Congratulations Jacqui and Roy!

My dear cousin Jacqui tied the knot with the man of her dreams on Saturday the 23rd of February. I am so happy for her and I wish that Jenee and I could have been there for her. Jacqui, we wish you a life time of happiness! Here are some of the pictures that my sister sent for me to see.

Jacqui and Roy and Roy's Parents

Heather, Jacqui, one of Jacqui's friends and Bek

Mum and Dad. Mum's getting ready to use her hypnotic eye on Heather by the looks of it.

Heather and Jon

The Three Stooges. Uncle John (Jaquis Dad), Jonno and my Dad.

The Weekend

It's early Monday morning and I am lacking in my creativity department at the moment, hence the boring title. Well, this weekend was all about work, work and more work for us. Jenee is getting closer to the date for her conference and she is run off her feet. This woman is amazing, she has done so much in preparation already but she still has more to go. I have offered to help as much as I can to help with the burden, especially since she has 4 full time classes for her degree to cope with as well. Needless to say Jenee spent this weekend doing homework and conference organizing. She even had a book in her hands on the treadmill at our little gym!

I spent the weekend finalizing my resume which tanks to the input of Dr Rejeck and Dr Clark from Mansfield Bible Church, Texas, is now looking pretty fantastic, although I realized this morning that I put two people down as references with out asking them so I need to rectify that this morning. I have also applied for a job in Dallas. I was very interested in what they do, and the job description sounded like something I would really be able to apply myself to and enjoy. Even if they feel I am not the right person for their company it will serve as good experience.

I have also been working on another publication. This one has needed much work and will take some time but it will be worth it. So Stephen if you are reading this from glorious Brazil, I will have the draft to your email in the next day or so! (Jerk - I hope you are enjoying yourself with out me).

Jen and I did manage to get out of the house for Krista's birthday. Last year we started the "make a special birthday cake" tradition for Krista with a psychedelic chocolate cake that warped all of the decorative icing into something that looked kind of hideous. The favor was returned on my birthday with a GI Joe dole sticking out of a princess' dress cake. Well, I decided to one-up the princess cake with something close to Krista's heart. Krista loves all things barnyard and had long been involved with showing animals particularly lambs and pigs at county fairs and the like, so I decided it would be appropriate to fashion her cake in the shape of a lamb chop. Yup, you can see it in the slide show. The cake was so realistic, it even had icing around the cake for the layer of fat...

Time For an Update

Well, all things considered, Jenee and I are doing well. We are both working hard. Jenee is organizing a conference for some 500 students and seems to be coping with it ok, keeping in mind that she has four online classes to juggle at the same time. I am currently juggling several publications as well as looking for a new job in Texas. I would appreciate your prayers on the matter as I am quite nervous about it and don't particularly enjoy any aspect of the job hunt. I had the recent revelation that I have a choice in the matter, I can either choose to have faith that God has a plan for me and trust the Lord, or I can do it on my own steam. Upon deeper reflection I realized that I would much rather trust the Lord than myself as I stress my self out. Our plans are to move back to Texas soon, hopefully by the end of June. We would like to settle there for a while and get a home and eventually start a family. Now in case you want to know, no, Jenee is not pregnant and no we are not trying, that will all come in good time.

Last night I also had another revelation. I realized that I have no self control when it comes to chocolate. You see, Jenee bought me a box of 30 chocolate bars from Sam's Club (a food wholesaler). It was full of Milkyway, Snickers and Twix - all my favorite! Last night I was feeling like I needed some chocolate so I had a snickers. 20 minutes later I had a twix, and then a milkyway. Now you know I had at least 3 bars, the real number is between me, the candy box and Jesus but lets just say that I had more than 1000 calories worth last night. Needless to say I have employed Jenee to help ration my overdosing self.

Changing topics, last night was a lunar eclipse and I was one of the crazy people who stayed up till 11pm to watch it. It started at 9pm with the earths shadow moving across the moon. I worked at taking some photos with a few different lens combinations and by 9:45 had settled on my trusty 18-200. I returned to the outdoors after checking my photos on the computer to be greeted by cloud cover! Disappointed, I stuck it out and about 40 minutes later the clouds were gone and I got to see the tail end of the eclipse together with my neighbours and Brandon. I have tagged some photos below. The important thing here is that I got to post my photo's before he did...

9:30pm Earth's Shadow moving over the moon. Nikon D70s, Tokina 80-200 f/2.8 + 2x Extender (600mm equivalent), f/13, 1/20s.

10:10pm Movement of the moon during the eclipse. Multiple photos modified in Photoshop CS3. Nikon D70s, 18-200 f/3.5-5.6 (200mm), f/6.5, 4s.

10:30pm Movement of the moon and star trails during the eclipse. Nikon D70s, 18-200 f/3.5-5.6 (200mm), f/19, 20min.

Baby Skylar: Good News

Well, Skylar has been given the all clear and she is now home. Apparently the Dr who treated her has seen the same thing happen twice in 24 years. According to the Dr it could happen again but she should out grow it by the time she is 6 months.

Thank you for your prayers!

Blu-Ray all the Way

Disclaimer: This is not a family update, read on if you are a technology geek. I am all excited so I thought I would post.

