Hi! You're probably wondering what on earth the photo with the acrobats is for. Well, I've spent all day--and I mean ALL day--uploading photos to Photo Mission, an organization of photographers of whom I am a member. They're requesting photos of China for a particular project which deadlines April 1. Whew! I just made it. Anyway, these are two images from the hundreds and hundreds I took when I was there in October of 2005.

I really hope I get a few photos selected for the project; it pays $25 per image. I uploaded 40.
This is the Mekong River. A might sight to behold! Man. Talk about feeling like a hobbit!! We sure did.

I can't believe it's been nearly two years since we went to China. That trip changed my life. Last year's trip to Turkey was very similar. How? I've never felt as close to God as I did on those trips. My ability to hear from Him and pray His words over situations, situations involving people I'd only just met, was incredible! So one can imagine the level of anticipation I have for returning to Turkey this June. I've got almost $800 for my plane ticket; the whole $1700 is due May 1. My car needed a few minor repairs this week so I had the fun of taking care of that, but really I was unconcerned. Ah, the tremendous peace that comes from having a mechanic you can trust!! God bless you, Gary Becker.

We were supposed to go camping this week but sadly, it's raining. Yup, still raining! Oh and I found a huge field of bluebonnets!! I can't wait to go photograph it! Remember when I said all that yuck and ice and rain in January would be worth it? Well I was right. :) Look later for photos!

Have a great day! --Rachael

Hi again,
Here's a fun thing I put together Friday and today (Monday) in about 3 hours' time. I'd slaved all week on the new WIM display (see previous post) and had an hour left at work on Friday afternoon. What to do? Nothing to read, no email to check, nothing.

Suddenly this idea dropped into my head: Advertising for the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) in a fun, Old Navy--style way. If you've seen a t-shirt from Old Navy, you know what I mean. I'd gotten some cool fonts from Font Diner, and Googled some fruit photos, and voila! The finished product. I got the wood texture from Mayang.

I'm tickled over the whole thing; definitely was a divine inspiration and I'm not sure what to do with it now, except print a few for myself and friends, maybe. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it, too.

We had a great weekend: Friday night Hannah and I went to Grace and Julie's for Texas Hold 'Em. Girl poker! Gotta love it. What is "girl poker?" Instead of beer and cigars, we had milk and cookies (macadamia nut) and when Courtney ran out of chips, Julie just popped open the case and gave her some more. Hannah was winning for a long time but then I smote them all.

Saturday Lanier and Hannah and I went to Zach and Cheri's for pizza and Scattagories. We tried playing Trivia Pursuit but none of us knew any of the answers. We gave up after 15 minutes.

Sunday after church we played tennis!! My legs are still sore from all the running around. Lanier worked with Hannah for about 30 minutes, while Grace and I had a semi-decent game, then she played him while Hannah and I acted like the little kids you see dart across the court, snatching dead balls during real tennis matches. It was fun. Oh and I DID make those calzones. (Whole-wheat flour worked great, Mom, they were perfect.)

We're listening to a new CD--if you're interested in some good music, check out Jason Morant. He's pretty awesome!

Have a great week,
Rachael

Hi (Insert Your Name Here)!

It's been a long week. A good week, but long. I've been struggling to come up with a design for a new WIM display. This week I was really under the gun; my boss needed to take a hard copy with him to St. Mary's, GA, to show the directors at their semi-annual board meeting. Yikes! I had nothing!

I love it when I share my challenges with folks; they pray immediately for God-inspired creativity! And I think it works. I'm sitting on this pretty design right now and Steve's taking it with him to Georgia. Am I 100% satisfied? I dunno. I like it pretty well and I guess I'll chew on it over the weekend...the thing is, I have to like it enough to want to gaze at a 5x5--foot version of it for the next three years at least.

In other news, Hannah had a meeting last night at her school concerning Electives next year for 7th grade. I was pumped: this is when the fun begins! Now that she's familiar with middle school and learned to handle the stress, she can get into Theatre, Yearbook, even Highschool Spanish! I'm pushing her to do Spanish; it gets her highschool credit and a jump-start on learning another language. And Mom can learn along for FREE. Que bueno!! Hannah was interested in Life Skills (translation: Home Ec) but realized Grandma teaches her all kinds of stuff during the summer when she goes home so she put that one low on the list. Same for Art.

