Sixth Day Photo

Any guesses?

2009-03-29T15:47:00.003-06:00

Hey guys, this past weekend I had a chance to spend all day with a really cool family. We had a lot of fun and we shot at a couple of spots. There were some really great photos and this is one of them. We did a "One Last" family shoot, and we also did some maternity work too. I tried to name their baby boy - Robert George - that way I could call him Bobby G - they didn't go for it. That due date is coming up pretty quick - woohoo - and I can't wait to meet him. You may have seen many of the "old standard" maternity shots, but this is one that I wanted to try out - I think it turned out great. I just put them in front of the studio flash and adjusted my aperture setting until I got just a little color, but mostly a silhouette. Thanks for working with me guys.

Ways 2 Go

2009-03-22T16:10:00.005-06:00

Hello, it's been a while, but now here's a new post. I just finished doing a photo shoot with an awesomely fun family. We went out last night and in the place that we tried to set up - security came and ran us off - nice. Then we ended up shooting somewhere that you won't be able to tell. We had some fun shots there, but today we went out to a school where we got some really great shots. The wind was crazy and the sun was extra bright, but it worked out great.

June Bug

2008-06-18T10:41:00.002-06:00

Hey-o last week from Wednesday night to Sunday afternoon I experienced what was called Umpire Boot Camp. It was some serious training that I went through to be a better umpire. Because of the training, I'll get a number on my sleeve and a logo on my pocket from the group called CCUA. Those two things will act as notification to the coaches that I'm not just someone that came out to umpire for the money. CCUA actually stands for Colorado Collegiate Umpires Association. I don't have any college games lined up right now, but the top graduate (not me) will be the Umpire in Chief at the Colorado High School All Star game this year and it will be held at Coors Field which is where the Rockies play. I was one of the top graduates that was chosen to work some extra games, just not THE top. Our instructors flew in from Florida, Missouri, Canada, and many just came from Colorado. The lead instructors were Bob Jones and Bill Davis. Bob worked in the MLB for a bit in the late 70's and early 80's. He has also been an umpire in 3 of the College World Series. Bill has also umpired in the College World Series and was also a part of the staff during the Olympic games in Atlanta in 96. The other instructors are a little less stellar, but by no means , came out to teach us about umpiring the little league summer games. It was a good experience for me - now I just need to get some more games.

God - Man

2008-05-13T16:48:00.005-06:00

Hello - it's been a while. You know, stuff has been happening. I just wanted to talk about God's work for a minute. Maybe you've heard of or been a part of spiritual warfare. Here's the way I see it:
Satan sits around watching the people. If someone gets rambunctious and starts to do something that goes against what he is doing, he gets a little upset. The stuff that he hates to see is God stuff being done - that motivates him to take action. His action can be something that seems cool (David checking out Bathsheba taking a bath) to something awful (Job loses family, home - everything). He is a smart dude (God is smarter). His actions to stop God's work are where the idea of the warfare comes in.
We are free to follow Christ or do nothing and be on Satan's team. That is why he does nothing if we are doing no God Stuff. Now, going to church doesn't necessarily count as God stuff. Many times it ends up just being a place where people can have their consciences soothed by the thought that they had been at the church once this week. Beyond that, at church sometimes lives are changed. Outside those building walls, the church is working in the community shining Christ. That is God fighting back.
Well, we are in a place where there is considerable warfare going on. Our church is small, our income is not quite what it should be to survive, over the past month the people in our church have had some really weird illnesses to some more common, but many in our family have spent time in the hospital. The devil is working hard against what we have going on - or life would be easy. I love that most of our family is committed to seeing God glorified through our meetings and community involvement. I love that as each person is healed or a problem is solved, we can see that it was God at work and not just some stroke of luck.
God rocks and He is rocking in our church family as I write this now. It is hard to see some of the casualties that come from committing completely to God, and it is nerve wracking to follow Isaiah 40:31 and wait on God to be awesome, but He will be - He always is. Our hearts feel nearly torn out because of the struggles, but that last string of nerves, tendons, and muscles that holds each heart in place we tend to see as our best attempt to hold on to God.
Of course there is no way we could hold on without Him--we would just slip and let go - He's the one holding on to us. He is the one that sees the beauty in our struggle. He is the one that loves our efforts. At this point we can begin to fall back on the names of God that have been said for many more moons than I've lived. He is the Comfort! He is the Healer! He is the Patience! He is the Power! He is the Glory! He is the Life! He is the Way! He is the Truth! He is the Hope! He is the Completion!

Movie Night

2008-03-27T19:24:00.003-06:00

We are going to be having a movie night at our church on Sunday night. It is a place where people can come and get to know us without being preached or "religionated" It should be pretty fun - we will be watching "The Game Plan" We are having popcorn and sodas (cokes or pop for everyone else) and we will be using one of the projectors to get a giant screen. Well, since it costs money to get the popcorn and drinks - and since we aren't the most loaded of churches, the movie is free, but the popcorn and drinks won't be. This is the poster that I made that has been produced for our movie night. There will not be any 3D glasses, but if someone does come up with $18 I could probably come up with a pair. For Sunday morning, I've made two "radio-style" commercials. You've got to listen to them in order or they won't make sense. I'm all of the voices, except - Miss Chopsticks did her acting role to help the people in the church know that movie night is for families. So during the service these two commercials will be played at least two times. Enjoy - I know I do every time I hear them.

Monster Truck Ad #1
Pumped ad #2

Leprechaun

2008-03-17T15:19:00.004-06:00

Today I sent Miss Chopsticks to school. Here She is...

When I went to pick her up, this little leprechaun was all I found.

Welcome

2008-03-16T18:47:00.004-06:00

Hey, you know I have the outstandingly, fantastical, unbelievably, superbly, amazing opportunity to lead worship at our church here in Aurora --- www.newdayaurora.com --- Well, I've started having the sound guys record the whole service - including music - so that I can hear what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong as a band. Well, some of the talking that I did struck me as funny - I know that I said it, but it still was pretty funny. So, I thought that I would share it with you. So what you will be hearing is the welcome that I give to the church to get us started. This week we set out tables for most of the congregation to sit at as a new approach to "doing church", but left a couple of rows of chairs for those who didn't want anything to do with the table.The first set of cards that I talk about are Prayer/Info cards that are about 2"x8". The worship folder is a sheet of paper that is folded into thirds. So take a listen and see if you enjoy coming to my church.

CLICKY HERE TO HEAR

Bikes Today

2008-02-01T15:38:00.000-06:00

As of today, all three of my kids can ride a bike on their own. Here's proof of that:

I also want to point out something that is interesting to me that the folks from the south may not have ever seen. In the Picture with The Iceman, The Punisher and Miss Chopsticks, do you see anything funny in the background?

Oh, really - uh huh - do you think so? You're so smart.

Well, there is only snow on the right side of the street. If you look at the left side of the street, there is none. Go ahead and tell me why you might think that is and if someone puts the right answer, it's ok to copy and call it your own.

Alrighty, one more weird thing that I've noticed: In the unfinished basement at our house, the way that the walls were set up is unusual to me and I'm not really sure why or how it works. Here, look at these two pictures that I took of two different walls in our basement and tell me if you know the reason why. Again, if someone puts the right answer, it's ok to copy and call it your own.

I'm working on 2 different songs now. One is called Coming Back. It was called Love with You until The Babe gave it the nostril flare of rejection. The other one may or may not be the title song for the album, but it pretty much rocks.

Last part: I am officially an officiant for the game of baseball here in the state of CO. I passed the test to make me eligible to umpire high school baseball - possibly leading to college, or maybe even professional baseball. I now subscribe to the magazine - Officianado (I may be kidding)

I make music too

2008-01-25T10:04:00.000-06:00

Alright, listen up! I've been recording like a madman. I have posted 6 songs, but soon there will be more. All you have to do is look down at the bottom of the page and you can click on a song and it will start playing - it's that easy. So, check em out - NOW. If you love them - great. If You don't - well poo poo in your eye - er um - I mean, God bless the wonderful being that he has created in you.

2008-01-23T18:23:00.000-06:00

Alright, The Babe showed this to me and if you enjoy the idea of flatulance and flatulating - you will love this video. Isn't God wonderful for allowing us to experience this wonderful sensation!?!

First o' the year

2008-01-11T11:01:00.001-06:00

Alright, here are a couple of photos that I thought I'd show and tell a story. The first photo here is a set of church signs next door to each other. Earlier in the day, I believe that the Eastern Hills church only had three then someone said, "Welp, naw-sir we can't be outdone by that other church. I guess we'll just have to have 4 Christmas eve services ourselves." I don't know about you, but doesn't that seem like a little overkill?

Next photo, this a photo of our church building where the church meets on Sunday mornings at 10:10 (just in case you wanted to visit us across the street from the Smoky Hill HS bus barn) We are squeezed in-between a car parts store on the right and a Chinese food restaurant on the left.

New Video

2007-11-29T12:08:00.000-06:00

Dang - I know it takes a piece of time for me to post, but again, that's been too long. I put this video slideshow together to show at my church over the Christmas holiday. The song is Welcome to Our World by Chris Rice from the album "Deep Enough To Dream" So take a look my friends - it rocks.

Church Sign

2007-11-07T15:22:00.000-06:00

I'm so sorry, that I don't have a photo of it, but I'll try to get one this afternoon and then post it on this blog entry. Anyway, it said something like this:

If you need help
Call on God
Phone 303.555.555

it seems like they might have put their nice little God catch phrase too close to the church phone number. I didn't call because I didn't want them to change the sign - of course I do want to talk to God on the phone - that would be awesome.

lets see - that number is 303 - 555 - 5555 oh man, it's ringing
um, hello - is this really God?

New Days

2007-10-29T15:36:00.000-06:00

Alright, here is a pic of my bug that I did today -nice and sunny. I'm still trying to work out a name. My kids called the last bug - Herbie, no surprise. I think that this new blue 1967 bug will be known as Schleigel. I got the black with flames one from a friend in Washington, named Cal and Heather Schleigel - It wasn't black and it didn't have flames (I did that) - it was light blue with some cloud mural things on it. Heather likes to paint and hadn't done it yet, but was planning on turning the whole bug into a nice fantasy mural - instead they had one too many babies to keep the bug and they gave it to me. So in honor of my friends in the Northwest, "Schleigel" - I guess if Schleigel is too much, Cal or Calvin may be the one - Heather just doesn't seem like a car name. If you guys have any ideas, let me know.

Woo-hoo

2007-10-21T07:34:00.001-06:00

Alright, here is the photo of the bug that I made today. I've had it for a few days, but if you know me - I had to make it say, "Hey, I'm The Waffle's car!" So I slapped a fresh coat of $5.00 paint job on it and it is looking cool. Sorry that it is covered by that white stuff and you can't get a great look at it, but today is the first day that I was going to take a pic. I'll take another when that white stuff goes away. Alright-sy, I've got to go and lead people in singing love songs to Jesus.

Back from a fantastic session with Jesus at church, and I took this photo on the bottom, right when we got home. I figured all of the snow would have melted because yesterday we were wearing shorts and it was 73 degrees. It doesn't feel real cold here, it just hasn't stopped snowing. That is Cole in the background and they are playing baseball. So, I guess I'm wondering how the World Series will turn out here if it gets crazy like this when the games are in CO?

1967

2007-10-09T08:09:00.000-06:00

I'll start driving my new "1967 bug this week. It had a huge hole in the floorboard so I'm having that fixed and I should be picking it up in the next few days. When I do, I'll shoot some photos for you to see. I'll be leading worship for the second week in a row at the church we've been messing around with - New Day. I've had a lot of fun there so I'm glad I'll get to do it. I've talked to a lot of nice people about doing photos, and have had a lot of nice conversations. As everyone checks out what I do, I'm sure that my calendar will be filling up soon. Of course, if it doesn't, it's because they weren't quite ready. Next post should have a photo of the bug - YEAH!

New Video

2007-10-04T08:20:00.001-06:00

Alright, these blog posts have been too few so I'll try to do more. Right now, I want you to check out the new video I posted to the right side of this page. I found out that this was done during a conference called Winterfest in Knoxville Tennessee and the song is called "Everything" recoded by Lifehouse. If you've seen the video, you know how awesome it is. If you haven't, you really need to check it out. That's all for now.

Hectic

2007-09-30T07:19:00.000-06:00

Hey everybody - I'm still alive. I know it has been a while so let me tell you what has been going on. I made it back safe (15hrs straight) from Wisconsin. I finally procured a bug here in Colorado and currently it is being whipped into shape at the bug shop. (when I get it, I'll post some pics) I have led worship at the church that is interested in having me as their worship leader - that process is still proceeding - even right now, I'm getting ready to go and practice with the worship band. I just got back from Texas yesterday. I drove 13hrs on Wednesday night/Thursday morning to get my truck into the Dallas area to sell. Prayerfully/hopefully that thing will be sold pretty quickly - and I'll let you know when it does. I had a chance to play golf at a course called Sherrill Park on Friday. I'm not sure how well I did, but I did finish on the 18th with a birdie. I had a good time and thanks to my B-I-L MWN I had some clubs to play with. Oh well, it's time for me to head to the church for practice. C-YA

Wisconsin on the 16th

2007-09-13T15:35:00.000-06:00

I will be traveling to Wisconsin this weekend and I notice that in Green Bay the Packers will also be in town until the 16th then headed to New York. I wonder if there could be any connection? Maybe they just don't want to see me. Then at the end of this month, I'll be driving my truck down to the Dallas metroplex and try to sell it there. Selling it here doesn't seem like a possibility because every other full size truck in this area is 4x4 and mine is not. I was offered 8,000 for my truck here and that is very unacceptable so I'm bringing it back to Texas then flying home without it. I was told that my truck would be fine 9 out of 10 days, but to get my truck registered here, it is said that it will be about $300.00 - each year. No thank you, I don't drive it that much and I figure I can get a local rental for $20 if I just have to have some lumber.

