Greatest Date Ever!

If you are married and you don't go on dates...you need to make a change and re-prioritize! DATES are the best. Andrew and I work together everyday all day, and we have to make time to go on dates so that we are talking about things other than work and so that we are having some fun that is induced by us, rather than by the students that surround us all the time! So, last night Andrew took me on the best date ever.

Let me start by saying that over the years that Andrew and I have been Dating and Married...even on our first date ever...when he tries to plan a date for me that I don't know about, an art museum is always involved, but it is almost always closed or for some reason something happens and we don't make it...

So last night Andrew and I started early and we went to the Melting pot for happy hour. 1/2 price cheese and chocolate!! so yummy! so we left there and started driving. We were really close to the Art Museum and so I joked. "are we gonna go to the art museum?" followed by a laugh. He replies "I haven't told you anything we are doing, why would I tell you know?" (as he pulled into the museum parking lot.)

We get out of the car and he says..."I am really excited about this"

I'm like...It's the art museum.

So we walk in and stroll down the hall in the new modern side of the museum. And then I stop in my tracks as I see this name printed on the wall... Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison...I know that I have posted about this man and wife art team before, but i have to say, These are my favorite artists and I have never seen their work in person before...only books and websites. Well, they have an exhibit up from Now till Feb 8th, so if you are in KC, you have to go see it. I was nearly screaming when I got to see it, I was jumping, I got all flushed, and my heart fluttered for the rest of the night! Andrew bought me a book and it happens to be signed, which is cool, but sort of sad, cause I didn't actually get to meet them. This is one of the pieces that was up, and You really should check out the link and see some more images and read the artists statement! ahhh... so cool!

Then we went over to Kansas to see this freak show of a Christmas house. This man has been decorating the outside of his house for over 35 years (so a local woman tells me.)

It was a little scary, I will not lie! But you couldn't help but to laugh out loud at the ridiculousness that it is!

Beard Family Portrait

This is the one that everyone (Scott and Anne) liked best.

But the Kids were sure that this one would make everone laugh! Seriously...this is funny!
I have so so so much to post...come back soon!

NYWC

I am so excited about this weekend. Andrew and I leave tonight for Nashville, TN where we will get to meet with youth workers all over the country! National Youth workers convention is sooo fun! I am really excited about having some good worship with David Crowder.

I am also really excited about hearing Shaine Claiborne, from The Simple Way, speak.

We will be back on Tuesday for a youth event.

When I was packing this morning, I realized that I need to invent a youth leaders packing guide...I think it would totally fly. Oct-Dec, we have been or will have been to St. Louis x4, Springfield x2, Omaha, Nashville, and Dallas. wow!

I miss this guy so much today!

If you need a reason to smile today, just press play. You will no doubt at least smile a little, unless you know Fred, then you will laugh and maybe shed a tear because you miss him so much. Anyway, I woke this morning thinking about him and thought I would share this funny little video with you all! Note, no one in our family is really fond of animals, which makes this even funnier to me!

Have a great day!

weddings

Well, I am missing a friends wedding this weekend to go to NYWC which I will post about later. The wedding got me thinking of photographing weddings. While I do love to photograph, wedding are sooooo nerve wracking and stressful. I was looking at the old photos that i have and i realized that I am pretty good at photographing weddings, but it is all based on the bride and groom. If they would just give me time to be with JUST THEM, I can turn some pretty awesome product. Here are a few that I really like!

Photo pride

I was looking through some photos I took when I was at Convey, and I have to say there are a few that I am really proud of. Some of these are my favorites and I am proud to say that I took them.

This is the skyline in Chicago and I took it when I was photographing at Erin and Jarrett Reardon's wedding...good times!

These are of the cast of the Skinny Improv

This was for a fashion shoot for Downtown Now Magazine that Sesha and I did. This one was one of my favorites!

I hope you enjoyed the look back on some of my favorite photos!

The weekend part 1

We have been working a lot lately. By we, I mean Andrew. The last day he had off of work, before this weekend was October 11th. That is 25 days of work. Not only were there 25 days in a row, but at least 5 of those days were 24 hour days! With that being the case, we knew we needed to take a day or two off, but we also needed to be out of town so that we couldn't be gotten hold of. Thursday AM we met with the youth pastors of Liberty. This is such a wonderful time for us. We get together and talk about our ministries and our lives and really try to make the youth of this city more like ONE than 6. We believe that is the true calling of the "church" and so we are excited to join together with them and share our lives, our ideas and our students!

