...in pictures

We're back...part 1

2010-03-04T15:11:00.002-05:00

Well, here I sit at home with the flu and a walking cast on my foot. I can't say that it is exactly what I would prefer to be doing, but I am and that means I have time to post about our trip to Nicaragua!!!
First of all, what a trip. There wasn't one part of it that didn't challenge Alfred and I to be relying on the Lord...which is where He wants us to be. As we embarked we didn't know much about our accommodations or the itinerary, but every day was full of God's provisioning and we gained a perspective that has certainly changed us.
The flight down was great as we met our group along the way. In the end there were 14 of us...leaders from 2 churches/church groups, several people already involved in WO (World Orphans) and a guy from Virginia Beach directly connected with the indigenous church...he was our chofer (in spanish)/chauffeur, not our translator (that's funny if you were on the trip with us), and a source of comic relief the entire week.
Anyway, the church in Nicaragua is called Verbo...there are actually 14 churches under the same name around Nicaragua and more around Central America. We stayed at an orphanage run by Verbo which had recently built a complex meant to house groups like ours. The complex also had a boys' orphan house and a girls' orphan house as well as a school and a massive green house. I will tell you more about the orphanages in a minute. We were fed extremely well every morning and night by women who lived and worked at the orphanage. I guess this is an appropriate time for a disclaimer...when most people think of missions trips building houses or manual labor of some sort and time with children comes to mind...we did exert some energy and played with a lot of kids, but our main goal was to get a vision of what God may have us involved in in the future. I say that because we weren't challenged by staying in tents and eating cold oatmeal for breakfast. It was a comfortable trip in terms of accommodations, but certainly not comfortable for the heart as we saw all of the unmet needs in Nicaragua.
The first day we took a trip to the city dump called La Chureca. It is basically the worst of the worst in a third world country...in some ways. Let me explain. Families have found their livelihood in the trash piles...building their homes out of the rubble and finding food and clothes from the same. While thousands live in the dump thousands more come to work in it every day, loading up recyclables to sell to other countries because Nicaragua does not recycle. I was very much anticipating this trip because I had been well aware of what is going on in La Chureca through an acquaintance/friend who has planted himself in the midst of these people doing God's work to show them the love of the Father (lovelightandmelody.com). I knew it wouldn't be easy to see the hardship and difficulty there, but I know God is already doing much work in the hearts of those people through His willing servants.
After getting lost on our way there we finally entered the gates of the dump. There were burning piles of trash, cows used as squatters by someone who claims...against the governments word...that this is his property, and workers sifting through the piles. Mounds of trash rose up in the distance. We quickly turned onto a little road that led us to a school where a feeding program was being held. We learned through an American missionary (who had lived in Central America her whole life) about the program and its efforts to feed the children most likely the only meal they received each day. We played with the kids and took a walk through the dump to get more of a perspective of what this life is really like for these people. Little kids ran by, many without shoes and pants. Stray dogs and chickens roamed around. At the top of the hill we had climbed was a view of the reality of this place. A mini lake full of trash and the craziest green colored water you have ever seen was below us and just after that the mounds of trash rose. I looked across and could hardly make out through the smoke two men in a make-shift wagon pulled by an emaciated horse probably working to find something of worth in the trash. It was hard for me to process what I saw. I didn't get to stop and ponder the way my heart wanted to because I was trying to capture it all on camera. I didn't want to be the American who came in, took some pictures, felt bad for these people and left. I wanted to talk with God about what His purpose is for this kind of situation. I wanted to be changed, but I realized that I didn't have to limit the opportunity for change in my heart to just the time spent standing on a mountain of trash. I think He enable me to do that throughout the week and as I look back on pictures I can spend time reflecting on God's heart. Needless to say He has given me a perspective and a desire that I have never had before.
Dozens of pictures later we left La Chureca and headed to the Verbo church where we met Bob, an American who has been there for 30 years and raised his family in Nicaragua through all the civial unrest, the revolution, and multiple natural disasters. We were able to talk with him and learn of some of the ways we could serve the Nicaraguan people. He and his wife are incredible and we spent more time with him on a trip we took at the end of the week.
For time sake I will combine the events of the next few days...We spent time at Nueva Vida (new life), a refugee camp for people displaced by the volcano, Mambichu, when it erupted and destroyed thousands of homes. The camp went from plastic and cardboard houses to cinder block and cement homes and now has several schools and feeding programs for the children. We met and played with a bunch of kids here and tried to express God's love to them despite our language barrier. Aside from ministering to these children a large part of our trip to Nueva Vida was to learn about one man's vision to create a micro-business that would support him and his family and would be an example to those in Nueva Vida. He knew he could teach them that if they asserted themselves they could make a living too. His business? A bakery. This man has set up a bakery in an open-air warehouse type building making bread, sweet bread, and donuts that he or his apprentice takes into Managua (about 40 miles one way) every day by bike or motorcylce. He chose to make his bakery out in Nueva Vida because he knew the Lord wanted him to be an example for the people of that village. The Verbo and World Orphans guys wanted us to see this bakery to give us an idea of how we could help families and orphanages implement this micro-business to make a way to get out of poverty. We will hopefully be able to use this in an orphanage that is going to be set up in Nueva Guinea (more about that to come). Next we spent time at a farm in the mountains where we saw how a self sustaining farm works and how it could either be a micro-business or simply meet the needs of a single family. There is so much to tell about this farm, but the basic idea is that every element of the farm enables another part of the farm to run. The main part of the sustainability aspect is to put everything God has on the earth to use. Use the trees for protection, food for the animals, firewood, etc. They set up their gardens in old tires propped up above the ground so the rain won't wash them away. They use the animals and their byproducts for everything they have to offer. The animals can be used for food (eggs, milk, meat) and their waste for fertilizer and even methane gas to run household appliances. It was such a beautiful picture of what God intended for the earth and how we should use it. Nothing went to waste and everything was seen as God's gift to be used for our benefit. We are hoping to implement this at the new orphanage and be able to teach families how to live off the land they have.
Well, this is super long so I think I am going to have to post again to finish up the rest of stories of the trip. Thanks for reading through it all. I haven't even posted about what God has taught me about Himself and His people, but I'll get to that...it's the most important part of serving Him!
But of course, I have to post pictures to keep you interested :)

