rigs ready for the mountains!

All is packed; we are about to head out to camp near Cotopaxi, Colorado!

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in Colorado!

Trinidad, CO ahead and New Mexico behind...having a great time on way to the Springs!

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elk hunt

Passing through San Angelo, TX on way to first elk hunt in Colorado!

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Hello

Yes, yes folks we're still here.  Here is now somewhere else however because we've moved to Georgia again....for the first time.

My buddies, Paul and Brian, and I are hiking in Franklin Delano Roosevelt State Park in Pine Mountain Georgia. They both chided me about my obsolete website because of stagnant content.  So I thought I'd take a moment away from the campfire to put some more current information for those who might be interested.

Rachel, the kids and I have moved to Warner Robins, Georgia where I am now working at Robins Air Force Base. 

The kids are especially happy living in a home where the previous tenants kindly left a trampoline, two treehouses and a tire swing.

I like living 1.2 miles from my office and Rachel likes having a dedicated room just for homeschooling.

Anyway, that's the short update for now.  Shown here is a recent pic of us all!

Strawberries!!!

Today we left early and went strawberry picking up at Sweatmore Strawberry Farm north of Panama City.  We had a lot of fun and came home with fresh local honey and about 20 lbs of fresh strawberries.

The next chapter...

...has been revealed.  The announcement was definitely surprising to me in many ways and we are very excited about the possibilities that our next assignment brings.  To challenge your brain cells just an ounce tonight, here is an aerial of our next home.  Enjoy!

Church Bells and the attacks to happiness

Church Bellsby: Gungor
Let church bells ringlet children singeven if they don't know whylet them singwhy drown their joystifle their voicejust because you've lost yoursmay all jaded hearts be healed.Amen.
Let all men dancelift up their handseven if they are naivelet them danceyou've seen it allyou watch them fallwash off your face and danceMay all weary heartsbe filled with hopeAmen.

This is such a simple song with such powerful lyrics. It is liturgy that speaks to how fragile our happiness is. So fragile that someone else's happiness seems to chip at it. We start to invent excuses as to why the other happy individual is unjustly or undeservedly happy.
In "The Help" I watched a Southern Belle do everything she could to drown the happiness of another lady for no founded reason at all. It was so sad and ugly. The naive target of her jealousy was none the wiser and only made the situation worse by trying to be friendly and cordial. Strange how that was only received by an already bitter heart as disingenuous.
I felt that way a long time ago. When popularity was so ... popular. I'd try to be friendly and interested in the goings-on of other folks in different cliques only to be met with an often cold shoulder and odd glances. It saddened me then and it saddens me now as I think about it. See, every now and then, I still feel that way. And yet I pray, even for myself as I pray for others, that someday soon, all jaded hearts are healed and that the weary hearts would be filled with hope.
Amen.

Children's Church Tips, by Andrew

1. Let the kids have a certain talking time during class.

2. Tell a Bible story the kids will like and understand.

3. Have a 5 minute discipline in a time-out for disobeying and disrupting class.

4. Give quizzes to kids to answer questions about the story and other fun games.

5. Have a fun time.

Well, that about sums it up.

At the Present

Just look at the post below and compare to the pictures here! How they've grown! How our lives have changed! It's really so remarkable.

Hannah is here posing with a new birthday toy. She is four now!

Elizabeth is posing with the other member of our family, Baby Bear. Baby Bear is sporting a lovely orange scarf "finger knitted" by Elizabeth. Elizabeth will be 7 on April 4th.

Andrew is posing with his Valentine's Day LEGO mini figure. He will be 9 in less than three weeks!

God, grow with them and in them!

A Blast from the Past

These two pictures were the first thing I saw when I opened Picasa tonight. I don't ever remember seeing them before! I feel I hardly remember those two sweet little people on the couch with their sweet Daddy. I think this picture was taken in the spring of 2007. Andrew had probably just turned four; Elizabeth just turned two; obviously, this was pre-Hannah. This was still at our house on Maxwell AFB, which we only lived in for about 7 months. While nearly 5 years ago, I am struck with all that's happened since then. Let's just say there's been a lot of water under the proverbial bridge. They are precious pictures from a sweet Sunday afternoon of days gone by.

