Private Concert

The other night I was personally invited to a private concert. In fact, just my family was in the audience. The artist sang one song (with the help of a backup vocalist) that she had written herself. There was some added effect with one lone drummer in the background.

It was one of the most inspiring performances I’ve ever witnessed.

Because it was my 7 year old daughter that put on the show.

She had written a worship song and rehearsed with her friend several times before calling all of us upstairs to listen to her.

She even covered the marketing aspect of the show. Very clever.

Neither Wade nor I were prepared for the price of admission, so she graciously allowed us to use a coupon so we could get into the venue.

Since she had just written the song the day before, she still needed to look at the lyrics.

And the drummer was just following the groove...like a natural...

Because it was a contemporary worship song, she sang it 3 times (*smile*)

I was able to snap a shot of the lyric sheet earlier that day. The words are so sweet.

I don’t know why she had written “almost”, but when she asked for my input I explained that we do celebrate Jesus’ resurrection -- we’re thankful for it every day! So she erased it.

Who knows? Maybe this is the first of many songs to come out of her little heart.

Fix-It-Friday

Thought I'd give it a go with I Heart Faces Fix-It-Friday photo. It's my first time, so not sure if the poor quality (pixel-wise) of the photo was something I did incorrectly when downloading. Nevertheless, it was fun to experiment in PS (and even learn a couple new techniques) in order to get an image I was pleased with.

Here is the original:

and this is where I took it:

First I cropped it to get in closer.  Then I applied a "selective sepia" technique I learned from an online tutorial, and burned the edges a bit. I believe I sharpened it up before I flattened it. Love the drama of the red pants. His sweet little face tells me "I'm an explorer!"

Easter Scenes

Here are some scenes from Easter Sunday, our first home gathering as a new church.

The day was colored with kids hunting for candy-filled eggs, seasoned with good food and good talk, and celebrated with worship and the Message of Hope.  

The day marked our first baby steps as a community learning to align ourselves with God's purposes for us.

Loveliness

Wade brought home this beautiful bunch yesterday, bringing some extra loveliness into our home. These beauties are actually a bright pink, but I loved the effect I got doing some post-editing in PS.

Jumping In!

Pool season has officially begun...

Your Love is Strong

          Heavenly Father
          You always amaze me
          Let your kingdom come
          In my world and in my life
          You give me the food I need
          To live through the day
          And forgive me as I forgive
          The people that wronged me
          Lead me far from temptation
          Deliver me from the evil one

          I look out the window
          The birds are composing
          Not a note is out of tune
          Or out of place
          I walk to the meadow
          And stare at the flowers
          Better dressed than any girl
          On her wedding day

          So why do I worry?
          Why do I freak out?
          God knows what I need
          You know what I need

               Your love is
               Your love is
               Your love is strong

          The kingdom of the heavens
          Is now advancing
          Invade my heart
          Invade this broken town
          The kingdom of the heavens
          Is buried treasure
          Would you sell yourself
          To buy the one you've found?

          Two things You told me
          That You are strong
          And You love me
          Yes, You love me

          Our God in heaven
          Hallowed be
          Thy name above all names
          Your kingdom come
          Your will be done
          On earth as it is in heaven
          Give us today our daily bread
          Forgive us weary sinners
          Keep us far from our vices
          And deliver us from these prisons

Goodbye Sunshine

It's a sad day at the Hamilton Household.

Instead of the usual "good morning" chirping, Annette woke up to silence.

Sometime in the night her little bird Sunshine flew away to that big bird heaven in the sky, leaving only her limp, yellow-feathered body behind.

I covered her cage with a towel, then put it out on the back porch.

We shed some tears together.  Called Daddy.  Then Grammy.  

Grammy said "come over and eat waffles with me", so the three got dressed, put their shoes on and walked the 10 minutes to Grammy's house.  

As I type this I hear them coming through the door, their voices lighter and louder than earlier. Grammy & the waffles must have been an effective distraction.

Goodbye Sunshine.  We will miss your sweet songs.

