gniffke is up to something

i (kinda) miss you

2009-05-13T17:14:00.000-07:00

almost 3 months since you've heard from me.

life is "G"

good

great

getting a ton done

gaining some weight

going to the gym

great "work" schedule

gniffke family time

going to the beach

getting sunburned

going to costco

growth spiritually

glee

getting Hawaiian Kine Kards in order

got my first order of stickers printed

girls bible study

getting organized

getting to do some free lance work

gratifying

going to be busy this summer

generously full of anxiousness

gaining creativity

grasping my new reality

giving the green-light to new encounters

good bye

would you buy???

2009-02-24T23:14:00.001-08:00

this shirt?

its something i designed for my lifegroup girls to sell to peers, family and friends to raise money to help with the cost of hume. we'll be selling pre-orders only soon for $20

let me know if you are interested...

merry christmas to terry and peggy

2009-01-21T19:00:00.000-08:00

ok its kinda late to be posting something about crhsitmas, ok extremely late, but its worth it...
christmas 2008 us kids decided to give terry and peggy a group gift that was simple and very meaningful.
we did a family photoshoot down at the orange circle with a tripod a clicker and my ever so faithful and amazing nikon D50. and with the pictures we did a cool photobook with snapfish, and then we blewup this photo and got it nicely matted and framed for their living room.

here are some of my favorites but you can view all of them here.

i wish i had a video of thier reation which made it so special so many times over, but that will be engraved in my heart forever.

big island 09

2009-01-19T18:40:00.000-08:00

after 6 1/2 days on maui we hopped over to the big island and that was awesome too. we stayed wit my mom and my sister in kamuela which is a beautiful country side rancher town.

we went to the beach 2 full days, thats where i got fried and fortunately it turned into a nice tan (for now) i sat with my sister, nahe, and for 2 hours we had a masterpiece mermaid in the sand until picture time and the head decided to cumble.

we boogie boarded in the white wash all day (really for over 3 hours). it was awesome!!!

it was my grandmas 78th brithday while we were there so we took family pictures for the first time in a REALLY long time!!!

the rest of the time was spent woking on the family business, hawaiian kine kards, trying to get everything in order to print stickers and launch the website!!! yeah! i came across these pictures of my grandpa that we'll be putting on the website, arent they classic?

and ps i think my husband is awesome for being such a wonderful and selfless person to be aound for 13 days with my family (the in-laws)

From Hawaii 09

maui 09

2009-01-14T20:26:00.000-08:00

maui, my home town is always such a blast to visit. i miss my family and friends i grew up with...

heres some of the things we did (dont get too jealous! - at least i wasnt twittering ever 5 min and rubbing it in your face like you know who...)

we went to the north shore to pick shells, seriously one of my favorite things, could do it for hours, so relaxing and calm.

we had this secret beach full of shells all to ourselves.

i literally picked half a gallon zip lock bag full of tiny (almost microscopic shells = heaven)

around the corner from there was just fun stuff. like this tree we were determined to climb and take a fun shot on.

it was hilarious watching chris and ty trying to climb up... it was a bit slippery but us girls got up way faster. watch the video there --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXIkPZ0AKck

or like this tree uprooted and lying on the sand...

or this house's foundation eaten up by the ocean

we took the boat out and wakeboarded (well the boys did) heres chris http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe8VJYeJFso my brother was ripping on the jumps

and saw whales, i mean too close for comfort, and my peace of mind. ok i confess i had a mini panic attack! we were this close and they just popped up! (just a side note about these whales)

we ate at our, now traditional, restaurant in paia... flat bread.

we "pool hopped" or snuck into one hotel pool

we went to our home beach, we went to our home church, and those were all really wonderful, but i might have to say our time at "the property" on our last day was my highlight. i mean look at this place...

i got to go horseback riding with kandi and my sister at sunset

while chris was incharge of cooking the meat over an open flame. and tyler learned how to change a tire. and others set-up camp

ahh maui. :)
thank you mike and ciara for letting us crash at your place!

youtube funny

2008-12-13T15:03:00.000-08:00

the other night my bible study girls and i were sharing funny videos from youtube here were some of the favorites

stunned

2008-12-12T08:45:00.000-08:00

the other night i saw this and was speechless as i was trying to figure out how they did it, how they thought of it and how i could try and pull something like it off oneday, how it could possibly inspire me...

a whole new side of me

2008-12-11T21:35:00.000-08:00

seems as if this week is music video week for me.

this first one is from our church staff christmas party, and i know it doesnt look like it, but i hate my part, its really embarresing! even more so because everyone keeps talking about it. my favorite part by far is our senior pastor (with the huge clock during the rap part)... he said to me "teach me some gang signs" and i tried to teach him wes-side but it turned in to T-Rex hands.

Calvary Staff Christmas Video from tammy harris on Vimeo.

this second one is one i am really proud of. this is my small group of 12 girls performing a lip sync for our youth groups chirstmas banquet video competition and we actually won "most original video" even with freshmen and girls being 2 factors against us.

long awaited...

2008-12-10T18:20:00.000-08:00

isnt Koda the cutest thing ever!?

From Koda Faves

he's smiling

he's lab retriever mixed with something that we cant figure out...

From Koda Faves

he's very obiedient, hasnt barked yet, and we've already taught him to sit in 2 days!

From Koda Faves

what could be any cuter than this 4 month old face?

From Koda Faves

i wanna go!!!

2008-11-27T13:47:00.000-08:00

ok ever since ive watched hope floats, back in 1998... (heres the trailer)

ive dreamed of me being in a country town (like in texas/tennessee) at a county fair, under a white tent, hay bails, live country band (with a banjo), and a bunch of couples in love, women dressed in pretty "prarie" dresses, men in nice levis with plaid buttons downs. everyone wearing leather boots and a white cowboy hats, all dancing close and happy all through the night under the stars. like two stepping or line dancing. like in the movie...

lately chris and ive been really into country music, its really so romantic.

and how much fun would it be to be in a music video like this.

hair remover! (lol)

2008-11-21T10:45:00.000-08:00

he might kill me for this, but i cant resist... he should have known where this picture was going right?

ok so when the oc fair was here chris typically doesnt like to buy anything in the tents, but his knees buckled when he saw San Diego Legs!

its a hair remover that you rub on the surface of your skin like sand paper, but not as painful. and the hair rubs off... see chris did his chest.

From Blogger Pictures

isnt that hilarious and amazing all at the same time?

i know, its morbid...

2008-11-19T19:20:00.000-08:00

ok, its really sad, but i needed a laugh today. and as i walked in to our home tonight i saw this:

our fish, FRANK, was DEAD... and i laughed really hard! i know, i told you... morbid! but it was a helpless, slash sad, slash ewe, slash how did that happen? things like, "when did you feed him last?" "i dont know" ... or ... "was he alive yesterday?" "i think i saw him swimming" kept being asked.

the sad part about this is we've had frank as our "love fish" since we got married, otherwise said he was as old as our marriage, lol.

