During Thanksgiving weekend David and I were so happy to just see so many family members. One person I was very excited to see again was a very young lady named Katelynn. David's cousin Leanna has two little precious children, Katelynn and Aiden. The last time we saw her family was for a funeral, but the one thing about The Balentines is that they always see the silver lining on the cloud. We got to hang out at Leanna's and have a yummy Texas dinner. Katelynn and I got soo close over the two days we were there and I had a little friend that just wanted to hang out with me. I ended up playing 'Beauty Shop' with her like I did when I was a kid and straightened her hair and gave her some bronzer and lip gloss. After that was done I ended up teaching her some gymnastics moves (since I once was a certified Gymnastics Teacher) and she got her handstands, back flips, front flips and cartwheels down in one night. It was not easy to leave and I loved that I got a big hug right before we left.
I had been thinking all about Katelynn and how excited I would be to see her when we got to San Antonio. I finally got to see her on Thanksgiving morning and she was standing right in front of the door with no idea of who I was. I noticed this immediately and said "Katelynn, do you remember me?" Of course her answer was no. I frowned, put my hands on my hips and said "Katelynn! I taught you how to do Gymnastics!" She thought for a second and had a huge smile on her face and gave me a great big hug. David and I had to go to my Mom's for her wonderful Thanksgiving Lunch and told Katelynn we would see her at Allison's for dinner.
We got to Allison's around 4 and I could tell that Katelynn still wasn't as warmed up to me as she was last time I saw her in Ft. Worth. I noticed that Everyone was outside waiting for the dinner to be ready and I realized what better time to bring out my Hula Hoops! Like I wrote in a precious post they ended up being a huge hit and the one person that got it down the most was Katelynn. She saw me taking pictures of everything going on and got extremely interested in my camera. She even started getting really close to it to start inspecting it and hinting about how much she likes to take pictures with her Mom's camera. Honestly, I love my camera with all my heart and I rarely, rarely let anyone take a picture with it, so i nicely told her that it is a very expensive camera and I really am the only one who takes pictures with it. She understood and listened to what I said, but of course she is somewhat like me and was very persistent. I finally realized that she really wanted to take pictures, so when I was done taking everything I needed to that day I told her she could finally use it, but on one condition... that she had to have the camera strap around her neck at all times and if it any time I saw her without it I would take my camera away. She smiled so big and agreed to the rule.
She was so amazed of how well the pictures were coming out. She learned very quickly how to use the lens, focus and take the right kind of pictures. After 5 minutes she came up to me and told me she ran out of pictures to take. I told her to remember that she probably wouldn't see this house for another year and I wanted her to go through the house and take a picture of every little thing in the house so she would have a way to remember Allison's home when she came back next year. It ended up working just like I expected to and really because the best thing for a beginner photographer is to have an assignment. She ended up taking over 300 pictures that night!
Her parents were a little worried about her using the camera too much, but I just reminded them that its a rechargeable battery and a 16gb camera card and there was nothing to worry about. She did such a great job and for the next few days she would ask politely to borrow my camera to take more pictures. One of the last nights that her parents were there, the whole Balentine Grandkids gang were outside talking and catching up with all our stories. Her father had told me that he wanted to thank me for showing his daughter a hobby that she loved. We would look at her pictures all together and everyone was so amazed and surprised at how gifted she was at it. He was even blown away to see her photo shopping work and could not even believe that Katelynn had done this all by herself. Even Bruce (the man that knows everything about anything) even stated that he was very impressed with her work and really saw a talent in her pictures.
Nothing put a bigger smile on my face than seeing her really fall in love with photography. Her father even told me that there is no way around it, they are getting her a really good camera for her big Christmas gift.
I was so proud of all the work and everything that she had learned over the few days she was there. I think my favorite part of spending time with Katelynn was that I finally found out what it was like to have a little sister. It made me feel like a great role model for someone and help them find their love for something and put them in the right direction. I can't wait to see her again and teach her more things. Who knows, we might have a big name photographer in our family in some years ahead, and I will always be her biggest fan.
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