Sunday, June 1, 2008

No go, flight

That's correct, we are officially a no-go on our return to NC. The church hired one of their members. I'm not upset in the least, in fact maybe a bit relieved to have the decision made.

Both of our girls will be going to public school this next year. Homeschooling has been good for them, but we feel it's best for ALL of us to have the girls out of the house. What makes it equally exciting (and scary) is that Alison will be going into middle school this year. Sixth grade was probably my worst year, so I'm a bit nervous but I think she'll do well.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

What's Going On

More than just a great song from Marvin Gaye...

I just got back from a quick trip to the Washington, D.C. area. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see much of D.C. - we were working in Maryland, but I did get to see the memorials from the airport. I also saw Marine One (the President's helicopter) flying over the Potomac river past Georgetown University on it's way towards the White House.

No word on the NC job front.

Kim and I are working on cleaning up a bunch of old bricks. They came from a nearly 100 year old house. We got the bricks for free, but we have to clean all the mortar off of them. When we get them all cleaned off, we are going to build a brick patio. It should look good when we're finished.

Alison won an essay contest held by the Daughters of the American Revolution. She got to read her essay at an awards ceremony which was attended by our House Representative. She also received an American flag which was flown over the Capitol building. She was very excited. Unfortunately, I had to miss the ceremony because I was flying home from D.C. Sometimes being a freelancer sucks.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Up For Air

Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks - all in a good way. I was in NC March 12-16 to help my parents move into their new home. They found a nice one story home about 30 minutes away from the old house. They moved because the old house was a split level with the only bathroom upstairs. This was becoming a problem for my dad as his muscular dystrophy continues to worsen. Lots of people came to help, which made the job much easier.

The other thing I did while in NC was to interview for a position with Lake Forest Church in Huntersville. One of my good friends from college is the worship leader there. He called me about a month ago to tell me about the position (technical director) and that he thought I would be perfect for it. Kim and I aren't sure yet whether or not we want to return to NC, but I went ahead with the interview to see if God would lead on or shut the door. Still no word on who the church has chosen.

I've also been very busy with work. Baseball spring training is winding up here in Florida. This was the "harvest" season for me so I'm just now getting back to being a normal dad again.

I created my own MySpace page. It's pretty lame so far, but check it out and add me as a friend if MySpace is something you do.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

One

Anybody recognize this guy?

Friday, February 29, 2008

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Daytona 500

Salley heads to Daytona
Salley heads to Daytona


Here's what I worked on at the Daytona 500 this year. Sorry, the link takes you to the BDSSP site, but it was the only way I could show the video. Also, you have to wait for the advertisement to finish playing before you see the vid. John Salley was a lot of fun to work with.

And he's TALL.

REAL TALL!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

A Nice Visit


Last week I was working in Daytona, on the set for this season's FoxSports NASCAR coverage. We built eight sets inside an airplane hangar in 2 days, then shot the drivers over the course of another 2 days. I've worked on this shoot for the last 5 years, and in this business now for about 10 years, however, it's rare that Kim ever gets to visit me on the job. But last week, Kim and the girls were able to come by the set and see me at work. In fact, we had a little down time while they were there and so we were able to visit most all of the sets. It was an enjoyable time. They got to see me work with driver Martin Truex, Jr. They came on the last of the 4 day shoot and stayed with me at the hotel (Hilton on Daytona Beach). We really had a good time.

I'll be headed back to Daytona this weekend for the 500. I'll be working in and around the pit areas and infield. Kim's really jealous that she can't come visit me on that set!!

Thursday, January 31, 2008

More Brian Regan

This guy really cracks me up. Very mild, but possibly offensive language.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Did I Miss Something?



A couple of years ago, I took a trip with Samaritan's Purse to Ukraine. We were documenting some OCC distributions there at the time. It was a fun time - extremely cold, but fun. At any rate, I had a very interesting, and confusing, experience.

The girl you see pictured with me was a young girl in the town of Simferopol. She lived at a school for kids with speech problems. Approximately 50% of the students there are orphans. Some nationals in Simferopol had organized an OCC distribution to these children. It was during this distribution that I saw her. The moment our eyes met, I melted. There was something in the way she looked at me that made me think "I have to get her out of here". We continued to do our filming there and I had little time to spend with her or find out about her situation. I did manage to grab a still photographer and have him snap this picture. I also spoke to the director of the school before we left and got some contact information so I could follow up when I got back to the states. When we left the school/orphanage, I cried because I couldn't take this girl with me. Now remember, I had been traveling the world for about 8 years by that point, and had seen thousands of orphans but had never had this happen - ever!

So when I got back to the hotel that night, I called Kim and told her what happened. I had not gone on that trip or any other before or since to look for a child to adopt. In fact, I had never given adoption any real thought before, but there I was on the phone telling Kim, from half a world away, that I wanted to adopt this girl right then. Kim's response - "Let's do it!" There was no hesitation on her part. A few days later we left Simferopol and traveled back to Kiev where we stayed with some nationals. I told them my story, and they assured me that they would help us when the time came to make the necessary arrangements. Things were moving very quickly for me at this point and I was feeling a bit overwhelmed.

On my flight back to the States, I had a middle seat. As I sat there waiting for the window seat passenger to board, I thought of all that had happened and was looking forward to a nice relaxing flight home. Then the passenger arrived - a woman carrying a young child. "Great" I thought, "this kid is going to scream the entire flight". Well the lady sat down in the seat next to me and eventually we began to make some small talk. Turns out, she had just adopted the child she was holding and was returning home. "OK God, you have my attention" I thought to myself as she and I talked about the adoption process.

After returning to Sarasota, I realized that there was a Ukrainian church meeting in our church building on Sunday nights. I eventually was in a Bible study class with many of the members of this church. It sure seemed that we were quickly on our way to having a third child in the house.

