Fight on Americans!!

Sunset on the Southfork

As most of your know my wife and I made some real big changes in our lives about 9 months ago (not babies).  We each quit or jobs in LA and relocated to Wyoming, for jobs that were less stressful and that would financially let us get ahead.  We began to really focus on what we were spending and where our money was going.  All of this financial planning biz came about due to a really awesome wedding gift that my parents gave us.  Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey  www.daveramsey.com, which totally helped us to get off the debt ferris wheel, by giving us laid out plans of how get out of debt and rather quickly at that, as well as encouraging us to "live like no one else so that eventually you can live like no one else".  (If you haven't heard about or seen it go check it out its the plan encompass all aspects of life from, retirement, college funds, getting out of debt, financial planning I.E. a budget that works for the whole family, how to invest and where to invest your money, and even the different types of life insurance. ) The system worked and in no time we were able to pay off alot of pesky debt and believe it or not increase our quality of life. Its amazing how happy you are when you are not trying to pay off the credit card each month.  We are still working on 1 car and some student loans but we have well laid plans on how to attack those and pay them off as fast as possible.  


SO WHY AM I WRITING ABOUT ALL OF THIS!


Well today in Walmart I saw a young woman of no more than 25 who was really struggling and could have used Financial Peace University.  I overheard her talking to the cashier as she was buying diapers, formula and a few essentials with her food stamps and WIC, about how tough life was becoming with her husband out of work.  Due to mostly seasonal employment in Cody.  My heart just wept for her because I could tell the overage of 20 dollars that her food stamps and WIC would not cover was alot of money to this family.  I should have just offered to pay for it, but I didn't want to overstep my boundaries and be rude ( I'm still kicking myself for not just doing it).  As most of you know hunger ministry is real big on my priority list and I feel it is my calling to help people who have very little.  I go out of my way when I see the homeless to give them a few bucks when I have cash and when I don't ill buy them a meal.  I know that America is hurting right now and alot of Americans need some help this holiday season.  So I thought I'd put a few my thoughts out there on some pretty cool ways to help our brothers and sisters in need.


1. Toys for tots --  Its all about the kids Baby!!!  www.toysfortots.org
2. Donate to Salvation Army.......  Santa's ringing bells outside of the grocery store.
3. Donate to SOSA --  www.endhunger.org/ An organization that focuses on feeding the homeless.
4. Buy AMERICAN -- This is really the best stimulus plan there is and it will create more jobs if we as consumers really try to Buy American !!!!


My holiday wish is for America to get back on its feet and start kicking ass again...  Fight on Americans.......

Let there be lots of Snow

Looking out into the horse pasture pre snow storm

Let there be Snow!  I am back working at the ranch for 2 weeks to get the boss organized, develop a proper digital workflow and a ground up redesign of his website.  Today the weather forecast called for  about 1.5 inches of snow.  Being a Florida native I get excited about any amount of snow.  Well all I can say is the weather man lied.  We had almost six inches of snow from 1pm to 4pm.  The snow has lessened but is still falling and is supposed to go all night.  Here is to hoping for over a foot by morning.

Ranch During the snow Storm

How Floridians measure snow fall.

Cruise Day 4 ~ Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas

On the final day of our cruise we went to Norwegians private island in the Bahamas. Our final day was cut short due to some rough seas and a oncoming storm.   But Erin and I still spent most of our day snorkeling and lazing on the beach.  It was a sad day because our vacation was over but we had a great time and got to experience a lot of cool things.

Cruise Day 3 ~ San Juan, Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico was a lot of fun.  We began the day with a tour of Barcardi the distillery.  Lets just say that free rum is great.  Lots of free rum before 10am is not so great but I took one for the team and had 5 rum drinks because good rum cant go to waste. 

Erin mimicking the fruit bat logo of Bacardi

Why is the rum always gone?

 So after the Bacardi tour we went to the oldest fort on US soil. It was very similar to the fort in St Augustine Fl they were built only 10 years apart and are both Spanish in origin, so there you go.

