He is coming!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is a short video clip worth?

She's home!

Thank you, Jesus.

It's Friday

She will be home this evening. Yay!

I'm getting butterflies in my stomach.

One

The early 70's band Three Dog Night sang this popular song that I can now identify with heartily.

One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do
Two can be as bad as one
It's the loneliest number since the number one

No is the saddest experience you'll ever know
Yes, it's the saddest experience you'll ever know
`Cause one is the loneliest number that you'll ever do
One is the loneliest number, worse than two

It's just no good anymore since she went away
Now I spend my time just making rhymes of yesterday

One is the loneliest, number one is the loneliest
Number one is the loneliest number that you'll ever do
One is the loneliest, one is the loneliest
One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do
It's just no good anymore since she went away
(Number) One is the loneliest
(Number) One is the loneliest
(Number) One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do
(Number) One is the loneliest
(Number) One is the loneliest
(Number) One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do

You see, for some crazy reason I agreed with my wife that she should go away for two weeks to attend a Child Evangelism Fellowship training course.

I must have been delirious at the time.

I knew that things around the house would run smoothly because Robin has done a superb job of training our three girls in homemaking skills and we have worked hard to teach them proper behavior. No, they are not perfect, but the are well behaved so with a little bit of encouragement from daddy I don't worry too much about that kind of stuff.

I also knew I would miss my wife, but this is just too much. I almost took off Tuesday to go see her but I was able to get a hold of myself and meet my obligations at home. Fortunate for me, she will be home Friday evening. That's only two days from now.

I can't wait.

Nikon D40

As you have probably figured out by now if you have been reading this blog, I got a new camera recently. It is a Nikon D40. It came with an 18-55 kit lens. I also bought the superb 18-200 f3.5-5.6 VR lens. VR stands for Vibration Reduction. This lens is revolutionary in that it pretty much replaces all other lenses for practical uses. Of course, there will always be other lenses that you COULD use or may I dare say NEED for one reason or another, but this one could be the only lens the average family photographer like me ever really needs.



Here is the excellent 18-200 f3.5-5.6 VR lens.

Live, in concert....

We had the privilege to go see Mark Lowery and Lordsong in concert at High Street Baptist Church Friday evening. It was a good concert and we had a great time. Mark's facial expressions and gestures are ripe for anyone with a camera. We didn't have great seats for photographing but I did manage to get some good shots. You can view the other photo's here.

I'm starting to feel old

My oldest child turned 15 today. It's difficult to believe that I have a 15 year old child. She's really not a child anymore. In fact, this whole week and next she is the acting lady of the house. Robin is away at a CEF training school until the 15th. Crysta has done an excellent job being in charge of the house and all that that entails. I'm very proud of my 15 year old. Here she is last summer playing with water jets at the zoo. You can see more zoo photos at my Google Picasa Web Album here.

Fun In The Snow

Yep, it snowed this morning. The girls and I had fun playing in the snow. Crysta and Kayla threw snow all over the place but generally toward each other. They even hit their target occasionally. We had lots of fun. I took over 500 pictures of them throwing snow and building a snowman. You can see all the pictures by clicking here. Enjoy.

I just love the white fluffy stuff

It snowed last night. It snowed a lot last night. It snowed enough for them to close campus and cancel classes. That was glorious. I needed the time off. This is a picture of our house at 2:30 in the morning while it was snowing. If you look closely you can see the porch light and front door in the upper center of the photo.

This is a picture of our house from the same vantage point after the snow decided to stop falling later that day.


It doesn't look like it snowed all that much from this photo but it was also very windy and much of the snow drifted. That means we had areas of light snow and also areas of 8 to 10 inch deep snow. Anyway, snow is fun and we had fun in the snow that day.

Books, Part Two

All those books down there that you have been looking at since January are what I have to read by the beginning of May. I was going to add up all the pages and whine a little about how many pages I had to read this semester but I am afraid if I count them all it would be to discouraging. So, no page total.

I should get busy. I have a lot to read.

Books

Alright, just consider this image for a while. I'll be back later.

What?

I just heard on Fox & Friends that Tony Blair, former British Prime minister, became a Roman Catholic yesterday.

That's interesting.

Sweet Relief

Ok, the semester's over, I survived finals and am now in a recuperate mode.

About midway through the semester I was diagnosed with pneomia. I eventually got over it, sorta. I did start to feel better but have had cold symptoms almost constantly since. I would feel better for a day or two but then go back to feeling bad again. Well, I think my body was just doing what it had to to survive the hectic schedule I was keeping. Since finals were over last Thursday I think my body said, "ok, now I CAN be sick!"

I have been terribly sick since finals. I am starting to feel better though, for now. So anyway, send me your accolades for surviving the semester (yes that's unabashed self-promotion) and please pray that I would get all better by Christmas. I'd like to be well Christmas morning.

Oh yeah, wait till I tell you about Christmas. Our God is good. That's all I can say for now.

Remember, He (Jesus) knows when you've been good or bad, so be good for His sake.

'Till next time...

5 Days left

Whew... This is it, down to the wire. Five days left in this semester. On a previous post I wrote:

Before the end of the semester I need to write a 10 page research paper, a 4 page opinion paper, a couple 5 page journal article reviews, three lesson plans, four sermons, conduct two interviews and whatever else I can't remember right now. Whew, I better get busy.

Well, the 10 page research paper is done, One of the journal articles is done, one of the lesson plans is done and three of the sermons are done. I still have the 4 page opinion paper, one of the journal article reviews, two lesson plans, two sermons ( I realized that I had another sermon to prepare), both interviews and a couple other small papers to write.

I still have a lot to do and a short time to do it in.

... So I'm gonna get busy.

Later

We would have made the pilgrims proud...

I know it's now two days after Thanksgiving and this may not be the most timely post, but I am just now able to write about it. Yes, I am all turkeyed out. I have had my fill and we have not even eaten half of that humongous 20 lb. turkey. I do love turkey though, and will be ready for some more in a few weeks or so. I sure am glad turkey freezes well.

We did have some healthy choices this year. Along with the turkey and normal stuffing, Robin made this rice and something stuffing as a healthy alternative. She also made her cranberry salad with no sugar added and no marshmallows and I think she put four or five times the amount of apples in it to add some natural sweetening. It was pretty good even if a little sour. It was even better after I doctored some with a little sugar and Sweet'n Low but please don't tell Robin I did that. She also made a kinda cashew and arrowroot gravy that had a good taste but was a little slimy. Dinner was great however, and the time of thanksgiving afterwards was even better.

We all took turns going around and saying what we were thankful for. We have much to be thankful for. God has really been good to us. I am amazed at His constant provision and protection on our lives.

It is my prayer that you all had a great Thanksgiving day and made some lasting memories.

I'll try not to wait until next Thanksgiving to write another post.

Until later,