Posers.

The carousel was a gigantic hit with Kassady. It was her first time on a musical merry-go-round and she was greatly distressed when it was discovered that you only get one ride per ticket. Lori pried her clamped hands off of the pole and carried Kassady, screaming bloody murder, back to where I was standing. It was another moment when I was glad to be the one behind the camera. Here, Kass...more cotton candy?

Trey, not quite sure where my voice was coming from, threw an abstract wave towards the assembled crowd of parents. I think he has politics in his future.

Trey and I attemped to coax the lemurs into a rousing rendition of "I Like to Move It, Move It" (see exhibit A: "Madagascar"), but failed abjectly.

I do believe that Kassady appreciated the inanimate animals (what an oxymoron) as much as the real thing. Her intense study of Leo accompanied by her gorilla romp did much for her first class in zoology (or is is zooology) (or maybe even zoo-ology).

Warning: The attached picture is quite graphic and may not be suitable for sensitive viewers.

With all the news lately about the horrible weather Midwestern states are experiencing, we shouldn't forget that our friends in Southern California have had their share of devastating weather, also.

I've attached a photo illustrating the damage caused to a home from a West Coast storm that passed through the San Diego Area last week. More of the same is expected today with another storm coming in. It really makes you cherish what you have, and reminds us not to take life for granted!

(Thanks, Diane, for the e-mail!)

Desks and Trombones, items not normally mentioned together in a title

OK, it's been a while. Today, I indulged myself by engaging in one of my favorite activities: assembling furniture. I am a very laid-back guy, except when it comes to cobbling together pieces of wood and metal. I'm ashamed to admit that in many instances I feel compelled to ask God for forgiveness after one of the aforementioned exercises.

Well, today it went extremely well. In fact, this time it was Lori who hit the roof. Well, not really, but she was upset that I used a wrong screw and innocently drove it through the desk door. Hey, I felt like a winner! My blood pressure didn't even fluctuate.

I'll show pics later.

For now, I leave you a pic of one of my favorite trombone players: Don. Enjoy!

Wednesday night we held the teens Bible study at Marc and Talisha's house. While I was giving my devotional, I noticed that Lori and Talisha were laughing back in the corner. I have a one-track mind, so I didn't notice that Addison was enthralled with my sermon. As you can see in the top picture, he started off in the corner, observing my delivery with great interest. As time went on, he rolled his walker closer and closer until finally he was right in front of me, looking up and listening intently. It's nice to know that at least one person was paying attention.

Schwinggg

Does anybody else remember those uncomfortable blue plastic swings (similar to the one Kassady is sitting in)? I tried one out one day when all of the other swings (like Trey's swing) were taken. One of my legs got stuck in those stupid leg holes and while struggling I lost my balance and ended up side down with my head in the dusty rut (caused by swingers kicking off) that you find underneath all swingsets. That was my last time in those kind of swings.

Give Generously to your City Parks and Recreation Dept.

Yesterday, Trey and Kassady headed to West Park with one of their favorite friends, Emme. They had a lot of fun. Lori had to peel Kassady off of the swings. There's nothing like playing at the park. I remember some good times at Green Street Park in Frankfort. I recall the first time I scaled the "big" slide. I stood unsteadily on the top rung, looking to the ground far below. If my memory serves me correctly, I stood there for about 3 minutes with all the kids lined up on the rungs below me, shouting for me to hurry up and go down. And then, I couldn't tell you how many times I fell off that little merry-go-round with the handles while it was going as fast as we 8-year olds could push it.

Of course, the cool playground was over at TPA park. They had the red caboose, the long curly slides, and that circular thing that you could go upside down in. Those were the days...

Tarzan

Trey decided he wanted to climb a tree yesterday, so we went out in the back yard and with a little help from yours truly he clambered up onto a branch. Our trees really aren't made for climbing, so he clung stubbornly to the limb, declaring that he was a monkey like Boots (from "Dora the Explorer").

This is the first time that he has attained heights of more than 6', so I was the cautious dad, making sure that he didn't take a tumble. At first, I stood at the base of the tree making sure that he was OK. Then, I thought of when I was his age. For whatever reason, I think parents today are more protective than they used to be when I was a kid. I was jumping off the roof of my house with a trashbag, thinking that it would function as a parachute. The response I got was, "walk it off. You'll be OK". I did more crazy things as a kid, but I survived.

