A little trip to Houston..

We didn't go on the church ski trip... Austin nor Donna wanted to ski.. Hannah was going to Italy so we didn't know what we would do for our little spring break jaunt.. Austin had a neat idea.. let's go to Houston and do like we do when we go to New York.. in other words.. let be tourists in Houston..

Having grown up in the Houston area and generally having a disdain for the city because it's hot, and humid, and un-zoned, and humid, and has never seemed to have the hiways it needed to move people around like it needs to I really wasn't fired up about that right off the bat but then I thought better of it.. so that's what we're doing..

I went to priceline.com and bid on some 5 star hotels in downtown Houston and got a nice deal on a room at The Inn at the Ballpark.

This morning we had church..and in the midst of church Hannah took off for Italy.. once church was over we headed to Livingston to have lunch at The Courthouse Whistlstop Cafe.



A very nice cafe with very good food and good sized portions. Service was excellent even though some of the Sunday specials had been eaten up by a large after church crowd. We had lunch with family there (Donna's mom, sister, brother-in-law, and our nephew John). After visiting and eating we headed on to Houston..











We had been toying with the idea of going to a hockey game.. it was looking like we weren't going to miss much of the afternoon game of the Houston Aeros so we went to the Toyota center and enjoyed the sport from the great white north.

The Aeros won and we had fun..minor league sports are a hoot because they do so much to keep you entertained.. same with minor league baseball.. anyway, we had a good time and then checked in at "The Inn".













Room is spacious and the bed is heaven...it's huge and comfy.. The lobby, bar and cafe all beautifully appointed with baseball memorabelia.. well so is the room.. even little baseball stickers on the toilet paper rolls... we really did get a nice deal now that I've seen it.













We go eat in "The Ballpark Cafe".. food is pricy but good. Donna had the ballpark burger..I had the ballpark hot dog (a foot long that was about 18" long..stuck out about 2 inches on each end of the bun)..and with ballpark dog I had to have a bock..Austin.. always one to watch cost of items on the menu had a $6 salad and the fried shrimp.. The bill was ... well alot for a burger, a dog and 5 shrimp but the place was nice and the waiter was fantastic.

Back at the room taking it easy.. contemplating going here tomorrow..

Sunday Worship 3/15/09

youtube of practice continues to help our Sunday morning prep and the quality of our offering.. another very good Sunday as far as music and a very cool service that I hope helped people think just a little bit more about their every day lives.. Check out the layout of the worship service below...

10:45 AM

Gathering Music – The Cross of Christ (Wright) (announcements on screen)

Enter the Light of Christ

Praise Music

God of Wonders (Byrd/Hindalong)

How Great Thou Art (Hine/Baloche)

Welcome and Announcements

Introduction to Theme (Donna: Exodus 20 video)

Choral Anthem – Alas! and did my savior bleed? (Banks) (Guest Choir Director, Mike Hunter!)

Children’s Sermon (Kathy)

Greeting

This morning we invite you to introduce yourself by stating which of the Ten Commandment YOU think is the most important.

Worship Music

All in All (Jernigan)

Wonderful Cross (Reeves/Tomlin/Walt/Watts/Mason)

Prayer Time & Lord’s Prayer (Kathy)

Prayer Response – Enid Hunter, oboe

Scripture Reading – Exodus 20:1-17 (Artie)

Sermon – Does the List Matter? (Mike)

Invitation to Respond

Invitation Music – Sanctuary (Thompson/Scruggs) (transition to table on second verse)

Call to Communion (Mike)

Prayer for Elements

10 Word Exercise

This morning we invite you to circle the word identifying the commandment you struggle with most. You will keep one copy for yourself and bring one forward to lay at the foot of the cross before you participate in the offering and communion.

Communion & Offering (praise team instrumental)

All Christians, regardless of denomination, are invited to participate in this meal of love and remembrance. Come forward to lay your tablet at the cross, before presenting your offering and partaking of communion. You may come to the Table when you feel led and depart on your own.

Go Out in God’s Peace…

See more Sunday worship setlists here

Peace everyone..

I didn't eat any of this..

Brownies were made earlier this week.. I had none of them..I promise! No... really!!

CC (DOC) NEA CYF/Chi Rho Mid Winter..

Just some memories of CC(DOC) NEA CYF Chi Rho Mid Winter Audio sucks but I hope you can pick up the energy... we had a great time leading the kids but I also had a great time worshiping with them and the band.. It was so free and open and uplifting. It was so much fun and so much a sabbath.. as little sleep as we got (the band) it was great just hanging out and visiting. What a great weekend. I look forward to doing it again someday!!

new technology..well...new to me

Nice news..

