Christmas 2007

This morning was hilarious. It started with Caleb walking past all the gifts to tell us he can't wait any longer, because he is too excited. We had to wake up Ethan. After saying a prayer and singing happy birthday to Jesus, we ripped into the presents. The presents were all a hit. I really like the book Caleb got from Aunt Bonnie. The Dangerous Book for Boys. This is like the manual for growing up as a boy.
I will never forget Caleb trying to put on Deodorant. He has been wanting to wear mine and be grown up like his Daddy, so we put some in his stocking this year.

From 2007 Christma...

Ethan painting on his new easel (we may be mailing out Ethan Originals to all the grandparents), and then both boys having great fun(making a great mess) with Moon Sand.

From 2007 Christma...

The next thing that happened was so funny to me. God didn't make it snow in Ruston this Christmas, but He put frost on the ground. Caleb, Ethan and the neighborhood boys put water in the wagon, and some other containers in the backyard to see if it would turn to ice over night. So they rushed out to check on their project.... sure enough there was ice, but then after the moment of playing with ice was over - they noticed the frost. The way they were acting you would have thought we had 2 inches of snow on the ground. They were running in and out of the house showing off leaves they found with frost on it. Running and sliding on it, trying to climb up the slide covered in frost. We did come in very shortly after that with cold red hands and cheeks.

Ethan loves is electronic plastic guitar, and his Stomp video... He has been beating pots and pans all day today.
I have also discovered that Caleb is really good at Connect Four. He has beaten me more games than I wish to admit.
This has been a great Christmas. We have raised a good bit of money at Church to dig a well in Malawi. We got to deliver some food from our small group to a family we are trying to help out. We had a lot of good family time. I praise God for this great year.

The Christmas Photo Collection 07

Here are the 2007 Christmas Photos. I hope you enjoy

Christmas at Nana & Pops 07	Ethan's School Christmas party07
One way to get everyone to sit for a Christmas photo	2007 Christmas morning Murphy Christmas07

'tis the season to decorate!

We just finished tiling the master bathroom. I am pretty excited that it went so good.

Bathroom tile

We also painted the boys room. We have them sharing a room right now, and actually I think it has been a really good thing for them to share a room together. Jill and I are seeing some differences in how they treat each other.
So here are some pictures of the hard work. We did a "brothers" theme.

From Brothers New ...

From Brothers New ...

From Brothers New ...

From Brothers New ...

Click on the links to see more pictures.

Christmas Eve 2007

The Prayer of Confession and Pardon that was read at the Midnight Candlelight service at Trinity:

Gather us gracious God in the warmth of your presence. Grant us grace on this Christmas Eve to be honest. We have not been the church you called us to be. Rather than confess and repent of our sin we find it easier to blame others and justify ourselves. While this time is to prepare for your coming, so much of our hope and faith rests on what we can do for ourselves. Yet we confess to you this evening that what we can do is not enough. We live in a troubled world and we cannot seem to change this world no matter how hard we try. We need your light. We need your peace. We need your love. We need you. Amen.

Tonight as I am minutes away from seeing Christmas morning, this prayer of confession has seemed to struck a chord with me.

Bike Star

This is our latest edition to the Zephyr Film collection. We actually filmed this one this summer when Caleb's friend Bella was visiting from California. I was just a little slow editing it. Check it out at the Zephyr Film's "website"
http://zephyrfilms.blogspot.com/

Beautiful leaves

The trees in our yard are exploding with color. The leaves have taken on awesome shades of yellow to fire red. All of which are signs of the coming raking and leaf blowing that will commence in the coming days. Here are some pictures:

The Beautiful Leave

Finally some editing

We filmed a movie with the kids this summer and it has been sitting on the computer waiting to be edited. Well I finally finished it. It only took to nights to finish it once I got started. But I am excited to say there is another one that is already filmed. Nathan Hegab came over and we just had to make a new movie. So be on the look out for the web release of "Bikestar" and "Ninja Spies".

Also we are planning to film a special Christmas family surprise tomorrow.