Ohh - O - Mexico!

2008-11-18T22:20:00.000-08:00

This weekend was awesome, my only complaint was that it went so quick!

Chris performed his frist wedding, and i shot my first wedding. it was fun for the both of us and it was for family so it made the pressure a little less.

here are some shots and you can click here to see more.

here is the whole gang at La Fonda's for the reception

Chris Turned 25!!!

2008-11-17T18:07:00.000-08:00

For Chris 25th birthday i surprised him with a beach day with some of his closest friends. it was great, the day down at old mans was beautiful and he was completely surprised so in my eyes it was a huge success. we had waikiki grill (his favorite, "hawaiian" food... kalua pork & bbq chicken) and some special K bars (minnesota verson of scotties?)

here was his invitation i designed.

the bday boy...

my neice, taylor, learning her hang 5 skills early, sweet shot huh?

and a beautiful sunset to conclude the night

From Chris 25 Bday

happy brithday babe, i hope you loved your party!

some design work

2008-11-11T17:00:00.000-08:00

one of my recent things ive been dippin my hands into, giving a try... is some design work.

this first one was for a kids choir group, really simple, it was for a one color t-shirt design.

this next one was for a boy scout troop, i had fun with this one, this was for a 2 color t-shirt design.

this last one was for the high school group at calvary, they had a wednesday night series called rooted. this was for a power point/projection graphic.

Rockband - Eye Of The Tiger

2008-11-07T08:23:00.000-08:00

lol!

this was great. chris loved singing this song over and over on his birthday... at least seven times.
in video left to right.
ryan guard, chris gniffke, brent dedmon, and doug brown.

politics and philippians...

2008-11-05T19:38:00.000-08:00

we had some time last night during our awesome lifegroup to watch the election results (inbetween playing rockband - i have some video footage ill upload later)

this verse was shared by brent who had heard john piper mention it in his thoughts on the election (youtube video, its about 3 min in)

1 Corinthians 7:29-31
29But this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none; 30and those who weep, as though they did not weep; and those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice; and those who buy, as though they did not possess; 31and those who use the world, as though they did not make full use of it; for the form of this world is passing away.

just this sense of not being so attached or living "in" this world and the things that consume us, our world, our home, our focus should be CHRIST and him alone. and how that relates to elections, of just this sense of it not consuming us. our lives, our hope doesnt change based on the elections.

the biggest thing that has saddened me through this election is peoples comments of of how, if, or now that obama is elected "we'll have to trust God", as if we dont have to trust him in other cases, just especially this case. we should vote as not to vote, meaning vote knowing that God knows the results and has a plan even before our vote is concieved. amazing how i live for a Creator as such!

after spending some time in prayer as a group this verse came to mind and i keep meditating on it, and the truths it holds overall, and to the elections and future of our country.

Philippians 4:7-9
7And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. 9The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

the TRUTH is God is all knowing, He is in control, He has a plan.
the TRUTH is obama did get elected president
it is HONORABLE for us to be in unity, to bathe this in prayer, to pray for obamas decision making and discernment, to pray for our country
it is NOT RIGHT for us to judge, assume, worry, bash
it is PURE when our mouths reflect our heart, a heart that yearns for the things Christ yearns for
it is LOVELY to see the passion ignighted in our country, and inspiration this election brings is contagious
it is LOVELY to see a couple in office that love eachother and is dedicated to family
it is of GOOD REPUTE that people of our nation are equally excited to see change (change that only God himself could accomplish)
it is EXCELLENT to see our country elect an african american president after all the racism our country has been though
and it is PRAISE WORTHY that the election didnt result in any riots
it is PRAISE WORTHY that GOD holds this world in his hands and we do not belong to it.
ALL OTHER "THINGS" ARE NOT FOR US TO DWELL ON, plain and simple.

i dont know much about politics but i do know that my heart must dwell on and reflect the nature of this verse.

tagged for 7 Things...

2008-11-04T18:07:00.000-08:00

i was recently tagged by marilee davis to proclaim/confess/reveal 7 "interesting" things about myself.

i had chris help me with the list and he had no problem listing all my "quirks", and i had to remind him it wasnt just things about me or things i do, it was things that could potentially be interesting about me. that list was long, but here is my condensed 7 things:

1. i dont shave my legs...
i hate shaving my legs, shaving in general is a pain. but for real i let my leg hairs grow out all winter long, and if i need them to be out in public i wax or epil them. armpits are a differnt case unfortunately i have to shave them everyday.

2. i am probably the pickiest person i know...
picky, stubborn, opinionated, whatever you want to call it, thats me. i was actually dubbed "picky niki" growing up. particularly with foods, drinks, and shows. foods: dont like pretty much all uncooked veggies, cardboard tasting things, mustard (makes me hurl), pickles (seriously it saturates everything it touches, yuck!), fishy stuff. a better way to describe this would be... i am the person that orders (fast food/restaraunt) and always has to change one thing about the dish. drinks, well ive never drank anything carbonated, yep! dont like milk, or most juices, wine/alcohol mostly tastes like urine to me. shows/movies, well... im just going to flat out say it, I hate the office and will ferrel, its pretty much difficult to get me to laugh while watching these things i just think its stupid, really. and movies well its kinda a stubborn thing but mostly i just dont care for some of it like i just watched back to the future for the first time last night, star wars, well i cant make it past the intro text and indiana jones doesnt do a thing for me, lord of the rings started as a stubborn thing in HS i didnt want to watch them til all 3 came out and then i never got around to actually watching them. lastly, i don’t follow sports.

3. never spent over $50 on one article of clothing (excluding special ocassion desses)
thats pretty self explainitory, i just cant bring my self to do it and when i can i have my husband who cant.

4. im in the process of starting a business...
it was a company my grandpa left to our family and my mom and i are doing our best to keep it going. its called hawaiian kine kards and hopefully you'll be hearing more about it as time goes on.

5. i have secret dreams of being a professional dancer...
not so secret now, i know it will NEVER happen, but its fun to think about... me being all bad-A when it comes to line dancing, hip hop, salsa, jazz, ballroom, etc... on the dance floor, in a choreography, musical, movie, dance studio... i wish i was awesome at it.

6. I plan on being a pattern breaker in my family...
generational curse, whatever you want to call it i plan on making it stop with me. the "d" word is very familiar in my family tree... divorce, just in the 2 generations above me there are about 15+. awful huh? and alcoholism too, bad news, it runs for many generations and im tierd of it. there are probably others i plan on breaking but thats the top 2.