Today, parents sit anxiously on the sidelines of the playground, worrying that poor "Johnny" or "Susie" will fall and get a boo-boo. Relax, let kids be kids. Guess what? No matter how stressed out you get, how careful you are, you're still going to be taking your kids to the emergency room. They will still stick peas up their noses, jump from great heights, shoot each other with BB guns, get chased by mean dogs, throw snowballs at passing cars and whatever else comes to their minds. You live and learn.

So, I backed off and let Trey do his thing. He did pretty good actually, even to the point of swinging off a branch and dropping to the ground. He'll be OK.

Open up the archives...again

Speaking of Canon City (read on down the page), I found this old pic from my GBS quartet days (this one: Aaron, Nick, Phil, Shane, and myself) from when we visited the Royal Gorge. I remember climbing up on this ledge to get my picture taken. Phil Bishop took the picture from about 100 feet away while cheerfully commenting on how I would probably fall to my death. It wasn't until I was down on the path that I saw the signs that said "Danger: Do Not Approach Ledge".

Royce Mitchell: Unplugged

Royce hasn't quite been the same since I joined the group. I had the same effect on my fellow GBS quartet members.

Ministering to the Moabites

We had awful weather on Sunday. We were in Colorado and if you have paid any attention at all to the news, you realize that the state was just hammered with snow. In fact, shortly after we left for Utah, they shut down I-70 in Colorado for 18 hours. We decided to go for it so we could be assured of making it to Monday's concert. Man, we hit some bad weather. We saw some pretty serious accidents on the way. After driving through the night Sunday, we made it to our Monday destination.

We spent all day in Moab, Utah, home of the nation's largest Jeep Jamboree. Jeep owners from all over the world make their way to Moab to ride some of the most incredibly difficult trails you have ever seen. Last year this town of 4,200 had more than 30,000 Jeeps show up and more than 75,000 people. It is the extreme sports-persons paradise. In fact, I met a guy who moved here just to get away from the grind and enjoy life. He was the VP of a huge corporation in California, making the big bucks, but wasn't happy. After visiting Moab, he knew this was where he wanted to be. He moved there, started a tour company, and in his words, "really started living". He said that he barely makes it during the winter, "eating just beans and rice", but he told us emphatically that he's never been happier. Dan, Doran, and I spent the day walking through town checking out all of the cool sites/sights.

They have also filmed several movies in Moab, including several John Wayne movies. Also, several scenes from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Mission Impossible II, and Thelma & Louise were shot among the awesome red rocks.

We sang at an Independent Baptist Church in the evening and had a great time visiting with the pastor and his wife afterward. Moab has a fantastic diner (if I remember correctly named, quite appropriately, The Diner) with some great sandwiches on the menu. I ordered the Killipeoke Chicken sandwich. Very tasty!

(photos from www.discovermoab.com)

This is the Great Adventure (all apologies to SCC)

Dan and Doran (Liberty Quartet's version of Abbott and Costello) looking for adventure and excitement among the parking lots of Moab.

Dan exploring the possibilities of converting this overgrown ATV into a bus. These machines are awesome! They can cover any type of terrain. They're made by Mercedes and special-ordered from France and Germany. Next time we're in Moab, we're going to hit the trails.

Moab, UT has some of the most beautiful red-rock cliffs that I have ever seen. This is a restaurant overlooking the town.

Canon City

The following pictures were taken at last evening's concert at Canon City (CO) Church of the Nazarene. We had a fantastic time. More importantly, 3 people gave their lives to Christ. A great night!

It was awesome to see my good friends, Aaron and Cherylyn Horn, and their cute girls, Alyssa and Kinley. Doran and I had a lot of fun catching up with all the new events happening in their lives. Aaron worked with both of us on the youth staff at Grace. He has just started the ministerial program at Nazarene Bible College in Colorado Springs.

He took a lot of these pictures.

The Gospel Plow

Aaron also, unfortunately, got a few pictures of our bluegrass rendition of "The Gospel Plow". It features our redneck take of the song, Billy-Bob teeth and all. Doran used his own teeth.

This is only a test. I'm having some uploading issues with blogspot.

Catching Up with Burley

I heard from one of my best friends in college a couple of weeks ago. Mark Burley and I traveled in quartet together for a year and laughed through several college classes. Mark is the best PR guy I have ever seen. Nobody makes friends as quickly as Mark. As an aside note, he's a serious basketball player. He's swatted several of my shots. I also traveled with Jana in choir. She was one of the greatest choir members due to her awesome personality. She laughed at my jokes, which automatically makes her a member of my inner circle.

