Friends stop over to have their family portrait made.

Alpharetta, GA

My friends, Jason and Melissa Blalock, stopped by after we all went out to lunch. Several months ago I had promised them portraits of their new born daughter. After getting some shots of their beautiful baby girl, I brought dad and mom together with the two kids for a quick family portrait. They are a happy family. BTW - I think the reason that Jason was so relaxed for this picture was that he had just completed a half marathon run earlier in the day.

This is the Blalock's five month old daughter. I love the expression on her face.

Window shopping at the mall and where's the hair?

Alpharetta, GA

A mannequin appears to be watching my wife while she window shops at the North Point Mall. I still can't understand why those mannequins didn't have wigs on them. : )

X-rays reveal the damage to my son's right wrist.

Roswell, GA

Today my son Caleb sustained damage to his wrists during a freak accident while playing basketball. The picture above is of the X-ray which was made just after he was admitted to the orthopedic clinic. At this point the wrist was dislocated and needed to be set back into place. Several bones were broken. The other wrist also may have been broken, but the results of the X-rays were inconclusive.

Describing the damage.

Dr. John Mowbray references X-rays while describing the extent of the injuries sustained to Caleb's wrists.

Testing his circulation.

Caleb presses on his index finger to check for circulation. He must keep his arms elevated for several days. For now, he will be wearing a splint. In a week he will be put in a cast. The reason for that is to make sure that the wrist has not changed position during this interim period. In addition to the cast, it's possible that he may have to have pins or a plate put in to stabilize the bone.

Caleb takes it all in.

By now Caleb is overcome with the reality of the situation - no more basketball or guitar for at least six weeks. It will be hard for Caleb but I know that with God's grace he will make it through this. He was going to perform with the youth band during the Sunday morning service. There will be other opportunities, but for now he must take one day at a time.

Poking around downtown Atlanta.

Traffic lights frame a prominent Atlanta building in the background against a deep blue afternoon sky.

Micah stands in front of the CNN sign located in the building's lobby.

Old tree was cut down - count the rings.

Workers removed an old tree which once occupied a space next to the Mansell House at Wills Park in Alpharetta. The only way for me to convey the size of it was to shoot down on the enormous stump while standing near the edge.

Marathon man and friend signs one of his books.

Alpharetta, GA

Todd Starnes stopped by the Lifeway store in Alpharetta today to promote his new book entitled "They Popped My Hood And Found Gravy On The Dipstick." Todd is a friend that I haven't seen in years. He's currently a network reporter and anchor for Fox News Radio. Todd has been through a lot in the last few years - having survived heart surgery and the loss of both parents. In his book he shares how he went on to loose 150 pounds and complete the NYC Marathon. Here's the link to an article about Todd's new book: http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/bpnews.asp?id=29941 The title of the article is "Heart Surgery Yields Spiritual Lessons."

I should have known better than to let Joel borrow my camera.

The kid has a penchant for capturing moments (wonder where he gets that from?). Here he captures yours truly slurping down a root beer while brother Caleb acts up next to me. Three sons for a night out at Pizza Hut = fun.

It's nearly spring and even the weeds look pretty.
Alpharetta, GA

I love my little Canon G10 camera because it can get amazing close-ups of things - for example: this detail shot of a newly emerged dandelion. After viewing the image on my 20" iMac I went back outside to try and see the same detail the camera had recorded. Sure enough - as I squinted and stared at the flower, I could barely see the tiny "t" shaped objects in the center. My eyes were no match for the camera. I'll take sharp over fuzzy any day.

And then it snowed in Georgia......

It snowed in Georgia this past weekend. You know the drill - "storm team" weather forecasts, rushes to buy bread and milk at the supermarket, kids throw snowballs and one day of school gets cancelled even though there is no snow on the ground the day it's cancelled. It was fun while it lasted.

Now let's talk about real snow - how about the Blizzard of 1976-77 when there was 120 inches of snow that year in western New York State. I was a college student living at home and I remember shoveling every inch of it. Sometimes I would shovel my parent's driveway 3-4 times a day. High winds made keeping up with the drifts nearly impossible. There was so much snow that some side streets became impassable for two lanes of traffic. They didn't know where to put the stuff so they loaded it up and dumped it into Lake Erie - that was until Lake Erie froze over, then they dumped it onto the soccer fields at the local university. When May rolled around there were still piles of unmelted dirty snow on the playing field. That year folks were tunneling out of their homes in Orchard Park, N.Y. It seemed like the snow never ended. We all had "cabin fever" from spending so much time indoors. I bought a pair of snowshoes and enjoyed walking on top of the 6 foot deep drifts. My pet husky couldn't get enough of it. Now that was snow - just ask my back. : )