We moved and got ferrets!

It's true. Grace and I are now hanging out in our new apartment with our two furry rascals, Tabitha and Abigail. They are having a lot of fun so far, and have been pretty high octane this first day. Grace and I have decided to start a wedding photography gig, and started up a photo blog. You can check it out at kroghphoto.blogspot.com.

She took all the photos thus far, she's fantastic. I guess she does have her B.A from Columbia in photography, but I really love the stuff she's doing. I help out in assisting at weddings, and will be doing more photos when I can get my hands on a dslr of my own. I also have been helping in post production photo editing, since I know photoshop quite well. So, the two of us do pretty well so far, and will be getting better as we go! So, if you know anyone who is getting married, needs family photos taken, any events, let us know! Krogh Photo will be there.

It was a great weekend!

Grace shot her first wedding this weekend, and it went really great. Cassie and Cory got married this Saturday, August 1st, and the wedding went well. It was supposed to rain all day, but the sun was actually out most of the day, except for a few showers during the reception.

It was really great to see Grace taking photos and doing what she loves. She has an awesome personality, and her soft and gentle nature actually worked well for the photography. I was a little worried she wasn't going to be outgoing enough to tell people where to be at and how to look, etc. But, it wasn't a problem. I guess I assisted in a way, swapping memory cards for her, backing up files, helping with photo arrangements, answering questions. It was a really good time, and we have actually begun to discuss the possibilities of a wedding photography business. It could happen. I never thought I'd say it, but I'm liking the idea more and more.

Today was an off day a little bit, and Grace and I seemed to nitpick at small stuff. It's funny that this happens for almost the first time the very day after our one year anniversary. Silly, I know. The Lord is good, though, and we didn't let it bother us, and we moved on. We went to Starbucks to get a cup of coffee and hang out, and it was good. We saw Jeff, Ariel, and their dog Wally while we were there. He's a basset hound/ Shar Pei mix, and he's a cute guy with a lot of personality. You can tell he loves Jeff, too.

This morning Grace and I also went to prayer together for the first time in a while, it was nice, and we went for a run. I've been running consistently lately, and it's been hard to get my lazy butt outside and actually exercise.

As I write this, boxes are stacked everywhere around the apartment. We're moving Saturday, and we're really excited. Let's hope it all goes smoothly!

Another day, another dollar.

So the new Sleeping at Last album is good. It has grown on me the past week or so, and I'm enjoying it more each time I listen to it. I would have liked some more upbeat songs, but it is what it is.

Grace and I went over to the Cory's house for dinner tonight. Our friend Margaret was there as well, she has just gotten back from Canada. She had some great stories about working on a farm with people from around the world, and having a wonderful experience. It sounded like she has had a good summer.

It's so good to talk to Joe and Sarah about life and art, and pretty much everything in between. They have been where Grace and I are at right now, and it's so encouraging to hear how they learned from their experiences. It's also great to be around people that encourage us to continue with art, and challenge us to do better. They also have such cute kids; two little daughters named Abby and Margo.

A lot of stuff is on the horizon for Grace and I:

-Moving to a new apartment
-adopting two ferrets, Tabitha and Abigail
-Grace is shooting a wedding this Saturday
-Our one year anniversary is on Sunday
-I'm almost done interning
-classes start at Judson August 25th (at least I think)
-Our friend Nick is coming to visit from Florida August 19th
-I have a job interview at Target on Tuesday.
-I'm in the process of designing the new logo for Vineyard

Exciting times.

My thoughts so far.

I downloaded the new sleeping at last album today, and I'm on my second time through it. My initial impressions:

I'm disappointed. Why? Because it seems that since the track off of "Keep no score" to get the most attention was quicksand, the band based an entire album off of it. The whole thing is quiet, very laid back. In fact, when I first started it up, I actually fell asleep for a little bit.

Now, my being disappointed does not really mean anything at this point. I've listened to it only one time through. After all, some of my best friends are awful at first impressions, so I'm giving this album the benefit of the doubt. It sounds very pretty, but as of yet hasn't caught my attention. Once I get a better grasp of what "Storyboards" is all about, I'll let you know.

And why in the world is the first post I've written in 5 months turn out to be a album review/thought? I have no idea. I guess I thought "hey, I should write in that thing" and this music is what is on my mind at the moment.

tired.

I've been having a really crazy, extra difficult week. There has been a lot of work, there have been a lot of late nights, and there have been quite a few discussions with several people about where I am at in life. I've realized lately that I have been unsure about a lot of things:

I've been really unsure about school. I received an email from my aunt discussing the cost of school, and whether or not I can continue at Judson. If that's true, I don't know where I would go, or what I would do. It's frustrating.

I've been really unsure about music, and how I'm supposed to be using it for the Lord. I love to play, I love to sing, I can write music, I can play other people's music, I can lead worship, I can be in my own band, I could even write my own music. But none of that is really working right now, and it's frustrating.

