I have been dong a fair amount of freelance work over the last several months, which has been really fun. I finally put up a website for myself, so I guess I am official now.

So, if you know anybody who needs design or video work I would be honored if you sent them my way.  I also really like equipping people to do things on their own, helping people figure out marketing plans and communication systems, and just asking people good questions, so there is a strong consulting/equipping side to what i do as well. The site is www.poolhouseblue.com.

As promised…a life update.

Well….its been snowing….a lot.

A couple weeks ago we took a short trip to OKC. We started at the whale….

and drove 66 to OKC. We try every year to take a weekend away and do some planning (thanks Russ), just looking at where we are in life, marriage, finances, life goals, stuff like that. Then make some plans and goals for the next year. It was a good weekend. We got to spend a lot of time together, and got to visit some OKC places like The Full Cup, Cuppies and Joe, Joe’s Addiction, and Shop Good.

And we visited the round barn…

We are still working at Garnett Church of Christ doing various things. I mostly work on web/print/video stuff, but I am also trying to do some long term strategic stuff, like helping to rebuild the tech team, find good planning system, and find a good member database/communication system. I know that sounds like about the most interesting thing you could possibly do, but i actually think its kind of fun.

Recently we hosted the African Children’s Choir:

If you ever get a chance to see one of their show go.

Beth has been working a lot for Chris at CQMissional. She can make a post about that sometime.

I have been doing a lot of freelance work, which I am really enjoying. Ill blog about it more some other day, i talk about it some on my other blog,www.poolhousered.com. If your interested. In big news though i actually made myself a business card last night and sent it to the printer. Now i just need a web site.

Beth got a letter press machine:

And i helped set up a balloon drop at the casino…

Random, yes, but that is what happens when your friend owns The Balloon Closet.

I guess one of the big things that has been going on is our small group. We had a great small group in Siloam, and we miss them a lot. Finding a new community of people takes time, so it has been really cool to start having some people around here that we can hang out with, share life, play games, and be friends.

That is about enough life updating for now. But in the spirit of posts all about us…

Breakfast…

and clean up…

(for the record, that omelet was not very good…i sort of overcooked it.)

Back in ancient times the blog was declared dead Of course, others disagree. I think it all depends on goals and context.

That said, this blog has fallen (once again), into neglect. There are lots of reasons for this, lack of discipline, facebook, twitter. I do at times find it strange to write a post about my life…im not funny, a best selling author, and i dont write about interesting stuff, so im not sure why people read, yet they do.

So, im going to continue doing personal updates (in fact, the next post will probably be an update), but i also want to start being a bit more reflective, just reflecting on tings that are going on around me. I think it is good for me to develop an idea in writing and put it out where people can see it. This is really just a good practice for me in terms of discipline. So, we will see how it goes, i want to expand the things i write about, marketing and business stuff will mostly stay on my other blog. This one will be more life stuff, probably not to controversial (although, next year when the Tulsa Holiday Parade rears its tinseled head…). We will see how it goes.

Of course, this is a two author blog, so Beth’s post will of course be mixed in as well.

Wondering how we’d sum up our 2010? How about a list?

We’re still enjoying the city life in Tulsa.

Ben started taking pottery classes. He really likes it!

We hosted some house concerts at our place. Jared Hard & Sara Swenson. You need to check both of them out right now.

(and while you’re at it go download some free music from Cass Harris.
We think all of these musicians are excellent & want as many people to know about them
[& fall in love with them] as possible.)

I (Beth) developed a perfectly normal (Ben calls it unhealthy) fondness for Topeca Coffee.
You need to check them out right now too.

In July we joined the rest of the family in Albuquerque to celebrate the life of Ben’s grandpa Troy.
A great man who lived & left a legacy of love & faith.

We went to a really amazing place called Dry Bones Denver in August.
We spent a week backpacking & delving deep into the city & getting to know the homeless youth
that Dry Bones does a great job loving & serving.
It was challenging on many levels & really wonderful at the same time.

I (Beth) turned 30!
(then)

(and now!)

In September we celebrated 7 really great years of marriage.
(There I am with coffee again…)

My friend, Leah, & I were accepted as vendors in the Indie Emporium.
We had so much fun & are making plans for more craft shows this Spring!  This is us at our booth. Stay tuned!

To really celebrate turning 30 I (Beth) went on a cruise with some really wonderful friends.
(That’s me in the floppy hat.)

And we closed out the year with the annual Ugly Sweater Party.
I didn’t get any pictures of the both of us, so this will have to suffice.

I am missing some important events, I’m sure. Like how Ben has started to freelance graphic design jobs. That’s been really cool. We’ve traveled some, eaten well, and have been enjoying where we are right now. It was a really great year, and we feel blessed to be where we are. And we are grateful for those that surround us.

I recently bought a new camera. I don’t need my old one any more, and really its not very useful to me anyway. It has a few problems, so i want to find a new home for it. Make me an offer and its yours. If your interested in it read this whole post! Remember Caveat emptor from way back in high school civics? It applies!

So, here are the stats:

Nikon D70 Body only (no lens)

battery, charger, strap, 2 1 gig compact flash cards (more on these later), nikon capture 4 and camera control, manual.

The problems:

I don’t know exactly what is wrong with the camera. It has some sort of issue writing to the memory card. It takes pictures fine, but they are corrupt when copied from the card to the computer (and sometimes you cant copy them at all, its like the files don’t exist, or the memory card cant be read). It actually seems to work fine on my mac, but not on several PCs I have tried. So, there is something wrong, but it might be that if you have a mac it wont matter. The two memory cards that are included might be bad (well…one I am sure is bad…I even wrote bad on it). However, it still has the same problem with a brand new card. So, bottom line is that you cant really use it to just take pictures with and copy them to your computer.

