Kassady's Capers

Kassady is really into things these days. I came home from work the other day and she was calmly viewing her kingdom from inside the cabinets, merrily ensconced upon the upper shelf. I was ticked and tickled at the same time.

Jillian Grace

I finally got pictures of my niece Jillian Grace Waggoner. She's beautiful! I'm looking forward to being with Bob and Becca during our mini-vacation. I guess Dylan has been having a little trouble adjusting to the fact of having a sister. He's not used to sharing attention. The other night, as Bob and Becca tucked him into bed, he pitifully said, "I'm just a sad, little frog."

Bobby said he has no clue where that came from. I thought it was hysterical. Enjoy the pics.

YC05

Youth Challenge is almost here! Man, it's hard to believe it, but it's right around the corner. Lori and I will be flying to Indianapolis next Tuesday and will be back east for a little over a week. I'm looking forward to seeing my friends and family.

I am speaking at Youth Challenge (www.youthchallenge.net) at the 2:30 PM Jumpstart on Friday, October 28. I'll also be leading the worship for the weekend. It's going to be a fantastic convention as we celebrate 10 Years. I hope to see a lot of you during the week. Touch base with me and let me know if you will be around.

Peace out!

Apologies

Guys, I know that I have been lax about posting on the blog. It hasn't been for lack of content, that's for sure. Once I get past Youth Challenge, hopefully I can keep up. Stay tuned!

Ernie Haase and Signature Sound

Last night I took the youth group over to hear Signature Sound Quartet (http://erniehaase.musiccitynetworks.com/). They did an outstanding job! It had been almost two years since I had last heard them live. They blew me away. SSQ has mastered that fine line between entertainment and ministry. There is no doubt that you are going to laugh as well as be impressed with their vocal talent. However, the group never goes too far in their presentation, and they remain focused on presenting Christ to their crowd.

I had heard a lot of negative remarks, to be honest, about their spiky hair and short, fat ties. And, yes, that is part of their schtik. But it actually adds to their program and they use it to laugh at themselves.

The Southern Gospel fans that to this day pant and exclaim the praises of the exciting Statesmen Quartet need to see Ernie and the boys. The overall theme of the Statesman Quartet was to provide a quality, exciting, progressive performance. Well, that is exactly what Signature Sound is doing today. They are my generation's version of the Statesmen.

It was a great night. When teens can enjoy an evening of music that, to be honest, doesn't make it to their playlist, you know there is something special about the group. The quartet made the groups night when they cheerfully agreed to pose with them for pictures.

Thanks, guys, for a great evening!

Ernie graciously took some time to pose with the youth group. He is continuing the Cathedral legacy of producing great Southern Gospel music. While SSQ will never be the Cathedrals, they are creating their own place in the SG market.

The Sesame Street show that was scrapped before it made it to television: Marc and Ernie.

Doug Anderson, baritone, and Roy Webb, pianist, get in close with the group for a pic. Doug and Roy both traveled with Lighthouse, a Cincinnati quartet, for several years. Roy is one of the best comic sidekicks I've ever witnessed in Southern Gospel music. He plays the straight man, no emotion whatsoever. I was literally crying, I was laughing so hard. It was nice to touch base with some guys from the Queen City.

Now that is one tall dude. Ryan Seaton, a fellow Hoosier, sings lead for SSQ. He has a fantastic voice. Nice guy. The girls liked him.

Weather Update

News Anchor: And now, late breaking news from Nampa where we go live to our local anchor, Keith Waggoner, who is standing by:

Keith: it is now chilly enough to wear sweatshirts in Idaho.

News Anchor: Thanks, Keith, for that update. Now, on to more important news...

Another Happy Birthday

I want to give a shout out to Justin Aman, whose 18th birthday was yesterday. Yesterday was also the Homecoming football game for Melba High School. Unfortunately, Justin apparently (according to the team trainer) tore his ACL on the third or fourth play of the game. What a bummer! This is his senior year and it appears that he will have to miss the rest of the season. Aaron, Duane, Marc, and I went to the game last night. Melba whipped up on Marsing 44-20 (or something like that). I feel extremely bad for Justin, though. Life isn't fair sometimes.

Well, Happy Birthday, anyway.

Happy Birthday, Ray!

"A happy birthday to you, a happy birthday to you. Every day of the year, may you feel Jesus near. A happy birthday to you, a happy birthday to you. The best one you've ever had."

Ray, if you'll drop your change in the white plastic church we'll give you an unsharpened pencil.

Come and Dine

The other day I heard a commotion in our hall closet. Kassady had somehow pulled the doors open and in her exploration of the closet's contents discovered my stash of toilet paper.

