Saturday evening I had the opportunity to take some photos of Brook and Jeremy out around their house. The cool thing about it all is that they live on land (and in a house) that has been owned by Jeremy’s family for years. The house they now live in is the one his mother grew up in, and although they’ve lot a lot of remodeling (it looks amazing!), they have worked hard to preserve as much of the original house as they can. I think that’s awesome. They are both beautiful people, and it was a lot of fun getting to hang out with them for the evening. In spite of having to fight the rain and cloudy skies, we were able to get some really great pictures (I think, anyway). Here are my favs:
Posted by Jake on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
About a week or two ago Jake and I got the sweetest phone call. On the other end was the excited little voice of our 6-year-old friend, Mikayla. “I asked Jesus into my heart this morning!” she exclaimed. So precious. I can’t even describe what it’s like to know that a child has gained an understanding (limited though it may be) of what Jesus did for her, and has accepted that gift of forgiveness and redemption. It’s a reminder to me that Jesus doesn’t ask us to do anything special, or gain lots of knowledge to receive his gift of salvation. All he asks is for simple, childlike faith and repentance. Mikayla experienced that this past week. I experienced it 16 years ago. I’m still experiencing it everyday…that’s the beauty of God’s grace. It just so happened that Mikayla was baptized over the 4th of July weekend while we were home, so we got to celebrate with her. I was so excited! I love to see someone baptized anyway. There’s just something about the symbolism of them dying to their old self and raising up again to new life in Christ that gets me every time–even if I don’t know the person. But to be able to see a little girl I love so much baptized…it was awesome! Even more awesome was the fact that her dad, an ordained minister, is the one who baptized her. I can only imagine what that meant to him. Here they are…
Dave, Emily, Mikayla, Sarah, Kirsten….we love you guys! (well, I guess you’re mostly girls, actually) 
And Mikayla, we are SO proud of you, and SO excited to watch as God continues to grow you up into a young woman who pleases him. I can’t wait to see how he’s going to use you for his glory!
and
Posted by Diana on Monday, July 7th, 2008
Jennie and I had been planning to run in the Firecracker 5k for a little while now. The last time I was home, I found out that another friend of mine, Brook, had started running, so I invited her to join us. Before I knew it, there was a whole crew from Flomaton coming to run with us, and among those runners was Angie White. If you don’t know Mrs. Angie’s story, then the fact that she came to run/walk the 5K doesn’t mean much to you. In fact, if you knew her before last September, you’d say a 5K would be nothing for her–just an easy morning jog. But all that changed when she was suddenly found to have a brain tumor. I don’t know all of the technical, medical descriptions of what she’s been battling or what she’s had to go through, but I do know enough to know that she is one of the strongest ladies I know. And this past Friday, she completed her first race since discovering that she had cancer. You can read more about her story at the Pensacola News Journal, or watch the report about her on WEAR Channel 3 (I couldn’t get the video to play, but you might have more luck than me). I can’t even describe to you what it was like to see her cross the finish line with Mrs. Jo and Mr. Earnie on either side of her. Here are a few of the pictures I got. There are no words for what she and everyone around her were feeling at that moment. Friday was one of many victories she has had over the last few months, as well as one of many more to come. She truly is an overcomer.
Posted by Diana on Monday, July 7th, 2008
This past weekend was a busy one! I have so much to blog about, so you’re going to be seeing several posts over the next day or two. First, though, I want to share some of the pictures of Theda and her family that we took on Thursday evening. We got to know Theda and Chris through church softball in Pensacola, and recently Theda’s become one of our regular blog reader/commenters (you make us feel good about ourselves, Theda :-)). We were a little worried about how the photos would turn out because it was a really cloudy, stormy evening, but I think they turned out great! I was afraid we were going to get struck by lightening, though. You’ll notice how much static was in the air in some of the pictures. If I was smart enough, I could have edited out the places where Theda’s hair is standing up from the static. But I’m not that smart…at least not yet. I hope you like the pictures, Theda & Chris! You have a beautiful family!
I had such a hard time narrowing it down to just these pictures! They are such a cute family! By the way, can you tell I prefer black & white? I always try to go with more color pictures, but there’s just something about black & white pictures that is so classic and beautiful. I can’t help myself!
Posted by Diana on Monday, July 7th, 2008
Last night, Jake, Andrew, and Dave spent their evening playing with fire. No, I don’t advocate this behavior. I don’t recommend you call these three to come teach a fireworks safety class. I’m just reporting the truth of what went on last night. While all of this was taking place, I was playing with long-exposure times on my camera. Way more fun…and safer. I’m well aware of the fact that that makes me a nerd, and I’m okay with that. In any event, some fun pictures resulted. I pulled the guys aside long enough to play around with it, too. Check out our fancy sparkler-art.
Notice that the “dot” for my “i” didn’t quite make it to the “i”…I tried.
You have to keep in mind that in order to accomplish this, a person must write their name backwards, in the air, with no indication of where their writing has been or where it’s going. It’s harder than it looks. I mean, just look at Dave’s name… :-)
Posted by Diana on Saturday, July 5th, 2008
These were drawn in less than a minute by Joe McKeever at a block party we had at Grace a month or so ago. They’ve been laying around the house since then, so I decided to share them and see what you guys think. So lets take a poll (please feel free to leave comments as well as voting in the poll):
Posted by Diana on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
I know this makes the second blog post for today, but believe me, it’s worth it. You see, today was VeggieTales day at Lifeway (where Jake works), and guess who got to dress up as Bob & Larry? Oh, yes… But don’t take my word for it, view the evidence yourself:
I found him doing a little shopping in the gift section.
And here he is…my husband, in all of his green glory.
The doorways at Lifeway are not Larry-friendly.
Transitioning…
And headed back out again…
Apparently the doors aren’t very Bob-friendly either.
I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. My husband just makes me so proud.
Posted by Diana on Saturday, June 28th, 2008
