Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday to me, yesterday!
I made it to 41 years old!

I'm reminded of the old saying,
" If I had known I was going to live this long,
I would have taken better care of myself!"

I'm sitting here at our local coffee house, Dixie's Roasting Company,
have my morning cup and thinking about 41.
I know if you are 61, 41 is nothing.
If you are 21, 41 is ancient!
If you are 41, for me anyway, it just feels like another day.

I haven't really gotten hung up on any age number this one included.
I still feel like a kid some days and I feel that age is nothing but a state of mind.
Except some muscles and bones hurt that used to not, but thats ok.
It just lets me know that I'm still alive!

Another saying I've heard and used before is
"Every day above ground is a good day!"

I'm thankful for the wonderful wife that God gave me almost 3 years ago.
I'm thankful for my beautiful baby girl.
I'm thankful that I'm able to do a job that I love to do.
I'm thankful that that job has taken me around the world.

I'm thankful that God has protected me in my past.
I can point at about 4 different times in my life when
I should have died, but I know that a momma's prayers
kept me safe.

The verse comes to mind,

"Train up a child in the way he should go,

and he will not depart from it."

The general thinking on that scripture has always been that

if you raise a child up in church that he will always be there.

I have found out in my life, that that is not the case,

but that if you were raised to know God and have a

personal relationship with Him, then even though you

may stray and walk down some crooked paths you will always

"know" the right way and will never be able to

get away from what you know is the right thing to do.

Now to explain the picture above. I went for an eye appointment and

I found out what I already knew, I've got to get bi-focals!

So, happy birthday to me!

Have a great day! I'm going to have one myself!

Loading Docks, Uptown Charlotte

My wife and pictures is like the painter's house which never gets painted.
Between a 14 month old and just life, we don't always get pictures of my baby.
So, we were in Uptown Charlotte for the Bruce Springsteen
concert and had some time to killbefore the concert and there were
these great loading docks that were off to the side
of where we were parked for the evening, so we went
over there and grabbed a few shots. I know I got some really cool
shots of Stephanie, but hey it's easy with a good looking wife
like I have got! Steph did a fine job of trying to get a decent image of me.
She really has a great eye and we plan to keep
developing her talent in the future.

Bruce Springsteen Concert, 2008, Charlotte, NC

The picture above is from The Charlotte Observer
via Jen Bowles Blog.

WOW! What a concert! I see now why

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band is called the hardest working band in show business!

Non-stop energy. Before a song's last note, he would start up "One, Two, Three, Four!" and off they would go again!
"She's the One" and "The Rising" were my favorite songs of the night.

Here are a few pictures from the concert last night. No cameras allowed of course, so I used my Lg Env's 3 mega-pixel camera and for some of the shots used the mini-binoculars (place phone's camera lens up to binocular and move camera around until you "find" the image, wait for slow camera phone to acquire focus and hope subjects are moving slow enough or stopped so that you don't get too much blur)that we had to get some close up pictures.
Some are a little fuzzy, but hey you use whatcha got!I love taking pictures and I hate it
when I don't have my big cameras with me.

It was odd for me just to sit/stand and watch a concert and not taking pictures.
I enjoy a concert just as much or more snapping away at the action!

Anyway, we had a blast! Steph's first big concert and she loved it!
We got to see a truly great show!
If you have a chance, check Springsteen's 2008 Tour!

The video below is "She's the One" and if you scroll the index after the video
"The Rising" is there also.










We also had a good friend of ours, Tom Hanks, with us for the evening.
Here is one of his papparazzi pictures from last night!
Actually our good friend, Rob Stevenson, is the Hanks look alike.
He is a great music fan and big Bruce Fan.
He was singing about all of the lyrics!
We had a blast with Rob!
Thanks bud!

Worship Celebration

There was a praise celebration this morning at our church.
We had the young people in Clearwater, FL that are
part of The Master's Commission training ministry.
They were a wonderful group of young people and
we were happy to have them.

Torres Family

Isn't he just the cutest little big boy!?!

He is seven weeks old, weighing in at

15 pounds, and just beautiful!

of course with such a pretty mom he was

bound to turn out beautiful!

Love this shot of Dad! He is such a cut up!

Torres family, I had a great time yesterday! Thanks!