M C B D

2007-08-31T15:24:00.000-06:00

Hey everybody, Miss Chopsticks' birthday is coming soon and today we did some 5-year portraits in our basement which is lovingly known as "The Pit of Despair." Here is one of them now! She didn't have any classes today so after the photos, I took her to a place called Amazing Jakes and we ate and played until it was time to go and pick up her boys from school. On the way to the school, we stopped by the library and picked up some new reading materials. Our library here has DVD's that you can borrow, as many libraries do, but here, I was able to get the A-team - season three - !YES!

Dustin and Joy's wedding storybook is almost complete and it is awesome. There are some fantastic portrait pages mixed in with some very hilarious pages - it is just a great album!
Our house in Texas finally closed today, so - Tha Gooz - we don't have a home in Texas anymore (but our hearts remind us how much we love you and can't wait for you to come and visit!)
The Babe is becoming a Project Manager for a company called Scanner One You can check it online if you wish. Today she went with her colleagues and they had to meet with a few representatives from a hospital in Denver. She wrote up some kind of business report to be able to give them a certain batch of info, but I'm not sure what it is.

I've contacted a church just down the street that is looking for a worship leader. We are supposed to meet on Sunday and have a talk about what they are looking for. So far, I'm pretty excited about it. When I feel sure that it is not a group of crazies that meet to drink elephant tears and brush each others hair with green beans, I might give you their website info.

Mile High

2007-08-23T17:34:00.000-06:00

Hola!

(from Colorado)

It has been a while since I've had a chance to post anything - even right now, I'm doing something else. We have moved to the Denver Colorado area in a great big house a couple of blocks away from the kid's school. Here in Colorado, the cut off date for starting school is October 1st instead of Texas' September 1st. This means that Miss Chopsticks has already started Kindergarten here instead of having to wait another year if we stayed in Texas.
This past weekend, I flew into Texas to photograph a wedding. It was very interesting - as shown by the picture on the left. The bride was a little upset about the way the groom was acting and took matters into her own hands, or should I say foot - I just happened to be on hand to record such an emotional moment. They still ended up getting married. Thanks Dust-in-Joy, for having me out. I had an amazing time with you guys and we were able to get a great body of outstanding images because we did have so much fun. You will be loving them for years! (I know that this photo has problems, but I was in a hurry and I didn't take my time to make it flawless - but it is still hilarious!)
We have a new phone number here, but you can still call us on our cell numbers from Texas. I guess that's all for now - I've got stuff to do!

Surprise, Surprise

2007-08-03T07:38:00.001-06:00

I don't know if you've ever reckoned how quickly a moving day approaches. We haven't really thought about it either, but the time to move has come. We have lived in our home here since 1998 - almost ten years. If you haven't made it by to see the house, it may be too late. When we moved in, it was alright. We were glad to have a place to call home. We have renovated and now it is a fantastic place to be, it's just too bad that we are going to be leaving it. Our family has outgrown our 2 bedroom, 1 bath, 1150 ft2 home. When we started here, it was just me and the Babe. Now we have The Punisher (age 9 on August 20), The Iceman (age 7), and Miss Chopsticks (age 5 on September 4).
Well, we are entering the last few days of Texas life so I thought I'd post one more time from Texas before I turn in my cable modem. This is a photo that I made of a little sign that I thought looked cool. I made it last week in a certain city - I bet you can't guess which city. But, as of this weekend, we are on our way to Aurora CO, just outside of Denver. We will enjoy an extended stay near Huntsville TX in order to catch the Tuesday night 'Stros game, before we head out for Amarillo on Wednesday and then our new home on Thursday.
I'll be picking up the moving truck tomorrow and if any of you want to help load it, feel free to come on over and help. I won't turn you away, and of course you'll get paid - I'll be paying 100% in friendship.

Hasta Luego
(from Texas)

Moving out!

2007-07-21T16:48:00.000-06:00

Hey everybody, we are getting closer to our move date everyday. Though we are nervous today, we will be able to look back at this and see that God had us in His hands all along. Our house is set to close on August 14, but no one is buying my truck. I took all of the logos off and now it is just a regular black truck that I can't shake.
This is a photo that The Babe did in St. Louis in one of the shops at Six Flags there. Just thought I'd pass it on.

Just so you know, Miss Chopsticks made about $6.00 at her lemonade stand and then ran out of product to sell. Her prices were low and the drinks were a great value. That reminds me, I've been working on a ton of collages and stuff from the baseball season and they have turned out great. Today I put three more together - I just need to learn business. I love to photograph people and stuff, but I hate selling the resulting photos. Not because they stink, but because I want the people to have the photos and right now I don't charge enough to make a profit that could support my family. I'm guessing that when I move, I'll have to get serious about photo costs for my clients.

I shot an 88 at a golf course on Thursday!

Garage Sale

2007-07-13T07:18:00.000-06:00

Early this morning my wonderful Babe began a garage sale with Miss Chopsticks and my sister Tha Gooz. Miss Chopsticks was pumped about having a lemonade stand during the garage sale. She set a goal of $1000 and I'll bet that she's reached that goal by the time that I get there in a little bit. While I was asleep, alone all night, I kept dreaming that the Babe was in the bed right beside me - so I slept pretty good because in my mind, she was there - I sure like her a lot. This is Tha Gooz' favorite photo that I did for their engagement. We had a good time putting that group of images together. We started really late and the sun was almost down, but this photo shoot turned out fantastic. Since most of the images looked like magazine poses and because it is my sister, I'll have to say that most of that magic came from the photographer (haha). We did this shot in an alley and it turned out great. The feller that Tha Gooz is with is known as Socs. He did a great job while we were out. I was surprised because I've known him for a while, but I didn't expect the fun he helped us have while we were out. Most of the time on photo shoots like this, the guy hates being there and between his lady's fortitude and my jokes we get through it and have a nice time - but Socs was having a good time right off the bat.

In the 80's

2007-06-19T10:04:00.000-06:00

It was difficult for me to come up with any music that I loved from the 80's because my parents loved country and that is mostly all I heard for all ten years. I don't listen to that sort of music much anymore, but if you ask, I probably know all of the popular country songs from the 80's.
To come up with my favorite song from the eighties took a while. It seemed that every song that I thought of was actually written in the nineties.
Then I thought of Rich Mullins - I figured that he'd been around for a while, but I was almost wrong. He started producing albums in the late eighties and died in 97. Over those few years, he produced a fantastic body of work. He is one of my very favorite artists; and by artist, it seemed like he could play anything, and to me, when he wrote a song, he wasn't afraid to lay his heart out. As I was looking for a link to the song I've chosen, I found on YouTube a video of a concert that Rich put on. If you watch it and you know me, it should be easy to figure out why I like His stuff so much. It was cool to see Rich doing his thing and it seemed really familiar - it was filmed at the Carpenter's Way church in Lufkin. It was the second concert of Rich's that we made in the year. You can see the first part (1 of 6) of the concert by clicking here. At that particular concert, during intermission, I was wandering the halls of the church and I unknowingly busted in on Rich and the band resting, getting ready for the second half. It was a weird moment but they waved and I left the room feeling like a big doofus. That concert was two months before he died.
The song that I love is called If I stand - released 1988 -You can listen to an amazon.com clip here. (though it's pretty short) If you don't have this album Songs, you need to get it!

The stuff of Earth competes
For the allegiance
I owe only to the giver
Of all good things

So if I stand let me stand on the promise
That you will pull me through
And if I can't, let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to You
And if I sing let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs
And if I weep let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home

2nd Chapter of Acts

2007-06-15T09:40:00.000-06:00

I'm writing this as part of a three or four part series about music that I love - starting with a hymn (It Is Well) and progressing through time to newer stuff.
Yes, the title of this entry, the 2nd chapter of Acts, is in the Bible - and fantastic - but there was a band in the seventies called 2nd Chapter of Acts. They produced a lot of music that I'll probably never know, but I do know one song that I have heard done by Keith Green - on a cd of course - and fantastic. You can check out a clip of Keith Green singing the Easter Song from amazon.com if you click here. Because I learned the song from Keith Green, I like it better when He sings, but you can see the original band in video, singing the song below.
Just check out these lyrics:

Hear the bells ringing
They're singing that you can be born again
Hear the bells ringing
They're singing Christ is risen from the dead

The angel up on the tombstone
Said He has risen, just as He said
Quickly now, go tell his disciples
That Jesus Christ is no longer dead

Joy to the word, He has risen, hallelujah
He's risen, hallelujah
He's risen, hallelujah

Here were some of my thoughts as I read through Luke 24:3-6

When they got to the opening of the tomb, they looked in and hoped that Jesus would still be in there, but He wasn’t. As their minds started thinking about who could have taken the body and what would they have done with it, it got real bright in the tomb. They looked towards the door and saw two men standing in between the ladies and their exit. Whether they noticed it or not, these two guys were almost as shiny as the sun and their clothes were as bright as lightning. The women were so terrified because of what had happened to Jesus, they all fell to the floor and put their faces on the ground. They were terrified of what might happen, and as they began to plead with the men to leave them alone, both of the men asked together in one voice, “Why are you looking for the Living One in the place where the dead are kept? He’s not here because He is alive and has not been held by death.

JOY TO THE WORLD - HE HAS RISEN!

Well With My

2007-06-12T18:51:00.000-06:00

Horatio Spafford has written a doozy of a fantastic song. Although it was 1873, and it was penned because of some rough times, I love to hear and match my heart to the song - It is Well With My Soul. The great Chicago Fire of October 1871 ruined him financially (he had been a wealthy businessman). Shortly after the fire, while crossing the Atlantic, all four of Spafford’s daughters died in a collision with another ship. Several weeks later, as Spafford’s own ship passed near the spot where his daughters died, he was inspired to write these words. (just three of the verses)

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

Isaiah 40:31

2007-06-11T10:00:00.000-06:00

The Babe claims - "They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." - as her own, but right now our whole family must look at it and hide it in our hearts because - the waiting has begun. God has given us a glimmer of the service that He wants us to bring. Waiting is very hard and very scary and that is when I am able to look at this verse and know that God is with my family. We are waiting and praying for the right family to buy our house because it is a special thing. But, we are waiting and praying and will let pretty much anyone with the money, purchase my truck - very nice, but not real special.
2 Chronicles 16:9 "The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him." - God, give us strength and endurance.

Moving out

2007-05-30T06:25:00.000-06:00

Alright, whether you knew it or not, we plan to move this summer. One of our old mission buddies - kind of like old army buddies - has given us a call and asked us to come and be a part of a new ministry team forming near St. Louis in a little place called Wildwood. I said, "You're crazy!" His wife said, "God has predestined it to be so!" I told The Babe and we have talked and prayed about it, and now we are going. You can click on this - The Show Me State - to see a map. So our house is now on the market and someone is coming to look at it on Friday - which is my wonderful sister's - Tha Gooz - birthday. Also, I had to strip the wonderful marketing off of my truck so that I can sell it and as of tomorrow, it is in the thrifty nickel. I did find out yesterday that my neighbor is interested in a truck exactly like mine, so I'll talk to him about it today. So, here is a set of before and after shots of the front of our home. Do you see that beautiful bug on the right? I miss it. I've decided that after the truck is sold and if I ever need another vehicle, I'll be getting an old bug 63-66 model.

Mess O' Blues

2007-05-22T09:51:00.000-06:00

Mess O' Blues - or should I say Mezz-uh-Blues is a song that I like that was done by Elvis Presley. It was released on the B side of Its Now or Never in 1960, but I feel like it is definitely an A side song. You can hear a clip from amazon - click on the link here: Mess O' Blues
We've pretty much finished our front porch and I was trying to do a few finishing touches today - and - it started raining. I kept working and the rain kept getting harder. Now in the Seattle area, it may rain a bunch, but it never really rains hard. In the year that I lived there, there was 1(one) rain storm. It didn't last long and up until then, I hadn't noticed that there was no lightning in any of the storms. Mostly, it is like a mist that keeps things cool. As a matter of fact, most of the time you can see the rain and you can feel it hit you, but it doesn't make anything wet. Anyway, I was working on the deck and the rain caused me to stop my progress. I sat under the new covered porch and watched it rain for a while, hoping that it would slow down enough that I could work. Hasn't happened. So, now I've got a Mess O' Blues. Once it stops raining in the next few days, I'll post a photo of our new front porch.

Gloria Dump

2007-05-18T08:15:00.000-06:00

A while back, a movie came out called "Because of Winn Dixie" I've seen a lot of movies, and this is one of my favorites. One of the characters is named Gloria Dump, but that's not what I'm really writing about ...

A while back, I rode with my dad to the dump. It was a large place, lots of garbage, and you just drove up to the side of the mountain of garbage and unloaded. It smelled bad and I'm guessing that it wasn't real safe. Then we moved to the big city of Carthage (5,000). In Carthage, they had an incinerator. The place still smelled horribly, but instead of a countryside view of Mt. Trash, it was a building that you could drive into and they would bulldoze the trash into the fire after you unloaded it. Today, I'll be headed to the dump near here and unload a bunch of old rotten wood. It's interesting because it has a covered place that you back up under. Once you are under it, you unload the trash down a small concrete cliff into a giant trash container that can be moved once it is full.
Also today, I'm in charge of packing and moving some stuff out of our house so that it won't look so cluttered as we sell it. Over the years, I've learned how to keep things in view, but also keep them completely hidden. So, all of the nooks and crannies in my home are full.

