Just thinkin'

For many of my friends, Southern Gospel music is an irrelevant part of religious culture/worship. Unfortunately, they have one too many examples of why that's the case. In some groups you might find a lack of musicality, excessive showboating, or cheesy presentations. Sometimes, I'm as offended as you are. But for all you haters out there, don't base your opinion of any entire genre based on a few examples. I can do the same thing with any given style of music. For every Casting Crowns there will be 25 Family Force Five's that offend me with their pathetic presentation. But, the fact that I am majorly turned off by Family Force Five's music (to carry on my example) doesn't cause me to label all other CCM groups as poor examples of Christian music. In spite of such wannabe groups, there will always be quality bands like MercyMe, Jeremy Camp, David Crowder Band, and others who represent the genre well. The same is true in the Southern Gospel field.

Don't really have a great comment to tie this whole post together. This just happened to be on my mind.

He's Alive!

What a phenomenal song! Thanks to Susie Batton for capturing this morning's rendition of "If You Knew Him".

Waxing eloquent

Speaking of Cole, this past year has taken me back to Parenting 101. I honestly forgot some of the gross stuff associated with babies. You never really forget diapers and that sort of thing, but the other disgusting things they do...ah, now that's the spice of life. Like last night for instance. Cole and I were in the bedroom, the other kids in bed, and Lori downstairs somewhere. Parents have those moments when they realize their precious angel hasn't made a sound for a while. That usually means the devil got into them. I'm laying on the bed watching a little Sportscenter when it hits me that ol' Cole has been quiet as a mouse. I look over at him and he's on the floor sucking ear wax off some Q-tips he must have dug out of the wastebasket.

Gotta be honest, it grossed me out a little. But, I figure it can't kill him...can it?

What a refreshing vacation

I feel like starting this up again. I've decided that I'm not going to let it control me, though. I'm just going to post when I feel like it.

Oh, and by the way, Cole is a lot bigger than the picture posted below. It's been a while.

Hello again.

Nicholas Peyton Waggoner

Nicholas Peyton Waggoner arrived yesterday at 9:29 AM. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 7 oz. and was 20" long. I'm pretty sure he's grown an inch since then. He has a healthy set of lungs and has all the makings of being an impressive tenor.

We're going to call him Cole (from niChOLas). I'm a proud Dad!

CLICK HERE to see pictures of the big guy (not me, Cole)

GVB changes

Huge press release from Gaither Vocal Band!

Mike, Mark, David, and Wes. Who woulda thunk it?

Update

It's been a busy month.

Our family had an incredible Christmas and New Year. We celebrated Christmas Eve by having Pastor Dave, Julia, and the fam over. Between the Wii tournament, Rook tournament (which Dave and I won handily), and awesome food we had a wonderful time. It was around 3 AM Christmas morning when the party disbanded. All of the kids, except Katie, were asleep. Christmas morning was our time. There is no gift that compares to watching Trey and Kassady open their Christmas presents. We had already celebrated an early Christmas in November with my parents, but somehow other gifts magically showed up. The kids loved it! By the way, my gift of the year came from my esteemed in-laws Dave and Char. They shipped me 6 cans of Skyline Chili. The gift that keeps on giving.

Christmas dinner was served over at Josh and Amelia Jensen's house. WOW!!! What a spread! I ate way too much, but shed some of it during our intense game of Catchphrase. We had an absolute blast! I love spending time with good friends.

By the way, if you didn't receive our Christmas letter, it's because I didn't have your email address. We went digital this year, saving nearly $200 in postage. Here's the link to the newsletter.

In all honesty, I just bummed around during the days between Christmas and New Years. I got a little done, but not much. About the only thing I did was practice with Liberty. Our new baritone, Jordan Cragun, moved in and we spent the week before Christmas and the week before New Year's Day rehearsing our classics and learning new songs. Other than that I spent most of my time reading and playing games. Gotta love that kind of life.

On New Year's Eve we went to two parties. Yeah, that's just how we roll. I just had to keep Lori out of the bubbly. We spent 3 hours over at Bob and Margaret's house and then a couple of hours at the church party. Lots of fun. I am getting pretty old, though. By the time the New Year rolled around I was just ready to go to bed. Pathetic.

