Stinson Vacation 2010: Part 2

So much to tell, but oh so sleepy. What a day!



Disney's All Star Sports Resort



We arrived at the Disney All Star Sports complex this morning, got our tickets, then headed into the park. The boys were so excited. As soon as they saw the Disney signage, they began to light up.





Gavin & Ethan, at the Disney All Star Sports Resort. 



Today was Animal Kingdom day. We saw tons of cool things and rode some great rides.



Kristi & Ethan on the bus en route to Animal Kingdom.



The first thing we did once in the park was rent a double stroller. It costs a pretty penny for a 7 day rental, but very worth it. The only time I heard "Pick me up Daddy!" was while watching the parade.



Ethan and Gavin chillin'. While I strive to look as much like a tourist father as possible. At least I didn't have a fanny pack.



Here are just a few great moments from the day...

1 - From Gavin, while waiting to ride the Triceratop Twirl after realizing he could control how high it went."Daddy, we can make it go up up and away, and down down and away!"



Gavin waiting to ride the Triceratops Twirl.





2   - From Kristi, while discussing how weird it is that everyone just leaves their strollers, cameras, and other assorted stuff left unattended outside of rides. "It's not like someone's gonna steal it. You know everyone pays so much money to get in. You don't pay that kind of money to thieve."

3 - We did have a couple small meltdowns during the day. Gavin decided he didn't much like the Bug's life 4D movie "It's Tough To Be A Bug".  As soon as he saw the bad cricket, tears started to flow.



Gavin & Kristi with their 3D glasses being honorary bugs.







Ethan and a stranger digging for fossils in the boneyard.









Me & Kristi at Disney almost 13 years since we were last here on our honeymoon. I love this lady.





Those tears then reappeared a little bit later as we rode "Dinosaur". I thought everything was going to be ok because the ride malfunctioned half way through for us and stopped, so we were able to see how it was all fake, but Gavin didn't care. The dinosaurs freaked him out too much even if they were fake.  Ethan went back and rode it two more times.. I rode it once more. I guess I was a little scared too. =)

 

Me, Natalie, and Ethan ( They're almost hiding in the floor) on the "Dinosaur" ride, for the 3rd time.





4 -  We'd been noticing how Disney goes the extra mile with everything. Kristi even noticed that their random bathroom at Animal Kingdom had an attendant to help at the baby diaper changing station. She exclaimed as she exited said bathroom "If you have a good experience in the bathroom, you know it's gonna be a great trip!" Well said, Kristi.



 

You're not going to believe who rode this.



5 - One of the highlights of my day was riding Expedition Everest with Gavin. That's right. With Gavin. We were very careful not to call it a roller coaster. I just kept telling him it was a cool ride that was like a very fast train that goes up and down hills. He loves trains. He totally fell for it. He says it was his favorite ride, but he's not sure if he wants to ride it again. I was so proud of both him and Ethan for riding it so bravely.

Tomorrow takes us to Disney's Hollywood Studios. I'm looking forward to it!

Stinson Vacation 2010: Part 1

It's not about the destination. It's about the journey. No wait, this time it's totally about the destination.
We've been planning this trip for years, and it's finally here.
Today we began our Journey to Disney World in beautiful Orlando, FL.

We left our house at 7:05 am and arrived in Orlando at 7:45. Yep almost 13 hours.
To most folks this would have been a 10.5 hour drive, but with a 4 & 6 yr old, things never go as quickly as one might hope.

Here are just a few of the memorable moments from our day of travel...

1 - 1 hour break at a Ruby Tuesday's in North Florida to watch the first (and best) quarter of the Iron Bowl.



Gavin being very serious about watching Alabama football and enjoying his Ruby Tuiesday's Salad Bar (Ham and Cheese.)