Action!

I recently loaded Photoshop CS4 on my Mac, and I love tweaking pictures to my heart's content. Though I am a lowly beginner, I have discovered "actions" -- what they are, where I can get them, how to load them and how to use them. For the impatient creative who is learning how to use a new tool, it can be frustrating to fumble around a monster like CS4 to figure out all the steps you need to take to get your pictures from ordinary to amazing.  But with actions you have a magic button, and when you press it it's like PS waves a starry fairy dust wand and magically transforms it into something pretty cool -- and sometimes totally awesome, if all the stars align and the perfect match between great shot and great action is found.

In this instance, well, I guess it's pretty cool. 

This is a picture I took of Wade last fall when we walked through Big Trees in Northern California. Believe it or not, he is standing inside the base of a tree that had fallen over. I really like the composition, the light, and the scale of him compared to the tree.

I took three of Pioneer Woman's actions and applied them to the picture.

Take a look at the difference between them.

This is the uncropped original.

I chopped off a bit of the right. Then I added the "fresh & colorful" action. See how the red in the tree and the green has more pop.

Here I ran the "B&W Beauty" action.

And on this one I used the "Seventies" action.

With each I sharpened it up a bit and adjusted the contrast.  

As I get to know PS better I'll start creating my own actions.  But for now, it's a wonderful thing to have a magic button that figures it out for me.

Being thankful

I have two friends who are extremely gifted at staying connected and maintaining relationships. They are “phone” people, “get together” girls that make lots of plans with friends on a monthly basis. Sometimes I wish I could be more like that. But, honestly, I get exhausted just thinking about it.

I, on the other hand, am not a “phone” person. I have a fine appreciation for caller ID. Email is one of my favorite inventions, right up there with boston cream pie. I can go days without talking to someone outside my immediate family. I like “my” time -- alone, quiet, uninterrupted, free time. Needless to say, I can be pretty selfish about it.

But I know that it’s healthy for me to widen my world, go against my grain and make an effort to be present in the lives of people God has placed around me. So I make an effort. It’s a bit spotty, but it’s there.

So I’m thankful for friends like these, who are purposeful in our relationship and make it a priority to get together once a month just to check in, catch up, have some laughs and encourage each other. I’m thankful that they keep reaching out and pulling me in, that they keep my number in their cell phone even though I rarely call.  

Because if someone was keeping score, I’m afraid I would lose miserably.

Park Days are here

We took the kids to one of the local parks a few days ago.  The weather was warm, not hot, a cool breeze blowing, the sun bright.  Kites were flying in the air.  Kids laughing, screaming, playing on the jungle gyms.  Park days are back on the calendar.

One of the things I do appreciate about Vegas is that there are parks a plenty.  And not just wide open areas of grass and trees with a few bbq grills dotting the landscape.  I mean parks that are chock full of swings, slides, jungle gyms, sand pits, water play areas, rock climbing walls, and the list goes on.  The park we went to covers 120 acres and has sand volleyball courts, soccer fields, an outdoor amphitheatre, wide open grassy areas, jogging paths, and more.  It's huge.  

Most new homes in Vegas are track homes with backyards barely big enough for a patio and a few desert plants.  So parks are where people go to let their kids run around and release energy.

When I was growing up my parents never took us kids to a park to play.  In fact, I don't remember them ever taking us to a park unless we had to walk through one to get where we wanted to go. We had yards big enough to run around in, play ball, splash through the sprinklers.  We also played in the front yard or in the street.  We didn't need a different area developed with taxpayer dollars specifically for the purpose of having space to play.

I've been in Vegas close to 20 years (yikes!).  If I could have a wish come true I would close my eyes, click my heels and repeat "there's no place like home" and be transported to a wide open country space with a quaint farmhouse surrounded by tall oaks and a running creek out back.  

But my name isn't Dorothy, and as freaky as Vegas can be, it's not Oz.  So I'll just keep my eyes open and be thankful that there are influential people in this city that value community and make it a priority to provide fun spaces for families.