A Little Christmas

Our house is relatively small. When the baby came a long we moved everything into the family room, which we now affectionately refer to as the piano/ computer/ tv/ playstation/ couch/ conversation/ three guitars/ big-’ol-recliner-in-the-middle-of-the-floor room.

Or just the claustrophobia room for short.

Needless to say we didn’t have room for a Christmas tree this year.

Sarah’s Mom, who has such a great heart, saw our dilemma and bought us tree that was just the appropriate size for our house. Evie and I made the star.

Merry mini-Christmas!

Praise and Worship Baby

While gathered around the dinner table this evening the Chia family was discussing the woes of hand motions and worship songs. I was reminiscing the years I spent leading worship as a camp counselor and the 37 different sets of hand motions that I know for the song Lord I Lift Your Name on High.

Sarah, Evie and I were singing the song and doing the motions and kid-you-not, on cue Ashlyn “raises the roof” like it’s 1995!

In my last baby worship post I showed Ashlyn going for the guitar. Lately we can’t keep her away from the piano.

Here she just thought she was on a roller coaster.

2 Years Ago Today

I proposed to Sarah.

The night before I’d taken the chocolate out of her Starbucks Advent calendar and replaced it with a clue. That one led to another clue. The hunt took her all around the house and even online to some websites I’d made. It eventually led back to the calendar where I hid the ring in the box for Dec. 24th.

After the hunt Sarah wrote, “The beginning of the rest of our lives,” on the side of the box for the 11th. This year we socked the calendar Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Rollos and Hershey’s Kisses. Today Sarah and I shared 2 Kisses during our morning coffee. I took a picture of the calendar and we reminisced in how awesome the last two years have been.

The Beginings of a Rockstar

I promised Eve-Marie, my 7-year-old, that I’d start to teach her guitar when she finished her level 1 piano books. The other day she finished one of her books and Sarah bought the next level of piano books for her. So as a reward for learning to ride a bike I busted out my SG and taught Evie how to play Holy is the Lord. It was a glorious moment for me. I’ve given guitar lessons to more kids than I can count and always dreamed of the day I’d teach my own children.

Well it turned out I goofed. Apparently Evie didn’t finish her level 1 piano books, the book she finished is a pre-level book. So the level 1 books are really called “primers” and the level 2 books are called “level 1.” Sound confusing? Alright, it’s not just me then.

Sarah and I both want Evie to stay serious about piano so yesterday I told her that I would give her a guitar lesson only after she’d practiced the piano that day. Most days piano practicing is met with groans and whining but today Evie volunteered to practice with out coaxing. She then reminded me, “As you know, I practiced my piano today and you said you’d give me a guitar lesson when I did.”

At my house getting to practice guitar is a reward for practicing the piano. How do ya like that?

Goodbye Training Wheels!

All Dads suffer from the common lower-back pain of “stooping down to hold your child’s bike seat so they don’t fall over while they are learning to ride” -itis. After many months of this ailment my daughter took her first bike ride with out Dad’s help today:

We promised her that she could have a girly basket for her bike when she learned to ride it, so we did an awards ceremony for the bike-riding princess with all her royal subjects around as she was awarded her shiny basket of accomplishment:

Some pics of the basket on the bike:

I’m crazy proud of my girl.

How to Shower

For blog action day I’ll be talking about how to take a shower.

Steps to Proper Showering Technique

Step 1. Turn on the water.

Step 2. Get in the shower, and get wet.

Step 3. Turn off the water.

Step 4. Shampoo hair.

Step 5. Make your shampoo’d hair into a fauxhawk.

Step 6. Soap up.

Step 7. Turn on water. (again)

Step 8. Rinse off.

The procedure described above is also called a navy Shower, (maybe Chris can tell you more about showering in the navy) but I call it “The only way to shower.” This type of showering has become my passion lately.

It has so many benefits:

Get more Free Time. I used take long showers. It took me a forever to get ready for events and my morning routine was ridiculous. Now I can be in and out of the shower in less than 15 minutes, substantially increasing the amount of time I have to do other things.

Spend less money. Seriously, since I started taking navy showers our water bill dropped by $10 a month!

Help the environment. God has called us to take care of the earth, not exploit it. As Christians we should be leading the discussion in caring for our environment. Navy showers are a one way to be a good steward of the resources God has given us.