 2 - Pointing out oddities along the road to the boys.  (tanks, helicopters, large chicken sculptures made of pans, etc.)
3 -  Stopping along the way to ship an item I'd sold on ebay and meeting the most talkative postal counter worker I've ever encountered.
4 - Seeing the billboard for the Sea World Christmas spectacular, because nothing says "Merry Christmas" like a killer whale jumping over a floating Christmas tree.

5 - And of course, an endless barage of questions like "How much longer Daddy?" My favorite such comment came from Gavin at approx 7:20 in Sumiton, AL. "I'm tired of riding in the car Daddy. How much longer?". We'd been in the car approx 15 minutes.

I'm sure I'll have plenty of tales this week.
On the agenda tomorrow... Disney's Animal Kingdom. We can hardly wait!

Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly

I was encouraged by this scripture today.
Maybe you will be too.

Micah 6:6-8
6 With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly,
and to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:6-8

Sunday Setlist 09-26-10

From time to time I post our setlist from our church's Sunday AM worship service This entry is part of the Sunday Setlists over at TheWorshipCommunity.com. There you can check out what churches are doing all over the country. Here's what we did today in our AM service at Westwood Baptist Church in the Forestdale community of Birmingham, AL (With my notes).

Prelude: Standing On The Promises (BH#339)
Southern style – have fun with it.

Announcements – Shawn

Standing On The Promises
1st, 3rd, & Last  - Upbeat, Southern style
Why: I chose this one cause, it'd be a good upbeat horizontal song to start with, also the lyrics fo the 3rd verse (which we hardly sing) mention living by the Spirit's Sword. (The focus of today's message.)

Days Of Elijah
V1, C, V2, C2x, “Who was and who is” ending.
Why: Favorite from years ago that people still request from time to time.

Welcome / Fellowship - Bro. Steve

The Battle Belongs To the Lord
As Written / V1, C, V2, C, instrumental, C2x
Why: Yeah, this is an old Petra song from the mid 80's. As I feared, very few of us knew it. But I think some people responded well to the chorus even if the song was very different than our normal style. Fit perfectly with the message.
Indescribable (BH#50)
As Written / V1, C, V2, C, C, C
Why: This song was requested by one of our students a few weeks ago. Been on my mind ever since. We haven't done it in years. Might be time to put it back in the rotation more often.

Offertory Prayer

Choir Special: “For All You’ve Done” (Don Moen - Let Your Glory Fall)

Transitional Chorus: For All You’ve Done - Made a change from singing Indescribable again to the chorus of this spur of the moment. The chorus just seemed to fit well with what we were about to hear about being prepared for battle. Nice to know God is on our side and that "all things work together for our good."

Message: Steve - AM “Stand Strong: Use Your Sword” (Ephesians 6:10-20; 2 Timothy 3:10-17)
Awesome quote from the message: Spoken by Bro. Steve while holding a toy sword and talking about the sword of the spirit - "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

Invitation: In Christ Alone (My Hope Is Found) (BH#506)
Closing Chorus: Days Of Elijah (MISC)

Overall, I thought we had a good service. Attendance was way down. I blame the rain.
How was your Sunday?

Effective Communication

I saw this recently on my way to work.

I couldn't help but wonder about the thought process that led to the decision to communicate with the city using this method.

I imagine the concerned citizens (I'm assuming that it took two inspired neighborhood watchmen to create this message)  had a discussion that went something like this….

Concerned Citizen #1: Man, I sure am tired of that crackhouse being in our neighborhood. I wonder if there's a good way I can let the city know how I feel. Maybe I should write them a letter?

Concerned Citizen #2:  Nah, that'd take too long. And besides, who wants to have to go to the trouble of finding paper and pen then spending almost .50 on a stamp. No way.

CC#1:  Maybe I should call them?

CC#2:  Nope. That would require looking up a phone number and pressing at least 7 buttons on your phone.

CC#1:  I know, how about a twitter or facebook message?

CC#2:  You're kidding, right?