Now, to give you a little background on this, when I was a child my parents believed in rationing toilet paper. There was often a shortage of this valuable commodity in the Waggoner household. Way too many times, I had to run the 4 or 5 blocks to my grandma's house to do my business. There was a certain terror that drove me. As a result, I have developed a phobia of running out of TP. This is an overwhelming fear. I know that I probably carry it to extremes, but I am nearly always prepared for any emergency.

I have a TP shelf in the closet. I buy the huge packs of tissue. When we get down to 12 rolls it's time to go buy some more. Well, Kassady discovered my cache. However, when Kass sees an object she usually associates that object, regardless of design or texture, with food. As I came around the corner, Kassady was sampling the delectable squares, humming with pleasure.

Kassady ran away from me and began tearing off strips of toilet paper, putting the shreds in her mouth. Her mother was horrified. I was honored.

After confronting Kassady with the accusations of toilet paper consumption, she shouted, "But I didn't inhale" and dove under the bed. I don't know, it didn't make sense to me either.

Lately, Kassady hasn't been getting enough to eat...

I told Trey and Kassady that they will later hate me for taking this picture. This is one of the embarrassing snapshots that you show their future dates. Great stuff!

"Why did I Just Say That?"

Have you ever asked yourself why you said something? It happened to me today. I'm walking out of Wal-Mart with my bags in my hand when the chirpy greeter says "Thank you for shopping at Wal-Mart". I instinctively replied, "THANK you (emphasis on THANK)". I thought to myself, why in the world did I say that? I mean, I just spent $39 of my money on items that are slightly over-priced, and I'm THANKING them? What's up with that? "Hey, I just spent the equivalent of what it would cost me for a month's subscription to DSL internet service, but I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity of spending it here at Wal-Mart instead."

I do this a lot. I'm a fairly outgoing person, but many times it's tough for me to make the initial contact with a person. So, I revert to cliches or inane statements that don't mean a thing. Stupid! I'm going to try to improve on this. It's hard, though.

AYC Board Meeting

I returned last week from the fall AYC board meeting. It was great to see everybody and interact with the guys. The award for the most weight lost during the summer goes to Jack Hooker and Mike Hobbs. If Mike would have stood sideways and stuck out his tongue, he could have convinced me that he was a zipper. Those guys have really shed the pounds!

There's so much back-slapping that goes on at an AYC board meeting that I can only compare the experience to a typical encounter with Amos Hann. You get the picture.

While I don't have pictures from the actual board meeting last Tuesday, I was able to obtain from hotel security photos of the Vision committee's conflab on Monday.

The security cameras caught this conspiratorial meeting of the AYC Vision Committee. The minutes of this top-secret conclave are kept in the files of the Illuminati. Yes, they are one and the same. Now you know the rest of the story. I was initially kept out of the meeting, but managed to find a way in. I ordered the pizza.

Jack sits contentedly after singlehandedly devouring most of two pizzas, breadsticks, and an order of Cinnasticks. I am marveling at what I've just witnessed. A word of advice: never get between a dieting man and a deep dish.

I was caught making yet another profound statement as Ray, the Prez, looks on. I'm not sure what Mac is doing in the background. I think he's stealing the hotel soap.

Hammin' it Up

We had a great time last night! I took several of the Grace Teens to hear Ken Ham(http://www.answersingenesis.org/events/bio.aspx?Speaker_ID=2) in Boise at a regional Answers in Genesis conference. He spoke on the topic "How to Defend the Christian Faith in Today`s World". As usual, Ken did an outstanding job! We also enjoyed a mini-concert by Buddy Davis. Overall, it was a phenomenal evening! On the way home, we stopped by McDonalds. What is it with kids and teens and McDonalds? Mickey-Ds definitely owns the market. It was a great evening as you can tell by the pictures.

Is there a more welcome sight to the hungry individual than the Golden Arches by the side of the interstate?

I'm still trying to figure out what Darnelle is doing with his tongue in this picture. Tiffany talks through her Big Mac.

Brooke reclines while Tosh dines.

Some of the girls of Grace had to get their pic taken in front of an old, beat-up, pink and white Beetle. What's up with this whole "punch-buggy, no punchbacks" thing?

Josh, the newest member of Grace Teens, tries to "peace" things together.

Josh is a blur of activity as he attempts to hold his own against Tracie. He had a unique strategy: trap the puck underneath the paddle (or whatever you call those things) and lull his opponent into a catatonic state by sweeping it back and forth. Once his opponent, Tracie in this case, has a case of the glazed-eyes, he picks up the puck, walks to the other side of the table and places it in the goal. It was effective. He won.

You just have to know Tiffany. Here are her exact words, no exaggeration: "Oh cool! Check it out. This is like a McDonald's PacMan game." She played for quite some time.

Marc thought that he was playing a virtual reality game. After the police had left the scene, I told him that it wasn't a good idea to keep referring to yourself as Mario while humming the Nintendo 64 theme song.

I just grimaced as I saw the teens playing this game...OK, that wasn't funny at all. I tried.

