Sparkyness

Grandma's!

2012-01-07T00:11:00.003-05:00

today at work was ugh, not bad just running the whole day

...missed lunch :-/ which I was really bummed about cause

the girls went to Little Mexico then I had to run home to

pickup/ drop off stuff. then it was back to church

to meet my mom and we drove to Fairfield, Va....where my

Grandmother lives :-) I have to take down her Christmas tree...

Glad to see her... sad to take down the last

of the Christmas. on the way up we got to meet up with

my aunt and my cousin, Krista

I've missed her since Christmas! but I'm watching

Dateline with Grammy. and I havent missed the news

or these shows...and my keyboard and trackpad

just stopped working, im getting it to work by

lifting the laptop top and pressing the connector

while i type... its very uncomfortable. goodnight

Reality Check

2012-01-06T00:11:00.003-05:00

wellll,

I was going to tell you about Wednesday...

But then I read this blog by the lovely Stephanie

and it all seemed so trite and unimportant....

http://wordsbeyondthemind.blogspot.com/2012/01/daddy-i-just-want-to-be-with-you.html

sometimes I can get so busy doing that I forget the big picture. thanks for the reminder.

A Day off

2012-01-02T23:28:00.005-05:00

because new years was on the weekend

we had off today, got to sleep in, had to change

my oil, checked to see if the dentist was open, went

and had my first cavity filled. it wasn't as bad as I thought.

and they let me listen to music and try to drown them out.

but my mouth was numb almost all day.

then I went and got a little part to replace my muffler from

chesterfield auto parts, and because it was so little and

it was the end of the day that they gave it to me for free.

Then I went to church and took down

Christmas Decorations ... Sad day.

Do you ever write whole sentences in here, then rethink them

or wether you want to share them. anywho.

then I went home and watched a rebox called "Another Earth"

that I thought was gonna be a midlevel Sci-Fi type movie...

turned out to be one of those wierd movies

but It was like I couldnt stop watching...then like most weird movies

you get to the end and your left like what just happend?

but work in the morning. then to WEAG to reset Seek and Echo Stages!

New Years 2012 - Bring it On!

2012-01-02T00:11:00.003-05:00

Well, its been awhile.

I havent really ironed out my New Years Resolutions
I guess cause I'm afraid I wont be able to keep them :-(
I may tell you what they are later ...maynot idk.
Christmas was different this year but still a good time with family.
New Years was pretty much a non event,

my roommate Matt was asleep before 10,

I stayed up and watched the ball drop, and ate cheesecake.
and weston and I texted about choir tour.

believe it or not I was not unhappy with this new years...

i think that means I'm getting old..ugh.

but I'm getting excited for Choir Tour 2012!
while we have no word on where we’re going...
at this point I'm assuming we are going, or what the show is.

planning begins, choir tour is now less than 20 weeks away!
weston and I have already had a planning meeting

and created a rough budget, lighting plot design,

power distro, Weston calculated Watt and Amp draw..
I couldn't do it without him...too much math haha,
talked about quality improvement, and other factors

OMG I'm like Sooo excited right now.

good night all,
hopefully I will see you sooner than later.

Just everything...

2011-05-27T02:56:00.002-04:00

Well you can tell I have my iPad!
There's still stuff I wished it could do that it can't
But overall pretty awesome still seeing how this blogger app works

I won't promise to update this every day but I should be a little more consistent.

Choir Tour and youth show are coming up like so soon.
So have been busy with that

Tomm at our work is memorial day cookout.
It took waaay to longnto make the cucumber Salad
-I 'm so tired...

I also wanted to say how good SAMs talk in seek was...
I may not have looked like I was paying Attention but I was
And while very different our stories are also very similar

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Dinner is served!

2011-03-14T23:43:00.003-04:00

got stuff to make dinner / lunches the other day on the cheap...
finally got around to making it and am pretty happy with how it turned out. started out with just boiling some rotini noodles...a whole box is just a buck. sauteed up some mushrooms...i would have rather had fresh, but I already had can in the pantry. and added some cut-up kielbasi (in the sasage family) I'm really happy with the way the spices in this turned out, added some A1 sauce, emeril's seasoning, mesquite grilling spice, paprika, and cinammon. while I will admit I went a bit crazy with the spices, it turned out really good, and cinnamon is a unexpected spice in a pasta dish I like it.
I added the skillet to the pasta, added the half a jar of ragu I had, still not enough sauce so I added the half a jar of alfredo too, and whala (sp? haha) I had rosa sauce, mixed in some cheese and done, had dinner plus packed four lunches.
and while it might not seem like much, it tastes good, and a whole lot cheaper than going out for lunch.
Also random note:
really liked Heather's post on the wisdom of the youth, I've always felt like that in sunday school classes...