Random March 3rd stuff

Tuesday March 3rd Hannah and I went to TCU for another visit.. she wanted to visit with people from the environmental science department and I wanted to check on her scholarship situation..she also wanted to see one of the dorms she had not seen yet.. We ate at fuzzy's she fell in love with enviro science..(she wants to save the world).. we saw several friends of hers and even some of my friends..Then we went to U of Dallas to see her friend Allison Guse.. It was kind of a long day.. but fun to spend it with Hannah..this is just a short clip of the day..




It also proves that if you are going to eat chocolate ice cream and wear white skinny pants..you will get some on your pants...

New tune..

A new song I just wrote.. I haven't written one in a pretty good while. Let me know what you think..not that I'll change anything..but I might :P No really..you know who you are.. give me your feedback.



You can also check out some other cool original tunes here.. at the online songwriters showcase..

Sunday's worship.. 3/8/09

This Sunday we did some cool creative/experiential stuff... it really touched some people to actually write "Child of God" on a name badge and wear it.. it was very meaningful.

On the other side they wrote all the things that they were, could be names or titles .. I wrote husband, father, song writer, worship leader, freight guy, friend, bald guy, fat guy, friend, lazy, workaholic, but the key thing is no matter what I'm called I'm a child of God.. here's how worship flowed..

March 8: Blessing

Prelude – Nelda (announcements on screen)

10:45 AM - Lighting of candles

Opening Praise Set

Give Thanks-Smth

Hallelujah (You’re Love is Amazing)- Brown/Doerksen

Stethoscope video

“I got a name” (Croce) – Artie

Welcome to FCC/Announcements (Mike)

Children’s Sermon (Kathy)

Greeting (introduce yourself with label – “Hi, I’m an accountant”)

Worship Set

Every Move I Make -Ruis

Wonderful Cross- Reeves, Tomlin, Walt, Watts, Mason

Short Prayer & LP (Cory)

Sermon – Genesis 17 (Mike)

Transition Music (Sing Hallelujah)-Stassen

(Elements and Guitars lead procession to FH)

Name Making Experience (Cory sets-up, background music on iPod)

Words of Institution (Mike)

Communion – at multiple stations (choir music)

Invitation (Wonderful Cross) Reeves, Tomlin, Walt, Watts, Mason

Prayer of Dismissal (Mike)

Postlude -Give Thanks-Smith

It was a very good Sunday, The experiment with recording practice and posting it on youtube for at home rehearsal for those who need it or can't make practice is still proving to be a big help to the Sunday morning offering by the team.. I really appreciate the effort they are putting in to making worship a priority.

Check out other Sunday worship offerings here

345

Well.. feeling pretty good... seem to have more energy. Daylight savings time didn't have a huge impact on me.. had more energy dealing with that God forsaken event than I have in recent years. My new pants (a couple of months old..that's new for me) have little buttons on the side.. you can take them up one button on each side. I have taken both of those buttons up the one notch that is on there and they are still very loose.

Hoping that I can be at least to 342 by spring break and payday. That would be 20 pounds off and a nice place to have a celebratory cheater meal. We're hanging around Lufkin next weekend and I'll be at church Sunday morning.. then we're sending Hannah off to Europe early Sunday afternoon..then Donna, Austin, and I are off to downtown Houston. Staying at The Inn at the Ball Park just to try and experience downtown Houston like we have done New York.. find some neat downtown restaurants, go to the zoo, museum, Austin wants to go to The Galleria.. somewhere in there I plan to be bad.. but.. not too much.. I'm really enjoying how I feel and enjoying how my clothes are fitting me. I have one more notch on my new belt then I may be shopping for another new belt. Yeah!!

Those of you who follow me on twitter have probably noticed that my usual 2 x Tuesday (Domino's Pizza) with a Shiner Bock has stopped... I might very well partake in a pizza and some beer.. well some Bock or other dark beer.. while on vacation. I do find God in that little combination!

More to come..

348

2 more pounds...in a week. I'm doing ok, not wanting to splurge too much although last Friday was a very stressful day that involved removing someone from their position here at that place I work at full time.. Never fun.. and I wanted Olive Garden that night and a couple of italian margaritas.. if you haven't tried one of those they are wonderful...

Anyway.. that was my one indulgence...stress induced as it was.

Hope to put up a few more posts later today..

