Hills Rolling

Hello again out there in cyber world! I just wanted to make a post about the new project I am involved with as of August 2008. It is called Hills Rolling. A great sounding band out of (near) Athens. The sound is pretty unique. Lead by Trey McGriff, the songs really hook into you and dont let go. I am thrilled to be a part of this project, and I cannot wait to play some shows. It has been too long! If you are interested in the music of Hills Rolling, please visit the website here! http://www.myspace.com/hillsrolling

REM

06. 21. 08 

ATLANTA, GEORGIA @ LAKEWOOD AMPHITHEATER

1. These Days 

2. Living Well Is the Best Revenge 

3. So Fast, So Numb 

4. What's the Frequency, Kenneth? 

5. Time After Time 

6. Driver 8 

7. Man-Sized Wreath 

8. Walk Unafraid 

9. Hollow Man 

10. Ignoreland 

11. Houston 

12. Electrolite 

13. (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville 

14. Auctioneer 

15. Harborcoat 

16. The One I Love 

17. I've Been High 

18. Let Me In 

19. Bad Day 

20. Horse To Water 

21. Orange Crush 

22. I'm Gonna DJ 

23. Supernatural Superserious 

24. Losing My Religion 

25. Pretty Persuasion 

26. Nightswimming 

27. Fall On Me (w/ Johnny Marr) 

28. Man On The Moon (w/ Johnny Marr)

Back To Work

Well that was a fun vacation (6/5/08-6/15/08). All I really did was sit around the house, chill out, sleep in and spend quality time during the day with my daughter, and the evenings with my wife. Sometimes its great to just sit around for a week. I had two weddings, and they were two of the hottest (temperature) weddings I have ever done. The first was on the 6th and it was 105 in the shade with 100% humidity. The other one was 96 in the shade with 100% humidity. Welcome to the sauna, oops I mean the south. But those weddings were fun, and I am glad things went well. After that, I relaxed and got caught up with stuff around the house. I am starting to sound like an old man! Today at work, it was a 10 hour day, nothing like jumping right back in with both feet.

Passed Another

For the love of God why did I have to have another 8mm kidney stone this weekend? Getting ready for a wedding Friday in the shower, I felt tremendous pain. Needless to say it made the wedding real fun to photograph (sarcasm). That was Friday, today, Monday, I passed yet another kidney stone as big as the first one. But this one was weird. No pain from the kidney to the end of the journey. Just pain at the end of the journey. Very, very strange. I was pissed to see it was 8mm (big as the other one). It looked the same, so I think it broke off the first one and stayed in my bladder until it felt like causing tremendous pain for a few days. I have now officially changed my diet, changed drinking habits, as well as other things. I cant go through this every few months and expect to live a happy life. If this is chronic, then surgery is imminent. Maybe this was the last one. They told me the best way to prevent them is basically to have a non-american diet. Not gonna happen! LOL!!

Vacation

Woo hoo!! Today is the start of a vacation from work. I am off until the 15th! Nice! Gonna be stressful when I return just because of back to school and setting all those planograms, but thats fine, at least I have some time to chill out a bit before the big back to school sets start! So what am I gonna do? Absolutely nothing. Sit on my ass all day, sleep, chill, and spend time with my daughter. Yep, I am pretty much staying home, and watching her and doing all the above. We could not coordinate vacation times between my wife and I so hers is in a few weeks, and she is doing the same thing. Later in the year we are planning another vacation, and heading to the beach when it cools off (if it ever does, thanks to global warming). In the meantime I am going to chill out, drink, play music, and have a grand ol time at home relaxing and sleeping in everyday!

Lightning

Up close and personal! I will tell you that I have never in my life experienced an event like what happened last night. Once again, violent storms left Alabama and headed right toward us. I guess Georgia is the new tornado alley! In any case, there was one storm I watched go from Rome, GA all the way to the house. It had softball size hail in it, violent wind, and heavy lightning. Olivia, Kelly and I just sat down to eat just before this monster arrived at our doorstep at 70 MPH. I just so happened to turn to watch Olivia, because she was choking on her drink (she is still a little sick from the other day). I was watching Olivia, glancing out the back glass door (which is nothing but a forest behind the house) when all of a sudden lightning hit a tree about 40' from the house. The tree lit up orange and purple, for about 1 second, it was quick. The thunder was incredible. The flash of light from the lightning was blinding but it was gone so quick you didn't notice the brightness really, if that makes sense. In any case, after that lightning was hitting all around the house, so we went to the basement. Just before I got to the basement, I glanced outside. Our houses are about 150-500' apart, small subdivision. I could not see any houses for the rain and hail, as well as the wind. Looked like a small hurricane. In about 30 minutes, the sun was out and it was beautiful. That tree is stripped of most of the bark, black in places, and I hope it doesn't fall. It was an old, old Water Oak. Lesson learned, don't ever seek shelter under a tree in a thunderstorm!