CT2011 planning

2011-03-07T23:58:00.004-05:00

according to our Google Site (for Choir Tour Planning-that weston designed) there are only 102 days left until choir tour.
this may seem like alot of time but really its not, so we're in planning phases right now. there's lots of things between now and then that will occupy alot of time...chief among them: The Masters Plan and Youth Choir Production. but right nowI'm working albiet late.. on developing a plan to train or at least somewhat develop a tech crew, cause that was one of the bigger issues last choir tour, having people who knew tech, to our Youth Choirs Cred. I had plenty of people who wanted to help but there was a limited amount they could do cause I would have to spend more time explaining to them what to do than just doing it.
but its much more fraught with pitfalls, details, drama and other people interaction things the biggest issue I have is peoples motivation and if its for the right reasons, I mean everyone tells me that it is but I cant tell if they're lying..and with the internet and collabration the way it is pretty much all my ideas about it have changed in the past 8hrs.

ok can I just say this Glee eppy Im watching called "Blame it on the Alcohol"
is really wierd and I feel like its glorifying teen drinking but idk I mean they are addressing a valid teenage issue. anyway enough of my add thought process

despite all my worry i'm still uber excited about Choir Tour ...but that reminds me I have to ask off work earlier b/c I have a different job, i think thier a stricter on the whole time off thing...
but i'll figure that....o and just for the record I didnt tell a soul about where we were going but somewho kids still knew, but now everyone knows so ...Boston and side trip to New York... I've actually never been to either one, always wanted to go to new york but nvr got there. so dont really have any expectation of where we are going.
Out for new.

sunday encouragement

2011-02-10T00:09:00.004-05:00

well, just so i dont leave the blog sitting for too long with my last 2 posts...sorry about that i just needed to vent, and no nothing has really changed but enough about that.
sunday I went to the new youth leader bible study or whatev they want to call it, and can i just say thats the first time in a long time that I haven't felt alone with my views and problems. i realized that other people go through the same struggles and issues. and no all of the worlds problems weren't fixed in an hour but it was really helpful just to realize your not alone.

i saw a movie called 'you again' on dvd, its one of those movies that i'm sure got horrible reviews but i loved it. a comedy/love story about forgiving the past, it was laugh out loud funny to me at least.

i really miss going to el chaps on a wed night and just hanging out with everybody, but last I heard they had changed names or closed and non of the kids go there anymore, its a little more clickish now like this group of kids is going here, and this other group is going there. not....you going to el chaps...heck yea. I miss that #justsayin

more fustration

2011-02-02T22:39:00.004-05:00

so frustrated right now. i am having such a hard time.
i feel so unchristian right now i really am struggling with my
christian walk and ironically its someone at church
that im having a hard time with. i need to reconnect but feel so
far away...no one said it would be easy.
I know that how i feel isnt right and i dont want it to eat at
me like it is. one of the kids was like you look sad.I was like really?
i dont want to become this person that is bitter and hates people
but its like everytime I think we're working it out they do something
that drives me to feel that way even more. do i have the right attitude? NO
i readily admit that. do i still have good intentions and motive? i think so but i feel like i moving farther away from God when i feel like this. and i dont want that.
God please help me to let this go and not want to be so controlling of the outcome of the situation, it not like you don't know what your doing. -thanks

in unrelated news it was a beautiful day out today.
like maybe the overcommecialized groundhog was right for a change.

i want to talk about but i cant...

2011-01-27T23:37:00.002-05:00

i've been dealing with some stuff lately some of it my fault some of it thiers. the hard part of it is trying to have a good, right attitude....like a Christian one.....Yea about that totally failing right now. we eventually talked and made peace...to some degree anyway. not gonna lie still kinda mad about it but now im starting to swing the opposite way on the pendulum...as in not caring at all.
its not great...really. I think the worst part is I feel the most unchristian at church. i dunno, maybe part of it is that burnout, or my walk but i jst want things to go back to the way they were before.... im literary counting the days.
anyway...then after i think maybe we're on our way past it..something else
happens that hurts just as much...being replaced.
the incidents in and of themselves are not as hurtful as thinking of them.

anywho if you made it through reading that, thanks.
I realize it made no sense but it feels good expressing some of this.

general foolishness and the black swan

2011-01-22T01:41:00.000-05:00

so after seek the kids were jumping chairs in the hallway.
I used to do track and long jump back in the day, so this looked
like fun, but I was kinda worried i wouldn't be able to clear them
so I waited till everyone was gone....and i could!

