Andrew and Heather Rozell » Our Lives

So I had a couple of random things that I wanted to post and share with you; in list form of course.

1) Shawn D’lee Fine Art has a new website up and running: www.shawndlee.com. She also has her first gallery show in Dallas this September. Heather and I are very excited for her and can’t wait to see her work in a gallery!

2) Who can get enough of my brother’s being aired on Gay, Not Gay on 1310 AM The Ticket? Here is the audio:

3) Pool party! Another picture from father’s day. (note to photographers: put a little tilt shift on it.)

This morning Denton got a wonderful summer shower. He was the perfect morning rain that kept the intense heat away and that has now left lingering clouds this afternoon. Its currently 78 degrees. Definitely a good way to end June.

I have only a couple things on my mind, however one is political so WATCH OUT!

1) I am not sure if you have been keeping up with the “Waxman-Markey Bill” in Congress or not. You might be more familiar with it if I referred to it has the “Global Warming Bill.” Regardless of the name of it, if passed, it will be the single largest tax increase in US history.

Even putting aside the fact that there is no absolute proof “global warming” exists, (take a look at Arizona’s new record)
I am against this bill.

Let me try to summarize:
The bill is a cap-and-trade bill that will cap the amount of carbon emission a company is allowed. Also included with the cap, is the ability to trade your allotted carbon emission with other companies. Oh, I almost forgot; included in the bill is the allowance for a total of 2 billion tons of carbon to be “offset” through Earth-friendly methods. So in essence, 30% of all carbon emission can be simply offset (read: perpetuated) by a company planting trees.

So that is certainly the “consequence” to corporations, but what about me, the consumer?
Because of the increase taxes on carbon emissions and general energy, every American will see an projected increase of $1,600.00 per year (not proportional to income). What seems anti-Obama though, is because this pertains to energy, the lower-income Americans will be hit harder as a great percentage of their income goes towards energy costs, like heat.  But certainly, Americans will see some savings through this as well, right?
Correct, there will be savings. The Congressional Budget Office estimates by 2012 there will be a tax credit. This tax credit amounts to $161 for a single person or $359 for a five-person household. To be eligible for this 2012 tax credit indviduals must make less than $23,000 or families with 2 kids less than $42,000.
In summary, all Americans pay $1,600.00 per year ($19,200 total by 2020) and some of us will see a total of $161.00 back!

2) In my experience with churches and pastors, there is rarely a pastor that I can agree whole-heartedly with. Generally we agree on the important things (i.e. salvation by grace), but often not on lesser things (i.e. spiritual gifts, women role in church, legalism, etc). However, John Piper and I see eye-to-eye on most everything I have heard him speak about, even rappers. For instance, a local, Christian rapper Lecrae often performs with a guy named Tedashi. Recently Lecrae and Tedashi were performing at Piper’s church, and someone had the genius idea to mash-up Piper and Tedashi. This pumps me up. Hope you enjoy:

3) Dylan was hanging out in the house yesterday and remained still long enough for me to take this shot on my phone. Although she is absolutely crazy and a spazz, she is my crazy, spaztic dog and I love her.

Confession: I blog surf way to much. Most of my blog surfing involves photographers I really enjoy. One of my favorite photographers right now is Sean Flanigan. (The Australian Peter Lik is also pretty impressive.) At any right, Amy Wenzel, who is a portrait photographer in Grand Rapids, Michigan is on my frequent blog roll. Her husband, David, owns a media company called Dot&Cross which has produced a variety of videos including Rob Bell’s NOOMA series at Mars Hill Bible Church.

Try to follow me here. 5 years ago, I was hit in my right temple by a football thrown in the pitch of darkness. That hit eventually led to an ER surgency, probable risk of blindness, a near two week hospital stay and a follow-up surgery 3 months later. I was amazed that such a weird accident led to so much, and by the grace of God I am perfectly healthy now with perfect vision, in both eyes. Now, thats all to say that 2 weeks ago David Wenzel ran into his own unfortunate accident.