CC#1:  I got it! You see that can of spray paint over there? Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

CC#2:  Aw Yeah!!!

Maybe it didn't go like that. We'll never know.

That will be left up to our imagination. Much like the answer to these questions.

1.)    Did they not have enough spraypaint for punctuation?

2.)    Are they saying, "Hello City, This is a crackhouse. Please tear it down."? Or are they requesting for the city to tear down all crackhouses?

3.)    Why silver paint? Was it all they had? Is there another color that could have communicated their thought more clearly? Like Magenta?

4.)    Is the owner of that house upset by the commentary on his wall?

5.)    Is this the beginning of a new way to communicate with city leadership? Will we see more messages to the city in the coming weeks?

If you had a can of spray paint, what would you tell the city today?

Encouraging Words

My wife really knows how to make me feel good. Check out this text

message exchange we had today. My comment is on the right, her reply
on the left. There is a story behind what she said, but just seeing it
like this somehow says enough.

Smile

Sometimes it's the simple things that make me smile. Thank you Mr. van
driver for tying that rope right there.

Which Do You Want First? The Good News Or The Bad News?

You may have noticed I haven’t blogged much recently. To be honest I’ve thought about blogging a bunch, but I just haven’t felt like anything I had to say would be worth sharing with the world. After all, who am I really? Why would anyone care?
Wow, I just re-read that. That sounds so depressing. I’m not depressed. Just deep today, I guess. Anyway, today I simply want to share with you a few of the things in this world that I know to be true.
1.) Bad news – I’m a sinner.

2.) Worse news – Because I sin, I deserve to spend eternity in Hell, in a place separated from God, my creator, my heavenly father.

3.) Great news – God’s gift to us is eternal life, through His son, Jesus Christ. If we accept him as Savior and Lord of our life we don’t have to worry so much about #2. I’ve done that. Have you?

4.) Personal Opinion – I’m so thankful for #3!

Footnote: This blog has been inspired by Romans 6:23 (It’s in the Bible. Check it out.)

Well I'm Proud To Be An American, Where At Least I Know...

I voted yesterday in the Republican primary runoff in the great state of Alabama. In my wonderful little rural community, we vote at the local volunteer fire department. Here are just a few of the interesting things I may have heard while I was there...

1.) This made me agree with doing voter recounts.
Voter: "I forgot my purse. Do I really need my ID?"
Worker: "You're Sherry's daughter, right?"
Voter: "Yes Mam."
Worker: "Nah, I know you. Come on and vote, sugar."

2.) This made me doubt the democratic voting process as a whole
"I could never vote for someone named Twinkle. Don't matter what they're running for!"

3.) This just made me laugh.
"Don't vote for Byrne. He's against teachers, so he'll lose. You just don't mess with the AEA, Dang it!"

One last concern of mine: I voted for Bentley

He looks like this.

Unfortunately, I've never seen him and Montgomery Burns together in the same room, so I'm not completely convinced that they're not the same person.. Am I the only one who thinks this? Surely not.

Sunday Morning: The Movie

This is hilarious. Enjoy.


"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.


While this may be a spoof of contemporary worship, I still find myself wondering what I can do to make our services more like that. First step, I need a tatoo. Yeah, that's it.

LOST Schedule

Ok, ok. I know you probably dont care about this post.
I'm sure it's no surprise to any of you to hear that I'm completely addicted to LOST. I probably haven't been this excited about watching something on television since 2nd grade when I'd run home every afternoon from school to watch The G.I. Joes try to stop Cobra from building the M.A.S.S. Device.

For some reason this show hooked me big time. Not only do I watch the show, but I listen to at least 3 podcasts about it and follow 4 Lost related websites. It is the greatest story ever put on television. Each episode makes you asks more questions while giving you very few answers. It's maddening and awesome.

So today I discovered two things I thought I'd share.
First a schedule of the remaining episodes. It all ends in May. and that makes me sad. But seeing these episode titles makes me a little giddy as I consider what might happen in each show.