Central America

2010-02-09T09:33:00.003-05:00

We are getting ready to embark on our newest adventure and our first mission trip as a married couple. We are leaving for Managua, Nicaragua in a week from tomorrow. We are going down with an organization called World Orphans (worldorphans.org). The team is being led by Jesse Blaine and his wife Sarah. We will be accompanying them as they introduce two churches from the states with an indigenous church which also supports a local orphanage. The orphanage also needs some help in building it up to get it into maintainable working order.
Alfred will be helping with any sort of construction that will need to be done whether it be planning for it in the future or heading it up while we are there depending on what we find the need is when we get there. He will kind of be Jesse's right hand man helping with details as we go. Bailey will be the team photographer, getting pictures for the churches who are sending their leaders down. These churches will stay connected to the church in Managua and be the state-side support so they will want pictures of the location and the people they will be supporting. Again we are keeping our expectations at a minimum and our flexibility at a maximum so we can be prepared for anything that comes along! These are just the "jobs" we are aware of as of now!
We are so excited about this and are in prayer that God will be changing our hearts and working through us to further His kingdom and reach those He loves. There are a lot of unknowns as we go down there, but the one the we do KNOW is that God is in control and if we are putting ourselves aside He will be able to lead us in what He has for us. As soon as we start to run the show things go down hill so please pray with us that we will constantly be putting ourselves aside so we can be aware of God's hand. We don't know anyone that we are going down with except Jesse and Sarah so pray that God is already creating a bond amongst all of us.
We are also needing some assistance with the funds for this trip as sending two people is not inexpensive, but totally worth it. The total cost of the trip for the two of us is $2600 covering our airfare, food and lodging. We are also taking down some toys such as baseball gloves and balls and anything that we know the children would enjoy. If you feel led to give you can contact us at savedbeyegrace@mac.com or leave a comment here and we can instruct you on how to give.
Thanks so much for the prayers and support and I will post with pictures ASAP.
This is a list of prayer requests if you would be willing to lift them up for us...

Team Unity and flexibility - We are headed to a third world country where plans can change at the last minute. Pray that our team will remain flexible and united in Christ, so that we may always be reflecting Christ while we are there.

Guidance - That we would be sensitive to the Spirit on decisions made on this trip and in the greater context of Orphan Ministry, Community Development, and Church Planting/Growth. We would recognize the source and continual need for God's blessing in the midst of these projects. That we would not only be touched emotionally, but moved to long-term faith-based action.