Sandlot Baseball

2007-05-15T07:59:00.000-06:00

As I was driving my family to school this morning I noticed something about myself. I didn't say anything, but as I pondered what I had noticed, more and more things about this theory seemed to fit - I'm an 'old-ish' kid. Some of you already know it - some of you refuse to accept it - some of you love me for who I am. Let me set up a short list to get started:

1. I don't wear a watch except when required
2. I don't drink coffee -yuck
3. I always get a 'suicide' drink after the games at the baseball park
4. I try to give nicknames because I think it is fun/cool
5. I love my tube socks - pulled knee high with horizontal stripes

1. If you look at that list - Hammer, Old Seventy-Seven, Waffle, Babe, P unisher, Iceman (his front teeth finally came out), Miss Chopsticks, Dust-in-Joy, Butch, Sundance, Biote, and everyone else, I want you to answer the question, why would a kid need to wear a watch - except to look older, do math, or play a video game?

2. On the Sandlot 3 : great film (Sandlot 2 : yuck), Tommy 'Santa' Santorelli asks for a cup of coffee as a kid, but is denied with, "A coffee at your age? You crack me up kid."
3. The adults in the concession stand look at me in disbelief when I ask for a suicide drink. Last night one of them said, "You're just like one of those 12 year old kids that you are standing in line with. That's is so gross." The Babe also dislikes the taste of a suicide drink. I don't know what is wrong with adults these days - I love to get the suicide!
4. Let's continue with the Sandlot theme. Did you notice that it seems like most of the kids have nicknames? Squints, Yeah-Yeah, Ham, Smalls, Mac, Fingers, Two ton, DP, Q, Wok and Roll, Pork Chop, Timber, and Wings - to name a few. I seem to have done that in my blog.

5. Last one - when adults see my socks, they laugh and say, "I used to wear those when I was a kid - In The Eighties. That was a long time ago my friend."

Until Then

2007-05-14T08:06:00.000-06:00

Hey, I don't know if you know it, but I'm kind of a regular guy. Sure, at times I may possess more charisma than others, like when I umpire and when I photograph people - I like to have fun. But at other times, I can be the biggest fuddy-dud, like when it's time to swim or drive, I don't swim and I don't treat my car/truck like a jet.

When I umpire a game, I make my calls loud and proud - with a touch of flair. One of the coaches told me that he had to tell the players on his team to stop mocking what I was doing. Also, when I photograph a couple or a kid, I love to get to know them and then play on the things they love until we get that perfect set of photos. That is always a lot of fun too.
I'll always have my jet-ski accident to fall back on as to the reason why I don't like to get in the water - even though, I just don't like it. And for all of you doubters, I was in swimming programs until I was about age 13 - so I can swim! As a matter of fact, that year I was in a lifeguard training program.

Today, I hope that I get to finish the front deck that I'm adding to our house. I've been working on it all weekend and then some. Once I get done with it, we are going to sell the house because our family is just too big to live here anymore. We love it and we know that it will be a sad day when we leave the place that we have known as home for almost 10 years. But, God is good and He just might have something for us that's even better than what we have now!

Craz-ee

2007-05-09T09:29:00.000-06:00

Check out the place to get your Sixth Day Stuff
- http://www.cafepress.com/sixthdayphoto -
(thanks Old Seventy-Seven)

Alright, from here on out, this post will be point free - I can assure you. I was watching a film last night at home with The Babe, when I heard a slightly humorous joke. This film was mediocrity's finest attempt to win over the unbelieving, but I am still unbelieving that it was anything above a waste of my time. The actors in the show were like a list of "who's who" in American film, but I'm not sure if this show ever made it to the big screen. If you are a pastor reading this, I'm sorry that you won't be able to tell it from the pulpit - though I know you'll be telling all of your friends.

Mike: Hey Ben, did you know that diarrhea is

hereditary?

Ben: No - Really?
Mike: Yes. It runs in your genes.

Well, WHOOP-DEE-DOO

2007-05-07T09:30:00.000-06:00

This morning as I washed the clothes, there was nothing out of the ordinary. It was mostly kid's stuff, but I had my umpires uniform and coaching shirt in the wash too. Tonight I'm supposed to umpire a game at 6:00, then coach a game at 7:45 - that's why I needed clean clothes. So as I'm pulling the clothes out of the dryer, I notice a Super Bubble gum wrapper. I figure it came out of one of the pockets of my kid's pants/shorts. After I got all of the clothes out of the dryer, I started folding them. I had finished folding everything except this one last shirt - my coaches shirt. As I started to fold it, I noticed that parts of the decal were sticking together - you know how after you wash one of those jerseys, sometimes the heat causes the decal to stick to itself. As I was pulling the decal apart, I noticed that something funny was going on. I turned the shirt inside out and deduced that the Super Bubble wrapper had been full when the clothes were washed. My coaching shirt had been trying to chew the gum :-( and now it was all stuck together. I would just throw the shirt in the trash, but I need it for coaching. Since my Bride - The Babe - is not here, let's see if you guys have any ideas? I've already tried - hop on one leg around the damaged clothing 5 times - that did nothing. Oh yeah, I also boiled an egg spread the shells over the damage and gargled salt water - yeah, that didn't do anything either.

Dust-in-Joy

2007-05-04T11:06:00.000-06:00

The Babe safely returned from Vegas yesterday. It was fantastic to see her again. We talked about it last night and we are guessing that the time this week that we spent apart is the longest that we've been apart since I was in the ARMY - 1995. It was four days - that's right we just might be in love. By 'might' I mean -for sure- (converted to the correct grammatical form of course).

Babe -n- Waffle FOR-EV-ER

BTW I did not photograph myself at my wedding

Dust-in-Joy are getting married too - woo-hoo. I photographed their engagement photos and we had fun. The photos turned out great and I set it up so that they could have their announcement posted in a magazine. I've been waiting and the mag has finally been released. It is called The Wedded Bliss. If you keep your eyes open in east Texas, you will be able find a copy at many different locations. It is a free magazine to pick up because all of the announcements and ads pay for the cost of producing the mag. This is my copy of the announcement that I submitted. You can see it on their website if you scroll down to the bottom of the last page (saving the best for last).

http://www.theweddedbliss.com/pdfs/engagements.pdf

The magazine is more than three pages long - it is really interesting to look at and see the photos in it. As a matter of fact, I was surprised when I saw my cousin inside the front cover in the last issue- a photo from his wedding day.If you just happened to live as far away as Seattle (lucky dogs), you could have a copy or two sent directly to your domicile if you contact the magazine and ask them to send a mag or two (cost involved) - or - you might just have your momma pick one up for you.

Vegas

2007-04-29T16:22:00.000-06:00

Hey - The Babe - flew to Las Vegas today at 4:45 pm. She left me and the kids at about 4:20 to go and do all the pre-flight hokey pokey. Miss Chopsticks started crying when - The Babe - known as mom, left at that moment and up to this point (5:30) she hasn't stopped. Every few seconds she cries, "I want MOMM--EEEEEEEE -sniffle - EEEEE!" So -Babe, you should feel loved. We all love you and will not answer the phone while you are not home. We don't want anyone to know that mom isn't home because they might try to get us. We will make sure to drink our milk, stay in school, and don't do drugs. Rabbit and the Punisher are also very sad as you can see in the photos.

So, over the next few days, The Waffle will be in charge of food (as always), baths, brushing teeth, wiping hiney, getting out of bed on time, and pony tails. In addition to all of the tasks already loved - such as - keeping the house clean, dropping off and picking up kids, coaching and umping baseball games, and teaching lessons to Miss Chopsticks.
Praise the Lord for the unique time that I will be spending with my kids over the next few days without my "HelpMeat" -

I Lava Ya Babe!

TP Finish Line

2007-04-28T07:38:00.000-06:00

Normally, I don't use this many photos, but I had so many Photo Posers. On Thursday I did a photo shoot with a couple of guys that we will call Butch and Sundance (not the guy from American Idol). They will be a part of the graduation ceremony next weekend at ETBU because they are providing valet services as people arrive - no wait, they are actually graduating. This is a photo of the two as they finish the race. These guys were interested in having a fun photo shoot, so I didn't mind being a catalyst that initiated some of the most hilarious moments ever. These two are natural characters and it isn't hard to bring them out of the silence. Some of the photos that we did were ca-razy. Like this one of Butch.

But some were great - like this one of Butch and Biote, his wife. - Isn't that lovey-dovey >>>>
While I was photographing, we observed a moment of silence and some serious thinking was going on about why we were trying to be silent

- as so greatly demonstrated by Sundance, but then we just decided to have more fun :-)
Thanks guys, I had a fantastic time.

Awesome Stuff

2007-04-25T07:07:00.000-06:00

I have been going over the stuff that I wrote based on the writings of Luke. Today I looked at the story of the Widow's Mite. This is so awesome.

Luke 21:1-4

- read these verses in your Bible first please -
- then the Ben Blue Jean Para -

Jesus was in a moment of intensity as He spoke to the leaders of the church, when He looked up and saw all of the rich people lined up at the offering box, waiting for their turn to put in their offerings. They would stand in line with their heads held high and definitely not write the check until they got to the box. Then, as they would write their check, they would discuss how much they were writing down on the note. They would always try to out-give each other. Jesus stood there shaking His head and noticed that there was a small woman standing in line. She was quite a bit older than the other families that were waiting. She was by herself, so she must have been a widow and no one was standing too close to her because her clothes were a little on the dingy side and the ones around her didn’t want to get their fine robes dirty. Jesus watched as she made her way to the front of the line. He whispered for his disciples to watch what she was doing and then, she reached into a pocket on her robe. As she pulled her hand out, the disciples didn’t see anything, but then as she reached over the box, they saw her drop two small coins into the box. If they hadn’t been watching so intently, they wouldn’t have seen anything because the woman had done it so fast. She didn’t talk to anyone about what she was putting in the box, she just did it. It probably took about one and a half seconds for her to put her money in. Jesus turned around to His disciples and said, “Wow! Did you see that?” The disciples all nodded yes, but were kind of confused because all of the other people were writing checks for 500 dollars or more and this lady had dropped in – like 2 cents. Jesus said, “This widow has put more in the box than all the others. She is a poor widow and she could use every spare cent to buy food so that she could survive. Her bank account is probably a can buried in the ground outside of her house. I would guess that it is always very close to being empty, but did you see what she did? Her heart has been laid on the line because she believes. The others that have been giving were giving out of their abundance. If they gave 750 dollars, they had 75,000 dollars at home, to live on. She gave 2 cents because that is all that she had to give. She gave to honor God and I tell you, He is smiling down on that widow for what she has done.”

My Home

2007-04-24T07:42:00.000-06:00

I just thought that I'd post a photo of my home for you.
hahahahaha
hahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahaha

Now if you have been to a breakfast place like Waffle House, IHOP, Owen's, or Denny's, you may have noticed that the menus are kind of fun. All the eggs, waffles, hash browns, pancakes, (grits if you like 'em) and breakfast meats you could ever want. Sometimes they even have all you can eat - this or that. I don't suppose I've ever eaten at a waffle house. I do enjoy that sort of food, but eating it requires milk and that is where my problem lies.

When Mr. T had something important to say, I always tried to listen. One thing he always told me, "Drink yo milk foo!" I appreciate that and over the years, I've enjoyed countless gallons of milk. It is so nice to have a really cold glass of it anytime. It goes perfect with peanut butter, cereal, steak - well, pretty much everything. I have found that Texas Roadhouse has some of the coldest milk around - it is de-lish.

Now that you know how I feel about milk, back to the story: It costs anywhere from $1.50-$2.50 to get one 12 oz glass of milk in those breakfast places. Each time I take a drink from a glass of milk, I average about 8 oz. So that math tells me that I'll get 1 and 1/2 drinks of milk before it is gone. Oh-no, there are no free refills. So where does that leave me? Drinking water unless I'm rich - I'm not. I don't go to those breakfast restaurants very often, but I've been thinking - If I were to go to the grocery store, I could buy a gallon of milk for $3.50 - or so. though it wouldn't be real cold, I could take that gallon to my table and ask for an empty glass. I'm sure that with my help, my family of five could polish off that gallon before the meal were over. I know that Chopsticks, The Punisher, and The Rabbit (formerly The Iceman, at least until those front two teeth come out) love milk about half as much as I do.
The loves in my life are organized something like this:
#1 Jesus #2 The Babe #3 milk #4 breathing

Don Johnson Band

2007-04-19T08:35:00.000-06:00

I have a friend named Don Johnson that lives in Miami. No - not that Don Johnson. My friend Don Johnson actually lives in East Texas and writes some fabulous worship songs. I've added his band link over on the right of this page. You should check it out because it has some audio recordings of a couple of his songs and I imagine that if you listen, you will find that they are very good. I think that if I post a photo of Don, I'll have to give him a nickname - Miami Vice - of course.
On Friday, I'll be going over to his home studio to record some of my own songs. If you didn't know, I play acoustic and bass guitars. I wrote the song that I'll be recording in May of last year. I've called it "Guilty." It is a song about the possibility of having a guilty verdict on God's Judgment day. It was not intended to sound like that other stuff that gets played on CCM radio, no, it is very good. I'll see if I can figure out how to put an audio player on this blog and maybe soon, you'll be able to hear it - but, maybe not.

