Southern Valley Champion

Toby won this weeks Tournament with 3 pins.  This final match is over last years 5th place state medalist.  Toby lost to him twice last year.

 

Subzero Muzzle Loader Deer

Sam shot his first Muzzle Loader Deer tonight.  The temp was –1 at the time.  The deer was 154 paces across a picked corn field.  Sam used the hood of the truck for a rest and made a perfect shot. The deer ran about 50 yards before crashing in the corn. We were about a mile from the closest road.  Sorry about the quality.  This is just a cell phone picture.

Toby's First 2 matches

New Farming Video

Jesse’s Deer

Jesse shot this deer at 82 paces with a rifle.  This was the first of many that came out to feed on an alfalfa feed in front of our ground blind.  Sam was on the other side of the field and had to watch all the deer since they were on our side and too far from him for a shot.  Muzzle Loader season starts next week.  Both boys are looking forward to the season.  Toby is continuing to archery hunt.  It has been a great year so far with six deer in the freezer.

My Buck

 

I was fortunate to take this buck on the last day of the 2009 early bow season.  He was chasing a doe when I shot him.  I told the boys that chasing girls can be deadly.  Tomorrow the Rifle season starts.  Sam and Jesse will be looking for a deer in the morning.  Click Here for more pics.

Nebraska Bow hunting

I have been so busy hunting and trying to keep up with the  ministry that I have not had time to update the blog with some pics.  Perhaps I will write later with the story but here are a few pics.  Toby shot his deer about a month ago.  Dad and I shot ours this past week. The final one is a young guy from our church with a great buck he brought by to show off.

 

 

Prayer Request- Update 2

Hello everyone,

At this point, Gabriel is no longer on the ventilator, praise God. He is still in the incubator. Liz will be discharged tonight. It seems that he is out of immediate danger, and it will just be a slow process towards getting him healthy, strong, and home. I do not think that I will have anything to update for at least a few days. I will let you know if anything seriously changes or if he is released.

Thank you for your continued prayers,

Brian

Prayer Request- Update 1

Hello everyone,

I have a bit more information about Gabriel. He is still on a ventilator, but they can tell that he is breathing somewhat on his own power. So, that is good news. They did an echo-cardiogram and his heart looked pretty good. It appears as though one chamber is not pumping as hard as it should, but they think that this will likely improve over time. With oxygen deprivation, brain damage is the fear. Of course, there is no way to test this. We will just have to wait and see. Gabriel will be in the hospital for at least a week. Liz will be discharged tomorrow.

Thank you for your continued prayers. I will update you more when I get more information.

Brian

Prayer Request

Hello, everyone. I am not sure how many of you know of Becca's older sister Kim (Massanari) Kahan. She and her husband live in Maryland. Kim's oldest son, Jacob, just had a baby with his wife, Liz. I know that sounds a little confusing. The point is that the baby, Gabriel, was delivered last night with some complications. Due to things I do not understand, the baby was without oxygen for an unknown amount of time. Last we heard (at about 5:30am), the baby was stable but on a ventilator.

Please pray for Gabriel's health and for the family in general.

I will keep you updated as I know more.

Brian

Toby's Deer

On Sunday night Toby, took his first deer with a bow.  He shot it at 18 yards dropping in its tracks. It is a 3x3 buck.  Mattie was in a ground blind with me.  We saw lots of deer and actually shot a doe but did not find it.  Sam and Jesse were in other stands.  They are not yet carrying a bow.  Both saw lots of deer including one very large buck.

 

On Wednesday the kids had off from school so we went in the morning.  Sam and Jesse saw a couple of deer.  I saw none and Toby shot his second deer.  The archery permits have a bonus doe permit so Toby let a small buck walk and then shot this doe.  She was 26 yards away and his shot again dropped her in her tracks.  We now have lots of meat in the freezer.

God’s Faithfulness

As the weather cools and the leaves begin to turn, the signs of fall are all around us.  Our sovereign God controls all things.  His faithfulness to us is displayed in the changing of the seasons as the heat of summer gives way to the cool  nights of early fall.  Soon, the snow will fly only to be followed by the daffodils of spring.  As sure as the seasons is God’s grace offered to us in the horror of the cross.  One day we will be with him.  Until then, we enjoy the beauty of his creation and dream of the day when all will be made perfect as it was intended to be before Adam allowed pride to enter his heart.

As we spent our first afternoon in a tree stand, we were filled with anticipation for the deer that might pass within range.  On this day, that was not to be.  As so often happens, each deer passed by safely beyond the range of my arrow.  There will be more days to dream about the big one that didn’t get away. Today was a day to spend some time with my boys and recognize that I am blessed by the God of All.