Sense of Joy and Celebration - God is doing some great things in Nicaragua and around the world. Pray that we would catch a sense of the joy it is to be apart of how God uses us to further His purposes and Kingdom at home and abroad.

Haiti - For the devastating situation that exists in Haiti today. That God would show his mercy on those in need.

Church - For the local churches involved in this trip in Nicaragua, Delaware, and Missouri. That these churches will have a renewed sense of God's calling on them as corporate bodies. And that the church has unity in spirit and purpose.

a new year

2010-01-21T20:09:00.001-05:00

well, it's 2010 and the first dilemma...how do you say it? do you say twenty ten or two thousand ten or just ten? Alfred and i have been thinking about how crazy it will be for generations that are born in the 80s (the 2080s that is) (we were born in the 1980s) to think of us as born in the previous century because we do the same thing when we think about those born in the late 1800s early 1900s. Alfred's great grandmother just passed away, she was an incredible woman and showed it to the very end...in her 102nd year of life. SHE was born in the early 1900s. i don't really know why i shared that, other than to say...i hope we can all grasp and appreciate the days we live in. things may seem out of whack with wars and earthquakes, but Grammy...she lived through some crazy stuff too...the Great Depression, both World Wars, Vietnam, the Kennedy era...you name it. living through those things and overcoming them made her the woman she was and we can do the same thing too by letting events and circumstances shape us for the better as God mold us through them.

so our Christ-mas was wonderful. it was the first time i had been away from my family and that was a pretty big deal to me. but being with Alfred was wonderful! we had our own little Christ-mas morning together in our own little house with our own little tree.

of course we had to do some decorations. i think it will be an official tradition to make a wreath and whatever else we can together. we got hollies and winter berries from the farm. it was the first time i got to make Christ-mas decorations with real berries!

(for some reason we don't have a picture of Alfred's wreath, but it was incredible and he's really good at it :)

our first Christ-mas pictures (yes there was actually snow the week before Christ-mas so we still had some on the ground! felt a little bit like home seeing as we had more snow than Jackson)...

and yes...we used Alfred's wool socks for our stockings because even with the best of intentions i didn't have time to make them...

i gave Alfred some camping gear (some of which he plans to return to buy boating/wakeboarding stuff :) and he promised me a bench. yes, a bench. we have one couch in our little house and ZERO storage space for our everyday things so he promised to make me a bench. that promise materialized last weekend into this...

and i am thrilled beyond words! we found one green basket at Target and asked for three more...the guy came back with one green one and two polka dotted ones! so that's what we went home with and now i have a place to put things!!!! isn't it beautiful? Alfred is very talented with building things.

back to Christ-mas, Alfred's parents came over for a few hours that morning. we opened presents and i presented my first Poteca. Poteca is a Slovenian bread that Cathy's mother always made for Christ-mas morning. the tradition has carried on down through to the grandkids and i have known of it through Alfred's cousins, the Forbes girls. so i had a lot to live up to! Alfred, Gerry and Cathy were generous in giving me an A, although i cheated because Alfred did most of the work! we made it Christ-mas eve and then put the icing on in the morning...mmmm....

after our own little Christ-mas and time with Gerry and Cathy we went to our sister-in-laws grandparent's house for a nice dinner and some friendly competition on the wii. i beat everyone in skiing, but they were pretty darn good :)

then there was new year's eve. we spent the evening and stayed the night at our friends' Megh and Ryan with Jess and Benson. that was a blast with good food and games and was not complete without a really awesome nerf gun war. (no pictures of that, sorry)

other exciting things over the holidays included gingerbread house decorating competition (my friend Jenna and spent ALL day making the houses with 5 batches of dough) and we don't have any pictures of any of the other houses, but they were pretty stinkin good!

and the inside...we went all out...

like i mentioned before we had snow before Christ-mas...a lot of snow for out here. 20 inches. so we played...

and some redneck action....

what do you mean by redneck?...