7. im a disgrace to hawaii...
yes i am born and raised in Hawaii, but seriously besides that theres nothing really "hawaiian" about me... i hate fish like cant even swim with, eat, smell, touch them they scare me, most hawaiian fruits i dont care for (coconut, pineapple, mango, papaya, to list a few), im not the cultural sterotype who surfs like crazy, dances hula in my sleep, and speaks in hawaiian, dont like wearing aloha print. the only exception i could think of would be that i can walk on lava rocks with my bare feet, chris called them feet of steel.

thats my seven...

lindsay, ciara, trevor, wakeling (maybe it will get you bakc into blogging), mel bro, jenn, jenny... TAG YOUR IT!

sorry it all sounds so negative :)

betrayal!

2008-11-01T13:46:00.000-07:00

yes, thats right! last saturday chris and i were at a surprise party for his best friend and we kept getting phone calls from matt davis, his boss, asking if we were available to go retaliate on ryan roehls yard.

side note, ryan roehl is calvarys resident prankster... within this one year he's been here he's pulled off some awesome pranks. one of the first ones was penciling the children ministry office. he had hundreds of pencils sharpened and stabbed into the ceiling tiles throughout their whole office. it was done really well, lots of work, great impression, very sucessful.

so matt had rallied as many of the childrens staff to t.p. and pencil ryans house. we couldnt go, and thankful at that moment b/c they got caught. (who t.p,'s a 24 year old at 10 o'clock at night???? of course you are going to get caught) so they left in a mad dash. later they considered two options, one of which capitalized on the fact that we werent home... see where this is going? (not thankful for that)

they went back to ryans house helped him pick up the mess they made (whats weenies) only to then invite him along as they planned to dump it all on the vacant gniffke house! they did a good job, but as we arrived home around midnight exhausted we came upon this... miseralbe! what jerks! betrayal! amoung other things that crossed our mind.

might i add that this filled 2 1/2 trash cans full and we have 35 rose bushes, and it was dewy sunday morning...

and should also say that mary jane and danielle are off the hook since they showed up after church to help us clean it up.

imagine that?

2008-10-31T09:07:00.000-07:00

which american city fits me best?

American Cities That Best Fit You:

80% Honolulu

70% Miami

70% Portland

65% Austin

65% Denver

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

whats yours?

speaking of which we just got our tickets to hawaii... so excited!!!!!!

wedding on our mind

2008-10-28T18:25:00.000-07:00

a few weeks ago we had the priveledge of watching our great friends get married. Mike and Karissa Cook

dont they look so in love? we are so happy for them!

chris was a best man along with mikes brother. the groomsmen looked so sharp

and i was a bridesmaid, i love that i get to be apart of their lives and marriage!

their photographer was Jeffery Neal Photography, and he has a very artsy style, and used archetectual deatil and set a beautiful mood in their pictures.

i miss her!

2008-10-27T14:58:00.000-07:00

my sister, she sent me pictures the other day. and it made me miss her so much more. i havent seen her since january, so its almost been a year. feels longer... isnt she beautiful?

i hate that i dont get to watch her grow up and be there for her, but i am so proud of her!

husband of the year!

2008-10-25T09:54:00.001-07:00

i would like to take a moment to award chris the husband of the year award. he was nominated for a few, equally improtant reasons all which support one event.

last night he took me to HSM3, omg i was so excited.

Chris is being nominated for:
- his sole initiation for a date night
- hearing my earlier request to see HSM3
- purchasing tickets online
- walking in the theater with a smile
- keeping the smile when he relizes hes the only guy thats not a dad, tween brother, or whipped HS boy there with a girl
- refraining any negative vibes, grunts, or gestures when the 90% tweens audience broke out in explosive and excessive screams for the song or zac efron
- walking out of the theater in pride that he took me on a date that i 100% enjoyed

doesnt he deserve that? what a trooper.

it was awesome, i secretly wish i could could learn the cheorgraphy for something like that.

but seriously, the audience looked like chris' 5 & 6th grade ministry. and there were 15+ (i lost count after 15) outbrurst of screams/sighs/clapping/cheering. 3 before the movie even started, and a cheer with the whole theater of wildcats.

My Top 50

2008-10-23T22:12:00.000-07:00

In our LifeGroup (small group) the other night we had a Q & A time to get to know eachother further. Some were really deep and others just plain ol' fun. One question was asking about what movies are at the top and bottom of our list. That led to Brent telling us of his top 50 list he made, and I then found myself making a mental list of movies I would put in MY top 50 and I think I've got some good ones, so I wanted to share. Now you get to see the kind of movies I like, so if I ever give a movie review you can know my "taste" in films.

So in no Particular Order, my top 50 Favorite Movies:
Tristan & Isolde
Ever After
The Notebook
PS I Love You
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Across the Universe
The Prestige
Far and Away
A League Of Their Own
Pearl Harbor
10 Things I Hate About You
How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days
Shes All That
Because I Said So
A Knights Tale
That Thing You Do
Gladiator
The Patriot
Les Miserables
Enchanted
Chicago
Moulin Rouge
Now & Then
High School Musical
Sound of Music
Water World
Lucky Number Sleven
Sahara
Forrest Gump
Blue Crush
Step Up 1
Stardust
Bourne Series
Catch Me If You Can
Transformers
Titanic
V for Vendetta
Hook
Dreamer
Oceans Eleven
Juno
Ferris Buellers Day Off
Cinderella Man
50 First Dates
Batman Begins
Grease
Remember the Titans
My Best Friends Wedding
Notting Hill
Hope Floats

any I should add?

I think I'll be adding other Top List later, stay tuned...

wedding bells...

2008-10-04T00:57:00.001-07:00

not that i can take any credit for this but i thought it was very cool, and i did have a hand in it.
i have been and day-of wedding coordinator 3 times now and im hooked!

first was the harris/brown wedding which is most famous for:

then blalock/goodrich wedding which could be defined as simple elegance, tropical colors

From Blogger Pictures

more of the goodrich wedding photos by john woods click here.

Then the most recent and biggest wedding i was apart of was the mitchell/walker wedding. they did a fantabulous job planning every little detail magnificently, so much so they made it into Southern Weddings Blog... see here.

From Blogger Pictures

for more of their wedding pictures by the amazing jasmine star click here.

so i love it, all 20+ hours of it... so if you are looking or know someone who is looking for a day-of wedding coordinator for their big day let them know about me.

seriously this makes me hurl...