A Praise

Just wanted to let you know a miracle happened at 4:30 this morning here in Bethlehem, GA. Kelly and I were both abruptly awakened by a trememdous roar. The house was shaking, the floor was vibrating and the dishes were clattering. All we know is our parental instincts kicked in, we ran through the house to get Olivia. All of a sudden it was quiet again. A tornado touched down extremely close to the house. That is a sound you can never fully explain and one you will never forget in your entire life. I just want to tell everyone things are fine, no damage, but we have one heck of a memory on this mothers day. We understand now how fast these things are (even though I already knew from living in tornado alley for 24 years). If it would have hit the house things could have been very bad, since it took us about 30 seconds to run from both bedrooms. Absolutely no warning what so ever. Just wanted to say thanks to the man above!!

How Is One To Know

Quite a few times, since my angel of a daughter was born, I have gotten asked "why have you taken so damn many pictures of her?" I wanted to address this once and for all, even though I shouldn't, I will.

First of all I am a professional photographer. So when you have all that equipment, studio and available time to take some pictures, you do. Why not? Its free, and its always great to practice anyway (even though after 13 years I am still taking pictures and loving it). Second, I love photography, and photography of babies and children. Its actually how my photography studio got its start. Third, Olivia is not camera shy like most babies, so she will pose and let me try new things on her, before I try them on a paying client. Such as different poses, lighting, etc. And last but not least, I have, oh, about 5 pictures of myself as child. They were burned in a fire, and some were left in an attic to rot since 1978. So those pictures of me are gone forever. I only wish I had them today, so I could see what I was like, the things I did, etc. I guess I should make one more point, I LOVE MY DAUGHTER. Why not take pictures of her every day. She changes daily, just ask the few who are close enough to her to notice. I am documenting her life as she grows up. To those who criticize me for taking so many pics of her, grow up and get a life. 90% of the people who I talk to, agree with me. Take the damn pictures, you only get one shot at growing up.

This is all about giving Olivia what I never had. One of those, was images growing up of my childhood. Now she has them. Even if I wasn't a photographer, I would have taken over a thousand pictures a year. Maybe more because I would be experimenting with the camera, etc.

When I do hit my 10,000th picture of Olivia, I will smile, and take another 10,000.

On another note, I never could imagine I could love something so much. When she was born, I was forever hers! She is my little girl and I think the world of her. I thought to myself when I was taking pictures of her in the delivery room "how could you love something so much that you just met?" I am glad (and a few other people I might add), that I have those delivery room pictures. They are now, priceless. Documenting her through the NICU, those too are priceless images that we can show to her, and let her see just how bad she wanted to live, and be a part of our lives. She made it through the NICU, and into this world, the least she deserves is a daddy who gives a shit, and takes pictures and loves her so very much. I will give you a little clearer picture, the other say she wanted to go outside. I put my shoes on, took hers off, and walked around the yard with her. Except her feet were on my shoes as I walked, and we walked all over the place. It was beautiful and a memory I will never, ever forget.

One day somebody will thank me. Instead of criticizing me for taking pictures of my daughter. Oh yeah, shes mine not yours. Off to take another 100 pictures...

Weddings

My photography studio is leaving the wedding game. See my other blog for details. But basically, I am just tired of the weird events that seem to be happening to me every time I do a wedding this year. I am not the only one, most of my colleagues are fed up too. Looks like we all have to charge more, or leave the industry. I am taking a year off, and going back to doing portraits - where I got my start anyway. I have also created some new programs for portraits, as well as some new procedures. Its very exciting.

Smile Meeko

Here is the first picture ever taken of our new puppy, Meeko! He is a good dog!! We assume he was born in December 2007 or maybe January 2008. He is a Beagle. Yes he has that Beagle bark too. I still find it a miracle and amazing he was not run over by a car on the side of the highway. It feels great to save a life!

Jobs, Ears and Dogs Oh My

Instead of making a thousand posts, I will make one big one with all the news and events in it.