Did Somebody Say Toast?

2007-04-16T18:01:00.000-06:00

Hey guys, I was preparing the evening meal tonight and as I was preparing the base for my operation, and I noticed that it looked like a piece of Texas toast. To those living outside of Texas, it may look like a GIGANTICALLY ENORMOUS piece of Texas Toast - but I would say that it was a regular to small-ish sized piece. So I had The Babe photograph while I bit.

This meal is called a Texas Sammy:
That Texas toast is from a Sourdough loaf, though we've also used a French loaf. There were other ingredients - bacon, chopped onions, ground beef, seasoning salt, butter, grated cheese, 1 can cream of mushroom soup, and about 10 oz. of sour cream.

Set your oven to 425 degrees and let it begin to heat. Cut the bread loaf in half and butter the tops. Set them top-up on an un-greased baking pan (cookie sheet). Cook the bacon and set aside for now. Cook the beef with the onions and some seasoning salt to taste. Once that the meat has been prepared, mix in the mushroom soup and the sour cream. Let the concoction simmer for about five minutes. For those five minutes, place the baking pan with bread, inside the oven to begin to toast the bread. Retrieve the hot pan and then move the beefy mixture to the tops of the semi-toasted bread loaf halves. Cover with cheese and crumbled bacon.
Put the Texas Sammy filled cookie sheet on the middle oven rack and wait for about 7-10 minutes - the wait may be longer or shorter - it is based on the bread loaf cooking and cheese melting times.

Oh yeah... the umpiring that I did on Saturday
is still bringing the pain to my legos.

Steee-riiiikkke

2007-04-14T20:37:00.000-06:00

Today I was initiated into the job of umpiring a game. It started off easy and I was the field umpire for the first two games - from 10:30 am - 1:30 pm. Being a field umpire means that I was the umpire in the field that doesn't squat behind the catcher. I called those two games and then headed to a make up game where I coached The Punisher and The Iceman - we won.

Did I tell you that it was cold today?

Then about 4:00pm I headed back to umpire three more games. In the first game, I was a field umpire, then after that one, I found out that I was supposed to be the head umpire to call strikes and balls behind the catcher for the last two games. I was excited, but I'll have to say now - I was always a catcher, but I don't remember how much work it is to get up and down about a million times. Now I have wobbly legs. I served as head umpire from about 6:30-9:00pm.

Just so you know, I love the game of baseball and I spent pretty much all day at the baseball park today. I'm finally home and I just thought I'd tell you about it.

New Video

2007-04-11T19:50:00.000-06:00

Hey guys, do whatever you have to do to get that video to play over there on the right of this page. The truth in it is so awesome. The first time I saw it though, I thought that I must not be looking at the right thing because the video changes format in the middle. Just stick with it - it is fantastic. If you love it ask a friend to look at it. Get ready!!!!!!

Since no one has looked at this post yet, I'll add what I was going to add here, but look at the video first---

Previously I said that the video on the right is awesome in it's truth - most of it is. But as I look at it again and again, I notice that in the video, most of the church congregation is caught up in the moment. There are a few left in the building to pray. I hope that is right, but as I read the Bible, I see something very different. In Luke 13:24-28, Jesus tells us about a narrow door that few will enter. Many will feel and act like they are a part of God's kingdom, but many will be turned away at its gates. From what I understand, it is possible that most of the people in that church in the video will be left there in their seats and only a few will be gone. It will still be astounding and the people left behind will definitely know what just happened. Check this out:

Luke 13: 24-28a
- read this verse in your Bible first please -
- then the Ben Blue Jean Para -

Jesus said, “You shouldn’t worry about the number of people that enter heaven, you should worry about yourself. Life, when you’ve been saved, is hard work. It is like a foot race and you will find that some people – the talkers - sit at home and talk about how they are runners, though they have never even entered a race. Oh sure, they exercise and wear running shoes all the time, they just don’t run. Other people actually get out and run the race. Some of them might be out of shape and don’t really look like runners. They start the race and find that it is very hard, but they keep running and at the end of the day, when they have crossed the finish line, they find victory.
When God calls His runners home to heaven, there will be some – the talkers - that will walk up to the gate to get in, but it will be closed. They will say, ‘But, I went to church - I sang worship songs - I stayed healthy - I listened to my momma - I provided above and beyond what was needed for my family. God, I belong in heaven with you.’ God will reply, ‘No, no, I don’t know you. Go away, you don’t belong here.’ That day, there will be much crying and hurting."

God wants a righteous group of people to reflect His character. Salvation is not a product. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Anyone who believes in Christ is a new creation. The old is gone and the new has come." Salvation is a changed life. It's not just a little prayer that is said once and then you find that life continues like it always had. It is not a ticket to heaven or a fire insurance policy to keep you from hell. It is a changed life from darkness and evil to Godliness. Go back to Isaiah 29:13 and God speaks most clearly about how He feels about these little prayers, prayed by unchanged lives. "These people come near to me with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up of rules taught by men."

A little prayer is all that it takes to get started, but a changed life is what is required to give that little prayer meaning.

Easter

2007-04-08T14:28:00.000-06:00

My family and I went to a baseball game on Friday. We left home Friday afternoon and the weather was cool, but as we drove west into the oncoming !c~o~l~d~ness! we were quite surprised. We went to see the Rough Riders game anyway and found out what 43 degrees feels like with 25 mph winds blowing on you~~~cold!! It is a nice stadium except I don't like that they put giant lighted billboard ads on the outfield wall. As I looked at it, I thought, " I know that they have padded the outfield walls to protect the players, but now that they have added the giant metal frames holding what someone feels like is good advertising -I wonder what was the point in trying to keep the players safe?" Then I thought, "I should take The Iceman and The Punisher for a hot dog and a pennant, then we are outta here because it is soooo cold it is freezing my brain and we are turning into human popsicles." I looked and saw The Babe with Chopsticks sitting on her lap. They had blue lips and were wrapped in two flannel blankets. I figured they would much rather be in warmth so, being the kind, gentle, loving, warm-hearted, butter melting, Waffle that I am, we left at the top of the 4th inning.

Guess Who I Saw Today?

2007-04-05T15:30:00.000-06:00

Today I was driving to Marshall to deliver an unbelievably amazing photo of some rings that had been framed for some friends and I saw something that I didn't expect. Before I tell you what I saw because you can already see - I had to deliver that photo in frame very quickly because it is such an awesome presentation and I know that if The Babe saw it, I would have to frame one up for her - which I intend to do - just when I can get some cash because frames are a little expensive.
Alright, so I'm driving and I see #53 out my window. I didn't know that little racer had a spring home in my area. After Chopsticks and I got The Iceman and The Punisher from their classes I took them over there to see Herb. Apparently the shop where Herbie was resting, does a lot of VW body work. I went into the shop and saw an ultra-customized beetle sitting on the floor. It had hydraulics and it really was on the floor. It also had a chopped top so the bug's height was about three and a half feet tall - it was low. There was also a convertible and a dual cab both in show condition. But I'm writing because we got to check out Herbie today and that was cool.

So Good To Me!

2007-04-03T19:05:00.000-06:00

You know, God has shown His mercy to me in a big way! He didn't have to, but He did. God can do anything - Luke 1:37. I love it when in the most sour of moments, He reveals Himself and His plans. I mean, He is most amazing when everything has gone in the crapper and all hope has been lost. He's watching us right now and He knows our lives. It's so awesome when that check comes in the mailbox on a day when you needed it most, or your best friend unexpectedly calls you to encourage you, or when the pneumonia has miraculously cleared from your lungs overnight, or when your kids get real quiet in the backseat and you are able to find a moment to be still.

Yeah, that's the good stuff - but don't overlook the greatness of God.

Remember though, it doesn't always work out rosy. The road to lost hope is a rough trail of unhappy moments. When I was almost killed in August 2003, I remember all of the notices that we got on our house, our car, unpaid medical bills from the creditors over the next year. There was no quick fix, but I can share an idea of how awesome God's work through my life has been - not because His plan didn't involve my life being nearly destroyed, but because His plan did involve my family falling madly in love with Him. This is a photo that I love because it is The Babe of course, but it is how - even after all of the trouble that we've experienced - we feel about God.

This morning I was reading through Luke chapter 8 and I saw many amazing things. I haven't posted anything from my Bible study for a long time so I thought I would. I was reading through the story of Jairus (Luke 8:40-56). Jairus had a daughter that was really sick and he had gone to retrieve Jesus for healing. On their way to Jairus' house, his daughter died.

Luke 8:49-56
- read this verse in your Bible first please -
- then the Ben Blue Jean Para -

Jairus got news from his house that his daughter was dead and he shouldn’t bother the teacher anymore. Though Jesus was speaking, He heard the news and turned to Jairus and said, “Don’t be afraid. If you believe, she will be healed.” Jairus, with tear-filled eyes and his mouth all puckered up like he had eaten something very sour, nodded his head and they continued the journey to his house. When they arrived, Jesus had everyone get out of the room except for Peter, James, John, Jairus, and Jairus’ wife. They went into the room while all of the people were outside wailing, moaning and groaning for her. Jesus shook His head and said, “Stop with all the noise! She is not dead but asleep.” The people that were making all the noise started laughing at Jesus because they knew that she was dead. Jesus closed the door and went to the bed that the girl was lying on. He took her hand in His and said, “My child, it is time to get up.” Right when He said that, she pulled her arms to her face and wiped her eyes. She yawned, and then jumped up because she hadn’t ever seen these men that were in her room before. Jesus said, “Get her some food, she is very hungry.” Jesus had to snap His fingers a couple of times because her parents were standing there looking like zombies with their mouths wide open. They were amazed at what they had just seen and had trouble recognizing that she was really alive again. When they started to move around like normal people, Jesus said, “Listen, I don’t want you to tell anyone about what has just happened. O.K.?” The parents nodded as they hugged their baby girl up.

Hoo-AAAH!

2007-04-02T17:27:00.000-06:00

You may or may not have known, but I was in the Army from 1993-1995. I was a 16T Patriot missile crew-member. I did my basic training at Ft.Sill Oklahoma, my advanced training at Ft. Bliss Texas, and then I was also stationed at Ft.Bliss. For six months, we were deployed to Riyadh Saudi Arabia to do our jobs there in the desert. Here is a photo of a launcher and truck. I was in charge of a set-up similar to this. Though this is not my photo - I couldn't find mine.
Ft. Bliss is in El Paso TX - that's the desert. The desert in Riyadh was much hotter than El Paso. I remember that one night in Riyadh I was fulfilling my guard duties and it was about midnight. I walked outside of our guard shack to stretch my legs and the temp felt pretty nice. I looked - at midnight - and the temp was 100 degrees. It was hot, so hot that the days were filled with high 130's.
We had a giant lizard that called our launchsite home, and we had a b.b.q. cookout once. I remember that those ribs that they cooked were about 18 inches long. I don't know but we might have been served some sort of camel. Also, there was this restaurant called Herfy. It seemed to be a hamburger joint, but if you look at the sign... I wonder what those hamburgers were made out of. I never did see a cow in Saudi Arabia.

Napoleon

2007-03-29T13:25:00.000-06:00

A few days ago, my family and I made a visit to Sam's. Mostly we go there to get the three gallons of milk that we drink each week, but we do walk around and have fun creating plans of what we would do with this or that.
Well, we had seen a vacuum cleaner that looked cool and useful -way more useful than the one we had, but there were none in stock. I took the magnetic sign off of the shelf and carried it around until I asked a worker where they were. She said, "I'm not really sure. You could go ask someone at the napoleon and I bet they could help." I shook my head and started to walk away. then I thought, "Waffle, I'm not really sure what a napoleon is, but I should watch Napoleon Dynamite tonight." I walked back over and asked, "I'm sorry, where did you say I could find someone to help?" She said, "You know, at the napoleon. It is up at the front of the store where someone is always standing." I wasn't real sure what she meant until The Babe said, "Oh alright," and then grabbed my arm to move me. I looked down at The Babe with a confused expression and she said, "By napoleon, she meant the podium."
I guess this proves that The Babe has worked too long teaching over there at the Park. And wouldn't you know it, she is bilingual after all. She knows English and a language known as Jive Turkey.

I guess I'm sort of lost!

2007-03-28T21:38:00.000-06:00

Alright - so I guess most people have certain stories that they like on the tube. Well in Sept 2004 I saw a program that looked interesting so The Babe and I watched it. Many others tuned in that night to see the first episode of 'Lost'. It was very interesting that first season, but I really thought that they would be getting off of the island by the end of that first season and the story would progress to a different level. I mean, there is no possible way that anyone would want to see the story of some people stuck on an island for a couple of years - Right?

Well, I'm in love with The Babe and she loves to watch Lost. So I sit through it and when it is over gripe a bit about how the storyline that they follow is so random. I know it is just so they can keep the people on the island.So tonight's program was the same as always except --

duhn duhn duuuuhhhhh

The writers came up with two new characters that they pretend had been on the island the whole time and if we had watched close enough, we might have seen them. I feel like they are finally running out of ideas to develop around a very sad tale. So, they came up with these new people, showed us all of their backgrounds and then killed them. Woo-hoo, that's really pulling me back for another episode - wait - no, no it doesn't. The only reason that I watch it is for The Babe.
She is top-notch and wonderful, with a minor programical flaw - Lost.
Yes, I made up that word.

Why do you do that?