Thanksgiving 2007

Thanksgiving 2007

I am not sure who did all that cooking, but I sure did love that "spicy" turkey and the seafood dressing! Thanks Rick and Katrina! I don't know why I wait one whole year to eat that dressing!
It was amazing to see all those kids of ours running around, especially knowing that not that long ago I was one of those kids. It must be something to be one of the great grandparents watching these little ones climb around.

Caleb is getting pretty handy with that BB gun. He better watch out because Ethan was trying his hand at it also (with a great deal of Daddy's help).

And paddling a canoe with Caleb in the back and me in the front on a (cold) windy day racing PawPaw and Ethan in the Pirogue was fun! We put Caleb in the back of the boat since he weighs less than me and the back is where the leaks were (I know what you worried parents are starting to think... trust me it was safe). I tell you what... it is hard to steer a canoe from the front! Caleb really showed some muscle and was doing a great job of paddling and he really began understanding how to steer the boat from the back. I was very proud, especially if you know what it looks like to paddle on Iatt lake through all the trees.


This was a great thanksgiving!

Test your SKILLS

I was following a trail of links... and ended here:
http://www.mensa.org/index0.php?page=12
Now you can test you mental skills on the MENSA website.
I scored 24 out of 30. Let me know how you do.

The trail of links that led to that test started with Caleb, who has been asking about how to make a time machine. So we end up doing some research at the library and we got this book, Time: A Traveler's Guide
So instead of reading one of the books on my "list"... I have been reading this. It is a pretty interesting book, I am barely on the edge of understand it, at all . No I am not planning to build one or anything. But it has been fun to read something that pushes my understanding of how the universe works.

The Reading List

My goal will be to read these 4 books over the next year. (see earlier post) So here is the Official List(in no particular order):
- "Cost of Discipleship" Bonhoeffer
- "Manana" by Justo Gonzalez
- "Knowing God" by J.I. Packer
- "For the Life of the World - Sacraments and Orthodoxy" Alexander Schmemann (I just love saying his last name for some reason) You can read a sample here.

Unfortunately Soul Survivor by Philip Yancey got kicked off the list. I have already read one of his books and you(the voting audience) didn't give him enough votes.

I started reading Schmemann's book by accident. I entered into conversation with Joey Koskie about this reading list of mine. He hands me the book off his desk and I just intended to sample the book and then decide. While it is a harder of a read than I am used to, I was drawn in by the first chapter. So It is on the list. I had to read the first chapter twice to really understand it and it is taking weeks to only be on page 63, but it is a good book. It was first published in 1963. He walks us through the sacraments and I would say Liturgy of the church to answer this question: "When, we Christians , confess that Christ died for the life of the world. What life is both motivation, and the beginning and the goal of Christian mission?" What is this abundant life we claim to offer to this world?

Pictures Pictures Pictures

Halloween and "Scanner Fun" pictures for you to enjoy.


Unfortunately for Caleb, he got sick Halloween night. Not because he ate too much candy either. :) He came down with fever. We did have a good time.

Stomp

Well, the Murphy's went out to see STOMP in Monroe Tuesday night. We had a great time. We were joined by Ethan's Friend Reese and his Dad, Rudy. We all really enjoyed it. Ethan woke up the next morning begging to go back. It was late so I think the boys were getting tired by the end of it. Steve's favorite part was the "walkers". They had boots strapped to 55 gallon drums and they were 'stomping' around. It was cool. Here are some video clips from the Stomp website.
Fastcut
Combat
Matchboxes
Walkers

70's Party!!!

View Album

Get your own

This was an incredible night of laughter. It is great to have such a good group of friends to worship with, to study the Bible together, to serve together, but also to PARTY together. We are starting a tradition here. About two years ago we did an 80s party for Halloween over at the Vessel's house, this year we stepped it up a notch and put on the roller skates in the church gym.

I had a great amount of fun playing dress up with Jill(she spent 15 minutes with a flat iron and hairspray working out my curls), and then showing up seeing all my great friends decked out 70's style.

Look at JILL go!!!

My wife can kick your wife's tail (hee hee hee). :) Look how strong she is! Go Jill!! Go Jill! Yes! That is my wife ringing the bell at the TOP of the rock wall.

This was a birthday party that Caleb was invited to at this place called Excalibur. Obviously Caleb wasn't the only one having fun!

