What's Been Going On

Life has been busy and good lately. I'm preparing to take one of my schools to Hershey Park for a Music Festival. That should be fun ... 15 hours w/ 10-12 year old students, anyone want to join me? Moving on .... Today's entry will consist of food pics, random spiritual thoughts, a brief Mari update, and honoring a friend. We will start with food ... I've been grilling like there is no tomorrow. Check out these pics:


Last night @ our married Care Group we discussed briefly chapter one of Dave Harvey's book, When Sinners Say I Do. One aspect about the chapter I want to apply is the simple fact that what we think about God is one of the most important aspects of our marriage. As Mari and I continue to read through 2 Chronicles, I wanted to learn about who God is so that my thoughts about Him would be shaped by His Word, not my subjective feelings. There will come a time when things will be hard, and I will have to believe that God is gracious, merciful, and faithful (2 Chronicles 30:9). If I can call to mind truths about God's character now, it will help my marriage with Mari by increasing my trust in the Lord. If you're reading this, thanks for sticking with me on how I process how to apply what I learned on Friday.

Moving on # 2 ... life with Mari has been great. Everyday I get to come home to this beautiful woman whom I do not deserve.


On Wednesday we went to Bonefish Grill because one of our friends gave us a gift certificate for our anniversary. This is the same place I had my bachelor party so it was cool to go there as a married couple.


On a different note ... lately at Church we've been going through a series on the Psalms: Real Help for Real People. The last two Sunday's I've been thinking about my friend Madonna who passed away last August. The reason I've been thinking about her is because every message has talked about living a life that exalts Christ no matter what our circumstances are. Madonna did this as she went through her battle with cancer. I thought to honor her memory I would put the "YouTube" video of her memorial slideshow:

Journal Entry - April 10, 2001

Occasionally I will post some entries from my old journal. I want to find the one's that are 10 years old, because ten is a cool number. But my first electronic journals were written on a Macintosh SE from February through June of 1997. Then, from July 1997 until August of 2000 they were written on a Mac Performa Desktop. I saved those entries on a 3.5 floppy and I don't have a way to transfer them to my iMac. Anyway, it is interesting to read this entry almost 7 years later.
Tuesday April 10, 2001 AM
“The end of a matter is better than its beginning,
and patience is better than pride.
Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit,
for anger resides in the lap of fools.”
ECCLESIASTES 7:8-9
How do I know that the end of a matter is better than it’s beginning? Well, first of all, God’s word tells me right here. And because we know that all Scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, correcting, and rebuking, I know that the end of a matter is better than its beginning. So when a situation comes up at work and I don’t feel like dealing with it, remember that the end of a matter is better than it’s beginning. I can have faith that God has placed this opportunity before me to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
God has placed this opportunity for me to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Remember this, and remember to be patient. If I abide in Christ and His law, which is not burdensome, I will know that being patient is better than letting my pride rule my thoughts and actions.
“The end of a matter is better than its beginning,
and patience is better than pride.

PG Solo & Ensemble Festival

This was another Saturday filled with music. I had the opportunity to take four string and ten wind students to the PGCPS Elementary Solo & Ensemble Festival. It was a rewarding experience.

The highlight of the day was listening to two clarinet players from one of my schools. We rehearsed the piece on Thursday and it was very rough. These two young ladies are very hard working and I knew they could do better. So I challenged them to spend the next two nights reviewing the hard parts and practicing with the CD that Roger Hooper help me make. They exceeded my expectations. When they played their first notes, the classroom on Saturday was filled with a great clarinet sound. They did not play perfectly, but they worked their hearts out between Thursday @ 12:30 PM and Saturday @ 11:30 AM.

Overall, all the students did well and the main purpose of the festival is to motivate them to continue playing their instruments. All the young instrumentalists had a great time and received excellent feedback from the judges.

Sometimes as someone who loves playing congas to a funk beat, it is hard to teach clarinet. But yesterday was one of those experiences that help me enjoy teaching elementary school instrumental music in PG county.

The Roger Hooper Jazz Trio (or whatever we call this group)

On Saturday night I had fun playing jazz music w/ Roger and John. We played songs like Chameleon, Satin Doll, our own arrangement of Come Together and some other Beatles song that I can't remember the name. We played for about two and a half hours. It was a blast and reminded me that I need to start practicing. One thing that was fun is we put on a Tabla loop from my Rolad HPD-10.

My wife took this picture, I posted it because I love photographs of fire.

Johnnie set up some cool lights and put a candle on my bass drum. I guess that's one advantage of not playing w/ any toms on the kick drum ... you can put a candle where there would normally be toms.

One of the highlights of the evening was when Mari sang "Girl from Ipanema."

I'm thinking, "Wow, these brushes sound so cool," while John is thinking, "Stop thinking about yourself man!"


Hopefully I'll get to play w/ these guys soon.

Worship Band Workshop #1

So today John Spiro and I lead a 3 hour workshop on how to play in a worship band. One of my current drum students, one of my former drum students, and Jason (who is in my CG at Church) participated with five other young musicians. Below is the handout we used (if you want to see the original you can let me know). I think the students had a great time playing in a band setting. For some of the participants it was their first time playing with a group. Johnny and I hope to do this again.



Tonight we are playing jazz at the Spiro's. I'll post some pictures soon.

I'm on You Tube

Well, I'm not sure what my motivation is for saying this, but I'm sure my Mom will be excited. I am on YouTube. The video is from a Sunday morning where we the band was set-up acoustic style. The thing I was most struck by is how bald I look with the headphones. Anyway, that Sunday was a lot of fun. I think the next time we do something like that, we should use a click. My tempos were all over the map.

1 Year w/ Mari

Mari and I had a great time in Rehoboth Beach celebrating our one year anniversary. I can't believe it's been 1 year already. Time certainly does fly when you're having fun. I can't wait to, Lord willing, our anniversary next year recounting what God has done in our marriage.