2007-03-27T13:22:00.000-06:00

When I'm photographing a wedding- and stuff - I do a lot of work that I don't feel like most photographers do. They would do it if they were getting paid, but I do it because of my experience and grit. My wife and I don't have engagement or bridal portraits. We don't have really great quality photos of the stuff surrounding the wedding, we just have a few shots from the wedding and reception. The reason we don't have more is because we didn't have money when we married (like we do now -haha) We couldn't afford to have anything like that done.

Here is a photo of everything that we got from the wedding. Well actually the top photo is one of The Babe and I got her. Yup, that's it - we were really razzle-dazzled by our photographer and I guess you can tell.

So now I make sure that there are engagement portraits, there are bridal portraits, I do photograph the rehearsal, ceremony, and reception. Then after the wedding is over, I don't just hand you 100 proofs and say have a nice life - Oh No - In my mind, I think about what I would like to see, hold, have, and experience, then I make some of that happen, or at least be available to you. That's how I roll.

Godtube.com

2007-03-25T16:53:00.000-06:00

A friend - Old Seventy-Seven - linked me to the website www.Godtube.com Some of it is pretty funny, but I'll bet, if you look long enough, you'll find something offensive or un-Godly.

I'm in the process of posting the Dust-in-Joy engagement session for them to look through. I think that the photos turned out fantastic! If you are nice enough, maybe they will decide to share them with you.

This is one of the photos that I think turned out as one of the best. Remember that I am an artist and what I look for in a magnificent photo is not necessarily what we've all seen done before. I want to see something that makes me go - WOAH! I think this does it.

Oh yeah, check out "Not Sir Mix-a-lot" down on the right. I think it is hilarious and mostly true. I mean I know that - the Babe - has wide margins in her Holy Book - of course, it is NASB and not KJV but I love that too!

Not Tonight

2007-03-24T22:18:00.000-06:00

Today was a day that we all experienced together. In my day, I put the final touches on this blog site for now, went to a Bible book store called -"The Scroll" where I checked out some great literature (http://www.amazon.com/Great-Marriage-Q-Book/dp/1414301820) by Gary Rosberg and his wife, bought a Veggietales DVD as a present for the party that I went to next. I saw someone that I hadn't seen since graduation, I messed around at a friends house for a few hours and then I came home. Now I'm headed to sleepy-time land. Goodnight...

Engaged

2007-03-23T19:45:00.000-06:00

Hello. Today I had a last minute/ all the time we could squeeze in - opportunity to do engagement portraits for Dust-in-Joy. They turned out great! The couple is beginning to work as a team and I had a lot of fun watching them communicate until they started speaking in tongues with each other -I think that it was French - at least it seemed a lot like the French I've learned from my wife. Also, it is the very first Kilt that I've had the opportunity to photograph and it did present some challenges. Anyway, thank you Dust-in-Joy for giving me the chance to hang out with you guys and have some fun. I can't wait for you guys to be able to see how awesome the images turned out.

This photo shoot is the first one that I have done without my wife - The Babe - and since I am officially a stay at home dad, I had an extra hand on my crew. So today, The Waffle had an assistant - Chopsticks. Here is a photo of Chopsticks doing what she did best, assisting. She is holding a grey/gray card for me to use as a point of reference so that the actual colors that were out today would match what I produce in a color photo.

In a Twist

2007-03-22T17:44:00.000-06:00

Today I was a part of some online trainings. I was a part of one that showed me a couple of unknown tricks about Photoshop CS2 and a whole bunch of stuff I already knew. The other class that I was a part of was given by a lady from Tacoma - woohoo I love Tacoma - Go Rainiers! (http://www.tacomarainiers.com/) She talked about the reasons that she thinks her business blew up. Blew up: immense amount of growth in a short amount of time.

It was funny when she talked about how she was so underpaid when she did weddings for $1800. Since she felt underpaid, they decided to market themselves for what is known as the high-end bride. I think now they charge about $20,000 for a wedding. I thought to myself, "Hey self, if you did one wedding like that, your living expenses would be covered for almost a full year. Right now our family of five lives on just over $30,000/year so I guess I would do at least 5 weddings/weekends per year for a couple of years. Yeah it would be a lot of work - a lot of work, but I think the payoff would be worth it. I mean $100,000 is a big jump from 30"

But, I don't think that there are any brides like that in my small town, so I'll just stay on the DL - not the disabled list, the Down Low. DL because I have a business growth plan that includes starting low to gain business and reputation, then increasing the price as the word gets out about Sixth Day Photo. So if you are looking for a great Photographer at a less expensive price, now is the time - my fees will only go up from here. Anyway, at the end of her talk, my doorbell rang and it was my studio copy of the Ritter Storybook. It is pretty dog-gone awesome.

I love this 'T' shirt >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Yesterday even though I got a shot of the birds, I was busy all day putting together a Wedding/Photographer contract. It took about 7 hours to get what I have. It's pretty long, (9 pages) but if anything weird happens with a bride/family I think I covered just about everything. I looked online at other photographer's wedding contracts and borrowed a lot of that stuff. There was nothing terribly original, but I wanted to add at the end just so I would be completely covered - "The Bride and Groom agree that whatever the photographer says about any situation that may arise is considered the ultimate in correctness."

Oh the birds!

2007-03-21T12:11:00.000-06:00

Well it's been a while and I've been pretty busy doing what seems to amount to nothing. No worries though. This is a lame post about a photo that I did from inside my house . The birds seemed to be watching the mini-blinds, because when I would separate them to get my camera lens through, they would fly off. I did it about 3 times until I was able to sneak up on them.
Well, each year at least once a year, we have thousands of these blackbirds that fly into my neighborhood. They don't leave for about 2 or three weeks. This photo is a light version of what happens. There are so many that if you are outside and can make them jump, all of their little wings create this roar in the wind as a giant black sheet of birds reaches up to the sky.

P.B.F

2007-03-08T13:04:00.000-06:00

You may or may not be wondering, but some of my favorite foods include tacos, pizza, hamburgers, potatoes, mac-n-cheese, and oranges. I would imagine that there is a considerable amount of power in each of those fantastic foods. If you asked just about anyone - under the age of 13 - about their favorite menu items, their list will probably look very similar to mine. There are a few deviations for me, but mostly if you ask me what I would like to eat it will be one of those things. Now I didn't list peanut butter because I was saving it until now and most definitely it would be on my list. Last night I looked in my fridge for a scoop of ice cream or something like that -really healthy - to snack on just before I hit the hay. I didn't find any ice cream or anything that would have suited my taste buds at that moment. I did notice however that we had a bit of white chocolate in the fridge. So I started the process and made a giant helping of PBF, also known as peanut butter fudge. I ate a few bites before it hardened over night, just before I went to bed. Now I don't know if you know, but a mixture of chocolate, peanut butter, and sweetened condensed milk is not real low in it's sugar content. Any dieter should know to stay away from that stuff, but I can't. I pray for God to give me strength to resist the temptation to have just one more, but I know that He is the one that created that amazing bouquet of flavors. I'm sure that He doesn't just want it to go to waste - so I grab just one more piece.

This is a photo of the PBF right after I cut it into smaller pieces. I saw the beautiful arrangement and I just had to photograph it before I tore it down and put most of it in a bag for later consumption. BTW, MEL-in-CO suggested using a darker form of chocolaty goodness in this creation so the dark spots are a couple of cups of choco chips that I added during creation.

The Rooster

2007-03-06T12:46:00.000-06:00

If I were a wrestler, I would be The Rooster. I would have a bright red hair piece shaped like a roosters noggin. The best part is that I already have theme music "Rooster" It says, "Yeah they've come to snuff the rooster- ah yeah -- Yeah here comes the rooster - Yeah - you know he ain't gunna die -- no no no you know he ain't gunna die" I think it is a fun theme, but for 100 points, do you know who the artist is that has produced "Rooster"?

I was listening to the sounds of the Rooster when I looked over at my bass and it seemed like an interesting picture. Also, I have a new camera lens that I wanted to test out, but I wanted to see at what ISO I could shoot at and still get a decent picture. Once I passed the camera shake speeds, I got this photo with an ISO of 1600 which is very high. I think it turned out alright. Oh, my bass is being backed by Lucas Kimblus' 6 string that he uses for slide guitar events.

I've been trying to pursue being a photographer to be able to make money, but I was wrong. All I have to do is be in charge of the city baseball league for one year where I live.
I'll tell you why with a little math:
One kid to be on a team cost $75 There are about 12 kids per team and in the league that my guys are in there are 9 teams. So that multiplication leads us to a grand total of $8100 just from the kids in the league with mine.

Each of the teams has a sponsor - how much do they pay? - I don't know, but I'm sure it is more than nothing. Now The fields are kept up by the teams so that doesn't cost anything. The concession stands are run by the parents of the kids. The parents are unpaid and the "league" gets all of the income minus the concessions. Well, I guess the league does provide uniforms and hats for the kids and by uniforms, I mean a t-shirt with a number. The league pays for the umpires that don't always show up. I think that they get $20 per game. The coaches bring the game balls, and last year, there was no catcher's gear for our team so we had to go and buy our own. We have our own helmets and bats because the league wouldn't be able to provide anything like that. To me it seems like someone in the city league administration is making a ton of money off of the parents that happened to be cursed by living in my city.

Well, if you can't tell, I'm pretty upset with the way that my city treats us. Not just city league baseball either -- there is a lot more to say about how much my city hates the people that live in it but I won't go there now.

Time to smile - Jesus is ALIVE!

Luke 24:31-35
- read these verses in your Bible first please -
- then the Ben Blue Jean Para -

Then they realized that this guy had been Jesus all along and that He wasn’t dead after all. They looked back to Jesus but He was gone. He had vanished into thin air. Simon looked back at Cletus and said, “Now a grown man vanishing is very weird, but do you know what I know?” Cletus smiled and answered, “Yes, Yes, Yes! Jesus is alive! I can’t believe we didn’t notice sooner. I mean all the time while He was talking about the prophets, it was like when He taught us at the church. I think my heart really was on fire.” “Yeah, Yeah,” Simon said, “I know we were just in Jerusalem, but we’ve got to go back and tell the others about what has happened to us today. NOW!” They did leave just then. They left the bread and fish on the table and ran/jogged/walked all the way to Jerusalem. When they got there, some of the disciples had gone to bed and were woken up with the hootin’ and hollerin’ by Cletus and Simon, “Jesus is alive! We saw Him today!” As all of the disciples wandered in to hear the story, Cletus and Simon were telling it just as fast as they could.

Hope Needed!

2007-03-02T08:14:00.000-06:00

Hey all you readers. I want to ask if you guys will become active in prayer for my family because God is working with us now and we need the strength to be pliable.

#1 - The Babe - is a teacher in a school that movies are made of - movies like Lean on Me, Stand and Deliver, Dangerous Minds, and Coach Carter. It is a school where the kids don't respect anyone and don't care about any consequences from their actions. The difference between the movies and life at her school is that these much younger 8 year-olds sit at home and watch "Get Rich or Die Trying" with their moms and dads. Most of them say that they have seen Saw 3, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Hannibal Rising. These kids are 8. They should be watching movies like Princess Bride, The Rookie, and Shek. So, what do you think young kids watching the movies that they watch are going to act like at school?
Here is a not so interesting thing that we've found out this year - Most of the kids don't know nursery rhymes like Three Blind Mice or The Old Woman that Lived in a Shoe. They don't know old stories like Jack and the Beanstalk or Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We have kind of narrowed down the root of the problem and are having a hard time with a solution. The root of the problem is that these kids are not being raised by parents - their moms and dads are treating these kids like the friends they had in high school, or friends at the clubs that they go to. These children aren't being raised to be good adults, in fact it seems like most of the parents act inconvenienced when their own children are around. The so-called parents seem to do everything they can to be apart from them. These kids don't teach themselves how to respect and honor others as they end up raising themselves. Their only model to follow is the trash they watch on television and movies with their parents. So here's the problem: The parents don't like having children that depend on them.

The Babe - is so stressed out about the way the students act and her lack of administrative support that she doesn't want to be at that school anymore. She feels trapped and I hurt for her, but she doesn't really want to quit. It is not built into her character and she wants to be a successful teacher like the character Coach Carter. She is successful, but not in a way that matters to "The Man" who only cares about numbers. She is successful in that the kids are actually learning. She is successful in that though all of the teachers agree that she has the worst students -maybe in the whole world - she is making an impact on them. (not her fists, though she might like to imagine sometimes) It can't been seen in physical data, it is the small difference she makes when the kids see that someone in this world really does care about them. She wants to see them succeed as students, though most of the kids in her class won't do it this year.

Prayer for #1: The Babe will feel the peace that God can give about this place that she is in right now. She will be filled with endurance and hope to run the race and finish on the path that God has her on right now. Philippians 3:14

#2 - The Waffle - (that's me in third person) was hurt badly a few years ago. He had lots of physical recovery to overcome and still finds himself in places when it is very hard - near impossible to cope. Photography has been real fun for him and as he begins his way back into the workforce, photography is part of the path he has chosen. Because it is the beginning of the business, jobs come very slowly. He wants to be able to hire The Babe as his assistant allowing her to not feel like she has to teach, but right now, there is not enough work through photography to support The Waffle, let alone his whole family. He realizes that beginning a business will be most likely very hard for the first year, but at anytime the business could blow up because God might be ready.

Prayer for #2: Sixth Day Photo would blow up soon, but when God has it in the right place, in the right time --but most definitely, let God be God. Let The Waffle get in line with what God is doing even if that is not Sixth Day Photo. Also, that The Waffle would be an encouragement to his wife and family. That he would find ways to be a great husband and dad since his income is not enough to help at this point.

