When Ricky broke the sad news to me that our friend Kenny passed away in a tragic diving accident, I was confused. Yes, confused. “Which Kenny?” I don’t know of too many Kennys but it can’t be that Kenny because he is OUR FRIEND Kenny and we were just chatting two days ago. Yes, it’s our dear friend Kenny. I still think it is too crazy to be true. It almost seems like I just learned that our friends and our loved ones have the permission to leave this world without saying goodbye, ANYTIME.

Kenny is a brilliant architect, a wise man who thinks deep. A logical person but have his artistic side through the love for photography, art and music. We attend the same church fellowship; we serve together in our church’s photography team. I always enjoy talking photography with him. He gives me insights especially on the technical side of photography. I treasure the times we worked together at church retreats for the past two years. I won’t forget how we scouted for group photo location and staying late to do the slideshow. I learned from him to never settle for a mediocre job but always strive to do the best, for the Lord and for others. Because he once said, “Even if others don’t know, I cannot face myself.”

When I think of his wife and his two lovely girls, both I have taught in Sunday School, my heart is torn apart. I cry until I suffocate myself. Even when my tears dry out for a moment, that pukey feeling in my stomach does not go away. I can never fully understand the extend that his family misses him. I can only guess that it’s a million times worse than how I feel.

Kenny, I didn’t know that when Ricky and I said goodbye to you last Friday, it was our last. But I thank our Lord that we shall see you again in heaven someday and we won’t have to part again. In the meanwhile, you are always being remembered in our hearts. I am grateful that I had the chance to capture the happiness of your lovely family. This photo of your family is pure joy. The love you have for one another, so strong and beautiful, will live forever!

Kenny, thank you for taking this family photo for us last November. It means so much to us!

Ricky and I just came back from two weddings this past Labor Day weekend. I am so proud of myself for making this BIG accomplishment – my toes did not cramp a single time at both weddings! Round of applause please. In truth, Gatorade deserves the credit. I used to drink Monster thinking that it would give me all the energy that a monster needs, but I was still getting toe cramps at every wedding. Given how athletic I am, when I have to reach up and down by tip-toeing and squatting all day, my feet sometimes blacks out on me. Now forget Monster and bananas, I’m sticking with Gatorade because my toes like it.

While I’m working on the images from those weddings, here are my favorites from the photo booth, compliments of Mebo Photo.

Only lucky girls get a bag each year on their birthdays. I am lucky enough to be one of them. Last year, a Shootsac. This year, an Epiphanie bag. I think I should start shopping for next year’s bag. Thank you my dear for spoiling me. I love to be spoiled.

I almost missed reading this email because the subject line was blank. It was from someone named Rebecca whom I didn’t know. She stumbled upon my blog when she read my post to sell an old camera on the Two Peas photo forum. This is what she wrote:

Hi Iris-

I stumbled onto your blog through two peas in a bucket.

I am reading your December archive about your mother and grandfather’s new faith and weeping.  What a wonderful story!  God is an amazing God, isn’t he.  I’ll keep your family in my prayers!

On a side note, your images are breathtaking!  What a talent the Lord has given to you and it looks like you are using it well!

(-The hardest thing for me is color cast and all your images are perfect!)

In Him-
Rebecca

The December blog post that Rebecca mentioned above is titled Amazing Grace. Getting an email or comment like this just made my day, and my week as well. It is very encouraging for me to know that other people can see the works of God by visiting my blog. So please don’t be shy to leave me a blog comment or two, or three, or ten… It always makes my day (spam comment does not apply!).

Photo below: my mom found this while we were walking on a trail. It looks like a pea but it’s  not a pea.

When Annabelle goes to school and Christian does not have to play dress up with her, these are his playmates. I was so glad that I caught these frames, because I can’t stop smiling when I look at them.

Credits
Director: Christian
Casting: Squeeze Toy Alien, Woody, Buzz Lightyear
Narration:  Christian
Backstage crew: Rex
Photographer:  Iris

Ricky and I have been both buried with work lately but we still went out to dinner to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary. I couldn’t remember the last time when I laughed so hard that my stomach burnt. Laugh tears filled my eyes and people were staring at me like, “C’mon behave.” I had fun playing iphone games with him. He was funny. Not the game.

It doesn’t seem like that long ago that I met him at our high school. Counting the years, I’ve known Ricky for half of my life. Crazy, but I don’t mind.

Sometimes I run out of new things to feel grateful for. Partly because I pray for the important things, but always forget to pray for the little things in life. The more we pray, the more miracles God will do, the more grace we will receive, and more new things to thank Him for. How can we pray for little things in life?

It is a false sense of security we have that we are in control of ANYTHING. That is a lie from the depths of hell itself. We may THINK we are in control of certain things, when in reality we are not. That’s why we should start to pray about everything, no matter how insignificant it seemed. If I would pray as I was looking for a parking spot. That didn’t mean a spot up front magically became available, but it did mean I got the exact spot God wanted me to be in. If I would pray about what camera to buy, it didn’t mean that Canon will give me a Mark II for free, but probably God thought I looked cooler with a Canon hanging on my neck. Oh well, I made this one up.

The point I want to make is, if we don’t pray about something, we leave it up to chance, instead of what God wants for us. To me, God is much better than chance, or me. And since God has given us the ability to communicate with Him at any time about anything, we are fools when we don’t take full advantage of that opportunity. We are only making our lives more difficult when we live any part of it apart from God. We are carrying unnecessary burdens when we don’t take everything, even the little things to the Lord in prayer.

To help myself learn to pray for the little things in life, I bought this book on the internet – Paper Bag Prayers.  It is a cute little book that contains prayers about many random things the author has in her paper bag. Things like a map, a banana, a q-tip, a paper cup etc. She showed me how we can open up conversations with the Lord on just about anything. So keep praying about the big things in your life, but now, start even praying about the little things. Pray on!

The following are from my church’s vacation bible school last month. The songs from there are still the greatest hits in my  household right now.

Don’t mistaken that I am talking about my kids. Even if that’s how I feel once in a while, I dare not to say that before God. This post is about my experience last night. As much as I know the health benefits of tea, it’s always a mistake for me to drink. After drinking three cups yesterday, I woke up at 3am last night wide awake. Instead of lying in bed and count the sheeps, I listened to some experts’ suggestion – read a book. But here’s the second mistake I made and I blame it on the expert who didn’t warn me to choose the subject carefully. I read the wrong book! I grabbed a photography book that was sitting on my desk — Learning to See Creatively, and read for an hour. When I went back to sleep after that, I felt my heart was beating fast and I was catching my breath. It seemed like I had an inspiration attack. Lessons for me? Never drink more than one cup of tea per day, and never read a photography book before bed.

Speaking of mistakes, Annabelle thinks my black and white photos are mistakes. She pointed to one of them on my computer screen and told me, “Mommy, I  think you need to fix that photo. Something’s wrong with it.” She got me thinking on that one! Is it a mistake, or a classic?

I ask God each day to give me strength and wisdom to do all my tasks efficiently and effectively. This morning, I did the same, but a thought came to me afterward, “Why didn’t I pray for God to help me love someone I’ve never loved whole-heartedly.” Then this bible verse from 1 John showed up in front of me, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.” Are you living in love today?

On a side note, I feel so grateful for the many of you who commented on my facebook status last week about Christian’s tragedy. Your love for him is overwhelming. Thanks for the prayers, well wishes, candies and gifts for him.  To him, it’s not such a bad thing after all.