She’s in kindergarten this year and learning fast how to read and write. I don’t know about you but I didn’t learn that stuff until first grade. Here it is

The funny thing is that you I can tell which letters the teacher has gone over with them because they are much better than the other ones. I’m sure you’ll need some translation so here goes:

Dear Santa

Bratz House
Mommy’s Gotta Go Doll
Princess Bedroom
Potatohead

Love Savannah

I’m not sure what some of that is, but I’m sure I will find out before Christmas!

Brett

I’ve lost count, but I believe 2007 marks the ninth year that I’ve created photo calendars for my family. Every year I scare them by telling them that I just didn’t make enough photos this year to come up with a good calendar. They never take me seriously and I have always managed to put thirteen photos (one for each month and one for the cover) from the year gone by into a calendar that they can enjoy until the next year.

Back when I started doing this, there were no online photo services and very few digital cameras, if any. The first two or three calendars were made by Kinkos. I would label the photos by the month and they would make color enlargements and laminate the photos and the calendar pages and assemble the calendars. Then as inkjets and scanners improved I started scanning my 35mm prints and printing my own enlargements for the calendars. I even did my own assembly by borrowing some time on the laminating machine and binder at my work. That was less costly, but needless to say the quality suffered.

This year I had plenty of photos. As you’ve noticed I have also been experimenting with Flickr and photo sharing online. My favorite online photo sharing and backup site has become Phanfare. More about them later. On Phanfare they give links to order prints, etc. One of the companies they use for printing is Shutterfly.

If you sign up with Shutterfly, they give you 10 free 4×6 prints to try out their service. I ordered my 10 prints right away so I could get an idea of their quality. If the prints were good then I wanted to give them a shot on this year’s calendar. I placed the order for the 10 prints and got them back in about a week. They looked great! I got busy right away uploading my calendar photos. I was able to choose special borders and even put in custom dates for the birhdays and anniversaries in our family.

My 2008 calendars arrived yesterday and I was beyond pleased! They did in fact look exactly like the Shutterfly previews, custom dates and all. No silly lamination here. The pages are heavy card stock with a nice white spiral binding and the photo results were of the highest quality. I like doing things myself, but there’s no way I could get this kind of quality doing the calendars myself. I can’t wait to see the reaction this Christmas eve!

If you’re looking for a printer, especially for calendars, I highly recommend Shutterfly.

Merry Christmas!

Brett

Time flies…..seems like yesterday that Savannah and I were in the back yard picking up walnuts. Here’s a photo of this year’s version of our annual “event”.

Brett

Today I’m learning to post from my Flickr account. I’ve been getting back into photography lately and I ran across this photo of Savannah from earlier this year. I just loved her expression in this photo so I decided to use it as the guinea pig of my Flickr posting experiment.

Brett

If you’d like more detail on the photos, visit my Flickr site.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

It’s called the Voco clock and instead of an annoying buzz or bell (which I HATE! -I use a radio clock) it features the voice of Steven Fry acting as your personal butler. He says things like “. . .congratulations for making it through another night suh. Let’s sieze the day and take it roughly from behind. . .as the colonel used to say.”

You’ll just have to visit the Voco Clock website and listen to the sample audios for yourself to get the full effect.

Here’s a photo of it:

I’m seriously thinking about getting one. If you like you can see a review here at TechEBlog.

I have fond memories of YEC back in my High School days, but the current crop of Christian worship leaders and bands is much better in my opinion. We heard Charlie Hall and Barlow Girl in two different sessions at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium. The 25 or so students as well as us chaperons definitely had a “Real Encounter” (the theme of this year’s YEC) with Christ. One of our youth accepted Christ as his savior. That made it worth all the lack of sleep and inconveniences of tagging along with the younger generation for two days!

My video shooting and editing skills have been improving and I plan to post a short video summary of the trip in the next week or so.

After reading several reviews of Video NLE (non linear editing) software I downloaded the trial version of Sony Vegas Movie Studio and was so impressed that I just ordered a copy from Amazon.com. Vegas is much better than Ulead Video Studio 5 which was an older version of another program that came with my new Firewire card. I completed our church’s Christmas Play video with the Ulead product and it did the job, but wasn’t very stable. With my still somewhat limited skill-set, Vegas Movie Studio seems to do anything that I could ever want and does it well. It runs rock-solid so far on my almost six year old PC. I’m sure the “full” version of Vegas adds many more features, but it will probably take me a while to master the Movie Studio version.

Anyway, sorry for going off on a tangent, but I’m really getting into shooting and editing video. I am planning to compile a video at the end of the year summarizing our youth group’s events throughout 2007. It will be fun exercise.

Having said that I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!  This is a special one for us since we have a three year old in the house.  We do believe in Santa Claus around here!

We’ve had a magical couple of days since I have taken vacation days to supplement the regular holiday days off.  Amy, Savannah and I have just enjoyed each other’s company along with some shopping, baking cookies and wrapping gifts.  Savannah is VERY aware of how Christmas “works” now.  Her favorite movie is Elf with Will Ferrell.  I think she watched at least most of it three times yesterday.  I’m a little bit tired of it but there are a couple of scenes that are funny. . .I don’t care who you are!

I have big plans for the rest of my time off.  Planning for 2007 is high on my list.  I’m happy but not thrilled with my personal growth in 2006.  Considering I didn’t HAVE a personal growth plan this time last year I guess I can’t complain.

All the best from our family to yours!

Brett Weaver

P.S. Don’t forget to start 2007 with a plan.

Jesus Christ prayed for ME individually and He prayed for YOU too. As He was facing His brutal crucifixion which would provide the bridge into an everlasting life for mankind he prayed for us.

Wow. I get chills each time I really dwell on this passage.
I just ran across an excellent commentary on this chapter from John. Here’s a highlight:

By the love of the Father, through the power of the Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus, we must revisit this prayer often and consider the nature of our faith in Christ; our hope for eternal life; and the love of God from which Spirit and Truth find their meaning in us. -Don Forss

Click Here to read the rest of the article.

I’m very thankful that I know Jesus as my Saviour. It is my prayer that you do too. Contact me if you would like more information on how to have the peace that only comes through a relationship with Christ.