matmusic ministries

My littlest one is THREE years old today. You hear it all the time but it hits most closely to home when it is YOUR kids who are growing so fast.

We had a series of celebrations for our little man over the weekend.

First, my dad came over on Saturday and brought steaks (YUM) and a gift for Parker. He had an ice cream sundae with three candles. These were the sparkling kind that flick back afire after they are blown out. He liked trying to get them out and, luckily, we caught him before he spit on the flame.

Next, we combined our Easter get together at Pops and Nana’s with a birthday bash for Parker. It was great to have all the Parker clan and my mom there.

Finally, we have a tradition at our house that the birthday person gets a Krispy Kreme doughnut with a candle on his birthday morning.

Today was no exception for Parker who got to munch a pastel sprinkled doughnut.

Thank you to all of our family for the wonderful gifts of toys, clothes, and money. Most of all, thank you for the love and support that you give in helping to raise Parker the right way.

…and many more…

We had a great time hunting eggs at our house before church.

Since it was 50 degrees outside and we had to hunt just after the kids got out of bed so Kara and I decided to hide the eggs indoors this year.

After our morning egg hunt, everyone dressed in thier Easter outfits.

Then we travelled to Denton to attend church with Pops and Nana and to hang with the family.

All the while, we remembered the reason for the day was to remember Jesus’ resurrection. Thank you, Jesus!

We are truly blessed with a wonderful family and great kids. (Have I mentioned that before? Read below.)

I am proud of my kids. They are good kids (I sound like Forrest Gump talking about Jenny’s dog.) Kara and I have worked hard to try to raise them the right way and we have done a LOT of praying about them and their lives. God answers those prayers is many ways.

Recently, the kids got their report cards for the 4th Six Week Semester and I have to brag on them. They both have done very well in school all along and seem to be getting better as they go.

Wyatt’s grades were as follows:

All As is very good, I must say.

Ashton, because she is only in Kindergarten, does not have number grades but gets points on a scale of 1 – 3. All year, she has gotten 3s in every subject except one. Even still, the 2s that she has in Fine Arts stand for “Meets standards of Expected Quality” where 3s are “Exceptional.” These 2s and 3s are the equivalent of straight As also.

The week before spring break, Kara headed up the Book Fair at the kid’s elementary school. “Heading up” included setting up, advertising, decorating the library and halls with a certain theme, coordinating volunteers, accounting of all profits, and much more. She did a great job! The entire week, Parker was in tow and was a very well behaved and sweet child.

To celebrate the kids being great kids, we went to Chuck E. Cheese for pizza and craziness. They had a steam-blowing great time.

Thursday of the book fair week was also open house.

One of the funnest aspects of the open house is that the second grade students build models of many of The Colony’s buildings and then lay them out in the gym for a virtual 3-D map of our city. Wyatt was assigned the local Sonic.

We had a blast building the Sonic with cardboard pieces, toothpicks and plastic cars. Wyatt decorated the building with pictures of food and drinks, made menu boards and drew parking places.

Wyatt was very proud of his great achievement.

I cannot say enough how blessed we are to have wonderful and loving children. We hope and pray that they continue on as they have.

Click to enlarge.

I went to play disc golf the other day at lunch. The putter I use is called a SuperSoft and is very pliable. This helps the disc, in theory, to be more easily grabbed by the chains which, in turn, increseases your ability to make putts. Sometimes, though, the putter bends with interesting results.

Click the picture above to enlarge and see that my disc is actually wedged in between the bars of the basket.

In case you are wondering, that would not count as a made putt.

Last week we got blasted by “Winter Storm ‘08.” OK, saying that is a bit of news media overselling but there was snow in North Texas.

Monday night was the first wave with some snow falling in the evening. None stuck around.

Thursday was when the real fun started. It wasn’t a total shut down of all roads which sometimes happens when we have our usual ice coating but we did have some huge snowflakes and about 3 inches of accumulation at our house. This, of course, made for some neighborhood fun. I was the target of all the neighborhood kid’s snowballs. The above picture was my vantage point.

The Texas snow was sticky enough to make a snow man that was taller than Wyatt.

I must say that our kids were the cutest ones. (Ashton rolled this big snowball herself.)

And then, here was the aftermath:

We all had a great time enjoying the last gasp of winter.

I would be remiss if I did not mention a significant event in my favorite team’s history…

Congratulations to Dirk Nowitzki for becoming the Dallas Maverick’s all time leading scorer. He did so with a, what else, fall away jump shot in the fourth quarter of a blowout win over New Jersey on Saturday night.

I know Dirk reads my blog so I wanted to take a moment to communicate with him…

Glückwünsche!

I have been watching this team since Rolando Blackman set the mark way back when and it has been a joy to watch you play and shoot your butter-smooth jumper. From all accounts it could not have happened to a nicer guy.

Now, lets start stringing some wins together whaddya say?

Each month of the year, I am planning to review one or two of my favorite albums that have recently been released. These will be the crème of the crop and albums that have a lot to offer.

Despite my best efforts, this February review has spilled into March. The album reviewed below has, however, been my pick for the February review since I got it soon after it came out at the end of January. The first listen was as I drove toward the ski slopes of Colorado…that may have something to do with how much I enjoy the work but even on subsequent listens, this is a great album.

The matmusic Album of the Month for February 2008 is the debut, self-titled Vampire Weekend.

[audio:06Campus.mp3]
Click the above to listen to the music as you read the write up.

The unique and fun mix of sounds started when this group formed as a college band at Oxford Columbia University (Thanks Davey). And the college sound is definitely in full effect. These sounds include a furiously high necked strummed reggae-like guitar, an off kilter pared down drum kit, and a lazy but appropriate vocal delivery. All of this works together to give Vampire Weekend a sound that is familiar but fresh.

Mansard Roof begins the album and brings an imagery of some easy going, fake ray ban wearing kids lounging on a sailboat…o, wait…that’s actually the video for this song. But it fits perfectly and is a choice way to set the tone for the record.

The next tune, Oxford Comma, despite it’s profanity is catchy, funny, and modern (notice my use of the aforementioned punctuation?…you like that?) Thirdly is A-Punk, the strongest song on the album with its adept bass line…it is one that will drive itself like a pleasing spike into your head. Also check the video for this one; it’s great stop-motion fun. Finally, I would be remiss to not mention Campus with it’s climbing guitar plucks and syncopated keyboard hits…the reminder of college days is hard to miss.

The one drawback is the sometimes lackadaisical musicianship. This is especially evident in the drumming which is at times simplistic. This trait however, is somehow endearing at the same time.

I would say not being able to pick out just a few songs on which to focus is a good problem for an album to have. If you do not own Vampire Weekend, fire up your iTunes now and make the purchase.

MP3 - Campus Right click this link and choose Save to File to download the mp3. Enjoy.