Beautiful Damage...

Sorry about the absence - we just got our cable/internet back up today. We only lost power for a day and a half - but the cable was still out. The kids missed three days of school. Life just kind of stood still for a few moments. Church was cancelled, the theater guild play was postponed, everything just stopped. I did go to work though (lucky me!), but Beth was off for two days.



As for our house and yard - the house is fine. I have some limbs to cut down, and there are some big ones that went down on the carport - but thank the Lord, it doesn't look like there was any damage to speak of. (Whew!) Our back yard, however is a disaster area! It's going to take some time to clear out. I borrowed a chain saw, and I will probably work on it Monday (I am taking a couple of days off before year end.)







Our play is going well. Tomorrow is our last show. It has been fun! Cameron and Austin have really enjoyed it.It was neat to kind of do something like this as a family.


We are up now wrapping presents. Bye for now!

This just in...

I went back to our house to walk our "wonderful" dog, Candy and grabbed my camera cable so I could upload some pics. As I mentioned earlier, there was quite a spark going on out front.
You may also notice a tree limb sticking straight into the ground - it literally stuck like a spear in our front yard - remember, the ground was frozen too...



I also got a little carried away with the artsy-fartsy photos of icicles and frozen beauty. Enjoy this one - I'm sure there will be more...

Snow what?

We had our first snow yesterday afternoon. Pretty isn't it. It will all be gone soon. We went out last night and got our Christmas tree - we were just about the only people out. That should have told me something.... Anyhow, Merry Chistmas!

Proud Papa!

Sooo...,

(Have you noticed that many, many of my posts start with the word "Sooo..."?) (Oh, you have? Well, ......Soooo What!?!)

Sooo..., as I was saying before I so rudely interrupted myself... I am a proud father of some talented kids.


I haven't posted much lately because we are in the midst of practicing and performing "A Christmas Carol" - the cheesy musical version. You can catch the movie version on Hallmark this season - it's the one where Jason Alexander plays the part of Marley's Ghost. (I haven't been able to rent it yet because I haven't broken down and started a Netflix account yet - and everyone else in the cast has been perpetually checking this video out - and we've been out at night practicing - so we can't catch it on TV.


Cameron has a couple of parts - he dances with a "real" girl - and he is also a drunk in one scene.
He's proven to be a great performer!


Austin has a small part playing "Ignorance" (As in the two children "Want" and "Ignorance" that belong to every man) and he sings with the children's choir for a few numbers.



I am playing electric bass in "the pit." I only had to learn 105 pages of music for this one! But, I'm getting paid, so - I'll put up with the torture. Actually, I'm having a blast! Musicals are always a challenge for my limited (8th grade) music education but I keep getting asked to do more, sooo... what can you do?

Neat thing - Lots of the folks in "the pit" are from church - John our youth pastor is conducting and playing trumpet and Linda (the Pastor's wife) is our AMAZING pianist/vocal coach, also one of the flutes goes to our church.
Tim Sellers (Beth's brother) and Priscilla (our niece) are also in it. Priscilla has a great dance number with some other young girls- they are all so cute! Grandpa - (Ron Sellers) also has a couple of small parts and is singing in a lot of numbers. Marley's ghost is played by David Rain who was a friend at Jacksonville Assembly. There's a bunch of others too.



The awesome thing about it is that so many of the players are brothers and sisters in Christ - and we are all able to have an effect on the community in such a vivid and tangible way. Trust me, we are definitely in "sharp" contrast to many of the "characters" involved in our local theater. (Ahem.)


That's it for now, enjoy the pics - the lighting was bad and they were taken with digital zoom so the quality suffered a bit. They are from our "friends and family" night dressed-rehearsal.

The Joys of Fatherhood...

Just thought I'd share a few photos with you all to illustrate what a joy it is for me to be a parental unit (sometimes). Actually, I wouldn't trade a minute of it! (Well, maybe a few hours here and there, but you know what I mean folks.) Enjoy the pics, and of course my loving, fatherly commentary.

This is Darian waking up!

As you know, Teenagers are always especially cheerful in the morning! I don't remember Darian's exact words when the flash went off, but I'm sure they brightened everyone's day, as usual.

Austin is a very serious individual, especially when taking a picture.

The fact is, I have had a hard time finding a picture of him to share with you all without some sort of gesture, "face" or otherwise non-serious behavior from him. We don't actually know what his real face looks like - though we do know he has blonde hair and steel blue eyes.

Here is Bryce at the Relient K concert - isn't he handsome?

BTW, the sign he is flashing with his hand is the Rock and Roll "secret" devil sign. Shhh...don't tell anyone.

Here is Cameron cutting his 16th Birthday Cake

I guess that means he's only cut 15 others in his lifetime.....??? I didn't know we had been counting exactly how many cakes he had been been allowed to cut but it must be serious business if we are keeping track. After all, those cake knives can be pretty sharp! By the way, Happy 16th Birthday Cameron!

Lamentations...

So, a few weeks back I was joyously singing the praises of the "Fall" season. True, this is my favorite weather, and the trees get all pretty-like - colorful and what-not. However, the leaves don't stay on the trees. Makes a mess. Sigh. Sometimes I think if I didn't complain, I'd have nothing much to talk about. Sorry folks. It is kinda pretty though. Here's a couple of pictures of our "little" yellow house - one from a couple of weeks ago, and a couple from earlier today.

Before

After the fall!

Because I promised...

Here's a couple of quick pix from Homecoming...enjoy!

We're Baaaaaaaaaa-aaaack!!!!!

Well, we made it. We went to Bogalusa, Louisiana for a whole week. We got in late last night. Also, we ditched church today (we had planned to - I let the pastor know myself- we needed to, we didn't feel guilty about it.... well, maybe a little...)

Here's a small sampling of what we did.

Our major task was Vacation Bible School at our host church. Beth and I were in charge of crafts. We had a blast with the kids!

Cameron and I were also part of a construction crew - we mostly did drywall work for a family who is still living in a FEMA trailer after two years. The problem down there is mainly that insurance companies left people high and dry. This family wasn't "poor" or even helpless, they just had no money to rebuild their house that had been destroyed. We were able to finish up the drywalling and get the house ready to paint - starting with their laundry room. They were overjoyed at the prospect of not having to take their clothes to a laundry to wash them. (as soon as the water heater is installed.)

Beth, Darian and Rachel helped to paint a neighborhood school - it needed painting badly. In this case this was a public school - but hadn't been maintained in a long, long time. They made it look great! There was a professional painter on our missions team - he really knew what he was doing. Our team learned a lot in the process.

We also had planned on hosting a couple of neighborhood block parties. On Sunday night we had everything set up - including a full band stage and sound system - and a freak thunderstorm came out of nowhere - we got rained out. We set up tuesday at a nearby park - there were lots of people and we had a great time. Oh well.

Cameron helped tie balloon animals. He got quite good at it - really! We had one free evening, and were able to visit New Orleans for a few hours. (It really reminded me of Venice Beach, CA - with all the street performers and "Openness" - if you know what I mean.) There was a lot on display.

All in all, we had a great time!

(Except for sleeping on air mattresses on the floor - small price to pay.)