The Good:

Other then that (sort of critical!) problem it works great. Its old and well used (honestly this camera is a testament to the durability of the D70, it has been through a lot of years as a camp workhorse camera which means heat, humidity, dust, water, ropes courses, hiking, thousands and thousands of pictures…it served me well). It has some wear on the body, but nothing is broken. I had the shutter rebuilt several thousand pictures ago, but i have not had any issues with it recently.

So, why do I think anybody might want a camera that does not write to the memory card? Well…there are lots of people who like to make things work. If that is you then perhaps you can figure out what is wrong and how to fix it. Or you might need some spare parts for your old D70.

But really there is something you can use it for. It still works fine if you shoot tethered to your computer. If you have a computer that will run Nikon Capture and Camera Control 4 (it works on XP, i know it does not work on newer mac os, im not sure about vista and windows 7) you can plug the camera into your computer by USB (you will have to get a USB cable…its just one of those standard digital camera small USB plugs) and when you take a picture it will copy directly to the hard drive. You can actually control the camera from the computer, which is kind of freaky. So, for example if you wanted to do a time-lapse of something you can hook the camera up to your computer and tell it to take pictures at a specific interval. Or if you sell stuff on ebay or something and want to have a camera set up for product shots it would work for that as well.

So…i know that there are very few real uses for this camera, but i figure if somebody out there has a really specific need and my trusty D70 can have a second life its worth a blog post.

If your interested make on offer and its yours, just email or leave a comment or whatever.

For a long time I have thought that it wold be fun to learn how to throw pottery on a wheel. It’s kind of amazing that you can get some mud and suddenly it becomes a bowl. Turns out its a bit harder then that (goes more like this: get some mud, put it on the wheel, can’t get it centered, finally get going, mess up, start over, repeat. Make something you like, wait for it to dry, trim, wait for it to dry, fire in kiln, glaze, fire in kiln, hope it does not crack). I have been taking classes for a several months. I have actually made some real stuff:

I am really enjoying learning to throw, the process is good for me. It’s creative and does not involve a computer, its something i can practice and hopefully get good at…and its kind of like being a kid again.

There is actually a lot to write about the place where I am taking classes: 3rd Street Clay Works, it is a unique place with a lot of talented people. Ill write about it sometime….but for now I have other work to do. There is a post on my other blog about some marketing ideas for the studio if your into that kind of stuff.

By the way, 3rd Street has a retail gallery, if your looking for Christmas presents and want some unique handmade stuff you should drop by. The address is 1001 East 3rd Street, Tulsa. Say hi to Jeff (the owner), im sure he would be glad to give you a cup of coffee and talk a while. He might even convince you to come play in the mud.

Yesterday i walked out of the office at church to find this:

So..yeah…somebody just walked through the parking lot in broad daylight and smashed the window of our car. The pay off was huge for them. Im sure whoever it was will enjoy The Stringcheese Incident and The Listener  CD they took. And that tape deck adaptor from 1996 will come in handy!

This kind of stuff is super frustrating…time and money gone for nothing. I mean really, i would have let you listen to my cds if you had just asked!

The best part is that we did not even make it a year before we are having to fix (and pay for!) our car because somebody was mean.

I am looking on the bright side. While filling the police report I noticed that we need to renew our tags this month. If somebody had not smashed our window i might not have noticed. Then we would have gotten a ticket and thats not fun.

Yesterday i thought it would be fun to go on a bike ride (just to set the stage, we live on the second floor, my bike lives upstairs in the laundry room)…so i geared up…shorts, shirt, helmet, shoes, gloves, sunglasses. Walked out the door, got to the bottom of the stairs…no bike. Really, i walked downstairs without my bike…to go on a bike ride. So I went back up to get my bike. Water is nice to have on a bike ride so I grabbed a water bottle and filled it up. Walked out the door back downstairs, still no bike. At least I had my water bottle now. Back up the stairs. This time i made it out of the house with my bike…but really…i walked all the way down without my bike 2 times….in all my bike gear….to go on a bike ride.

I’ve been busy (read: taken over the living room floor) creating cards & trying to build up my inventory in preparation for The Indie Emporium later this month. I am SO excited to be able to participate this year!  Some of my recent fun crafting finds have been vintage postcards.  Like these:

(Please forgive the quality of the pictures!!!)

This one is Pikes Peak in CO.

And check out the back!

Did you catch that date, friends? Aug. 24, ’08. That would be 1908. This card was mailed 102 years ago!

This one just makes me laugh:

Do you see what I see? Right on the edge of this gold printed design…is a big reindeer butt! (Does anyone else think that’s odd?) This one was mailed in 1909. 101 years ago.

These cards are old! And I’m really excited to turn them into newfound treasures for someone at this show.

I created this as part of my Final Project for our CQ Missional 10-month internship. Today marks 1 year of living in Tulsa for us, & that seemed worthy of a little reflection.

It’s nearly impossible to sum up a year like we experienced in mere words…that’s why I used pictures for my Final Project. I wanted to mark today as special, so after church I walked across the street to Chimis, paper in hand, & satisfied my craving for Mexican food. And as I walked back home I was struck by a couple of thoughts.

1) I LOVE seeing the skyline from that Chimis parking lot. Love it. It’s maybe one of my favorite views of the city.

2) One year ago, after a long day of moving all of our belongings to the city, we went to dinner with some friends at Chimis. I remember feeling very odd that after a very normal moment of, “Hey-let’s go grab some dinner,” we just walked across the street & were at a restaurant. “Hey-let’s go grab some dinner,” usually involved a 15-minute drive into town. Walking home from that meal felt like we were staying at a hotel somewhere on vacation. Where you settle in to your room, and then walk across the street to a restaurant. And today, as I made that same walk, it felt fairly “normal.” I kind of like that.