Thought it might be fun for my online friends to see the great group of folks that we have on our church staff (Vista Community Church), through these two online videos from our staff putt-putt party today. I’m on staff 10 hours / week at the moment, and am enjoying hanging out with them more and more each week. It starts off with Pastor Mike getting us up to speed on the turn between holes 9 and 10, and ends with a nice shot by Jen Morgan (our missionary who is leaving this week)!

PRAYING for the protection against our adversary for the staff. PRAISING God for the abilities and hearts of each member of the team.

My woman served me a tasty lunch today, thanks to this recipe from ThePioneerWoman.com. If you think you have lots going on, I’d suggest jumping over to The Pioneer Woman’s site and being overwhelmed. I thought I was bursting at the seconds! If there is one thing that I take away from other bloggers like her, it’s the obvious fact that they are not conceited. Think about it……why would some prideful person go through hoops just to share a recipe their husband (her “Marlboro Man”) likes? It’s not so that you can think she’s the bomb, but you have the opportunity to take something with you!!!

And it doesn’t stop with the recipes. Her blog(s) also include Confessions, Home and Garden, Photography, and Homeschooling. It’s no shocker that she was listed as one of the 25 Best Blogs of 2009 by Time Magazine. I’m going to subscribe to her Photography posts today for sure! If you’re a blogger or are holding onto something that someone might benefit from, let’s all learn a lesson from her on being transparent. We haven’t been given everything we have just to cling to it. Thanks to her transparency, and my wife’s cooking talent, we have energy to get through the rest of the day! Long live The Pioneer Woman!

PRAYING that we all learn to give something new as we grow. PRAISING God for using the humility and transparency of others to challenge us.

I haven’t done this before, and I’m really looking forward to it! You care enough about me (or just what I say) to stop by or subscribe. I’d like to ask each of you to answer five questions, and get to know you by reading your response via your comments. So here we go!

1. Do you blog , and if so – where?
2. If you could switch professions, what would you pursue?
3. What would you consider your greatest talent / gift?
4. Which musician / band would you want to see in concert if you could get tickets?
5. Who, besides family, has impacted your life most / is your hero?

Thanks in advance! Pass this onto a friend / someone that might enjoy it! PRAYING for my daughters – that God would give them understanding while with friends at school. PRAISING God for giving us the parents He did – that prayed for us.

We had the privilege of hanging out with Jack and Kaye MacKay while passing through Texas on the 52 Zoos in 52 Weeks tour. God’s amazed us with who (and how) He has let us meet while on the tour. Before we stopped by we knew of the amazing custom engraved tiles that Kaye has been creating for close to five years. They’re a hot topic in the blog world, and have even recently been added to the catalogs of LifeWay bookstores. We had the privilege of touring her shop and seeing where she puts all of her talents to use. What’s most impressive to me is that she customizes many of them as personal gifts, and her personality is unique for that kind of a working relationship. She’s extremely approachable and offers a great product, so it’s no wonder she’s staying so busy!

So why am I asking you to help her out? She’s going to continue to blog over here, but her and Jack approached me about giving her Engraved Euniques website an upgrade. While we’re designing the new site (will be live very soon), she’s offering a giveaway to those that make suggestions or comments to this post on the current design and how it can be improved. I really feel like letting you see the new design, but I’ll be sure to post about it when it goes live. In the meantime, her site is still functional and I definitely urge you to comment or even purchase a gift from Kaye today!

PRAYING that God will get much use out of the new Engraved Euniques website. PRAISING God for connecting us with the MacKays. They are a God-send!

We’re back, but not for long. Thanks to a crazy east coast trip, this 52 Zoos in 52 Weeks tour is close to completion! I’ll have pics soon, but I’m currently moving my Aperture library over to a larger hard drive just to hold them all! I think we had maybe 25,000+ pics in the library since 2002, but these zoo trips are adding to the total quickly. We usually average maybe 200 pics per zoo.

I’ll keep it short. A future post is coming on how and why families should start connecting, getting out of the house, or at least spend more time together. God’s been amazing at showing us ways to do that. It’s amazing to connect with families that are willing to open their homes and begin new friendships. If you’re ever near Ohio, we want to be that family. We’ve all met new friends we’re looking forward to seeing again.

Thanks to their help, we were able to go to zoos in Buffalo, Bronx and Central Park in New York – Philadelphia, PA – Washington D.C. – Baltimore, MD. If that weren’t enough, our girls were up to the task of also stopping to see Niagara Falls while in Buffalo, the Statue of Liberty in New York, the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and a long walk around Washington D.C. to see the White House and Lincoln and Washington Monuments. We also took some time to stop by the Great Falls just outside of town in Virginia.

We saw God’s hand through it all, and look forward to sharing even more details in Marla’s new book. Thanks to our girls, our new friends, those that support us (ad space is still available here), and the God that created all we’ve seen and provided a way to see it!