2008-10-02T19:17:00.000-07:00

its really disgusting how ignorant people are. i have been debating in my brain whether to post this topic but it keeps coming up, so here it goes, if you are going to judge at least give me the decency to explain and read the entire thing.

so the other night at the Hume Pastors retreat we were playing an awesome game called Loaded Questions, and one of the questions we all took part in answering was something along the lines of "What issue are you tired of hearing about?" and others answered many things dealing with Palin, but my answer took me seconds to write... GLOBAL WARMING!!!!

ahhg does this issue drive me crazy! my girlfriend works at Dukes down in HB and she was telling me the other night that her restaurant is going green... and as she enlightened me how they actually plan to do this i had to catch my eyes from rolling too far back into my head... get this Dukes is planning on going green by... not serving water to their customers unless they ask! ha! the schemes, brainwashing "the man" is doing is quite hilarious, but awfully disgusting, isnt it? isnt that what they were required to do in a drought? now they are taking credit for it but stamping it with the "go green" slogan! ewe, leaves a bad taste in my mouth!

the ignorance i see here is how "the man" or a huge chunk of people the man represents thinks they or we as human beings have any control of the course of this earth. God, our creator, probably chuckles when he sees men sitting there trying to take credit and fix the state and direction of our planet.

thats not the only thing that gets me, its also the fact that "the man" is getting trapped in his own tracks he laid. the very people who are flushing the media with how we are contributing to ozone holes, energy crisis, melting ice bergs, mass extinction, disease, climate change, etc, etc...

are the same people who taught us in schools that our world has been changing from the beginning with Pangea, and now think... what?!?! that its our fault that the world continues to change.

and taught us about mass extinction of dinosaurs and woolly mammoth based on climate and food change as well as migration, and now are comparing the predicted extinctions to those past events and claiming it to be our fault as humans.

and taught us that climates have always been changing over the course of our existence of earth, vegetation good then bad, disease wiping out whole people groups, and on and on... so they were aware that this has been a pattern of our earth before the technology and population we currently have, but still would love to believe that we have the control to cause all this and even more so change all of this. hahaha!

makes me want to throw up, not sure if you could tell? with all that said, let me just say, i do appreciate the fact that we as humans are putting our heads together to rethink how we use our resources, i just hate the angle they use to accomplish such change in our western lifestyle.

whos the stingy one...

2008-09-28T17:04:00.000-07:00

haha, yesterday i was out scavenging through thrift shops up tustin ave. and i came to one (there are 4 between katella and santa clara) where it was having a "$5 for a bag of clothes" sale. and as i was leaving the store there was a lady who had filled her bag to the brim, she literally had army rolled several pieces of clothing to stuff in this grocery bag, and i couldnt keep my laugh in because here began an argument between the clerk and customer...

you have the clerk who was going to charge the lady for the bag of clothing @ $5 then an extra $7 for the one pair of shorts that were ever so slightly peeking over the top edge of the bag by a corner...

and the customer who was throwing a fit because it was just a small corner, so she insisted on the clerk seeing how the corner fits "in the bag" if you press it down, as she kept shoving the clothing further and further in the bag.

so as i walked away from the bizarre sitch-i-a-tion... i was extremely irritated with how stingy both people were being, and as i kept playing it over in my head i coulndt figure out who was the "more" stingy one...

bruised hands

2008-09-16T23:14:00.000-07:00

so tonight i was eating my 8 chicken nuggets from Wendy's that Anna brought for me as we were building our newest set, and well anyway my hands were shaking uncontrollably as im eating! not a good thing. but ill blame this on chris (mostly) and then tell the story.

the story...

last night chris took me on a date night, ive been asking to go to the batting cages for awhile. so like most dates he keeps it a surprise for as long as he can until he either gives too many clues and i guess or in this case he reveals it to me to be assured that its a good night to do this kind of venture.

so we purchase enough rounds for us to both go twice. we picked the cage that had slow baseball throws and then a softball throw. he goes first chooses the softball pitch to practice and does really well. (cant wait to see my babe hit some good ones for the OneHit Oneders!!!) and i step in the cage and pick softball pitches too, my competitive side kicks in and i want to do just as good if not better than him. i miss the first few, and chris coaches me to hit higher or lower and finally i get one and "dong" the hit vibrates through my entire body... pain - intense pain! but i try it again, pain again! chris instructs me that i need to hold the bat higher, so i try and pain! then i convice myself i need a differnt bat, a smaller one, so chris hands me one in between pitches, and "dong" - pain again, then chris coaches me to step into it and hit it harder, that was a BAD idea, that cause more pain! so i suffered through the 30 some odd pitches and touched most of them, i say "touched" b/c my aim was right on after a while but i felt like a whiny baby after every hit complaining like i couldnt handle this batting cage thing. i got really down on myself. until...

my round is over and chris is doing his round awesomely again, and i get super super down then i look up and read on our cage "slow baseball pitch/FAST softball pitch," do you understand what this means? yes, my husband is at fault for putting me through excruciating pain! so my second round was done in the SLOW softball pitch, much better but tons slower!

then on top of that i was painting the set today... i cut chris's hair the other day, my hands have been on overtime, they need a break... ahh felt good to get that off my chest!

hair cuts

2008-09-15T09:45:00.000-07:00

this weeks adgenda for chris and i included HAIR CUTS!!!!

oh man we are both in dire need of them!

chris looked like a bum, but last night he let me attack his mop and now its short! yeah! i was a little nervous to cut it b/c im not a hair stylist but chris doenst like spending money on things like that and he trusts me. the style he wanted was what scared me most, i think i accomplished it but i havent decided if i like it yet. i spent all night staring at him, turning my head sideways, feeling it, fixing it, ect. he asked for a mohawk but not an extreme one. basically its a faux hawk in the front and back, so it has a little rat tail, hehe. over all chris looks good with a short haircut. he's handsome, what can i say.

im getting mine cut on wednesday, and i probably wont be as daring, ill get the same cut again, i know boring!

but it made me start thinking of all the hair styles we've had over the years... ill upload photos of the ones you'd like to see, ok?

(ill do mine first since they arent that exciting)
ive had:
long hair (most of my life)
cut short, above the shoulders
spiky bangs, i cut it myself when i was 4
short bangs, cut straight across
no bangs
burgundy hair
black hair
red hair
beach blonde hair

chris had:
the boy band cut, short/spikey/gelled
bic'ed, thanks to matt davis and other culprits
blue hair
black hair (2x's)
hanson mop, really long to his shoulders
and short

shnukums

2008-09-10T20:15:00.000-07:00

ok i fell in love. this is the kind of song i imagine myself learning to sing my children to sleep one day (key word there... one day). kinda like hushabye mountain from chitty, or stay awake from mary poppins. they are just goodies! and they blow hush little baby out of the water!

so cute!

this baby talk reminds me of a song from one of my all time favorite movies of all time chitty chitty bang bang....

does anybody love...?

