Baby Faces

Hello everyone!

This last weekend my wife and I spent the weekend with her brother's family. Their youngest child, less than a month of completing the first year of life, is quite an attraction. I enjoyed the first real opportunity to use my new Canon 40d to photograph a stunning subject other than my wife :)

So, here are a few pics below. They were taken in a very short period of time. Enjoy....

The mind of a one-year old in pictures.

Hi up there, it is hard to look at you. It is kind of bright out here.

Oh!! That is soooo sad! It is sooo terrible!!!

Hey you all! A major, and I mean major crisis is going on here! Are you even noticing?! Come here! Pay attention to me!! I have something to tell all of you!!!

I am not getting the attention I deserve. Oh well! I guess I am a bit tired, after all.

But hey! What is this? Something interesting is going on here! I must see what it is!

Hmm. That is really interesting.

So that is how that works!

I'll observe that one more time! I am watching closely!

Ahh! I got it! Now, I'll download this memory to my permanent hard-drive of memories. This knowledge might be important for a future occasion.

Fun Date with John!

On Friday evening, John and I met at Mohican Adventures for a date-night! It's a convenient 30 minute drive from Mount Vernon and on my way home from work. The weather was comfortable - lower 80's I think. After a busy work week, taking time to have fun is great!

John is a good consistent golfer (and very handsome too!). He was ahead of me most of the game. I would barely catch up just to have him pass me once again. It was a bit perturbing to see how he so exactly could aim for the right place and usually hit is mark!

Though I'm also and engineer and should be just as exacting, I tend to be a pit more impetuous. Thankfully, I also had a bit of luck and ended up with two holes in one! We took this picture after the first one. I posed with one thumb up just like Grandma and little Elijah did in Arkansas when he was about 1 or 2 and they both got a hole in one on the same hole!

Well, it ended up that I got my second hole in one on the very last hole! That hole in one tied our scores so we ended the game with a tie! As we're tied in marriage, we figured that was perfect!

The golf was fun, the weather was perfect and the company was great! We capped off our evening with a great dinner at a local pizza place. Going on dates with your spouse is awesome!

What Makes us Tick?

Get Rich Slowly, one of the financial blogs that I have been enjoying, had a post today linking to this humorous video about the stock market. John and I enjoyed watching it and I hope you do too.

Women like to talk

Hey Everyone,

View this video to find out how soon women become so talkative.

Trip to South Carolina - Part 1

This is a first part in a series of posts about our recent trip to South Carolina. For me (John is writing), this was a bit of a homecoming. When I first met Miriam on eHarmony, I was set to leave the Greenville area, where I had lived for 2 years and 9 months. Indeed Greenville became my "second home." Of course, Illinois is my "first home" because it is my home state.

I was a bit disappointed to be leaving Greenville as I met Miriam, because I had made some very good friends there and was quite eager to introduce Miriam to them. However, the most important people to introduce Miriam to at that time was my family in Illinois. Hence my friends in Greenville have not had much time to meet Miriam.

I was actually hoping to meet a nice girl in Greenville area as it is an area with a good Christian influence, especially with Bob Jones University being in the area. But it was not to be, and the Good Lord led me by faith to get to know Miriam. So it was a victorious feeling being married to Miriam this time for my trip there.

It is my hope that for those of you reading this and looking at these pictures, that you will realize that I was pretty much in the same situation, with good church and friends, as Miriam was in Alabama when I first got to know her.

The trip along the way was very nice. We started after work on Thursday, stayed halfway in Kentucky that night, and arrived in Greenville on Friday. We took US23 from Columbus, which is four lanes all the way into Tennessee, where it joins Interstate 26, which heads directly towards Greenville. The above picture is Norton, Virginia, where we stopped for lunch at a Japanese place. I love accents, and the Southern accent does not disappoint. I loved the way my waitress pronounced Pepsi (Pee-ip-si).

