andrew dodson

This past Saturday, Julie and I ventured out to Cove Spring Park for our engagement pictures.  We asked Kari McGrath to do our photos because she is amazing!  We’ve seen a few sneak peeks of our photos and we’re very excited about how they turned out.  We can’t wait to see the rest of them!

I took the Flip along and got some video of the day.

Last weekend, I was able to enjoy the Expo fireworks from the comfort of my apartment. These pictures show the view I had from my window.

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More and more, we’re being bombarded with the idea of “going green.”  Eco-friendly products are becoming more and more available.  The process of making products is becoming more and more eco-friendly, as well.  With all of the fuss about going green, I wonder where God comes into play?

First, I must admit, I’m not an environmentalist.  But, I’m also not an anti-environmentalist.  I sit on the fence.  I don’t litter, and to my knowledge, my vehicle is the only not-so-environmentally-friendly product I use.  I don’t recycle, personally, but we do recycle cans at CLS (for a person we know – not an employee – that uses them to help pay her bills).  I’m supportive of our city’s recycling program (which I don’t participate in, only because I don’t own a home).  My guess is, if I researched my lifestyle in relation to environmentalism, I’m not doing all that I could to help the environment.

The story of Genesis tells of how God created the earth.  We also see in Scripture that God reveals himself through creation.  Scripture also tells of God’s sovereignty over the earth.

Part of me hears all of this fuss over going green and thinks it’s a futile human attempt to prolong the life of the earth.  Since God is sovereign, it’s up to Him, not us.  Another part of me thinks that since God did create the earth, we need to be good stewards of it, just like we are to be good stewards of our money.  All good things come from Him.  Another part of me is excited about the growing use of organic products to create things we use every day.  It’s like we’ve finally realized that what God created is sufficient for our every day needs.

Where do you sit?  Is Earth Day like Christmas for you?  Or, do you not care?

I’m happy to recommend a new blog by a somewhat new friend – John Martin (not to be confused with Josh, and no relation).  John and I go back to February of 2006 when I was considering buying an electronic drum set.  My boss recommended I speak with a guy who used to rent a house from him.  So, I called and met up with John at Memorial Baptist Church and he sold me on the Yamaha DTXpress III Special.  Since then, I’ve had occasional contact with him through CLS and church activities.  Recently, he joined us (some guys from The Point and me) on a trip to Seattle, so I’ve gotten to know him better in the last few months.  I learned about his blog earlier this week, but I’m just getting around to linking to it.

John is a great guy in this order – He loves the Lord, he loves his family, is a great husband and father, he faithfully serves his church as a pastor, and he is a great drummer & musician.  Go read his blog.

Some people say the only guarantees in life are death and taxes.  I would say that snow on February 11th in Frankfort, Kentucky comes pretty close to a guarantee.  Nearly every year that I can remember (I’ve lived in Frankfort since I was about seven years old), there has been snow on the ground for my birthday.  The past few years have been hit-or-miss, but, this year, we have snow.

I’m a fan of snow, so I’ll take it!  We’re expected to get 2 to 4 inches tonight, and that’s just fine by me.  The more, the better.

So, I’m a little late in posting this. I’m trying to get around to posting more photo albums to my Flickr & Facebook sites. Here’s some pictures from the 2007 Capital Expo fireworks.

I visited a few Frankfort websites tonight, that – honestly – I don’t visit often at all. Actually, I didn’t know two of them existed, but had only visited the other a time or two. They’re actually very good sites with lots of good information about the community. Go visit ‘em:

VisitFrankfort.com
DowntownFrankfort.com
SaveTheGrand.org

This one’s for faithful blog-reader & friend, Chuck Adams:

Seems as though police can get a bad rap in most towns. Except, of course, in New York City where all emergency personnel gained the respect of the nation following 9/11 (deservedly so). A perfect example of a force with a bad reputation is in Los Angeles. For the most part, people are intimidated by police, or they think they’re arrogant, and so on.

I’ve heard not-so-good things about Lexington’s police. Lot’s of stories about arrogant officers. From my experience of living in Georgetown, I can say their police don’t have a lot going on. In turn, they’ll pull you over for anything. I experienced this after a couple of minor traffic violations (only one ticket). I wouldn’t say they treated me poorly, but since there’s not much going on in Georgetown, they can be very picky about pulling people over.