5 chairs

6 chairs #failblog

...yea about that. my ankle still hurts.
but it was fun.

So tonight I fianlly went and saw black swan...

I was somehow under the impression that it was going to be like wicker park...but not really. i was on the edge of my seat the whole time.
the ending killed me though. i couldnt even figure
out what emotion i was feeling..sadness, sympathy, fear. it was overwhelming.
overall a good movie. but too real, i like movies to be an escape from reality.

well its been awhile

2011-01-11T01:05:00.003-05:00

well its been awhile no promises about blogging regularly but i'll try
for now a brief thought...

I get really depressed going to stores this time of year..
it makes me realize what i dont have, and I dont mean stuff.
kind of makes me feel like this...

so to distract my mind I watched an action movie and a comedy..
the expendables and an oldie...well not that old: my bosses daughter
its supposed to snow or precipitate tonight but so far havent seen a flake.
atlanta was pretty well shutdown by the same storm yesterday.
anywho its late, gotta get up early...

WestBoro Baptist

2010-09-08T01:12:00.002-04:00

so I've been away from blogging for awhile.
no particular reason, I've just been tired lately.
work is pretty swamp right now, plus some other
tensions I've been dealing with at church.

but the big news on facebook tonight is that
westboro baptist is coming to weag to protest
on the 26th. theres a whole diatribe against WEAG
on thier website. to me this means that we're doing
something right. that satan wants to openly attack us.
some people are like we're not coming to weag that sunday.
but that seems like we're letting them win.

I am so happy the reaction that the youth gave to this.
they greeted the news with dissapointment.but that we needed
to show them the love of christ. someone even setup a
facebook event called be nice to westboro day.
to me this is a sure sign of Good teaching and leadership.
that out of such hatred they are still trying to show the love
of Christ and not returning tit for tat.

anywho have to crash. l8tr
o and invisible children is coming to weag that sunday too.
coincidence? prob not.

Moving time ...plus new music

2010-08-02T01:48:00.005-04:00

Well I've been housesitting / catsittting for the Gravino's

for the past 6 months, thier retired schoolteachers who went to

Africa to teach....they come back next saturday.

and I had been worried about where I was going after that.

but God worked that out, turns out Matt Stanton who works

Maintenance at WEAG was looking for a roommate, he's longterm

housesitting a house in southside (off midlothian) for another missionary.

My Dad came and helped me move a bunch of stuff this weekend.

he found me a nice armoire, for free, but he has to do some work on it. and someone else at WEAG was giving away a older bedroom suite. we went out and got a good bargin on a box springs, I'll get a mattress in a few paychecks hopefully. I've got the room almost all arranged. still need a computer desk, dad said he had some cool old legs that he could make me a table with, but when I saw them they were a little low but I'm thinking about it.

there's still a million little things I need from curtains and shower curtains to

light bulbs. but its coming together.

My Jeep has been having problems...I've had it just long enough

to make my first payment on it...FML

(I'll have another blog on this later hopefully)

I went to Goodwill today to look for a bookshelf, no bookcase

but found lots of CDs... I couldn't resist they were $ 3.25 each

then there the first cd, I I got because a fellow blogger stephanie

has been on a listening kick lately and I

cant rem what they sound like.

Wannabe SPICE Girls,

Faith Hill - Cry

robyn (have heard alot about her, big in europe)

God Bless the GoGo's

Avalon - in a different light

Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever

and last but not least:

Jewel - Spirit

not really sure why I got it, I already own it,

but I like it Sooo much.

I also have a computer at work with a small to moderate

metal and hair metal on that I need to pull off.

so let me know if you want any of this music and I can upload

it....

thanks for listening

XoXo ...no wait that's Gossip Girl,

which I'm now only a season behind on...haha

trying to catch up by sept.

life...hope...