FYI.. if you are not on youtube.. I'm posting video of our worship practice on youtube. It came from the fact that we are changing worship times and we will not have the time we used to on Sunday morning to run through the songs. I also have band members that have conflicts on Wednesday night that can't make practice but they will invest the time to be ready on Sunday if they have the music.. this gives them the music the way we will do it.. not the way Crowder, Tomlin, Baloche or Wright does it but how we will do it and they can work on how they fit in to the mix and be ready Sunday morning. There are also those in the praise team that need more reps on the songs and this way they can sing along with the rest of the praise team to get a better feel for the music.

We only have time on Sunday morning to do a quick run through of our transitions.. example.. this week we'll work on the transition between the last half of the chorus of "Give Thanks" in to the first verse of "Hallelujah (Your Love is Amazing)"..that's it.. then the end of "Every Move I Make" in to "The Wonderful Cross".. We'll touch on one other song quickly and then we're done.

We did this last week..and with all the confusion of set up and new service times and getting settled in to where we were supposed to be along with pluggin in and tuning it probably took us between 15 and 20 minutes to work on our transitions between our 2 three song sets...and the music in church was AWESOME!! Everyone came prepared and the church loved the first set so much they applauded us.. that just doesn't happen in our church very often.. one other time in the last year and a half it's happend (when we introduced our rockin' version of "How Great Thou Art"..kinda like Baloche but not...). We got tons of great feedback on the music and how good it was..the church was in to it and the Spirit was moving.. it was a great day...anyway...

The vids go up at www.youtube.com/artieanderson and Donna has been doing the editing because Moviemaker keeps cratering on my pc. She's good and pretty quick. She also worked very hard on getting the sound right on the internet feed and our vids this week sound much better..(we are pulling our vids off our computer/video feed we use for Sunday morning live feed broadcasts). The ones last week were not bad but she's got them sounding much better.

In the short run this little experiment has turned out to be a great success.. Hope it continues to be a tool for a quality music offering on Sunday morning.

350

OK, so I decided to weigh again for the first time in a couple of weeks.. I weigh 350 lbs.. I've cut the carbs since Monday (except for a chocolate chocolate chip cookie and a cran-apple at the blood center yesterday).. that was lunch. That made my morning.

Donna said she was going to no carb it starting Monday. I wanted to support her. My mouth tastes like metal but I'm feeling better and I'm lighter... now I have to keep moving too.

Hannah and her txting exploits v 2.0

Ok... we just went through the holidays... and when you look over to the right there at Hannah's texting performance, you have to be a little disappointed. You would think with all the extra time on her hands during the holidays she would text even more.


But no...


So why did the numbers drop???


Was it the number of minutes she was talking? Did she actually speak to people more and reduce her ability to text as much?? I did a brief analysis of her voice minutes....she was actually on the phone talking more in months previous than in this month of anemic texting performance..

I can only find one other good reason that she has deteriorated in her text performance.






His name is Ryan Stovall... He's pretty good guy.. plays sax in the AC jazz band and has a band of his own..he also plays guitar way better than I will ever hope to and he can play other instruments. I like Ryan.. but he sure is jackin' with our fun with Hannah's texting.

Saying goodbye..

I know this will ramble some but I'm doing this for me as it comes to me..

John August Anderson..known as Sandy to his close family passed away on January 29th 2009 at the age of 60. In November he was diagnosed with brain cancer and even though he had surgery to remove the tumor he never rebounded. He had 2 sons David and Jason and daughter in law Amanda. He had 2 grandsons Brian and Tylar. He was born in Texas City in December of 1949. Even though he was 11 years older than me, he was closest to me in age of all my brothers. He was also the one I felt closest to in all things.

He was the bottom step of 5 stair step boys... the youngest of 5 for 11 years




he was finally an older brother when I was born in January of 1960. Richard..the oldest shared a bed with him when Sandy was little... then when Sandy was older he had to share a bed with me. It's kinda like Richard was to Sandy as Sandy was to me... Richard was even Sandy's best man in his wedding and Sandy was my best man in my wedding.

We used to go fishing together.. we used to go to Oilers games together. We both loved the Oilers...the Luv ya Blue Oilers with Earl Campbell and Carl Mauck and Bum Phillips.

He was the shortest boy in the family and was the only one to get a basketball scholarship. He loved basketball...

He was the brother that came to my house just to visit.. not for a family get together or other event.. he came just to visit.. he did that with all the family. Sandy was the brother that intersected his life in everyone elses life.. he knew all the grand kids when most of us brothers had gotten so involved in our own lives that we had not stayed in touch well enough.

He worked retail from the time I was 7 until he got sick.

He liked guns.. mostly pistols. I never was a big gun freak..not like the rest of my brothers anyway... I've got my shotgun..rifle..and couple of pistols but my brothers love guns.

We went shooting together a few times...

When I was in college I used to take mid day road trips to just go visit with him for a few hours. Because we were close when I was young I always felt close to Sandy as an adult.