Gerry pulled them behind the tractor too...

the snow made for a beautiful setting. Gerry used some of these pictures to advertise his hollies.

we even went out at 11:00 to get another chance to play in the snow...

we had left for the weekend when we heard the storm was coming because we live way back where the plow wouldn't come for days (these east coasters...they are nuts and cannot handle snow)(in fact we stopped by the grocery store...i had never seen in my life milk sold out like that...they buy milk, bread and toilet paper when storms come through) and because if we lost power we would freeze. the chances of that happening were mighty high seeing as the information we received from our neighbor was that last year they lost power at least once a month. when we got back this is what we saw...

and it made for a very pretty view on the water...

we also went snowboarding...you read it right...snowboarding. a first for me (the mountains aren't so impressive out here...i thought i might not ever get on the snow out here, but i did). Alfred on the other hand is really good even though he has only gone a few times. i was totally impressed. we went with Jess and Benson...who were both quite good too!

and then Alfred took me out...

We're a family!

2009-07-22T13:00:00.000-04:00

Mr. and Mrs. Godfrey....it didn't hit me until my husband introduced me last night (11 days after our wedding) to someone as his wife. saying it wasn't all that weird, but when he introduced me to someone new...dang. anyway, we got married. it's over and done and the party was fun. there were so many people who put SO much effort into our wedding. i have no idea how all the behind the scenes went, but i am getting bits and pieces from everyone...we are totally blown away by the love people showed in setting up and taking down for our wedding. the food was incredible...we give total props to Zach Smith and his beautiful wife, Liv, along with Evan. the food was incredible. Barb Forbes and Emily Hodgin made salads that i couldn't get enough of along with asparagus (that we were not going to serve because it was going to be too difficult) that Barb and all those who helped made an incredible wrap of asparagus, swiss cheese and prosciutto. the potatoes and the meat...mmm. not to mention all the awesome hor d' vours! wow. we couldn't have served the wine and beer without our good friend Gary who also helped with building the dance floor, picking up and dropping things off and not to mention helping keep my dad and uncle sane. Then there is my Uncle Lynn and Aunt Suz who poured out tons of work the week before and the day of the wedding...as well as the days following it. Lynn helped with the dance floor, put up signs, and getting the grounds ready for the party. Suz made the carrot cakes and helped things go smoothly at the house all week. My Aunt Corinne and Uncle Mark (YAY for a good ceremony given by Mark). Corinne's mission was to keep me fed and watered...because of her i could stand on my wedding day. she also kept my mom sane and worked to feed everyone who was in and out of the house the week before the wedding. when my cousins Amber and Lael showed up my mom put them to work and can't believe all they did to chip in...i caught a glimpse of Lael following my mom's instructions...good thing he has a lot of military background! my cousins Katie, Aaron and Amy who ran errands and worked on anything and everything...i only wish we had had more time to just hang out together! Kat and Travis and all their work...Kat did all the programs and invitations and they were beautiful. she was my computer genius getting everything printed and taken care of there...i can't even tell you all she did to help with organizing and doing the itineraries for people, not to mention her friendship and support during the most important time in my life. Jesse and Leah and their support. Leah along with her sister Esther (who have 5 babies between the two of them) made all the chocolate cakes while my two aunts made the carrot cakes. not to mention that all of them were AMAZING. i only wish Alfred and i could have kept one to eat on our one year anniversary seeing as we only got one bite that day. Steve and Cindy Jacoby....they were slaving away in the tent. i couldn't believe it when i walked in and they were folding napkins that put such a beautiful touch on the tables. they were set so beautiful thanks to the Jacobys, Katie P., Ryan and Megh, and Jess and Cindy who also put my candy table together. forgive me if i am not remembering any of you that helped! all the dudes that helped with parking and shuttling! i think that was Charley Pace...husband of my amazing and beautiful bridesmaid Kendra as well as Matt Bate, husband of my amazing and beautiful bridesmaid Liz. those who set up tables and chairs and moved chairs too, Ray and Seth Richards.

Michael and Christina who painted on our dance floor a replica of the necklace Alfred had bought me and represents God as the center of our journey...that meant so much and was incredible and beautiful and a great surprise! Barb Dillon who ran around with my beautiful and amazing bridesmaid, Jenna, to provide food for us when we were getting ready. i know there are so many more people who helped in so many small, big and HUGE ways so THANK YOU.

thank you to Tom and Jane who GRACIOUSLY offered their home, their house, their time, their energy...they gave more to us than we coul

d have imagined and the wedding was so intimate because of the home they provided. wow. Jane did so much to keep me and my bridesmaids taken care of! they worked behind the scenes and wouldn't take credit for anything, but they deserve so much recognition. they are humble, wonderful people full of love and grace. thank you.