McD is for kids

Man, whatever happened to the days of the McDonald's kiddie land? You know, the Hamburglar slide, the Ronald McDonald statue that all the kids climbed on, not to mention the giant Grimace swings. Today it's all about video games, air hockey, and foosball. All of the McDonalds in our area have made the switch from playland to virtualland. Not that any of the teens complained. They had more fun than any of the kids would have:

Another Waggoner Makes Her Arrival

Jillian Grace Waggoner was born at 3:05 PM (Indiana time) yesterday in Lafayette, IN. She was 7lbs. 8 oz. As soon as I get the pictures from proud parents, Bob and Rebecca, I will have them posted. I'm sure that she already loves her uncle Keith!

A big win for the Cougars

The Grace Christian Academy Cougars (in white shirts) rolled to an impressive 22-0 flag football whitewash of visiting St. Ambrose Academy last Friday. The Cougars definitely controlled the game to pick up their first win of the season. I am still trying to figure out the rules for flag football. It's unbelievably confusing! Here are a few pictures of the big game:

Star receiver, Myles Clason, reaches in vain for the pass.

The tenacious defense didn't let much get by them.

Hello, #3, hello...

The coaches confer with the players during an intense timeout. As you can tell, most of the Cougars are enthralled.

I thought that this picture looked rather odd. The perspective of the camera gives the unusual impression that...well, hey, you figure it out.

A new Waggoner

I'm waiting to hear word about the newest Waggoner on the scene. Jillian Grace Waggoner is scheduled to make her arrival sometime today. As soon as I hear from Bobby, I'll let you guys know. Pray for Becca if you think about it.

Blake Ryland Bishop

Two days ago, a Bishop entered the world! Philip and Dorcas Bishop, close friends of Lori and I, had their first child, a son. Blake Ryland Bishop arrived on Wednesday at 12:06 PM. Now as you can tell, he gets his looks from his mama. I traveled with Phil for 3 years in quartet, and I'm telling you, he never looked that good. I just hope for the sake of Dorcas that he takes after her. I always told Phil that God was going to repay him for his ornery ways.

For those who don't know Phil all that well he comes across as a mix of cherub and Sunday School Charlie. As a person who traveled with Phil for several years, I can tell you that you need to get that idea out of your head ASAP! He's a prankster with a droll (very corny, OK) sense of humor. In fact, in the future I'll throw out some random quartet stories, many of them starring Phil.

Phil and Dorcas moved into the apartment above us our last year at GBS. Trey was 1 and a half when they moved in. At this point in his life, Trey had a hard time getting to sleep. It involved much crying and screaming. It was a major struggle to get him to settle down. Well, Phil figured out at what time Trey went to sleep in the evening. On this particular occasion, we had an awful time getting Trey to bed. Finally, he drifted off to sleep...for about 10 minutes. Phil purposefully, started at one end of the house and headed to the other end running pell-mell, stomping as loudly as he could. I'm sure to Trey it sounded as if we were being bombed. He jolted awake, and began screaming at the top of his little lungs. I could hear Phil's wheezing laugh upstairs. What a weasel!

The Bible says that the sin of the fathers passes down to the 4th generation. Phil is in for some major trouble:-)

BSU Blowout

Last Wednesday the Grace Teens headed over to Boise for an evening of football. The Boise State Broncos were hosting Bowling Green State University on the famed Blue Turf. For those of you who have heard about the blue turf of BSU, let me say that the stories about birds flying over and dive-bombing the field are nothing more than urban legend. NOT!! It's absolutely true! They have had trouble with seagulls attempting to land on the turf. It's a little weird, but definitely distinctive.

I couldn't believe it, but I forgot my camera, so I don't have any personal shots of the teens at the game. The following pictures are available on the website of the Idaho Statesman (www.idahostatesman.com).

It was an evening filled with fun, noise, and lots of intense action. And I'm just talking about in the stands. The game was great, too. BSU prevailed 48-20. I love blowouts! We all screamed like fools, waved our towels wildly, and shouted what we thought were great one-liners at the opposing players. Usually the insightful diatribe uttered by the typical football fan has the humorous impact of a knock-knock joke. The evening was no exception to the rule.

I found it hilarious that the fans expressed more hostility for a local sports anchor than for any opposing player. I don't know the guy, but he walked into our area and the fans just unloaded on him. He moved on pretty quickly.

Overall, it was a great night. Our teens enjoyed it, and that's the important thing.

Go Broncos!

Jared Zabransky, oft-criticized quarterback for BSU, caught some air as he went up and over for a touchdown in our end zone. We were sitting about 10 ft. to the left of this picture so we got a good look at his tumble. I have to hand it to the guy, it was a great dive. I was waving my towel wildly.