San Antonio Missions

Today I finally took a few hours to visit the remaining four San Antonio Missions that I missed when we visited the Alamo.  The first stop was the main visitor's center for the San Antonio Missions National Historic Sites at Mission San Jose.

San Jose was the first mission on my trip, though it was situated in between the other missions on the map with Mission Concepcion to the north and Missions San Juan and Espada to the south.  My favorite part of the entire tour was the flour mill at Mission San Jose.  There the San Antonio River is channeled to the oldest active grain mill in Texas where the water is held in a 9-foot deep reservoir before it is allowed to power the mill stone in an outlying building.  Inside, the volunteer working at the site was actually milling actual grain into actual flour!  It was basically awesome.

The next stop was Mission San Juan, on the south end of the Mission Trail.  This mission was under renovations and it was difficult to get a decent picture with the lighting and the construction equipment in the way but I think this one turned out OK.  What is interesting about the 200+ year old missions is that they all have an active parish with regular services.  The parsonage for Mission San Juan is actually just to the right of this picture and is still serving as a private residence.  Cool.

 

Between Mission San Juan and the next stop was a slight detour to visit the Espada Aqueduct.  It's pretty amazing what cultures were able to figure out so many years ago to solve problems like irrigation and diversion.  There are very few places in the U.S. to see this technology functioning as it did then.

Here is the "Where's Waldo" moment for you... See if you can find Mission Espada...  These are mesquite trees and they are pretty amazing.  If you look closely you can see the Mission peeking through the branches.

The last stop on the trail was Mission Concepcion, a few miles north from where I began the journey.  Concepcion had amazing paintings that had been preserved on the walls inside several of the rooms.  I did not take any interior pictures out of respect for the active parishes that these buildings represent.  I also did not get any pictures today of Mission San Antonio de Valero (The Alamo) but I did drive by just so I could say that I saw all of the five San Antonio Missions in the same afternoon. And what a beautiful afternoon it was!

Hello Dolly!

No one should expect a lot from high school performing arts.  Usually a stand out upperclassman with reasonable talent will carry the spring show and likely never perform again.  Or, a wannabe diva sings her vocal chords to shreds while the rest of the cast looks on with disdain, but at least earning the extra credit necessary to pass biology.  The audiences are primarily parents, teachers, protesting siblings and at least one administrator to show "support for the arts."

There are exceptions, of course.  For example, I attended a performing arts magnet school in Atlanta, GA where it was commonplace for our shows to be covered and reviewed by local media.  Professional choreographers and private vocal coaches were employed to fine tune the county-wide talent that often went on after commencement to perform in NYC or get picked up by a traveling Broadway show after successful stints at some of the nation's finest collegiate arts programs.  That is not typical of most high schools.

Churchill High School, in San Antonio, TX, proved that they aren't typical of most high schools either.  Today I had the pleasure of seeing "Hello, Dolly!" and the surprise of being blown away.  Every member of the cast performed their hearts out during a matinee showing to an almost packed house, and the cast was plentiful!  A live orchestra accompanied beautifully and in perfect step with the players.  The music and theater performers were supported during the closing number of the first act with a cameo from the school marching band and dance team, the latter of which joined the troupe during the second act as waiters during the scene in the Harmonia Garden Restaurant.  These usually non theater performers augmented a cast that seemed to have a spot for every student willing to dress up in period garb and learn some basic blocking and dance sequences.  In reality, this mix of school programs combined with the sheer number of players involved and the typical let downs that often come with matinees should have been a recipe for disaster.  But it was far from it!

The choreography was simple, but striking.  The set was sturdy yet elegant, and flawlessly manipulated from every angle.  The humor was contrived (obviously - it is a script) but timed brilliantly!  There were some challenges with ticketing it appeared, but the director held the show back about 10 minutes so that everyone had a chance to get in rather than kick willing patrons to the curb by snobbishly holding fast to a 2:30 curtain time as some directors might be inclined to do... And I haven't even mentioned the performers!