2010-07-22T01:22:00.002-04:00

well my mom had her semi emergency hip surgery

today, it went well they were done by 10:30 in the morning.

she'll be at Anderson Orthopedic Clinic till the end of the week.

then she'll go to my Grandmothers where an in home physical

therapist will come work with her, she can't have it at home

b/c my dad will be leaving for a missions trip to South America soon,

and someone has to be at home to assist.

tonight was different, I was having issues with the computer

for songscreen in south hall...dual spanned monitors...in windows 98

need I say more. Youth went better, the band was a different group

so they weren't as tight as they should have been but it was ok.

Nikki talked to the high schoolers and middle schoolers combined.

there were some good points...but can rem them right now, we'll

chalk that up to me being tired. :-)

then I went to El Chaps, Addie Collins had called

me to ask me if I was going and I was like of course.

so I got there and walked in and there was like NO

ONE there, well there were 2 tables of people, but NO

WEAGers....what happened? did I miss a memo?

I mean I know the brazil team wasn't there but still...

so Addie showed up and we decided to get coffee.

we went down to The Gutenberg Cafe by 17th st farmers

market...they make White Mocha's to die for. Addie

just got her license! Yey! and we got lost downtown..typical for me.

good times.

I had interesting text conversation with one

of the kids tonight. even though I'm not a youth

leader I find myself in the position of being and

example and being asked these questions I'm not

sure I'm totally equipped to handle.

basically they feel like everyone hates them,

I assured them this was not the case, but that sometimes thier

actions are inirrupting and sometimes peoples reactions can come off this way.

this is what I told them, let me know if you think this is right:

"we're supposed to love and accept everyone how they are and hopefully they change to become more Christlike, it's a journey we're all at different places on."

"and no ones perfect, but if we can talk it out and forgive each other, everybody wold be better off."

they're answer: I should accept who I am and then...that's

where I'm lost. how does that affect others?

me: "Yes you should accept yourself, but then do bible study and such

to change yourself to become more christlike."

"its not your responsibility to affect others.

that's between then and God, as we grow hopefully we will all grow

towards becoming more Christlike, thats what the Christian walk is

about... Not always easy"

when I say "its not your responsibility to affect others", in reading it now

that may be wrong, but take it in context of a youth to a leader.

and I may need to clarify,

thats all for now, I need some sleep.

back from choir tour...

2010-07-15T00:22:00.002-04:00

well back to blogging after my hiatus for choir tour.
it was good but exhausting. but more on that later.

John's sermon from Sunday has really been convicting me.
see since tour and going to see all of these churches
on tour I've been guilty of tech lust / envy cause most
of the churches we went to had amazing AV systems.
so I've been looking at and pricing new wireless systems,
digital sound consoles, truss, crank towers, etc.

John's illustration about the man from i believe it was
ethopia 'giving' him the suffering church really made me
think about these dreams, while not being bad. it just really
makes you think, we have so much to be thankful for and yet
we want more, these people worship God with only basic
needs being met. kinda puts things in perspective about

whats really important at the end of the day.

currently watching: The Book of Eli
such a good a movie, the first time I saw it, the ending twist
pretty much blew my mind

thats all for now...need sleep.

iPhone 4 and CHOIR TOUR!

2010-06-24T07:01:00.001-04:00

Well Im currently waiting in line for the iPhone 4, I got here at 6, late I know.. Such a slaker. I'm like the 170th person in line.

Yesterday was my last day at work (taking off for choir tour)
I still have to go by and do paperwork.

After I get done here, I need food. Then picking up the choir tour rental 15' box truck... I've nvr driven a box truck before so that will be interesting. Then picking up rentals around town, then driving to Delaware to pickup rentals. Ugh dreading the 6 hr round trip.
That's all 4 now, then tomm.
We do a mock setup.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Seek Choir Tour 2010 - Post 1

2010-06-21T00:31:00.003-04:00

well I havent been blogging lately not because I haven't felt like it just because I've been soo tired,
I get up go to work then go to church to work on choir tour stuff till late.
it finally feels like it's coming together, so many little details still unsettled.
I've had help from weston, josh, and a handful of others.

the scale of this production (choir tour) is so much bigger that the
last choir tour, which was in 06 and was the only choir tour i've been on.