TURKEY: I'm gathering funds for Turkey in June; so far I'm $680 into my goal of $2500. The biggest deadline is to have $1700 in by May 1 for airfare. In preparation, I've been taking Farsi (Persian) lessons in Austin on Saturdays and also reading whatever books I can find on the Middle East. Currently reading "The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East," by Robert Fisk, a British journalist who's covered the M.E. for 30 years. This is not light reading at all!

I've taken some photos of Hannah holding Izzy, her parakeet, and they're quite lovely. I'd like to try and paint one of them...

We'll be home in GA for a long Easter weekend. It's my BigMama's 90th birthday and the whole Nutt clan is gathering from the four corners of the U.S., even as far as Alaska. It'll be the first family Egg Hunt I've ever seen with extended family (it's BYOB, "Bring Your Own Basket") and I'm delighted to be at New Covenant for Easter Sunday. Hannah's counting the days til she sees all her grandparents and her best friend, Megan.

Plans for the weekend? Not much. Prob'ly hang out with friends, vacuum my car, make calzones and rent a movie. It's too rainy for outside stuff and we have no obligations this weekend!! A first in a looong time.

Have a nice weekend yourself.

Peace,
Rachael

Here's my latest drawing. I did one of Hannah two days ago, but we were in a hurry to get to her dance class on time and she was really impatient, so the drawing was pretty terrible. I liked the pose she did though, so I asked her to repeat it. This drawing is better, but I'm not happy with the black areas behind her--I think they flattened the image instead of pushing the figure forward. Oh well. Maddie was there, watching, and I think it sort of made Hannah uncomfortable so again, she was in a hurry to be done.

I hope to do more drawings on Saturday. Tonight is "Cinderella" and call is at 6:00pm. Three more shows and we're done!

Have a great weekend.

"Cinderella" opens this Friday night at the Brauntex Theatre! Hannah and all the other children have been working HARD in rehearsals. These are a few photos I snapped during dress rehearsal this past week. I got to paint the pumpkin coach!! Isn't it loverly? I didn't do the "wheels" though, my new friend Julie did them.
Here's Hannah with the Sweetest Lil' Pumpkin you'll ever meet! Her name is Summer, and she is 3 years old.
Cinderella at the far right, with the Fairy Godmother, after she's spun her magic.
Hannah, a beautiful Townsperson, greeting Prince Charming and the King during the ball scene.
Expressing indignation over the ugly Stepsisters fighting for the Prince's attention.
Everyone freezes in place while the Stepmother and Stepsisters sing a song.
Ball scene: dancing the waltz for the Midnight Minuet.

More photos to come! Say a prayer for tonight's opening show! Hannah got on her bottom braces yesterday (Thursday) and is in a lot of pain. "Cinderella" runs this weekend and next weekend, too.

Howdy, y'all! The weather here has been so wonderful! Hannah had spring break all last week so I took Thursday off. We, along with Grace and Madison (little next door neighbor) went hiking at Enchanted Rock! It was a blast.

Yesterday (Sunday), I had a free afternoon while Hannah was at rehearsal for "Cinderella." My good friend Cheri just bought the Canon 20D and was anxious to try it out. I grabbed my 10D and the three of us (Lanier included) went to a sort-of run down area of New Braunfels near the Guadalupe River to shoot pictures. The buildings are really interesting and great for portraits! We had 2 cameras between the three of us so I'll try and keep photo credits straight. The photo above of me was taken by Lanier.




He also caught this one of me and Cheri, checking out a pic she had just taken.

This one of Cheri is mine. I overexposed it slightly to blow out the white wall behind her and jazzed the saturation in Photoshop.


Lanier took this one of us in front of the whole warehouse. Cool place, huh?!
This one's mine!

Cheri captured this one with her 20D. I like it a lot! Her camera lets her shoot in B/W. Mine can't do that. :(


But this cool one is mine. Lanier said it's really hard, to be so beautiful all the time. ;)

And I got this one, too.

I'll post photos from Enchanted Rock in a day or two; I've run out of time! Hannah's play "Cinderella" opens this weekend and runs 6 shows: Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday matinees. They've got rehearsal nearly every day now and I've been helping with the set! I got to paint Cinderella's carriage! It's so much fun!

Have a blessed day,
Rachael