New Blog

Because none of us have enough blogs to follow... Karen and I have a new blog. We wanted to have something that our friends and Karen's family could see without sending all that traffic to the Thompson family blog. There's a link to it on the right, along with Tom's & Rob's blogs. For now, you can check this link: http://www.spenglerspot.blogspot.com

Photo project

Here's a photo I took of Lindsay along a trail off of the Kancamagus Highway. I shot it in RAW and .jpg format simultaneously. The picture was Karen's idea, using the amazingly blue sky and vibrant green leaves as a backdrop. Karen held Lindsay over her head while I got her attention and took the shot. Due to the bright light in the background, I shot with the pop-up flash on... not much control, but just enough to provide some fill-flash. Lots of smiles, but this one was my favorite!


Using Photoshop CS2, I made some edits. 1st, I cropped, to remove Karen's thumb from the picture. I also pushed Lindsay over to the right just a bit to make the off-center seem more intentional and take advantage of the 2/3s rule... although I wasn't able to get all the way there. Next, because I shot in RAW, I was able to adjust the white balance, warming up the picture a bit to make the lighting feel more natural for that time of day. I then bumped up the contrast and saturation just a bit, while toning down the midtones slightly trying to reduce the hot spot effect on her forehead. Most importantly, perhaps, I lightened and saturated her eyes. In the original, her eyes are very dark and unnatural, while in this new version you get a better sense of their true color.




Then, just to see what it would look like in B&W, I used the Channel mixer to turn the photo to monochrome, pulling down the red tones and boosting the blue and green. That enabled just enough detail and contrast in her face.

I hope you like the results as much as we do! What a cutie!

Toby’s first touchdown

Kindergarten!

Chase's 1st day of Kindergarten was a huge success! He even went back for Day 2 today!

http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1301873016/a=8166226_8166226/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=comcast/

The Maine Event

Becca and I recently returned from a week in Maine. We spent the first few days camping in Camden Hills State Park, in Camden, ME, "The Jewel of the Maine Coast." While there, we went on a few hikes. The second half of our trip we stayed at Island View Inn. We filled our days with shopping, sight-seeing, sailing, and eating eating eating!

Happy Birthday, Brian!

I just happened to have this older picture of Brian on my work laptop. Enjoy your day, Brian! 26?! Getting old!

Mattie’s Baptism

Some have said they can’t see the album.   Try this

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/Loomisphotography/August2009BaptismPoolPart#

 

After proclaiming their faith in Jesus and desire to obey him throughout their lives, Mattie and two of her friends were Baptized last night.

Christopher can see now!

Evidently Christopher was pretty blind. The doctor could not believe he never told us that he couldn't see until 2 weeks ago.

Before

After

Uncle Earl's Retirement

Earl's retirement ceremony this weekend was fun. Uncle Lee told childhood stories on Sat. and a BBQ. On Sunday they showed pics of his and Donna's life's ministries. During the service Lee and Earl spoke. After the service we enjoyed a luncheon that the church provided. Shari, TC and kids were down for the BBQ and Traci and Art came for Sunday.

IMG_5923

IMG_5923
Originally uploaded by spenglerchip

The Columbine. This is the state flower for Colorodo. An amazingly beautiful, delicate flower now stained with such an ugly association with it's name. These flowers were everywhere in Vail and came in at least a dozen different colors and shades... yellows, blues, purples, reds and pinks.

Fantastic time in Vail!

We spent a week with some friends in Vail, Co a couple weeks ago. We had an AMAZING time! Hiking, mountain biking, flowers, beautiful laces! It was fantastic!

Since we returned I've been swamped with work, and re-finishing a set of bunkbeds for Chase & Zach. We just got them finished up, assembled, and put up in their room... so tonight I had a minutes. None of these are touched up yet, but it's a start!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22098538@N02/sets/72157621808728622/

I did it!

No, I didn't eat the fruit roll-up.

I joined Twitter. Now what do I do?

Chip

Darlene's Sweet 16

I finally have a few minutes to upload the pictures from Darlene's Sweet 16 party. We had a combined party with her best friend, Jacquelyn. It was a "Red Carpet Affair" so all the girls could wear their dresses from their school semi formals again. We used some graphics from Church that Tom made for our summer series "Shore at the Movies". He made a couple Oscar props and also made posters from their baby pictures. They had father daughter dance to Cinderella. Watching them dance I had to think back to 16 years ago when Tom held her for the first time. It feels like we blinked and now she is 16. Where did the years go?

