Oklahoma Springtime

I await spring the way most folks look forward to Christmas. The sunshine, warmth, the smells, and the beautiful flowers are just a few things that generate joy for me. But my big love...the storms! Yes, tornadoes can be scary, but after being raised here and living the majority of my adult life here, the storms are what makes it exciting! Maybe even more so now that I am a photographer. I took these photos on Good Friday and can't wait for another major system to blow in so I can photograph it. Hope you enjoy!

 These guys chased me to my car! I finally got brave enough to turn around and snap some photos. Maybe they were hungry. This is at Lake Stanley Draper. Normally that would be water behind them, but they drained some water to do some improvements to the lake. I'm sure the drought has taken it's toll as well.

 This photo is a hybrid between two photos. There are two layers of clouds. The original clouds that were in the horse photo and a photo of clouds taken over my house later that evening. I like the way the two melded.

This photo also has two different shots. The clouds were taken from my front yard and the horses are taken on Indian Hills Road in Norman.

16 years? Feels like it was yesterday.

Sixteen years ago today the Alfred P. Murrah building in downtown Oklahoma City was bombed. It's hard to believe it's been that long.

I was at work that morning doing payroll. I went to the copy machine and all of the sudden it felt like a truck hit the building.  A few minutes later and I was outside looking at the smoke rising from downtown.  Our building was located at 5th and Meridian.  The day was sunny and clear so it was quite easy to see the terrible devastation happening.

I worked for a personnel company in the accounting office at the time.  We had crews on site downtown setting up the Arts Festival, just blocks from the bombing. A man I worked with there had a wife that was in the building. Thank goodness she was alright, physically. My husband John, I had only met him a month prior, was at the Arts Festival set up.  His sister Barbie worked at the courthouse. It seemed forever before anyone could get a hold of John. We had Nextel radios and everyone was frantically calling him.  He was shaken up, but ok, thank goodness.

A few days later our company worked the parking at the fairgrounds for the memorial service and we passed out little blue pins for those entering.  I had made several pins with white, yellow, purple and blue ribbon a day before to pass out as well. The amount of support that showed up for the memorial was overwhelming.

I hadn't seen the bombing site until a few weeks later. I went there on Mother's Day. I was shocked to see how bad it actually looked in person and will never forget what I saw.  Years later I photographed the site after it became a memorial.  I'm posting these photos in dedication to all those affected 16 years ago today.

I will never forget.