4/20/10  "The Last Recruit"  - Recruit to who's side? UnLocke? or Jacob's?

4/27/10  Repeat - "Ab Aeterno"  - Sad to hear about a repeat. But this is a great one to choose to show again.

5/4/10  "The Candidate"  - Will they reveal who the final candidate to replace Jacob is?

5/11/10 "Across the Sea" - I know that this is the 15th episode this season and from what I hear, very few regular cast members are in it. Makes me wonder if they'll tell the back story of Jacob and UnLocke. I hope so. I'm dying to know who the kid in the jungle in the tattered clothes is that keeps appearing to Unlocke.

5/18/10 "What They Died For" - Wait! What!? Died? Who died? When did they die? Oh No!

Sunday 5/23/10 8-10 p.m. "The End"  -  The Grand finale. All questions will be answered. Well, probably not. I was at least glad to hear one of the actors say that after filming the finale he was "very satisfied" with how it ended.

Wonder if I will be?

Until then, I'm just counting down the days and hours until the next episode..."The Last Recruit"

Sunday Setlist: 03-07-10

Each week I post our setlist from church. This entry is part of the Sunday Setlists over at TheWorshipCommunity.com. There you can check out what churches are doing all over the country.

Here's what we did in our AM service at Westwood Baptist Church in the Forestdale community of Birmingham, AL (With my notes).

Prelude: Come Christians, Join To Sing
Baptism - What a great way to start a worship service!
Welcome

Come Christians, Join To Sing - Updated Hymn arrangement
Great Is Your Faithfulness

Announcements / Fellowship

How Can I Keep From Singing - Saw a great moment I had to share with our congregation, after we sang the first verse I told them of something I had seen during our fellowship time. Our percussionist's son (my nephew Will) ran over to the percussion pit during the fellowship time and tried to get his dad's attention. I could see him saying "Daddy. Daddy? Daddy!!" But his dad, Matt, didn't hear him. Will then started jumping up and down, trying to get Matt's attention. Matt finally looked over and Will was happy to get to "greet" him during the fellowship time.  I couldn't help but think of how our excitement should match Will's when we come in to worship our Heavenly Father as a church body. Thankfully,  don't have to yell or jump up and down to get God's attention, but that's always allowed if we want to. =)
The Potter’s Hand
Offertory Prayer - Deacon   The ushers came in a song too early song and walked down the isles. I think they thought my story about Will and Matt was a transition to the next song. Wasn't a big deal. They just got to stand there for longer than was normal. I did my best just to act like it was supposed to happen that way.

Choir Special: Standing On The Promises  - As we're preparing for Easter right now, our choir is doing a bunch of older songs that we know well for the next few weeks. I pulled out this southern fried, choir arrangement on a whim and it went well.

Transitional Chorus: Great Is Your Faithfulness

Message: “At the Cross: The Savior—from Victim to Victor” (John 19:1-16, 28-30) [new series] Theme: Jesus sacrificed himself to save us

Invitation: Softly & Tenderly
Closing Chorus: How Can I Keep From Singing

Overall a great day at Westwood. Afterward, someone said to me "Great song set" then someone else said "Why don't we do many hymns anymore?" I just laugh. Those kind of comments are expected now. What a great day.

How was your service?

Uh-oh

This pic is symbolic of the kind of week I've had. This is the tray on my desk where I keep stuff to be filed. I typically empty it daily. But haven't touched it in at least 2 weeks. Looks like I need to get caught up....first thing Monday morning. =)

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Shwnstnsn

This was too good not to share. (But be warned, I reference some language I wouldn’t normally use that may not be appropriate for younger readers. =)

I recently decided to attempt online gaming.  This is a nerdy activity that I’ve always wanted to attempt, but assumed I didn’t have fast enough internet connection. Thankfully, I was wrong. For the past couple weeks I’ve spent some late nights enjoying the game “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2”. For you non-gamers out there, it’s a war game where you try to blow everyone up while they’re trying to blow you up. I absolutely love it.