As we crossed into North Carolina (30 miles above Asheville), we stopped at a rest place to take in these nice views.

Flowers and Mountains, my favorite scenery.

We arrived in Greenville and then drove up along with Odell and his wife and son to the camp site. Miriam and Odell work to set up the tent.

Dinner at camp. It was nice to finally sit down and have some food to eat. Odell's wife, Beth, did a great job of preparing the food.

Miriam and Josh Summer made friends instantly. Miriam delighted Josh with the glow sticks, making caps out of them. Soon it was time for bed.

We got up the next day and had some breakfast. Then we headed to Table Rock State Park, for a hike 7.2 mile round trip hike up the mountain and back.

We finally got up to the top. The pathway really climbs the whole way up. At the top, you are standing above 3000 ft. This is the grand view you get.

Half way down the mountain, one will walk over the surface of this huge rock that is part of the mountain.

I really liked the views. Lydia, this is only 1.5 hours east of Toccoa Falls.

Another view.

Walking and hiking is an activity that I really enjoy doing with Miriam. Believe it or not, I am actually and outdoors person in the heart. I just haven't done as much "outdoorsy" things. Miriam is the perfect person to enjoy the outdoors with.

Don't get to close to the edge of that rock.

For those of you who attended our wedding, you may remember one of my groomsmen, Odell Summer. He became my closest friend while I was living in Greenville. I spent a lot of time with Odell and his son Josh. Odell came from an unsettled background. After landing a short time in jail for repeat speeding violations, he gave his heart to the Lord. He came to Greenville to study the Bible at the Evangelical Institute of Greenville. Shortly after I met Miriam on eHarmony, Odell was encouraged to try eHarmony as well. He met Beth shortly thereafter. I never recognized this, but apparently Beth was matched to me as well. However, it is clear that Beth is perfect for Odell. Once you met Odell, there is no question that you are around someone who desires to serve the Lord with a whole heart. They are going to The Master's Mission in North Carolina this fall.

Odell, showing off his romantic side with Beth. Their dog, Lady, takes in the scent of the flowers.
Below, Miriam and Josh. Miriam's energy and enthusiam for children certainly wins over kids like Josh.

Josh loves to make friends and then have a friendly fight.

Josh being a character.

These type of flowers were the predominant flower of the area. They are white like this when they are not exposed to sunlight. The flowers below are exposed to sunlight, hence their pinkish color.

Other wonderful scenery. :-)

We finally finished our hike. Lady was tired.

There is no such thing as camping without a camp fire.

Have you ever used Winkflash?

I found what seems to be a great deal for printed scrabooks at winkflash. They have a deal for flatrate books (all you pay is supposedly the cost of the 20 page book with no additional charge for pages 21-100). So, since I have a lot of pictures from this past year that have not been printed yet, I have started the process of uploading pictures and making a book.

I used Shutterfly for our wedding album and was extreemly happy with the book. I'm hoping that the quality of winkflash is just as good.

Have you used winkflash? What did you think of it?

Is Miriam Hiding?

Way too much time has passed since I have posted on this blog. My resolutions to post on a regular basis have fallen by the wayside. One might think that I have been extremely busy or stressed out, but, that's not the case.

Sure, life has been passing quickly, but it's also felt like a somewhat relaxed and fun spring. As you saw in our last post, the weather here is absolutely beautiful. I'm enjoying living in here where the springs are mild, and temperature is cool.

I have simply not been posting for no good reason. I've been reading many blogs. Typically I read blogs over lunch, but can't comment because for some reason the pages with comments are typically blocked at work. In the same way, the posting page for this blog is blocked. So, I've become a media consumer instead of a producer for the past months.

Will it change? Possibly. I do have a couple ideas for blog posts right now. But, it could well be that time will pass quickly to quickly for me to post as much as I would like since John and I are busy at work and church and enjoying life together. The evenings pass by too quickly in normal life. Having dinner, talking, reading and walking together - this is a good life!