Gerry and Cathy...you and your wonderful family members....thank you all so much for making this possible and working so hard to make the rehearsal dinner and the wedding so beautiful. seeing your faces on the wedding day was so wonderful and Alfred and I are so blessed to have been given the gift of your love, time and energy to make the day incredible. i know weddings happen every day, but we were so blessed because we had you involved in ours and we have you in our lives. thank you.

Mommy and Daddy, i am so overwhelmed. i can't h

old in my emotion no matter how hard i try. i haven't sat down to write anything down about all of this yet and to try to grasp all of the sweat, tears, love, financial support, care and conc

ern that were given for us, i am flooded by emotion. it's not even possible to write down all that you have done, but to mention a few. Mom, your organization and ability to make all the phone calls that i couldn't do...you just took them from me and i no worries that they would be done. Daddy, your willingness to take on building a dance floor, to mow the area perfectly for the wedding, to work so hard physically to make my wedding so b

eautiful. to go through the to do lists without a sound. i am completely overwhelmed. most of all, just your love for me and my new husband...i couldn't be more thankful that you walked

me down the isle, i will always cherish that memory. you wanted this day to be perfect and even if it had fallen apart it would have been perfect because your love and your support was all i needed...both of those were more

than poured out on me and Alfred. you both silently loved us and put the work into making a day so perfect no fairy tale wedding could be written by disney to top this one, and it's all because the love of you and all our friends that made it a day Alfred and i will cherish. i love you both SO much there are no words.

more than anything i am totally blown away by what God did to make this day what it was and to prepare Alfred and i for this life together. just to give tho

se of you an idea of how God specifically orchestrated this day and its details solely because of His grace and love for His children i'll tell the story.

Alfred and i had hardly started our search for a location for the wedding, truly not sure how we could pull off a wedding in a destination location where prices are outrageous Tom and Jane in their casual giving approach said, "hey, if you guys want to you are more than welcome to have the wedding at our house." for the longest time i couldn't grasp what that meant and the love behind that offer. i almost didn't believe it because i knew how big that was. i went into the head space where i thought...for sure we will just have a tent off in the trees where we won't have to invade their space and we would stay out of the house completely. not long after we told them we would take them up on the offer, and i stressed so much that i wanted to respect every request they had regarding their property and their privacy. comments here and there from Tom and Jane like, "the great thing about having a wedding at a house is that the guests can use the restrooms" or "it would be really nice to maybe have a cocktail hour out on the patio" started bringing me to the realization that they were willing to let us use parts of the house for our guests. it didn't end there...long story short...myself and my 8 bridesmaids and my mother got ready in the house along with Alfred and his 9 groomsmen and my dad, probably more people than i know got ready there, we had the cocktail hour on their patio AND in their house, our guests were able to wander through and see the magnificent house they live in (i couldn't believe that they would be so willing to let us invade their space like we did), then the party moved from the house to the tent in their beautiful yard where the celebration and dinner began. nothing could have made this spot any better.

in addition to the generosity and love of the Hills, the story for how we acquired our the ceremony site goes like this...we had scoped out a place that was absolutely beautiful along the dyke on the Hill's property with views of the Tetons and the sounds of the river next to us, but the spot wasn't very flat. we were going for it though and we had to make sure the neighbor to the south would be ok with us putting a handful of chairs on his property. we asked him, through his caretaker because he lives full time in California, if it would be ok to use a little of his property. not only was he ok with that and willing to respect us if we WANTED the wedding there, he went a thousand steps further to offer us his manicured lawn amidst a beautifully landscaped backyard. i met with him for a couple hours one day and he walked me through the property telling me all the things he would make sure the landscapers had finished for our day. he had no need to even care about us let alone give us full reign over his property and let 200 people use it for a day. thank you to shane for his kindness and willingness to help us.

then came the search for a caterer...Jackson has wonderful caterers, but they were all so expensive and just not what we were looking for. a long time friend of my brother's came to mind, Zach. he is an incredible chef and has worked for caterers many times. we just wanted a little help from him to see if we could do the food ourselves, he not only helped us plan it out, but he jumped in to make the most incredible meal come together. he ordered and prepared almost all the food. he organized the serving of both the hor d' vours and the meal, with his wife and brother, made it happen. of course, Alfred's aunt whom i cherish and love also sacrificed time and energy to make the wonderful side dishes come together as i mentioned before. without the help of these two people, along with Liv, Evan, Steve and Susie Baldock (who were in the background manning the grill) we would have been having hot dogs and hamburgers...thank you so much.

