It's About Time....

I know....it's about stinkin' time I post something. Bob's threatening to delink me from his blog, both people that read this are getting on to me, it's crazy. It would take forever to catch you up on everything, so I'll try to hit the highlights.

Surely the highlight of the last week was the work we did at Mission Arlington last week. We took 25 high school students to Mission Arlington for 3 days. Lamar Baptist Church was nice enough to allow us to stay in their youth room and use their annex house while we were there. It was a great trip in so many ways. They had us doing work at several of their apartment sights for most of the week. We also had the opportunity to help a young, single mom whose house had burned down get things cleaned up, and salvage whatever she could from the fire.

The big news from home that week was my two daughters finding out that Lance Bass, of NSTINK fame, announced his gayness. They were shocked! They called me with the news. I was not shocked. I couldn't believe there was actually a news conference to give us that news. My buddy Scott likened it to a news conference to announce that he had been breathing oxygen for the last 35 years. Or let's have a news conference that every once in while, I have to eat food.

This weekend Springcreek had Sarah Kelly as a guest worship leader. It was a good weekend. She led a worship seminar on Saturday night after our service which went well also. We had some people that attended that are going to be great additions to our worship team at SCC.

After the seminar I had to hustle over to Smirnoff Ampitheatre for a night with Journey and Def Leppard. I missed Journey, but I just saw them in November at Nokia. My wife and kids were out there and said that it was good, but not as good as the show in November. I got there as they were setting up Def Leppard's stage, so I caught that whole set. I have never seen a crowd that big at that venue. Completely sold out. I haven't seen Def Leppard since I was 14 years old. It was great! My kids loved it.

Well.....lots of stuff to do. I'm preaching our Wednesday night service this week and doing the music.....perhaps a little awkward, but I've had to do it before. Worship team auditions tonight and tomorrow night. My son's first football practice tomorrow. And, it's our 18th anniversary this Saturday.

This blog sight is being stupid right now and won't let me upload pics so I'll try to post some mission trip pics later.....I'm out....

A living sacrifice...

Well...back home. The week at Howard Payne with FBC Richardson's kids was great. But it is nice to be back home and in my own bed.

You know....I was thinking on a verse today. Romans 12:1 speaks about offering our bodies as a living sacrifice as our spiritual act of worship. You know....when we do that, everything else seems to fall right into place.

I look at the times I try to control things and the times I allow God to control....and there is a world of difference in the way things go down.

Worship is truly setting our minds attention and our heart's affection on God for who he is and what he has done. When we make that a daily practice.......what peace and order.

I'm out....

A week at HPU....

I know...it's been a week. A very busy one at that, so forgive me.

I'm at Howard Payne University right now leading worship for a youth camp. The first night was great. I'll have some pics up tomorrow. I do need to talk to their youth pastor though. Their rally each morning is at 8:30. WHAT? 8:30? We have to play songs at 8:30? Camp rallies should never start before 10:00. Oh well.....

I talked to Beaux tonight. He asked when he could have a brother. He's sick of sisters. Too bad it's not gonna happen for him.

I don't know why I'm sitting here when we play at 8:30 tomorrow morning. I'll be back tomorrow but for now....I'm out....

Finding Nemo....

The scream from the back of my house was one that I recognized as my wife getting the crap scared out of her. My kids and I love to scare my wife because she may be one of the most easily spooked people I've ever known. But we had been out of town for a few days and it was about midnight. As I went toward the bedroom to see who had done it this time my wife met me at the bedroom door saying she had heard a very creepy voice in our bathroom. She said all it did was laugh and it sounded like it came from the intercom system. No one claimed responsibility and she was freaked. Of course it didn't help that we had watched an episode of America's Most Haunted that evening.

I looked around but heard or saw nothing. She was not going to sleep until we found out what the voice was and where it came from. I left the room and was not even 3 steps out of the room when she screamed again...she heard it again and again I found nothing. By this time my oldest, Ashli, was in on the search. Still nothing....

By 1:00 a.m. I was laying in bed and fading fast. Just as entered rim sleep, she screamed again and heard the voice coming from our bathroom. This time my manhunt turned up the culprit.......it was Nemo. Yes....the beloved clown fish whose trip through Sydney Harbor and the South Pacific inspired McDonald's toys. It was one of those Happy Meal toys whose voice box began to fail and was randomly lauging in a real creepy, Jack Nicholson type laugh in our bathroom. Funny stuff, but Nemo was pronounced dead at 1:22 a.m. Monday July 10th.

Spent the day today ripping up tile in our guest bathroom and scraping the adhesive off of the floor to prep it for painting. Fun stuff......

I think I'll go make creepy laughing noises in the intercom and see what happens.

I'm out.......

I Do.....

Well...it is finished. The wedding went great. They had a ton of people show up.....way more then they expected. My mom was so excited. I haven't seen her that happy in a long time.

We saw a lot of people that we have not seen in a long time. It's kind of strange because my mom's new husband was married to her second cousin at one time. They were divorced 30 years ago, but his kids (my new step siblings) were always at family reunions and stuff. So seeing them in this setting and being step brothers and step sisters now is kind of weird

I'm happy for my mom...........there were a few points in the ceremony that I wasn't sure about. I didn't know if I should refer to her as Barbara or mom throughout. I just called her mom. It was strange talking about the sanctity of marriage and what the commitment means to my mom. She was married to my dad for 34 years.....she has somewhat of a clue. And then there was the kiss. I didn't want to watch, but I couldn't turn away......so I just told him to shake her hand or something until I was out of the room.

We'll be heading back to Rowlett today with painting, pulling carpet, and putting in floors on the agenda for the next month or so. Ashli got a text message today that told her she was voted most valuable player at pitcher and shortstop for her softball team. She's pumped. Here are some pics of the wedding and of the mvp.

Pewston....

Pewston, TX.....home stink home. Also known as Houston.... I guess when you grow up in a place you become immune to certain smells, weather patterns, flying insects, etc......It is hot, humid, stinky, and I saw a mosquito eat a sparrow this morning. They are huge!!

We're here for my mom's wedding. Yes I do realize how weird that sounds and it feels even more weird. I'm actually officiating the ceremony..........WHAT? After tomorrow night I'll have a step dad, two step-brothers, and a step-sister........all of whom I've know since I was 5.

Tomorrow we'll be hanging out with all kinds of family and friends that I haven't seen in a long time. Should be fun............

Went and saw Pirates of The Caribbean today....Greatness! We had to sit on the second row and there was a 3 year old that would not be quiet behind us. Why do people do that? Bring kids that obviously can't handle being there and disturb everyone around them? Movie was good though......

That's it for now.....should have some good stuff tomorrow. I'm out....

Reflecting and recovering.....

Today was man day. My son and I have one of these days every so often so we can just hang out and be guys.

Today we went and saw Superman Returns. Greatness! The plan was to go see it at the IMAX. When we got there it was sold out until the 9:45 p.m. tomorrow night. Needless to say we just went to the normal theatre for the 11:00 a.m. showing. It was cool.

I've had some time to look back at our camp last week and evaluate some things. God really moved throughout the week. We had so many students make decisions for Christ. Some coming to Christ for the first time and others commiting to walking with Christ and renewing their relationship with Him after realizing where they were in their lives.

We saw sr. high students show compassion and care for our jr. high kids, we saw relationships among our students develop, relationships with the other church develop, and above all, kids and adults coming to grips with their relationship with Christ.

As happy as I am with our camp week, I enjoyed my day off today, and am looking forward to spending some time with friends tomorrow celebrating July 4th. Here are some more pics from camp....

I'm out....