Mari's MC Commencement

Today we celebrated Mari's graduation from MC. She actually graduated last summer, but today was the day she participated in the commencement ceremony. It was very exciting to see her hard work pay off. Here is a photo recap of the ceremony.

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!

Mother's Day Celebration, Crustless Quiche, + "But God ..."

Hello ... I hope everyone is having a grace filled day! Below you will find some pictures from our Mother's Day Celebration this past Sunday w/ my Mom (surprisingly enough), Cleo, Mari and myself. But first, here's my artsy pic of the family piano:

My Mom wanted Chori Pan, an Argentinean staple. It is like a sausage sub, but better. We also got her a few Empanada's.

Mari and I got these Steak Sandwiches which were amazing!

Here's my Mom playing w/ her Macbook Pro and Cleo watchin.

Mari is working on her Charlies Angels pose.

My Mom bought a tripod so we tested it out ... Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Us:

Crustless quiche a la Mari using the ez meals plan:

I'd like to close this post w/ the gospel of Jesus explained by the Apostle Paul. I have not been reading the Bible as regularly as I would like, so I've been taking time to meditate on what it is to be a Christian. These verses has helped me remember where I was before God broke in and saved me:

ROMANS 3:21-26
“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it-the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption of his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Mari is having her commencement from MC tomorrow and then we are off to the NEXT conference. I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day Weekend!

Temazcal for Maracas and Tape

I went to see my friend Danny V. perform this Maraca solo last night. The Maraca solo starts around 1:40. Danny did an incredible job. A maraca solo is probably the thing only percussionists would like, and seeing it live is a little different than seeing it on youtube.

Millie + Anthony, Kip + Nanji, Derick + Angela, Mothers Day

Greetings and salutations ... I hope people had an enjoyable Mother's Day on Sunday! This weekend was filled with joy for Mari and myself. We had the privilege to participate and observe the wedding of Millie + Anthony Bates. Millie has been a good friend through the years, and it was very exciting to see her get married to a first class guy like Anthony. I realized, I love weddings. I remember my first wedding I attended as an almost adult (18 years old). I saw my drum teacher, Steve Wagner, get married to his girlfriend, Ernette. Seeing Steve's face when Ernette walked down the aisle was so cool and joy filled. I experienced that same joy when I saw Anthony look at Millie on Saturday. Love is an amazing gift from God. Thank you Lord for the gift of marriage.

This weekend had a few surprises that I wasn't expecting (hmmm, redundant Dave, if they are surprises, of course you don't expect them). The first was meeting my good friend Kip Yego's girlfriend, Nanji. They are a great couple and I hope we can hang out again. Nanji is from Kenya (as well as Kip). The second surprise was spending a few hours with Derick and Angela Pao. We had coffee (thanks for treating!!!!) and talked about a wide variety of topics ... it was a cool chill time with a great couple. Another surprise was when Kip and I brought the aisle runner up the aisle and everything went perfectly ... that was a pleasant surprise.

The last event this weekend was going to Great Falls w/ my Mom Sunday Morning (which was a lot of fun ... thanks for letting me try out your new filters), and having lunch with the most incredible woman in the world ... MARIIIII! Te amo!

Well, off to pictures, I'm trying to limit the amount of time I spend on posts, so there won't be too many captions. Have a great week!

Too Much Spare Time

Well, I just had the last two days off. Here is one of the things I did w/ my spare time:

PILGRIM is now Over

Well, PILGRIM is now over. It was a lot of fun. Besides playing in the production there are two highlights:
1) Getting to see my friend Dave Wilcox
2) Joking around w/ Fred the bass player.
Dave and I used to be roommates and was the technical director for the production. He is one of the most humble people I know and is a constant example to me of how to live the Christian life with sincerity. And he used to crush me at racquetball.
Fred (pictured below)
and I may have played a few times together, but nothing like performing in a musical. While we were on a break during tech week, Fred looked at me and said, "You remind me of a 'unique' hamster." (Just a note, he used a different term then unique, but for the purpose of this blog, I thought 'unique' would portray what Fred was communicating.) Hmm ... I can honestly say I've never been compared to a rodent before. Fred was so inspired by my drumming he made this picture.

Below are some more pictures from this weekend (captions will be below).

Fred took this one just so people knew that there was an audience for the play.

This is me pretending that I know what I'm doing behind the monitor board.

This is Josh ... he did the FOH mixing for the play. He is like a little Dave Wilcox.

This is Fred's artistic shot from the top of the set stairs.

Overall it was a great two weeks. There are certainly things I wish I played better. But it was fun combining drum set, electronics, and hand drums ... it was like three of my favorite things to do at all the same time. If only they wanted to have trash cans ... ah, maybe next time.

I hope everyone (I found out that about 3 more people have looked at the blog this week, so I don't think I can use that joke about my Mom again) has a great week.