We celebrated Anna & Cameron’s birthdays Saturday. Actually there is a whole flock of birthdays over the next few weeks. Cameron turned 19 and Anna 20 and you can see by the picture they get along splendidly. Actually they do. Last night we celebrated Sylvia’s birthday in grand style but let me tell you eating cake ain’t helping my weight loss :).
Meshing families can be touchy but so far I can’t imagine it going any smoother. We continue to trust God with this, and continue to leave our hands off of it and not try to expect everyone to act a certain way. There will be hiccups along the road but so far……it’s amazing.
On another note my nieces are coming to visit in a few weeks… woo hoo. I’m so looking forward to their visit.
Laura and I have an adopted daughter, though not legally Grace is someone we make part of our lives. She has known Laura for many years and though she is from Alabama she goes to school in Austin. Grace had the opportunity to play at the New Folk Ballad Tree at the Kerrville Folk Festival which is a huge honor. She is tremendously gifted and someday if you love folk music you’ll know of Grace. Here is a sampling of her music when she played at The Warehouse at Journey (aka church).
* Cameron use to be teased by his brothers that he was adopted, so he used to say I’m a doctor…
It started a few weeks back but to put it in honest perspective it’s been going on for a while. I’m traveling more then I like to and since then I’m feeling out of sorts and out of place. The only thing that keeps me going is the people at the end of most of these trips.
Due to some changes at work I’ve had to spend quite a few months in the Rio Grande Valley, which really isn’t a valley but a very large flood plain. So I find myself flying in and out of Harlingen on Monday’s and Friday’s. But trying to be the good son I went to So. Cal. on Mother’s Day weekend which was a blast and then up to Abilene on Tuesday and Wednesday (It was good to have dinner with Cole). Thursday was the coolest trip to Sea World I’ve ever had (like 20 years between trips) in which a duck bit Cameron’s lip (photo later) and we took a combined family trip (minus the middle children) together. It was great and I had a wonderful time. By now I’m wasted from few hours sleep and lo and behold I plan a 6:30 am flight to Nashville with Brandon to see an old (as when she was in the youth group) student of mine get married just over the border in Alabama (sounds like a nice song title or a Rick Bragg book title). We met up with my college room mate James Bristol and beautiful wife Joyce and then over to Flying Saucer to have a pint with Lucas. Finally getting to Murpfreesboro to be with my Sister and her family. I missed a few people but hopefully will catch up with them July 4th weekend.
Well after finally getting home past midnight from Nashville, i raced home to do laundry so I could head out Monday to Harlingen. I’m back home this Thursday evening and then Friday head to Las Vegas for a weekend with Family specifically to see cirque du soleil, love show. We arrive back on Sunday night then I’m driving back to Harlingen on Monday evening.
Traveling can be fun if your going to some exotic place but the RG Valley is not exotic especially when it’s 97 degrees outside and humid. The traveling will probably slow down a little bit in the next few weeks oh wait, i’ve got to go to Dallas and Abilene over the next few weeks. Never mind.
Okay what would cause a couple to leave a Steve Earle concert. Well how about a sore back, a runny nose and a cough. Steve Earle was playing at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, which in itself is a great place to see a concert but not when you just don’t feel well. I might have made it through the whole gig if it wouldn’t have had an opening act. Allison Moorer is Steve’s 7th wife (he’s only 53). As a nicer guy then me said in the men’s room after her set, “just because he married her we shouldn’t have to have her forced upon us”. Her claim to fame is she’s Shelby Lynne’s sister and of course is married to Steve. Her new album is covers of others which makes sense because her music is the same monotonous drone (Shelby is releasing covers of Dusty Springfield songs soon), but yet I haven’t listened to it since it also probably kept Buddy Miller out of the studio as he produced this album for her (ok it doesn’t help that he’s playin guitar for Robert Plant and Allison Kraus). She did a cover of Joni’s Mitchell “Both Sides Now” which was the highlight of her set. Steve came on and played solo acoustic material until his DJ joined him, and though I really enjoyed the music my body won and Laura and I took off and enjoyed the rest of our great Sunday evenings together with me leaving every Monday morning.
Pierce Pettis played a few songs at church Sunday. His song “You Move Me” was written when he didn’t have his kids one Christmas after his divorce. It reminded me of the first Thanksgiving without the boys, a few tears flooded up as he sang, and though I wish I could say I felt like Pierce, I didn’t, I knew God was with me but I was angry at the circumstances. It took me a while but I was dancing and singing soon enough. Also over the next few years Pierce’s children Grace and George will probably be releasing their first albums, they are immensely talented like their father.
NP: nothing playin just sitting in the hospital waiting on a grandbaby to present itself to the world.
UPDATE: Piper is 9.1 lbs and 21″ long momma and baby are doing great. The last pregnancy photos are located at:
I was driving by the McAllen airport this morning and was wondering why there were police cars all over the place and took a left towards our valley office and saw the people lining the fence of the airport and the camera crews. Where this video was filmed was my vantage point at .32 seconds when driving by. I pulled into the mall parking lot and watched for about ten minutes. I couldn’t keep my eyes dry and was deeply moved by the ceremony.
Joseph Rubio was part of a group of 4 that pushed the number of dead in Iraq to over 4000. I don’t care how you feel but this is wrong.
I got back on my bike today, not long but it was nice to ride even if i’m coughing up a lung. I’m going to try and do about 35 miles this week. Don’t know if I can, physically that is my allergies are kicking my tail.
I’ve wondered what life would be like if we really lived like the “Kingdom of Heaven” was at hand? When Dave Madden covered *24 by Switchfoot at church I was convicted that there is so much I want to do but there is only 24 hours in a day. And I’m convinced that I waste many of those hours not loving people the way I want to, or the way I’m called to. Well just pondering time to blow my nose and cough again.
Back a few months ago I started attending church with Laura. It’s hard for me to call it church, it’s more of a fellowship of humanity, and they call it journey. I’ll explain all that later.
My first concern it attending was that I’ll just be hanging with Laura (which is the best reason for anything) and not really committing myself to the church. So all that to say that I’ve signed my rock and officially am part of the journey.
Journey IFC (Imperfect Faith Community) is a fellowship of Jesus followers who hang on Sunday mornings in a warehouse in North Austin. It’s a group of people who are trying to figure it out, and best of all admit that they having nothing figured out. The discussions (sermons) are honest and compelling, and a conglomerate of the flow of the congregation. In other words the pastor doesn’t just speak he listens and encourages people sharing their heart. People come as they are, not clothes, yet you can do that but where they are. If they are having a shitty week they have a healthy place to be heard and not judged.
I also feel it’s a place where there is a social consciousness that isn’t just a thought but is action. They are seriously trying to make a difference in the world.
I’ve for years abdicated a “Third Place” being church. And though Journey is not a Third Place yet, it’s the closest I’ve been to one.