It's great to be able to see what God is doing in the lives of my friends. Mark is coaching high school basketball at a Christian school in MO in addition to asking clients, "What can brown do for you?".

Mark reminded me of a funny story from our quartet days. Our quartet was huge, I mean HUGE! Mark was 6'7", Mike and Dave were at least 6'3", and Phil and I were 6'0". We also weighed several pounds apiece. We arrived at a church in Loveland, OH and found a sign on the platform that read "800 lbs. weight limit on platform". That night more than half a ton of flesh caused the platform to bend, but it didn't break (fortunately!).

Man of Many Mirrors

Fortunately, Royce never visits my blog so I can get away with posting embarrassing pics of him. I'm still not sure what's going on here. Maybe he's admiring his physique? I just don't know...

On the bus

Doran hasn't learned that you can rotate pictures on the computer.

Trey caught with his hand in the candy jar. He gets it honestly. If there is candy sitting around in this house, I find myself absentmindedly reaching for it.

Weird Picture from the Archives

Sometimes you don't even want to know the story behind the picture. I will give you these details: the bird's name is Barbie and she found me extremely funny. 'Nuff said.

My New Jeep

Fast-forward 50 years, and you have Keith and Lori out for a drive.

My favorite overheard quote from last weekend.

As two elderly women walked into the lobby where we had our product table set up, one said sweetly to the other: "Oh, isn't that nice. They sell CDs."

Yeah, OK. We're all out of 8-tracks (the Waggoner family still has a few available, however).

March Madness

We have arrived to the time of year where I become virtually useless. I love March Madness! It's become an annual tradition to fill out brackets with all my buddies from GBS. We maintain standings and talk a lot of trash. The highest I've ever finished is 2nd. This year, we have about 20 people vying for bragging rights. My final four includes Duke, Gonzaga, Conneticut, and Boston College, with UConn winning it all.

I'm already second-guessing my Gonzaga pick not to mention Boston College. I am currently in 3rd place, so we'll see what happens.

There's not a chance in the world that they'll get past the top 32, but go IU!

Earth to Barry Bonds. Earth to Barry Bonds. The scam is over. Please retire.

I have this annoying habit of walking around while talking on my cellphone. This doesn't necessarily apply to my conversations on the ol' landline, but for some reason I can't sit still while talking on the mobile. Even when I'm called in my office, I have to get up and walk around the room instead of sitting still. Fortunately, I don't get hit with those roaming charges.

Foodmonger

Kassady also has her own idiosyncracies, including the consumption of apple sauce while standing. Actually, this applies to all of her dining attempts.

Switchfoot asked for me to provide alternative cover art for the 10th anniversary of their release "Legend of Chin".

(Photo credit: Trey Waggoner)

LaZy Basket

Furniture is so expensive these days! Visit Goodwill and pick up the latest styles in laundry baskets. Very cozy.

Don't Blow It

I captured Kassady appreciating one of her favorite pasttimes: exploring the Kleenex box. Maybe she'll be a pastor's wife someday and all this practice pulling out tissues will come in handy around the altar.

Tough Stuff

Trey is at it again. He loves using the camera. He caught me awkwardly attempting to tie Kassaady's shoes. My fingers are too big for those little shoelaces. Notice the gaze of intense concentration adorning my nearly hairless face.

The Queen City

I just had to post this cool picture. It has nothing to do with my life, necessarily, but it's a great shot. This was taken by Roel Cuaresma, an international student at GBS (who, by the way, bought my beautiful, baby-blue 1995 Mercury Sable when I moved to Idaho). It's taken overlooking downtown Cincinnati. I have to give him props on this one. I'll bet even Kevin Moser is impressed!

ER episode

Last night we had quite a scare. After the teens Bible study we went over to Marc and Talisha's house for dessert. Their beautiful new house has hardwood floors throughout the first floor. Kassady was running around and slipped and fell backwards on her head. Lori ran over to pick her up and she was stiff as a board and not breathing. Her eyes began rolling back into her head and then she started jerking around. Lori started calling her name loudly and she finally starting breathing again, but would just utter these cry/moans. Lori handed her to me and Kassady started throwing back her head and closing her eyes. I kept on talking her to try to keep her alert, but she wouldn't respond in her normal fashion. Lori held her again and she kept on acting like she was going to faint. Her face turned extremely pale and her skin started appearing blue underneath her nose.