2008-09-09T19:41:00.000-07:00

ok so my last (long) post mentioned some of my favorite things i like to watch while being a couch potato. but i cant believe i forgot one of my most favorite...

wheel
of
fortune! (and that has to be said like they do on the show... all dramatic and stuff)

i really like to play along and talk to the tv as if they could hear me yelling it through the screen, but you know its weird when you actually DVR a game show.

i would really love to be on the show but last time i applied it asked me all these questions about sports, so i assume they were looking for some sports fanatic, which im so far from being one. but more importantly i read most reality show applications (dont ask how many ive read) and they wont allow you to be on if you've been on a show within the last seven years. so whats the problem you ask??? truly im holding out to apply for the amazing race first.

couch potato

2008-09-05T21:43:00.000-07:00

the season fall brings about a lot of launches.

it begins my allergy season. so you'll hear this

at church it feels like every ministry is launching and needs things now!

for most school just started, doesnt effect me right now in my life. Except that i have to perfectly time when i come to work to ensure i dont arrive the same time as drop off.

but most importantly, all my favorite TV shows are now back!!!!!
ANTM aka Americas Next Top Model
(this was last years opening video)
Project Runway
The Amazing Race (i think its a re-run though, one day i want to be on this show)
And my favorite...
Prison Break. ohh mannnn!

seriously its amazing im a total fan. chris and i stumbled upon this series in blockbuster and watched season one in 3 days and that was intense! just in time for season 2, which wasnt as good (ill admit), but we as fans kept with it. season 3, got better. but now season 4... i feel it in my bones, its gonna be good!

well with all this TV goodness, and long days at work ive become a great couch potato.

but dont worry, ive kept it balanced with exercise ... (ok that might be a false statement, well it is) but chris and i did do billys boot camp tonight... pretty much taebo on steroids.

PRESETS

2008-09-03T21:08:00.000-07:00

when i drive ive got the radio accompanying me 99.9% of the time. Rarely will i have an iPod going, i just find its too much work to find some songs for my 10 min trek to work, i always put too much thought into it.

so my radio presets numbers 1-6 get a ton of attention.

#1 - HOT 92.3, old school/R& B
#2 - K-Earth 101.1, oldies
#3 - 102.7 KIIS FM, pop (to fill my craving)
#4 - 92.7 Jill FM, classic rock and pretty much all great old songs (my favorite)
#5 - 105.1 Go Country, good stuff
#6 - 98.7 Rock-a-holic

im not really interested in sports or talk radio but do you have any stations you love?

world traveler?

2008-08-31T15:00:00.000-07:00

how cool is this...

hopefully the map can just keep getting fuller. but 4% thats pretty cool
how much of the world have you seen?

have mercy, please

2008-08-29T23:30:00.000-07:00

gee... sigh, deep breathing, questioning why?
my heart is so heavy.

i just dont get it, my home church, Hope Chapel, just keeps going through the ringer, seems as if its not going to stop, and it continues to sadden my heart. i tell all of this in asking you to join me in prayer for my home church and these families.

a few months ago, kit lauer, one of the teaching pastors who has acute myelogenous leukemia. he tried radiation and it didnt work.

shortly there after, the son of Joe and Karen Johnson (hopes counselor), Joey Johnson passed away at age 28 in his sleep from a possibly seizure.

then after that, the son of our worship pastor (my old boss), Craig Mauck, Daniel (16) hurt himself severely in a skateboarding accident. hit his skull and was unconscious for nearly a week and now is heading to oahu for rehab.

then on Thursday, i got notified by multiple people about a my closest childhood friend, Emily Spencer, who was in a very severe accident. walking across the street and was hit by a car thrown 30 some feet and landed on her head. she has fractured her skull, swelling and now blood in the brain, blood clots forming near her lungs, and still unconscious.

so my prayers, beyond healing... is mercy.
thanks for your support.

ahh... mazing trip!

2008-08-27T21:11:00.000-07:00

my trip in hawaii was ahh-mazing
not only did i get to see and enjoy this sight multiple times

here's a taste just for you to get an idea of what my early mornings were like...

(reminds me of a corona commercial... so ive heard)

but i got to hang out with my mom, skip, and sister, nahe.

and we got to do a lot of business too... so it wasnt a complete vacation. be keeping a look out for our family business, hawaiian kine kards.

chris+energy drink+car drive=

2008-08-19T20:00:00.000-07:00

a sensitive music video to his favorite song...

im going to miss him while im gone for the next days... he's so cute, how could you not like (cough cough)... i mean laugh at him?

(please adopt and take care of him while im gone)

in four days...

2008-08-16T09:28:00.000-07:00

hawaii here i come!!!

yes on wednesday ill be looking at this

beautiful! i know you are jealous.

i put that pic as desktop wallpaper this week and found myself taking brief moments of my day just to transcend to that place in my mind.

this is a 6 day trip to see my mom, skip, and sister, nahe.

well for 2 reasons really...
1/2 - my mom is turning the big 5-0 and my sister is turning the ever important 14 and for their birthdays they wanted to fly me out there... i know, it would seem as if im getting the birthday present.
the other 1/2 is well... (story time)

my grandpa, frank

many moons ago, actually decades, he started a company... "hawaiian kine kards" at first it was doodles, then it turned into greeting cards, but eventually landed as a sticker company.

(thats a self portrait of my grandpa)

when my grandpa passed away last summer he left the company to my mom, and my mom has become really overwhelmed by this so we are going to talk "business" and see how we can tag team to help this awesome legacy and goldmine help us.

the stickers are pretty awesome i must say, heres a sneak peak... would you buy them?

date night: scrabble

2008-08-13T19:03:00.000-07:00

last night was the best date night ever!
i came home from a long long day of work, and chris had the day off after working crazy busy all week with vbs. he had gone grocery shopping to fill our embarrassing empty fridge, taken both our cars into the shop, my tire had a nail in it, his car was up for a checkup. (all this with me not asking, awesome, and so sexy)

we had dinner, i ate some left over cherry on top (amazing), and then we had a night of scrabble! pretty much we are at expert level (at least thats what the box says), and we only have 5 tiles left. we had our dictionary handy, for the jic. some of the words are questionable, but we had fun and nicole won! (by ten points, chris was in the lead most of the game)

only in hawaii...