#3 - Moving from our home in East Texas. The Waffle and The Babe have talked about it, and have come to no conclusion on what to do. I'm figuring that this has to do with our lives feeling so far from home. I'm talking about spending eternity with God -our King - in His Kingdom. Right now we are on a journey through life to get to His kingdom and we haven't made it home yet. It seems like we may never feel at home. But our main talks have been about the photo business and what we still hope will be a church plant -The Pitstop.
So we are kind of nervous about the unknown prospect of what we are living today. We know that our current home is not right, but we also feel that God has not clearly revealed to us our new promised land.

Prayer for #3: God would be very clear about His plans for us because right now we can only see what is wrong and don't see any solution. We would be open to His direction no matter how bizarre or common. Then in that trust that we would feel satisfied and peaceful in Him

Granny B's

2007-02-27T13:40:00.000-06:00

Example 1:
Have you ever seen commercials, heard radio ads, saw web ads, or even been to Disney world? I have been there and it was fantastic. Now when you think about amusement parks, Disney normally is the king. I mean we have six flags in Texas which is very fun, but it is not the same experience as what they can do at Disney. Now in Shreveport, there once was a park named Hamels. You can visit the park online- no wait you can't. You can read about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamel's_Amusement_Park but you'll never be able to go again. Well let me just say, it was kind of local and much cheaper than six flags, but it was definitely not at the top of the theme park world.

Example 2:
Have you ever spoken to a person with a sincere Mormon faith? I have found that the way that Mormons talk about Jesus and faith is almost the same way that I would do it, with the exact same wording but different meanings. I'm not Mormon. I fall under a different umbrella - Christianity. Well, as I became friends with a real Mormon, I learned about the many aspects of their faith that you wouldn't necessarily find out unless you dig deep into their religion. Now be sure of this, I love the Mormon people, I just don't believe that their religious practices are inline with what the Bible says - I don't like that because it is wrong and is leading individuals away from the real Jesus Christ. That's all I have to say about that.

Now, whether you've been offended or not, I wrote those two examples to tell you about what happened to me yesterday. They will come in useful, just don't get your panties in a twist.

A while back, there was a restaurant called Granny B's in Carthage Texas. Even though I don't care too much for chicken, I loved to go there and get their chicken. I would go and get an 8 piece chicken tender meal with fried okra and a roll for just under $4.00. I'm not a bread person, but I also loved their rolls. Also, they had this barbecue sauce that was out of this world. Ok so whether you've caught it or not I loved Granny B's and the food that they produced. Well not too long ago, the restaurant burned and the business closed. It was a sad day which turned into a week, into a month and so on. Finally there was word that Granny B's was going to open back up and I was excited along with just about every one else in Carthage - except Holly N. Yesterday just happened to be the grand opening and though I live 30 minutes away, I drove over there to have lunch. I was pretty excited and - The Babe - was pretty sad that I would go without her. Well, I stood in a line that stretched out the door to make my order. I got the order of 4 piece chicken tenders, fried okra, a roll, mashed potatoes, and corn nuggets. I was a bit sad that it was almost $10.00 but I was sure hoping that it would be worth it. I was wrong. It ended up tasting like Grandy's on a bad day. This is a photo of the restaurant on opening day.It is the same building - with updates.

Some of the workers seemed like they were from overseas in a small country town. I think that the new owners found out how well the old restaurant was doing and bought the property, but couldn't buy the rights to the name Granny B's. So look close at the sign and you will see what this new restaurant really is. It's a Mormon in a Christian church. It is preparing to go to Disney for a week, but spending 5 hours at Hamels instead.
Granny B's Rocked!

Praise the Lord for His Mercy

2007-02-23T09:28:00.001-06:00

Listen up! I'm planning a job to build a deck onto the front of my house. I've been adding up the cost of the lumber and miscellaneous gear and -It Ain't Cheap. Oh well, I'll get it done really soon.

I love baseball and I always love to wear a hat - or cap in some circles of friendship. I have always called it a baseball hat, though it doesn't have a large brim or a feather. This photo is one that I did of my hat. I know what team used to wear a hat/cap like this, do you? I know you can check the comments and find out, but see if you can guess what it is first. Here is a hint - when this team wore this hat/cap, they were in an older stadium next door to where their new stadium is now. Their old stadium has been blown up and a football stadium been set up in its place, but I have been to the new baseball stadium several times.

Like I said before, my Bible study is slow. Today I studied through Luke 23:1-12. I guess I never realized how many different people abused Jesus during those last few days. If you do actually read in your Bible, you would have a chance to notice that Pilate didn't take long with Jesus before he sent Him away, but Herod did take some time with Him. in verse 9 it says that Herod questioned Jesus at some length. For questioning to receive that designation, it would seem that it might have taken an hour or two - I don't really know, but I was trying to think through some of the questions that Herod might have asked and I had some real eye-opening questions that came to mind. After the questioning went sour for Herod, these next moments occured. It is from one small verse, but so much was happening in that verse. As I read through it, I tried to think of what each of the parts meant and that is where this next thing came from.

Luke 23:11
- read this verse in your Bible first please -
- then the Ben Blue Jean Para -

Herod had become quite upset with Jesus because of His lack of answers. Herod felt disrespected and whispered to his soldiers, “This dummy probably hasn’t committed any crimes, but the people hate Him. We could have some fun with Him. Let’s rough Him up a bit and then somehow make Him look like a fool.” Herod stood up straight and took a running start towards Jesus and kicked across His face. The crowd shouted in joy, “Woo-hoo!” The force of the kick caused Jesus to flip over and land on His back. He reached His hands up to His face because of the intense pain that existed there now. When Jesus was able to pull Himself back up to His knees, the broad side of a sword struck the back of His neck. He leaned forward from the blow so quickly, that His face slammed into the road. His nose began to bleed again and He knew there was more to come. As the mob continued to cheer, the beating that Jesus got seemed to get worse. Some of the soldiers weren’t hitting him, but they were dancing around the soldiers that were doing the beating singing, “My name is Jesus – that rhymes with mesus – I lord and I rule – I meant I’m a fool – I’m such a good friend – please hit me again – I think I have fleas – now get my robe please.” Just then one of the soldiers brought a bright purple piece of cloth that he had stolen from one of the vendors nearby. It was very valuable, but they didn’t care. They took it and tied it around Jesus’ neck. They weren’t gentle about it either. One of the soldiers grabbed the edge of the robe and as he pulled Jesus by it, he said, “This fine king needs to be returned to sender. Take Him back to Pilate and let him do the judging.” He put the edge of the robe in one of the church leaders’ hands and said, “If you just give this a tug, he will go wherever you lead Him. Think of Jesus as a dog and this robe is His leash. Of course if He doesn’t move easily, you can give it a more intense tug like this,” he pulled the robe that was tied around Jesus’ neck and Jesus fell down on His face and it scraped across the ground a few feet until His momentum stopped, “and He will go where you want Him too. In fact, all the way back to Pilate. Now Go!”

Old Seventy Seven is Right!

2007-02-21T13:50:00.000-06:00

A Photo-a-day or at least a blog-a-day would be nice, but I have been unable to complete either one of those magnificent tasks. They were lofty dreams and I am so back-slidden. (Back-slidden: to slide back; to fall away; esp. to abandon gradually the faith and practice of a religion that has been professed)

My big camera the Canon EOS 1Ds has been returned as of the beginning of last week because it was too technical for me to use easily. I found out that the rebates that I expected to get with the other camera that I intended to buy, stopped on Feb 19. I would have saved about $700. So, I'm not really sure what my next course of action is on that road.

This past weekend, I took on a beast of a job and completed it with flying colors. At least today as I'm looking up from the floor waving the flag in pain, the colors are flying. Problem : There was a foul section of concrete in a friends driveway that needed to be reprimanded, removed, and replaced.
Day 1 Reprimanded and Removed A friend - The Hammer - and I used a 10 lb sledge hammer, a 2 lb sledge hammer, a jack hammer, a 24 oz hammer, two shovels, a chainsaw, and a pulling mechanism (truck n chain) to remove about 200 square feet of a driveway, a 4 inch root that spanned the width of the drive, and a 2 inch root that spanned the width of the drive.
Day 2 Rest - sort of
Day 3 Replacement The Hammer - and I built concrete forms, then we proceeded to create concrete to pour as the new drive. So between us we lifted 92 - 80lb sacks of concrete and deposited their contents into a mixer. Did you do the math? We lifted, mixed, and poured 3.68 tons of concrete. Yesterday - The Hammer - had to go and spend a day at school while I had the opportunity to stay home and recuperate. Today, we are both still in the House of Pain, but we are recovering nicely.

Thank you Hammer, I had a great time of fun doing not fun stuff!

Here are a few photos of - The Waffle - and - The Hammer - looking sweet together for many years. Though we were hunks for all of the ladies then, I think that The Hammer would agree, our wives are the smokingest, hottest ladies on earth, (His being the smokingest, hottest lady on earth for him and mine being the smokingest, hottest lady on earth for me) and the two hunks in this series of photos are off the market.

V-Day

2007-02-14T14:41:00.000-06:00

Alright it seems like no one ever looks at my blog, or you guys that do are afraid to comment on anything that I've said, or you are very quiet people. Either way, I haven't posted a picture in a while and I was challenged by - Old Seventy Seven - to do this sort of photo. So, here are my medium format cameras. Can you guess where the Kiev camera's lens was made?

Passion

2007-02-13T08:12:00.000-06:00

Hey, I'm sorry. It has been a few days since I last posted anything. My days have been so hectic, even right now I have other things that I need to do. I think that the reason I have been holding off from the posting is because my Bible Study has led me to the last couple of days of Jesus' life on earth. Since I do my study so slowly, these few days really do take me a few days to get through. They are very sad and I struggle with what happened to Jesus. I know He wins in the end, but it is a sad time. Here is what I have from yesterday about Luke 22:42 - saying, "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done." Jesus was really struggling, and this verse which takes a moment to read describes an event that took what I imagine was quite a while. In my mind, here is what I think some of that conversation involved

- Ben Blue Jean Para -

He prayed, “Dad, if it were alright with you, we could not go through all of the things that are about to take place. Just like you, I love these people. I love to be here with them. I love to be a part of their lives. They are the gift you have given to me and I love you for it. Maybe there is a way that we could figure out how to give them a permanent sacrifice besides what has been planned. -- That won’t be right; it couldn’t ever work. Aghghggh! I love these people so much that I am willing to die for them, but I don’t want to experience the separation from you that I know will happen when the time comes for me to bear all of their sins. I love you and I don’t want to experience that one moment apart from you, but if I don’t give myself as the sacrifice for all time, they will be lost. They need the love that I can give through sacrifice and I want to keep loving them like I have today so I will do it. But, I don’t think that I can bear causing pain for you by taking all of their sins on me. Aghghggh! Dad, whatever you think is the right decision, I will accept as my own.”

Today's study was still sad. It was the moment when Judas did what he did. Then the guards took Jesus into the high priest's court yard during the night and strummed on Him until the morning. It is also when Peter's denial broke his heart when he heard the rooster.

Luke 22:63-65

This happens during the night after Jesus had been taken into custody. I see Peter off to the side looking in uneasily at this scene.

- Ben Blue Jean Para -

He saw that the guards that had taken Jesus into custody had made some sort of blindfold out of what looked to be a sock. They had covered his eyes with it and had started poking him with their swords and hitting him. He saw one of the men run up and smack Jesus in the face with a canteen while he was screaming, “Hey old prophet, prophesy on this!” Jesus pummeled to the ground and the man that hit Him yelled, “Who is it that just hit you?” All of the guards started laughing at what they had just seen. Then the man stepped to Jesus and since He didn’t answer, the man bent down to take the sock off of Jesus’ eyes so that He could see who it was. Jesus looked up at the man from the ground with His one good eye that hadn’t swollen up yet, and the man said to him, “Hey, Jesus, it was me!” - Let me just warn you that the words that you would have heard that day were not as kind as what I have just written. - Peter grabbed his mouth and covered it so as not to make a sound.

Luke 22:60-61

Then this is as Peter realizes the moment of his third denial

- Ben Blue Jean Para -

As he finished that last word, he heard the rooster jump starting the morning with a, “cock-a-doodle-do.” “On no!” He breathed. At that moment, he remembered that Jesus said, “Peter, three times tonight you will deny that you know me. When you hear the rooster crow in the morning, you will remember what I have said to you now,” and he did remember. He looked over at Jesus lying on the ground, beaten. He looked closer and saw that Jesus was looking right at him. Just then one of the guards kicked Jesus in the stomach and caused Jesus to close His eyes in pain. Peter stared at Jesus for a few seconds more, then with tears streaming down his face, he ran. He didn’t stop running until he was completely spent and he fell onto the ground still crying, still weeping over what had just happened.

Missionary Tech

2007-02-09T21:05:00.000-06:00

Today I had a chance to go over and check out Missionary Tech - http://www.techteam.org - but before I went, I was a part of this giant wall graphic application process. There is a new sanctuary that needed to have vinyl stickers - that had been cut into a verse - put on the wall. I mostly watched what they were doing and helped when needed. But this guy, Joel - Old Seventy-Seven - asked me if I would photograph the work that they were doing. Being - The Waffle - (formerly Photo Guy but this new nickname was given by my daughter today) I was happy to break out my camera equipment. When we were finally finished at the church I had a chance to go over to the Missionary Tech offices and take a closer look at what they do. It is really cool because people like architects can be missionaries too through the Missionary Tech Team. I'm not an architect, but they do have a graphics team which - Old Seventy-Seven - is a part of and it looks like something I will look into further. I would way rather do the work that I've been doing with the mag for Jesus than for the dollar. This is three different photos that I put together to honor the work of one fine Missionary. It shows the final product in the background. It also shows - Old Seventy-Seven - while he was working. By the way, while he was working, his arms and fingers became very sore from the constant pressures that he was having to apply to get the letters to adhere to the wall properly. So the one where his eyes are closed is how he really felt on the outside and the dream is what he was thinking while he was doing work for Jesus.