there is no doubt that God weaved this whole story together for us. we just put it in His hands and He showed us His love through the amazing details of that day. to top it all off, i had simply said to Him one day, "God i would love to see a bald eagle fly over us sometime during our wedding day" being that they are so majestic and my favorite creature ever. the thought of that actually happening passed through my mind, knowing of course that God can do anything, but i hardly stopped to think of it again, and then as i stood facing my husband to be at the altar i saw a shadow dance across the trees behind him...i glanced up without seeing it i knew God had loved me enough to bless us with that little moment as the bald eagle passed over us. what a day. thank you, Father.

i write all of this because it is my way of not only reminiscing and trying to recapture the reality of our wedding day, but writing is my way of recognizing all those who mean so much to us and all the work they put into it. i know i missed a lot of people who helped and i am sure this whole thing is a bit jumbled, but here i am to say thank you and i know Alfred echoes my gratitude. thank you to all of you who showed us love by working hard to prepare and partying with us in our celebration!

he's all mine

2008-11-11T00:16:00.000-05:00

i'm engaged! ah. it has almost been two months since my incredible, wonderful, amazing man asked me to marry him. you're probably as shocked as i am that he even considered it, but it's true! in september he came with my family and i to lake powell for our annual week long trip on the house boat. we've become fans of one area called "cookie jar" and that's where we spent our first few nights on the boat. but it was the first morning that we were there when alfred, unbeknownst to me woke up early with my parents and asked them if it would be okay for him to wake me up at such an early hour to take me for a walk. he "owed" me my birthday present and claimed he was giving it to me on our walk. and he did...only it was more than a birthday present. we hiked up as far as we could get and sat under the 400 foot canyon walls where he handed me the gift he had wrapped. of course i knew it was a book because...well, we all know what it is when a book is wrapped. but as i opened the front cover alfred slipped to one knee while my eyes got as wide as the canyons themselves when i saw the ring that was nestled in a hole he had cut to set it in just perfectly!! i couldn't believe my eyes. i opened to the first page of the journal and began to read the proposal he had written out, but made him finish because i couldn't read with tears in my eyes! when he actually asked the question, my answer was, "yes, of course!!" would it have been anything else? no way. we watched the sun come up over the bay and prayed together about the rest of our lives, asking God to bless us as He always has. i am the most blessed girl in the world. alfred loves me with all of his heart and with every bit of God's that he possibly can. he is so selfless and patient and humble. he is amazing and i can't stop thanking God for this gift. i hope and pray that i can love alfred like he loves me and with God's love being patient, and kind, and not envious or boastful or proud or rude, never keeping a record of wrong. never loving evil but rejoicing in the truth. always hoping and trusting and always persevering because there is nothing above this. alfred, i love you and i can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you.

-a+b-

greatly missed and forever cherished

2008-10-02T00:49:00.001-04:00

people say that a picture is worth a thousand words...this comes close to saying it all about our friend Al. amidst the tears we shed missing you and pouring out the love we have for your family we definitely find smiles on our faces remembering your smile and laughter that was never void when you were in the room. Barb, Ryan, Michelle, Amy & Forrest and Colleen & Erik...i hope you know you are loved and cherished on this day. you all carry on the heart and joy and vibrance of an incredible man and one day we will all sing and dance together in the presence of Jesus, the One who saves us. all my love...

catching up on life with friends

2008-08-15T13:16:00.000-04:00

so...this was a much needed hike. i hadn't been up in the tetons in far too long so i rallied the troops and despite the fact that two of the three of us wanted to sleep in and play hookey we got up and headed out (we did decide to do a more simple hike to make the day a little easier). and although we weren't dying of heat or anything we decided to jump in the frigid creek...we're talking maybe 45 degrees...no joke.

the same week my most amazing friend erin came in to town and we hit up the lake as well. this was erin's first time kayaking and she was a pro. mom, erin and i also did the awesome hidden falls hike. we had a blast and have the pictures to prove it...

jimmy and shannon-diamond cross ranch

2008-07-21T12:40:00.000-04:00

congratulations to the beautiful couple. saturday i shot my first contracted wedding and during the reception i thought to myself, i have never had a better time at a wedding. i absolutely loved capturing the day for shannon and jimmy. and with that said, it was truly a beautiful wedding and celebration with awesome family and friends of the commitment between these two people. i want to say thank you to them for the opportunity to help tell the story of their day, and to tim, the head photographer for letting me work with him and to neill for lending his eye and his skills.