What is Church?

Here I go thinking again? We have been studying as a church this Treasures of the Transformed Life study thing. It has been pretty good. This week we were looking at "presence" - the 2nd of 4 commitments people make when they join a United Methodist Church. (Prayers, Presence, Gifts, and Service). Also (thanks to Joey Koskie :) ) I have a new book by Alexander Schmemann I started reading (this may end up on my of top 4 books to read)So now I find myself tonight asking questions....
What is church? What is it really supposed to look like? I spend a great deal of my time creating and developing media that is intended to help connect people with the Gospel of Christ in worship. We have this huge awesome facility that we worship in and have sunday school and small groups in. We do these great studies as a church, we have a bunch of things going on. We support a bunch of great causes. Start and do a bunch of programs. I think of the family of God in the old testament following God in the pillar of fire and smoke. I think of the disciples having meals together with Jesus and feeding 5k people, and teaching them. I think of the Acts 2 church praying, eating, studying and serving together and taking care of each other's needs. I think of the needs of the world, I think of the deep needs of this Ruston community of which I belong. I think of the deep needs within this church family of which I belong. Are we really being Christ to this world or even to each other?
I don't want to start sounding like I want to be some typical Gen X kid (is 33 years old still considered a kid?) that wants to rebel against the systems in place. Or sounding like I think that the church in general (or my church specific for that matter) is a miserable failure. I see great things that God is doing and has done. I see how I wouldn't be living the life I have if it weren't for the followers of Christ before me and with me paving the way. I don't want to undermine what God is doing either.
I just can't help catching these visions of life being more than going to worship on Sundays and reading my bible during the week. I keep catching this vision of the church really being a people that love each other. Radically trying to take care of each other and meet each others real needs. Which frees us all up to be more effective at meeting the deep needs of others. Not that we aren't doing this at all, I just see it being possible on a completely larger scale. I feel we have the power granted to us through Christ to dramatically change the world around us. To impact the lives around us in ways that would change everything. Are these visions of grandeur, or delusion, or of some mystic utopia? I just keep feeling like we are just experiencing one minuscule bit of what "church" is supposed to be. It seems sometimes we have a church that people come to, and then they go back to their lives. I by no means would want to have everyone at the church all the time, but why does there seem to be such a separation of our "sacred" life and our "real" life?
I am stopping here because this is becoming increasingly more of a collection of rambling thoughts than I should probably allow myself to post here, but since I started it, I figured I would just let it be.

HELP WANTED: Reading List

I am doing that Life Development Plan. See my earlier post.
One of my goals I have set is for my "Intellectual life"
Read 4 (new to me) spiritually challenging books by October 2008.

I want and need your help. Would you suggest 4 challenging books that you think would be essential to my spiritual journey? So what would be the top 4 books you would suggest to take me deeper in my understanding. Who is God? What is the Church? Who am I? I want to read books that try to answer the hard questions.

Please leave your comments with your top 4 books and why you think they would be essential reading.

Sports weekend for the Kids

Ethan had his first Soccer game. They tied 3 to 3. Caleb had his Cross Country meet.
They both did really good.


Ethan's Soccer Game Pics


Caleb's Cross Country

Chazown!

http://ldp.lifechurch.tv/jsp/main.jsp

I recently went back to this site that I had been using regularly, but hadn't been to in a while. If you hadn't seen it, I think it is really worth a look. You sign up, there is a spiritual gifts inventory you can take, identify you core values, make a vision statement, work on goals for your life, and a place to do a prayer journal.
It was refreshing to see what goals I have made progress on and the ones I haven't. So here is a glimpse at me and what I have come up with from this website. If for no other reason than to encourage you to try the site.
My top 4 core values:Creativity, Dedication, Encouragement, and Enthusiasm
My top 3 spiritual Gifts:Exhortation(the site describes this as the gift of counseling and encouraging others to become all that God wants them to be), Hospitality and Shepherding
Here is my Vision statement: To be a Christ following/honoring husband and father that uses media and art to communicate the truths of Christ to the World and to my neighbors.
Here are some of my dreams: Go to Italy, Grand Canyon, see shuttle launch(at the rate I am going it may not be the shuttle, but the next generation of manned space vehicles), Be a Bicycling Family that enjoys biking at different places all over the world.Die Old with my wife serving Christ until there is no more life in my body. See both my boys living lives pursuing hard after the will of God. Loving God with all of their heart soul mind and strength. Retire Wealthy so we can LIVE and GIVE!
Here are 2 of my goals I had written: Read Through the Bible in 1 year
Ride my bike regularly setting up times to ride with friends.

