Breathe

Christmas is over. I won't bore you with the great time I had with my family, only tell you that I had a great time with my family.

The Christmas/New Year season is full of emotions. Hopefully all of them are good, but I'm not naive to the fact that the holidays can be a tough time for some. Regardless, the season wears us all out. I'm pooped. It's been a busy past couple of months in this life of mine, and I feel pretty dang run down. The good news is there is light at the end of the tunnel. The show on Friday night marks a time of rest for me. I am caught up on client portraits, printing, unprocessed photos, website updating and anything else that gobbles up my free evenings.

I can't wait to breathe.

Christ-mas

It's been a beautiful couple of days.

I've been in Missouri visiting family for an early Christmas. If I haven't said it already, I relish the moments spent with my family. You can pretty much bet that a fly on the wall would observe ample amounts of laughing, playing, talking, eating and more laughing at a typical Chasteen family gathering.

Yesterday we spent the day in frigid temperatures enduring the cold for a fun time in Branson at the ole' Silver Dollar City park. It was cold. It was windy. It was still busy. Silver Dollar City is beautiful this time of year with neatly placed Christmas lights numbering over 4,000,000 strong lining the entire park. I was in awe. However, the moment that sticks out in my mind from the day was the train ride at 8:30 pm in the dark and cold and wind. During the ride the train stopped in the middle of the woods, lights came on, and an old man with a white beard sitting in a rocking chair starts chatting with us about his wife up the hill in the cabin making some soup. But then he wants to tell us a story before heading into the cabin for dinner. So this old man who actually looks like Santa bursts out into the Christmas story from the Bible.

Now I don't talk much on here about political, religious, moral, or fiscal issues. This is not my soap box. But that train ride was the most refreshing bit of nutrition my soul has had in quite some time. In this day of corporate and social correctness we've lost it all. I'm so sick of hearing "Happy Holidays" I want to puke in my mouth. As cliche as it sounds, Jesus is the reason for the season. Sadly, last night on that cold train was the first time I had heard His name in the whole month of December.

I say Cheers to Silver Dollar City. What a gorgeous display of a large corporation who hasn't given in to the temptation of correctness in this day and age!

I herby declare a ban on the phrase "Happy Holidays".

MERRY CHRIST-MAS

Kansas City

This past weekend I had the opportunity to make a trip up to Kansas City to attend the book signing for the most gifted artist I've ever known. Jeremy Collins, a great friend of mine, has more talent in his nose hairs than I do in my entire being. His studio is a mess....with geniusnous. Hey, it's a word to me and it explains what I'm feeling so whatever. Anyway, before I go any further go out and take a look at Jer's site and be prepared to puke excellence after seeing his work. www.jercollins.com

So Nicki and I make the trip up to visit Jer and the many other close friends who have convened in his house for the weekend visit.

I have been known to occasionally spew way too many words when it could have been said so much easier with less words than I have used but for some reason I feel like I need to explain myself so much more than I should, so with that I'll Cliff Note this post with the following so I can post some photos:
Kansas City is such a sweet place and one of the top places I'd like to live. Thanks to Jesse Gross for taking Lucas and I on a great trail run and tour (on our bikes) through all the cool districts and sights of KC. Thanks to my sis for making the short drive into the city on Sat morning to run the Kris Kringle run with me. Much thanks to Dick Dower for opening his house and massive bouldering wall to us all on Saturday afternoon for a killer climbing sesh. And the most thanks goes to Jer and his wife Trish for putting up with me, Nicki, Jarod, Lucas, Jason and Eric at their house all weekend. Such a great time!

And now the visual:


Jer's book signing and art gallery premier


Jer sellin it


Lucas snappin

The big day of work at Dick Dower's bouldering heaven:


Kappy giving Dick a kiss, huh?


Jarod


Big Lucas


Jer





Sunday morning I went out to watch Eric compete in the 2008 Cyclocross National Championships and completely got caught up with my camera. I'm psyched about the photos, and am currently processing them. I'll post them soon. Here is a sneak peek:

Art of Yoga

My work will be on gallery display for the full month of January at the Art of Yoga Studio and Gallery, located at 2920 Paseo Drive in the arts district of Oklahoma City.
Friday, January 2, will be the opening reception and premier beginning at 6 pm. Be there.

Keep the kids coming

So I've been doing a lot of photos of kids recently. Although I don't feel like this is my specialty, I do love kids and hanging out with them so I have fun doing it. And the more I do it the better I get.

Me and Carter had a good time the other day taking some photos. He's a very well behaved (and well dressed) youngster who laughs a lot and has some big ole blue eyes that bounce back at ya.

Check out this future heart throb to the ladies.