When you first sign onto Playstation Network it requires you to create an ID for yourself. That is a name that will be displayed over your character at all times so others will know who you are. As I am not very creative, I decided to use an old e-mail address of mine, SHWNSTNSN. It’s simply my name without any vowels. Unfortunately, what I didn’t know was that people usually pick a name that can be pronounced. One of the cool features of this game is that with a bluetooth headset, you can talk to the other players. This comes in very handy on a game like this as you can work together or just talk smack to your opponents. So a name like BigSarge66 or Hitman47 might be very appropriate and easy for people to use to talk to you. Unfortunately shwnstnsn is not so easy. I had been using it for about a week without anything of interest happening. Since I didn’t have a headset, I could only hear what others were saying and could not reply, So folks were not talking to me. On Friday night that all changed.

01/22/10 2300hrs…
I’m hiding on top of an abandoned house, I have no doubt someone will be coming along soon. I have my sniper rifle ready to take someone out with a clean headshot. I have also strategically placed some claymore mines around the house in case anyone slips by my eagle eye and manages to get close to me. Then I see him. In the distance… “Gfulk2008” is heading my way. I have him in my sights, I take a breath, steady my aim, then…. “slice”. That’s the sound I hear as “WhosyoDaddy” knifes me in the back. Apparently he had come around the back and snuck up behind me.

I wish that were the end of the story… but no. He then says to his buddy, Gfulk2008, “Hey G, I just knifed this shwnstnsn guy.” He pronounced it like schwanstonson in a feeble attempt to understand what it was. Then he went on…. “How do you pronounce it anyway?” Gfulk answered, “I’m not sure, but after the way you took him out, it looks like it should be “s_ _t stain.” They both erupted in laugher. “Yeah, that’s what we’ll call him, s _ _t stain!” Clearly they were enjoying this. But me, in my living room, was not enjoying it so much. My response, which they could not hear… “Aw Man! NOOOOO!”

For the next 10 minutes, that was their war cry! Anytime they would kill me, and it happened a lot. I would hear it. “s…stain!” If they couldn’t find me “Hey, Where’s …stain?” If they took me by surprise and killed me, instead of saying “Alright!” they’d simply yell out “s…stain!!” Honestly, it got pretty funny. I got to where I was laughing so hard, I was almost enjoying getting killed just to hear their reactions.I think the best moment of all was one of the times I killed Gfulk and Whosyoudaddy made fun of him for being taken out by “the s…stain”.

Needless to say, I changed my name the following day. Thanks to Ethan’s suggestion you can now find (and kill) me under the name DonnerBlitzen. I’m very glad Ethan is more creative than I am.

BeardWatch: Week 3

I mentioned last week that I've decided not to shave during the month of January. I've never let my beard grow before, so I figured I'd do it once just for curiosity's sake.

I haven't shaved since Friday Dec 18th. That means it's been 3.5 weeks. This how it looks today. I think my mother in law has described it better than anyone when she said "It doesn't look like a beard. It just looks like you haven't shaved". What a perfect description.  Clearly, it's mostly a "neck beard". Unfortunately it doesn't connect with the "crust-ache" that's going on either. And sadly, I think it would look a little better if it were darker, but alas, there's a lot of blonde in it (tribute to my days as a blonde when I was a toddler). I have no doubt, I'll get rid of it come February, but for now I'm going to stick with it. I'm interested to see how (or if) it changes before being shaved in February.

What do you think? Should it stay or go?

Word Of Advice

Backup your data, now.
I'm not kidding, right this minute.
Stop reading this and go backup any important digital data you have. Hard drives can fail. It happens everyday. People lose important documents, pics, videos, music, etc. all because they trusted their one storage solution.