Hope you find your Chazown!

Muddin

The boys (Caleb, Ethan, Reed, Trevor, and today Garrett Decuir was visiting) wanted to go to the woods and play. Of course it would be Caleb and Ethan that didn't want to leave any of the mud in the woods. So they did their best to bring as much back. The other boys somehow magically came back relatively clean compared to Ethan and Caleb. Trevor was a close third, but couldn't compare to the mud brothers.

Ethan's first book

(if the video doesn't work, click here)

Ethan 'wrote' this book, and every time he 'reads' it to us it is a different story. So I pulled out my cell phone and recorded him reading it, scanned the pictures and here you go. Ethan's first book is now 'published' to the web.

hope you enjoy.

Fun with a scanner

Ethan and I were playing around with the scanner tonight, and I thought I would share the results. Click the pic to see the rest.

Caleb's Got Runnin' skills

Caleb had his 2nd Cross Country meet today. He came in 12th. I had to help make sure the kids didn't take the wrong path, so I got to see Caleb around halfway through his race. His flat feet are hurting him, so we will be talking to some doctors to find out what to do. Jill said Caleb was saying "ouch" as he cross the finish.
I am so proud of Caleb running so hard, even when it hurt.

(If the video doesn't work, click here)

Convertin'

Alright, so I recorded some audio of Ethan making up a story. The problem was I used my cell phone to record the audio. I wanted to do some simple editing and when I pulled up the file on my computer I discovered it was recorded in this .qcp file format (totally new to me) and my audio software didn't recognize this at all. Well with a few seconds on google I found this site.
http://media-convert.com/
I was very leary at first, but it is an ad supported website and it simply converted my files for me. Very simple. Just thought I needed to share.

So stay tuned for, you may get to hear Ethan read his story to you.

Ethan is trying out Soccer

Check out Ethan and his soccer skills, and Jill helping out Coach James.

The Exposure Experiemnt

I am trying to learn how to use my camera, and I needed some test subjects. Kids work great for this kind of thing. We had a great deal of fun making these ghostly photos.

Wess' Painting An Art Show!

So if any of you are in the Covington, LA area. Go check out the

Mayfield's Artist Expo, "Visions in Art"
Saturday, September 22, 2007
10am - 5pm
inside the Holiday Inn in Covington, LA

Check out http://wessf.com/gallery to see some of his work.

Caleb's First Cross Country Meet

Caleb came in 9th place in the 3rd and 4th grader Cross Country meet. I am so proud of him. He did so good!

Robot Graveyard

Well, Wess foreman is at it again with his creative writing skills! This time he has included me in the creative process of writing this episodic story. The first episodes are here for your reading. I am looking forward to contributing ideas and seeing how Wess works it all out.

Muddy Trails

Wednesday Richard Raue, Christian Duncan and I decided to hit the trail at Lincoln Parish Park. It had done a quick hard rain before we got out there. Well, it was awesome. They have been working on fixing up the trail and there was fresh red dirt everywhere and with it being wet it was like sludge. It was a great time. We decided to take a picture so there was proof of our manhood of us not being afraid to take the trail in the rain.

Ethan Pics from Last School year

One of Ethan's teachers from last year,Mrs. Jenn, is also a photographer and she came back to visit (she is having a baby this week) and she dropped off a disk of all the pictures of Ethan and his classmates from last year. These are some great photos of Ethan. I hope you enjoy.

Rubik's Cube Defeated!

I had claimed to defeat the rubik's cube when I was a kid, but to the best of my memory the only way I had beaten it was to pull off the stickers and rearrange them. Well tonight, with the help of Youtube and a guy named Dan Brown. I am staring at a completed Rubik's cube puzzle. And if I had a mountain top nearby I would run up it and yell "VICTORY!", but it is late and the kids are asleep and I am tired. Still I thought I would share(brag).