Sandy was the kind of person that made you feel pretty good.. he was an encourager. He was full of joy.. he loved to laugh. He was a blessing to everyone who knew him. He helped me with some personal course corrections in my life regarding my attitude and my outlook on life. I will thank him forever for that much less the subtle impact he has had on me that I cannot detect because it's just a part of who I am...

This doesn't even come close to expressing all that I'm feeling and thinking but I can't get it all together or even express it. He chose not to have a funeral/memorial... so this is my little memorial for my own closure...

Sandy I will miss you. I love you!

Doesn't it always happen???

I'm two weeks in to what seems to be a fairly reasonable change I want to implement in my life... eat just a little smarter and move my body more..

So what happens? 2 weeks in I'm 2 lbs heavier.. man I love this...

On top of the fact that this day that was pretty good most of the way it ended with me discovering some crap at work that really bummed me... just day to day service stuff but just when you think you might have a really good day something bites you in the behind and then I'm lookin for fudge in all the wrong places. Anyway...this week...Tuesday I played about an hour of something like racquetball..the other three were playing it, but I was limited in my motion.. my legs felt like rubber and I almost ate the wall a couple of times.. but it was pretty fun.. until the next day and my knees were killing me. I walked the next day but Thursday my knees couldn't take it. I wasn't feelin it Friday either.. Got walks in on Saturday and Sunday and felt I was getting back in the swing. I blew it off tonight because I got home late from work and it was cold and I wasn't in the mood. I was really tempted to blow this whole thing off but to be honest with you one of my motivations is that some time in 2010 I would like to purchase one of these... and I know I can fit in one already.. already done the test drive.. but I'd like to be comfortable.. sideways.. in the car. I've got head room and leg room and I fit in the seat but I want to enjoy it...I'd also like to begin riding a bike again some day and I've got to keep moving. A bump in the road, I'm in a funk but I do plan to keep going forward.

Moving my body

Dropped a little weight.. ate more often.. did less gorging because I didn't feel starved. Walked 1.5 miles 4 times.. got a blood blister on my left foot.. had to sit it out for a few days.. hope to get active again tomorrow.. birthday was today so had cake.. that will hurt.. but that's ok.. moving forward in my quest.. down 2 pounds from last week.

362

362

Yes that right.. I weighed today for the first time in probably a couple of years and I weigh three hundred and sixty-two pounds..wow... I also now wear a 54 waist pants and I can't live like this any more... I've already learned from watching all my siblings that I will get diabetes...but do I need to rush it any faster? I've always had a weight problem since I was a kid. Food was my sanctuary when I was tense...and it still is. I've got to change that.

Chocolate is my heaven... and I've got to change that..or maybe just not go to heaven near as often..

Finally, I've got to move. somehow I've gotten very sedentary the last couple of years. Work used to keep me very active and now it does not because I have a great staff. I still work long hours and I've got that church gig too...tends to exhaust me and I really don't want to do anything else.

But now I'm committing to change. Not just a new years resolution but a change in my daily lifestyle. I've got to move. I started walking today.

I'm not doing a bunch of measurements and posting all that stuff and tracking my progress on sizes etc. I am laying out there for all to see that I'm too fat and I've got to make a change...I'd love your prayers and support and if you are so motivated..join me in this little exploit. No races to see who loses more faster. Just hoping to see progress. ... and I'll fail and I hope I get back up and get going again. Maybe that's why I'm letting you in on the deal. I'm gonna check my weight weekly...I'm gonna post weekly weight and approx miles walked each week. If I share it with you ... I'm a little more sold out on doing it....

If I drop some weight...maybe I can start riding a bike again too... I blogged about that way back when gas was $4.oo a gal.. would still be good for me..

Here is to a healthier, fuller and more active life!!!

Seven Pounds

FYI..I'm going to talk about this movie on this blog post and I'd love to hear your feedback on the movie..if you have not seen it do not read this and then get mad at me for ruining it for you.....

spoiler alert..spoiler alert.spoiler alert..spoiler alert.spoiler alert..spoiler alert..spoiler alert..spoiler alert..spoiler alert..spoiler alert..spoiler alert..spoiler alert..spoiler alert..spoiler alert...............etc..

Now.. I saw the ads and the movie intrigued me. They did a good job of getting me interested and not letting me know what was really going on.

I didn't go research it because I wanted to be surprised at the movie.

Then my daughter tells me I must go see it and that I will cry. She said she boo hoo'd big time and she knew me and she knew I would too. I trust my daughter as she has seen me cry in church and at movies and other events and so she knew it would touch my heart...