Make Sure You Hear

2007-02-08T12:55:00.000-06:00

I love my jacket and I love my glasses. The Babe has often commented that I look much like the verizon guy, and normally people agree. I do zip my jacket up many times when I wear it, but I don't really care to talk on the phone most of the time. If you look closely, I don't even use the same phone as the verizon guy and most of the time I wear a hat. I don't have the same hair style, I don't have a verizon patch, and I don't always walk around leading a large crowd of people. If you couldn't tell already, my first name is Ben and his first name is Verizon - but hold on, his last name is Guy. That's not my last name.

This blog entry is dedicated to - The Babe.

2 Additions to Yesterday's post:

1. I unknowingly used the phrase 'sharing the gospel' which is one of those phrases used by Christians. It doesn't seem to have a concrete definition, which seems to make it troublesome to understand for someone who might be trying. If you didn't even notice it, you should be able to see now how easy it is to use Christian phrasings.

2. Though I have personally met Jesus,
these were the thoughts going through my mind:

No, I haven't tried Dr. Jesus but I have tried Dr. Pepper - tastes good
No, I haven't tried Dr. Jesus but I have tried Dr. Scholls - I'm gellin'
No, I haven't tried Doc Jesus but once I hired Doc Holiday
No, I haven't tried Dr. Jesus but I read a book by Dr. Seuss
Can we just call Dr. Jesus - Dr. J - I mean, does he play basketball?

The Ice Man's Birthday

2007-02-07T20:43:00.000-06:00

Today was the Ice Man's Birthday and this is a picture of him looking real tough.

This other photo is the one I intended to post earlier in the day, but I didn't have time. I feel really cynical about all church signs that try and put something - ?interesting? - on them. This church is in my city, and they have had some bad ones, so don't worry, you'll probably see another photo of their sign real soon.

So as I drive by, I wonder if this sign is supposed to bring people into the church? What is this church really trying to say about Jesus? Has anyone in the church tried Dr. Jesus and what sort of medicine does He practice? What does this say for the honest church that is trying to meet the real needs of real people? Here in the real world, not everyone speaks 'Christianese.' Many of the thoughts and ideas that I know because I grew up in the church are foreign to regular people who don't have a pastor for a dad. I understand what the sign is trying to say, but in my opinion, that is the wrong place/way to say it.

I'm going to give another example of what I am talking about. The word 'sin.' It is used over and over by every pastor and church-goer known to man. Get honest with me here please - what does the word sin mean? Many in the church would answer doing something wrong or doing something against God. Those are true, but neither is a certain answer to the question -what is sin? Let's go beyond that. Sharing the gospel with another would require you to get to the point where you tell someone that they have sinned. Use Romans 3:23. You would move right through that to Romans 6:23, and then ask, "Don't you want that free gift?" They may not even understand what being a sinner really means. When you add in grace and mercy, also undefinable by most, you get a giant hodgepodge of dingleberries and whipped cream - your heart is in the right place, but the language that you use might as well be coming from a quantum scientist teaching you how to scientifically achieve maximum inflation with a latex orbital expanding through increased air pressure through its inlet - blow up a balloon.
Sin is disobedience against the laws that God has set for us to follow -known or unknown. You can find a list of some of them in Exodus 20. If you obey every law except one, you are still guilty of breaking all of them--James 2:10. Breaking one of those laws-- like telling a lie (bearing false witness)-- puts you in a place of being a law-breaker - a criminal. If you go to court over that broken law you will go and stand in front of the judge. That judge is the one that wrote the laws (God). He will find you guilty and you will be punished. There is a lot more conversation that goes with this talk about sin, and if you need it, I can tell you.

Christians we need to be clear in our language.

Shiloh Elvis Huckleberry Newton

2007-02-06T09:20:00.000-06:00

The Punisher - didn't get a haircut after all. So sorry there will be no post of that event for now, but thank you for the challenge. Here is a photo that I did that covers 4 of 5 baseball stadiums that we went to last summer - My Favorite was Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. We are missing the Colorado Rockies tickets because we lost them in Colorado - Parker to be exact.

Bible thought
This little piece came after Jesus had talked about the greatness that comes through humility and given the disciples some positive prophesy, then

Luke 22:31-34

- read these three verses in your Bible first please -
- then the Ben Blue Jean Para -

Jesus said, "Satan has demanded permission to put you, all of you, through the ringer. He wants to chew you up when you are fresh and spit you out like a tired, 10 hour chewed, piece of gum, but I have prayed for you. I have prayed that your faith would not fail and Peter, I have prayed that once you turn back from your upcoming sadness and regain your faith, that you would come back and strengthen these - I pray that you would again find a place to be a leader among the brothers here.” Peter pushed his chair back, slammed his hand on the table, stood up and said, “Hold on Jesus. You, above all, should know that I’m good to go! If the need be, I will go to prison or even death for you!” Jesus smiled, nodded and motioned for Peter to sit back down. While Peter was sitting back down, Jesus said to him, “Peter, three times tonight you will deny that you know me. When you hear the rooster crow in the morning, you will remember what I have said to you now.”

Day Two

2007-02-05T16:52:00.000-06:00

I just took this photo of Cole - The Punisher - before he went to get his hair cut. He loves that shaggy look, but mommy wants it to look different. He was a little upset about having to get his hair cut and I just happened to catch him putting on a happy face. He is skipping a lot of school because of his eye injury and of that, he is happy. Today at the hospital, the doctor said that his recovery was looking great and that now we just needed to wait until the iris paralyzer wore off to send him back to school. Oh yeah, you can look in his eyes and see something very freaky. Make sure you say "Punisher" three times while you are looking.

Start of Something New

2007-02-04T11:08:00.000-06:00

Hey, if you look at the post time for this post, you might notice that in some areas of the world, it is the exact time that a regularly scheduled church service would take place. Then if you put that together with the time zone that I live in, you might once again consider me back-slidden. We didn't go because of what happened yesterday, but we would still have about an hour to get there before the preaching starts - our church does a whole lot of singing and announcements.

It is great to be a part of a church community, but sometimes either the timing or just being alive, doesn't work out - like today. Be you can be sure that you won't hear this excuse every week. Like Keith Green said, "Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to McDonald's makes you a hamburger."

Ok, because I am a photographer, I've decided that I will try to photograph and post at least one photo per day. If you want to challenge me, ask me to photograph an idea or a person that is hundreds of miles away. I might accept - or - decline. One photo per day doesn't sound like much, but it might get ridiculous, so in the future you may just see a post with a photo, or a lame photo that I put up because posting was the last thing on my mind. Also, if I am away from a computer, there may not be a post for a particular day. My photo today (below) is of some items that are in my house. One of them is labeled Acacia (my wife - The Babe) and it just so happened that in this photo - if you look closely, the one right beside it is labeled with Jacob (my son - The Ice-Man).

The Elements

2007-02-03T16:25:00.000-06:00

This morning we were sadly woken extremely early. Cole had been sleeping and somehow received a cut on his eye. He came into the parent bedroom filled with beautiful sleepy parents and woke us up with some crying. We messed around with his crying because he refused to go the doctor until about noon. The doctor did some weird doctor stuff and sent him home with a patch over his eye. He doesn't feel real piratey right now, he just wants his eye to heal so that he can take the patch off. That ordeal has pretty much spent the whole day for us.

Bible thought
This little piece came after Jesus passed the cup around a first time saying that he wouldn't drink the fruit of the vine until the Kingdom of God was going to come, then

Luke 22:19-20

- read these three verses in your Bible first please -
- then the Ben Blue Jean Para -

He waited until the cup got back to Him and then He set it down on the table. He reached over and picked up the loaf of bread that had been prepared and as He was holding it, He looked up and said, “Thank you Father God for this beautiful picture in this simple loaf of bread. Let each crumb be a testament of your love.” Then with tear filled eyes He looked back to the disciples around the table. He smiled and with a crackle in His voice He broke the bread into pieces and said, “The picture of this broken bread represents my body that will be broken and has been given for your lives. When you eat this bread, remember that it is special… it is me.” Jesus watched as each of the disciples took a piece of the bread and ate it. Then He picked up the cup of wine again and said, “This wine will also be a way to remember me. This wine is a picture of the blood that will come from my body. It will flow freely and cover your impurity; it will cover your sin. It is a symbol of a new covenant that doesn’t need a priest, a new covenant that doesn’t need to sacrifice any more, a new covenant that will have the ability to bring you face to face with God.”

ex-b-day - ha ha - CACI MY LOVE

2007-02-02T09:31:00.000-06:00

I have not written in a few days which should be your cue to say, "That guy is so back-slidden." I did read through my upcoming verses two days ago.
Over the past few days I've been arguing in my head with a few of the people at the Mag. My arguments come from a recent conversation that we had. Now, because it is a business environment and I bring Annalisa to the office everyday, they have asked me to find somewhere to keep her while I work. They said it would be alright to bring her every once in a while-- only when there is nothing else that I could do, but I have a problem with that. So, since I feel more comfortable writing than debating, here is what I wrote down about how I'm feeling about the office environment.

Annalisa is my daughter and I am her daddy. I want to be a great dad, and one of the things that our family decided a long time ago is that we would do everything that we could possibly do to keep our kids out of daycare. As Parents, we don't have long to keep our kids, and the first few years of life are of the utmost importance. It is a time when the parents can be most influential in raising their children. Whether I am good or bad at it, I want to see my kids grow up to be fantastic individuals that are secure in themselves. So, I guess, if you get me, you will also be getting Annalisa.

Bible thought
This little piece is after Judas had been entered by Satan and then he went to talk with the church leaders about the Jesus Betrayal.

Luke 22:4-5

- read these three verses in your Bible first please -
- then the Ben Blue Jean Para -

He said, "I hang out with Jesus a lot. He asked me to be a part of His gang and I agreed. I just don't like hanging out with Him anymore. We are always walking around with empty pockets and even though we don't actually beg, it feels like we are begging for food - everywhere we go. I'm getting sick of being broke so I was thinking we should make a deal. I would like to have a big fat wallet and be politically powerful, while you would like to have Jesus on a shish-ka-bob. I think that we can make that happen." The huddle of leaders all turned with bug eyes and looked at each other then one of them spoke up, "What luck! That is so great, the awesome Lord our God has blessed us with fantastic news and surely Jesus will get what He deserves. This news is so magnificent, if you do produce Him so that we can have Him killed, we will give you thirty silver coins that are worth a whole lot and of that you can be sure. That is how important we feel about removing Jesus from His heretical place of teaching and sending Him straight to the executioner." Judas looked down on the ground and rubbed his beard for a second, then said, "So it will be done."

Experimental

2007-01-30T09:17:00.000-06:00

Tonight my guys are going to be a part of a science fair at their school. -The Punisher- Cole's experiment was centrifugal force and - The Ice Man - Jacob's was watching ice melt on white and black papers. We had to put together little displays for them to set up, so I -Photo Guy- felt a need to photograph my kids. This one of -The Punisher - was taken at the part of the experiment where we swung a cup full of water around on a string. This was the slow version when the water fell out - though you can't see the water because it fell out during the previous rotation. This series of photos of - The Ice Man - actually made the display because there is not really much happening as you watch the ice melt. It is a progression of his amazing efforts to experiment by watching ice melt (experiment given by the teacher).

DIFFERENT THOUGHT

Whether you know it or not, I went to college to be a preacher. I was almost done when things didn't go exactly as planned. (East Texas Baptist University dumped my scholarships -free ride - because I hadn't been attending consecutive semesters. I worked as a missionary for a year.) As time has gone by, I have been intrigued by the idea of photographs, but the desire to be friends with God and give pointers on how others can be His friend has never left my heart. I love to study the Bible. God has given me a very unique church plan, that has been difficult to put together. I would guess it is because of one of these two things - or both

1. I am missing a few things to be prepared to lead a group of individuals
2. The people that I will be involved with aren't quite ready for the craziness that I have in mind

If you want to know more about that, email me and I will send you the church plan that I have been developing for a couple of years. Anyway, I'm saying all of that to say this little bit of info: Sometimes I don't study the Bible as regularly as I should - don't laugh, you know you feel the same way - So, from my (sometimes) daily Bible studies, I will post some of what has gone through my mind to keep myself accountable and give you some fun gems that I might have found. I'm studying in Luke until further notice. So here is chapter 21 verses 34-36 - where Jesus is wrapping up His talk about future events to the people in Jerusalem and future events for the world.

- read these three verses in your Bible first please -
- then the Ben Blue Jean Para -

As you wait for these times, make sure that you guard your hearts and your lives because sometimes, the wait may be unbearable. When that happens, don't turn to the bottle. Don't get depressed because before you know it, that day will be here and if you are drunk or depressed, it will catch you like a mouse caught in a trap. Now that trap is so big, everyone that is on earth when it snaps will have to deal with it. But, stay alert! Keep your eyes on the prize and prayer in your hearts so that you will have the strength to escape what is about to take place. The main reason that you will be able to escape is because you will be in constant conversation (prayer)with the one that is going to cause the trap to snap. Then if you find yourselves not caught in the trap, you will be able to stand before "the Son of Man" (Jesus).

