Psalm 31

It has been a troublesome time in my life. If the saying "it is always darkest before the dawn" held any truth, than a very bright day must be coming up. God only gives us what we can handle? Well, He knows something about me that I don't because I'm not feeling that at the moment. Challenges with kids and finances have escalated in recent weeks. I have so much more admiration for Mary (like, I never did, ha!) who is dealing with the same stuff I am but in a much better way. I am so thankful (as I am every day), that God put her into my life.

Today I read Psalm 31. Except for the parts about the people that were after David's life (and stuff related to that), this fits things now:

1 In you, O LORD, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness.
2 Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.
3 Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me.
4 Free me from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge.
5 Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O LORD, the God of truth.
6 I hate those who cling to worthless idols; I trust in the LORD.
7 I will be glad and rejoice in your love, for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul.
8 You have not handed me over to the enemy but have set my feet in a spacious place.
9 Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief.
10 My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak.
11 Because of all my enemies, I am the utter contempt of my neighbors; I am a dread to my friends— those who see me on the street flee from me.
12 I am forgotten by them as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery.
13 For I hear the slander of many; there is terror on every side; they conspire against me and plot to take my life.
14 But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, "You are my God."
15 My times are in your hands; deliver me from my enemies and from those who pursue me.
16 Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love.
17 Let me not be put to shame, O LORD, for I have cried out to you; but let the wicked be put to shame and lie silent in the grave.
18 Let their lying lips be silenced, for with pride and contempt they speak arrogantly against the righteous.
19 How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you.
20 In the shelter of your presence you hide them from the intrigues of men; in your dwelling you keep them safe from accusing tongues.
21 Praise be to the LORD, for he showed his wonderful love to me when I was in a besieged city.
22 In my alarm I said, "I am cut off from your sight!" Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help.
23 Love the LORD, all his saints! The LORD preserves the faithful, but the proud he pays back in full.
24 Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.

Happy Birthday Alec!

Today my son Alec turns 15! Way cool! No matter what has gone on in the past, I will always be proud of my son who is a good kid. He is growing up to be a young man that his father will always be there for. He has many great qualities and gifts that God has blessed him with: intelligence, athleticism, artistry come to mind right away.

Happy birthday my son, I love you very much!

Happy Birthday Katrina!

Today, October 18th our little girl turns 18 leaving behind kidhood and entering young adulthood. I am so happy for her. She is growing up to be an awesome young woman. I am very proud to see what she has become. I am excited for what exciting and cool things await her future. Her dad and mom will always be there for her. I love Kat so much and hope it is a great birthday! We are going to Bengstons pumpkin farm then to Aodake for her birthday dinner.



Happy birthday sunshine! I love you!

Al was right

I actually heard this today on the radio that was beyond lunacy. Before I say what it was, bear in mind that I am not a liberal nor conservative. However, every so often it is amusing to journey to the liberal FM radio stations and hear some real wacked out stuff. On the other side you can really hear some goofy stuff on conservative radio too. Conservative radio people are easier to be made fun of - maybe because they do have more colorful and popular personalities. Rush Limbaugh is the king of the conservative idiots. I was scanning the radio and arrived to his show hoping to hear his amusing take on Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize (which I don't get). Instead, he had this bizarre topic on the subject of global warming, which he doesn't believe in. Well, I am not sure about it either. However, I do know that putting chemicals in the air that come from man made sources can't always be good. He was actually quoting some science guy, who is supposed to be repudable (maybe he is, maybe he isn't), that said that putting the carbon dioxide/monoxide emissions in the air actually helps the environment. And further, that by reducing the emissions it is actually harmful to the environment! What?? If he was tongue-in-cheek here he did a good job of hiding it because it was a real enough rant he had on the show. It helps the environment??? Wow, so, I guess we can tell God: hey Lord, you really messed up creation the last few billion years (or 6000 years - depending on your point of view) by not creating cars and factories,etc. from the beginning. Turns out God was hurting the environment by not having all that crap go into the air since the beginning of time. Yeah, right.

