Happy Thanksgiving

Just wanted to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. Be safe and enjoy your day.

My new Jeep

I had to share pictures of my new TJ. Pretty sweet huh. I'm ready to fight all these fires here in Southern CA.

New cell phone

I finally got a new cell phone. I didn't think I would like it at first but it's turning out to be a nice phone. And of course, it has a camera:) Stephanie didn't think I would use it. What camera don't I use?

Sabbath Afternoon

This past Saturday a few of us drove up to Camp Cedar Falls. It is on the way to Big Bear for us, just past Angelus Oaks. We wanted to go for a hike to the apple orchard, but didn't make it and it's a good thing since the rain rolled in on our way back down the mountain. But it was nice to get out. We don't have the fall colors that some places but our's will do. I will start off by showing you some nature photos. I just got a new lens and I had to try it out. Yes there are a lot of them but I couldn't narrow it down to just a couple. I will have to break it up into a few entries.

Gotta love a happy log.

Nature continued

Nature continued...people edition

Nature continued...people edition

These last two are actually back at the Henry's but I had to throw them in.

Daisy

Here is a recent photo of my dog Daisy...dirty nose and all.

Another quote

I'm not sure who said it, but I pulled it from my friends myspace page...Michael Tucker. Maybe you can tell me that author Mike...was it you? :)

"Never refuse an invitation,

never resist the unfamiliar,

never fail to be polite and never outstay the welcome.

Just keep your mind open and suck in the experience.

And if it hurts, you know what?

It's probably worth it."

Marianne Williamson

I have seen this quote on a couple other blogs and figured I would pass it on to those that read here. You can view those other blogs at Captivating Studios and at Mike Colon.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us most.

We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and famous?’

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won’t feel insecure around you.

We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.

And when we let our light shine,

we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,

our presence automatically liberates others."

~Marianne Williamson, American author and lecturer

Arrested

It won't bring the firefighers back, but hopefully they have their man.

Raymond Oyler

And he even lives in my town. That should make me sleep well at night.

Halloween

Last night, Isabella and Aidan went trick or treating together. How cute are they?


I hope everyone had a fun but safe Halloween.

And on a sweeter note

One of the best parts of the holiday season...

Whenever State Bros. gets Dreyer's Limited Edition Peppermint in, we have to buy it. Usually they only have one half gallon left, but last night they had 5 so I had to buy them all. Peppermint is definitely better than the Apple Pie, but it's ice cream so it will do:)

Notice the frozen veggies are behind the ice cream. I think our parents brought us up in the right way.

Thank you Engine #'s 4170, 4172, and 4151

Saturday afternoon, Stephanie and I took the Jeep out for a drive to check out the fire remains. We drove on some dirt roads very close to where the fire had been burning a couple days earlier. We came to a house that had a special message for those brave men and women that did all they could to keep their home standing.

You can see just how close the fire came to their home.

Even though my home was in no danger, I want to thank the many, many firefighers that helped save so much.

They lost four at the Esperanza blaze

I went out last night at about 10:00 p.m. to see the fire near Palm Springs. If you have seen the news or looked online, you have probably heard about it. They are calling it arson and has already killed 4 firemen. With the Santa Ana winds blowing, it does not help. It was pretty bad while I was out there, I can't imagine having to fight a fire under thos conditions. When they have fires out our way, all the firemen set up camp around town. Right now they are a couple miles from our house. Along with all the firemen, there are plenty of news trucks. I think there are more news crews around this time because of arson being an issue. There is a $100,000 reward out for the person who started it. If he/she is caught, they will go to trial for murder. I can't imagine what the families are going through right now. Please remember them in your prayers.

I did take a few pictures of what I could.
This last one was my favorite. I just like the barbed wire in front of the fire.

You can read more about the fire on CNN's site.

Someone had a birthday

My niece, often pictured here, had her first birthday this past Sunday. My how time flies. It seems like only yesterday we were rushing to the hospital for our wait to catch a glimpse of this cute little bundle of joy. And now she's growing so fast.
As you can see, it was a Hello Kitty party. I heard she didn't put the Hello Kitty items down at the store so the decision was made.

She loved her Dominoes pizza...
and couldn't get enough A&W Root Beer. She wanted more, more. Actually pronounced by her as mo, mo.
And then there was the cake. And a good cake it was.

She got majorly spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa...talk about a full wardrobe. And she got a box of legos from her daddy. I think he will be playing with them more than she will.

Happy Birthday Isabella!!

Nothing much

I don't have anything much to write so I will just say hello to everyone reading this. I hope you all have a great week.

I will say I just started a new book, it's called The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. If you have any thoughts of starting your own business, read it. I'm only on chapter 5 but it puts things into perspective. On a side note, Michaels' business is in my home town of Santa Rosa, CA. Just had to add that in.

Palm Tree

Coming to work this morning, I saw some guys trimming palm trees. I have never seen anyone do this on a palm tree. They just seem to weak for this to be safe. There is no way you would ever catch me up there.

Picnic with the Church

We went on a picnic after church on Sabbath. We had quite a group. It was such a nice day to be outside. Here are a couple photos from the day.

Scott and Amber start it off right

My friends Scott and Amber of Life Unscripted Photography participated in their first fair this past weekend in Atlanta and started off with a bang.
They have taken some awesome photos over the past few years and I wish them all the best. Congratulations you two, you do great work.

LLU Campus

Stephanie had to work late last night so I took the time to walk around campus and take a few shots of various buildings.

This is the School of Dentistry building.

This is where I work.

This is the Loma Linda University Church.

And this is the Loma Linda University Medical Center. This is where amazing things happen.

California fires

As some of you know, we had a few more fires this past weekend. Two of them were within 5 miles of our house here in Cherry Valley and Banning. One was on Saturday and the other one was on Sunday. I was working in the yard when I noticed the one on Sunday. I had to run to Home Depot to pick up a few things so I took my Nikon with me to see what I could capture. There was a lot of traffic so there was plenty of time to snap some pictures while in the Jeep. The smoke was crazy because of the Santa Ana winds which made for a really cool looking sun. I pulled into a development to take the first couple. All I had was my 50mm so I was a little limited on the amount I could get in the frame. Anyway, here is what I got.

You can see how the wind was blowing in these first two.

Who needs a fisheye lens when you have KC Daylighters :)

Thank you to Garrett Nudd for posting about reflections. Once you start looking for them, you do see them all over.

You can see some of the traffice behind me as the fire trucks rush past.

This is one of my favorites. I just really like how it turned out.

I believe 2 houses were destroyed this weekend but the fire fighters did a really good job at keeping the flames contained. Our neighbors sister and family had to be evacuated on Sunday but I think they were back home by Sunday night.

Anaheim to Newport Beach

Sabbath afternoon, Duncan and Stephanie wanted to ride along the Santa Ana river to Newport Beach. So we drove to Anaheim and I let them off at the Arrowhead Stadium at about 4:20.

I drove down the 55 into Newport Beach and drove around a for a while then parked near the beach so I could get some pictures. I walked along the beach for a while and watched a guy fly one of those really big kites, like 20 ft long or something like that. There was also a wedding on the beach. It was pretty cool to see all the attendants dressed in off white. There were only a handful of people on the beach so it was a perfect time, other than the wind.

At about 6:00, Stephanie and Duncan met me at the beach. They rode about 18 miles in under 2 hours. I was pretty impressed. Look at them, they don't even look like they broke a sweat.

There were no lifeguards on duty, except for one driving around in a truck, so there was a lot of this.

We walked down to the water so they could see how cold it was. We didn't stay long before we headed back home. All in all, it was a nice afternoon with pretty much perfect weather.