January 1 - 7, 2012

Sunday, January 1 - Scott & I drove to Kentucky early in the day to visit his grandmother in the hospital.  The week before Christmas she was taken to the doctors office where the NP mis-diagnosed her as having a mild stroke.  She came home and seemed to be doing better.  On December 29 she was admitted into the hospital and was diagnosed with having a severe heart attack and major blockage.  A stint was inserted but the kidneys began shutting down and the doctors did not expect her to live more than a few weeks.  After spending the day in the hospital where many friends and family came to visit, including Cousin Judy Woosley who sent us blackeyed peas & cornbread for dinner, we left for their farm for the evening.  Poppy had waited all day to eat his cornbread in milk and he thoroughly enjoyed it.

Monday, January 2 - Waking up at the farm with a beautiful view.

We spent the day at the hospital with Grandmother.  Many friends & family came to visit, bringing flowers and telling us how much Grandmother meant to them.  Her quiet influence and strength was an inspiration to many and the stories they told & tears shed were so special to us.  Flowers were sent by Cousin Phillip & Jennifer Woosley family.

Tuesday, January 3 - The previous night was spent at Phillip & Jennifer's house in Bowling Green due to unexpected snow/ice.  Tatum was nice enough to give us her bed for the evening!

We then travelled back to the hospital where we waited for the hospice social worker to visit and give us options on Grandmother's care. 

After weighing the options, we felt that Grandmother would be more comfortable in a hospice facility instead of at home where help would be limited.  We wanted her to be as comfortable and pain free as possible. During these few days she was asleep with very limited times when she appeared to recognize anyone.  That afternoon she was transported to the hospice facility in Bowling Green which was extremely nice and the people were very helpful.  The sun setting in the hospice chapel window:

After seeing Grandmother settled, Scott and I drove back to Nashville as we both needed to be back at work.

Wednesday, January 4 - Both Scott & I returned to work where it was hard to concentrate but was unfortunately what we needed to do as Scott had only been at his new company for a few months.  That night I went to see Cammy to have my hair cut/colored.

Thursday, January 5 - Met friends Julie & Eric Whisler at Jacks BBQ for dinner & then went to see the Predators lose to the Dallas Stars 4-1.

Friday, January 6 - At 1am we received a call that Grandmother would not make it much longer.  Scott drove to Kentucky.  Scott, Suzy, Todd & Poppy were able to be with her when she passed away at 4:48am.  These photos are of the farm she loved, the apple house she ran so beautifully for years and the sun setting on her life.  We will miss you Grandmother!

Saturday, January 7 - The day was filled with making decisions, calls, running errands and visiting with family.  This is the beautiful dress Suzy chose in which to bury her mother:

My 365 Day Project

In 2011, I discovered several blogs featuring photographers who were working through a 365 day photo project.  Some were with big cameras and were very serious, some all self portraits, some more casual and less serious. 

Photography has always been something I enjoyed doing and with the everyday stresses of life, it's usually an after thought in my day-to-day activities.  I decided that I would challenge myself to use my digital SLR camera every day to be creative & learn new things.  However, at the beginning of 2012 when I was all set to venture onto this path, my husband's grandmother became ill.  With this came the realization that it would be difficult to always have my big camera in hand in many situations. 

Recently I had purchased an iphone 4s and spent time looking at professional photographers sites who were using their iphone to create books, facebook sites, etc. I really liked a lot of the work I saw and began experiementing.  Knowing that I would always have my iphone in-hand, I decided to use my iphone to document the year instead of my DSLR.  Here is my journey. 

First Post!

Testing & playing to see what this is all about!