2008-08-10T13:23:00.000-07:00

lol. so my mom lives on the big island in a little town called waimea/kamuela and the other day my sister called and left me a message to let me know that mom got bit by a dog, is in the hospital, but i dont need to worry. well obviously i was worried. but didnt get ahold of my mom till the next day. the story is hilarious (mostly because this really would only happen in hawaii) and i thought i'd share.

some background info... up the hill from my moms house there are 2 naughty dogs, i think they are sheep dogs. they always get out of their yard and the owners dont care. my mom being the animal lover she is gets really upset that these dogs are always roaming the streets trying to attack cars that are driving 30 mph up and down their street(they could get hit). anyways, you can count on these dogs everyday to come to every yard that has dogs to attack, harass, and intimidate the rest of the dogs in the neighborhood. all of the neighbors have about had it with these to retarded dogs and owners that really dont give a crap.

so as routine these stupid dogs come down the hill do their round to all the rest of the dogs. my mom was home and she wasnt about to watch these dogs rile up her 2 pit bulls, so she chased them off. they headed across the street there was the neighbors 5 year old outside playing with her chicken and the dogs went chasing after the chicken right in front of the little girl. that did it for my mom, she now was determined not only to get the dogs out of there, but to get the chicken back. pretty much they rag-dolled the chicken and kept it in the grip of their mouth as they headed back up the street. my mom went to give the owners a piece of her mind... on her way up explained to one of the other neighbors who share her frustration. the owners come out and my mom marched over and they pretty much just let the dogs to continue to roam, and sluf my mom off. the dogs still running around come near their home to where my mom was standing and bite my mom in the butt and gnaw on her ankle, right in front of the owners, still they do NOTHING! shes furious now looks at the other neighbors just to make sure they just witnessed what happened. and she calls the police. a couple hours later the police come, 2 cars 4 police (funny, not necessary) they pull up start running the owners through questions, details and as the owners keep dodging them the dogs make their rounds again and attack the cops! yes they bit the police officers! animal control quickly came to pick up the dogs. but not sure if they did or will do anything to the owners.

so now my mom has bruises on her butt and ankle... and a great story where the neighborhood nuisance of these 2 dogs has resulted in justice.

im so excited i get to go to hawaii "on business" to visit my mom and sister for their birthdays, i leave in 10 days! wahoo!

retaliation!

2008-08-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

heres how it went down...

vbs, the staff goes to lunch together pretty much all week, but it was day 2, tuesday and thats our day for "bff" accountability/mentoring with tammy and melissa. so we were trying to stick to our tuesday thing, especially since it had been a few weeks and they guys on staff gave us a serious hard time for not going with them, so as we were in the car driving away we decided to play their bluff and go to a restaurant the would never go to, blue frog, and invite them along to join us. half hour after our text invite, eric wakeling text's us back to save 8 seats that the guys are coming. we had just ordered our delicious food and desserts, then cleared the entire upstairs of the place for our now party of 11. we looked like jerks for a long time, convincing the staff we had 8 more people coming. another 20 min went by, we just got our food and debated on waiting to eat till they got there, so we text eric back to see how much longer till they get there, he says they are walking. followed by another one of ohh wait we ran into john norton, sorry we are getting held up. bla bla bla...

we caught on to the fact we got stood up, finished our food and the 3 of us left our table for 11.

this called for some major retaliation.

before and after (window read "eric party of 8, your table is ready)

haha dont mess with the "bff"

in da hood...

2008-08-07T22:11:00.000-07:00

(this was us when we TP'd a few of our friends houses in stealth mode, good times)

the sisterhood that is.
ok so the movies are cheesy, but you have to admit the idea is quite touching. ya ya, now and then, traveling pants... all great movies that portray great lifetime friendships. and i have a special place in my heart for these cheesy movies for that reason only.

the four of us have been friends for a long time now. danielle (i call her nel, everyone else calls her dani) on the left, we have been friends since 5th grade but have known eachother since at least 3rd grade, we've been through a lot of years, shes the gorgeous one. cassie (aka cas, spas, sas) we became friends in HS like my freshman year, shes a year older than all of us, shes our adventurous, free spirited one. then rachel on the far right (i call her rae, everyone else calls her rach). shes my BFF, maid of honor, she knows everything about me, shes our emotional one, who lives in a fairytale land. we all are opposites.

this was us in our church halloween party our junior year. haha!

cas and rae worked with me at hume for a summer in 2003

they were all in my wedding.

we have always had a great time together. well we went to the opening night of sisterhood of the traveling pants 2 movie. but first we ordered delivery thai food and watched the first one, we ordered our tickets online, got there an hour early to ensure great seats, and they made us wait in a line of 99% women. it was great except for one thing... cassie wasnt with us, she lives in hawaii still. sad we called her

the night wasnt compete with out cas... but the movie was great, at least in the sentimental way. rae cried the entire movie and nel and i were humored.

but i have to admit the funniest part of the night was watching the only guys enter a theater full of women. all eyes were on them as if we (the females) had the same thoughts going through our heads... they are either gay or whipped. so there were a total of 4 guys, one was a dad who brought his 2 daughters, two of them were definitely whipped, as they came in a party of three, 2 girls plus them (as if that was the only way to spend time with the chick) and the last guy was definitely flaming.

date night: flight deck

2008-08-05T20:15:00.000-07:00

here we are at the flight deck ready to dog fight each other in a flight simulator. you sit in a mock jet, get to radio to air command for more ammunition, and fly over so cal as you shoot others down watching it on a huge screen.

http://www.flightdeck1.com/

its a little pricey for a typical date, but we have connections. we've gone twice the first time (i dont like to rub it in too much) but i whooped chris 23-10 shoot-downs. the second time (he brought his glasses) we tied, 36 across the board.

i love it, thats my competitive side.

t shirt designing

2008-08-04T19:04:00.000-07:00

so this graphic design thing is something ive been trying out lately. i spent my sunday ditching the vbs training (shh) and looking at some t shirt designing competitions online. here are 3 that i found that look pretty cool.

allmightys.com
http://allmightys.com/features/index.htm
from what ive gathered they are in europe, have several competitions throughout the year, they give a theme, you design and submit by deadline, online viewers vote and if you win you get $$, prizes and your shirt printed and sold from their site. the current competition is future-past-perfect deadline aug 25.

threadless.com
http://www.threadless.com/loves/democracy
i think this one is based out of the states, does several challenges throughout the year, sells them online, and you win based on votes. the design challenge theme this time is democrocy and entries are due aug 14. but (i think) unlike the other site this site also invites random ideas or slogans to be submitted for prizes. http://www.threadless.com/submit

the last one i found
wooshka.com
http://www.wooshka.com/design
this one is nice in the sense that there are no creative restrictions or themes, no deadlines, you can submit throughout the year as many times as you want. they approve your design put it on the web, people vote and then its printed based on votes and you are granted prizes based on sales.

fun huh?

i want to dance like this

2008-08-03T16:10:00.000-07:00

minus the make-out stuff.

date night: county fair

2008-08-02T21:59:00.000-07:00

ohhh man, one of my favorite annual (more than once a year would be too much) events would for sure be the fair.

just the 2 of us (we can make it if we try).

the night started out immediately with corn on the cob... seriously i was dreaming about these for days. we actually tried to go to the fair on monday night and i talked about the cob the whole drive down there. but to our dismay the fair is closed on mondays (for your future reference). so the cob is always cooked to the perfect juicy/crisp-ness and then you have your pick of seasonings... drooling. this pic was taken after i devoured my cob and i had chris take it so i could blog about it.

thats how good it was. i even considered going back today to get one before the fair is done, but the entry fee plus the cob price is too much to fill an obsession.

oh yes cant forget to tell you how we got cussed out by an angry crazy cowboy stuck in traffic who was erk-ed b/c chris tried to cut him off attempting to get off the free way. traffic was crazy!