I give you this advice, because I was reminded of this lesson this week.

About a year ago, I started using an external drive on a regular basis. I mostly bought it to hold my iTunes files. Since iTunes doesn't want you to be able to sync your iPhone with multiple computers, I decided to work around that by holding all my files on that one drive and carrying it with me. That way, whether I was at home, church, or work, I always had access to that info. It worked out really well until a couple days ago when the drive died. I've researched it and talked to professionals. It is dead. Apparently the drive motor died. It is possible to get the information off, but it would cost close to $1000 and that's just not something I'm willing to pay.

I was fortunate though. Almost everything I had on that drive was either backed up elsewhere, or I still have the original CD's that I can reload. So far, I only know of 1 important thing that was lost. My tax files. I'd done our taxes on turbo tax for the past 5 years. Sadly, I think somehow that was the only place I had those files stored. I'm hoping I made a hardcopy last year of the actual returns, but I don't have a good feeling about it.

Today I will be purchasing a new external drive (maybe 2 =), and making sure I have multiple copies of everything. You should do the same.

=(

I always strive to be a positive person.
I try to let that relect in everything I do, including this blog and my facebook status.
So usually when I put something out there, I want it to be something that's funny, or even just goofy.
Today is a little different. I've had a rough day. and I'm gonna complain some about it.

First, I started off my day looking at this face in the mirror. I know it's not obvious, but I'm attempting to grow a beard. I haven't shaved since December 18th. That's been almost 3 weeks ago. I've never seriously attempted to grow a beard before because I knew it would take so long. I was right. I'm one of those "lucky" guys who doesn't have to shave very often. Usually, as long as I shave once a week or so, no one even notices. But honestly, today as I looked in the mirror. I was pretty disappointed with my facial hair. It looks more like a patch of rainforest that has been stripped for timber than the thick manly beard I've been desiring.

So anyway, as I left the house I was already feeling a little down. Next, as I was driving to work this morning I noticed a white smear of something on the back of my left hand. I deduced quickly that is was toothpaste. I then glanced at the napkin in my passenger seat but decided that instead of using that, I would simply lick off the smear. Expecting the taste of toothpaste, I was more than shocked when it tasted more like what I imagine battery acid tastes like. But, not only did it taste bad, within seconds I felt my tongue drying out. What a weird sensation. Wondering if I'd just poisoned myself, I tried to figure out what I had just licked. Clearly my sense of taste and sight was of no help, so I smelled it. A-Ha! Deodorant! My feeling of joy from discovering the source was brief though, because my tongue was still in the process of turning into sandpaper. What to do?  Again, looking around my car I was happy to see the cup of ice still in my cup holder from the night before. Since I had left my car in the driveway last night instead of bringing it into the garage, the ice had remained frozen all night. So I quickly took a swig.
Crack!

Thats the sound that rang through my head as the huge bulk of ice released from the bottom of the cup and slammed into my teeth. Instead of being nice little pieces of ice, my front teeth were met with one huge ice block. The ice had thawed some during the night then refroze into this wonderful sculputre.

 Luckily, I didn't crack any teeth, but my mouth was sore for a while this morning. So, I was now suffering from a sore mouth, and a drying tongue. So I did what anyone would do. I licked the iced block.

Honestly though , I laughed it off and didn't think much about how the day was starting.

When I finally arrived at work, I did my normal morning routine...
Turn on monitor, fill bottle of water, check voicemail, plug in my personal external hard drive so I can have access to my iTunes files, plug in my iphone, get out my pen and order book for the day, check e-mai....Hey, wait a minute.... My computer isn't recognizing my external hard drive!
So I tried unplugging it and plugging it again. All to no avail.
My external hard drive is not working. I did a lot of research on this, and it appears to have died. It simply beeps continuously, instead of turning on. Ugh! Luckily this is not a huge loss though. I did have photos, videos, and stuff for work and church on there, but it was just a backup source for all of those things.
The only thing I did lose was my iTunes files and all my music. Approximately 5,000 songs were on there. Now, if I can't fix my drive, it appears I'll have to reload all of those CD's. What a headache.

