January 11-RFMC

Tonight was the first official meeting for The Ride for Missing Children. This will be my 8th year involved in The Ride and this one is a special ride because it will mark the 20th anniversary. I rode my first year, got hurt and couldn't ride so became a volunteer the second year and have stayed a volunteer ever since. I'm sure it will come as no surprise that I started out as a volunteer photographer. The next step was joining the family committee and concentrating my photography on family members and events. I've loved it. Last year after The Ride my son was a rider in the Ride of Hope to Washington DC and my husband was his team's sag driver. That event touched my husband and he came home determined to do The Ride this year and wants me to ride with him. So..... that's what I'll be doing this year. I'll still be doing photography, just not on the day of the ride.

I took a few pictures at the meeting. This one is special. Twenty years ago when seven men rode their bikes to Washington DC for the first time they were met by a local teacher and some of his students. They sang a song when the riders got there. Tonight that teacher happened to stop by to say hello to Dick Jordan, one of those seven original riders. It was a touching moment.

You can learn more about The Ride here.
If you'd like to make a contribution you can do that here. My son, husband and I have a commitment to raise $1500 to help print posters and provide safety education to children.

January 10-Macro Monday-Buttons

No camera pics today. But here are the two pictures I decided to enter for Macro Mondays-Buttons

I am a keeper of buttons and have started a second jar to store them. Before I toss a piece of clothing I remove and keep the buttons. I have a quite a few from my kids' old clothes that are fun to look at. This face button was on my dress as a little girl. 

I'm a little embarrassed to admit this but I think this cow was off a sweater of mine many years ago.

January 9 OlloClip

This week's Macro Monday theme is buttons. I decided to take a few shots of buttons with my iPhone and my macro Olloclip. The buttons are on a Christmas sweatshirt and I took the pictures while sitting under a light on the couch. No special  set up and no editing. One thing I need to look into is a adapter to hook my phone up on my little bendable tripod, of course the name of the tripod escapes me at the moment.

January 8 New Brewery

Exciting times for our area, our first farm brewery opened up.  It's on my way home from work and less than 4 miles from home! It was great to see the place packed on the first night of its soft opening. There were three beers on tap. The stout was my favorite. I wasn't ready to bring home a growler of anything yet but I'm sure the day will come. It's being run by three teachers, nice!

January 7-My Word for the Year

Here's my blog post behind this picture:http://thereadingroomk-2.blogspot.com/2016/01/my-word-for-year-retirement.html

I took the picture with my phone and don't like it at all. I may retake it eventually with my camera for a better picture on my teacher blog. But not tonight....

January 6 The Ride Home

Today I took a little bit longer route home because it's easier to stop along the road to take a picture. I was beginning to think I wasn't going to find anything when I approached the last hill and the power lines shimmered with the setting sun hitting them and the sky was such a pretty blue. I didn't manage to capture the sparkle, sigh. 

January 5-Proud Parents' Moment

42 new PA students ready to begin training.

Our Daughter

After the ceremony it was off to Druther's Brewery for a celebratory flight of beers and dinner.

Harvest Mac and Cheese

Proud parent story today: Our daughter has known she has wanted to enter the medical field since beginning undergrad. She went from physical therapist, to physician's assistant to doctor and back to PA. She worked hard and graduated with honors with a degree in biology and minor in chemistry (I think). Then she set her sights on getting into PA school but needed direct patient care hours first. So she lived at home and fulfilled that requirement and applied to her top choice for schools. She was accepted and today on day two she received her white coat. I was surprised she got that so quickly but it was explained today they do that so the students know they are a professional in training. It's going to be a tough 28 months for her, but it will all be worth it in the end.