Reflecting the Good News

January 11, 2008 By Leave a Comment

I’m proud (and nervous) to announce that I’m taking my limited blogging skills and branching out. I’ve started a separate blog to focus on the reflections about my faith and Christian walk. I hope that the reflecting title represents that Good News of the Gospel that I can learn about and then share with others through the blog.

I’ll try to get this blog fairly faith free, or at least posts that are wholly about my faith, will show up on Reflecting the Good News. If you don’t already use Google Reader, I encourage you to check out this this amazing (and totally free) service that instantly delivers any blog updates directly to you.

Head on over there to read my first post!

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Weather is looking good for the marathon!
Filed Under: blogging, faith

By the Numbers

January 3, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Cause I’m having so much fun with all my year-end cataloging and documenting for posterity! Here’s what my blog page looked like at the beginning of January. I really don’t do much with it because I so rarely go directly to blogs. I use the super-duper Google Readers, so I just assume everybody else must too. With all 7,762 page views, I like to think I’m spreading some pink happiness around the world.

Literally around the world, as I have some regular blog readers in Europe and get lots of random search engine hits from South America and Asia.

I use Stat Counter to occasionally monitor traffic and why people are coming to visit my blog. I’ve got a pretty regular group of loyal readers. I can see that most of my blogs on Lightroom and various things you can make your photos super-cool are ofter discovered via Google.

As of January 1, I had published over 300 blog posts in 2007 since I started blogging away on Monday July 23rd. After my 40 day devotion, I had many on faith, lots of the married life, tons of travel blogs and the always-most-popular Zoe posts.

On to photography, according to Lightroom and my nifty sequential numbering system on my super swell Nikon D80, I can tell you I took 7,025 photos in 2007 since I received my prized camera and Lightroom has about 6,400 of them tracked. You can see my first photos ever with the camera, were of course Zoe and her favorite toy.

Now, my other camera, that I sneak into concerts and carry with me 24/7 has also had a great year, taking over 3,000 photos this year (hundreds at our wedding and on our honeymoon). We bought the camera in June of 2006, right before we went on our scouting trip to Puerto Vallarta. You can see some of the first photos here, of the total 4,000 photos from this camera that are cataloged in Lightroom.

Just to brag some more on how awesome my Garmin Forerunner 301 GPS watch is, I can tell you that I ran more than 640 miles in 2007. I didn’t do much running last January after the marathon and before the wedding, but I’m sure I logged a few more miles. I managed to do a short run in Puerto Vallarta the morning of the wedding, but my Garmin was stolen on our flight to Cabo. So I lost some running data there.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: All these numbers make me so excited.
Filed Under: blogging, photography

2007 REVIEW

December 31, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Holy Cow! I’m totally blown away when I stop to think back of all the wonderful things that have happened this year. Of course, the biggest thing was our wedding in February in Puerto Vallarta with all our friends and family.

We continued the party in Mexico with our Honeymoon in Cabo.

Probably the other single biggest thing that happened this years was discovering the world of real photography. As much as I loved photos with my other camera, I realized there was just so much more I could do with a SLR. I took a few classes and spent a bunch of money and I know I can’t be without my digital baby. I’ve had so much fun photographing my married life, Zoe, nature and the crazy construction (or destruction) of the world around me.

I found a new passion in my life in July as I joined the addictive world of blogging July 23rd, just after your long weekend trip to Colorado. Plus it was a perfect place for me to put all my new photos. Stephanie and Ginger came out to Texas for a visit, we hung out with the kidz in Galveston and toured downtown Houston.

I spent quite a bit of time this year recording a little bit of my history, about the stories I remember growing up and the places where I spent my early years. I’ve enjoyed all these flashbacks and I think they are an alternative way to keep a family journal or make a big album.

I’ve done quite a bit of travel for work, taking some fun photos from the airplane on my way to investigate car crashes around the country. I also spent 1 evening a week this fall volunteering to tutor GED students. Making a difference even closer to home, we were able to help out some very special boys with their Christmas.
Due to H’s job, we made lots of concerts and games. I had the chance to read many books this year and we’ve even made an effort to watch more good movies. Plus I’ve posted a few movie clips- mostly Zoe on the blog from my other camera.

We spent our Thanksgiving in Alabama, exploring the deep south and all it’s history. Christmas- all 4 parts were just awesome, including spending 40 days before celebrating the birth of Christ to reflect upon his life. Not to mention the new lenses and the Wii.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: A special thanks to my blog-world friends who leave lots of loving- Christy, Amanda, Katie, Rhonda, Liza and Courtney!
Filed Under: blogging, Married Life

THANKSGIVING THANKS

November 22, 2007 By Leave a Comment

Happy Thanksgiving! I’m dedicating today’s posts to all the things I’m thankful for in my life. First, above all else, is that God sent his Son to die on the cross for my sins & I am forgiven. Nothing else in life mattes at all- NOTHING. I could lose all the blessings I will talk about below, but I will NEVER lose salvation and hopefully never lose my faith. I also look at all the blessings below as God’s favor on my life & how much He has given me. This past week I have been so blessed with some gorgeous sunrises and sunsets, which remind me daily of God’s greatness and love for his children. The fantastic picture above with the moon in the sunset is from my backyard, which I’d thought no longer provided me spectacular sunsets.

My wonderful, awesome, sexy, funny, smart, loving husband who has been by my side for 9 AMAZING months of marriage- the best my life has ever been. He loves me and my camera and let’s me take goofy pictures of him and let’s me tickle him silly and we have pillow fights and we both chase Zoe around the house. He’s my whole world & the source of my happiness and joy every day. I can’t imagine loving him more, but each day that passes finds us more in love, more in lust and more lost in each other (does that make you sick yet??)

All my friends and family are such a blessing that I am so thankful for all of their support and love and encouragement, especially over the past year. H and I were so incredibly blessed to have most of them join us at our wedding in Puerto Vallarta this past February. It’s been a difficult year for my immediate family with several deaths, but I think all the trials of life are teaching us to be closer and strengthening our bonds.

And of course I can’t forget Zoe! I’m so thankful I have such a wonderful, awesome, fun, funny, entertaining, loving dog. She always brings a smile to my face or can snuggle away the blues. We actually played on the ground last night- throwing her toy and then simply just playing games. I was literally rolling around on the ground, shrieking with laughter, as she kept “nosing” me and trying to lick my face, all the while rolling around and wagging her stumpy tail a million miles an hour.

No reading of my blessings would be complete without mentioning how thankful I am that I have such a wonderful job, that I love what I do, that I have a generous boss, that I get to travel to so many awesome places and that (despite a few rough days) I’m overall so happy with my job.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: We are headed to Alabama for a long, relaxing weekend in the country with some great friends.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Filed Under: faith, family