Warnings

• Use less shampoo. With out the the water constantly running to wash the suds out of your eyes you will need to use less shampoo. (Which is also a bonus becuase your shampoo will last longer.)
• Take care when washing feet. Again an excess of suds on the feet can make the shower floor slippery. Exercise caution.
• You may become a green phreak. Taking navy showers just might make you feel so good about being a good steward of water you may start using good stewardship principles in other areas of your life.

Are you ready to turn the water off?

Classy Church

Recently I applied for a worship position at a church and after taking some initial steps in the interview process we decided it wasn’t a good fit.

To show me how much they appreciated the effort I’d put in the church sent me a letter along with a Starbucks gift Card!

It made me wonder – if this is how classy they treat people who potentially want to work with them how cool must they be to their actual staff?

Whether your staff is paid or volunteer it reminded me that doing small extra things can go a long way towards shaping a productive staff that works together as a team.

It doesn’t have to be a cup of coffee but small things like a phone call, thank you card, leaving a comment or linking to someone’s website can be great affirmations.

BTW send Jon some link love. Apparently the poor guy doesn’t know what an iPhone is.

What is VHS?

 

Hey the Wiggles!

I wonder what you do with that?

Open it up.

Pop it in.

Push play.

What the…?!

What do I do with that?

DVD!

Lo-Fi Tribe on Church Websites

An excellent blog I’ve recently been following is Shawn Anthony’s Lo-Fi Tribe. His take on faith is both insightful and authentic. On Friday he put up a thought-provoking post entitled:

The Use of Stock Photos on Church Websites

Shawn’s position seems to be one of “There is never any good reason to use stock photos on a church website. It’s just too fake.” (My paraphrase of his thoughts, not a direct quote.)

The comments others left rang with resounding agreement. The concept resonated with me as well. I believe using stock photos tends toward inauthenticity, but my view isn’t one of such totality. I’d say, “Yeah they are fake, and real pictures are better, but in some circumstances they could work.”

For example, Church Plant Media is a company who designs websites for church plants. Their client list includes such respectable organizations as Act29 Network, Purpose Driven Planting, and ChurchPlanters.com. If you look through websites they’ve designed you see a lot of stock imagery.

I left some devil’s advocate style comments on Shawn’s site and received a hardy reply from his other blog readers. Shawn muses that when you publish something publicly, “you open yourself up to critique.” In regards to comments left on his site he was right. A great discussion ensued. The level of reaction was so gut-level I thought to myself, “Shawn’s really probed something deep here,” so I wanted to share the concept with you guys.

What do you think about using stock photography on church websites? How fake is it? Are there any legitimate reasons to do so?

Leave comments on Inept as Icing or Lo-Fi Tribe.

Manly Cup of Coffee

My favorite wedding gift was an espresso machine from my little brother. Having worked as a barista I’m a master frother and very particular about how I like my latte. I’d always wanted one and it rocked being able to freshly grind the beans and pull my own espresso.

The problem with home espresso is that it’s messy. Little grains of coffee bean get everywhere not to mention wiping down the machine when your done. It’s a lot of work for one cup of coffee and when life was busy it was tough to find time to enjoy this luxury.

After laying dormant for over a year I got a craving for some homestyle lattes and brought my machine out of retirement.

Of course it didn’t work.

The steamer wand was kickin’ out power but the brewing mechanism had a block. It made lots of noise and still I was staring at an empty cup.

So what do men do when faced with situations like this?

We start taking stuff apart [audible grunt]:

The Result

You put it back together and the dark rich syrup does flow:

So tasty. Starbucks doesn’t even come close.

More on Bad Worship Lyrics

Today I checked my site, and Laura Anne posted this comment about the song “I could sing of your love forever.” It reminded me of a great link I wanted to share. The easily offended need not click, but those seeking a hilarious romp of a post should proceed to:

Danny’s Blog Cabin – Top 5 Worst Worship Songs

At dinner last night my family was talking about all the other comments from my post on changing the lyrics to worship songs and I started signing, “Lift my hands and spin around.” I kid you not, on cue Ashlyn pumps her fist in the air:

Only 7 months old and already a worshiper. The other day I caught her trying to escape the walker to play my guitar:

You know this girl’s all about following in her dad’s footsteps. Now I just need to remember to raise her to write good lyrics.