Liberty sang our first concerts with Jordan on January 4. He flat out tore it up. For those of you that have followed our ministry for a while, you're going to want to hear this guy. He's doing a great job, in spite of all the abuse that he's enduring as the baby of the group. Jordan is a wonderful addition to the quartet.

I really didn't make any major new year's resolutions for 2009. I have stopped drinking soda. I guess that's kind of major. I had a cup on Christmas Eve and one cup on New Year's Eve, but that's been it. Besides the occasional craving, I'm getting by on water and the every-once-in-a-while glass of iced tea. I'm also trying to cut back on my french fry consumption. I've had three (yes, that's right: 3) french fries in the last four weeks. Now, I'm sure my inhaling of the three onion rings at Red Robin last Thursday didn't help any, but I have to have an occasional reprieve for crying out loud!

I'm also trying to read one book a week. The requirements are that it must be a biography or something to do with theology, management, or leadership. I've already finished some great reads. I finished John Lennon: The Life over Christmas. I couldn't put it down. It was a fascinating look at the life of a guy who for better or worse helped influence music culture. I'm trying to finish up Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan and Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High a classic recommended by Josh Jensen. This is for anyone who tends to avoid any type of confrontation, even if the necessary conversation could potentially enhance productivity or teamwork. I'm already benefiting from these pages. Other recent reads include Family Man: The Biography of Dr. James Dobson, The Shack, and Mere Christianity. I've been missing my cable like crazy, especially during bowl season, but there's no doubt that I wouldn't be reading as much if I had it. So, it's all good. I just don't know what will happen during March Madness...

Speaking of the bowls, go Florida and Tebow (I'm doing the Gator chomp right now in celebration). Man, I'm glad they won the championship. Tim Tebow is a class guy and one of the few marquee players to come back to school for his senior year.

The Big Ten, as is becoming the custom in football and basketball, failed to show up. It's tough being a fan. Especially an IU fan through this basketball season. I do think Crean is the man for the job, though. Just give him time.

Trey started Upwards basketball last week. I'm proud of that boy. He loves sports! And, he's willing to work to get better. We've been working on his triple threat stance and controlling the ball. He's already a good shooter, but definitely needs to work on his dribbling. I just sit on the sidelines and grin like the Cheshire Cat. He's the man.

It's hard to believe, but we're less than a month from the new Waggoner boy making his grand entrance. The due date is Feb. 12. Since he'll be a C-section baby I think the date is fairly certain unless, of course, he decides to come earlier. Lori was just saying last night that this has been the easiest pregnancy yet. I just hope she didn't jinx the last month. We still have yet to pick out a name. I figure I'll have the final say, since Lori will be out of it when they ask. At least, that's what happened last time. So, I'm getting creative.

Liberty just got back from California. It was a somewhat-balmy 65 degrees on Friday, a little cooler on Saturday and Sunday. It hit me this past weekend how blessed I am to have friends scattered across the entire country. One thing that I'm trying to do more is intentionally invest in those friendships, deepening the relationships. So many of my good friends showed up to our concerts this weekend. We had a great time! God's been so good to me.

I did get some awful news on Saturday night about the Bigger family tragedy. While I didn't know Brent more than the casual friendship we developed while he was traveling for Hobe Sound and I was traveling for GBS, the news devastated me. Our prayers have been with Brent and his extended family.

Well, it's back to work.

Frankfort (city motto: we need to hire a press agency)

Yeah, I know it's a been a while. And, this is what I choose for my first post in 2009. Sad.

But, it's always good to see my hometown Frankfort, IN in the news.

Christmas Cheer

I found this over at Burke's Brainwork and just had to share. Enjoy Dennis Murphy's (drummer for Kingdom Heirs) rendition of Grandma Got Run Over By a Raindeer.

1000

By the way, I just noticed that I went over 1000 posts for keithinside. Thanks for reading.

Ramsey in the Valley

"If you will live like no one else, later you can LIVE like no one else."

Attention, Treasure Valley dwellers: Dave Ramsey is now on 580AM KIDO from 6-8 PM. You'll love the show. I am now a rabid listener (yeah, I got bit by a squirrel).