So, normally I reserve this blog for family things but occasionally I like to get sidetracked. If you have been following anything to do with the new high definition video formats you probably already know that there is a "format war" going on between HD DVD and Blu-Ray. Well today the HD-DVD camp announced that it has essentially lost the war, which means Blu-Ray is the new format for home high definition video. (In my opinion the better format won, others may disagree).

So, all I wanted to do was state the obvious which is if you see an awesome deal for anything HD-DVD (players and discs) then DONT BUY IT. You will be wasting your money on something that will not be produced after March 2008.

You can find lots of information on this at: Gizmodo and Engadget

Now all I need is a HD TV, Blu-Ray player, discs, speakers and a house to put it all in, but still, I am excited.

p.s. I wonder when I look back on this in a few years if I will think this post is completely silly, by then we will probably all have 3 meter laser TV's at some crazy resolution, hydrogen powered cars that can dive underwater as well as do 300 km/h and houses made of recycled fish scales.

L&J @ Devils Millhopper

L&J @ Cedar Key

L&J @ Paines Pairie

L&J @ St. Augustine

Baby Skylar: Update

Well, I have some news. Apparently she is doing ok right now and we have a picture message of her sitting upright with a smile on her face. Thank you for praying and Praise the Lord. I will update you as to how she does over the next few days.

Baby Skylar

Jenee's little niece is in hospital right now. I will do my best to describe whats going on. Apparenlty her small intestine is intruding into her large intestine causing her to vomit and pass blood in her stools. Her mom and dad have been up all night with her at the hospital, she is only 4 months old.

As I write this (11:15 EST, USA, Feb 18) she is undergoing a procedure at a specialty hospital in TX. First the surgeons are going to try rectify the issue with out surgery, if that fails then surgery is the next step.

Please pray for the baby, the (tired and upset) parents and for God's wisdom and guidance for the surgeons as they treat the condition.

Jenee's Parents Visit for the Weekend

The USA has been subject to some pretty big storms making there way across the country for the last few weeks. This last week was no exception and after 17 long hours on the tail end of a huge storm Linda and Joe made it safely to Gainesville. The look of relief on Linda's face said it all. Driving between Texas and Florida is a long, boring trip. Anyway Jenee and I had planned some fun things to do with them while they were here, but the most pressing issue was to eat becasue we were all hungry so we took M&D2 to Outback for dinner. It was a surprise to them that we could walk to the restaurant from our apartment so easily. After dinner, we also walked around the shopping plaza and made the obligatory stops at all our favorite destinations including Best Buy and Pier 1. Jenee and I love those two stores and could easily ring up some large bills, praise God for self control. After dinner we all decided to see a movie (Fools Gold) which I liked, but the other thought was only "ok". What their problem was, was that they didn't appreciate the creative use of wide angle lenses, vivid colors and light hearted plot line.

Jenee and I were fortunate enough to take off Thursday and Friday so we could spend time with Lindy-Loo and Joe. Now, if you have ever visited with us, you already know that we will do our best to see and do as much as possible and by the end of the trip you'll be exhausted, or at least thats the way I feel by the end of the trip. Our first destination was St. Augustine where we did the rounds of the beach, the Fort and Old Downtown. I think we all really enjoyed it and it was nice to feel the ocean breeze and cool water on my feet. I miss being 30 minutes from the water and sand.

Friday I took Joe to Paines Prairie for a walk and the girls went shopping. It was nice to see that the water levels in the Prairie have risen since I was last there. There were no shortage of alligators and we even saw what must have been some newly hatched babies. All the while, we thought the girls were getting our food stores for the week but upon returning home, we found out they had been doing nothing of the sort, in fact they had been clothes shopping. LOL, I should have guessed. Joe and I were "treated" to a fashion show... The two of them are so funny together, constantly jesting and being sassy; Jenee is a wonderful source of joy to me and I am so glad God put her in my life.

Later that evening we went to Cedar Key, a near by coastal village rich in history. We went primarily for fresh seafood but ended up returning on Saturday to go on an island boat tour. I will let my photo's describe what the village looks like more accurately, but essentially the village is built right on the waters edge, and in some cases over the water.

Sunday was church and a lazy Sunday drive. Linda and Joe both liked our church, although they seemed squeamish at the live animal sacrifice (j/k - the sacrifice is next week)(j/k again). We had a relaxing sunday and visited the local Lebanese food shop for dinner. I think from all the driving and walking the four of us were beat. We spent the evening playing card games and watching a movie.

We just had a great time with M&D2, what a blessing it is to have such a wonderful relationship with them!

(I have lots of photo's to share but they are still being processed. Check back in a day or two)

Who Are These Gorgeous People?

Its us! That us Jenee and I in New Mexico. We had been playing in the snow with Jenee's nephew's and one of their mom's snapped this pic. Wow, we look good.



Ok, enough self inflation. Today I would like to tell you about why Florida is so much fun. Jenee and I had just got home and we changed clothes and turned around to go to the gym. Half way there I heard a boy yell out something to the effect of "Agghhhh!". Before I could turn to see what he was talking about, I caught a glimpse in my prehipheral vision. White streaks, huge white streaks. Then I realised what these were, it was rain, hugh drops of rain. With in a matter of 10 seconds we were caught in a torrential down pour and had to make a run for cover. By the time we got to some shelter we were both pretty much drenched. LOL.

Just another day in paradise...