This classic show is about Mrs. Dolly Gallagher Levi, a widowed matchmaker who has hooked everyone up except herself.  I had never seen it before and I had not seen the movie so I was looking forward to being surprised and enjoying a new story.  Considering Dolly is the central figure, way beyond the involvement of most theatrical protagonists, Clark Stevens (Director) had to find the right "Dolly" out of Winston Churchill's student body or pick a different show.  I have no clue where Bianca Phipps came from, but I know where she's going!  As the total package, Ms. Phipps owned the stage.  I was sitting about five rows from the back  but she pulled me into her spell through a powerful voice and the timing and facial expressions to impress some of the best stand-up comics in the country.  I loved watching her do Dolly's business and I only wished I had the opportunity to see her performing again, but sadly, my time in San Antonio will come to an end too soon.

One performer I believe I might hear from again is Meredith Trapp.  As the widowed Mrs. Irene Molloy, Ms. Trapp carried an already challenging vocal role that alone would have prevented the school's department of theater from pulling it off.  There is no doubt in my mind that unless she was singing to someone else's recorded voice, (which I highly doubt) Meredith Trapp has the ability already to write her ticket.  Besides doing proper homage to the role as an actor, Ms. Trapp's singing was trained, mature, healthy and shining!  I've already picked out her next role (if she can find a place to perform it) as the Narrator in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat."  Of course, as talent is usually evident in multiple areas of those who are most talented, she is probably also a terrific student and would do just as well working towards a doctorate and finding a cure for cancer.  Seriously though, I had one word for Meredith Trapp's performance - Awesome!

I could name others (so I will, it is my blog after all!) to include the perfectly poised antics of Michael Coyle and James Rodriquez as Cornelius and Barnaby, respectively, or the surprise stand out performance by Jacob Wagner as Horace Vandergelder (a role that didn't need to impress, but certainly did; Jacob, "Guys and Dolls" just called and they said you need to hurry up to make the 7:00 show!)  It would be easy to add the tap dancing feats, the backstage "ballet" or the excellence in costuming to the long list of why I never never never (pun intended) wanted this show to end, but then I would never be able to sit down and write up this review.

Still, what stood out most to me was the team effort that was put forth by so many.  Everybody involved gave it their all and the director made sure to include as many to the group of "Everybody" as possible.  This is really what high school musicals should be about - the School!  I couldn't help but feel the excitement and energy of seeing so many involved from so many departments.  To this effect, the true star was Winston Churchill High School and I can't wait to see another show by this terrific team.

http://www.neisd.net/churchill/academics/fine%20arts/fine%20arts.html

Funny Devotions

This morning I read a few verses from Psalm 139 to the kids before we started school. It included verse 11, where it says, "I could ask the darkness to hide me" and on to verse 12, "but even in darkness I cannot hide from You." I asked the kids what those verses said to them about God. Andrew replied, "That's why you should never play Hide 'N' Seek with God when He's "It"!


Amen!

Bach'in it...again.

Rachel and the kids are currently suffering through Lake Charles and the I-10 construction traffic as I sit back at Randolph alone, for the first time since getting back home from Afghanistan in August.

I miss them, but I'm thankful.

Since August, we have made two trips to Atlanta, one to Montgomery, a 4,700-mile road trip, two trips to San Antonio and numerous day/weekend excursions to get reacquainted with so many friends we met during previous assignments.  And we have been together for all of it.  We've laughed together.  We've cried together.  We've disagreed together. We've led together.  It was so refreshing to finally do all of that - together!

In Him,
David

Hannah's 4th Birthday Party!

Yes, we celebrated a couple of days early.  She will actually turn four tomorrow, January 17 at 5:30pm.  Yesterday, she was able to share her birthday not only with all of us, which is notable, but also our friends the Chambers who were in San Antonio for the MLK weekend. It is most notable that all five of us were together for the celebration, and will be for her birthday tomorrow, because David was not able to be present for her 1st, 2nd or 3rd birthday! He was very determined to give her a great birthday party! And it was great! Andrew was in charge of games and Elizabeth in charge of crafts. Andrew made an obstacle course and hid rocks for a rock hunt; Elizabeth cut out objects for girls to color and glue onto paper.

We asked her what kind of cake she wanted. After much deliberation, she decided on a dolphin cake. She called it A Dolphin Tale cake. (Side note: A Dolphin Tale is a great movie about choosing to respond positively to life when life deals you very difficult circumstances. We recommend it.) The pictures of her dolphin tale cake follow. And, yes, David and I were up kinda late on this one, but it was worth it!