At Whit's Inn: Cameras, cameras...Get ready for a roller-coaster!

My 5th child has hardly been photographed except for when he first arrived! No, no, no... it's not what you are thinking! It's not because I'm too busy, or don't care about his milestones, or don't want to share them. ***SIGH*** I have had camera issues. Too many to count. How can you blog about your family without photos!!! Lack of photos has had me uninspired to write! Let's see, first my beloved Canon "broke"... so I thought. I had tried changing the batteries, but it would not turn on. I began looking for my 2 year service agreement. Who knows where I put it when we were moving a year ago! Started using the OLD olympus, and then somehow lost it!!!! I didn't worry about that though because I didn't even really enjoy the photos it would take. I would have to just purchase a new camera! So I began that process of reading review, after review. Couldn't really afford to buy what I wanted, so I resigned to saving. No instant gratification for things like that because we never, NEVER use credit cards for anything!!

Luke began smiling; Whitley did a major renovation in our basement; our daughter was baptized! I had no camera, so I was at the mercy of anyone who would let me borrow. Our music minister let me borrow his camera the evening Abigail was baptized. While I was helping her get dressed afterwards, I was sitting on a bench in the dressing room. I stood up, and THUD!!! You got it, the camera had been on my lap and crashed to the floor. Sweating, I picked it up and turned it on and it gave me some message that didn't sound promising! I began to FREAK!! Oh NO!!! Now I have to buy TWO cameras!!!! AAAAAAAHHHH! Later I found out that the battery or memory card had jiggled just enough to render it momentarily useless. After taking those out and putting them back in, it began to work again. PHEW! (At least so far, I haven't been told otherwise.) Then the glorious day came when my husband got my camera to working!!! YAY! That's all I wanted! My best, most favorite Canon to WORK! I used it for a while and then it mysteriously disappeared. We have searched high and low. My mom (expert finder) even looked. She found the Olympus under the couch cushion, but NO CANON. UGH! Back to using the Olympus. Actually I don't even think I took one picture with it this time. Over some time, my mom came up with this thought: She had had a garage sale in Ft. Stockton, and had taken some stuff from my house. She wonders if David deposited the Canon into a brown paper bag that had stuff for sale in it. It wouldn't surprise me, because David is our little property shuffler! She says she remembers selling a camera, but really thought it was a camera the same color of mine that was hers. All we are left to think is that my favorite camera accidentally got sold for a couple of bucks!

Fast forward several weeks, and more looking, my sister-in-law, Amber, and I took our kids to the splash pad at the park. Cameraless, I of course took pictures of her and her son and my children. Then she took over and took some more great shots. I remember seeing that she had set the camera down on the ground, but didn't think anything of it. The next day, after realizing she must have left it, she went in a panic to see if it was there to no avail. It was an expensive Sony that she and my brother bought while they were on their honeymoon. They were so upset! Just a few days later Justin bought a new camera with lots of extra add-ons from other companies through Amazon. It had not even arrived, and Amber was at the public swimming pool (right next to the splash pad). Someone recognized her as the owner of the camera that had been turned in!!! WOW! Now, what to do with the one they just bought? It would be too much of a pain to return the camera and the extras they bought to other companies. Justin called me and asked if I wanted to have the one they just found! I was taken back and shocked that she had even found it that I didn't really respond very well at first. I sort of had to process this information. Justin said on the phone, "The Lord is forcing me to bless you!" I got to laughing at that later, and realized that maybe that was indeed true. So, *****DRUMROLL***** I am now the proud owner of an awesome camera that I could not have purchased without saving for a long time...at least until... I find the Canon (??) that may not be findable. So to celebrate my new camera that has a home on top of Luke's Armoire, unreachable by David, here is the first three pictures I have taken, and they are of Luke, of course!!! Poor, hardly photographed baby!!!!