Speaking of things that rock...

My church ROCKS.

I feel sorry for people who think church is about being bored for an hour, wishing that they were anywhere but church, and who only pray that the service would end. Man, that's just not how it is at my church. Now, I don't believe in church pushing. If you go to church, no matter which church or which 'brand', GREAT!! I think it's much more important to be concerned with what people believe in as opposed to where people go to worship. I just pray that all of you DO go worship the Lord somewhere in your local community.

THAT BEING SAID..........

OUR CHURCH ROCKS!!! www.eastbayou.org. I mean that in a literal sense. Our church opens up the worship service with a FULL rock band- bass guitar, drums, electric guitar, accoustic guitar, piano/keyboards, and a four voice team lead by our worship pastor. This weekend inparticular, we had an additional horn section- a sax player (his name escapes me) and a trumpet player- Jared Gray- sitting in with us. We also had some guest artists playing with us too- Ed Gore on piano and keyboards (he's AMAZING) and Joe Gary on the skins. He's killer. And then, if that weren't good enough, we had our Bayou Worship Choir on the platform too. They had 47 folks there singing!!! It was simply amazing.

If you aren't familiar with "church" music or "christian" music, here is a sample of what we did this weekend:

"His Love" by Hillsong- off the "God He Reigns" album
www.worshipmusic.com.

If you're ever in the neighborhood, come on by the Bayou! The folks are warm and friendly, the A.C. is cool, and the worship is SMOKIN' HOT!

Allen Breaux Rocks... part two

Today I took my portraits to the store to be professionally mounted onto frames. As I was standing there, it dawned on me that I spent a FORTUNE for these pics. And while they are ABSOLUTELY gorgeous, no one will be able to see them on my blog! I just had to show you what they look like so you can see how great Allen Breaux did.
The way I see it, as long as I don't photocopy these pics to be reprinted, I'm not commiting a crime, right? And as far as Allen Breaux goes, they will be thrilled that I'm posting their work because it's free advertisement. Besides, I had to show you how great these pics came out. How many of you will actually come to my house?
Here they are! I took my camera and took the shot of the pictures already framed, then used my editing software to crop out the frames and do some color enhancements. They are still very RAW, since they are a picture of a picture, but at least it gives you the idea of how great they came out...

The photographer told me that the reason this shot is the 'money-maker' shot is because of the eyes. He captured her innocence in her eyes.


We did this shot in a sepia tone because it made the picture seem timeless. She sat up like such a big girl in her little lounge chair. Priceless.


Here is our happy family. This shot is the single reason that we went to Allen Breaux Studios. I knew that they could capture a family portrait that I would love and be proud to hang in my home. He did a great job, eh?

Allen Breaux Rocks

Okay, so in previous blogs I have made little snide, yet loving, remarks under my breath about Allen Breaux eating his heart out after seeing shots that I have taken. Well, folks, allow me to be the first to say, Allen Breaux ROCKS. When we did the photo shoot, I wasn't that happy because I had some shots in my mind that I thought he would do, and he didn't do. And then when we went to look at the pics, I was naturally unhappy because the shots I had dreamed of were no where in sight. So then I met with one of the guys who works there, a photographer by the name of Glenn. He was awesome. He helped me choose from the selection and helped me even with how to get great shots with my own camera.

Today I went to pick up my portait and the other pictures I had done. All I can say is WHOA. When he showed me the portrait, it literally took my breath away. Obviously stunned, I didn't even try to hide my shock. He smirked and said, "The real work happens AFTER the shot." That was HUGE for me. HUGE. In my VERY limited photography experience, for me, it's all about the shot. But for professionals, capturing "the" shot is only the starting point. From there, they make all sorts of professional adjustments, touch ups, and then they begin the real art work by putting the picture on a canvas and giving it added 'brush stroking' to make it look like a work of art. It is priceless, and I'm soooooooooooooo glad that we chose to go to Allen Breaux.

I take back all my snide remarks.

at least until I get another great shot.... :)

You can see more of Allen Breaux Studio's work at www.allenbreauxstudio.com

the irony of life...

I just don't get it.

Okay, so about a month ago, I started getting bored with summer. Yes, this always happens to me. And it still happened even though I have a little baby crawling all around. Usually about mid July something happens to me and I start feeling like I'm unproductive, wasting away and not using time to its fullest. So I yearn and long for the days of routine when I'm back at school.

That's today.

And I hated being back.