Overall, the day wasn't awful, just not a good as I hoped it would be.
I have no doubt it will get better tonight at church and choir rehearsal,. (At least, I hope it will.)

So, how was your day?

Netflix 2009

Last year I blogged about the movies I'd seen in 2008. As I've discussed many times, I love a good movie. Heck, I love some not so good movies. There are a lot of reason I enjoy movies. I enjoy the thrill of trying to figure out what's going to happen. I enjoy watching great actors, actors who can make you forget who they really are and other roles they've been in. I even enjoy just trying to figure out how they filmed a specific scene. Netflix is my primary source for this movie viewing habit. At the end of this entry, you can see my entire list, all 54 movies I watched from Netflix in 2009. Instead of reviewing every movie, like I did last year, there are just a few I want to highlight for you... So, here are the Shawny Awards for 2009:

Best movie that brought back good childhood memories: G.I. Joe

Best movie that went from my "Not interested" list to my "Liked it" list: The Proposal

Most overrated movie: The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button.

Most out loud laughs from a movie: Step Brothers (wait for it on cable so they can clean it up )

Most tears shed: Marley & Me

Best Actress: Meryl Streep in "Doubt". Wow, that lady can really act.

Best Movie Title: How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

Best Actor: Meryl Streep (She's so good one award was not enough.)

Here are all the movies from Netflix I watched in 2009.

The Ugly Truth / G.I. Joe / Ghosts of Girlfriends Past / Anvil: The Story of Anvil / Angels & Demons / The Proposal / X-Men Origins: Wolverine / The Pink Panther 2 / Crank 2: High Voltage / Fired Up! / Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail / Sunshine Cleaning / The Last House on the Left / Duplicity / 17 Again / I Love You, Man / Knowing / Push / Race to Witch Mountain / Miss March/ Watchmen/ Defiance / He's Just Not That Into You / Slumdog Millionaire / The International / Marley & Me / Body of Lies / Flash of Genius / V: The Original Miniseries / Changeling / Paul Blart: Mall Cop / Australia / Transporter 3 Role Models / Last Chance Harvey / The Curious Case of Benjamin Button / Doubt / Yes Man / The Wrestler / Tropic Thunder / The Spirit / The Reader / The Day the Earth Stood Still / Bedtime Stories / Seven Pounds / How to Lose Friends & Alienate People / The Express / Ghost Town / Burn After Reading / Eagle Eye / The Rocker / Soul Men / Step Brothers / Wanted / What Happens in Vegas

Did you watch anything good this year?

Let It Snow...

Walmart's bread section Monday @ 10:40 pm. You think that's bad. You should have seen the milk section. People go nuts when they hear the word snow. And the potential snow isn't even due until Thursday. I wonder if our local weathermen have gotten their bonus checks from the milk & bread companies? Hmmm?

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Sunday Setlist 01-03-10

Each week I post our setlist from church. This entry is part of the Sunday Setlists over at TheWorshipCommunity.com. There you can check out what churches are doing all over the country.
Here's what we did in our AM service at Westwood Baptist Church in the Forestdale community of Birmingham, AL (With my notes to follow). Our services are typically a blend of traditional and contemporary worship. Our instrumentation includes brass, woodwinds, and rhythm section.

