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!