And Limbaugh was using this as just another piece of evidence to back up his opposition to environmental causes that come up in Washington. Look, a lot of those Democrats are screwed up (so are Republicans) but that doesn't justify that stupid statement he made. And what is more scary is that the Limbaugh faithful who believe everything he says (which is scary and bizarre in its own right) will go right along and support this crap.

C'mon Limbaugh. Get real. You really are one big fat idiot.

Muse - the Resistance

Anyone who knows me also knows that my favorite band is Rush. Even through years when I left the prog rock scene (late 80’s – 90’s), Rush has always been there with their music. Also ranking up on my Top Bands' list are artists like U2, Pete Yorn, Triumph, Collective Soul, and Stereophonics. However, I think my most favorite band of this era is Muse. I just love their diversity in styles and how they constantly take new avenues with each new CD (not too different from Rush in many ways). I just picked up their latest, The Resistance, and am really digging it. This one has a bit more orchestrations than in some of their past CD’s, most notably the concluding trilogy, “Exogenesis”. Their Queen influences really come through in many of the tracks. You will pick it up right away in “The United States of Eurasia” and in the guitar solo (in style, not sound – no one can imitate Brian May’s sound!), of “Guiding Light”. I also really like how “MK Ultra” moves as well as the opening track of “Uprising”. I don’t know how many Muse fans are reading this but even if you aren’t, check it out!

Chumbawumba

Heading to Summerfest today. I'm going to be seeing Animation play at about 6:15. They are opening for Heart. I will have backstage passes so this should be real cool! Probably meet the ladies from Heart too. Nancy has been holding up pretty good for her age. But, she was never just the hot chick playing guitar. She was, and still is, one of the better female rock guitar players around. Funny how there just aren't that many. We were talking about that at church the other day. Almost our entire instrumental musician pool are men; while the vast majority of vocalists are female. It is like that on the club circuit too. Interesting...

I plan on leaving at 1 and am not 100% sure who is coming with. I will know at 1! I am pretty sure Katrina is going and if Alec gets home in time from Watseka, he will go too (yes, he was there on his friend's grandmother's farm doing some work). New Orleans was a great thing for him. Time will tell how much he got out of it.

Running Updates...

Before I go out for my 5k jog on this awesome warm, humid day, I thought I would update y'all on what is going on here. Sorry for the long time between posts, so much has been occupying my head space that I haven't made it to the blog. I'm going to summarize:

The Plainfield school district is NOT the great district it was always touted to be. I won't entirely elaborate but they have no concept on dealing with each kid's issues on an individual basis. The decision they made was completely unreasonable and excessive. In essence by making their decision they did NOTHING. They only go and penalize the family. I feel for low income families that are put in to a position to continue their child's education by having to take a financial hit (losing work time to home school or to find a private school). Plainfield East is now not the school of choice for the upcoming school year. In fact, no where within the district can he go. Home schooling (what they are recommending) is not an option here at home. We are all in agreement that a fresh start needs to be made. There is no need to prolong this any further. By going the district's route, it would continue for a while. Whatever happened to "No Child Left Behind"? I better stop or this rant will really ramble!

Perhaps it is for the better. We are looking at 3 private schools (there aren't many in the area out here in Will County): JCA, Providence, and Christ Lutheran. We are in the process of scheduling and visiting each. Christ Lutheran is very intriguing. It is a very small school located in Plainfield that just might be the place. We visited today. Mary and I like it so far. How about this: since I work for a church it is HALF off the tuition! $7000 - 8000 + fees (which is about the norm at all the schools) is WAY out of our price range. Half (which would be around $4000) helps for sure but we still don't have the money for it. We will have to find it and pray that God leads the way because we are clearly decided on having him go to a real school for his freshman year. Next week we hope to visit the other two, larger schools.

