Anyone else have a birthday on or near a holiday like my sister? Everyone seems to think that because you have a birthday on or near Christmas that it is always just lumped in with everything else, but not so in our house growing up. We always had a birthday party two days before the ultimate birthday party on the 25th. I am sure some people get gypped out of a party but I can’t ever remember that being the case when I lived at home. Of course now, she and I would rather not remember the fact that we are yet another year older so it has a little bit different meaning than when we were 12.
The simplicity of being 12 is long gone now but in my mind, a lot of the time, that is how I think about the two of us. Unaffected by the scars of life and complexity that comes from being almost 40, waiting for it to snow so we don’t have to go to school, relaxing summers when it never seemed as hot as it does now, and of course waiting up all night for Christmas to finally arrive the next morning.
So, happy birthday Sarah, I love you. Yes, you are now one year closer to 40, just like me.
It’s Thanksgiving week and that means that Auburn University classes are over for the holiday break. For the last few years this week has been the time which my dad takes a few days off from work and gets on the John Deere tractor and cuts the pasture grass for the winter. There is around 20-30 acres of actual grass to cut, so it usually takes most of the week. Today was a bit cloudy and cold, but, it’s November. I think there are a few people in his office that read my blog so I thought I would let you know what Larry Fillmer looks like when he is not in a suit and tie on campus.
I would love to hear from those who know Larry but don’t normally comment on my blog. Can I have a caption for the photo below??
About a week ago I did a shoot (with Deb’s help, thanks) here at our place with some close friends of mine, the Spurlock family, Heath, Dawn, Dylan, and Haley. It was the first family shoot I had done out here on the farm it was great fun. It was nice of Dawn to think of me and ask me to do the shoot for her and her family. Although mama was the most willing participant out of the group, they all made it a great afternoon and I loved to get a chance to do some photos right here at home.
Below are a few of my favorites from the day. If you want to see the entire shoot you can go to the Spurlock Gallery and see the rest over there.
This is my post for Creative Chaos // 28 (see also guidelines) over at Ragamuffin Soul for this week (which isn’t published quite yet over there but will be soon). If you haven’t participated in Creative Chaos yet there is always time to jump in. It is a great tool to learn some of the new and innovative ways other churches and groups are being creative in their faith. Even if you don’t post, just reading through a few of them is a real eye opener of what is done around the country and world in worship.
I am a little late for this video, it has been going around the Internet as of late, but I thought there might be a few of my readers that hadn’t actually seen it yet. I watched it again for about the fourth time as it was shown to the students at Auburn for Encounter last night. It hit me again when talking to a friend of mine at Encounter before the music started when he asked me if I had a son? How old is he, where does he live, what does he do. Thanks for asking Matt, I do, his name is Bryan, and his son’s name is William and he just turned three years old a few days ago (HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILLIAM).
99 Balloons // Dear Eliot Video
The first time I watched 99 balloons was with my good friend b/ in the middle of a busy day when Jack posted about it on his blog. I couldn’t really comprehend it’s worth at the time (although it did bring b/ to tears). It has been that kind of week this week and this video really goes right along with the testimony of our friend Cindy Wall but told by a 3 month old baby born with a condition called Trisomy 18 called Eliot Hartman Mooney. The name of the video is called 99 Balloons and is narrated by a father who marks off each day as it begins on video with “Dear Eliot”.
I am using it for my creative chaos post because the parents of Eliot chose to show the world how much they love their son, in the most creative way, with a really cool video and some photos. It reminded me of my son Bryan with his son William (shown above) who just turned three a few days ago. William is the coolest three year old in the world and I know if you ask his daddy he would tell you the same thing.
There is much joy in this video, especially shown through the parents, because the Lord was part of the parents life in a very meaningful way… but today, it is my creative chaos post.
It took a while to edit the images but I have completed the upload for the wedding photos from the Bryan and Sara Fillmer wedding. All in all there were about 4,000 photos, which I edited to 4 galleries and about 300 final images, with one additional gallery that includes my picks.
Below are some of my personal favorites from the wedding, if you want the short version of the wedding, you can click on the gallery called photographer’s picks, which is about 20 of my favorites and is more of what is shown below. You can view each gallery individually (best viewed in the slideshow format link in the upper right corner) from the links below.
Wedding Gallery and Quick Picks
To view more images from the gallery above, just click on photographer’s picks. To view the other galleries you can click on the links below. Be sure to click on the slideshow format to view all images in a larger, continuous manner.
Take a look at this new video of our grandson William. It is too funny!! He loves to play with his daddy (Bryan) and it seems that momma is always behind the camera and not down on the floor playing, but perhaps we will see her in another video coming up soon.
Our son sends us a photo a day, via email, of our grandson William. We have decided that he is quite a ham. I have been collecting some of the best ones to put on the blog. Here they are, complete with the title our son deemed appropriate for each.
We had the diamonds in my old engagement ring made into a pair of beautiful triangle earrings and a custom made white gold pendant. This was something very special for us and we were thrilled with how it turned out. The center diamond here is the main diamond on my original engagement ring. The original design called to remove the pieces going from the center of the diamond out to the flower peddles but we liked it like this and decided to leave it this way. It has great new meaning to both of us and I love being able to wear my original engagement ring on a pendant around my neck. The local jewelry designer here in Auburn did a great job (Wears in Auburn is quite famous around here but we went to the one in Opelika this time). We have used them now for several different pieces and I am so thrilled with how this one turned out.
How do you like it? I think it turned out just beautiful myself.
Gabriel made the Beauregard All Star baseball team this year and we have spent the last couple of weeks attending his games. The team made it through the first bracket in Valley, AL and almost through the second bracket hosted in Dadeville, AL. The boys made some incredible plays and really fought hard right to the very end. The final score of the last game was Dadeville/20 - Beauregard/15. A few days ago I made Gabriel his very first baseball card. The stats are not completely accurate because they played after I printed it. Regardless, I thought it would be cool for him to have his very own card. Here is his card and another photo of the entire team. Enjoy.
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