I post this on twitter and a some friends want to go too... awesome... more people to know I'm a cry baby (Glover ...who went...already knows)...

So I'm not going to lay the movie out for you to surprise you with the plot..if you're reading this you either don't care to see it or you've seen it and want to know what I think and you want to tell me what you think..

I loved the movie.. I cried...and I mean .... It's a wonderful life kind of crying.. nearly sobbing in public like my momma died kinda crying..almost. Still a little more emotional than I care to be out in the open public.. my church knows me and knows that's a part of who I am but EVERYONE doesn't need to know it.. NEXT.

Rich guy taking his wife out to dinner... looks at his blackberry (I do this way too often).. swerves in to on coming traffic and kills his wife and 6 others... my thoughts on this is he is giving up the metaphorical "pound of flesh" for each person he killed.. helping others who deserve it (not what Christ would do but he's not Christ...but by making this selection he does ensure that the good things of good people continue on... Christ didn't select everyone to be his disciple to carry on his teachings and way of life so in a way I can see this as a Christ like move... he will help far more people in this world by selecting the right ones to help...ok??

I liked it when he burned the guy running the nursing home... I liked it when he gave the abused woman his home (how will she pay the taxes?) That when I started getting weepy..

Was not sure about what was going on with Woody Harrelson's character at first but later a saw what was happening.

He stated that his life was less than remarkable in a conversation with Rosario Dawson's character which tends to tell us he believes he's worthless... after who he killed and the impact on many people's lives I can see that.

Some were not happy that it seemed he never overcame that worthlessness. I believe after his night with Ms. Dawson's character...and he ran to the Hospital to see what the odds were for a rare blood type heart transplant...the story was telling us he now wanted to live. I believe at that point he was trying to find hope for his own life so that he could spend it with her. Then the gift he was now willing to give was not just his money, his possessions and his body parts because he was worthless... he was willing to give his life..which now had meaning, for the one that he loved. I believe he was redeemed in his relationship with her..by helping her and her helping him in a way he couldn't help himself....so I cried a lot more...

And then of course the end with Ms. Dawson's character finds Woody's character and looks in to his eyes... so she could see the eyes of the one she loves... can they do that??? They've been doing that in movies for a long time but I've never been sure it could actually happen..

@Drun..did you find out if jellyfish stings render donor body parts useless?

I love the flick.. it was what I needed after weeks of peak volume and tense days at work and lots of church responsibilities around the holiday season.. it was a great release for me and I'm glad my daughter told me to see it.. can't watch it in public again though...have to do it at home...late at night...by myself.. like I do "It's a Wonderful Life"..

Let me know what you think..did you hate it? Love it?? Not sure?? Let me know..

Eating at Cheddars tonight..

I saw one of my favorite young ladies with the last name of Anderson that's not my daughter but I'd take her any time and do anything for her any time... and that's what I'm doing here. Donna and I ate at Cheddar's tonight and Katie did not wait on our table but she brought us our food then we conversed and had fun while she worked.. she also pointed out a young man of interest named Josh.. She told me to yell at him and I did...she was then terrified that I yelled at him..just what did she think I would do??

I later called his name at other times and Katie seemed undone by this and yet she felt compelled to tell us about her wonderful date with him where he... was nice.. I won't go in to details because Katie might get mad.. Katie then made a comment about making sure that I blogged about this experience tonight..so here it is. I've known Katie for a few years now and she is such a super awesome girl.. well young lady.. you should get to know her more here.

Here is a pic of Josh and Katie.. I think it's the one she showed us at the restaurant..

Peace out folks..

Hannah and her txting exploits..

Ok I lied.. I'm not too busy to blog until after Christmas.. or maybe I just find this topic way more important than the delivery of your boxes... not really just kidding. But..the phone bill came in today and I just though it would be really cool to let you see a glimps of a small part of my family life..that part involved in phone bills and texting..

I find texting to be a very strange phenomena in that people use telephones to NOT talk to others..just send them little messages like you might get from a western union office dozens of years ago..except faster and cheaper.. I actually like txting. I think it works for many in that you can manage the conversation among other things you are doing vs when you're talking you tend to have to get singularly focused. It has been funny when friends of mine have sent me replies to txts that they got from someone else... maby too many balls in ther air there???

Anyway..my daughter Hannah loves to txt... so I started a new feature over there to the right side of my blog...check it out..give me some feedback and I'll keep you posted each month on how she's doing. My daughter does make me cry sometimes...she also makes me mad... and she makes me laugh.. this is the funny part.. we have hundreds of roll over minutes every month we don't use but she will txt every waking minute she can if she's able. Why not just call em???