Meanwhile, Alec has been on a STUCO mission trip to help with the cleanup in New Orleans (hard to believe that it is STILL going on!). I have been hearing great stories from there. If you are Dan Vallaro's friend on Facebook he has some great ongoing pictures of the team that Alec is on. Sending Alec was one of those very clear directions from God. I know that it will be good. I can't say what the changes and results will be in his life, but I just have faith that it will be good. I am already hearing some great stories about him. One day I will share.

Rush stuff continues. Rehearsals will start in about 3 weeks or so. Stay tuned!

Gotta run...literally.

And then...

Almost done with the Rush songs! Getting closer. The only thing is that some of the ones that I learned a month or two ago I have to revisit. I am sure I forgot some parts already!

Peaks and valleys. That is how the course of each day goes. We have good moments and challenging ones. I am learning a lot about parenting! I am also learning a lot about how you can only do so much. You just have to let them go sometimes. Let them burn their hand if need be. That is very hard to accept but feels to be the right choice. Oh, there are still rules to be followed and expectations to be met. I just can't have a tracking device to monitor every movement (do I REALLY want to know everything? seriously, think about it).

The days do get more manageable as time moves along. Tomorrow we hear from the school on a decision. I have a feeling I know what it will be but we will wait and see.

Later gaters, got guitar lessons to give...

Yesterday was interesting. Apparently some virus or trojan sent out some nasty videos to friends on Facebook. The inbox was reeling with everyone either notifying me, making funny jokes, or settling in to panic mode (like I did it - right). There wasn't really any way to send out one general notice via Facebook. It just went about and happened. It was kind of a frustrating and helpless experience. The worse part about it was that our home computer was really messed up. I went through about 12 hours of clean up on that computer. There was a ton of things on there. Probably from a long time ago. Check this out: there were over 1500 things that it found! Granted, much of it was adware but there ended up being several trojans and worms gobbling around in there. That explains why it has been real sluggish in recent times! Thanks to my friend Larry Hummerich (from Answermaxx), I got some software to clean it all out. It is amazing how much better that computer is running. One interesting part of the process was to initially do a 'system restore'. It is basically like a flux capacitor for computers. You send it back to the state it was in a week ago (before the latest trojan hit it) and then start cleaning from there. Very interesting...and it worked!

Last night we had a GREAT time at dinner with the Carrolls and Eichelbergers. It was kind of a farewell dinner for Bill and Rachel. We were at Mon Ami Gabi in Oak Brook. There is nothing like spending and evening with some great friends. I don't know, we were there maybe 3 hours or so.

Good times...

The 300th Post

I just discovered that this is my 300th post! Is that good or bad? I don't know. I am a bit tired right now. Just learned another Rush tune that isn't particularly hard (Time Stand Still). Today was the kids last day of school. Yeah, even for Alec! His diploma is getting mailed like they always do. So he made it! Katrina is a senior now. Yikes! She is really getting in to her plans for going to Greece next summer. She has been saving and planning and doing a great job of it. Today we sent our child back into the wild with the hopes that lessons have been learned and absorbed. I can only hope and pray that they have. For me, today has been a much better day too. Let's keep it that way!

Mary and I went to see Star Trek at the new Joliet Mall theatre. It was our second time seeing it but the first at that place. A very comfortable experience with cushy seats and lots of leg room! Check it out over there whenever you can. Naturally we are trekkies so it was fun seeing all the characters again. I am really happy with how the new actors kept many of the nuances and quirks of their characters. The first time around, I really caught the McCoy and Scottie character similarities with the previous actors. Today, I really caught on with the Kirk and Spock characters. And yes, the guys in the red uniforms still always get killed. We really saw it when the 3 guys were preparing for the space jump (how fun!). You just knew the guy in the red uniform was going to get it!

