Dog or Person?

Below is a video of Max, whom I really think is not fully dog. The video is almost 2 minutes long and gets a little slow in the middle but keep watching. Around 1:11 he starts snoring and it is hilarious! Of course, it's not so hilarious when he snores so loud that we can't sleep or watch a movie or have a conversation at normal audio levels. But we love him anyway!

Good Friends

As some of you know, I am participating in a project that has me taking one photo every day for a year. The project is aptly named 365Project and I am 152 days in. I am totally enjoying it because it stretches my creativity (something that I was born sorely lacking in) and I'm hoping it is making me a better photographer. The project had a contest last week where people entered photos that had a "Thankful" theme and then voted on the best. Guess what? I won! My photo titled "Thankful for Good Friends" won and even though I already showed it to you in my last post, here it is again.

I am so thankful for my camera and this outlet that God has given me. I love photography!

Opposites Attract

The past several years I have participated in NaBloPoMo, which for those not in on the lingo stands for: National Blog Posting Month. Basically bloggers all over the world commit to blogging every day for the month of November. I've really enjoyed it in the past. This year I did the complete opposite and didn't blog a single time during November. It wasn't on purpose, in fact, it didn't even occur to me that I missed it until today. Now that I have thought about it, I kinda miss it.

The reason for not blogging is simply that I have been crazy busy. I've been at a new job, moved to a new home, had a yard sale, had several dental surgeries, been caring for 4 dogs, wrenched my back, etc. But I've missed the world of blogging and I'm determined to come back!

Here are a few recent photos of my life:

Volunteerism

Tears

I believe my tears are like little pieces of my sorrow, of my pain that spill out of my body at times when my heart can't hold them any longer. At times they bring relief as the sorrow is released. At times they make the sorrow so much more acute because while some is released, older hidden pain is brought to the surface. In both circumstances I believe the tears are a gift from God and although I don't enjoy them, I am thankful for them.

83/365, Sugar

I took this shot while drinking coffee with friends one day. I love the brown coffee sugar that coffee shops provide here. And I love coffee even more!

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I have to admit that this was a last minute photo taken at the end of the day when I realized that I hadn't gotten one yet. I went to buy dog food and this cardboard cutout was on the wall above the food. I wish I had some sunglasses like that. :)

81/365, BFFs

I took this photo while Ya and I were waiting for our food at our favorite restaurant. I love her smile, it lights up a room!

80/365, Orange

Gotta love bright orange shoelaces! Don't they just bring a smile to your face? Unfortunately, I was looking for zebra print shoelaces...

79/365, Platforms

Not much to say about these except, "Wow, those are quite the platforms!"

Well that and, "Wow, those are hideous!"

78/365, Coca Cola

I have a serious addiction to coke. It's a problem that I am constantly trying to fix but the stuff is just so darn good! Actually, I should probably clarify that I am only a big fan of coke outside of the states. In Thailand (and in Mexico) they use different sugar and it makes it so much better!

Anyway, I took this photo because I liked that I could read "Coca Cola" in both English and Thai. It might be one of my favorites!

77/365, Pink Flowers

Another photo of flowers. I liked these ones because half of the blooms were open and half were closed. It had just finished raining, hence the water droplets.

76/365, Blurry Flowers

I was walking through my neighborhood one day taking photos of flowers and took this one. When I got home and uploaded it, I couldn't decide if I loved it or hated it. I did absolutely no editing but the colors were so bright and the only clear part of the photo is the center red flower. In the end I decided it was pretty cool. :)

75/365, Creepy Mannequins

Fact: Thailand has really creepy mannequins.

You can't tell so much in this picture but they are seriously creepy. First of all, they have crazy expressions on their faces that often include bright red clown mouths. Second, their hair is often rainbow colored. Thirdly, they are often missing important limbs. Overall, they creep me out.

This is my friend, Denee who was a great sport when I asked her to model next to the mannequins when we at the mall recently.

On a side note, I've known Denee for a couple years but just recently we started hanging out more and I am so blessed by her!

74/365, Max and BJ

I got this stuffed dog a few years ago from my friends Beth and Jenny. I recently brought it out and discovered that Max loves BJ! He plays with him, sleeps with him and drags him around the house. It is cute especially because they kinda look alike. :)

73/365, Aon and the Purple Flower

I went to lunch with Aon and Ya and while we were waiting for our food, Aon asked if she could borrow my camera. She came back with a beautiful picture of an open flower in a pond. I ran over to see it and in the couple minutes since Aon had been there, the flower closed. I was bummed but it was still pretty so I took a photo.

On a side note, the place where we were eating has the best fish! Fish is my favorite food and I could eat there every day!!

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Because of my strange work schedule, I rarely run into bad traffic here in Chiang Mai. However, the other day I was sitting in stopped traffic and browsing through the photos on my camera to keep myself occupied. I decided to take this photo of the driver's view of Suzy and liked the way the lighting made it turn out. By the way, Suzy is the name of my truck, due to the fact that she is a Suzuki.

On a somewhat related topic, I've been going crazy watching movies from the US lately. I've gotten so accustomed to driving on the left and every time I watch a movie, I think that they are on the wrong side of the road. It just seems wrong. My current stretch is the longest stretch that I've been in Thailand without returning to the states. I hope that I can make it back for Christmas so that my brain can readjust...