MAF Concert

Well, our concert went fairly well yesterday morning, lack of sleep notwithstanding. While it's never easy to sing in the morning, I am here to tell you that singing tenor at 8:00 AM should be outlawed. Fortunately, Philip took the high part on most of the songs so by the end of the morning he looked like a purple raisin and sounded like Oscar the Grouch. Poor guy. After a four day trip I normally take 3 days off before I even think of singing. So, my voice was in rare form, let me tell you. We sing a cover of GVB's Yes I Know and we've rearranged it a little to fit our style. Well, I have the solo part on the last verse and I started to go up like Penrod does at the end of the phrase and in the milliseconds of my initial ascent it hit me that I might not hit the note. So, I decided to improvise and make up a new part. Well, there's only so much you can do in a limited amount of time, not to mention jumping ship on a melody line that's going up. The end result was what would happen if you threw in a line from Jingle Bell Rock while singing Joy to the World. It didn't come close. My interesting new melody line wasn't even in the key. Embarrassing to say the least. I'm not a perfectionist, per se, but I do get irritated when something is that far off. It took me about 5 songs to get over that one. Due to the holidays, Dave and Julia's trip, Philip's work schedule, and Liberty's travel we were only able to practice twice. That the concert went well, was nothing short of a miracle.

The rest of the guys did an awesome job. Julia tore it up, as usual. And we even talked Dave into singing a song with his wife. Overall, a great concert. Thanks to all you Grace folks that showed up. It's a privilege to be part of such an incredible church!

I crave sleep

Anytime I know I have to be up early, insomnia sets in. What's up with that?!! If we have an early leave time for a weekend or something like that I lay in bed wide awake, all sorts of creative ideas and a to-do list running through my head. Last night was no different. This morning my "other" group (from Grace with Philip, Matt, and Julia)are singing at a Mission Aviation Fellowship chapel. I have to be there at 7:30. To make sure my voice is awake, I planned on waking up at 5:30 AM. I didn't get to sleep until after 12:30. Talk about frustrating! But the more I would think about getting up early, the more wide awake I would be. So, I finally got up and got some work done and collapsed from sheer exhaustion.

This concert ought to be real exciting. Who knows what I'm going to end up saying or doing.

By the way, there have been nearly 71,000,000 Google searches recently for the phrase "can't sleep". Something I learned.

I'm thankful for...

I know I've been deluging you with videos lately, but with this being Thanksgiving and all, this one tops the list of things I'm thankful for. Thanks to Matt for letting me know that Il Divo performed this.

We're continuing our Idaho Thanksgiving tradition of having dinner with Marc, Talisha, and the kids. It's nice to have adopted family. Then, Dad, Mom, and Lynn are flying in Thanksgiving evening and will spend the weekend with us. Also, Lori and I are going to the final Boise State game of the season against Fresno State. I'm hoping we can close out the regular season undefeated. So, this corner of the world will probably be silent for the next few days.

I hope you guys have a wonderful day with friends and family.

Shout to Darlene

Perry at Hillsong Church from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.

Over the last couple of years, I've been reading the blog of Perry Noble, a pastor in Anderson, SC. This dude is on fire for God and I've enjoyed his words of wisdom. I try to catch some of his services online when I get a chance. He's one cool guy, even if he is a Clemson fan. Anyway, he recently had the chance to speak at Hillsong in Australia. His chance sighting of Darlene Zschech cracked me up.

The Big 4-0

My beautiful wife turned 40 yesterday. And, what a day it was. I'd been waiting for Nov. 20, 2008 for several years. I had threatened Lori with throwing her a big ol' embarrassing party to celebrate this momentous milestone. She would threaten me in turn with all sorts of bodily harm, informing me that such an action on my part could be potentially fatal. For those of you who know Lori, she loves parties, but hates being the one feted. Well, this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience (especially for this dead man walking) so I decided to do it anyway. Lori takes pride in the fact that she is never surprised by anything. She always has things figured out way in advance.

