The Cuteness of Baby Jude

I woke up really early on this particular Saturday morning and changed my Facebook status to "It's 6:20...think I'll go shoot a baby." Needless to say, the world was quite amused. I was definitely amused. 

I arrived at Baby Jude's apartment to find him just waking up, so in his little drowsy state we got some pictures and then he let me get the whole family involved and we ended up going for a walk around their apartment complex and were pretty excited about the spanish moss, a bench outside a little garden, the early morning sun,  reading a book and some lime green raybans. 

Two concerts in ONE WEEK

Last week I had the opportunity to go last minute to two shows, one at a coffee shop in downtown Tampa called Buddy Brew, and one at The Venue in Bartow.

The first I found out about very last minute and was headlined by a Canadian band called Lauren Mann and the Fairly Odd Folk. The second was a show that my friend David was opening for a girl named Kourtney Rea.

I really enjoyed both shows and got to do some video for the second. I love music and concerts are one of my favorite things ever, and I especially enjoy finding new music!

Here are some of the pics!

Lauren Mann and the Fairly Odd Folk

This is actually Joel Davis of Fistful and Ascend the Hill.

And from David's show, other performers included Anthony Lunetta, Steven Stanley, and Kourtney Rea.

A monk and the sunset

A week into my trip to Myanmar, our group arrived in Mandalay and pulled up to our hotel exhausted. Yet, regardless of our exhaustion, we climbed into the back of two smoke-belching rickety trucks that had been converted into taxis and ascended the mountain behind our hotel. Although the ride was not very long, the uncertain noises that the trucks made caused it to seem much longer than it was. We arrived at the temple from which we intended to watch the sunset and paid the camera tax. I moved to the railing and looked to the sinking sun as the billows of smoke from trash fires began to rise to cover the view.

"Hello, you speak english?" came a voice at my elbow. I turned and there were two monks with their bags and their english handbooks. Their english class had come up to the vista point to find tourists to practice their english on, and these two had decided to speak with me. We spent the entire 20 minutes working on talking about out families, our favorite music (one of them liked Lady Gaga), and small details about our lives. 

One of them asked me "What does it mean...Pigs will fly?" at which point I had to figure out the simplest way to explain this ridiculous bit of english to him, of course after explaining that it's "when pigs fly."

As the sun began to dip below the horizon, one of the monks began telling me that before he ever began talking to tourists he had never thought about how the sunset made him feel. He said "we do not feel these things." 

A few minutes later, we had a halt in the conversation and I watched the sun's quick disappearing act for a few minutes in silence. I turned around, elated, and the monk leaned toward me, excited and said "tell me, how do you feel?" 

and I said "wonderful."

Not only had I seen the sunset, but I had seen someone discovering the aesthetics of beauty.

Home and the fluidity of that concept

Dear friends, family, and whoever else might be reading this blog, ;)

If you haven't heard by now that I've moved to Florida, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? 

Just kidding, I'll tell you all about it anyway.

Last year sometime, way before most people even knew that this was an idea, I was entrusted with the knowledge that my Dad really wanted to return to being in full time pastoral ministry, and asked to pray for this. 

As the year progressed this stayed in the back of my mind and somewhere in my prayers, and when my parents let me know that a church wanted them to come, I got excited! I am always in awe of the way God works things out and answers prayers and arranges adventures for His children. 

A lot of people have asked me why I decided to move with my family, seeing as I had ministries, friends, and a growing business at home. My answer changes a little bit every time, but it really boils down to a few simple things. First of all, I love my family, and I think God really has placed in me a desire to be here to encourage them and love them during this transition. Also I don't want them to get all the fun of moving and being a ministry unit without me! ;)  So that is the ministry that I believe God is letting me be a part of right now and I am so excited to be here and getting involved in our new church and loving my family and the new church family He's brought us to. 

As far as business goes, I know it's not necessarily the SMARTEST business move, to pick up an endeavor that is only 2 years old and move it straight across country, but I have just finished an associate's degree in photography, and I am excited to take what I've learned from the past 2 years and put it all into a business that will have that experience in its formation. And it's all very exciting to me, I don't mind "starting over" because I know it's not completely starting over. 

So that's my new adventure! I'm getting to know the Tampa, Florida area, and getting excited about what God is doing, and about getting some photoshoots going!

Pray for us and keep checking back for new photos! ;)

<3 - Savannah

(and here's a picture I took of my sister on our 2 week Family visiting trip before we got to Florida)