Sweet 16

Belated Happy Memorial Day!

Mom and Dad came up for Memorial Day weekend and the boys' birthday. We had a party for the boys, went for a walk/bike ride, did some shopping, watched a really short parade, and of course did a little photo shoot. I know I haven't been posting many pictures lately, so here's a few to hold you over...

Sam's Testimony

Off to the race

Darlene left on the band trip this morning at 5:30. 15 hour bus trip to Kinds Island, OH then off to Indy 500 on Saturday for opening parade and 100th anniversary opening for Indy. They will be televised on ESPN Saturday @ 5:00.

Bible Instruction Class Graduation

After 9 months of hard work, Sam graduated from our Bible class.  In the class we covered Bible Survey, Doctrine, Church, Missions and Service.  Sam and his friends all did a great job.  each of the students led the Sunday morning service and gave their testimony.  I will upload the video to the blog soon.

 

 

²⁴Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. ²⁵Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.   

1 Corinthians 9:24-25

Summer Vacation

We are planning to be in NJ sometime around July 4.  What is everybody's else's plans?  We had thought about June 23-July 7 or there about.  Comment and give us your dates so we can plan to optimal time.

Happy Birthday to the newest licensed driver!

 

16 Years Ago!

I can't believe it has been 16 years. It seems like just yesterday Darlene was born. Here are a couple pictures. Out scanner is not working properly so I took pictures of the pictures.

Matt's Prom and Christopher's news article.

Tonight is Matt's Prom. Matt goes to St. Augustine Prep. They don't have school tomorrow so they can have their prom tonight.



Christopher wrote his first news article for the school newspaper.

Darlene's Semi

First of the spring formals was last night. It seems like they had a good time. Matt's Prom is next week.

2009 Semi

Shore Fellowship Family Service

Our elementary Sunday School program has a great program called Family Times that teaches a different virtue every month. Family Times produces Virtue Packs that parents can buy. We sell it in our book store, but they can also be purchased online. The virtue packs provide activities to be used once a week during dinner, driving, bed time, and in the morning. All of this is designed to give parents simple ways to help their kids grow in faith and character. We start the month with a family service which is similar to VBS. It introduces the virtue with songs, skits and a Bible story. Then each Sunday morning they continue to teach the virtue with a program pretty much like the fmaily service. It has been a great program and we can see the kids really learning how to live a christian life. The virtue this month in Conviction - Standing for what you believe is right, even when others don't.

Even though Christopher is in Junior High, he helps with the praise worship. This is a video of the opening to this month's family service. This all takes place in our children's ministry building. Tom designed and produced the tree house in the balcony.

Drew Learning to Swim (Video)

Drew has started taking off his “swimmies” or “floaties” and actually swimming.  Well, maybe it would more appropriately be called “desperate doggie paddling”, but swimming nonetheless! 

To watch in HD, click play below, then choose HD at the bottom. To watch it large in HD click here.

Braden Crawling (Video)

He started crawling about a week ago. 

To watch in HD, click play below, then choose HD at the bottom. To watch it large in HD click here (requires a fast connection).

The gardening has begun!

Becca and I started our garden tonight by planting a bunch of seeds. We
started peppers and flowers. I added another two flourescent lights and a
heating pad for the peppers. We'll see what starts to poke through the
soil in the next few weeks.

Brian

This was sent from my BlackBerry.

Sam gets the PIN!

Sam placed second at 110lbs in a Jr. High School Tournament

Lindsay Joy!

At 4:15am on March 18th, Lindsay Joy Spengler was born. She weighed in at 9 lbs 13 oz, and when she came out, everyone in the room gasped and said "Wow, she's big!"

She's beautiful, has lots of hair, and is doing quite well! Karen is doing well and was thrilled to only have to push for about 10-15 minutes.

Happy Birthday Grandmom!

To watch in HD, click play below, then choose HD at the bottom. To watch it large in HD click here (requires a fast connection).

39 weeks and counting!

I had to work to get this smile! Karen is 39 weeks pregnant today... just one more week to go! We had another appointment today and it looks like all systems are "go"... just waiting it out at this point. Karen's pretty uncomfortable at this point, but I guess you can't expect much else! Take a look at the birthday list on the right and take a guess at who will have to share their birthday!

Our weekend

10 Turkeys showed up on Saturday at the bird feeder. Are turkeys birds? 2 more Toms in my family. They have been here twice more. Can I claim them on my taxes yet? Above is the shelf Dad made so now I can really reach one of my shelves. And finally, Dad preparing the soil for the pea patch coming on March 17. That's how we will celebrate Mattie's birthday, plant peas.