The Legacy Lady

We've Moved...

All the content from this blog has been moved to this site - where I will continue to post behind the scenes snippets of everyday life and also things that I think are inspiring and interesting.

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Change is good...

Sunsets Of Life

Just over thirty hours in AZ spent with family celebrating the life of my uncle.  As we drove from the funeral home in Scottsdale to my cousin's home in the east valley for the funeral dinner, I watched the sunset.  I thought of my uncle's life and all the people he touched. 

I thought of the beauty of Arizona sunsets - no two are ever the same.  In Utah I rarely see the depth of the purple, yellows and orange that I see in AZ sunsets.  I thought about life, and how we all will someday face our own sunset...

Somehow I think that the things we do everyday are small pieces of the puzzle that come together to create our final sunset in life.  They add a splotch of color here and there - a fleck of gold flying to the side of the sun - shadows of the people we loved and whose lives we touched standing on the horizon.  Rainbows of color reflecting the love and emotions we felt for others and the dark of the unknown future.  The sun of faith that all will be well and there is a God.

The sunset that day was beautiful as were the memories of my uncle.  So grateful to be able to be there and celebrate his life with family I love dearly.

Loss Must Be A Lesson I Need To Learn

The picture to the right is my mom and her older brother Ron.  Tuesday evening we lost Ron unexpectedly. 

My Uncle was an amazing person.  He was a great dad who loved his wife and children.  His heart was so big that his kindness and generosity extended to his siblings and their children.

Ron was the person who worked with my Uncle Myron to build the family cabin in West Yellowstone.  In huge part because of their generosity, my family has made many memories in Yellowstone country we will always treasure.

I remember when my Aunt Jana passed away four years ago.  She was a single mom who left behind two teenage sons, the oldest was just starting his senior year of school.  With all the odds stacked against him, we prayed  that he would make it to graduation.  When he did, my Uncle Ron called me and invited me to come to West with the family to see Matt walk across that stage.  He paid for everything.   I don't know if he knew what the meant to me - and I really should have taken the opportunity to tell him - sitting there with my grandmother and aunts and uncles watching that moment meant the world to me.

Just a few years ago Ron organized the first Clark Family Reunion in West Yellowstone.  That weekend we all made so many memories - I watched my mom interact with her siblings and cousins - looking at photos, laughing at stories, remembering the good times.  I will never forget that weekend or Ron's persistence in making it happen and working to include everyone in the family.  He wanted the family together and he found so much joy from that. 

Funny thing is I think about Ron from just the perspective of a niece - he was a great man to me and yet I know I only saw a portion of who he was.  He was an amazing businessman - always running - true to the Clark workaholic nature.  I am sure his many clients will miss his energy, enthusiasm and good nature.  I am sure like my Aunt Jana, there will be many people who show up to his funeral remembering many kind acts and wonderful things about my Uncle that we never even knew.  That's how it is - he touched a lot of lives.

Every time I look at my photos from Yellowstone, I will remember my Uncle Ron - his kindness, generosity and huge heart. He most certainly will be missed.

  

 

 

Mystery Photo Revealed

Apparently there are many of you who can't stand the suspense. lol.  So many emails I decided it was easier to post the answer to "what was that photo of really?"  Here's the photo -

 

Here are a few clues as to what it was (again all taken by my son).

It was a bell pepper and the view happened quite by accident.  I was cutting one up for taco salad and dinner and cut off the side because it was a little wrinkly and got the above view.  My 11 year old son exclaims, "MOM!  Don't cut it again - I want to take a picture of that for my Reflections entry!" 

Dinner was over by the time he finished with it but he was one happy camper - and we will find out how he did on Monday. 

Now the oldest was in a hurry to do her entry so I stayed up late fighting with my Epson R1800 printer and finally gave up and sent the photo to Walmart to be printed.  Friday I spent my day running to Walmart and working with an exacto knife and foam core (if you knew how challenged I am with cutting instruments you would be surprised that I still have my fingers - another reason I scrap digitally). 