I'm taking over 2,700 ft of extention cord, 1,700 ft of xlr (mic cable)
80' of truss (think like in the youth prod: matter) 4 crank towers to get
truss in the air, 12 LED pars, a bunch of other lights, I could go on and on
but here's a few pics:

Sweet & Wild

2010-06-04T00:06:00.005-04:00

So I just got around to ordering Jewel's new cd:

Sweet and Wild off of her website (pre-sale)

I got the signed copy, but not the deluxe package

b/c that came with the songbook and I cant read music soo...

If you didn't know I'm a Jewel fan from way back.

can't wait to hear it. and actually just read it was

pre-released on pandora! so I'll have to reset my password

ugh and tune in to my already created Jewel station.

but the official cd release date is June 8!

also check out the vid from the single that was released.

Stay Here Forever

it's on the Valentines Day movie soundtrack

and features footage from the movie

Wash with Joe

2010-06-02T00:32:00.002-04:00

as I'm writing this I'm ready to crash...

this came across my twitter feel earlier

this evening: Wash with joe

http://www.nylonmag.com/?section=article&parid=467

and yes, I do follow Nylon mag on twitter, whats ur point.

it's caffinated soap! is it bad that I think this looks really

cool? I wonder if you smell like coffee all day though?

COFFEE TALK

Get a wakeup call, without surrendering to your local Starbucks.

If you can't seem to sleep before 2 am, then you probably know the challenges of showering-while-tired: You sit in the haze of hot water for 40 minutes, not doing anything, until - of course - you're late for work. And unless you want to brush your teeth with Red Bull (ew), there isn't much hope of shaking yourself awake before then.

Unless you want to try the new soap called Wash With Joe. Formulated with glycerin, coffee beans, and mint, the scrub is all-natural and smells like cappucino. And if science labs about coffee are to be trusted, this stuff can also help your skin block UV rays and clear your bloodsteam.

Will it work as well as an espresso shot, a bottle of sunscreen, and a day of yoga? Not quite, but we do love its awakening properties - a few whiffs of this stuff, combined with a healthy breakfast, and you might be able to skip your Starbucks run altogether.
--FARAN KRENTCIL

$24, Available at WashWithJoe.com

This story was published on May 26, 2010.

Memorial Day :-)

2010-06-01T00:04:00.008-04:00

today was a pretty good day

I got up cleaned for a bit but even with the

air on the house was soo hot.

So I abandoned that and went to Ginter Botanical

Gardens with my Mom

they had some cool glass installations in the garden

this time.

I didn't take many pictures b/c we ended up there around noon.

then I went home and cooked brownies for scoob's

memorial day cookout. sadly they weren't homemade

I went with a chocolate chunk box mix, it wasn't until

I finished mixing it up that I rem I should have come up

with a gluten free alternative..sorry I'll try to rem nxt time.

but everyone seemed to like them.

It was a bring your own item to grill, so

brought one of my frozen steaks which was

moderate, not great.

even though I feel most at home with the youth

sometimes in these situations I feel like i don't fit

or don't belong, but maybe it has to do with the size

of the group or how well I know everyone there..idk

but later I felt completely at home with the everyone just

hanging out. these are the times of our lives and the internal

conflicts that make them soo..

the twilight and citronella candles were great

and I tried to take some pictures but wish I had had

my camera with a fast lens...

parting shots... since you cant tell

in order its: Stephanie, Heather, and Lorraine

goodnight all

PS special thanks to steph for inspiring me to blog more (:

Glee Season one update

2010-05-31T23:37:00.004-04:00

just got it So I wanted to share :-)

http://www.mediafire.com/file/xnng2g0diz2/Glee_ The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers.zip

I was about a week behind in watchin

the Glee gaga episode :-) but it was Sooo

good. the costume design team was off the hook.

the Sat of Memorial Day

2010-05-30T22:18:00.007-04:00

So I got up Sat and had to get ready and

go to church for Fred Spivey's funeral. I don't deal well with death

I just dont really process it.. at least like people

expect you to... im just beginning to realize this.

