crazy-beautiful

Hmm.... There's so much to be said... and no words to say it.

Derek, my brother leaves a week from today to go on his 2nd tour to the war in Iraq. This is really hard on our family but it also feels like we're old pro's at it, all in the same time. i love this boy almost as much as i do my own children. The older he gets, the closer we get, and yeah, maybe it is because he does just 'get it' so much more... but i will never accept any thought of ever leading my life without him in it. I know that God will bring him home to us again... just like he always has!!! God's Speed, bro... I LOVE YOU!

On lighter news, one of my best good friends cooked a great dinner for me the other night... Was really good!!! Bumble Bee Soup... ever heard of that? I had not and to be honest, I was a bit scared... :) but it was awesome, I was HIGHLY impressed. :) Of course, as he cooked, I played around with my camera, 1/2 way into his efforts. i missed all the good part at the beginning. HA!

as a plug here... I do have a flicker page, facebook page and I recently became a twitter user (we'll see how long that lasts). I will be posting most of my stuff (photos) on Flicker :) and I keep Facebook pretty updates, all links are there.

SO... MLK day was FUN! I had a good lunch and good company, did some much needed shopping :) and then went to MLK day! Was so awesome!!! And man... what an AWESOME service! I took some pics during rehearsal, and man... just... AWESOME! Anthony Evans was here all weekend. I was not here for Sat/Sun Services, however, I know it was "OFF DA CHAIN!" I saw the videos and heard everyone talking about it, via facebook of course! and i was wishing so much i was home, the whole weekend to be here!!!

I LOVE MY CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anthony's team brought some shirts down to sell, i bought 3 :). They were really funny tho... one, green one, had a bite taken from an apple and said "My bad - Eve" HAAHAHA!! The other says "God loves everyone. but i'm His favorite." is that me or what? i love them!!!

So... Pray for my brother's friend, he's in Arkansas Children's Hospital, on life support b/c of an ATV accident. Pls keep him lifted up!

New Camera - Moving Forward

Well... i'll start off by saying I'm totally in awe of my new camera. i took several pics today, about 500... i'm just... wow... in awe!!! SO MUCH good stuff to do with this piece of brilliance.
I used a very very special Nikon D700 to shoot downtown this week and i was embarassingly impressed with this camera. And i admitted, even though i did a lot of research and put in much thought before i bought the D90, when i got it, i was just a TAD disappointed b/c the 700 was so phenomenal. but i guess it took only 1 weekend with the D90 to fall in love with it too. or maybe, it's just the telephoto (300mm) lens that i love so much? i guess we'll never know, nor does it matter. :) but i will attach a couple so you may see a sampling.

All of these pics were taken today. :)

Feel free to share your thoughts here if you like them, if you don't, i promise, i will try to get better!

We had 'Wide Open Leadership Night' tonight at church. It was really great!!! I'm so happy we're doing the song "Moving Forward" it really really applies to our church right now, and i think in most of our lives. To keep moving forward, letting go of our pasts and taking hold of what lies in front of us!!!

Part of me knows that my taking hold of this photography bug again is me moving forward with things, more like a complete moving on. I know that our past can bind us, sometimes unknowningly but i know that the steps i've made in my life are enabling me to unleash a new fury on my past... once and for all!
wow... this all, the camera, the blog, the new things i've been doing in my life... it's really enabling, encouraging, inspiring. A lot of things/people have been inspiring lately, i'm catching it...

Good night, you guys!

You had no idea, did ya?

09 had the BEST starting out for me that i've ever had with a new year... all 11 days of it! :) They've been somewhat curious and spectacular all at the same time! so... new year, new blog. It's been years since I've blogged, so forgive me if i don't use proper capitalization, spelling or punctuation, as i don't much care about it as much as i do the message.

i have a couple of great loves in my life now that i will probably share with you all... #1 - Jesus. The rest in no particular order: Missions, my children, photography - in particular my Nikon D90 with macro lens, work (yes, i love to work, i'd go crazy without something to focus my time and energy on), travel and my close friends.

My daughters are 4 and 7, both December babies.
I go to church at the Life Church of Memphis (thelifechurch.com) i do all my missions at this point thru goglobalmissions.com and i have a huge heart to do this for the rest of my life. as for now, i gotta keep my day job to support my habits - starbucks, missions and photography.

my drink of choice: triple grande non fat toffee nut white mocha. i know... it's really sad, as i said, you have no idea what you're getting yourself into here!

i have one life long friend who lives in the northwest part of the nation, my best friend (girl) who is in Nashville right now and very few very special ppl to me in Memphis who i spend my time with. these ppl and my family of course, are probably the ones who will find the most joy in this blog.

Something that most ppl do not know about me: I taught my brothers how to burp the alphabet. :)