So we finished up there and then we headed to Joplin where we got to hang out with Katie and Evan...* see "because retro chic sounds good to me" on your right. We had such an awesome time of laughing, talking, discussing decorating ideas, talking about the future and watching 30 Rock and It's Always Sunny in Philidelphia. Katie asked us if she could take our photos the next morning before we left and we said "of course" so we had a little photo shoot. We got an awesome Christmas card photo out of it. So, I won't post that one on mine, but if you want to guess, you can go to Katies blog and pick which one you think it should be! But I will show you a few!

And I will tell you more about the weekend as this week goes on!

another one for josh

For my brother!

Josh, this is the one! It is hilarious.

A little inspiration and a spiritual/political rant...it is okay if you don't read it all.

I was cruising through Flickr last night looking for a little inspiration for a senior shoot with one of the boys from LUMY. He is a drummer, so I was searching for some

concepts that I could put into action with him when I ran across a certain photo stream. There are less than 50 photos, but almost all of them are interesting to the point of me looking at all of them individually. The name of the person whose stream it is, is Cale Glendining and you should see what he is up to...it made me think of time and color and exploring some of the ideas that I haven't yet. I hope you find something worth looking at here.
On to the things on my mind...

I haven't turned on the news yet this morning, but I am fairly certain, based off of facebook status' alone, that the world is up in arms about us electing Obama to the seat of President of the United States of America. I woke up early this morning on my own with my head just reeling. I have been feeling so much conviction about the responsibilities of the body Christ. What is our purpose and how does that play into all of these politics. Andrew and I teach our students, with conviction, that they can change the world...because even if it is in one persons life, you are changing the world for somebody when they see Christ for who He is and not for the name that has been placed on Him by society. So I feel that since this is my blog, and thank God for freedom of speech, I would charge you with the conviction I feel. That is this, we, the Christians in this nation need to rise up and take responsibility for the issues that we can change. I cannot make one bit of difference in this world when it comes to trying to get better health care (unless I pay for it) but as a believer of a hope and a future, I can teach the Love of God to all the young men and women I encounter and hope that they will see the purpose they have. I believe this will make the difference in their lives to see that we can effect the choices that they make. This will have a spiral effect if people are teaching the TRUE GOD to people rather that the deformed version. By true, I mean the one that called us to make disciples of men. Not just showing up until they make a "decision" but sticking around to make sure that they understand what that means and what all it entails. If people are so worried that one man can change things so much socially, we need to understand that as a body of Christ we are way bigger than 1 man and if our voices ring out in ONE accord, we can make a huge difference in the social issues and let them, in government, deal with my health care...and Lord let them do so. I cannot speak to the other issues at hand and I don't claim, by any means, to be politically brilliant, but I can speak to what I know and that is this...We have a responsibility too, and if we neglect it, we are responsible for the downfall of this world as much as anyone else. The Lord never said that serving Him would be easy, he even tells Jeremiah, "go where I lead you and speak to who I tell you to...I WILL RESCUE YOU!" I guess the thing I keep hearing is, "if we are soo worried about the abortion issue, (and this is most assuredly the one that people have been voicing their opinion about) then why aren't we personally taking action rather than just going out and casting a vote? We don't have to have a law to make a young woman understand that it abortion is not a good idea, but beware...once they have decided to have that baby, they are going to need support, insurance, baby sitters and a whole heck of a lot of love...are you ready to give to that too?" If life is so precious, why aren't we (the body of Christ) letting people know it?
I know I don't normally posts things like this, but I just felt like my words needed escaping.

Let me be clear so as to avoid ranting comments...I, personally, know there is so much more to this president elect than the social issues, however, I am responding to what has been spoken to me by the people I encounter.


Has anyone seen "Head of State" with Chris Rock...I will end on a funny note to lighten the mood. As Chris Rock says at the end of every speech, no matter how wrong it is it made me laugh every time (because it is so messed up).
"God Bless America, and no place else!"