Using the contacts that I had gathered in Ukraine, I began the process of trying to determine the status of this girl. I emailed several people, including the school director. A week went by - nothing. A month later - no answer. We had been researching on the internet as well about the adoption process for Ukraine. After a few months, the country halted all adoptions to Americans. Completely. Talk about disappointing. It seemed so obvious that God wanted us to adopt this girl, but all doors were closed to us. And eventually, our dream of adopting her died.

What happened? Did we miss God by allowing the dream to die? Was there some lesson we were supposed to learn that we just weren't getting? Was there even a "why" that needed an answer? That chapter of our lives seems to have been completed, but it ends with a big question mark. And that's a hard thing to live with.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Here's something I worked on today. I'm fighting a cold and had time to do this.

Friday, January 11, 2008

"One Thing" by Alison Morris

Alison wrote this for her writing class. (She is homeschooled for those of you who don't know.)

"One Thing

One thing every kid wishes adults knew is that we never want to get rid of our things. Boys don't want to get rid of their video games (and some girls don't want to either). Girls don't want to get rid of stuffed animals, pictures, special necklaces, etc. Adults think that we need to have room for our stuff, but we just squeeze stuff together."

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Ron Paul Part 1

You may have noticed my new additions to the blog - political banners and links. I have long been annoyed by politics, that is until I listened to Ron Paul. I may not agree with him 100%, but I do believe in him enough to put signs in my yard and on my car.

If you are tired of:

- Our arrogant foreign policy.
- Out of control government spending.
- Unconstitutional wars.
- Big centralized government.
- The weakened US dollar.

...then you should give Ron Paul a serious listen. Please. This video is a bit slow going, but gets interesting around the 7:00 mark.

Friday, January 4, 2008

The Greatest Song

When I was a young man, I heard a song on the radio by a band with a funny name - U2. The song was "Where the Streets Have No Name" and I was hooked on their sound. It wasn't long before I had saved enough money to buy the album (cassette tape back then) "The Joshua Tree". When I heard the song "With or Without You" I thought it was the most powerful and emotional song I had ever heard. It touched me at a deeper level, maybe spiritual even. They had a sound that was unique (especially in the synth driven 80's). "The Joshua Tree" certainly wasn't their first album, but it was the first one I had listened to.

Next came the film "Rattle and Hum" which brought the band to the big screen. To me, they were bigger than life. I remember sitting in the theatre when the film transitioned from B&W to color (the Tempe, Arizona concert) and the bright red came up on the screen - it was the most glorious red I had ever seen, or so I thought. The images of those guys playing, especially Adam Clayton, the bassist, have stayed with me all this time. In fact, sometimes when I'm playing bass at church and it's a U2-style song, I imagine Adam in the shadows, playing that driving bass line with the cigarette hanging from his mouth and the smoke lingering above him. He was cool! I think I secretly wanted to be that persona.

At any rate, this video of "With or Without You" is fairly recent. It may not be the best performance Bono has ever given, but it still brings me back to those days in 1987, sitting in my bedroom with my headphones on, in all their stereophonic glory, being captured by the music, dreaming of one day being able to make music like that. Interestingly, near the end of this video, it becomes difficult to tell if it's a rock concert or a worship event. U2 has influenced the style of so many worship artists, that it's hard to not watch this and have a spiritual experience of sorts.

U2, the inventors of modern worship.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Motherhood, Cooking and other things I know nothing about

I was responding to a post today on Ben and Heather's blog and I made a comment about Heather posting about motherhood, cooking, etc. and I thought that would make a nice blog title. So...

Motherhood. And in particular, childbirth. No man knows squat about childbirth. Yes I was there when my kids were born, but I still don't know that much about it. Except that I should have gotten some hot water and towels. Funny how in all the old movies when someone is having a baby, the person in charge of the delivery always tells somebody to go get some hot water and towels. I think that men in those days had no idea what went on in the delivery room (they weren't allowed in the delivery room back then) so male script writers just made up stuff for the movies. "Get me some hot water and towels". Why? Maybe so that the poor sap who is retrieving said items might clumsily trip and fall in the room, spilling boiling water onto the pregnant lady, thereby causing her to scream and push harder and thusly expediting the birthing process. The towels are to wipe up the spilled water from the floor. Good thing I wasn't the script writer. I would have written "Go get me some oatmeal and rubber bands!"

Cooking. I don't know. Pop tarts are easy to fix. So are hot dogs. "Here kids, eat a banana!" I really hope nothing ever happens to Kim, because my kids would end up eating string cheese and marshmallows for dinner.

Other things I know little about: sewing, the stock market, making the bed, washing clothes, rebuilding a motor, hat making and the history of Liberia.

I'll try to post about things I DO know about in the future.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everybody who reads this. We've had a nice Christmas season. We went to my parent's house in Hickory, NC for Christmas this (last) year. We had a great time visiting with family - some of whom I haven't seen in years. We also made it up to Boone for a short day. We managed to see the Rowlands and the Pinnixes (or would that be the Pinnices?). I was really hoping to stop by and see the incredible Chiz Waz down in Sanford, but our schedule just didn't allow it. I was, and still am, bummed about that.

Much has happened over 2007 for us. 3 deaths in the family, Kim became her grandfather's guardian, a new job for Kim, our first NEW vehicle. Who knows what 2008 will hold? Whatever it is, I'm looking forward to it with eyes wide open. I stopped making resolutions years ago, but I've always had a private theme for the new year. Kind of like a prophetic newspaper headline that summarizes what the year will hold. I think 2008's theme seems to be change, but of the good variety. Several things pop to mind when I say that, but I'll wait to see how life transpires.