Caleb's Back to school

Summer is over. School here we come.

Ethan is 4 years old!!!

Here are some pictures from Ethan's party. We had a great time playing with Kryptonite (hot potato) and giving super man his "S".

Weekend of The C.R.O.S.S. Highlight video

This is a poweful weekend where volunteers teenagers from all over Louisiana and beyond come to Ruston and build wheelchair ramps and paint houses and share the love of Christ with those in need in our community. It is a weekend of worship and work. This is one of those things that Trinity does that stands out and I am so proud of. My job during the weekend is to provide Tech support for the worship services and to make this video. Enjoy

Braces! What Braces?

I don't see no stinking braces.

bye bye braces

Caleb got his braces out on Monday. He was so excited!!! He did a great job wearing them. He only had to keep them in for 9 months. His bit has really improved. Before he couldn't use his front teeth to tear he food he had to use those back teeth.

Check out the before during and after pictures(just click on the picture). That's my handsome boy!

Murphy's Take Over Arkansas!!!

...but then we decided to give it back.

We had a great time. Fishing! Hiking! Playing Go-Fish! Cooking Out! Playing by the Dam (swimming in underwear)! Arkansas will never be the same.
Click here if the slide show doesn't work.

If you really like the pictures and want to order them from Shutterfly, then click here

The Visit, the baptism, the fun -The Pictures

Click on the play button to watch the slide show. Or double click on the pictures to go to the picture collections where you can order them from shutterfly or other online photo developers.

Hair Update

I have been getting a bunch of comments on my hair lately. It is getting to the point that people are doing a double take to realize who they are looking at. So I figured I was due to share a picture with you.

1 and 2 Samual

We are reading 1 and 2 Samuel right now in our small group. These stories are a big bloody soap opera. Revenge, murder, marriage, sex, betrayal...
Here are some of the interesting things I have come across in these recent readings.
David actually trusted in God's judgment working itself out in his daily life. He had chance after chance to kill Saul and put an end to running for his life, but he wouldn't touch him. He wouldn't kill him in cold blood.

Also a number of times even while he was hiding in caves and in the wilderness he would get word about the Philistines attacking somewhere. He would pray and ask God if he should go attack. He seems to make that a habit, and God made it a habit of answering him.

David finally hits his peek of becoming king and getting to where God promised him, no more running for his life.... Before this point he seemed to lead every battle he ever was involved in. Then the one time he doesn't go lead the troops in battle... this is when his wandering eyes catch Bathsheba taking a bath, and then it is all down hill from here.

here is the reflections:
1. I need to trust in God's Judgment
2. pray to him and listen
3. Don't wander away from where God wants me to be

Zephyr Film Fest - Coming soon!

Well, we just finished making Backyard Guards 3. (the special effects always make the production take longer) I should have it uploaded pretty soon. But we are trying to find a date on the calendar to have our 2nd Annual Film festival where we invite all the neighbors and a bunch of friends to the house and watch the newest videos on the big screen in our garage. Microwave popcorn, folding chairs and Kool-Aid and great friends. Hope you can come.

Judges

I just finished reading Judges. This is a tough book of the Bible. Rape, pilage, plunder, worshiping other gods, Samson and his hair, Israel fighting amoung itself, then stealing woman for the Remaining Benjaminites.... One thing (of many stange things) that stands out is sometimes when the people of God made a vow they really didn't want to break it. Even when it makes no sense at all to keep the vow. See Judges 11. Jephthah makes a vow before God: "If you give me a clear victory over the Ammonites, then I'll give to God whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in one piece... I'll offer it up in a sacrificial burnt offering." First what in the world was he thinking when he made that vow. Then just a couple of paragraphs later after his great victory. His only child, his only daughter comes out to greet him. He let's her go morn for a couple of months, and then "He fulfilled the vow with her that he had made."
I don't think I will understand this one. Was God pleased with his vow, with this sacrifice? What am I supposed to learn from this chapter. This story has turned my stomach.