The first thing, is my wonderful wife surprised me today with something I will never forget. Lets just say there is a new addition to the family! I was pleasantly surprised! I have mentioned I wanted one for a long time, even before Olivia was born, and today I got it. Yep, at about 5 today she got home, and took me to one of her coworkers homes near here with our daughter. I got out of the car and walked around back to see a little 8 week old Beagle puppy. Kelly said "he is going home with us!" I was shocked, still am actually. His name is Meeko (after the Raccoon in Pocahontas - Beagles are coon dogs, lol). He is a sweet dog, and he loves his home. The quick and dirty story was someone threw him out on the side of a major highway here, complete with a house, dog food, toys, blanket, towel and other items. They literally threw this dog away, which was sad! I am thrilled that we were able to save a life today. Olivia loves him, but we need to teach him about babies, in a very safe environment - I have always had a fear of my child getting bit in the face by a dog, so we will be extra careful!!

I got a new job the other day as well. You can call this a career if you want to. I was hired on as a team lead (supervisor). They want me to get my 2 year degree and within 2 years, run the store. The store manager salary is amazing. So there ya go. Got a great job for once in my life.

The last thing, is I have a ruptured eardrum in my right ear. Nothing like waking up in the morning looking like you got murdered! Blood everywhere. Kelly confirmed it, and after cleaning myself up, looks like I have a few weeks to wait until I can really hear again out of that ear.

So there ya go. My news.

Severe Weather

Wow, I was working on the computer on the night of the 13th (last night), and Kelly came in and told me the roof of the Georgia Dome had just blown off! I was like, whaaaaatt! So I went in to watch the coverage on television. It was shocking, and I am sure there were a lot of freaked out people at the SEC Basketball championship too. One guy said he thought it was a terrorist attack.

We all later found out, that a F2 tornado did hit downtown Atlanta, and tore a 6 mile, 300 yard wide path. The scary thing, obviously, this was at night, so nobody could see it. I am surprised nobody died. Atlanta is huge, and has millions of people right where it hit. Amazing.

That wasn't all!

Today I woke up to a helluva storm. It was raining so hard outside you could not see out the window! I was thinking to myself, not me!

The day went well, until about 9AM when all hell broke loose in Georgia. Storms were racing out of Alabama at 60 MPH right for Atlanta. They were training, which means one red blob after another on the radar. One hit Atlanta, no tornado. One hit polk county, and it caused loss of life. Another one hit Atlanta and it too caused a loss of life. These storms were racing toward us. There was rotation everywhere, funnel clouds, baseball size hail, etc. I thought it was the end of the world. Then, one of those pesky things, flew right to the house. It was so dark outside I thought it was night. All of a sudden it rained as if you were in a hurricane. My wife, daughter and I ran to the basement, while the storm kicked ass outside. It lasted 10 minutes, and it was blue sky again.

After it was all said and done they estimated 300 million dollars in damages just to Atlanta. I have seen the footage, its sad!!

Thank God we are okay!

In Passing

Wow, all I have to say is I know the immense pain of passing a kidney stone, err, boulder. After about a year or so, I finally passed the big 8mm stone this afternoon. I have to say once it passed, it was like nirvana, no more pain, from the inside anyway! It hurt for a few minutes after, but now I feel pretty good. Knock on wood, hopefully there are no more fragments or anything. We are sending the stone off to be analyzed. I am going to have to alter my diet, and possibly take a pill for the rest of my life, but anything is better than getting one of these ever again. Thanks for all the well wishes while I went through this agony. I can smile again finally. Hopefully the picture at the left doesnt hurt you too much, but I feel I had to post it, just to show you what can happen if you drink too many sodas and not enough water!!

Getting Over It

Well, I am finally well after having a UTI, kidney infection, and bladder infection. It was so much fun I tell ya, lol. In any case, things are doing well as far as my health is concerned. I am finally back in the swing of things mentally and physically. I am now wearing myself out with other things. On another note my daughter is growing like a weed! She still can't walk though. One of these days she is going to surprise us all and take those steps without holding onto anyone.

Lovely

Dont ya just love being sick? Sarcasm moment there, sorry! Well, since I posted a while back about my extreme kidney pain, its been nothing but sickness and pain since. Here is what the deal was/is. I have a 6mm kidney stone, which probably caused a blockage. That in turn caused a kidney infection to set in. The kidney infection spread to my bladder, which created a UTI/bladder infection. So I have three things wrong at the moment. The kidney stone continjues to be painful, so its a big painful mess I am in right now, not fun at all. The only thing keeping me from going insane is the antibiotics and pain medication to help cope. Other that all that stuff, I am doing fine! Thanks for checking on me!

