It's Friday!...so why is my heart breaking?

Because Ten Shekel Shirt just helped connect my heart across an ocean and through hate to these precious faces...



...and embodies Hope presented by Love 146...



The up side is that what took me 10 minutes over a lunch break to watch I can spend the rest of my life trying to help heal.

"I have been blessed. Now I want to be a blessing. I have been loved. Now I want to bring love. I have been changed to bring change to bring change." - Aaron Niequist

a day with cousin Raymond

Last week Crystal nabbed our nephew (her brother's son) for the day to give he and his wife some alone time with our new little niece.



Landon showed his little cous his piano playing / dancing skills.



...and gave him some hugs. Raymond pretty much can't stand this and pushed Landon away. It's cute in that grumpy sort of way.



Then, we gotta clean 'em up! Landon's first bath as a duo. He did well. Good prep for when Noah enters the bathtime equation in a few months.

Your Wedding Magazine

A friend of ours, Jeff Duncan, recently started D&G Publishing with his business partner, Ramon Garcia. Their primary project as a publisher is a new up-scale wedding guide called Your Wedding Magazine. It's free to readers and will be available through several retail locations and churches in the greater Indianapolis area.

The pub will focus not just on the wedding event itself, but on deeper subject matter like family planning, insurance, first home buying, communication, investing, retirement, children's college funds and more topics that go into building a successful marriage. There are a couple sample articles at yourweddingindiana.com already.

If you work for or operate a business (event planner, home builder, baker, photographer, jeweler, travel guide, venue rental, musician, etc) trying to reach this demo, we strongly suggest you have a look at a print and/or online ad buy with Your Wedding. There stands to be great value and exposure in this venture. In fact, Beauty by Crystal will have an ad in the first issue and will have a banner ad on the website within weeks.

Additionally, the magazine will also be printed in Indy so all the dollars involved in this business stay local.

If you're interested in advertising, send a note to Jeff's wife, Jennifer. Her contact info is on the Contact Us page of the Your Wedding Magazine website.

a night with Eddie

(photo by: someone other than us but available online)

Delivering on Amos 30th Bday gift, his buddy Ty (handsome devil on the right below), took him to see Eddie Vedder at downtown Chicago's Auditorium Theatre on Friday night. It was Eddie's ninth and last stop on a very short tour. Which just so happened to be in his home town...and in the venue where he saw his first ever concert himself (Springsteen, '74). Needless to say, he was all sorts of jacked up and ready to rock.



A combined 60 years of rock fanaticism ready to get at it.



Detroit Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios had been carrying around the Stanley Cup this week to large events in Chicago. Right before the show started, a large rucuss began in the mezzanine directly to the right of our seats. Then, Chelios pops out over the ledge shaking the Stanley. The crowd went crazy!



...strumming acoustic awesomeness



...mandolin or ukulele here.



...giving thanks to the fans while exiting after full set



For those that are familiar with Vedder, you know he isn't shy about sharing his opinions on anything. Especially on politics and activism. While we don't agree about half of the time with his opinion, you have to respect anyone who doesn't just sit back apathetically while life passes them by. Eddie started talking about how he wasn't going to talk politics. While he's rambling on about how he's specifically not going to publically endorse a candidate for November's election, two stage hands slowly walked a very large Obama banner stage right to left.

The photo is very dark, but Amos enhanced the image so you can discern the banner.



...back for encore with opening act (Liam Finn) and man we don't know (yet) singing backup vocals



...the crowd loves it!



...Hard Sun from "Into the Wild"



...the entire crew for a bow after 2+ hours of a very unique splendid show. Also...turns out the guy singing backup vocals (and holding Eddie up as he jumps in the air here) is none other than Mr Sean Penn.