is a very busy time of year...not just because of all of the cooking and the cleaning and what have you but because I'm not only a professional photographer but I'm also a personal concierge, which means that I clean people's homes, or do their shopping or help them decorate their homes for the holidays and run errands that they just don't have time to run themselves...don't mistake my meaning I'm very thankful to have both of my jobs , so I'm not complaining about how much I had to do but in one weekend , I helped clean 3 homes , put up and decorated 9 Christmas trees...went to my niece's 2nd birthday and took my aunt and my cousin home to Crossville which is about 100 miles from my own home...so let's just say that after all of the energy put out over the long holiday weekend, that I'm glad to be back at work so I can slow down a little...I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving with their family and friends...

Happy Thanksgiving to all and to all a good night...

The Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving

(Edgar Albert Guest, 1881-1959)

It may be I am getting old and like too much to dwell
Upon the days of bygone years, the days I loved so well;
But thinking of them now I wish somehow that I could know
A simple old Thanksgiving Day, like those of long ago,
When all the family gathered round a table richly spread,
With little Jamie at the foot and grandpa at the head,
The youngest of us all to greet the oldest with a smile,
With mother running in and out and laughing all the while.

It may be I'm old-fashioned, but it seems to me to-day
We're too much bent on having fun to take the time to pray;
Each little family grows up with fashions of its own;
It lives within a world itself and wants to be alone.
It has its special pleasures, its circle, too, of friends;
There are no get-together days; each one his journey wends,
Pursuing what he likes the best in his particular way,
Letting the others do the same upon Thanksgiving Day.

I like the olden way the best, when relatives were glad
To meet the way they used to do when I was but a lad;
The old home was a rendezvous for all our kith and kin,
And whether living far or near they all came trooping in
With shouts of "Hello, daddy!" as they fairly stormed the place
And made a rush for mother, who would stop to wipe her face
Upon her gingham apron before she kissed them all,
Hugging them proudly to her breast, the grownups and the small.

Then laughter rang throughout the home, and, Oh, the jokes they told;
From Boston, Frank brought new ones, but father sprang the old;
All afternoon we chatted, telling what we hoped to do,
The struggles we were making and the hardships we'd gone through;
We gathered round the fireside. How fast the hours would fly--
It seemed before we'd settled down 'twas time to say good-bye.
Those were the glad Thanksgivings, the old-time families knew
When relatives could still be friends and every heart was true.

Here's to hoping you and yours have a blessed Thanksgiving!
~~~~~~~~

"All the world's a stage"...

When my sister first helped me create this blog, I thought that I would use it as a way to get new photography clients or as a way to showcase some of my photography work, however that doesn't seem to be the case. I just can't mange to find the time between my 3 jobs to sit down and gather my pictures or my thoughts in a way that can express how I'm feeling. With that being said, I've decided to do like my sister does and simply just write down how I'm feeling...
I've had a lot going on with me these past months and I think I just need to start blogging on a semi daily basis or just whenever I feel like doing so.
I turned 30 on September 05 of this year and what a ride my life has been so far.
I'm passionate about photography, my family, my friends, helping people to do things, watching little ones grow and become what God designed them to be, sometimes I'm quirky or just plain silly, but at the end of the day when all is said and done I'm just a " Diamond in the rough" I look forward to sharing my life and hopefully my photography with everyone in future posts.All the world is a stage and we're all just merely actors playing out the parts!

Every Picture Tells A Story

I'm here to help you tell it.






















There are significant moments in everyone's life that deserve to be captured.
Photography By MeLinda is passionate about preserving them. When done well, emotions, personalities, and sentiments shine through-creating memories that will last a lifetime.