I've been unsure about my faith, and I believe that this is the real root of the problem. Not because I think that I'm about to deny my faith, or anything to that extreme, but I've just been discouraged. I haven't been in the Word, my prayer life is somewhat non existent, but I think that even though I ignore God, I should still be feeling good. That makes no sense at all. I can do nothing apart from Him. That includes my relationship with Grace, school, Starbucks, my family, art, music, everything. If I'm not giving Jesus the time of day, I'm going to be pretty jacked up. I've found this out rather quickly.

Regardless, it's now the weekend. I have a ton of work to do, but it's the weekend. I can (maybe) sleep in tomorrow morning, but I work tonight and tomorrow night, after a two week period of not working at Starbucks at all. I hope I don't suck too much, and I hope that everything goes well with that.

I have a design project to finish, along with a three point perspective drawing to do for Prof. Cory. I also have to get on it and start reading for my history of art class as well as Archetypes of Western lit.

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oh, school.

today.

so our band still has no idea what we're doing. We had a discussion about sound the other day, and recorded a folkish sounding song. It sounded pretty good. However, I really want us to find a sound that is fun to play, that we all connect to as artists, and that can really translate live. I also want all of us to be onboard with it, so that things don't get going a lot and then fall by the wayside. I really know I'm supposed to do something with music, but really don't know yet. I hope I figure stuff out soon.

Class all day today. I'm currently in digital tools, learning about photoshop. Actually, we're going over stuff that I already know. so it's really boring. Grace is shooting at a martial arts place at the moment, I think.

Got more info for the graphic design stuff for Harris and the moods. I'm excited to get that underway. Graphic design work is way the heck more fun when it's not for class.

Grace and I have been hanging out more lately, which is a ton of fun. I really wish we could hang out more, but, with out schedules, we don't always see each other that much, which is really too bad.

birthday.

today is my birthday, and I am so far behind on all my work its not even funny. I just finished a project today for 3D design that was due on monday, and I'm approaching two weeks late on another assignment, so that's no good. It's a drawing where I make up texture for something, and I really just need to hurry up and do that as fast as I can. errg...

Grace, Rob, Eric and I are going to Anathallo tonight in Naperville. We're meeting up with Sarah and Matt there, which should be a good time.

I got to open presents this morning, which was awesome. Grace got me wind in the willows and this really awesome and nerdy shirt from threadless: http://www.threadless.com/product/1462/The_Sound_of_Colour

It's amazing. Right now I have to go to class, and then I sit around some more. Cool.

sick of february

It's been a while, and for that I apologize. Things have been busy lately. I've been doing a lot of schoolwork lately, and, to my dismay, have not finished all that I had set out to accomplish on time. It's very frustrating to work so hard on something to come up short in the end.

School is, in general, going well. I get frustrated, though, just because Three Dimensional design is so difficult. I think that I'm getting better, though. I at least raised my last test and sketchbook grade, which is encouraging. Drawing is going well, but I currently have no idea where my drawing paper is. I need to find this soon, stuff is due at one.

Music has been fun, although Professor Cory tells me that I need to just let go of some music for now to focus on school for the next two months. That makes sense, I just don't want to give up music for two months, just because this is something that I am really passionate about, and that I want to do. So when I hear "just give it up for a few" I get pissed. Not at the suggestion, because I know it's a good one, and I should be following that, but at the idea of not being able to play. Our band is still thinking of a name, and that has actually been the hardest part so far. We'll figure it out, though.

Grace and I have been having a lot of fun together, and I really enjoy spending time with her. Last night we went to get coffee and we were making each other laugh. It was a good time.

Today the sun is shining, which makes me happy. We'll see how long that feeling lasts.

I love people. And I love the people around me.


I was really depressed last night, and wanted to throw in the towel with school and everything. I was on the verge of becoming an English major. It was pretty bad. But the LORD is good, and this morning was better.

no posts for a few.

My bad. Anyway, things have been flying along just as a college student's life usually does. Not sure that the previous sentence actually made a complete thought, our hero types valiantly onward, aware of possible grammatical errors that may have occurred.

School is really punching me in the face repeatedly lately, which seems to be the general consensus around campus. People are busy as ever, and it's only the second week. Goodness. But in general, the classes are good, the books I am reading are interesting, and the people I am surrounded by are interesting. I am especially excited for drawing this semester. Professor Cory is a breath of fresh air in my academic life. I'm just worried a little about keeping up.

Today I actually got everything done, which was great. However, professor Colpitts had most of us completely redo the assignment, since we were confused with what exactly to do. Frustrating.

Our worship team played in chapel today as well, which was a whole lot of fun. I really missed being able to do that over break, and I hope that we continue to get awesome opportunities to play as the semester goes on. Tomorrow night, Kyle, Rob and I are going to practice a bit, so that should be good too. But for now, it's time for digital tools.

Pretty good weekend.

Grace and I spent this weekend in Minnesota, visiting friends and attending a wedding. Her friend Melissa from Bethel was getting hitched, and I had met her once before in the receiving line at our wedding. Needless to say, I didn’t know many people there, which was alright.