While visiting San Francisco, David was joking with friends and accidently hit his head. A few minutes later, he couldn’t think straight and had a hard time talking. The following day, he had a seizure and was rushed to the hospital. Doctors assumed to find bleeding in the brain, but what they didn’t expect was to also find a tumor. The doctors in California wanted to send him to Minnesota. He was (amazingly) quickly accepted to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester and recently had is first brain biopsy. They are currenlty waiting on the results.

In a matter of merely two weeks, David went from a fun trip in Nor-Cal to hospital a bed at the Mayo Clinic. And yet his spirit is a resounding optimistic one.

Amy and David are still in Minnesota at the Mayo Clinic, but looking to be sent home to Grand Rapids this week. David has continued to update his blog about his journey. It has been both heart breaking to read first hand the fears of cancer, but at the same time be reassured by his faith. He is absolutely trusting in God’s power to resolve this situation has He sees fit. His blog is Jump David Jump and I definitely encourage you to read it and follow him. It (he) is pretty amazing.

You can send messages to him via Twitter @davidvwenzel or #55Zebra

Pictures of Amy and David were taken late last year by Jasmine Star.

This past weekend Heather and I split time with her father and my father in celebration of them being great dads to us both. My father managed to raise 4 boys and Heather’s father has been responsible for the raising of 5 kids. Between the two, there have been 9 little twerps running around their legs for years and years.

In fact, Heather’s father, Craig, told me Saturday that he and Heather’s mom, Shawn, were able to sleep in past 8:30 for the first time in years. I almost can’t comprehend that. I need to sleep that “late” atleast once a week!

Whether it is our father’s not sleeping in so we kids could do the things we enjoy or any other sacrifices they have made not just for me and Heather, but for our entire families, we are thankful.

And just because a post is always better with a picture, here are some shots of little Abram I took at the pool on Sunday.

Through a very random happenstance, Heather and I were fortunate enough to be able to take a weekend trip to Las Vegas. Neither Heather nor I had ever been and we were both excited for the opportunity.

We arrived in Vegas on Friday night, right at sunset and kept it very low key in our hotel, Trump, for the night. Saturday morning we woke early and tried to take as much as the strip we could in the few hours we had. We basically started at the Wynn and hotel jumped down the west side of the strip ultimately turning around at the MGM Grand and heading back up the east side.

Saturday night we ate a nice dinner at Mario Batali’s Italian restaurant inside the Venetian and then strolled over to watch the fountain show in front of the Bellagio (think final scene of Ocean’s 11). The fountain show was pretty awesome; so simple yet so complicated. After the fountain show we saw Cirque Du Soleil “O” inside the Bellagio.  “O” is one of the 6 Cirque Du Soleil shows in Las Vegas. It features typical circus elimates like all Cirque Du Soleil shows except ”O” also includes synchronized swimming and high diving. It was an absolutely unbelievable show! 

Sunday we, again, kept it low key  – we were both exhausted from the long day on Saturday. After waking up slowly, we eventually wandered down to the Wynn and ate brunch and window shopped until we headed out on an early afternoon flight.

Although the trip was fast and exhausting it was a great time. I really enjoyed how nice the people were, how good the food was and how beautiful the scene is.

I, very uncharacteristically, didn’t take many pictures. However, I did snap a few and here they are.

The Trump Hotel was incredibly nice. The rooms, food and spa were all high level. There is no casino there which Heather and I liked very early on as the entire hotel is quiet and relaxing.

New York, New York Hotel looks like it is fake. But I guarantee you that those buildings are as real as it gets.

Connecting almost every hotel to one another is great shopping. This was an atrium connecting the Venetian Hotel with the Palazzo Hotel.

Heather and I both really like the Encore and Wynn hotels. This shot was taken from the front of the Trump Hotel.

From the beginning of the trip I was obsessed with finding “the canal running through the building with the sky painted ceiling.” I had Heather and myself looking all over for it. (I don’t think Heather minded it as it took us through nearly every mall.) However, ironically enough, the restaurant I had made reservations was, sure enough, at the exact place I had wanted to see all along. Of course I had to take pictures there!