Anyway after all of that and preparing for the big primary activity that day with 40 kids making christmas ornaments and running around I leave in the middle of the activity and rush to my dd's school only to learn that her Refelections Entries aren't due for TWO weeks!!  Oh it was totally my day...NOT!

A side note - I have spent hours with tech support and kind readers suggestions trying to get my Epson R1800 to work with my Mac.  My Epson runs at about 1/10th of the quality on my MAC that it did on my PC - enough so that I am beginning to question if I will buy another Epson which is tragic because I was a HUGE Epson fan...apparently the issue is the MAC driver for the R1800 is older and has issues with the latest version of Leopard - so if you are in the market for a new MAC and have an older Epson printer, beware that you may end up buying a new printer as well.  So sad because I LOVE LOVE LOVED my R1800!!!

Any suggestions on a large format printer that works well with a newer MAC?

This Guy Has Entirely Too Much Time On His Hands...

Kids and ART...

So the past few days have been interesting - digesting the changes with DSM, preparing for THREE birthdays this weekend, and supporting my kids as they prepare their Reflections Contest entries. 

I photograph a lot of things.  We have two cameras in our home and the kids occasionally tag along with me to shoot photos and come home to compare.  I recently purchased a Macro Lens for my Canon camera and as busy as I have been, it hasn't seen much use.  This week I set the kids lose with it to see what they could come up with for their contest entries.

I was so pleasantly surprised I don't care if they take home awards because they are growing artistically and THAT is what makes me happy.  Here is my son's entry -

Things Are Not Always What They Seem To Be....

Yes he processed it in Photoshop on his own - it is amazing to me all the actions he tried and what he ended up choosing to do with the shot.  Any guesses as to what it is?

This is my oldest's entry - she was having a hard time deciding between the two -

Brush Art

Tongue Twister

I think the cat is the WOW factor because that was a pretty good shot for a 13 yr. old and it matches up with the WOW contest theme...but after sharing advice with dd, she chose the Brush Art theme  because she said it was more a reflection of her art and an idea she wanted to convey with only three things in focus and others out of focus...

wow.  I think these kids are going to progress beyond my artistic abilities quite quickly and I couldn't be happier about  it...

However, I got this in an email from my sis in AZ today (who got it from her friend) - apparently we should be checking our kids' school artwork just in case...

Apparently the child was trying to convey that her mom sold shovels at Home Depot - or so they say...

Did YOU?

The most important thing I did today was exercise my right to vote.  Sad thing it is but at one time in this country's history women were not allowed the right to vote.  I am most grateful to live in this time when all members of this country have the right to vote and be heard.

It is exciting to see the energy around this year's campaign.  It is going to be an interesting outcome. 

I voted my conscience and if my conscience is in line with the results I will be very happy.  If it isn't, I know that I have done all I can as a citizen in this country to participate in the process of democracy.

The opportunity to speak and do that - even if the outcome is different than what we want, is a precious right and I hope you all exercise it!!!

PS - wherever you are, take a pic of your "I VOTED" sticker and send it to Kent will you?

PS - check out the fabulous FREEBIE  Holly is sharing on her blog for all voters!!!

Winding Down...

What a week - getting ready for DSD - we still have a few surprises up our sleeve this week - but for now we are done - looking forward to a complete day of REST tomorrow! 

It was quite the holiday weekend with Halloween and Digital Scrapbooking Day - next weekend we get to do it again - the twins turn 7 and our oldest turns 13 - the dreaded 13 - actually I am looking at it as the LUCKY 13 - but THREE birthdays in TWO days?  Wow - we never slow down!

Expect to be a bit sparse this week - I will be recuperating and catching up on all those chores I missed - dishes, laundry, floors, errands, I can't wait to get back to semi-normal...

Here are a few pics of the kids -

The above quick page was done by Celeste from pcLayers - it is a freebie on the Digital Scrapbooking blog for DSD!