We were supposed to leave Elgin at 9:30 on saturday morning. Due to me being the slow fellow that I am, we ended up leaving around ten. Good start. We now had a drive ahead of us that mapquest told us took six hours and nine minutes, with six hours until the wedding started. Grace ended up driving because I had almost one hundred pages of the oddysey to read for monday, along with history of art reading, some digital tools homework, a self-portrait to do, and hundreds of squares to cut out for three dimensional design. She hasn’t started school yet.

After some shenanigans, we ended up being around ten to fifteen minutes late for the wedding. We got in, sat down, and the hitching happened. Then I met Grace’s friend Erin, and re-met Katie. Then we headed over to the reception, and got a little lost on the way. At said reception, I finally met Matthew Tinken, Sarah’s boyfriend whom I had only talked to via facebook. He’s a really cool guy, and really tears it up on a dance floor. Actually, he tears it up so much that, on one occurrence of his dancing, people were a little unnerved, and he was the only person left on the entire dance floor.

After the reception, we went over to Sarah’s dad’s house, where we were to stay the night. Sarah gets to the door and sees that it is open, and fears a break in. So, Matt and I decide to be brave and enter the house, checking to see if anyone is inside. meanwhile, sarah calls the police to come check it out. We got inside, and we couldn’t see anyone. To be safe, I grabbed a pair of skis to defend myself, and matt suggested that I should cuss loudly to sound tough. I tried that, and failed to sound tough whatsoever, and we were urged to go wait outside with the ladies until law enforcement arrived. They arrived with back up, along with a dog unit, and went inside to check it out. No one was in the house, nothing was taken, and it was decided that Sarah must have not fully closed the door the day prior.

Then we all entered the house and hung out for a while, and then went to bed. It is now Sunday, the day after, and I am writing this while being cramped in our accord on the way home. I’m just going to save it in pages and just copy and paste it into the blog when I get home.

another cold morning.

Awake, Oh sleeper, and freeze to death.

Today is really cold, around -20 without the wind chill. It's really sad when you look forward to 25 degree weather, and are considering that to be a heat wave. I guess there is a large cold front that is blanketing most of America, and that makes me wonder how cold the passengers of the plane that crashed in the Hudson were. My friend Dan blew a tire last night as well, and had to change it in the cold. I'm really thankful for indoor heating and radiators.

Yesterday, Grace and I were talking about the weather, and how cold it was, when she looked up something on her computer. I wondered what she was doing, when she announced that it was 33 degrees in Juneau, Alaska. That was around 60 degrees warmer than Chicago! Alaska? Really?

I also forgot something in my post yesterday that I wanted to make sure I mention today: Grace and I are adopting two young ferrets. We are really excited about it, and hope that they enjoy their new home. The owner is moving to California, where ferrets are actually prohibited, due to wildlife concerns. So, we decided that we would really enjoy some furry friends around the apartment. They are two 9 month old ferrets, one male, one female. The male is white, and the female is brown with a white snout. Here is a picture of them:



We are going to name the boy Gulliver, but we're not quite sure what we will name the girl. If you have any suggestions, let us know, we still have to figure it out. Now all we have left to do is hear back from the land lady if she will allow them. It really doesn't matter what she says, especially since the lease says nothing about pets. Like Grace says, if she doesn't let us have them, I'll have to "work my magic" on her and get her to agree. Especially since we're getting them regardless. We don't want to have them be abandoned somewhere.

This is a pretty long post. I really don't have much to do at the moment, since I've decided to not go to chapel today. I have to finish up some reading for Archetypes of Western Literature, and grab some lunch, but no class until noon. Oh, and Bon Iver (pronounced "Bone Eee-vair" for those that don't know. It's a HUGE pet peeve of mine when people say "Bonn I-verr". Get it right. It's a purposeful mispelling of the French phrase "Good Winter") came out with four new tracks, I've been listening to them lately. That's it.

it's so cold.

Praise God for a beautiful cold day in which I can feel alive when my feet begin to fall off. You don't know what you've got til it's gone, I guess. Anyway, it's been a pretty good year so far, although I've been terrible at updating this digital register of my life. I've been pretty bad at writing in general. Last semester I attempted at being a truly artsy kid by carrying a moleskine with me everywhere I went, so that I could capture sweet lyric ideas and the like, but I think I only filled ten pages. And that's pitiful, considering that the pages are about 4 x 6 or something along those lines.

Apart from disappointing myself, last semester was nice. I met a lot of neat people at Judson, and got situated a bit. It was difficult learning how to be a good student and husband at the same time, but I think Grace and I have made it through the first 5 months of marriage doing pretty well. I know I've always heard the old phrase "The first year is the hardest," but I'm not sure I'm seeing it too much. I'm certainly not saying that I'm the best guy in the world or anything, just that Grace and I have had an awesome time being married thus far. I'm excited about that.

As far as other things in my life go, Adnascentia has kind of fell by the wayside for now, but we'll see what happens. We did get a new lead singer, but he just moved down to Nashville, so that leaves us back with just Matt and I. So, with the absence of the band, I've been writing more of my own tunes again, which is actually quite refreshing. I talked to some friends at Judson and they are going to play music with me this semester, we'll see how that goes. I love music, so however many bands it takes, I'll keep playing.

That's really all for right now, I've got a lot of reading to do tonight.