the art exhibits were great, the booths where they sell all the fun/interesting/cheap/as seen on tv stuff were cool. we bought this hair remover thing and the snack nuts, 5 bags for $20. 2 bags are already gone. we went on only one ride... the swings (extreme version)

typically swings are easy peasy, wimpy ride, but these swings were intense. now this pic isnt the exact ride, but same idea. double bucket seat and tossed way higher in the air, fewer people, and spinning around and around about 5 stories in the sky. chris hates the wimpy swings (he gets motion sick) but THESE swings even i started to get quiezy. seriously my toes felt like they were so weightless they were going to fall off. it was actually romantic when it was all said and done. we just kissed, squirmed and squealed saying our parting good byes just in case the unthinkable were to happen.

we saw the ponies on our way out and i wanted one! ill let santa know in this years wish list.

but my absolute favorite part of our date night was chris piggy backing me the whole way back to the car since my feet were hurting. awe what a man!

hume lake was awesome!

2008-07-29T18:47:00.000-07:00

here are some of my hume highlights!

our cabins spirit for rec, or at least getting ready for rec.

our day that we got to wear our nifty robot shirts, they were pretty legit!

the night i snuck them out after lights-out to do a special devotion out on the dock. and "secret... secret, i have a secret". i had arranged for megan fate the spirit girl who had given a seminar earlier that day that really effect the girls to do a follow up devo to help them figure out how to put what they had learned into action.

and seeing how beautiful they all are, watch them grow and mature.

and the awesome modesty talk/dance/music video for the girls

oh yes and the worship, specifically listening to all the 1200 kids going crazy as they are praising the Lord. you may not be able to hear clearly but they are singing make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.

song stuck in your head?

2008-07-29T18:26:00.000-07:00

have you ever got a song stuck in your head, and then you lived in close quarters with 10 other people for a week who wanted to murder you because you successfully got them to sing it every minute too?

yeah! so i had this song stuck in my head all week at hume and my cabin of girls hated me and the song by the end of the week, but they couldnt help but sing it with me...

this is what it should sound like, if you've never heard the song.

go meat!

2008-07-19T17:08:00.000-07:00

ok, these always make me laugh. they are pretty much my favorite commercials. thought id share, for you to have a laugh too.

and these arent go meat ones, but they are other fav commercials of mine

lol

i wish i could dance

2008-07-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

chris thought he didnt like the show so you think you can dance so we didnt watch it. this is what we missed. sad!

now chris regrets not watching the show.

barney, just clarifying!

2008-07-17T21:14:00.000-07:00

so today we had our monthly brainstorming and we were reviewing nehemiah and what we should do on the sunday we go through chapter 2.

matt doan suggested for a response we could have everyone climb on the same "mount" as referred to in verse "14Then I passed on to the Fountain Gate and the King's Pool, but there was no place for my mount to pass." (horse)

and i dont know exactly where my mind was but at the time it made complete sense! so i replied it would have to be some sort of "sally the camel" like the barney song.

everyone (with their selective hearing, eh em... eric) heard BARNEY, and werent interested in my reasoning. how do i know this song? you may ask? my brother is 6 years younger than me, sister 7 and other sister 8. so ive had my fair share of barney, alright!

but for those of you who recieved eric twitter with NO context to the situation, heres some background info, and the song itself to help you understand the madness that goes on in my head (why it made perfect sense).

now you get it? see we would need a sally the camel if the whole congregation were to climb one mount

lucky cricket

2008-07-17T20:40:00.000-07:00

i cant find the noise!!!!

but for the past 2 hours my tv has been turned up higher than normal to attempt to drown out the noise of the cricket somewhere hidden in my house. ive narrowed it down to the kitchen/dining/living area (yeah lots of help?!?). they tend to like to hide in our curtains. alls i got to say is it wont be such a lucky cricket once i find it.

cool youtube find

2008-07-16T19:40:00.000-07:00

so i found this guy on youtube and i love all his covers he does, thought id share

my other faves of his are umbrella, im yours, shake it...

kenny loggins

2008-07-15T23:06:00.000-07:00

ok, so as i was looking as i was looking through old pics. i came across these too...

this is my dad (left), dad friend (middle) and KENNY LOGGINS (right)

this was my first birthday, we call it baby's first luau in hawaii (its a big deal, lots of friends, unfortunately i dont remember)

long story short, my dad was a beach boy on kaanapali beach selling sun screen and oil, and my mom worked on a boat off that same beach. kenny went on a sail, my mom struck up a conversation b/c she knew my dad was a huge fan. kenny then inquired about doing a private sail, he rented the boat one night for a sunset sail and invited my mom and dad to join as guests. from there they had a bbq together and from then on when kenny would visit they would get together.

even more recently... my mom and ran into kenny and his family on the big island (where he either lives or visits often) and he totally recognized my mom and i.

so thats my celeb connection. pretty cool

pink + blue = purple

2008-07-13T23:31:00.000-07:00

how crazy is this??

i found this pic last time i was visiting my mom... can you guess who it is?

zoomed in...

thats my mom and dad. crazy, huh?

hume lake...here we come!

2008-07-11T18:30:00.000-07:00

ohh man im so excited to go to hume, i havent experienced high school hume since 2002, after my junior year of high school. but i worked there summer of 2003. thats where i met chris.
here's our first pic... awe how cute... who would have ever thought??? (dont we look so awkward?)

so this summer, hume's theme is robots and its super neon, crazy colors... one of the things ive been working on for my small group is a tee shirt design just for us. heres a sneak peek...

you like?

i make jewelry!

2008-07-09T21:33:00.000-07:00

so in my spare time (dont have a ton of it, but when i do) i love to make jewelry!

its a tedious task but so rewarding.

i start by picking my beads and chain

then you use your tools to twist the wire into something like this

then you curl the ends and times that by 100 (ish)

then start attaching it to the chain

then whaa-la you have a pretty necklace

ive made a few, my favorite is the turquoise one

my confession: jeans

2008-07-09T21:24:00.000-07:00

maybe its more of an obsession...

so people collect things, right?

well i just happen to have a boat load of pants, specifically jeans.
i counted... eh um, 50+ pairs.

some are "fat pants" or "bloated pants" "skinny pants" ( i love it when i can wear those) "pants i need to fix" "fancy pants" "paint pants" you get the idea, 50 pants are totally necessary, and i love when i get new ones. its pretty much one of my favorite things i like to buy, and i am proud to say ive never spen more that $50 on a pair.

my favorite ones are diesel rip-offs i got in thailand for $3, awesome!

the fam was in mexico

2008-07-05T14:40:00.000-07:00

our fourth of july was spent in mexico... awesome-ness!

we left thursday morning and we are down here until monday morning and dont get back to work until tuesday. yippie!

