Things that made this another super great weekend:

1. Fun food party Friday night.
2. Deep talks with my honey.
3. Going to music stores.
4. Sun-shiny days.
5. Big, loud amps in our music room.
6. Playing a Bon Jovi song for the opener at church.
7. Being with a great team of musicians.
8. Feeling the energy during the rest of the song set.
9. Hearing an amazing message on relationships.
10. Seeing people choosing Christ during the invitation.
11. BLT's.
12. Freshly popped, buttery popcorn.

The Campfire

Something has been stirring inside of me this week. It has to do with the memories of the campfire meetings I went to when I was a teenager.

I was sent to Word of Life camp for a week in the summer when I was a teen. I liked the food; I didn't like getting up early and having to report at the flagpole while the bugle was blasting revalry. I can remember only one of the speakers; I cannot remember any of the girls I met. One thing that I can remember quite vividly is going to the Friday night campfire meeting at the end of the week.

There was something different about that night. Those campfires were always huge and hot. The darkness of night and chill in the air didn't matter because the light and warmth of the fire negated it. We would sit on the log-benches and listen to a counsellor speak about dedicating your life to service for Christ. It was a sincere hour while we would reflect on what God may have for our lives. About whether or not we were willing to live for Him and serve Him during our days here on earth.

The time would come when we could go up to the fire and throw a stick on it as a symbol of our desire to burn away our agendas and surrender our lives to Him. Making the decision to go forward was so intense. As you got up from your seat, you could feel the coolness of the air, but as you came closer to the fire, that heat would warm your face like nothing else could do. There was a pile of tinder off to the side and you would pick up that stick, get in line, and then toss it in as you drew close enough to the blaze. It ws clear that this was a choice, a promise, a commitment, a decision.

Then you go home and start to get wrapped up in regular life again. School, responsibilities, relationships, and living all start to make you forget about the promise at the fire. Maybe we forget about the symbolic act as time goes by, but God does not. He set that spark in your heart and won't let it go out. He continues to look over His purpose for you and speaks life to it. He gently reminds us of what is gold and what is chaff. What will burn in the fire of His holiness and what will remain.

All throughout the Bible, God is called a promise-keeper. . . a covenant-maker. His yes means yes. Is there a spark in your heart that will not go out? What promise have you made to God? Is He gently fanning the spark so it will become ablaze for His glory? Quench not His Spirit's promptings and surrender to Him. It's not too late. Don't be afraid; throw your stick on the fire.

Who would you like to meet . . .

. . . if you could spend an evening with anybody who lived (or is still alive) within the last 100 years?

I was thinking about this the other day. There are lots of musicians I'd like to sit with. Vince Guiraldi (Peanuts' musician), Duke Ellington, John Williams (composer for movies such as Star Wars and E.T.), Diana Krall (jazz pianist). Why? They were so passionate about their music. If they didn't get their big break and become famous, they would still do what they do.

Who would you like to meet and why?

12 things that made this a great weekend

1. Getting out of work at noon on Friday.
2. Friday night is date night - woo hoo!
3. Lounging around all morning in my jammies on Saturday morning.
4. Hot coffee with toffee caramel creamer.
5. Cracker Barrel to go.
6. Listening to good music with my honey.
7. Being a part of the grand opening of the Colonie campus for our church.
8. Playing music with a great team of people.
9. Seeing people becoming Christ-followers on Easter day.
10. Hanging out with the fam for lunch.
11. Getting in a nap after lunch.
12. Settling down on a Sunday night with a bowl of freshly popped popcorn and being thankful for it all.

Who figures out when Easter happens?

Easter is really early this year. Sometimes it comes in March and it usually is in April. Why? Who figures out when it is Easter day?

Believe it or not, the moon does. The Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox (also known as the first day of spring) is the date of the widely celebrated holiday we call Easter.

So the lunar cycle is the source of our date determination. The wonderfully consistant light in the night can remind us of our Creator who came to earth, died and rose again for us. Blessed be His Name forever!

"...and they said to them, "Why are you looking for the Living One in a cemetery? He is not here but is raised up, remember how He told you....." Luke 24:5b-6 The Message

Mark the date

Concert April 17th @ Northway Church Clifton Park

Skillet, Thousand Foot Krutch and Decyfer Down are all coming the Northway Church Clifton park as part of their Comatose Tour.

The show is April 17th @ 7pm. You do not want to miss this! Tickets for sale now. Call 518-377-7373

Top O' the Morning to ya

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I don't know how this little holiday came to being, but if it is an important one to you, then cheers!

Post sickness recap

1. You don't ever want to get hit by 3 mack trucks.

2. Thanks to my heating blanket and my heating mattress pad, I stayed reasonably warm.

3. My heaviest coat was the only one good enough to wear during the 40 degree day I went to see the doctor.

4. Time went really, really, r-e-a-l-l-y slow.

5. I wanted to count the ceiling tiles in my bedroom to pass some time, but it seemed like too much work, so I didn't.

6. Sparkie, Mouse and Tiki spent lots of time with me trying to figure out what was up.

7. I figured out that I slept about 30 hours over the course of 2 days.

8. Chicken soup will not be on my menu in the near future.

9. The only thing that helped clear the "gook" out of my throat was singing worship songs.

10. My better, healthier half did an amazing job of taking care of me and the animals and everything else, without complaint. You're the best, hon!