Product Placement

I don't talk about "stuff" too much, but I have fallen in love with this product. I started drinking it regularly with my tonsilecomy, and have continued to drink it. I add a little bit to my big ol' water bottle and it is so refreshing. It is not sweet and doesn't take like it has any "flavoring" addded, it tastes infused with mint! So good, you should try it!

So in love!

Incase I haven't said it lately, I love my amazing husband!

Andrew Beard, you are my Bestie!!

A little bit from my weekend!

This weekend was spectacular, not only because it was fun! Andrew and I took our 10th-12th graders on a mystery trip to the Science Center, Elephant Rocks, and the city museum. We had worship and awesome conversation around the bonfire. God was in His full Glory as the Autumn leaves screamed of his creativity and artistry! We stood dumbfounded countless times this weekend! Here are a few images that took my breath!

Our Friend Ben

The students at our church always say that Andrew and I know SOOO MANY PEOPLE. We do know alot of people who do a lot of extraordinary things. We believe that we just surround ourselves with passionate people and we invest our lives in our friends so that no matter where we all live, we are still close and in touch with each other. Today I am bragging on our friend Ben. This is Ben Cox and he is a favorite. He and Andrew met one day at River Bluff (our old church in Springfield) because they were wearing almost the same outfit. Andrew and I were leading the college ministry there and Ben just happend to be in college. He got invloved with us and then...duh du du! he introduced us to LOST and we watched the first 2 seasons together. Well, we moved to Liberty and Ben moved to LA to go to school at Chapman for directing. Here is a snipbit of an e-mail he sent a few weeks ago.

"I was a finalist in a contest. Basically I sent in my film that had Grant in it, and they selected me to be one of 9 people to direct a commercial/trailer for a teen book. So I got the book in, and it was the girliest teen book I've ever seen. I read through the 350 pages and wrote up a quick script. Then I got a crew together and filmed it. They gave us a nice budget , so I was able to get some decent equipment/locations. Then I sent all the footage to Doug, and he did my visual effects. We sent in the videos and I'm a finalist! Which means my commercial automatically represents my book, and the 2 other books are what I'm competing against now. The winner gets $1000. Plus, they are flying me out to New York for this screening of all the videos. So that's pretty nice. I might go a few days early just to see New York."

So he went and he won!! YEAH FOR BEN!!! This is such a great stepping stone for your carreer!

Click here to see the winning video...Parties and Potions

We love you Ben...We are so proud of you!

OHHH, I have to brag on Doug too. This is Doug Johnston and he did all the digital effects of the video! YEAH FOR YOU TO!!!
We really are proud!

the men in my life

First of all, yes, these are the shoes. My bro found them in Texas at Tylers...which is where I first saw them. This was the last pair and a half size smaller than I would have asked for, but they fit and they are Awesome!!!

I ran to my families house last week, Wednesday morning through Thursday morning and I did it for 1 reason. The men in my life. (this photo is of the fam.) Grandma, Linda, Mom, Dad, Fred and Josh.I have to start by saying that the men in my life consist of 4 people. First and foremost, my daddy! He is the kindest man I know and if there is one thing I will take forever with me is how to treat people.

So I went home, but Andrew didn't get to go. He is the second and current most important man in my life. Andrew is just as my dad, kind as can be. He sees the best in everyone and is quick to encourage and listen and slow to speak and become angry, in fact, I have never seen him angry, even though he used to have severe anger problems. Andrew is the best Husband ever. I have never felt "not good enough" with him. He is safe and he still takes risk...I love this man with all my life and will serve beside him for as long as we live...and he is really cute. The next man is my Brother, Josh. He and I didn't get along when we were kids, but when we hit the upper teens, we just clicked. I love my brother. We don't see eye to eye on everything, like music and movies and some other weird things, but when we are together we talk and laugh and really just enjoy the company of each other! And this brings me to the most recent addition to the men in my life. FRED! I love this little man. It is almost weird to me how much I love him. I am not sure if it is because I have no kids of my own, but I love him more than I thought it was possible. So I got to spend a short few hours with him, but it was worth the 8 hours of driving. Here are so photos that I can use to brag on just how dang cute he is.