Maybe it is because I am so wrapped up in Rush but I couldn't help but see a strong connection with their song "Red Barchetta" early on in the movie (when they are set in Iowa when Kirk was a kid). If you know the song and see the movie, tell me if you see it too. The song isn't played but the scene is close to the lyrics.

Rush and things...

So amidst all this insanity (which is slightly improving each day), I have been adding to my library of Rush songs for Animation. It really has helped me get through some of this a lot. I now have 26 songs down; 2 that are almost there (I have to figure the 2nd weird solo to La Villa and all the weird intro stuff to Xanadu); 3 that I have to remember again (shouldn't take long); and 3 that I haven't done before (Time Stand Still, Losing It, and Bytor). The song, Losing It, is of particular interest. It is on the Signals album (the one that has New World Man and Subdivisions). They had a guest violinist, Ben Mink play. He really did a lot. I am not sure yet how in the world I am going to cover it. I'm saving it for last I think.

Also, through all this, I have been practicing my new Roland PK-5A midi pedals with Reason software on the computer. Ok, many of you not musically inclined probably thought I just spoke a foreign language. Basically, I have some killer sounds for some of the songs that I control with these pedals. I'll have to upload a picture of them someday.

Today was a better day for me. I felt I have to get on with my life (much of the difficulties were just running in my head). It was good. I feel like I can laugh a little again. That is a big step. It was hard to for a while. Later y'all...

Michigan

Alec and I drove up to Michigan yesterday to check out these small cottages at Lake of the Woods. It is in SW Michigan near the town of Decatur (very close to Sister Lakes which is a hot spot for Chicagoans). They are small but good enough for the price. We will have it for 5 days in July. I don't think that everyone will be there for the entire 5 days (schedules and such get in the way). Although, I think that I, for one, will take full advantage! I am wondering how much the kids will take before the "I am bored" thing comes up. But, you never know, they just might surprise us! We had to keep it to a reasonable price and some place that would accept our dog, Dixi. We originally anticipated a bigger family vacation but a quick series of major car repairs (like $2000 worth) last January put the kabosh on that. I think this will be fine. Yesterday's trip was one of those were it might have been a better idea not to take Alec. I don't think he was ever really in to going. To be fair to him, I probably should have spotted that right away. Oh well, it was still ok. I just need to be a bit more observant with regards to noticing when to give my children the space they need. They are teenagers after all!

Matt. 6:25-34

Check out Matthew 6:25-34: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%206:25-34;&version=31. I know much of my personal tumoil over stuff happening the past couple weeks is self-inflicted. Then I read this passage. The last line is the most relevant: "therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." I get concerned over my son's future almost 24/7. This "oh my gosh what would happen..." complex. I am going to start by just dealing with today and today's concerns. It is hard to break such a cycle. But, it can and will be done. It's time to go back to finding joy in life again.

Is it over yet?

Is American Idol over yet?

It is? did someone "win"?

How.....riveting....

Well?

Doh! Missed a day. Yesterday was the hearing. It went well - all things considering. We will hear of a decision by June 9. It looks like probably an alternative school for the first semester next year. Don't know what that looks like yet. We will see then. It was about what I expected. This has been the longest couple weeks of my life. Very hard. And we have at least 4 more years of this. I don't know how I am going to hang on. I hope things settle soon. Now we are having the battle of getting homework done during this suspension. Ouch. He only has a couple more days of it from the school. I am thankful to have a lot of people to talk to and help out. This is really tough on me. Let's see how today goes. I did get some bike riding in yesterday since Mary was home then. That felt good. However, it looks I will have to be the "jailer" for a couple more days.

Yeah, that stinks...

Gettin' Through It

I have great empathy for single parents raising kids. I really do. I can't possibly imagine going through all this without Mary. Somehow, thinking about things tonight, I believe we will. For the first time in a couple weeks I really do. Oh, we may still be in for some tough results tomorrow and next week. But we will get through it. Our home is not a broken home. It is a loving one. Yep, we got problems. Who doesn't? (If you say you don't, you be fibbin' you fool!). But with God in our house and with our family, we will persevere.