The First Sixth Day Photo Custom Album

2007-01-27T10:33:00.000-06:00

I have asked and the parties involved have given me permission to show you guys something very cool. I have posted the whole wedding album online and now you too can check out how cool it is. What it will be is a hard bound book that can be set in a library, where each page is produced as a collage photo, but is quite a bit more sturdy. So it's not the old - here's a 3-ring binder with slip-sleeves inside, no this is really cool. I'm not really sure about the price yet (probably a little under a million dollars), but as the idea of an album has been flipped a thousand times in my mind, these albums could have so many uses. Wedding is the first idea, but beyond that it could be used for a group of family photos over a period of time, or a baseball, football, basketball season could be set out like a story, or as a child grows he/she could be photographed each year and then as seniors, an album could be put together - I could even scan in snapshots through a child's life and put an album together ---- I guess you get the idea. Oh well, I pity tha fool that doesn't check this out!

Put this in the web address bar: www.pictage.com/269515

Once that page pops up, type in the info that it asks for and then click on the button that says 'view images'.

When the new page pops up, look at the bar that goes across the top of the page and click on the link labeled 'My Pictage'

Then in the box labeled viewed events look at the event row titled -Ritter- and look all the way to the right. You should see the word 'Album' and it is a link to the album. Click on it.

Last step -- now this page shows the available albums. Look to the right of the list and click on the word 'view'. Once you do that, flip on some groovy tunes then sit back and relax with a nice beverage. Soon you will see a new window pop up that has the album as a slide show.

Pray for FINLEY

2007-01-24T17:29:00.000-06:00

(Check out Psalm 13 at the bottom even if you don't read all of this)

A little dude (Finley) in Denver stopped breathing a few hours after he was born. The hospital is taking care of him and they seem to say that there is extra blood on his brain. That blood just happens to be applying pressure to the part that controls his breathing - so today he is unable to breathe on his own. So we pray.
To the people that are very close to the situation, what I am about to say may seem like a bunch of hogwash - the others might see it and say, "I guess I never thought of that."

A common thought is - This little dude hasn't even have a chance to live yet. Why would a God that is so loving do something like that? Why did I ever go to church? Why did I ever think that there might be a being that is in control of everything? Most definitely there is not.
There really is no flip side to that coin of thought, but let me share a few ideas that might shine a glimmer of hope in a miserable moment.

(My short version)

I was almost killed. I spent several months in the hospital. I don't remember most of it because I also had blood on my brain. Our lives seemed to begin swirling down the crapper the day that I was injured.

We didn't have much money at first and I was the bread winner = collection agencies galore
I couldn't go to work because I was hurt = loss of job
Broken bones = surgeries that painfully, I do remember
Special hospital where I stayed somewhere else = never feel at home

That's a pretty sorry story, though it is very true. Going through that has lent to us many rocks of God's truth . Just when we thought we could go no more, God showed us a handhold - just a little higher. I want to share some of those with you now.

1. John 11:35 - a verse I learned because it is the shortest in the Bible "Jesus Wept". Give those two words some thought and you might be very surprised. You see, Jesus was weeping, caused by a broken heart. An acquaintance had died and Jesus had shown up after his death. Jesus stood outside of the tomb weeping, not because Lazarus was dead (he could fix that), but because he saw and felt the hurt that the women expressed. Upon seeing their pain, His heart began to hurt.
2. Luke 23:44 - it talks about how it was about noon and darkness had fallen over the whole earth because Jesus was on the cross. Who has the power to make the whole earth dark? God. Jesus is God's son. When God looked down and saw what was happening to His beloved son, it seems that He couldn't bear to see it.

Do you recognize that God could have had control over both of those situations? He could have kept Lazarus alive - He could have kept Jesus from the cross.
How could He allow those things? However, you may say that maybe He didn't have any control over them.

Do you realize that after Lazarus came out of the tomb that John 11:45 happened? It says, "Many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what Jesus had done, believed in Him." Now if we step back we can say, "Who cares who believes in Him?"
Now let's step forward again.
Do you realize that after Jesus came back to life, He had just defeated death? Though it seemed like God had lost His grip of control and allowed Jesus to die like that, He really did not even loosen His grip. He knew exactly what was going to happen because of what Jesus suffered through.

1st John 4:8 says that God is love. It doesn't say that God loves stuff or that God loves. It is saying that in loves' purest form, you would find God. He loved Lazarus and He loves His son Jesus and they definitely saw dark days. Any Christian is considered God's son (or daughter). He has a plan that has been set in motion. It is a good, no - great, no - fantastic, no - unfailing plan! As a human, I don't always know where His plan leads. Sometimes, bad things happen (death of Lazarus and Jesus, the Ben injury, little Finley in the Hospital) and sometimes good things happen (Glory to God and eternal defeat of death)- but you know, they are always His things. We must remember that we are not God. His thoughts are not ours. His plan is not necessarily always ours. So when the bad times supercede the good times, remember that we are a part of God's plan - not the focus of it.

One last thought, the one that really helped to give me strength. I love the stories of David in the Bible and my wife found this and showed me. I have loved it and it still gives me strength.

Psalms 13
1 How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?

2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?

3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;

4 my enemy will say, "I have overcome him,"
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.

6 I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.

LIFE is CHRIST
Ben

What is a Soft-Box?

2007-01-24T12:03:00.000-06:00

Hey, I got a new soft-box from calumet and it is awesome. It is 36"x48" and it is enormous. This Photo of "The Girl" is my first attempt at using the soft-box. You can see a reflection of it in her eyes (the little squares in the top right of her eyeballs). Calumet doesn't make a soft-box to fit my brand of light system which is very sad. (RPS) But since I've already spent a ton of money on my light system, I thought that I would keep it. I did order a soft-box from the RPS people, but it was junk so I decided to rig my lights to fit the calumet system. The first two days were very disappointing. Nothing that I tried seemed to work. Then Like Joseph, my dreams showed me the future - the only difference is that his dreams were truthful and of a certain future - while my dreams are speculative. As a matter of fact, I pray that I don't have any dreams at all so that I can rest all night instead of having to rescue my lady from that dragon every night, or sometimes I hit baseballs all night, or sometimes I build a skate ramp in my backyard and skate on it with my guys, or sometimes I dream about doing my magazine work(the worst dreams), or sometimes I come up with solutions to the days problems.

How the Peanut Changed My Life

2007-01-21T11:09:00.000-06:00

Just so you know, I love peanuts and I love peanut butter. I recently had a hankering for some peanut butter fudge and since I hadn't ever made any, I called my all-knowing and wise mother of many years to ask for any recipes or ideas that she had on how to make it. What she conveyed to me seemed to remind me of the time on that movie when Moses was standing there in amazement watching the commands being burned into the stones. Remember however that those commands are much more powerful than peanut butter and any fudge associated with it. So I made it and I call it PBF. Since it has been made, I find myself returning again and again to the fridge to get another piece. I am feeling the effects of eating too much of it, but since the flavor is so magnificent it seems like the only stopping point will be at the bottom of the container when all PBF has been eaten. So I warn you, if you are on a diet or don't want your tummy to hurt, you should either not make it or you should construct a plan that would limit your PBF intake. Great is the Lord for His creation of the wonderful peanut and miscellaneous items that would be mixed with it to create PBF. My current 'batch' is about half eaten now and when it is gone I will probably wait at least a month before I make more. So here is how you do it:

If you decide to make this, and you get hurt, burned, or fat,
I take no responsibility for your injuries or girth.
You have been warned.

Ingredients:

1 can of sweetened condensed milk 14oz.
3/4 cup of creamy peanut butter
12 oz. white chocolate baking squares
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt

Preparation:
Obtain a microwave safe mixing bowl large enough to hold all of the ingredients.
Throw all of the ingredients into the bowl.
Depending on your microwave - warm the mixture until the squares begin to melt, then stir the ingredients together with a spoon, spatch, or anything you choose.
--You will see the ingredients beginning to mix together.
Put the bowl with ingredients back into the micro and warm again until you see the ingredients begin boiling around the edge of the bowl. Once that occurs, pull the bowl with ingredients back out and stir again with your weapon of choice.
Back in the micro until you see it begin boiling again. Stop the micro, pull out the bowl and mixture. Stir it until it feels smooth, then pour onto a wax paper lined baking dish, or cookie sheet. Put that in the fridge and wait until it gets hard. Cut it with a knife into squares and store in a fridge safe container inside the fridge.

Consumption:

Reach into the container inside the fridge and procure a piece between your index finger and thumb. Place that PBF piece into your mouth and as it is lain on your tongue, remember to continue to breathe and after a moment begin to chew. I guarantee that you will enjoy it and if you don't, you might want to see a doctor for that. As you enjoy that first piece of heaven, you might not want to move too far from the fridge because, like I said, self-control is easily overcome by those PBF squares.

May the force be with you.

Tyler Business Expo

2007-01-19T11:20:00.000-06:00

Hey-o everyone. Yesterday I spent all day (8:30 - 5:30) at the business expo and I must say, I think that I hit the Pen Lotto. I brought home a sack full of pens. I signed up for a few of their drawings and no one has called yet, but I'm hoping :-) I signed up for a 30Gb Ipod, a Nike Sasquatch driver (even though I love my 440 Cobra), and I signed up to win a billboard. If they draw my name, they will be setting up a giant billboard for my business for free. The concession stands in the convention center were open and I had the wonderful opportunity to have a greazzy, freak-show cheese laden chili pie and it was fantastic. The two models in the photo had one each. They actually had theirs first and when I saw them, I knew that I would also have to get one. I spent all day photographing the booths for the magazine, but my main job was to photograph these two former cover models with anyone that would donate at least five dollars to the humane society. You know, there were many guys that did it, but no girls. I set up my studio in the booth that had been dedicated for our use - background and lights. It was cramped quarters and I really couldn't set the lights like I wanted, but I think that I did alright, of course this probably is a photo when the girls were making their ugliest faces, right before they got their chili pies.
During the day, I had to go over to Hollytree Country Club and photograph an event there. It was a thank you dinner for clients of Feliciano Financial Group. The boss is named Jose Feliciano, but he does not sing Feliz Navidad. At that dinner, I photographed a couple of current Texas Rangers. Rick Bauer #30 (not related to Jack) and Wes Littleton #58.
Oh, I got some logos affixed to my truck so I took a photo and here it is. They look way more awesome in person, but you might see me driving around if you live in my general area of the world.

Cold - In Texas?

2007-01-15T10:43:00.000-06:00

Yep, you guessed it, today's high temp is just about freezing. Lots of rain and high winds make it very, very cold - er..hum... for Texas. I went out to photograph a Martin Luther King Day Parade and not many people showed up. Here's a couple of photos I took of some frozen stuff on a tree limb. I love the cold, but I don't love the wind. I love the ice and snow, but I don't love the ice on the road.

January

2007-01-13T14:13:00.000-06:00

Hey guys,

Today is kind of rainy here. Since it is Saturday and I don't have any work today, we have just been sitting at home doing nothing. I watched a DVD from a company called pictage because we have been in contact - they want to do business with me. The more I find out about them, it seems that I won't mind working with them. They are an online host for professional photographers and they would help me out a ton, but I'll have to wait a few more days before I commit to signing with them.
I have finished designing the Ritter Wedding album - really it is a pre-design - which means that I have it all together, but I want to work with Brin and Jameson to get the final album design before it all goes to printing and binding. That way, they could always have something that they love and don't end up just stuffing in a box and putting on the top shelf in the closet so that ten years down the road, they can wonder - "Where did we put our wedding proofs? I just want to look at them and then put them right back." With the album, they could at least always keep it on a book shelf and when they look at it be able to reminisce about how wonderful that time really was. It was a wonderful wedding and we had some really weird / fun things come up and now that it has all passed, these photos augment the memories - "Turning Their Memories Into Legend."

Well, this is the very last page of the album that I've pre-designed. All the stuff in the middle is fantastic and someday soon, you'll just have to go and ask Brin to show it to you, or you may be able to see it online within the next two weeks.

Tyler - Today

2007-01-12T12:18:00.000-06:00

Today I had to go on assignment for the magazine that I work for (my day job). I do photography, and page design. It's a quarterly thing so four times a year, it gets really intense around here. Oh well, today I had to go out and photograph an Arbor Day celebration at one of the new elementary schools in Tyler. The mayor came out and was supposed to plant a tree, but was called away on business. You can check out the magazine on the web - www.tylertoday.com Here is a photo of a park ranger demonstrating how to plant a tree. I thought this one turned out especially good - though I don't know who he is or who the kids around him are. One of the groups of kids that I met were all speaking Spanish to each other (I caught like one or two words per sentence) then they turned to me and asked me, "Are you Peter Parker?" I slung some webs and then crawled away. It was pretty crazy.

The Ritters

2007-01-11T08:54:00.000-06:00

Hey-o people,

Alright - I'm working on a Fine-art coffee table memory book for Brin and Jameson. I'm pretty excited about it and I'm not sure that they know I'm working on it yet. So far, it is fantastic and the reason it has taken me so long to get to it is because it is a new process for me to work on, but it is something that I really wanted to make available to every couple, or family, or anyone that I photograph. So, this is my inaugural book and hopefully in a few days (weeks), I could get it online for everyone to see while it is being printed and bound. Here is the first page of the book and it seems to get better from here because this couple looks so great together.

First

2007-01-10T12:01:00.001-06:00

Here we Go!