Please Pray

Please pray for Matt.  He will be having nasal surgery tomorrow.  I will keep you posted on his condition.

-Ashley

Jordyn Marie

After 3 long weeks, I finally got to meet my new neice, Jordyn Marie.  She was born Monday, May 17, 2010 at 10:27 CST.  She weighed in at 6lbs, 12oz and was 19in long.  Enjoy her awesome beauty!

-Ashley

Health

If you have a broken arm and you don’t seek medical attention, are you healthy? And if you are constantly cheating on your spouse and you do nothing to end the extramarital relationship(s) and nothing to restore your marriage, is your marriage healthy? Then you cannot have a healthy relationship with Jesus when you have a blatant unrepented sin in your life. I’m not talking about struggling with sin…we all do that. I’m talking about accepting something that the Bible clearly points out as sin and not doing anything to change it. A broken arm and infidelity do not equal health. Why do we think sin can?

-Ashley

Garbage Plates… Oh Yeah!

Dunno if any of you have ever heard of a garbage plate, but it’s a staple in Rochester, NY, where we used to live.  I’ve been having cravings for them like crazy lately, so here is my home made attempts. It was awesome!  I made the beef hot sauce from scratch.

Here’s the garbage plate pre-sauce. It’s a bed of fries and mac salad topped with meats of your choice (burgers, dogs, chops, etc…).  I have two cheeseburgers.

Here it is w/the beef hot sauce topping.

And here it is post-Matt.

In the ongoing battle between man and food, food won…  But I gave it a valiant effort.

-Matt

Coffee With A Canine

I’m so excited.  A few weeks back, Matt and I were interviewed for a really cool dog blog called Coffee With A Canine.  It’s a blog that interviews creative professionals about their dogs.  It’s really cool and I am so excited to be a part of it.  To read our interview…click here.

-Ashley

Crazy Sunday

What an insane Sunday.  First, the service at 4 Corners was freaking awesome!  The message was about freedom and during the service, the worship pastor actually got a tattoo.  His tat is the Greek word “Faino” which means “to shine” or, more literally, “I shine”.  There was a lot of truth spoke with boldness from the lead pastor (who is certain he will be receiving some angry emails this week!)  And the music was incredible (as always.)

Then, I come home and hop on Twitter.  Next thing I know, Peyton Manning himself replied to my tweet.  Freaking awesome!  Just another example of how tiny our world is becoming.  I’m a fan.

Now let’s see what the rest of the day brings…

-Ashley

Amazing Story

The following story comes to us from Adam Waters, a dear and trusted friend.  If I didn’t know he and his family personally, I might have some doubts.  But having a very close relationship with the entire Waters family, I assure you that what you are about to read is true.  I want to share it with you because I think it is an amazing testament of God’s powerful hand and proof that the battle happening in the spiritual realm is closer to us than we usually realize.

so Corrie couldn’t stop coughing last week. So I laid hands on her and she finally slept through the night & is on the road for recovery. Then, when we were praying for Zeke to get better, I kept getting a crazy pain in a certain part of my lung. Then, when he went to the Dr’s and they found the pneumonia, he had a black mass of infection in the exact spot where my pain was. Then, at bootcamp we prayed lots for people and saw God move people to new horizons and many to tears. Next, we went to baptisms at the Danville campus and one of the girls who we were laying hands on afterwards (FYI-like 6 people were immersed during first service we were at and they had MORE second service. Praise God!) totally got shaken by God. Here joy was so apparent and she was so filled that the tears and laughter completely were incredible to watch. God’s gonna turn that girl into a huge light for her college campus. So, when we got home after 3 days away at bootcamp, we were not ready for spiritual warfare… though we should’ve been.

The kids were cranky, but Zeke was almost unbearable. I had to carry him to the car screaming. We just chalked it up to 3 straight days at gma’s and angry at parents. When he didn’t stop screaming for half an hour, Corrie was like this is inhuman. Sam and Ethne seemed a bit freaked out by his behavior. When we got home, I took him straight to his room and closed the door. NOTE: we have not been yelling but have talked calmly with him the whole time. I asked him to take off his shoes and coat, which he refused to do, yelling as loud as he could in a voice I didn’t recognize. I removed his shoes and hung up his jacket, then began to pray. The screaming got louder. I asked Zeke to tell me his name, at which point he yelled louder and said, “NO.” Then, I asked him “in the name of Jesus” to tell me his name. He then screamed louder and said “get away from me.” Then, I began to pray in tongues and asked the Spirit to come, which really agitated him. When, I place right hand on his forhead and my left on his heart and prayed “in the name of Jesus”, he screamed 3-4 times, “I WILL NOT LET HIM GO!” in another voice and began to punch me 12-15 times in the face screaming “I WILL NOT LET GO!” several more times. After 10-15 minutes of prayer like this, he calmed some and I embraced him and once again began to pray in tongues over him. He got violent for about 30 seconds, then the Spirit broke through and I began to weep. After this, I began to ask him his name several more times. At about the fifth time, Zeke finally answered and said his name. He told me he was tired and very hungry… to quote the scriptures “he was sitting and in his right mind. (Mark 6)”.

So now, I am tired and thinking a nap is in order, but not without leaving you with one more note. After all of this happened and Zeke was “himself” again. I began to wonder where the demon might have gone. So, I prayed against it bothering the rest of the house and agaist it bothering Corrie, me, Sam or Ethne. Then, on a whim, I prayed it wouldn’t bother the dogs (see pigs in Mark 6). Upon the moment of me praying this, Bart (our younger-larger black lab) vommitted imediately under the table, ran into Zeke’s room and vommitted again, then ran to the back door and puked once more before going outside…

Let me know your thoughts.

And please pray for us. Apparently we’re in the right spot with God, because Satan doesn’t attack non-threats to his earthly kingdom.

Come Jesus. Come Spirit and fill us up with new strength.

Blessings,
Adam

-Ashley

Prayers Needed…

…for my friends.  God knows who they are and what they need.  Please pray.

-Ashley

New Stuff

I am so excited to announce the launch of our brand new photography business, Love Mutt Photography.  You guessed it…it’s a pet photography business.  We are so stoked to finally be focusing our business on what we really love…pet photography.  So let me share some links with you…

website – www.LoveMuttPhotography.com

blog – www.lovemutts.com

facebook – www.facebook.com/LoveMuttPhotography

twitter – www.twitter.com/LoveMuttPhotos

So come check us out, fan us, and follow us.

In other news, we are looking for an alternative foster home for our current foster dog, Allison.  We’ve known she’s had some cat aggression, but the other night, she attacked Sophie pretty viciously.  She’s not a vicious dog…she just sees cats as food.  She’s a dog.  Anyhoo…we have to keep the safety of our pack the top priorty…so we are looking to find a new place for Ali.  If you or someone you know is looking for a new dog…or is even willing to foster…please check out Allison’s petfinder page for more information.

-Ashley

Ohio Photography Conference

This past weekend, we travelled to Holmesville, OH for a photography conference.  We got to hang out with photographers from all over Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Indiana.  It was so much fun (even though we are still suffering from sleep deprivation!)  We even got to teach a pet photgraphy class.  That was amazing.  I honestly never thought I’d have any amount of expertise in something to be worth other people’s time.  So that was a great honor!

If you want to see some of the portfolio shots that were taken this weekend, you can visit my facebook page or (once again) my photography blog.  But I will share this one with you…

This is us on Sunday morning…after 3 consecutive nights of little to no sleep.  Can ya tell we’re tired?

-Ashley