Interesting Election Thoughts

OK so I am up this morning and one of the first things I am doing (just like many mornings) is checking blog updates.  I guess I just like to start my day with some new information!  I was reading my pastor's blog and under his comments about the election he referred to another one of his pastor friends J.D. Greear and I just found some of the things that he said to be right on with the what I think we need to do as a country now so I wanted to share them as well.  If you want to visit either blog you can click on the link or click on the link of the right side of our blog to visit our pastor's blog.

Whether you personally like it or not, Barak Obama is our president now.  As such, he deserves the prayer, support and respect due to someone in that office.  Paul commands us to honor and serve our rulers as the ministers of God (so far, of course, as conscience allows).  Speaking disrespectfully of them is an offense against God and a bad testimony to the name of Christ.  (1 Peter 2; Romans 13).  He is our president and he has my prayer and respectful support.  

Our citizenship as Christians is not in the United States of America, but in heaven.  Our hopes and our loyalties lie first and foremost there.

Just thought i'd share...hope everyone is having a great weekend.  We arrived safely in TN last night and are getting ready to head to the UT game today...I'm sure I will have some pics to update with from the game!

Halloween Fun

Our cute little halloween pooch!

Here are a few pictures from our Halloween last night. We ended up having a busy afternoon as soon as we left school! We came home and had a heating company here working on installing our gas fireplace (which hopefully will be inspected and running soon) and then ordered pizza to get ready for some trick or treaters! We had about 50 kids or so come to our house. Quite a few of them were kids that either James or I know from school and it was neat to see them all dressed up and to know that they made a special trip to come to our house! Here are some pictures of our pumpkins that we carved for the front porch. James and I didn't dress up but AJ sure did make a great pumpkin, didn't he? Surprisingly enough he actually didn't mind having the costume on for a while...but then he started to tear it off as expected but atleast it lasted a little while...maybe he will like it more next year!

Carving the pumpkins on our back porch

James holding the cut out of the "Power T"

So I was trying to make a scary pumpkin...but I think he turned out kinda cute instead!

The glowing Power T!

Doesn't AJ look happy in his costume??

Officially Southern...

OK so I have to admit that when I moved down here to North Carolina from Michigan I definitely made more then my share of comments about the "crazy southerners" who are all bundled up when it is 50 degrees outside with there winter coats and hats on. Well this week I realized that I have officially become one of those people. I found myself walking with Sally the other day completely bundled up from head to toe...including sporting a "toboggan" on my head. It was probably in the mid 50's out which is definitely cool but I know that a few years ago I would have probably been wearing a t-shirt at that same temperature. If you look in the picture above I am even more bundled up then James who has been a southerner for most of his life! I guess it is true what they say that your blood really does thin after a few years in a new climate and now I feel like I am cold ALL the time! Sure can't wait till Christmas break when we get to go on our cruise and warm up a bit!

Here I am after returning from the walk!

Oh yeah we are also having red ribon week at our school this week and today was "put a cap on drugs" day so James and I went to party city last night and got ourselves some cool hats to wear...what do you think??

Breakfast and Baptism!

Well I thought I would do a quick update now that we have been able to upload our pictures that we took this weekend. James and I had a really great last weekend together before we headed back to school yesterday. On Saturday my wonderful husband decided to get up and surprise me by cooking me breakfast in bed...he has done this several times since we started dating a few years ago and each time it gets a little bit more gourmet! This time it was pancakes with syrup and fresh raspberries...yum!

We also got the joy of witnissing Brian & Melissa's daughter, Molly getting baptised at their church on Sunday. It was really great to get to see them again and to be able to take part in such a wonderful event for Molly!

Molly with Mom, Dad, & Nana!

What a sweet face that girl has!

My First Wedding...As A Photographer!

The beautiful archway at the park where they got married

Well James and I officially shot our first wedding together this week on Wednesday night for our friends Titus and Christina. Things got a bit hectic for a while when their sunset wedding started a little bit late so we were left doing the best we can with basically no daylight left! All in all though it was a wonderful wedding that they had in an absolutely beautiful location. Here are a couple of the pictures that we got...some of them are waiting on being edited when we hopefully get a computer program to do that soon.

I definitely have to say that I really enjoyed doing the pictures for the wedding and it was fun to be able to be a part of someones special day like that. I look forward to hopefully being able to do many more weddings (even though James says they aren't his favorite thing to shoot). Ever since planning our wedding I have thought it would be fun to be a wedding planner and be able to take part in weddings all the time...Sally and I even decided that we could do a package (minister and photographer) deal for weddings, good times! We hope you enjoy the pictures, let us know what you think!

Christina outside the house where she got ready for the wedding

Saying a prayer during the ceremony

Their very unique wedding cake...some sort of French specialty...boy was it yummy!

