Yes, I'm Still Here

Guess I should post. It's been a while! I sure have some catching up to do. I apologize ahead of time for jumping all over the place on this one!

My Riverbanks Zoo photo was in the paper. Here it is:That was cool! Other than that we're just living life! I took the kids to Irmo park recently. They had a fun time trying to dam up the creek.

Last weekend I went to a two day crop. I had a blast. It's been a long time since I had that much time to scrap! I worked on my Disney album from our vacation last October. In 2 days I did 42 pages! Still not done, though. Yup. I took a lot of pictures. I also had fun just hanging out with my friends, Deborah and Penny, and a new friend, Karen.

Recently, I joined an online photo critique group. I have a separate blog for that, but it's been fun. I'm hoping to learn a lot. Already I've begun to make sense of the manual settings on my camera. Woo Hoo!

Roan's a cutie, here is a recent pic of him. I wanted to get a serious look from him but I made the mistake of saying 'don't smile'!

Last Sunday I took my camera to church. I was working on a challenge from my critique group, but I'm glad I did. It was a great Sunday to have a camera. It was a baptism service with 7 people who'd planned to get baptized. During the previous week, they had set up a temporary chapel in a separate room, keeping it open 24/7 for people who wanted to pray for the upcoming service or anything else. They also set up a cross where people could write down their prayer request and nail it to the cross.
It was a great service with really great worship and the sermon was also excellant.


After the sermon, we had a total of 48 people get baptized, and at least half of them were youth! It was awesome. Anway, it was a great service and I'm glad I had my camera.

My mom and dad stopped by Monday on their way to Florida. It was great to spend some time with them. Have I mentioned that my parents are really great and I love them? Well, now you know.

I've been challenged by Sophia to list 10 things I like about myself. THIS IS HARD! But, here goes. (deep breath)

1. I have pretty eyes
2. I like my hair
3. I can sing
4. I can take pretty good photos
5. I'm creative
6. I'm committed to God
7. I like that I'm tall (can you tell I'm struggling here?)
8. I'm friendly
9. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt
10. I'm a supportive wife

Whew, I don't want to do that again! LOL! I think my biggest fear is that someone reading this will say, ew I think her hair is awful, or she is SO not friendly, or for Dean to say, 'Supportive? What about that time when....' . I hate to think that I believe something to be true only to find out that no-one else agrees! Is that twisted? I guess that is where you do the best you can and try not to care too much what others think.

I read Plugged In Online (part of Focus on the Family). I mostly go there to read their movie reviews when I want to find out if something will be appropriate for my kids. I also get their weekly email newsletter. One of the interesting things they include are Culture Quotes, so I may include one here ever now and then if I find them interesting. Here's the first:

CULTURE QUOTE: "Your behavior shapes your beliefs. If you act like a good person, you eventually become a better person. I wasn't allowed to gossip, so eventually I started to have fewer petty thoughts to gossip about. I had to help the less fortunate, so I started to become less self-absorbed. I am not Gandhi or Angelina Jolie, but I made some progress." —A.J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible As Literally as Possible. The 39-year-old agnostic writer relied on guidance from a spiritual advisory board of rabbis, priests and ministers as he attempted to obey every instruction and command in both the Old and New Testaments for a year. His biggest struggle? "That'd be no coveting, no lying, no gossiping. They're little sins, but they're killers. My year made me realize just how many of these little sins I committed every day. And refraining from them for a year was really hard but completely transforming." [usatoday.com, 10/7/07]