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.