Prelude: Orchestra - Praise To The Lord The Almighty (Hymn)
2 verses in original key
Announcements

Step By Step (Rich Mullins)
Chorus only Repeat as led.
Praise To The Lord The Almighty (Hymn)
1st, 2nd, and last verses with Key change for last

Welcome / Fellowship

Your Grace Is Enough (Matt Maher & Chris Tomlin)
V1, Pc, C1, V2, Pc, C1, C1, Pc, C1, C2,
The Potter’s Hand (Darlene Zschech)
V1, V2, PC, C, V2, PC, C, C

Offertory Prayer

Choir Special: Holy, Holy, Holy (Arrangement from musical "Sanctuary")
Transitional Chorus: Step By Step (Rich Mullins)
Chorus only Repeat as led

Message: Bro. Steve: “Seeing the Big Picture: Staring 2010 God’s Way” (Psalm 90:1-17)
Theme: Spiritual perspective

Invitation: Wherever He Leads I’ll Go (Hymn)
Closing Chorus: Your Grace Is Enough (Maher & Tomlin)
C1 only 2x

My notes: Musically everything went well today. No major hiccups or flaws to speak of. I went into the service kind of expecting the church to react with a little more enthusiasm in their worship. But I think, like me, everyone was still pretty worn down and tired from the holidays. It was a good Sunday, just not as "up" as I expected it to be.

How was your Sunday?

I Am Resolved

Since my last post was technically supposed to be posted last year, I consider this my first post of the new year.

As we all know, it's that time of year when people make resolutions. I've already read many friend's blogs that say they are going to lose weight, run every day, blog a picture everyday, or something else that likely won't last. I don't mean to discourage them in any way. I wish them all luck in their new goals. I just know that I've never, ever stuck with any resolutions I've made, especially when the goals were so lofty. So this year, I'm going to list things that I will definitely not do in 2010. I think I'll be happier with myself in January of 2011 if I can look back at this list and see that I've not done, exactly what I said I wouldn't do. I figure that's better than letting myself down. =)

1.) I will not lose 80 lbs. I might lose some, but not 80.
2.) I will not work out every day, leading to the ability to bench press my own weight. So, if I ever fall on myself, I'm in trouble.
3.) I will not finally convert all our old VHS home movies to DVD. I will more than likely leave them in the box where they've been stacked for years. That way, when asked "Can we watch that old Christmas tape?" I can continue to say "I don't know which one it is. You wanna go through them all to figure it out?"
4.) I will not watch less TV and read more instead. I might watch the same amount of TV and read more. But less TV is not on the agenda.
5.) I will not make our yard into the landscaping beauty that I know it has the potential to be. I know this is disappointing to both my lovely wife, and my bush eating, landscape destroying, dog.
6.) I will not go to bed earlier and wake up earlier. I will more likely go to bed later and try to sleep later if I can figure out a way to make it happen.
7.) I will not be a proficient acoustic guitar playing worship leader. (Ok, I do plan to play some, but I promise not to be good at it.)
8.) I will not teach Tony (our dog) to do a stupid pet trick, leading to my first visit onto "The Late Show with David Letterman."
9.) I will not keep my car immaculately clean. But I will keep it clean enough for someone to ride with me without me having to tell them "Wait here while I get something out of my seat" (as they then watch me move armloads of stuff from the passenger seat to the trunk.)
10.)I will not blog everyday hilariously  about life as a husband/father/worship leader/nerd, causing my blog to gain in popularity, leading to large piles of ad income, and the eventual release of my bestselling book "Tales From Street Road: The Beginning."

Seriously though, there are a just few things I will do...
1.) I will strive to be a better father. Taking more opportunities to discipline & teach my boys.
2.) I will strive to make more memories with my family. Less days just shopping or running erands, more trips to zoos, parks, etc.
3.) I will strive to be a better husband to my awesome wife. One way I will do this is by trying to see our house through her eyes and helping to meet her cleanliness standards instead of mine. Then after seeing the messes me and the boys have made, I will begin to clean them without being asked. =)
4.) I will strive to keep all commitments and not over commit to church, friends, or family. Always sure to let my "yes be yes" and my "no be no".
5.) I will study (not just read) the bible more, striving to make myself more of a Christ-follower, not just a believer in Jesus Christ.

What are you gonna do, or not do?