What I wanna be when I grow up..

This is what I want to do
when I grow up.
If I had only known 30 years ago
before my parents and I invested thousands
in my education as a teacher.
Not that I don't like teaching.
I like it.
I think I even have an appitude for it.
(or so I am told)
But the excitement that I get
from taking pictures.
There is no match for it.
It is second only to the passion I have
for being a wife and a mother.
(and let's face it those things are so hard)
As I have always told my kids as whined and fussed at moments that they have been instructed to smile for the birdie.."If there are no pictures of something, it might not have actually happened. I read a post from CJane this week that said that she didn't take her camera on her trip to England and that she took snapshots with her mind and that would be enough. Good luck with that one I say. She is young. Her mental photo album is still relatively uncluttered. Wait until the album is filled and the pictures are stuffed in the shoeboxes of your brain, cluttered and unorganized. Or the lens on the brains camera is fuzzy, needs reading glasses and the rusty shutter sticks every now and then. That when you need the real thing on paper. Good photographic paper that won't yellow or fade and feels substantial in your hands and in your heart.
That's when you will feel grateful for the screwball in the family that always had a camera in their hand.
The one who made you mad because you weren't wearing make-up or you wanted to wait until you had lost a few pounds.
Who insists on the photo of the family dinner that you complained about because the food was getting cold.
Yup, that's me.
You don't have to thank me. (although no one is stopping you)
I do it because I love it like I love rocky road ice cream.
I need to like I need oxygen to breathe.
It's who I am.
Now how am I going to turn it into a retirement part time job?
Anyone need a retired teacher/semi retired mom/photographer?

P.S. It doesn't hurt to have two of the most beautiful models ever...Peanut and her cousin Pizza. It makes the task a piece of cake. Thank you girls. You rock!