Good news.

I received a call from the Doctor's office today. They said that my x-ray was read by a radiologist and determined that I do not have the beginning stages of pneumonia. My lung problem is bronchitis, which my medication will clear up. I am feeling considerably better since yesterday. So that is good news.

I got hit by three of these...

So the doctor said that I started out with the flu, and while my defenses were down, I got a sinus infection, and my chest x-ray showed signs of pneumonia. At least I am on my medication now and hopefully will start to be my cheery self again by Sunday.

Hey Scott

Happy birthday to you....

Happy birthday to you....

Happy birthday dear Scott.....

Happy birthday to you...... and many more.

Hope all is well for you. Looking forward to seeing you when you come to visit in May.

I feel like I got hit by one of these..........

I am NOT feeling well at all. Came home yesterday with a fever, and everything hurts. Not fun. I think I'm gonna go back to bed now.

Are you an Arbonne user?

I was invited to an Arbonne party tonite. What is that? I never heard of them before. They carry skin care for men, women, teens, babies, nutrition products, aromatherapy, makeup, weight loss products. It seems like really nice stuff.
My friend, Libby (her blog link is listed to the right), has decided to become an associate for this company. I hope it does for her everything she is desiring it to do.
Hey, wanna have a party?

David's shortest blog

Psalms 117

1 Praise God, everybody. Applaud God, all people.
2 His love has taken over our lives; God’s faithful ways are eternal. Hallelujah.

It's hard to find ...

good looking, casual, printed t-shirts for guys. Everything out there has a skull or a dragon or some other inappropriate symbol or word on it. Ever notice that?

I was able to find two shirts at Boscov's for Vince today. And to make it even sweeter, they were on SALE. And I even found a little something for me. Gotta love those kind of finds on a Friday night.

It must be close to Easter time...

...because this is the time of year that I want to mess with my hair.

I can't stand the mousy looking blah hair color that I get during winter. So today, I hopped in the car with Sparkie, went over to the drugstore and bought this stuff. At 8:45 I was made over.

Over all I am happy with the results. Thank you L'oreal. Now if I can only get my hair to grow out like hers too. hmmmm........ what do you think? Should I go long again?

It's a good thing Sunday's sermon was about stress...

We are in the month that the snow melts and the rain falls and the thoughts of spring rise up in our minds.

I got up this morning, switched on the water for some tea, got my computer onto the YouVersion.com website for the day's chapters, let Sparkie outside and went downstairs to let the cats out of the cellar and that's when I saw it.

Our basement floor was wet. Oh man...flooding...I hate it when this happens. About half of the floor had water on it. The sump pump was clicking on every minute or so but the french drain couldn't contain all the water. This was not a nice way to start the day.

The only thing that redeemed my frustration was the fact that we have been throwing out junk that was down there, and got the stuff we wanted to store re-organized and put away. Fortunately, there wasn't anything "important" on the floor that got wet. There were some empty boxes that got wet, and some other things that are waiting for their trip to the trash can also sitting in water, but everything else was high and dry.

Funny how things happen after the seed of the Word is planted. Kinda like the circumstances are a trying of the faith, or a tare that is sown as an attempt to overtake the new, tender growth of truth. I think I need to listen to Sunday's message again to water the planting of the Word. It has definately been helping me so far this week.

It's a good thing yesterday's sermon was about stress...

...because a very stressful thing happened this morning. I was just sitting down with my cup o' joe getting ready to dive into YouVersion.com for today's chapters. Then it started.Our cat was stepping off of a shelf in the kitchen and decided it would be a really cool idea to use the top edge of a guitar case to get down to the floor. The case was, of course, quite unstable under the pressure of her foot and fell over making a very loud noise. This noise alone was stress-inducing, especially first thing in the morning when one is not yet fully awake. There was no guitar in the case and if that was the end of it, my story would have been kinda funny.

As you can see, there is more to this scenario. She, being scared by the loud crashing noise, peeled out to get away from the scene of her crime. While doing this, she hit a guitar stand that was holding a 1989 Washburn limited edition hollow body jazz guitar. This stand fell forward and so did the guitar - right onto the ceramic stone floor and right onto the neck at the nut. The nut cracked into pieces and the strings all shifted out of place. That also made a very loud noise. It made the kind of noise that when you hear it you go, "oh no, what was THAT???".

Well, Vince said the guitar in itself is ok. The nut can be replaced and it will play again. I think all the animals hid until we left for work after all this happened today. They all felt the stress. I still haven't quite figured out how yesterday's message can help me with this other than realizing that not everything is in my control, as hard as I try to keep things in order. All is well, the sun still came up and set, just as it should. God is in control. I think it's time to pick up where I started and get into the Word now. Peace.

In like a lion?

March 1st is supposed to be a day that determines how quickly the warm weather of spring will arrive. What is the saying? In like a lion, out like a lamb.

We had snow all night but it only has given us a few inches. I suppose the lion is kind of sleepy this year, or maybe it his throat is sore so he can't roar very loud. I don't know. (sarcasm intended)

This old wives' tale has not proven itself to be very reliable. The month of March has given us some horrible snow storms in the past, so all I can do is hope that the gentleness of the lamb will greet us in April.