Definitely the highlight of the game was Lee Marks return of a kickoff for a touchdown. The dude is only 5'9" and 165 lbs. but can run like greased lightening. He took the kick-off in the north end zone and headed south towards us. Man, he blew the defenders away. They were about 5 yards behind him. The crowd noise was deafening.

The over-rated Omar Jacobs, pre-season Heisman trophy candidate, got rushed and pressured all night. He made 4 really good throws all night. He definitely didn't live up to his billing. Every time he touched the ball, the crowd derisively chanted OOOO-MAR, OOOOO-MAR! It was a lot of fun. Bowling Green didn't score a touchdown until the 4th quarter, with all of the freshmen and subs in. I screamed at Omar when they scored in our end zone, "How does it feel to score against the scrubs?" My witty verbal jab (I guess) was met with boisterous laughter from the fans in our end zone. I felt pretty good about it. It doesn't take much, I know.

Grace Bible Church Worship Order for 9.25.05

9/25/05 AM

Prelude:

Worship Sequence: Grace Praise
*Here I Am to Worship

Invocation: Pastor Keith

*Step By Step

Welcome/Guest Binders/
Announcements: Pastor Ray

Tithes and Offerings: Pastor Ray

Worship Sequence: Grace Praise
* Great Is Thy Faithfulness
*Through It All
*Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus

Prayer Requests: Pastor Keith

Prayer Chorus: Grace Praise
* Center of My Joy

Pastoral Prayer: Pastor Ray

Special Song: Pastor Keith, Lori, and Marc

Sermon: Pastor Ray

9/25/05 PM

Prelude:

Announcements: Milo Wittkopf

Tithes and Offerings: Milo Wittkopf

Worship Sequence: Marc Taylor
*Jesus, Name Above All Names
*All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name
*What a Day That Will Be

Prayer Requests: Milo Wittkopf

Prayer:

Special Song: Cheryl, Faith, and Margaret

Sermon: Milo Wittkopf

Long time, no see

OK, I know it's been forever since I have posted anything. Man, this has been a long, long week. I had a board meeting that I had to go to in Indiana. In fact, I just got in from the trip yesterday afternoon. Then it was off to Grace Teens service, so I haven't had a chance to update the ol' blog. Stay tuned.

Dylan's birthday pics

Here is my ornery little nephew Dylan in his 4th birthday pictures. He told everybody that he was wearing his "James Bond" suit for the pictures. For those of you who know Bobby, Dylan takes right after him. That mischievous twinkle in the eyes looks uncannily familiar.

Boise State, watch out!

Tonight, I am taking our youth group to a Boise State football game. This ought to be a pretty good matchup: BSU vs. Bowling Green. Of course, the last two games resulting in losses were supposed to be competitive as well. Win or lose, we will definitely have fun. As your cubbie reporter, I will bring extensive coverage to tomorrow's issue. Grace Teens, football, fall, does life get any better than this?

Grace Worship Order 9.18.05

Sunday AM:

• Here I Am to Worship
  Love You, Lord
• Unsearchable Riches
  Fill My Cup
• He’s All I Need
• The Heart of Worship (special song)

Sunday PM

• He Abides
• Sweet, Sweet Spirit
• Where the Spirit of the Lord Is
• Your Love Compels Me

Mud Volleyball?

I was sitting on the couch taking it easy this past Saturday when I received a call from one of my teens, Abby (pictured above in the middle; orange shorts, teal bandana). She asked me if I would be interested in watching her team from Nampa Christian High School compete in a mud volleyball tournament.

Would I ever?! Now, I have participated in many athletic endeavors across the years, but never have I been a part of a mud volleyball competition. I am here to tell you that it is the nastiest, filthiest, most disgusting game you could ever play...and I loved every minute of it! Those of us from Frankfort who participated in sand volleyball at the TPA courts on Wednesday evenings probably remember the texture and heaviness of the sand following a rain shower. It doesn't even remotely compare with this goop. This stuff would suck the sandals and shoes right off your feet.

You have to know Abby: Abby is one of the sweetest girls in my youth group, and she initially approached the game with the same frame of mind. She stayed clean for about 10 minutes, daintily tip-toing around the court. But about midway through the first match she moved a little too quickly for the ball, her feet gave way, and next thing she knew she was on her backend soaked with mud. It was great!

I wasn't able to stay for the entire tournament, but what I saw was awesome! It definitely looked like a lot of fun. I have to admit I was tempted to jump in!

Abby and her sister Alex (who was a line judge and managed to get pretty muddy as well) made the Grace Teens proud! Great job, guys!

Another fantastic Grace Teen member, Jaron Crane (in the red and black shorts), officiated the match. He's a member of the athletic association who sponsored the games.

The game was crazy! In this picture, Abby goes for the ball.

Alex was a line judge for the volleyball game. I did notice that she managed to get as muddy as her sister (well, almost).

Abby barking out directions to her teammates.