We left Trey at Marc and Talisha's and tore off toward the hospital. On the way, Kassady kept trying to fall asleep. We didn't know if this was because of the injury or because of being an hour and a half past her normal bedtime, so Lori kept her as awake as possible.

She was finally admitted to the emergency ward and after waiting for about a half hour or so was initially seen by a nurse. By this time her color had come back and she was tearing up the hospital room (literally). When the doctor eventually made it in to the room, Kassady was back to her normal self.

They checked her vision, her head, and ears for signs of a concussion or injury, but couldn't find anything. We took her home and Lori woke her up in the middle of the night just to make sure there weren't any lingering associative problems.

Thank God she's fine. All's well that ends well, I guess. Just a little less sleep.

The Welcome Waggon(er)

I walked in the door to a great surprise! Trey had prepared a large sign welcoming his daddy home. He included pictures of all of my favorite sports. After he and Lori had discussed making a sign for me, he told her that she also need to "hang streamers and balloons and stuff." So, Lori did. I am loved.

Here's another picture of the sign, streamers, and balloon (hanging from our elaborate chandelier). Which brings to mind the question: Why do women stress out about dust on refrigerators, lamps (chandeliers), and closet shelves not to mention pictures thereof? It seems to me that women exhibit a hypersensitivity when it comes to these areas. Guys, are like, is there food? Good. There could be dust, cobwebs, dirt, full-grown gerbils in the closet but as long as you come out with food we're OK. Women, on the other hand, apparently spend their time in someone else's kitchen industriously assisting the hostess while at the same time scanning the tops of refrigerators, cabinets, counters for minute particles of dust. At least that's my theory. Cause why else would they stress out about pictures like this one? It's beyond me. Ladies?

Driving

I had my first bus-driving experience on the little "hills" of Mt. Hood (elevation: 11,237 feet). Now, we didn't go all the way to the top or anything like that, but I did navigate the outskirts. I have never driven anything larger than a 15-passenger van (I don't think Rev. Barry Arnold's tractor qualifies as a vehicle), so there were many prayers offered up as I skillfully piloted our bus around the steep grades of the mountain. The guys made subtle observations such as "Um...you might want to slow down here." "Try the jake brake." and my personal favorite, "Aaaaggghhhh!!" I handled it quite well, with the only sign of my internal stress being the large red blotches on top of my bald head and the nervous twitch I developed at the corner of my mouth. We made it without incident (if you don't count the stench of burning brakes).

The Oregon Trail

Well, I survived my first full weekend with Liberty with minimal damage done. I had a great time! It's as enjoyable and fulfilling as I imagined it could be. Everything went fairly well. If it could be illustrated using a weather forecast it would be mostly sunny, few clouds, slight chance of rain (I know. That's a pretty weird comparison).

My first full concert was in John Day, OR. The town was small, but the scenery was incredible. It's surrounded by snow-capped and majestic mountains. The trip down was beautiful. For those of you who know me, I'm usually fairly comfortable on the stage. I'm far from being Mr. Smooth, but I'm past the knee-clattering stage (see Exhibit #10, Keith's first music recital, GBS, fall of 1995). However, I walked on the stage confidently and then totally lost it on my very first song. I don't know if it was nerves or what, but I couldn't remember any of the words to our concert opener. I mumbled my way through the entire song, forgot that I was supposed to take the melody on the last 2 choruses, and totally blew the ending. In a way, it was comforting. I knew it couldn't get any worse. It didn't. I made it through the rest of the concert without huge, noticeable errors.

We had to sleep on the bus Thursday night, which was a new experience for me. I got maybe 4 hours of sleep. It was probably more like 3. On Friday, we headed west towards Portland. We had a full weekend of concerts, 5 full concerts and 1 memorial service held at Portland, OR First Church of the Nazarene. The church is literally built into the side of a mountain. Pretty impressive!

Overall, everything went well. I still have no clue what the lyrics are to the song "Happy Rhythm". I know that the word "bubbles" is in there somewhere so I throw it in every other phrase knowing that eventually I'll get it right. But, people laughed at my attempts at humor, I was told that I looked "real good" in my promotional picture by a 7-year-old girl, and I met some fantastic people. What more can you ask for on your first weekend?

It's all good!