Limbo

Ok, the pain is almost gone from my kidney. It will still hurt on occasion for only a few hours. SO I dont know what the deal is, or where it is. I have to go to the doctor soon to get things checked out on it. Until then, thats about all of the kidney stone news.

Pain

So monday of this week, I woke up in extreme pain in my back. I knew right away what it was, my 6mm kidney stone acting up again. I have been carrying around this thing for a year now, and its aggrivating when it hurts off and on. Well, monday was the worst pain I think I have ever been in, in my life. Felt like literally being stabbed, I could not lay down, sit down, walk, nothing. Not to mention throwing up 15 times in the course of 3 hours was a real blast! Thank God I have an awesome wife to the rescue. The doctor she works for heard the commotion on the phone, and prescribed a pain medication to me, as well as an anti nausea medication. On her lunch, she spent her last 30 bucks on me, rushed home, gave me the medication, and told me to sit still. I did. This was 11AM. I didnt wake up or move until 6PM. So the drugs knocked me out.

Tuesday the pain was still there, but not as bad. I thought I passed it, but I was wrong. I took a few pain pills, and went on with my day.

Wednesday night, on the advice of my wife and her nursing knowledge, I took a pain pill, and drank two 16oz beers, provided generously by my father in law. Thanks, they were great! I watched some old Led Zeppelin, Def Leppard, and Rush concerts on DVD, and kinda enjoyed the moments of no pain. I got tired, and went to sleep.

Now that I am sober, I am wondering why two beers of that size, didnt send me to the bathroom, like they should have, to help pass this damn thing. I didnt even visit the 'room once. So I cant help but hope there is not a blockage. Interesting.

Snow In Georgia

As everyone across the country knows by now, we got a whole inch the other day. It was beautiful to me, since I have not seen the white stuff since I left Colorado back in February 2004 (it snowed two feet that night, and it was hell leaving the next day). No, this was not two feet, but it was just as pretty, and just as thrilling. Living in Georgia, we don't see it that much, so when it does come around, people walk outside in amazement, the news runs emergency storm coverage all night complete with a radar loop at the bottom right of your television screen. But in the few hours it snowed here, I was a kid again (image at left was taken during the height of the snow, the blizzard moment, lol)! Its amazing what one little inch can do to someone who loves snow as much as I do. I don't know why I love it, I just do. Growing up in it, it always reminded me of the changing seasons, the holidays, and the new year. Its a comfort thing I guess. As I sit here, and watch the weather yet again, they are predicting 1-3 inches tonight and tomorrow. That will be wonderful. I am surprised the convenience stores still have food on the shelves. I think it is great how people down here are in awe at the snow. Where I grew up, it was often heard "awwww man, we are gonna get another foot tonight? Geeeez." I love my home state, especially when the ground turns white if only for a few hours with the lumpy rain.

Birthday Party

Birthday party number one was a wonderful time for me personally, and for my wife and child. Olivia had a blast, and it was so fun to watch her open her gifts and kiss most every one of them! She also had fun eating (and wearing) her first birthday cake, complete with pink icing! Kelly made a caterpillar, similar to the one found on the Baby Einstein stuff. It was a good time had by all who came out. I saw some people I never thought would be there (due to distance), and wishing some would have been. I didn't get to take any photographs, but I did get some awesome video! Thanks to everyone for the presents, and coming out to this once in a lifetime event, all for miss Olivia. You are all loved!

On a side note, but important note, Olivia is just about over her illness (RSV)! She is a strong little girl. Its kinda weird, she came into the world with breathing issues, and celebrated her first birthday with breathing issues. I am thrilled to say that she is worlds better! Woo hoo! You go girl!

Happy Birthday Baby

Well, we made it! Olivia is one year old today!! My little princess! If you would like to wish her a happy birthday you can do so by adding a comment!

Happy birthday sweetheart,

Daddy

Olivia & RSV

Well we all knew it would eventually happen, my daughter's first sickness, its a virus called RSV. She is getting better by the day, and is doing well, but we still ask for your prayers and support to get her better. I hope this is over soon, its already been a week and her birthday is tomorrow! Anyway, keep her in your thoughts please. Thanks!

Happy Freakin New Year

Finally! A new year! Hopefully a new us for Kelly and I. We have been through hell this past few months with my job situation, money, and general tenseness between us about everything. Marriage is funny sometimes. Here is to a new beginning, and a new start with life, and raising our child to be a wonderful member of society. I am still in shock that I actually have a daughter, and a wife. I never thought I would.