Amen.

Status for the Day

I am actually looking forward to being able to get Alec back some freedom. It has been taxing on me for sure. At some point we will have to. That will be the only true way to see how he has taken everything in. Thursday is the hearing. It should be interesting. We are all a bit nervous about what may come out of it. We will just have to trust in God to guide us through.

I did pick up a couple fishing poles today. I think that he and I might do some fishing at the local pond tomorrow. I haven't fished in like forever. It should be interesting...

On another note, I have caught myself up on a lot of Rush songs for Animation. The first gig is official: Saturday, November 21st at Bobby McGee's in Chicago Ridge (around 104th and Harlem). Why so far off? There is a lot to do. First off, they are now working on the Milwaukee Summerfest gig (June 29) with the guitarist who is leaving. Then we do a few rehearsals in July. I will then take notes from them and then tweak various things with regards to what I have to play and settings I will use. Then some intensive rehearsals starting probably in September. To be a Rush tribute band, and play a lot like the studio recordings, is not like playing AC/DC with a few chords!

Whoo-boy, what a night

After a previous evening of anger, frustration, feelings of betrayal, etc., I had absolute insomnia the entire night. I don't ever remember having such a thing. I spent the whole day just laying around watching old war movies. I think I managed a little shut eye. There is so much on my mind. However, tonight I experienced something tremendous and awesome. With the help of some of my awesome Christian brothers from CCC (Carlos and JR), there was some GREAT conversation with them, my son, and I. I am so much better tonight. I am not naive enough to expect that the magic fairy dust was spread and everything becomes instantly better. However, I am hopeful that at least a seed was planted. It is now up to us and our community to help nourish it.

All I can say is...

whup, whup, I'm still here! Life at home is a challenge to say the least. We are in a crises of sorts with one of our kids. Yeah, it has the potential to be a big problem. Not good. Things are a bit uneasy here. Thursday is a big day, amongst others. If anyone is really reading this, all I can ask is to pray for our family and that we work things out together. Outside forces will be making some decisions on him. Let's hope that it will be hard enough of a hurt to change some things but still reasonable and helpful. Some progress has been made but it is baby steps right now: 2 steps forward, 1 step back. I have tremendous admiration for those who have survived raising teens. The end just seems so far out there. God help us all.

Other than that, things have been just...awesome.

See you tomorrow.

I was Reminded

Mary reminded me today that it has been over a month since my last post! Has it been that long??? Ouch! I guess now it remains to be seen: will I have something more tomorrow? Wait and see...:)

A New Gig

Whoa, man it has been a while since I have been here! Is anyone out there reading this?!? A couple days ago I successfully got the part as the guitar player in the long-running Rush tribute band. I am so looking forward to it! It will be a challenge to really nail it all down. The band is really a stickler for the details (you really have to be in a tribute band like this). The guitar stuff I really don't concern myself with, many of the songs that they do I have at least jammed to (in my room) in the past. Getting the sounds down, well, that is something to work on! What is going to be cool is finally getting down to using a lot of the software out there. I plan on using a lot of samples, synth sounds, and loops throughout the show. I will be getting the Roland PK5a MIDI controller which resembles the old Moog Taurus pedals. It will control the stuff that i will be using on Reason within the laptop. I think that it will be time to invest in a Mac to run all that. I really don't trust the PC with all the music.

One other great byproduct is how it will help my job as an Arts Director within the tech area. I have never been intimidated or dismissed a lot of the software out there - I just never got to it! Now, this kind of forces me to enter that world. I think that, as time moves on, one will see tremendous advances out at the Romeoville campus - at least in terms of the music production. The band also provides me for a great diversion. Learning and reviewing the 12 songs I needed to get during the Easter season actually helped me! It is amazing how you can get your mind off of your job once in a while and actually do better at it! I would be in my practice room for hours jamming on Rush songs. Then I come back fresh to everything I have to encounter at CCC. It is great. I find myself working much more efficiently and clear-headed as a Director. It also doesn't hurt that both guys know Christ: Jim even drums at Shorewood and just got baptized on Easter! It was a good test for me to see how things will be in the future with them. They only do about 5 gigs a year - perfect for me. So there are a lot of benefits for me in all aspects of my life. When I think of more I will post them!