Her (formerly) good friends Julia, Amelia, and Talisha helped me pull off the big surprise. The only real potential slip-up was my cleaning the house 2 days in a row. I came up with a logical explanation which for once she bought. My parents are coming out for Thanksgiving next week and I told her that I wanted to go the extra mile for her on her birthday so she wouldn't have to clean as much over the weekend. Julia and Amelia had already purchased all the decorations and Talisha had taken care of the food for the party. My biggest challenge was finding a legitimate reason for coming back to the house. So, here's what I did:

I dropped the kids off at Julia's house before Lori and I left for a date. I intentionally "forgot" my phone at home and then made a big production out of locking the door from the house to the garage, which normally I never do. I made sure that Lori watched me do it. So, we dropped the kids off at Julia's and ran over to do some Christmas shopping per Lori's request. Forget those romantic dates...gotta get that shopping done. Meanwhile, I had given Julia our garage code and the girls got inside to decorate and set up the food. At sporadic instances throughout the even, I made comments about how I couldn't believe I had left my phone on the desk. After we took advantage of some good deals, we went over to Olive Garden for dinner. I had told Lori that I really wanted to see the new Bond movie, Quantam Solace. So, I asked the waitress if we could get our food ASAP because of the movie start time. They did a wonderful job of getting our food right out. I had asked Julia to call Lori's cell phone at 6:30 asking to take the kids over to our house due to a meeting Dave was having. Julia pulled it off perfectly. Lori, remembering that I had locked the house door apologized to Julia for not being able to just give her the garage code and told her that we would have to meet them somewhere to give her our house keys. I knew that's what she would do. So, I piped in that I would like to pick up my cell phone anyway. And, that did it. Lori had absolutely no clue. So, we got to the house and Julia was sitting in the Suburban with all the kids inside. Lori did notice that someone had switched the outdoor light off. She kept on saying what happened to that light? I know it was on. I made up some excuse to get something out of the trunk and told Lori to unlock the door for Julia. Well, someone had unlocked the door, too. And just as Lori put the key in she said, "Hey! This door's unlocked!" She opened the door, the lights went on, and everyone yelled "Surprise!" She was shocked! Oh, it was awesome.

We had a blast! So many of our friends showed up for the party. I'm not going to comment on all the pictures below, but let me just say our house was packed. It was the best party I've been to. Thanks to Talisha, Julia, and Amelia for helping me pull this off. Lori did admit it was a happy birthday. That's all I wanted.

The shock is written all over her face.

Julia and one of her willing conspirators, Katie.

The other Liberty wives.

Amelia built Lori 2.0. She needed some lotion on those cheeks (not Amelia, Lori 2.0).

Now, I'm confused.

Matt, Mindy, and Amelia with Lori 2.0.

I'm not sure who these guys are, but they ate all the food. The middle guy kept on giving that creepy smile.

Sheila has trained Ashley well.

Donna apparently didn't want her picture taken with Lori and Tammy.

Kassady was pretty sure that the party was in some way thrown in her honor, too.

Bernie found the best seat in the house.

This is pretty much what Dave and Marc did all night.

Lori won't let me post pictures of her presents.

Josh and Amelia, great friends of ours. Josh was worried that with Lori being pregnant and all she wouldn't have the emotional stability required for a 40th birthday party. He kept on telling Amelia to take it easy on Lori.

And, a fun time was had by all.

Just do it

Some great advice for Detroit...

On a lighter note...

This is hilarious! Sent in response to my UFO post by my friend Steve Hafen of KVIP in Redding, CA. This is a tribute to the great film score composer John Williams.

The Waggoner Times

There's been a lot going on in Waggonerville.

Saturday, Liberty did a video shoot for "An Idaho Family Christmas" which airs annually on NBC's local affiliate. That was a lot of fun. We had to go around caroling to different houses on the set. Unfortunately, we didn't have any say in the song selection process. So, the song they picked out, while familiar, was about 2 notes above my tenor range. Not a fan. Our families were able to be part of the taping, so you'll get to see their faces along with a few other extras. Trey begrudgingly smiled for the cameras, while Kassady twirled, skipped, and laughed and pretty much stole the show. She loves being in the spotlight and hearing "camera, lights, action".

After we were done with the video shoot we went over to Marc and Talisha's to watch the Boise State vs. Idaho game. Fortunately, we ended up blowing them out, but the first half was ugly. I love BSU, but we are ranked too high. I'm afraid we're going to get destroyed if we somehow make it into a BCS game.

Then, on Saturday night, Donna Gilbert through a surprise birthday party for Dan. His 50th birthday is on the first weekend of December. He had no clue! Which was good, because at our concert Thursday a lady came up to him and said "I hear you're having a big birthday on Saturday". He just looked at her like she was crazy and said, "I don't know who you're talking to, but my birthday isn't until December". Fortunately, he just thought she was a nutcase. Anyway, he got the usual old people gifts.