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After a busy day of making and delivering food with Aon and Ya for Soaring Cafe, I took this photo of plates that had just been washed. Not too exciting but I was drawn to the colors. :)

70/365, The Seatbelt Purse and My Love for Hilary

This is a close-up of my bright red seatbelt purse. The purse used to belong to Hilary and I used stare at it longingly whenever she carried it around. Then to my surprise, a couple years ago she passed it on to me. It is, by far, my favorite! The fact that it is super cute is not the only reason I love it though. I love that it reminds me of HIlary and how wonderful she is. Hilary is the kind of person who would give you the clothes off her back if you needed them. She is also one of the smartest and funniest people I have ever met, I honestly couldn't love her more! The following is a short version on my favorite Hilary story.

One day about five years ago I was at the beach with a bunch of friends. If you have ever been to a San Diego beach in the middle of summer, you know that there are literally thousands of people there. We were all hanging out on the little bit of sand that we managed to get for ourselves and Hil and I decided that we wanted to go swimming. We were walking down to the water when we decided to run the rest of the way and jump into the water. (Hilary brings out the kid in me.) Unfortunately I didn't see the large mass of seaweed in my path and I tripped over it while running.

I don't fall gracefully. Ever. And the sight of me falling in a swimsuit is probably very scary.

This was not just your regular trip, this was a full on body smack on the sand. It happened so fast that I didn't even have time to throw my hands out and break my fall. I remember laying there face down and thinking that at least 200 people just saw me fall. I rolled over just in time to Hilary running towards me, shouting "ahhhhh" as she fell down beside me. Her fall was obviously fake and she turned and smiled at me really big and said something about how maybe everyone would think my fall was fake also. Then she grabbed my hand and dragged me into the ocean.

Hilary is the kind of friend who is willing to completely embarrass herself in order to save others from humiliation. I love her!

We were in the water for almost an hour and upon getting out, I realized that the sand has taken almost all the skin off the front of my right leg. It was still bleeding pretty badly. At that point, Andy J through some seaweed at me and told me that I could have gotten us all eaten by a shark because I was bleeding in the water. The next day at work everyone asked what happened to my leg (it was pretty gross) and Andy told this great story about how I saved a child's life and got scraped up in the process. But I couldn't let myself be the hero so I told everyone what really happened and made Hilary the hero of the story, a place she rightfully earned.

Hil, this is one of many many stories of my love for you. You are still my hero!

Not Another Photo...

I realize that I've been posting a lot of pictures on my blog and some of you may be getting bored with them. I've started this project that has me taking a picture every day for a year and posting it. It is sometimes hard but I am loving it and it is totally stretching my imagination and photographic skills. To keep you guys interested, I've decided to start writing a little about the circumstances surrounding each photo. Maybe this will still keep you interested in my life and I get to keep posting photos! On a somewhat selfish level, I'm also thinking that is will be fun for me to look back over the year at the end and be reminded of my thoughts on each photo. So, please keep coming back and please keep commenting. Those comments keep me going!

Kitung Tam Mak!

I miss Tam mak mak loy ka. Just thought you all should know...

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Oops, forgot to post this one!

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We Have A Lot In Common!

Magic

Sandra's seen a leprechaun,

Eddie touched a troll,

Laurie danced with witches once,

Charlie found some goblins' gold.

Donald heard a mermaid sing,

Susy spied an elf,

But all the magic I have known

I've had to make myself.

-Shel Silverstein

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The Kind Of Leader I Want To Be

I've been thinking a lot about leadership lately and what kind of leader I want to be. Honestly, I'm a behind the scenes kind of a girl who is always behind the camera or back in the sound-room instead of on the stage. And I'm happy there but sometimes the life that I am living thrusts me into a leadership role and when that happens, I want to be a good leader. Whenever I think of good leadership, a certain memory comes to mind.

In 2002, I was a summer intern with Amor Ministries. A couple of the other interns and I decided that we wanted to read through the book of Acts together as well as daily readings from Oswald Chambers' "My Utmost For His Highest." We would meet every morning at 6am on the edge of the rock quarry where the Amor camp was and start our days in the Word. As interns, we were somewhat oblivious of the Amor staff. We knew there was a huge staff support making everything happen but we didn't have much contact with them. And when we did, we didn't blame them for staying away from us. Weeks of living in a tent on a rock quarry, with holes for toilets and bucket showers (which we could have used more often), left us smelling pretty bad so we kept to ourselves! :) We also knew about Scott and Gayla Congdon who started the ministry but they were a bit like superstars to us. One morning, I was sitting on a rock waiting for my fellow interns to join me when the 'famous Scott Congdon' walked up and sat down on a rock next to me. He asked if he could join us for our devotion time, which he did and then he spent some time in prayer with us. Afterwards, he told us all to have a good day and then he got in his truck and drove away.

This probably doesn't sound like a big deal to you but it was huge for me. That occurrence was a prime example of leadership to me. The bible always talks about Jesus being among the people during his ministry but so many leaders now-a-days stay hidden in their offices and never get their hands dirty. Scott was not one of those leaders, instead he followed the example of Jesus and worked amongst the people. I started paying more attention after that morning and I lost count of how many times I saw him 'getting his hands dirty' helping build houses or spending time with the families receiving houses.

This was one of the many reasons I applied to work full time with Amor and spent the following three and half years doing so. Soon after that morning on the rock quarry, I realized that Amor was full of leaders including Gayla Congdon, Wendy Johnson, Alon Banks, LaDonna Barron and so many more.

To this day when I think of leadership, I remember the morning when Scott Congdon joined a few very stinky interns on a rock quarry for a morning bible study. That is the kind of leader that I want to be.

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more photos

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more photos