Fences (Theme 42)

I can't think of a better fence for this theme than the one we look thur all the time. Here he is looking back while chatting away with his buddy.

Uniform (Theme 183)

I'm posting 2 because they go together. Here is Tom looking at us as we are up in the bucket of the ladder truck and since he didn't have his turnout coat on I decided to show it in a second photo. He does look rather small in this photo but we were rather high up when I shot this.

Toy (Theme 325)

This is our neighbor Sarah and she is just a few months old. My cats are 14 and 15 so the play with anything factor is long gone. Sarah chased this gatorade top all over the yard for about an hour and would have gone longer if my kids would have thrown it. She is so fun to watch along with her orange brother Gary.

Sunset (Theme 192)

Again we are up in the Fire Dept. ladder truck at 135' looking at the runway of the Knoxville, TN airport. You get quite a wide view being up that high. I almost felt like I could touch the plan as it made it's decent into the airport.

Skill (Theme 308)

Skill is what this job takes and our Fire Department is constantly training and making sure their skills are sharp if they are ever needed to save a life or property. Here, they are in a burn box set up so that they can practice their techniques in total darkness.

Rose (Theme 258)

My neighbor has the green thumb, so green that I use their garden to photograph. Thanks a lot Dennis & Trish for your outstanding gardening skills. I did a little filter action on this picture to get the swirl effect. You just have to love photoshop.

Feather (Theme 320)

The Duck pond has many residence and this one was somewhat friendly. He actually came to me and sad down about 2 feet away so I took his pictures. The colors are always so nice on the mallards.

Emergency (Theme 291)

In the Church theme (Theme 301) we were up in this aerial truck at the height of 135'. Here is what it looks like all closed up and ready to move. It's quite impressive to see it in action and now we know that there is not a place in the City that our Fire Fighters can not reach.

Collections (Theme 64)

He has thousands of these legos and when he sits down to build something is like magic..........so I had to add the bolt of lightening and I'm sure that he will enjoy seeing that. He's really creative with these pieces and he could play for hours to days if we let him.

Church (Theme 301)

Here are some local churches in Alcoa from a view of 135'. We were up in the new ladder truck that the fire department has and I had my camera.......now did you doubt that? I had these 2 and I couldn't decide which one to use so you get both.

Childhood (Theme 137)

Growing up we loved to play with chalk on the driveway and so do my kids. Here we were in New York where they have black top driveways instead of concrete like we have so the chalk really shows up. Ryan drew his Delta planes all over the driveway along with playing tic tac toe with his cousin.

Tattoo (Theme 152)

Ryan and Bryce wanted tattoo's but there were both so sweaty that it would have been a waste of $3 to let them get one on their faces so they chose to be partriotic and had one painted on their arms. What stud muffins they are.......

Sinking (Theme 149)

The Annual BBQ has been a wealth of great photo opportunities. Here is the canoe race around the pond and we had a few casualties.

Rubbish (Theme 55)

How about a UT Tailgate Garbage Truck for your next tailgate party? This truck is so clean and has a lot of UT detail on every side all to support the the University of Tennessee teams. We bleed orange around these parts of town, what color is your blood???

Retro (Theme 83)

Ok for all intensive purposes he shall remain nameless. Boy does he know fashion. He has on my daughters sunglasses that she fully believes are COOL. I hate to tell her that all I think about when I see them is how retro and Austin Powers-ish they are.

Geek (Theme 357)

I don't know a better definition for Geek than Barney Fife. We were at the annual BBQ for the city and Barny came to keep order. He did a great job not only looking and sounding just like Barney but he had all the mannerisms down pat. I really felt old when all the younger kids look around and said, who is that???

Frown (Theme 132)

It's a very bright day for the BBQ and Hannah just wanted her sunglasses. Dad thought they looked great on him but I really hated to tell him that they look better on her. He did give them up when Mom took over. Thank you Hanna for give me your frown face.

Doubtful (Theme 259)

My friend whom I call Happy Gilmore gave me an Amish Friendship starter for a bread several weeks ago. I'm still making these breads every 10 days because they are so good. I used this for the doubtful theme because it's highly doubtful that there will be any of this left after 2 days. Each time I make on I end up with 4 starters. I give 3 away and keep one for the next baking. I don't have any idea what generation I'm on now but it's great to have and give away.