We’re lucky in Frankfort. Through my job at CLS, I’ve had the opportunity to meet a large number of officers from the Frankfort Police (we keep t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats & other items on hand for them). I’ve been highly impressed that most of the officers fit into the “good people” category. Most notably, they don’t suffer from the arrogance that usually comes with the job. This can be said about everyone from the newest officers, all the way up the line to the top. I’ve spoken with Chief Wilhoite on several occasions, and he’s always seemed to be a stand up individual. It’s easy to respect authority when you know the authority respects its citizens. Keep up the good work FPD!

Last September, I had the opportunity to go to Florida to assist in the clean-up efforts from hurricanes. It was an amazing experience, and while I never hoped to see devastation like that again, I also knew that’d I’d do it again if I got the chance.

Now that Katrina has done her damage, I’ve realized it would be nearly impossible for me to go down to help out. September is the busiest month of the year at CLS, and we’re short an employee for the month (maternity leave). Not only is September the busiest month of the year, but we’re expecting September 2005 to be the busiest month in CLS history.

Fortunately, I don’t have to worry about going to Louisiana to help out. It seems victims of Katrina are coming to us – right here in Kentucky. Crestwood will be extremely busy over the next (insert amount of time here). We’re hosting at least one family, and possibly more. Churches all over are partnering with the Red Cross and local businesses to find families homes, jobs, schools, transportation – the works. We still don’t know a lot of the details, but we know people will start arriving to Kentucky at some point this next week. I know that I’m planning on helping out as much as I can.

Kentucky Baptist Assemblies has also offered up two of their properties – Jonathan Creek & Cedarmore – as a place for victims to stay. The Josh Martin Band is scheduled to perform at both of these places in the coming month, but I’ve yet to hear if the events will still take place.

I’d love to hear how others are planning on reaching out to help victims. If you’ve got a story, please post a comment and let me know.

It’s been a fairly good (long) weekend. Here’s the rundown:

Friday – Vertex was great. We had a lot of new faces, which was really good to see. We did things a little different by grilling out and watching a movie – outside. Russ and Alex did a great job of hanging the screen on the side of the church, and Julia prepared all the computer-related things. We thought we were going to experience some DVD issues shortly before we started, but Justin stepped in and saved the day. All-in-all, it was probably one of the best nights of Vertex so far.

Saturday – the praise band had a long rehearsal from 8-12. I had big plans for the rest of the day, but they disappeared as soon as I got home from rehearsal. I still don’t really know what happened, but I didn’t feel very good at all. I think part of it may’ve been exhaustion. All I did was lay around and sleep. Everytime I got up to do something, I started to feel tired again. Added to this was a headache. Later in the evening, I made my mind up to get up and do something with the hopes that I’d start to feel better. I took some headache pills, ate dinner and took a shower. Went to Justin’s and hung out for a bit, and then we headed to the movies where we met up with Lori. By this time, I was feeling much, much better.

Sunday – after church, some of us met up at Cliffside’s for lunch. It’s a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant here in Frankfort. Everyone seems to love it, but it’s only the second time I’ve been. My review? The place is run-down, it’s a little smelly, and our waitress (if you can call her that) was rude. I won’t hold it against them that it took a long time to place our order and get our food, considering every seat in the place was occupied. The food was good, though.

I stopped at home for a bit and got to visit with my aunt and uncle while they were in town. After this, I headed to Leesburg for a Josh Martin Band show. I gotta admit… I was really dreading this gig. It turned out to be a nice event, and we played well. I split as soon as it was over because I knew friends from church would be hanging out back in Frankfort. I headed over to Chuck & Becky’s for a movie.

Monday (4th of July) – I “slept in” this morning. I can tell I’m getting older because I only slept 90 minutes longer than I normally would, and I was still up by 8:30a.m. I can remember the days when “sleeping in” meant waking up after most of the world had already eaten lunch. Now, I can sleep in and still make it to McDonald’s before they stop serving breakfast.

I’m going home this afternoon to do laundry and to start working on the Josh Martin Band website. I already have a design in mind (inspired by a commercial I saw the other night). I also have lots of pictures to choose from, thanks to Carrie What’s-Her-Name who took pictures of the band at our live recording and a photo shoot a few weeks back. So, it should be quick work.

I’ll be heading to some form of a cookout later tonight, although I’m not sure where just yet. Happy 4th of July!