Chas and Karli

A while back I posted some photos of my niece Corey, who comes from my brother's side. Well, I evidently have a good looking family (no jokes about me) and wanted to show off some more of my bloodlines.

My sister and her husband have a couple of good looking kiddo's that love their uncle Andy. Chas is a football star and Karli is a model student with a tomboy personality that often has her out adventuring with her older brother. I love them both tremendously, and always look forward to playing catch with Chas and hoisting Karli up on my shoulders for a ride.

We spent some time downtown over the Thanksgiving holiday and did some portraiture work. Momma wanted some photos for Christmas cards!

I'm swamped right now with Christmas card requests, but just might be able to fit one or two more in. Just contact me.

Enjoy!

Rocky Raccoon 50

"Now somewhere in the black mountain hills of Dakota, there lived a young boy named Rocky Raccoon. And one day his woman ran off with another guy; Hit young Rocky in the eye. Rocky didn't like that he said I'm gonna get that boy"
Back in the day (which I heard was a Wednesday), the Beatles sang a cool little Western style honky-tonk song named Rocky Raccoon. It'a about a guy who tries to kill the man who stole his girl, but instead is wounded.

The Rocky Raccoon 50 however, is a 50 mile trail ultramarathon through Huntsville State Park and around Lake Raven in southeast Texas. And on February 7th, 2009, registration confirmation tells me that the RR50 will be my first go at something of that distance.

I have talked a friend and next door neighbor, Kyle Griffith, into participating in this feat of self mutilation with me. So over the next two months I'll be doing everything but running in order to get in shape. I'll be sharing some of my training with you along the way, if you don't mind, because I plan on doing a lot of cycling, weight training, crossfit and believe it or not, rock climbing. I think it will work. We shall see.

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm fat.

Thanksgiving is always a great time. I have the best family anyone could ask for. But our Turkey Day is always spent feeding our faces and watching football (and napping during). Well this day was no different.
Except this year the Oklahoma City Turkey Trot was added to the mix. A nice little 8k run with thousands of other families hoping to make themselves feel a little bit better about the meat, dressing, and pumpkin pie soon to be consumed throughout the day.
I decided the run was not for me and instead decided to watch, with coffee in hand, as my sister in law, brother in law, sister, and nephew got after it on the trail.

I hope all had a stellar day with family and friends. Happy Thanksgiving!


Me and Mom at the finish line




My two beautiful nieces, Corey and Karli


My niece Karli in a sprint for the finish line


Chas and Charlie celebrating the finish


The Runners

One for Two

50% is pretty good when you are batting in baseball but not so hot in grade school.

I was unable to knock off a deer this past weekend, nor was I even able to see one for that matter. I think I might have been too busy text messaging my brother Jon to see if he had seen anything. Regardless, it was a great time of family fellowship. The weather was cold, windy and flurried the entire time. Perfect. Jon got a fat 8-pointer and my dad snagged a trim and fit 6 pointer that actually looked like the better eating. So I'm putting in on the processing costs so I'll have some meat for the year.

Saturday night Nicki and I took off for Tulsa. I was wasted tired so we decided to stop at the McDonalds over the Will Rogers Turnpike to crash in the car for the evening. Up early Sunday morning to finish the trip into T-Town where we met up with some great friends, one of whom was running in the marathon as well. The good news is I killed the marathon in 3:49:42. I had purposefully not ran in a month for a little experiment to see if I could even finish. I know, very foolish. But it worked and I live to tell another story.

This really ended up being more of a trip report, so I'll go ahead and post pics.... Thanks to Nicki for snapping a good deal of these shots.


The Farm


Grandpa and I


In my stand




Dad with the kill


Trusty farm truck transportation

Tulsa Marathon

Kill things, then run.

I leave this afternoon for a long weekend trip up to Missouri. Every year in November the "fellas" in the family convene at the 500 acre Chasteen farm in southwest Missouri, just east of Springfield. Gramp's place is beautiful rolling hills with thick wooded countryside; and filled with DEER. It's a blasty blast of a time with Grandpa, Dad, Uncle Bobby and my brother. Early morning coffee, brisk country air, and the thrill of the hunt. The problem is, I can't shoot to save my life. My four shots unloaded last year yielded zero deer carcasses. I'd say my chances for 2008 aren't much better.


The Tulsa Marathon happens on Sunday at 8 am sharp. Following the deer massacre (lighten up, they are overpopulated anyway), I'll be jetting to Tulsa on Saturday evening in hopes of finding a spot close to the starting line to squat for the evening. I haven't ran even one mile in approximately a month so I'm wondering what my chances are of finishing???

Wish me luck.