Right now we are picking the songs for when I play with them in late fall: probably in mid-November. Meanwhile, I have to get working on the material. They are finishing the last gig with the guitarist who is leaving in late June: opening for Heart at Milwaukee's Summerfest. That is a great sendoff for him. He sounds like a cool dude (he is even willing to help me out with all the samples/sequences I need to get to - an offer I am definitely taking up on).

More updates later...

Earth Hour

Earth hour was yesterday. Did you miss it? I think it was a cool idea to turn all the lights off for an hour. We just spent some time at the fireplace with a glass of wine. What would life be like without electricity? I bet most out there would have no idea what to do with themselves! That picture is of our fireplace raging yesterday.

Daddy Daughter Dance

Saturday night was so much fun! I got to take my daughter on a date to the Daddy Daughter Dance over at the Arts Center. It was an awesome production put on by some volunteers from the church along with Highpoint Community. The room was amazingly decorated to match a medeval theme. Most importantly, Katrina and I spent time together. I know it isn't true, but sometimes I feel like I don't get in enough daddy time with her. We always want more, don't we? But we do spend time (actually, we are overdue for our Starbucks day). We started the evening with a spaghetti dinner I made at home to candlelight. Then it was off to the event. It was fun dancing the night away. It was even more fun than either of us thought it would be. True, it was mostly little girls with their dads out there but there were some her age. To be honest, it didn't matter. We enjoyed the time! It seemed to go by all too fast. It's funny, in this picture I look so much older and distinguished - not the crazy rock dude like I normally am. Katrina looks great doesn't she? Just like her mom. I love her so much.

Alec's Day

That's our son! A picture tells a thousand words. I am proud of him and love him dearly. We have two great kids: Katrina and Alec - our greatest gifts from God.

Happy pi Day!

Happy pi day! Yes pi. For those of you not mathematically inclined, pi=3.14 (plus an infinite number of decimal points - but who's counting?). Today the date is 3-14. How many times a century does that happen?

Seriously, you had to think about that?

So right now, I am eating apple pi(e).

Mmmmm....

It's Not Square Root Day

Today is not square root day.

Just thought you would want to know.

I'm so sad...

Today is Square Root Day!

huh? Well, this is something that only happens a handful of times in a century. It's 3/3/09, right? Well, 3x3=9, right? And the square root of 9 is...3! How many more times in a century does that happen?

Thank you for your attention to this riveting piece of news. I think that today I am declaring a boycott on the rash of dismal news out there. I think we all get it by now. Stuff like Square Root day makes for a more interesting life.

I don't know what to call this post so I will just create a run on sentence because I can and it is my blog that I can do anything with, you see? Yeah

Hmmm, guess what tomorrow is? Yeah, one year ago...Oh, never mind. You can check last year's March 3rd post if you want to find out. Most of that junk is long past. However, I guess the date will always stick in my mind. One year later we now find ourselves in a much better spot than many others. Although, getting hit with a $500 car repair bill and another, oh...about $300 more, for another repair doesn't make life any easier. I think that we have to put on hold our family vacation plans for the moment. Note: on "hold" and not "cancelled". We will see. However, we have a roof over our heads (we are one of the millions seeking a loan modification, though) and can put food on the table and can pay the bills. That is much more than most. In fact, I think that we are in a unique position of responsibility. A year ago I was put in the "have-nots" category. This year, at least for the moment, we are in the "haves" category. It is a precarious one though (see car bill above contributing to dwindling savings - wonder if I hang on to the guitar?). Nonetheless, we are in a spot to not only look after but also help those in need. It could be financial - it could be something completely different. Whatever it is, we need to seek to emulate the God's generosity towards all of us. That is something that gets us through all of this.