Speaking of birthdays, Lori has one coming up. I won't go into great detail, but it's one of those big ones, if you know what I mean.

I have been obsessed with learning Flash and Dreamweaver the last few days. I'm fairly competent in Photoshop, but don't know a lot about hands-on web design. The cool thing is that I actually learned quite a bit. Definitely enough to get a website up and going. I'm working on a site now for Ritchey Music Group. Bet you can't figure out who owns that company. Anyway, thanks for Bart and Jon for their pearls of wisdom.

Speaking of pearls of wisdom, I'm almost finished with Winning with People by John Maxwell. I'll be sharing some highlights in the next few days. Investing in people is one of the most significant activities we'll ever engage in. It takes time, energy, and patience. But, I'm convinced it's worth it.

So many people are telling me I have to read The Shack. It's on my short list of books to get to.

By the way, did you know that unhappy people watch more TV? I just came across this article on Drudge Report. I think it's kind of funny how we heartily embrace studies that fit within our personal framework while scoffing at scientific results that somehow don't fit within our worldview. So, in saying that, I tend to agree with the results.

I'm very fearful concerning IU's basketball team this year. But, I'm very happy that Tom Crean is coach. Good days are ahead.

God is definitely working in our church. While I'm rarely at Grace on Sunday, Liberty had this past Sunday off and so I had the chance to worship at my home church. I had trouble finding a seat. It was very cool to talk to several of the new people who have given their hearts to Christ just in the last 2 or 3 months. Dave brought it in his message Sunday morning. What keeps us from being holy? What robs us of our joy? What keeps the blood pressure up? Self-centeredness (Philippians 2:1-10). One part that really stood out to me was Dave's sharing of the difference between "serving" and "being a servant". When you serve you do it on your own time, work it in around your personal schedule (and Dave wasn't knocking that; we need people who will serve). However, being a servant is on a whole 'nother level: it's being available 24/7 to minister to whoever, wherever. People know they can come to a servant in their darkest time and they'll be there for them. It goes beyond just being a friend. Good stuff.

I've really been enjoying YouVersion. It is one of the coolest devotional sites I've come across. Thanks to Shane for sharing the link.

I'm gearing up for the Christmas season. We're going to try to get some Christmas shopping done in the next couple weeks. Actually, Lori informed me that she wants to do this one her birthday (Thursday). I'm not the kind of guy that enjoys getting up the day after Thanksgiving to fight traffic and violent shoppers for a $30 discount. So, I enjoy getting mine done good and early. Well, Mom and Dad are coming out to our place for Thanksgiving, but won't be able to be out here for Christmas, so gift-giving is coming early. Trey has already let it be known that he wants just one present: a Ninteno Wii. That sounds kinda cool to me, too. So, maybe he and I can pool our resources, exchange the various packs of socks and underwear, and end up with a Wii. We'll see.

Tonight we're going over to hear Legacy Five in concert. Love those guys.

Our CD Amazed is selling like crazy. We've never had a project sell like this. It's pretty cool, actually. There's no doubt that this is our best recording yet. Literally, every week we're hearing from someone who has been profoundly impacted by one of the songs on the project. God is good!

By the way, Decemberadio is one of my new favorite Christian rock groups. Like them a lot.

Well, I have work to do, so for now...so long.

UFO

So, last night Doran, Royce, and I are sitting in the lounge area watching a movie while Dan handled the bus driving duties. We were on US 93 S. toward Las Vegas. All of a sudden Dan shouts out, "You've gotta be kidding me! I just saw a UFO!" Doran and I went running up to the front of the bus to see what he was talking about. He explained that a semicircle of orange lights appeared in the sky, moved smoothly, and then all of a sudden disappeared. We didn't see anything so we went back to the lounge. About 15 minutes later Dan yells "They're back!" I ran up to the jump seat and sure enough, just to the southwest there was a semicircle of bright orange lights hovering and then slowly moving through the sky. After about a minute of so, it just disappeared. Talk about cold chills! This happened a few more times. Interestingly enough, though, the lights separated and became individual entities. It was the strangest thing I've witnessed.

I went online and found out that that stretch of road happens to be near an experimental aircraft test site. It is the real Area 51. Weird stuff. But, I saw this with my own eyes. I'm a believer (cue X-files theme).