stevenbush.org

thanks to uncle ronnie…august has his/her first basketball. i’m super excited…this is all making it very very real. this baby could be here very soon. i can’t wait!!!

so my sweet awesome mom flew into town this weekend for our baby shower. she came packing 2 huge checked bags & a carry on. the carry on was for her clothes, and the checked bags were full of stuff from our family back in texas. the aunts sent her bearing gifts because they couldn’t make the shower…many gifts to be exact. so we had a mini shower tonight with all of the stuff from the family back in Danbury. thanks to all of the aunts & great grandparents for the awesome gifts!

it’s been an awesome night with my mom. a great night of conversation, papa murphy’s pizza, some shiner, and winston lights (soft pack). i have to leave tomorrow to do road work with Groves…so this is a short visit for me with my mom. i wish the old man could have made it up as well…but he’s playing bass at his company picnic tomorrow. their celebrating 50 years of the company with nothing but 50’s music. wish i could be there to see that…i love 50’s music. miss you dad…see you soon.

here’s me & my girls.

i have had the awesome privilege of being friends with Zach Dodd for about 7 or so years now. i met him my 4th year in college…my first year at Houston Baptist University….i mean Houston’s Blessed University. we were both Biblical Studies majors, both like minded, both non-fraternity bound, both not really fitting in at HBU. we were roommates my last year at HBU along with some of my best friends Marcus & Kenny. It was an awesome year of dirty dishes, trash not taken out, clothes everywhere, people playing my acoustic in open-D without me knowing…all the while trying their best to pull off a lame Dashboard Confessional Song. good good times. times i will never forget.

Zach & I have remained friends over the course of the last 5 years. He now lives in Louisville with his awesome wife Carlie, and is attending seminary. Zach’s always had a passion for music, and even more of a passion for Glorifying God with that talent. This past fall i was honored to record a record with Zach. Me, Aaron, Jimmie, Guy , and Zach’s friend Patrick did most of the music on this record. It was a fun time that will not soon be forgotten. He recorded this record with a vision of using it to help raise money & using that money to build an orphanage in Uganda through his non-profit ministry called Beggartown.

I encourage you all to go check out his stuff on myspace. I know he has a CD release coming up in Nebraska, and he’s touring this summer. If you get a chance to go visit…i encourage you to do it. Help join Zach in building this orphanage in Uganda. Buy his record, buy a shirt, or just donate to his cause. they’re doing a great thing.

so…to much of my wife & my friends dismay…i’m growing the beard out. most of you are thinking…dude, that’s out far enough. well this is just the beginning. i plan on doing a bi-weekly update on this thing i call a beard. i’m not sure i can even call it a beard…because when i’m next to thebeardedwonder.org i look like a pre-pubescent 9th grader. so bi-weekly updates on the beard…hopefully i can make it to christmas. we’ll see how that goes. maris might cut it off during the middle of the night, or i might get tired of sweating like a fat A during the summer and decide to cut it off. as of now…it’s patience, shampoo, & conditioner. i can’t let this baby get split ends…that’d be a tragedy.

i don’t know what i’d do without this girl. she brings light to a dark day. always there for me through thick & thin. she’s my biggest fan. she does so much, and i’m forever thankful. i can’t wait to see her be a mom. she’s going to be great at it.

do you ever have those moments where you feel like you have a lack of confidence or a lack of skill in what you do? it could be anything from being a husband or wife…to being a teacher…to being a minister…to being a musician…to being an artist…to being a friend. i’m not sure why or how we get to these thoughts. one second we think we’re doing great, and then the next second we’re hating everything that we do.

some people call it being bi-polar…i’m not quite sure what i call it. i’m there this week. everything i write i think is crap…every photograph that i take isn’t worth the space on my hard drive…every thought that i have is wasted brain power. i’m sure tomorrow or the next day i’ll be fine…but for now this is where i’m at.

for the last couple of months i’ve been wanting to create a book about my trip to ethiopia. i want to take my photographs & use them to tell the story of the people there. i want the sales of that book to go towards building a water well in that village. i want the sales of that book to go towards building a school for those kids. i want to be able to bring people’s attention to the needs of this world through photography & written word. maybe it will happen someday…maybe soon. as for now…i don’t feel like i have the design skill or the confidence to pull that off. i’ve got lots of designers around me…i plan on talking to them about trying to get this done. hopefully in the near future we can get this rolling.

lack of confidence…lack of skill…ever been there? what’s your experiences? how do you deal with it?

i’m sure this guy gets about as many jokes about his last name as i do. it’d be awesome if he really did have the dunlap disease. hey larry…your belly dunlapped over your belt! haha…cheesy i know. i’m sure he has heard it.