Costal View from the Fort

After exploring the fort for a little over an hour we explored Old San Juan in search of early Christmas gift as well as searching for some cool photos for me of historic Old San Juan.

Love the old spanish doors check them out !

Cruise Day 2 ~ St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

St. Thomas ~ U.S. Virgin Islands

On our second stop of our cruise we were in the beautiful island of St Thomas.  Neither of us had ever been to St Thomas, so we were both excited to get off the ship and explore.  Before cruising I had done some research on the Island. I was particularly interested in doing some diving there and heard that there were many locations under water that would not disappoint.  Well all the info I read was true, it was amazing.  The water was 86 degrees like jumping into a bathtub.  The water was super transparent an you could see 50 feet clear to the bottom.  Erin and I went on 2 dives in St Thomas off of Buck Island.  The first dive we went on was a reef dive and was lots of fun.  We spent most of our dive checking out all sorts of sea life, Sgt. Major fish, squirrel fish, skip jacks, angel fish, rays, and few hundred other fish I can't name.  It was a great dive and Erin's first dive of many to come in the Caribbean.  The second dive was a dive on a ship wreck.  The ship whose name I can neither pronounce or spell had a great history and was broken into three pieces and scattered across the sea floor.  You can read all about the ship and see some cool photos of it here http://www.divingstthomas.com/catanzasenora.htm   .   

 It was a great day and because my wife loves me soooooo much she even went to HOOTERS with me for a post dive meal of Nachos and Fries, cocktails were consumed as well. Erin befittingly had a SCUBA DIVER.  As we spent most of our day under water there arent many photos to show for it but it was a really great day.

Sunset on St Thomas

Cruise Day 1 ~ Bahamas

Picture of the Day (POD), you can substitute any beer you like in to this photo, but tropical blue waters and a cold beer equals paradise in my book

Its been awhile, so in a few sentences ill try to recap the last few weeks.  After my driving trip back to SF I spent 2 days in Wyoming and then left on a 3 day road trip to Florida.  Got sick, Got a Haircut, Got new tires and a radiator for the hummer, Got a Speeding ticket, Got a new camera, and Got better from being sick.  So yeah thats about it since San Francisco.  Erin and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary properly by going on a cruise to the Caribbean.  It was a lot of fun and ill be posting photos from each day ~ post cruise.  Here are a few Photos from our day in the Bahamas we had a great time and really enjoyed beaching it.

Rum and Pineapple made right.  Fresh cut Pineapple blended with ice and rum.

ERIN posing at Senor frogs.

Nuff Said

Well here are a few photos from the last few days from Smokey Mountain National Park.  Tomorrow its off to San Francisco.

Still on the Road

Well after 2 weeks on the road, Im still alive and kicking after 5000 miles a car wreck and lots of fast food.  Got some great photos and plan to get a few more over the next few days.  We left DC this morning and are currently just outside of Smokey Mt. National Park. We also stopped at two photo galleries to check out some pretty cool train photos in Roanoke VA. Tomorrow up early for a sunrise shoot.  Check out these cool photos of this cool 50's  Chevy Impala.

Acadia National Park

So after leaving our workshop early, the boss decided to head to Maine.  So we  have spent an entire 24 hours in Maine and we are now leaving one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.  Oh well thats my job and I totally plan on coming back to Acadia National Park with my beautiful wife for an anniversary or a sexy vacation. Another interesting note it was in the 80's today in Maine.  Can you believe it, October 9th and its 80 degrees should have been in the 40-50's  oh well.  Tomorrow we are rising early to shoot the sunrise and then headed south to who knows where.  Here is to hoping we have some good weather tomorrow as well as see some cool stuff on the way down south. 

All the photos aren't done yet sorry about the dust!

More Photos from the last few days in New Hampshire Below

New Hampshire Patience

Here are some photo from last night and early this morning.  Its an on going lesson in patience.