So, a year ago tonight, I remember being very worried about what was to eventually become a reality. It has been quite a journey since then. It will be cool to see where that journey takes us next year at this time.

Baptism Parade

At our 9:30 service we had no baptisms.

At 11:00 we had 12!! In fact, there were 5 originally scheduled. 2 were spontaneous before they actually started at the end of the service. 5 were literally spontaneous! It was really quite amazing. The planning beforehand was quite nuts. There was some mis-communication regarding when baptisms happen and when the choir sings. It ended up we had both. It was quite crazy in setting up the stage; planning and rearranging the service flow; convincing Dave to trim his speaking time by at least 5 minutes; moving a heavy drum platform off the stage then back on; and then having the baptisms at the end. It was crazy! After the 7 happened, more kept coming up. I was sub-producing for Dennis (because he was up there) and couldn't instruct the band on what to do. They were playing during this time (as was the choir!). I finally told them in their headsets that I give up, it's up to God now! I couldn't convince Bryan (on guitar) to jump in nor Craig (on keys) to do some headstands. I was about to take lunch orders for them - ok, maybe not! At one point (or 2, I don't exactly remember) the band did stop and the crowd (few left - we were already 15 minutes over in time - so what), was yelling one more! And it happened. The whole thing was quite surreal. You could feel the energy in the house. I think all except 1 were students coming fresh from a great BLAST weekend a week ago. Alec was there too. He was hanging around all the kids up on stage. The change in him, at least for the past week, has been nothing short of awesome. He is still Alec doing some silly things but for the better. He was actually there the entire morning with me helping out. Here are a few more pictures (all coutesy of John Randall):

A Randall Picture

I really don't like posting pictures of myself. However, I got this from John Randall who took it at the service last Sunday (I was worship leading with the new geetar). He did a great job in the artwork. Man does he have a gift! It is truly a gift from God when you can even make a picture of me look good! Thanks John!

Nothing Back with Every Breath You Take*

We had a great service last Sunday. Pete Alvarez is back! Great news there! One funny thing that I noticed. We did a song, Nothing Back, during communion. If you know it, pick the beat up just a little and sing the Police's Every Breath You Take (* title as corrected by "Mr. Stickler" Eric Bramlett). It's the same chords. During rehearsal I kept wanting to sing it (or at least play the guitar riff!).

Just thought I would share that with you.

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The New Geetar - The final choice

Here is geetar number 4. Yep, 4. I went through 3 PRS CE-24's before this - all with some kind of defect. Unbelievable. PRS is known for well made guitars. Y'all never saw #3 because I only had it a couple days. It was the only non-red one (gold) but had a loose neck (2nd of the 3 to have that). Well, this one is not a bolt on neck but a glued on one - MUCH better construction. A Custom 24 (not the CE like I was trying) 10 top with a black cherry finish. The only problem is it cost a few extra bucks than what I planned (like several hundred). But this was my train of thought: I think that in the long run it will actually cost less if you spend a bit more for something that is of quality that will last a long, long time. Plus, as any musician should relate to, when you pick up a particular instrument and just know it is the right one, you have to consider it. So I now have to come up with the extra $ on the side to make up the difference (with my promise to the family, who did support this purchase by the way, that nothing comes out of our income nor affects our giving). I think the best, quickest, and easiest way for me to do that would be to see if I can pick up a few gigs here and there. I have 12 months. Yes, become one of those musician "jobbers"! It really isn't that bad. I was kind of thinking of doing it before all this. So if 'ya know if anyone is looking or hiring for a gig...

Plus, I am selling my white Charvel (I think I have a buyer) and my Carvin 4x12 speaker cabinet.

This is one cool instrument!