Now as far as the rest of the book of Judges goes I think I can relate to some extent to the people of Israel. They keep having these seasons of good, focused on God times, and then these not so good, turn their back on God times. I really like this quote from Ch. 13 "And then the People of Israel were back at it again, doing what was evil in God's sight." It is that whole ... here we go again feeling. But I feel like I go through those seasons too. I have those times where I am focused of Christ, then I have those other times.

Judges is just a tough book.

Pool time

Ethan is taking swim lessons along with one of his classmates, Reese from Montessori. I can't say he is having the time of his life. But he is doing it. Here are some pictures of Ethan, Caleb, Reese and his mom and sister, and Trevor showing off in the water.

Enjoy.

Zephyr Films again

Well, as soon as I hand out Revenge of The Ninjas DVDs to the kids in the neighborhood, they are ready to film again. I was out mowing the lawn, so the kids went inside and started making up a story. This one is going to be the 3rd episode of Backyard Guards. This one is going to be a classic: Bad guy escapes, and because he has been in jail he has had time to devise a new and better plan to take over the world...

we will be editing soon. stay tuned. Check out http://zephyrfilms.blogspot.com/

Of all the Zephyr Films the most webwatched one is by far Greatest Spies Ever Episode 1, and now Episode 2 has made its very late web debut. So be sure to check out Greatest Spies Ever Episode 2!!!

Zephyr Films

We are wrapping up production of Zephyr films latest movie. This one is about Ninjas!!! The kids in the neighborhood even brought in some acting and writting help from the outside. We invited Caleb Hurst to take part in this latest feature.



Since the neighborhood collection of short films is growing we decided to dedicate a new weblog just to Zephyr films. So here is your link to the new site.



http://zephyrfilms.blogspot.com/

Gosh I feel so small.

This has been a reoccuring thought I have had many time in the last number of years. Especially when it comes to my facination with looking up at the stars. This is something that has made its way around in email forwards, but I saw it first on Brad Granderson's website.

Here is the link to this specific post on his site.

But here are the pictures:
















Gosh, I feel small. Especially when you can't even count the number of stars of those varying sizes filling the universe. I wonder if there are stars out there that are so far away the light from them hasn't even gotten to us yet. I feel small.

Then again I think about the creator of the Universe deciding to become a man and walk around on this speck of dust in the universe we call home. I don't feel so small when the the creator of all would even know that I exist in the midst of His vast creation.

Forward Thinking

I was just introduced to some very fascinating new technology that I thought I would share.
Here is the video that is the precursor to Microsoft's Surface.

It is going to be wonderful to see technology in the future, and how we interact with it not being limited and causing carple tunnel in so many people. I just start imagining doing photoshop on one of these things.
Also check out www.ted.com

But also check out the video that shows how statistics and data doesn't have to be boring. This is a great presentation on data visualization...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVimVzgtD6w&mode=related&search=

Vacation Pictures

Well, the vacation was incredible. It was simply a great deal of fun. It does feel wonderful to be back at home and sleeping in my own bed. It is amazing how taking a vacation makes you appreciate your own routines and your own space. But I tell you, we were greeted with such wonderful hospitality from both GranBobbie and Bart and Amy it was amazing! Thank you!!! You were a big part of making our vacation so relaxing and fun.

This post will be mainly dedicated to the pictures. I will post stories of our amazing trip later.

If you are used to using shutterfly and order some pictures here is the link.
Murphy Family Vacation 2007


Disney World Slide show:

From Vacation 4

From Vacation 4

From Vacation 4

From Vacation 4

From Vacation 1

Here are the collections of all 270 pictures broken up into seven groups you can go look at.

Vacation 1 We arrived in Gulf Shores and went to the beach (45 pics)

Vacation 2 Sunburn park and putt putt (81 pics)

Vacation 3 Play time at Amy and Bart's House (21 pics)

Vacation 4 Disney World - The Magic Kingdom (52 pics)

Vacation 5 Pools and Pajamas (7 pics)

Vacation 6 Sea World (37 pics)

Bart and Steve - oh so cool! Thanks for being such a great friend!

Vacation 7 wrapping it up! last day on the beach and family shots (13 pics)