Botanicals and Kids: beautiful things in life.

Lately I've been a little obsessed with the idea of buying a new camera lens. I've been researching models, reading reviews, and fantasizing about how to fund such an exploit. I even decided that I could stomach needles and IV's to make $40 as a test subject for projects at the university. 40 here and 40 there, in about three years I'd have it! I am deathly afraid of needles, but it could be worth it if a new lens came out of the deal. Then it just hit me, WHY??? I mean, I don't need it.

Really.

And then I remembered my plasma donation experience when I planned to take a trip to Belize using my "blood money." Let's just say it was not good. Not good at all. It was the most miserable $5 I've ever made.

Which made me suddenly content with my current setup.

Today was a glorious overcast day which had me thinking that I needed to get outside and play with my existing lenses a little bit more. Just for kicks. After about 4 minutes outside it started to rain. That shouldn't be surprising, I mean, it is starting to be that time in the PCN. I decided to highlight some of the beautiful things that may go into hiding pretty soon. Just so that when the gray skies get to be too much (like March) I can pull these pictures up and remember that there is some color here sometimes.

The moms may care, but children are undeterred by the moisture of fall. This afternoon some of the neighbors were outside playing. This is the core group of kids that play together daily. There's a few more who show up sometimes, but these kids play together almost daily. I love being surrounded by all these cute little kids and Squirt has a blast.

I was soooo crushed about the camera shake on here. Had to post it anyway because I loooove this picture. Blur and all.

I'm learning how valuable telephoto is with children. Truly, I've never used it in that capacity and I had a blast today with being able to be a bit more stealthy. I've just got to play around with is some more and get to know it's strengths. This will be fun. 

It goes without saying that I love it here. I love our life, our friends, everything about our current situation. I'm even coming to grips with the fact that I haven't found a job. I'm sure that will take care of itself one of these days. Until then, I'm just going to keep finding joy in this journey. It sure is amazing.