Christina with her nephew

Titus with his brother

The happy couple!

The Camping Adventure!

Well James and I have had an awesome week so far this week. We are fortunate enough to work at a year round school and even though we taught intersession the first week, I really feel like we have taken advantage of the break this second week. We left Saturday morning to head up to the mountains for our first camping adventure with our new tent that we got as a wedding present. We also borrowed some sleeping bags and a grill from my friend Robin and her family and thought we were all set for our first camp out.

A picture by one of our first stops, Julian Price Park where the lake was absolutely beautiful!

To begin our trip we headed up to Boone and got on the blue ridge parkway to make our way towards the campground. We passed some amazing sights and the higher we got into the mountains, the better the leaves looked with the colors of fall. Oh and did I mention that this was our first trip out with our new camera equiptment? So needless to say we stopped at EVERY opportunity there was to get some great pictures of the leaves and scenery! Anyways the campground that we wanted to stay at was booked up for the night so we went to the campground where Robin and her family were staying and set up camp there. After finally get our tent and everything set up (which I have to say we did a pretty good job with it being our first time!) we took our first trip to Wal-mart. I say that it was our first trip because before the weekend was over I think we ended up there about four times for one thing or another and spent a lot more then we had planned to spend at Wal-mart while camping, but hey it's all good!

Hooray, we got the tent set up and ready to go!

The next morning we got up and went to Wal-mart again (I had a cold and needed some medicine) and then met up with Robin and her family and followed them to Mt. Mitchell which was absolutely beautiful. The only downfall was that it was about 45 degrees with 20+ mph winds so it made for a chilly afternoon! While we were there we got to grab a bite to eat at the restaurant that was near the top of the mountain and get some good home cooking which was fun and the view was beautiful of course!

A picture that Robin took of us at one of the overlooks on the parkway

Robin & her family at one of the stops along the parkway

A.J. and I at the top of Mt. Mitchell!

After leaving Mt. Mitchell James and I made a few stops for scenery pictures and then we wanted to head to "Little Switzerland" which was another stop along the Parkway. I'm not sure if we missed out on the whole Little Switzerland thing but the only thing we could find was one building of some pretty run down country stores and we were not thrilled by anything that was there. We are thinking that we had to have missed out on what Little Switzerland was all about because people were talking about it like it was something not to miss out on. After that it was back to Wal-mart for gas this time...which by the way we got gas for $2.79 so that was pretty great!

We then went on to our campground to set up camp for the next two nights. The only problem was that we realized there were TWO campgrounds by the same name and the major difference between the two was that one had showers and one did not...we definitely needed showers! So after almost setting up camp we realized that we were at the wrong campground so we packed up once again to head to the right place. Once we got there it was a great place and we set up camp and then James cooked us up some dinner and we settled in for the night. On Monday we got up and went to Wiseman's View and Linville Falls which were both very pretty hikes. The road to Wiseman's view was amazing it was one of those little tiny dirt roads where it gets a little scary at times that you can't see what is coming around the corner or at the top of the hill.

A.J. and James at Wiseman's View

Here we are at the waterfall!

We also took a hike that afternoon (after a nice nap back at the campsite) to the Viaduct which was really cool...it is where the road is built off the side of Grandfather mountain because they were trying not to damage the mountain. You could hike up by the road and watch the cars go by...I kind of felt like a spy because no one knew we were there!

One of the pictures of the Viaduct

A.J. and I hanging out on the hike under the Viaduct

Then Tuesday morning we got up early and packed up camp so that we could head out to Boone. We stopped at the outlet mall in Blowing Rock and spent some time in downtown Boone at the Mast General Store and of course we found a little local pizza shop to eat at also! Well to finish off this nice LONG post I figured I would end things by adding a few of our favorite pictures of the trip and the scenery!

A.J. has become quite the mountain dog...he has given up on finding sticks and decided to find logs instead!

The lake at Julian Price Park

Rainy Day Blues

I was so excited I finally got all the pieces for my new camera setup.

I went to go outside and realizesd it was pouring down rain. That of course will not stop me, as a dedicated photographer. The postal service credo has nothing on me.

These are just random pictures that I shot around the house. Think I pulled it off well? I always love feedback good or bad. It only helps me become better.

Here they are in no real order.

This first picture is of the wax hands that we made at the festival over the weekend. Just thought it might make an intersting pic.

This picture the background was blurred on purpose which is of my scarecrow being overshardowed by all the ellegance and grace that my wife's scarecrow casts.

This is of a Gerber Daisy that she got from the festival.

This is a sunflower from the flowers I got her last weekend.

This is a terrible spider that she has hung from the doorway that scares me everytime it moves up and down with its beady horrible eyes.

Welcome to La Casa Brown.

The wild valley of flowers on our front porch.

It was definetly raining.

A pumpkin made by one of Anna's family members.