I was running video sound so i just switched into

work mode. but he will be missed.

then I went home and took a nap

after that I got up and stopped by tropical smoothie

for a mocha madness smoothie i dont really like mocha

flavor but its Coffee :-)) in a smoothie so I can overlook that...

then it was back to WEAG to do something I had been

putting off...clean the Green Room (its the room off stage left

between the sanc and the back hall)

it has all the cabinets with our sound gear but after small

production season it was a mess (small production season

includes children's production, youth production, and dance production)

as you can see its a mess...So I spent the next few hrs cleaning it up

this may sound like a pain but it really is fun and I enjoy it...wrapping

cables and putting them in thier place. so a few hrs later it was as it

should be..

this makes me happy :-))

Anonymous

2010-05-08T15:09:00.008-04:00

WEAG Seek Youth Choirs Production this year was called Anonymous

(in case you couldnt tell from the pic...haha)

The Youth Choir was directed this year by a team

of people this year...Scoob, Brian King, Bob Laughlin,

Kara Smith and Sarah Walson. it was more like the Youth Choir

Music selction wise of Old days. vs the more band driven

selections we've had the previous 2 years, each has it's pluses

and minuses when translated to a youth choir.

Overall, I feel like this production was one of the better ones

we've had in a few years. the message was great. the dialog was very

real and up to the minute, including ideas from post secret, formspring,facebook, and brought up very real issues while still remaining a safe distance away. the songs towards the end tied in beautifully with the dialog and conclusions.

from a tech standpoint I was kinda disappointed by the set and tech aspects of the show, but Joni said the minimalistic set was to echo the feelings of anonymity brought up by the show and I got that, it made sense. (the set was the risers plus the drop that was 30' x 20' ish the original graphic that went on the backdrop is shown above)but there were no tech glitches during the show which I was very thankful for. this was the first youth show I had run board on, and there were issues as usual with Solo levels in the monitors but we resolved most of these. Barry Voltz did an amazing Job getting the most level possible out of the live choir mics and eq'd the track brilliantly. he got that half of the board and I got the half with the Solo and Lav mics. and thanks to Amy Young calling ques in our ears all night long, I only missed one mic que (1st part of Daniels sentence on the sat.) during the 2 show run.

on a personal level I tend to not think about things to much during a show run, cause I'm working and have to focus to get things done, but when I looked up at the screen during the Post Secret section it choked me up, because it was so close to home, these aren't random kids 1,000's of miles away that feel like that it's kids that I talk to in our youth group that feel like that, and even deeper I've felt like that before.I know that it wasn't the intention of the show but I actually feel more anonymous now than before the show, its not that I wasn't anonymous before I guess I just never really thought about it. but it doesn't really matter, all that matters is that through the show and all the work that went into it by so many people on so many levels impacted people for Christ.

Anonymous Blogs

2010-04-29T00:18:00.002-04:00

So I have about 4 blog ideas rolling around in my head,

most of them concerning Anonymous (our youth show)

which is why i havent written them yet, because I've been tied up

doing that, but its over now :-(

so that excuse is out the window.

Grandmothers hospital visit

2010-04-17T15:56:00.001-04:00

Well I was up last night catching up on the latest episode of Glee and V ...till 2 and then I was going to getup and go to practice for Anonymous at 10.
But instead I was awakened by a phone call at 3 from my uncle that my grandmother had been admitted to the hospital. I had just gotten off of the phone with her at 11 when he got there, so luckily she wasn't alone when it happened an hour later. All we knew that that point was that she had gone out of control and fallen. Then we drove 2.5 hrs to her house to take care of the dog and get her overnight bag. By then she had been transferred to UVA from the local hospital so we drove an hour back to Charlottesville.
We got there around 6am I guess. The ambulence had just gotten there. It was very hard to see but after awhile they had her stabalized and I went back and saw her. It wasn't until hours (like 1 in the afternoon) and multiple tests later they determined that she had had a stroke on her left side affecting her right side. But thankfully it seems she still has use of all of her limbs.
Thier getting ready to move her to a room and she'll need some rehab but it would seem that she's out of the woods.
This definately is not great timing, the week of youth production. So it'll be a long couple of days.....
Thank you for your thoughts and
Prayers during this time fo my grandmother, who is still grieving my grandfather through all this (he passed less than a month ago)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Arlington National Cemetery

2010-04-08T22:05:00.009-04:00

today was my Grandfathers interment at Arlington national cemetery.

it was then that the I guess finality hit me.

we met in the administration building where we would wait for our time.

there were alot more people there than I expected. I thought it would just

be close family, but there were others from Miller School, and AMA, and other

people I didn't know.

once at the gravesite, not far from the administration building.