I think this is what hell is. We are NEVER happy. Never truly happy this side of eternity. I could not wait to get back into the rhythm and routine of the school day again. Then once it comes, I'm miserable because I can't spend every waking second with Hannah. But when I was with her 24/7, I was ready to do something else. It's the endless cycle of not being satified with where you are. This must be hell. Or at least the punk's (satan's) idea of how to make us all royally miserable until the second coming.

So I decided tonight that I can NOT stress out about school, or the fact that I have to wake up and go to a place that I would rather not go. I can't think like that. Instead, I need to focus on all the precious faces that I will get to see next week and how I will be able to positively influence and affect their lives. God has me teaching at an elementary school for a reason. My prayer is that I can stay positive and excited about seeing those eyes each day, and that those precious children only see love and care from me, not remorse because I'd rather be with Hannah. I want to be able to rest in my career, and not be restless because I MUST go to work.

Any thoughts on how to do this without robbing a bank so I can stop working?

Tranquility...

I wonder what makes me so happy when I'm on the beach... perhaps it's the sound of the ocean's waves hitting the shore and feeling the spray of the salt water on my skin. Perhaps it's the ocean breeze that's cool even in hot August weather. Or perhaps it's the sun. Something happens to me when I'm on the beach. I feel this intrensic pull to the Lord that I don't feel any other place than at the beach. Well, the mountains maybe, or on a still lake. But it really gets to me when I'm near the ocean. When I was having my morning devotional time the last morning of our trip, I decided to meditate. Now, for those of you who really KNOW me, you know that my brain rushes about a thousand miles a minute. So for me, meditation is a very hard concept. I do not come by this easily. Nevertheless, I decided to give it a try. The word says to be STILL and KNOW. So I was still. I closed my eyes, and just concentrated on the wholeness of the Lord.


As I was meditating, I could physically hear the ocean calm down. It was as if for a split second, God turned off the waves and the noise and all I heard was stillness. Then out of nowhere, a HUGE wave just rushed to the beach and pounded the shore with much more intensity than the standard 7am tide. In that moment, I heard God say "I am ALL POWERFUL." I stay still and restled with this thought. I know God's powerful. Why does He feel He needs to say this to me, right now? So I thought some more. As I meditated, I knew why God told me this. Sometimes in my weak fleshly self, I want to do things on my own, and I just assume God is too busy or my mundane little problem is too small to bother God with it. But when I thought about how God controls every wave, every bit of sand, every motion on the earth and throughout the universe, I realized that nothing is too small or too large for God. I praise Him for His power.

Then I read Psalm 24:
"The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness of it,
the world and they who dwell in it.
For He has founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the currents and rivers.
Who shall go up into the mountain of the Lord?
Or who shall stand in His Holy Place?
Those who have clean hands and a pure heart,
who has not lifted himself up to what is false..."


Mighty Awesome Wonderful is the Holy Lord of Lords...

BEACH countdown... ONE DAY!

We are finally going to the beach. It's been about two years since we've been able to go to Florida (or to any beach, for that matter) because I was pregnant and I didn't want to travel very far. When you're pregnant, you don't want to travel to the end of your drive way sometimes. So to put myself in the position of driving six hours somewhere seemed like a death sentence.





Here's a picture of the condos that we'll be staying in. These condos are called "Palm Beach" but they are located on Orange Beach near Perdido Key. It's the closest beach we could get to Florida in the shortest driving time, five hours. We wanted something close because of Hannah. Although she travels well, five hours is pushing it for a seven month old baby. She did great on the trip to Houston for the first three hours. But the fourth hour, she was over it. So we thought this might be our best bet.

We are taking our neice and nephew with us, Hayley, and T.J. It should be a wild time. James and I are used to going to the beach ALONE- just the two of us. So this trip, with two kids and our little baby in tow should make a very interesting vacation. I use that word, 'vacation', lightly. I have a feeling we'll be spending our days putt-putting, going to water parks, and whatever else that is not relaxing!! Either way, it will be awesome to get away and put my feet in the sand for a few days.

Random thought #1

So I decided that I should start my own blog, independent of Hannah's blog, since I discovered that I have a lot to say (shock!) and some of the stuff I need to say doesn't need to go on Hannah's page. After all, most people who look up Hannah's blog are looking at it to hear about HANNAH and not about the random thoughts of her mamma.

So here we go!!!!

This is my random thoughts blog. I will post randomly as I feel led, and perhaps through the randomness, some momentary clarity will fall on me and we'll have it down on paper. Well, on computer anyway.

Check back soon! A random thought could occur any moment!