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.

Yes, it has been awhile....

O.K. - to catch everyone up - life has been EXTREMELY busy for our family. Aside from a few personal things that have demanded more time, I just came off of almost 3 weeks straight of being busy every night. I was asked to play bass for High School Musical. It ended up being a GREAT show - every night sold out in advance - even after adding an extra show! I was really proud of the kids. So, I've spent the last few days in recovery. My personal schedule gets me up VERY early in the morning these days - I was rather wiped out.

In other news, my two oldest sons are both getting dressed up tonight to go to their H.S. homecoming thingy. (No, they're not going "together" - Darian is going with Rachel, Cameron is joining a group of friends.) Can't wait to get some pictures - I'll share them with you all later.

Soccer has been eventful. Tuesday night (10/2) we played a tough private school team from Springfield - fortunately it was called due to a thunderstorm while we were down 4 to 0 (with more than 20 minutes left to play) God had mercy on us and stopped the bleeding. However, we did win last night - after two overtime sessions during the Penalty Kick round. Darian had the final goal. Hurray for our side! (Beth and I now both have very short fingernails.)
Austin's team isn't doing so well, they lost 13-0 last Saturday (Boy was that fun to watch!).

Let me say, good for them - they were a better team, with better coaching, more training- and hey, they actually got the ball into the net. (Unlike our kids) They clearly deserved to win. This world needs winners.

BUT.......as a former pee-wee coach, I must say that our opposing coach from last week should have at least shown some restraint!!!!! When a team is up by that much, make a rule that only the goalie can score - or something - don't just stomp on the other guys until they hang their heads! They're just kids for crying out loud! As for our coach - sigh! Hopefully this weeks game isn't so lopsided.

Bye for now.

Ah, I'm melting......

Sooooo, it's really hot out there! And humid, and muggy, and there's generally no breeze. Miserable.

This past week and a half have been pret-ty busy! I was enlisted to play bass in an "orchestra" for a play - Lil' Abner - which is being performed at "Theater in the Park" in New Salem. It's about a half hour from our home. Here's the catch, rehearsals have been late in the evening - performances have begun at 8pm! Haven't been getting home till 11:15 or later - and up at 5:40am for work each day. I haven't had two minutes to rub together. We don't have performances again until Thursday. I get one more night off - then it's four more days in a row. Don't get me wrong - I really enjoy playing - and getting paid for it (unless you count gas and food expense into the equation....). Here's the other catch - it's "IN" the park - we're playing outside - in the hot, muggy, buggy nighttime air. I may think twice before I do Theater in the Park again.

As for everything else, we are still praying about where we "fit in" with regards to a Church body. I firmly believe in the importance of being in regular fellowship. I believe that the church is and always has been God's plan to reach the world (yes, even as flawed as we are!). I will be writing more about this very soon - perhaps even on my "new" theology blog. Some folks may take me to task on some of my views on these issues - I welcome the debate. Bye for now...