its been over two years since we've had the entire gniffke clan all in mexico. its been great! one of the things we made sure to do was take a family portrait.

the coolest thing about these fam portraits was i took them! and i was in them! i used my new handy dandy remote control, now that ive told you that you can probably see it in my hand.

here are a few of my other faves that i took. poor micah had a fever and noah was making silly faces most of the time and tay is so adorable!

to view the some other photos click here

graphics: unleashed

2008-07-02T17:32:00.000-07:00

so one of the most recent things ive gotten my hands into is doing some free-lance graphics.

ive always had some desire to get into graphic design, before i got hooked on ministry i wanted to go to biola for their graphic design program... but at that point in my life God had other plans for me. so i never really had any "training" ive been learning from watching anna and trevor (co-workers in our communications ministry at calvary).

my first real graphics project was for our concert for a cause on may 25, i learned a lot just by fooling around with photoshop. my next project was the calvary new logo tee, i really liked it, i used a hand drawn tree along with altering photos to create a 4 color layout.

that tree design for calvary has opened doors for me to start designing for sanctity industries, here was my first project. it was for a youth group in whittier, their doing a summer program for high schoolers called unleashed.

im so proud of lauren!

2008-07-01T20:55:00.000-07:00

ok, one of "my girls" i have 10 girls in my small group, ive been with them for 3 years now, since they were in 6th grade. i am so proud of all of them but i just wanted to highlight lauren johnson. shes been writing and singing her own original songs, mind you she is only 14!

well yesterday a group of us went to watch her play at gypsy den's open mic in santa ana. it was her first time with an audience and she was pretty much amazing and many came up to her afterwards to ask her questions and shake her hand in approval and awe.

you should check her myspace out and hear some of her tunes.

this is her at gypsy den

haha, ulgy mermaids! wow

2008-07-01T20:40:00.000-07:00

so its one of those things you dont really believe until you see it, but wow the other night i was bored with cassie and we pretty much occupied ourselves for an hour and a half with my new underwater camera.

so as fun as it was, we or i should say i look hideous under water like a beast, i wish i looked like an angelic mermaid or at least ariel, but nope it was more like ursulas seaweed "poor unfortunate souls"

heres a peek... lol be nice

alriht thats enough, to see more of our humiliation visit this album

i like photography

2008-07-01T20:15:00.000-07:00

one of my favorite things to do is take photos.

mostly i like capturing moments, candid shots, or cute babies/niece and nephews and sometimes nature (although i havent figured out what to do with all my nature shots ive gathered over the years so im kinda over it)

here is a link to my photo album containing my besties and faves accumulated
but you are welcome to check out all my photo albums at picasweb.google.com/gniffke

here are some of my recent faves and besties

my job...

2008-07-01T19:36:00.000-07:00

for those of you who dont know i work calvary church. and one of the things that becomes a blessing and curse is the "slash" job descriptions. my "title" is communications assistant and visual arts coordinator, plus some worship ministry support. and i love it 98% of the time because i dont have the lame boring come to work and push papers job of redundancy, i have admin-assistant stuff to tend to my OCD-ness but its partnered with my creative duties. perfect! the 2% of times when my job is pain is when it feels like i have 2-3 full time jobs at calvary and everything is due at the same time, ugh!

so thats just to preface... i thought one of the things i could share with you is the creative side to my job. (the admin stuff isnt that exciting to blog about and show pictures of)

only recently i started taking pictures of our sets on stage and lobby displays. how it goes: our teaching team (senior pastor plus 2 others) pick where we are going for our next series, our brainstorm team of 10-15 people collaborate ideas on what to call the series and what the messages will look like, then the communications team (2+myself), sometimes along with my creative team(3-6ppl) will talk through different ways to graphically explain the series (we tend to be implicit thematic) we try to come up with 4 solid ideas and sit with them until one seems to surface either with the team or graphically or set/lobby wise.

then i meet with my creative team and we plan how to build a set on our 40' wide x 20' high stage (which everything looks tiny in our HU-MANGUS sanctuary), then we spend typically one week building, painting, construction and such to make master pieces.

with all that said, 2 of my favorite are our most recent sets (might i add that i think we are becoming so much better at all this)

2 series ago we did a series called "LIFE:" going though 1 Thessalonians, so on stage we literraly built it to look like the graphics and put a cyclorama (sp?) aka cyc so we could through LED light on there and make the background change color.

the most recent and most favorite is a series on Prayer, called "Can you hear me now?" and we did a pop montage of hands in prayer-like postures across the stage. the most grueling part about this set was each picture of hands was 4' x 4' but it was made up of 50 pieces of paper we aligned and glued together, ugh! thankfully it was worth it, and we were pleasantly supriesed and able to admire it for the 5 weeks it was up.

the hammer

2008-06-29T18:31:00.000-07:00

my husband thinks this is hilarious.

if you havent heard it yet, the nick name dubbed upon me, its official, and i have come to accept it but not fully posses it...

the hammer.

i think as long as its said in love and grace, and not the under-your-breath, wish i could tell it to her face, everyone knows it-why hasnt she figured it out? wow she's demanding! way im ok with it.

i think also that people who actually do call me this love me enough to have the heart to tell me when i speak with "hammer-like" essence in an inappropriate means, to say "settle down."

with all that said, the hammer is out.

going to eat dinner with the in-laws :)

feel like death

2008-06-29T17:34:00.000-07:00

so there is one universal look we all have it comes and goes, some have it more than others, regardless we share this feeling exposed through our skin, wearing it on our face. the look of misery, times 5. not so much misery of life or death, more like exhaustion mushed with pain.

today i have this look, i call it death.

sometimes i get this look when i first wake up, but here are the circumstances for it to count. it must be the wrong side of the bed, my alarm must've gone off, or didnt and i am late, and i probably have hubby's norwegian morning breath burning my eyelids.

that is a minor case, another recipe of this death look is when chris gets a "insert foot in mouth" moment, pushes that "button" that he knows all so well. and i cant help but give him the look of death to help remind him the irritability he has just caused to crawl up my spine. (but at the end of the day you just got to love him)

but even worse than above... the one that i had the pleasure of dwelling with me today. i wore this death look on my face, pretty much it feels like my eyelids are being pulled and a dry, itchy, red feeling occurs in my eyeballs. the bridge between my brows feels as if its being yanked by tweezers with no relief. behind my eyeballs between my temples feels like its being roughly ringed out like a wash cloth then brutally beaten with a axe. the breathing holes of my nose continue to be punished with every inhale like im stuck in a hot box of cigarette smoke. which in return make me look like im scowling, make my body feel immobile.

what is todays look of death caused by? stupid, annoying, disgusting SMOG of california. and the "bright" side of things... the heat of summer seems to welcome smog more often! (sarcastic smiley face)

thanks for listening to me complain