Bookworm (Theme 211)

We went to Blount County Library so the kids would have some books and Regan grabbed 4, of which she read all of them in no time. Ryan, well he ventured over to the airplane section and carried out 4 of his choices All about airplanes and he sat down to read.....or look at the cool pictures. We got home and he did go thru his books and read about fighter jets and whatnot. He then proceeded to draw them and he did a great job. So Ryan is my bookworm for the day.

Love (Theme 114)

This page I put together for Tom and I. Usually it's a page about the kids but not this time. I love the color blue for the background and the way the cut outs turned out on this layout. Indeed he is my best friend and I couldn't find a more fitting page for love. Besides I'm usually on the other side of the camera so this is a lucky shot.

Zips (Theme 360)

I just love this brand of clothing and believe it or not it's all from QVC. My grandmother started it. When she came down from Syracuse to visit us she would watch QVC for things that she liked and one day Quacker Factory came on and I loved the dazzle. I have been hooked ever since and try to get a new outfit from there every Christmas for the Fire Department Christmas Party and I found red. How fitting is red for the Fire Dept and during the Holidays.....so fun.

Key (Theme 63)

I will just be you can't guess what the "T" stands for??? Hint; if the orange doesn't give it away then I don't know what to tell you. Maybe if you listened to my accent then you would know.....wait, I don't have one (or much of one) but I sure can throw one out there if need be and you should hear me when I get rolling on how people say certain words around this area.......comical to say the least. Words like, Maple Syrup = Maple Surple; Chimney = Chimley; Eggs = Ayugs; Light blub = lite bub; Roller Coaster = Rollie Coaster; and my favorite catch all for if the car doesn't work = hey, I blowed da motor.

Perfume (Theme 68)

Here are some of my great smelling perfumes but my all time favorite is Happy by Clinique and I'm out of it. I'm too cheap to buy it when there isn't a special or deal on a kit so maybe Santa will bring me more HAPPY for Christmas....HINT HINT HINT. Perfume on the left is Samsara, middle is Jessica McClintock and on the right is Always by Avon.

Slippers (Theme 58)

This was the best present I got one Christmas and I have said that since I put them on. They are so warm and comfortable. I have a real problem keeping my tootsies warm between the Fall-Winter months that if I'm home, these are on. I highly recommend them. They came from Cabellas.

Tickets (Theme 139)

Now these tickets date back to our trip to Syracuse, NY. Really I should say that it was our attempted trip. We were stuck in Cincinnati, OH in a blizzard. Some of the other themes used for this trip were; Waiting, Traffic, Eyes, Distorted, Lost and Performance. Click on any of those under themes used and you will see glimpses of our trip. Now with changing flights and booking/rebooking we ended up with a tree's worth of paper tickets and here is a stack. I was just so excited to finally get to NY and get home without losing our luggage that I had to partake in a celebratory beer and a long nap. You can tell I'm getting old because I really could have gone for the nap only but I was for the gusto.

Tissue (Theme 129)

Tissue is the theme and I couldn't pass this one up. My Mother-in-law is magical, she turns a nice flat napkin/tissue into this shown to the left in a matter of minutes. It has become the family joke to check her napkin status after dinner and if it's not small enough we aren't done. Love you CJ!!!!

Queue (Theme 314)

I have to admit that I didn't even know what queue meant and had to look it up. I learned a new word so yippee.....good for me, right? Anyway, once I knew what it meant I thought I had just taken the photo and it's in the middle of the 3 pictures. For those of you, like me, that didn't know what queue is/was: it means to stand or walk in a line.......so simple.

Ring (Theme 258)

I really like this picture and what it represents plus the depth of field really makes the rings stand out. This photo is right out of the camera.

Medicine (Theme 287)

Here is my lifesaver for headaches of all kinds. I do get migraines and if they are not too bad I can deal with them using Excedrin instead of more serious pain killers.

Model (Theme 167)

Around this house if Ryan isn't talking airplane, playing airplane, building airplane, watching airplane on the TV-Outside-at the Airport, then he is asleep and then he is more than likely dreaming airplane.

Cartoon (Theme 286)

I loved this cartoon so much that it has a permanent home on my fridge. Ryan plays baseball so this is very fitting knowing him and his team mates. The cartoon says: "Boys, I thought I told you to let the store tell you what cup size you needed."