So in 1986 on March 21 a chilly day, Eric and I got married.  We had dated for years and we were ready to make the commitment to each other to stay together forever.  I am so glad that God placed Eric in my life and that even when I didn’t make the best decisions, Eric stayed by my side.  He loved me even when I didn’t really deserve his understanding and love.  Isn’t that just like God?  Now, don’t get me wrong, Eric is far from perfect, but as far as humans go, he’s the closest I know.

I thank God for sending Eric to be my husband, the father of our children and the person that I get to spend my life with.  I love him so much more and better with each passing year.  You learn what true love as you go and very rarely is it what you thought it was when you were first married.

I think that I agree with the statement that Matthew said to Mary on Downton Abbey, “I won’t be happy with anyone else as long as you walk the earth.”  That is absolutely true.  I now know that my life is just as it was meant to be. I am proudly and happily Mrs. Eric Malicoat.  I wouldn’t trade a minute of the time we’ve been married, which by the way is 29 years, 10,585 days, 254,040 hours, 15,242,400 minutes, and over 914 million seconds.  WOW.  I love you, Eric and I always will.

Yesterday, I decided ask a status question of my female friends on the subject of a woman president. My question was, would you vote for a woman for president just because she’s a woman?  The reason for my question was two-fold, one I was listening to all the Hillary Clinton news of the day and so I started thinking about her suitability for such an office and two, to see if I had many friends who would just lock step with the “we are women, we must stick together” mentality of some women.

I should have known that most of my friends are their own people with their own convictions,  We all have our standards that we use to base our decisions on,  I loved that my friends that answered were very strong  in their responses,  As a conservative woman, I have often felt that my opinion didn’t matter to those women who were more interested in pushing the agenda set forth by liberal feminists.  I love that ALL women can make up their own minds.

I had one male responder to my question and his advice was to ask my male friends if they would vote for a woman.  I don’t want to speak for him but the way I understood his question was to say that most men would not be willing to vote for a woman.  I know that there are many men that wouldn’t vote for a woman no matter what and that is their choice.  I do have more faith in my male friends that they would not just dismiss a qualified person with their same values due to gender.  I have a lot of conservative male friends and contrary to the liberal line that they are against women, I don’t see it that way and I know some that are much more open to  a woman in office than their spouses.  I don’t assume that all men are against women.  That may have been true in the past, but not among the men I know in this day and age.

So as I said  earlier, I started thinking about this question after watching Hillary Clinton give a totally unbelievable news conference that made me feel like she actually believed  that we are too stupid to question her.  I don’t trust her.  Especially with the future of the United States.  She doesn’t make eye contact and doesn’t handle situations well and is a part of the past.  Her ideas are old and stale and don’t represent me.  Here’s a couple photos that are just a sample of how reading her body language tells that she is not honest and gets hostile very easily.  The first is from her news conference yesterday and the second is her moment before a congressional committee on Benghazi where she got frustrated with answering to “we the people” about the events surrounding the Benghazi embassy attack and the killing of four Americans.  Her response, “At this point, what difference does it make”? Well I think that it means a lot to the families of the men who died and to the citizens of the American people that she worked for.  That is an issue to consider when wondering if she is the correct person  for the presidency.

I have been blessed to have wonderful strong women in my life and I don’t know who it is at this point, but I know that there is a woman out there that would be a great choice for our first woman president if that is in God’s plan.

Recently Eric and I went on a trip to California and decided to drive the 17 Mile Drive on Monterey Bay. I, of course, had to get my own photographs of the most photographed tree in the United States, The Lone Cypress. It was fun to take photos of a famous landmark.

I’ll share more in the future of other sites we visited. It was a beautiful trip.

There is nothing I enjoy more than capturing LIFE for families and friends.  I have always loved helping people preserve their precious moments in photos.  For a few years I have been blessed to capture many people and moments from behind my camera lense. I would love to offer my services for special life events, birthdays, proms, anniversary celebrations, maternity, engagement, weddings. I like to work mostly in a candid photo style with some posed also. I like mostly outdoor, on location with natural lighting. If you have an upcoming event and would like a photographer there, contact me at my email, elmskm@mchsi.com.  I would love to talk with you and see if we could capture your event in the way precious memories should be preserved. Since every event or photo session is unique, according to what is wanted, I will let you know the costs in a private email.  Look for some samples of my work on this blog.  With spring coming there will be some special opportunities for photo fun, schedule your time soon.  I look forward to capturing your important events as forever memories