The Nephew… 18 years old now… A senior… Making his plans, which will take him to his life away from home next year… Tell me, where did the time go? Sister I will be ready for all your phone calls when the inevitable happens… I know Jesse will do incredible things with his life… But I can’t help but wish for the little boy again…
all for now…
I have been wanting to visit this city for such a long long time! So when Calvin’s audition with MTVA (Middle Tennessee Voice Academy) for Honor Choir, was scheduled the same Saturday as his first high school mission trip with our church to New Orleans, I wasted NO time to offer to drive him there right after his audition! He was able to squeeze in hours earlier then he was scheduled and we were on the road by 12:00… I love me a good road trip. And this was a great one.. Got Calvin to the church where the youth group was staying, and I was off for my adventure…
My Sweetheart booked my hotel rooms, which put me right on the French Quarter! It was awesome to be right in the middle of the French Quarter. I could walk to everything. ( Jim had Air Force Reserve duty in GA.)
I booked a 3 hour city tour, which picked me up at my hotel Sunday morning. The guide was awesome and I got to see so much and learned tons about the history of the city.
Naturally I couldn’t wait to get some photos of this festive area, during our tour and on my own once the tour was over. I headed out on foot exploring and shooting images as I was drawn to them. The history of the area was the biggest draw to me. I couldn’t stop trying to imagine the way the French Quarter was over 100 years ago, the people and their lives in this place. There was a Saints football game Sunday and after the game the streets were filled with fans in jersey’s and tons of others as well. Bourbon Street was not where I attended to hang out, “after dark”, although I did make my way down it after a night walking tour. I never once felt any danger, but it was not “my scene!” I got a few shots of some street entertainment on Bourdon before dark and I was happy about that. It is definitely full of some characters and they were not the street entertainment!
The fact that there are not enough restrooms or that one may not be readily available to the hugh crowd and the huge amounts of alcohol being comsumed, leads those who have comsumed large amounts of alcohol in need of said restroom makes Bourdon street, smell like a toliet… there I said it..or rather typed it… You know it’s bad when the street cleaning trucks come down the streets in the morning leaving a soapy “citrus” smelling solution on the street. A much needed soapy solution! Not to just give New Orleans a bad rap, downtown Nashville has had the very same.
The good with the bad. I have to say there was way more GOOD for me and I hope it won’t be long before we all go back together to visit this amazing city..
more photos to come… thanks for dropping by the blog…
This beautiful young lady is the daughter of my good friend Michelle. (I)Laurie Lehman Photography, is sponsoring her first year of High School cheer leading for the Mt. Juliet Bears!
Now Mt. Juliet is NOT the high school our son attends. In fact the schools are sort of rivals. BUT that aside, she is precious to us and I am thrilled to be here cheer sponsor!
Last night the freshman Bears played our school the Wildcats and we went along to watch the game, watch her cheer and get a few photos. It was great seeing her out there and the company and weather and game was just the best.
Keep up the good work girl… 
whenever I get to spend time with family. We are bonded by heritage. We share a set of Grandparents, our mother’s are sister’s. We share a childhood full of memories. Stories of our childhood seem almost hard to believe, to others, we survived them! Take 6 zany girls (well, Stacie tried to keep us from some of our craziness! and Kerri, we just dragged her along!) close to the same age and give them lots of unsupervised time together and see what they can come up with or get into. Just one “for instance”, we got the idea that it would be, OH so much fun to take turns standing outside of the pickup camper and hang onto the thin handle while are parent’s were driving around the farm roads in Nevada. We joke that our Guardian Angels were the busiest angels of all!
The four of us, cousins, made a pack while we were young girls that we would stand up of each other in our weddings and we did. Leslie was my Matron of Honor, I was her Maid of Honor, Dee Dee was Kelli’s Maid of Honor and Kelli was Dee Dee’s Matron of Honor. All in the 80’s so we had BIG HAIR!
Kelli and her husband Rick and Leslie got to visit us Tennessee Lehman’s this summer for a few days. And it was a wonderful visit. We stopped by the studio for a quick few shots, of course! I took Kelli and Rick’s engagement photo while I was still in college and I wanted to take another one of them all these almost 30 years later.
Here’s Kelli making turning 50 this year look GOOD!
Here’s Leslie making “Grandma” of 4 grandchildren and one on the way look GOOD! Leslie and I were born in ‘62. She has married with children, children, and my son is a freshman in High School! It’s all good.
Kelli and Leslie are two of the four sister’s. Perhaps someday we will all be able to get together.
SO, I had to get in the fun as well!
And because I believe in equal opportunity embarrassment and don’t want my little sister to feel left out, I’m posting this fun photo of her from her visit in June this summer as well!
and this one, which is slightly blurred but that I love.
I am blessed to have been born in this family of women. The best part of me is wrapped up in the riches of their lives and our precious time spent together. From the famous late night applesauce fight in the camper, our camping trips and games we created at Canyon Creek, endless laughter, heartbreak and healing, children born and grown. All nuggets of treasures I have placed in my heart and can bring out and enjoy and marvel over at a whim. Priceless and precious to me, like all of them…
Thanks for dropping by…
Joy to you!
Jason Twiggy Lott, who’s Reconstructions were on display Saturday, during the Art Crawl at the Rymer Gallery on 5th Ave. Jason’s use of vintage photos, and collected objects of all sorts, and assembled into a piece of art sang out to me. I loved the way he was able to take these various objects and arrange them into such intresting pieces. His work was the highlight for me of the evening. (example photo from his website)
My friend Barb and I had a great time strolling through the galleries, chatting about the various work, and catching the shuttle.
all for now…