crazy thing

2008-07-16T01:16:00.001-04:00

if you can imagine this...just hanging out at the lake this weekend we hear that some friends of ours have picked up this little fawn from the middle of the lake. the story goes that they saw this little guy fall from a cliff into the water and confused, start swimming away from shore. by the time they got to it, he was exhausted and wouldn't have made it much farther. he was completely docile and quiet as he laid in this beautiful woman's lap (no wonder the dear was comfortable...she's the mother of two, she knows a bit about comforting little ones). i don't know the end of the story, but hopefully the game and fish showed up to take care of it seeing as it no longer has a mother.

wedding pics

2008-05-22T22:32:00.000-04:00

well, i second shot this wedding for kat, my sis-in-law. sean, the groom, has been a friend of my brother's for a LONG time so it was fun to be involved. it was a fun jackson wedding totally laid back and of course great people and scenery. it's been almost a year, but i can still wish the happy couple, sean and stina, best wishes!

all of these are STOC, i've decided not to mess with them

back in the us of a

2008-05-16T11:11:00.001-04:00

well, hello. i am back from ireland on my "home" turf...dc that is. i decided to throw up some pictures of the trip. they're a bit random, but a few of the ones that stuck out to me. the first two are of the girls and i at killiney beach which is south of dublin. we took a little drive to get out before our long flight back home. it was a nice little adventure.

there is a park called st. stephen's green that is very beautiful. there is a huge pond and a lot of different walkways that take you through green grass and trees and fountains. here are two resident swans that were trying to sleep in the midst of hundreds of people on out on a sunny day (a rare sunny day i might add...we were blessed with great weather).

this is just a random shot as i was walking from our hotel to the main strip, grafton street, where i did a little shopping and picture taking.

cape st. claire

2008-05-06T08:11:00.000-04:00

this is also a long over due post that i have a little time to catch up on while i am spending some down time in my hotel in ireland. after helping our friends ryan and shannon out with their back yard (ok...alfred helped while i got myself lost on a walk through their neighborhood) we jumped on the boat for the first time this year to enjoy the water before the sun went down. we caught the moon coming up right as we were leaving

the irish sea

2008-05-05T19:02:00.001-04:00

so this is my first time truly experiencing the irish sea. it's very beautiful. the clouds rolled in and just hung over the water only about 100 yards high. when they aren't there you can see land across the bay, or at least i think it's the bay. either way i am hoping to get out and get some more...these were just taking from the hotel room while i was watching the little munchkins. more from ireland later

a moment in time

2008-05-05T14:50:00.000-04:00

before i headed off to ireland alfred and i met up with some friends, jesse and sarah, and headed down to a dock in northern virginia that looks across the river to our nations capital. we had a little fun taking some night time pictures...

a day in dc

2008-04-09T23:08:00.000-04:00

so the parents came to washington, dc. who would have ever thought that my parents would go to washington, dc. we had a blast together and saw pretty much all that you could see! these are a few of the pictures of our day seeing the monuments.

truly beautiful

2008-04-05T12:16:00.000-04:00

i took this snap shot one handed on my way to work a couple weeks ago in jackson. i know that doesn't sound too professional, but i was late and stopping wasn't an option. i guess i could have silently enjoyed it and kept the colors and scenery tucked away in my own head, but it was too beautiful to pass up. despite it's blurriness and the faded colors...it was definitely more brilliant in my hard drive file, here it is.

the outdoors

2008-03-10T18:26:00.002-04:00

here are a few of my landscape pictures although i have to admit, that is definitely my weakness

2008-03-10T17:09:00.000-04:00

a few family pictures...this is my brother and his wife, Jesse and Leah, and their GORGEOUS baby girl, Addison Nicole. i love and miss them.

2008-03-07T09:29:00.000-05:00

in attempt to catch up a little i will be posting some of my past favorites...and not so favorites. the first, definitely some in the favorite category, are some from a family shoot i did with my sister in law on Manhattan Beach in California. they are such a beautiful family it was hard to not get good pictures!

"it's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life"...and thank God His mercies are new every morning!

2008-02-28T21:01:00.000-05:00

mark it in the history books...i've started a blog. not just a blog, a true photography blog and that's why i am thanking God that His mercies are new every morning because i need major help in this learning process. so here goes...