The military guard removed the casket, and moved it to the graveside

in block formation. after my uncle and the military chaplain said a few words.

the most memorable of which was from a fortune cookie...you cannot buy love or steal love, only give it away...which he did in great measure.

there was the five gun salute, the sound of which reveberated

on the hallowed grounds where we stood.

as the soldiers began the ceremony of folding the flag it felt almost as though

he was in the flag..its hard to explain I guess I mean on a spirit level.

and the wind whipped up around us as the military taps were played.

as I read this back I realize this does not do the event justice but I had to try at

least for my own memories sake.

the setting, the folding of the flag, and the 5 gun salute. it was

emotionally overwhelming to think of all the soldiers buried there

and thier lives of sacrifice, hardship and bravery defending our freedoms.

let us never take that for granted.

My grandfather

2010-04-07T00:38:00.000-04:00

We all handle grief in different ways, hopefully this will help me process it...
My grandfather died early this Friday morning. Apparently he had a heart attack earlier in the week and just thought it was a stomachache, he finally went to the hospital thur. And he died of complications, they were planning on moving him to UVA as soon as space became avalible. So I am glad he didn't have to suffer a long hospital stay and that he wasn't in a period of prolonged suffering.
He was generally a very reserved man, decorated soldier, 101st airbone, special forces... In Korea and Vietnam. It was just one of those things you knew was in the backround, he never really talked about it. But he was always watching some war special on the history channel.
After he retired he became the football and basketball coach at Augusta military academy, after AMA closed, he coached at Miller School (another military academy) this is where some of my fondest childhood memories are, exploring all over the mountains, playing with my cousins, building forts, going to the creek and the lake. As he got older he relaxed most of his military ways and became more relatable. And we talked about things. And I did get to see him just last weekend so it was nice to have a good normal last memory of him, not in a hospital.
The one regret I have,
And this might seem a little wierd but that he didn't get to meet the person I'm going to marry, he would make some joking comment but really nod approvingly, no there's not something your missing I don't
know who I'm going to marry yet either :-(
But I will miss him even if I'm not good at showing it.

(p.s) Iv'e been working on this a while so it will appear out of order on my blog timeline. I actually started writing this on April 7...

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#CT2010 -Seek Choir Tour 2010 announced!

2010-03-23T00:10:00.004-04:00

I keep having all these idea's for blog's

that I make note of and never actually get to write

them all the way....but anywho.

this past sunday Joni announced to the Seek Youth Choir - woot!

that we're going on Choir tour this year. Soo excited I cant stand it!

I've been wanting this awhile and glad we brought it with this years seniors.

the last time we went on choir tour was in 06, Micah was youth pastor led,

I just went as secondary tech. I've got pages of notes on it already,

So many things to do and make :-) and Scoob and Joni already have us

booked 2 places! I was so excited by the offical news I missed when Joni

told us the dates.....I almost forgot that we still have to get

through Easter, Palm sunday, and Youth Production....

meanwhile spending every spare moment thinking about audio connections,

speed of setup, packing and a million other things pertaining to #CT2010...

in case you didn't get it that's Choir tour 2010.

Gahhh! Sooo EXCITED!!!!

Searching - Kids Production 2010

2010-03-10T19:42:00.003-05:00

well the Kids Production at WEAG was this past sunday,

the "new guard" calls it WeKids now, not that happy

with the name but o well. the Production however was awesome!

it was about kids being who they are and repping God in school.

the songs were good, and there are some talented Solo and DNC

kids coming up, the standout was Julianna Dalton! but

everyone was great.

it was my first opportunity to run a show, normally I'm

doing setup, troubleshooting, and strike.

I ran it with barry voltz who has a great ear to help train me,

I did all the mics and barry ran track que. amy young

called mic ques. so had plenty of backup. but it was a great

learning experience for my ears. and no missed mic ques,

I was very happy with the end eq, there was only one

solo that I still didn't get an eq that was really happy with

the kids vocal (hope). it wasnt as stressful as I thought either.

2010-02-22T23:15:00.002-05:00

Well, I'll start this out with a thank you to Paige Burkhardt (a good friend of the Dunnavants, if you dont know her) for coming up with the term

sparkyness... a couple of years ago now I guess, I have a domain name of the same name,

but dont know how to build websites yet, speaking of which I have to make sure I paid that.

I plan on putting music, links and some photo's

and other things that come across my brain on here.

I also downloaded an app for my iphone called BlogPressLite

that was free that should allow me to update this so we"ll

see how that works.