Reflective...

I love this image. I really and truly do. It represents where I came from...and where I long to be. The golden summer wheat, the wind whipping through Gentry's hair as she so intensely studies something new, the dark sky as a good ole fashioned thunderstorm moves across the Kansas prairie. I can almost smell the rain and feel the wind on my skin as I type...almost.

As I see my sweet girl examining wheat for the first time, a countless array of memories from my own childhood play like an old movie reel in my mind. I harbor so many memories from this very ground where she is standing. Wonderful memories that will travel with me throughout my life. Those hot, sticky, windy summer afternoons spent picking ladybugs off of the wheat during harvest. The cool, brisk fall mornings picking pine cones from underneath the old pine tree next to the shed. The Easter Egg hunts. The fireworks shows. The four wheeler rides with my grandpa to abandoned little creeks on dirt roads. The pairs of jeans lined up on the clothes line out front drying in the sun. I can see it so vividly as I sit here now. The old fashioned {and I am sure highly dangerous} popcorn popper that popped kernal after kernal of popcorn. The tiny little baby food jar filled with cinnamon and sugar which we sprinkled on our toast all those mornings we woke up after spending the night...

This is the home of my grandparents. When I think back to years gone by, I can honestly say that other than my own home, my most fond memories were created on this farm of theirs. I am a lucky one...at almost 29, I still have three of my four grandparents. While I was close to all of them, I have always been especially close to my mom's parents, and more specifically my grandpa.

I look back at pictures and he was so young when I was born! I was the first grandchild on my mom's side and was admittedly slightly spoiled! My grandpa is the only one who can get away with calling me "B-Beth" or "Bethy!" He is the only one I don't mind yelling for so he can hear me!! {All those years of riding noisy farm equipment really did a number on his hearing! I talked to him this week though and he finally got fitted for hearing aids!!} I don't really know why, but for some reason we have always been especially close. And although I have never considered myself a country girl, it is amazing how much I crave the simplicity of that lifestyle at times!

I took this back in June while we were home for my class reunion. When I posted it back then I received TONS of comments on it! I have spent some time today sifting back through images in an attempt to find some for my Hissyfits website and came across this one. The editing was atrocious, so I started all over and created something I love!

So, just for a little comparison, here is my first editing job from June or July...followed by the one I just did an hour or so ago!!





On that note, sweet Gentry girl is waking up from her nap so I need to get! I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend out there in blog land!