Temporary Tattoos

HT: Sarah

What’s your family do for fun?

When the Water Park Closes

Today we created our own homegrown waterpark.

Sarah and I agreed to leave the computer off all day and spend some family time together. We thought it’d be fun to go to a real water park but apparently they’re only open on the the weekend.

This is what we resorted to:

(It was a ridiculous amount of fun)

Surprise

Chia Family Reunion 2007

This year I’m going web 2.0 with my reunion photos. I’m inviting everyone in my family to upload their reunion photos to a flickr account so we can all see each other’s photos in one place.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chiafamily2007

If you were at my family reunion you can email me at:

billy1979 [at] gmail [dot] com

and I’ll send you the password so you can add your photos to the site.

Mark Driscoll Loves My Coffee Cup

At which point my 6-year-old daughter walks in and says, “Hey, that’s my cup!”

After coffee I went outside to install some bigger subwoofers into my retarded car.

Sisters

Photo by Sarah

How to Teach Kids Photography: Composition – Part 1

If you, or a child you know, take(s) poor quality photographs don’t worry. Help is on the way. Billy Chia’s How to Teach Kids Photography tutorials are simple, real-life tips and tricks for increasing your photography skills one step at a time in child sized chunks.

Today’s tutorial will cover the following topics:

• Filling the frame
• Breaking the frame (Open Composition)
• Not Breaking the frame (Closed Composition)

Follow the narrative to learn how to take better pictures by incorporating these elements of composition.

Warning: Eve-Marie’s self-portraits may cause you to fall out of your computer chair with laughter.

BMX Tragedy

Last week in mid air my handle bars just fell off.

Ever happen to you?

How to Teach Kids Photography: Perspective – Part 1

If you, or a child you know, take(s) poor quality photographs don’t worry. Help is on the way. Most people take bad pictures because all their pictures look same. The average person takes a picture by standing about 7-10 feet away from their subject matter and holding the camera at eye level. This results in the same old boring shots. One of the simplest and easiest ways to take more interesting photos is…

Sinner/Saint

Generations

My Dad and the girls.

More baby pics

Evie takes good care of her little sis.

Hands.

My girls.

“I’m a thug” face.

Sleepy face.

Double face.

“Awe this sucks” face.

Lazy Sunday afternoon.

Lazy Sunday afternoon.

Honeymoon Pix

Finally got some pics up on the web from the honeymoon.

You can veiw them at www.flickr.com/photos/billychia

Two Kewlest Girls in the World (Photo by Billy)

Two Kewlest Girls in the World (Photo by Billy)

The Little Chica and me (Photo by Sarah)

The Little Chica and me (Photo by Sarah)

Most Beautiful Girl in the World and me (Photo by …

Most Beautiful Girl in the World and me (Photo by Eve-Marie)

Like Mother Like Daughter

Note the awesomeness of the “hand on the hip” maneuver. This one is tough to pull off and no one can do it quite like a ^^00|23 girl.

Put on the full armor of God. (Photo by Sarah, pho…

Put on the full armor of God. (Photo by Sarah, photoshopped by Billy)

T. S. Eliot

T. S. Eliot

Washout

Washout

QT

QT

Emo

Emo

Smiles Two

Smiles Two

Smiles One

Smiles One

Heartbreaker

Heartbreaker

Comfy

Comfy

Seeker’s, Evansville

Seeker’s, Evansville

Point of View

Point of View

"I Haven’t Wasted My Youth"

“I Haven’t Wasted My Youth”

Future Tatoos ("Stars" in sharpie and magic marker…

Future Tatoos (“Stars” in sharpie and magic marker by Sarah. Photo by Sarah)

My friend Rachel’s clever display at Java Dave’s

My friend Rachel’s clever display at Java Dave’s

When it’s sweltering in downtown Evansville…

When it’s sweltering in downtown Evansville…

…the only thing to do is to hop in a fountain……

…the only thing to do is to hop in a fountain…

…or be a fountain.

…or be a fountain.

Hail, hail oh Lion of Judah…

Hail, hail oh Lion of Judah…

…how wonderful you are.

…how wonderful you are.

vintage…yeah

vintage…yeah

makin’ sandwiches

makin’ sandwiches