New Poster

Here is a poster I just finished. I am not as good as my buddy Weston, but here is what I came up with for a sectional conference. There are a couple of things that I still have to fix, but give me your input on what you think so far.

Lose 10 Pounds in 20 Minutes

hope everybody out there has a great new year. Thought this would help with some new year resolutions. Once again we find ways to avoid the real way to lose weight. Kinda funny....

WYRD

I found a moment to myself so I thought I would post an update on what is going on up here in the mountains for WYRD, our churches youth retreat in Sonora.

It has been a blast so far. The first day we got here was Friday about 7:00 pm. We ate dinner (little Caesars pizza and homemade pot pie) and then we sat around playing games and goofing off till about 3:30 in the morning. IT IS FREEZING UP HERE!!! I guess I should be used to the cold from all my years in Paradise, but it was a wake up call to come back up here to below freezing. We got up today about 9:00. Some of the young people couldn't come up yesterday because they went to the REALITY Youth Conference in San Jose, but they arrived today about 2:00. There are 19 young people here. We ate breakfast and had our devotions. The first speaker today was Pastor Michael Hanks from Ceres, CA. He did an incredible job in teaching about having passion for what we believe in. After devotions and prayer this morning, we got in our cars and drove to the snow at elevation 6,889 ft (30 minutes away). It was so cool. I was getting kind of worried because the snow on the road was pretty much plowed, but the higher we got up, the more snow there was and it started to get a little slippery. But nevertheless, we reached the snow park and immediately went into an all out snowball war!

After about an hour in the snow, everybody decided they were freezing and we got back into the cars and drove off back towards the cabin. When we got back, the other young people were there and Doyle Champlain from our church led us in another devotion which was incredible. He talked about not letting other people affect you in a bad way. Things take time. When David was anointed by Samuel to be kind, he wasn't immediately on the throne. It was a process that took place in order to get him to the final part of the plan. During this process, he had to kill some things in his life to gain confidence. After this, we ate one more time. Pork burritos and pot pie once again. Delicious. Now we are all sitting around playing games. I will update you later and give more pics when I have more time and am not on dialup. Right now I hear another burrito calling.

The Man Behind the Music...Well most of it

I just got this pic emailed to me from a friend. This was in Delano about 1 month ago. As you all know, we recently just returned from Nashville for our recording. In the center, is Bro. Ken Fitzpatrick. If you don't know this man, let me tell you, he is incredible. Not just in his musical talents, but his spirit and attitude are something that you hardly run into these days. He is the one who helped us with our parts, played keys for us on two of our songs in studio and made us sound...well a lot better. I still laugh when I think of him jumping up and down saying "NO NO NO that is WRONG" when he heard us go off pitch or go off into some unknown key. His humble attitude and remarks have left an impression on my mind and heart. I just wanted to say thank you for everything you did.

I know I just said I am leaving cuz I have to go pack, but this time I really am. Have an awesome weekend everybody!!

Kadee is 16!

Today is my sister Kadee's 16th birthday. We just had the party and I will post pictures of it when I can. Happy B-day Kadee!! She has been an awesome sister!

I am headed out right now because I have to go and pack for WIRED, our churches youth retreat we have every year up in Sonora. We have over 20 young people going this year which should prove interesting because we stay in a 2 bedroom 2 bath house waaaayyyyy up in the mountains. There is supposed to be a snow storm coming in tonight so there should be snow up there for us over the weekend. The bathroom is the kind where you have to back into it. You can't walk into it because it is to small. Well you can but you have to kind of maneuver your way into it. It's kind of like a big crowd. You just have to push your way though...lol. We take turns on which days we take showers. The ones who volunteer not to take them at all have to sleep outside.....no JUST KIDDING. It's not that bad, but it is a bunch of fun.

This year the speakers are Rev. Mike Hanks (pastor in Ceres, CA), and Bro. Doyle Champlain. I will try to post when I am up there, but it is the mountains and will be kind of hard to have internet connections.

See Ya!!

The Will

Well here I am at 1:30 in the morning up wide awake. I don't really know why I cant go to sleep till really late. My mind just never shuts off. I can be laying there in bed thinking about 20 different things then all of a sudden I will get an idea for a design, song, or whatever and go and work on it. Sometimes I am up for 2-3 days at a time. I will doze off here and there, but it seems I can think best at night. Have you ever had that happen to you. You will be in bed with your eyes closed sort of asleep but your brain is still going 90 mph? I guess that is what happens when you get older too. The brain is always going, but the body isn't willing. I just crave the nighttime I guess because there are no people to int erupt you or bother you. They are all ASLEEP like normal people. I can think, I don't have to worry about somebody yelling in my ear, and I can think about ways to make people laugh. There has been a song in my mind all day that Marty Funderburk wrote. It talks about the last night in the garden for Jesus. When he was saying "not my will but thine be done". I think right here he is fighting the toughest battle any of us will ever fight. No doubt his battle was the most gruesome, ugliest battle ever fought, but the principle of it still amazes me. Every day, we still fight the same battle. "Not my will but thine be done". In all of life's circumstances, I don't want my will to be done, I want his. Whenever I get up on my high horse and try to plan out my own future, I have to remind myself...not my will but thine be done. When I try to do it my way, I usually get knocked off my high horse and put back on the ground. The human will is one thing God will never touch, which is why it is such a battle sometimes because it is up to us to turn our will towards Gods will. When we can align ourselves under Gods purpose and direction, it is the safest place you can ever be. Even if it is a place I don't want to go, I still have to say " Not my will but thine be done" I will write more later, but right now, I think I am going to go and lay down. Read the lyrics below. They say it all. V-1 Alone in the garden Jesus suffered, pleading with a father as a son. Longing for the cup to be passed from him, praying, not my will thine be done. With the burden of the world upon his shoulder, he knew within his heart the time had come And with every step of faith, these words resounded, Father not my will but thine be done. Ch. Thy will be done, thy will be done Not my own, yours alone, thy will be done In my heart, thy kingdom come In my life, thy will be done. V-2 This life is a series of decisions, we stand at the crossroads everyday free to choose the path of least resistance, free to walk the straight and narrow way But in the heart of every true believer, is a yearning to surrender and obey And a common call that binds us all together, to follow after Christ and live by faith!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everybody out there reading this (which right now is about 1 person). I hope everyone has an awesome day and an exciting new year.

Well Here We Go..

Well here we go.... I have finally started posting. Some people have been telling me to get a blog for awhile and I was always a little sceptical about it. But lately I have just been thinking about it a lot so I figured I would give it a go. More or less, the reason I made it is because when I get an idea or something stuck in my head, I like to hear what other people think about it. So when a wacky idea or or thought comes to my head, I will probably forget about it, or post it on here so that you can read it. Anyway, here goes.