See the Morning!

YEP...It's that time again! Chris Tomlin has released a new CD, entitled "See the Morning." Although I haven't heard it for myself yet, Chris and his gang have set a precedent for writing powerful, singable worship songs that have blessed the church in major ways. Follow me to the nearest music-seller and pick one up!

You can visit www.christomlin.com for news of his upcoming "See the Morning" tour and for more album details.

(This post's shout out goes to JESSIE, who shares a crush on Chris Tomlin with me. *wink, wink....LOVE YA, JESSIE!)

UPDATE:::::::::On the same day that I wrote this post, I returned home to find a package waiting for me from SixSteps Records- and guess what was inside?? You guessed it- "See the Morning!" After a weekend of grooving to the new tracks, I can now FORMALLY recommend this album! Another well done compilation. And, as a sidenote, I'll be seeing Chris in PERSON this month when he plays at Universal Studios CityWalk on October 22nd!

Caleb's Life Group Debut

Okay, so I'm a little behind....in our blogging circle, I'm just about the last person to post pictures from our Life Group on Tuesday- you can check out Will or Bobby's blog for more pics. For Life Group this week, we celebrated the birth of Caleb Genesis Marchessault, and we did it with the usual Revolution flair...we all congregated at a secret location, then made our way over to the house all together- food in hand. Somehow, all twenty+ of us snuck in the back door, set up shop in the kitchen, then raided the living room where mom, dad, and Caleb were patiently waiting for the troops to arrive. It was an enjoyable night of fellowship and lotttts of good eatin'. Caleb was a champ, being passed from one adoring fan to the next with no complaining! Here are some pics from the event (again...not MY camera....)





P.S. I feel the need to give some shout-outs to those who faithfully read my blog...today's shout-out goes to SARAH, who was really concerned the other day that my profile had seemingly been deleted. THANKS for caring, Sarah! See you soon?

Tidbits

Well, I don't even know where to start...today's post will be a smattering of random thoughts. It's just one of those days.

First, congratulations to Bobby and Rachel Marchessault, who had their first child on Sunday. Welcome to the world, Caleb Genesis!

I had the most fantastic time in Oregon this weekend for the wedding of my old roomie, Juliann, and Thad Rask. I flew into Portland late on Thursday night, and my new friend, Ashley, put me up for the night at her new digs in downtown Portland. The skies withheld the rain long enough for me to get the heck out of there! Ashley and I then made the three/four hour drive to Bend, in central Oregon. It was a breathtaking trek through the Mt. Hood National Park, as the trees were preparing for autumn and showing off their colors, along with a snow-capped backdrop of Mt. Hood in sight. Wow. In addition, STARS were visible in the sky. I could see the swell of the milky way so clearly...something I appreciate about being away from the smog canopy.



I stayed with several friends at a Chalet just outside of Bend- right on the golf course. We enjoyed beautiful weather and a fascinating traditional Catholic mass at the ceremony. The tradition is admirable, but I'm very thankful I'm a protestant! Juliann had asked me to sing "Enough," by Chris Tomlin, for the communion portion of the ceremony. I'm not sure, but I have a hunch that this church doesn't hear a lot of Chris Tomlin.



On Sunday morning, Ryan, a mutual friend of Ashley and I, gave us the grand tour of Bend. I can see why it's bursting at the seams with new development and an increase in it's population. I have never considered myself an outdoorsman, but I could seriously get used to that place! It was a refreshing retreat away from the concrete jungle that is Los Angeles.

Tainting this beautiful weekend is the loss of my camera, which disappeared during the wedding reception at Eagle Crest. I'm still hoping that the next phone call I get will be the concierge, but my optimism is fading fast. Therefore, my apologies for the lack of pictures from this event! (sniff, sniff) Please pray that it is returned safely to me.

I've been a little overwhelmed with "fix-it" projects lately. I'm having perpetual toothaches that get worse at various times throughout the week, despite my recent trip to the dentist. Solution: I keep ibuprofin close at hand. My car has been crying for new brakes recently, so I had a friend check them out yesterday. Yep, I need new brakes. Solution: Call Charlie, who has a car maintanance service, "OilWorks Pro." MAJOR holla to Charlie, who will get my car fixed up next week. Sadly, that's not all...My keyboard, which I reported a while back had a broken "A" key, is gradually getting more sick. The infection has now spread to the B, B-flat, and A-flat keys. No sound at all. In fact, they don't even play! This is a dehibilitating illness for a musician like myself. Solution: I don't even know. Call a music repair shop, I guess?

This weekend is our Women's Retreat for Revolution Church. I'm very excited, despite the problems with my keyboard. Another weekend in the mountains just may change my mind about living in LA! Beware...

Mickey's Marathon

Last weekend I had the pleasure of hosting Chris Alexander on his trek to So Cal for the Inaugural Disneyland 1/2 Marathon. Heidi and I hustled over to Disneyland eaaaarly in the morning to watch our friend cross the finish line, and got fantastic seats on the bleachers. A chip in Chris' shoe notified us periodically of his progress, so when it announced that he was crossing the finish line, we watched diligently in order to capture some photos. To our dismay, Chris called us and told us he finished a few minutes earlier. WHAT? How had we missed him!? Perhaps it was when Heidi and I were both distracted by a girl who collapsed at the finish line and had begun dry-heaving. DARN IT!

Chris and I had to trek to the Health and Fitness Expo @ Downtown Disney the day before the race, and afterwards had some time to gallavant about Downtown Disney. Chris was particularly captivated by the Lego store, which featured a life-sized Darth Vader made entirely of Lego blocks. We also enjoyed lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, where I had some fun with the frogs!

"Pardon me, but which one of these buttons calls your mother to come pick you up?"

(Yeah....I haven't seen the "after" picture yet...)

Chris had never seen the entrance to Disney California before...It's A for Alexander!

.....AFTER!

FINALLY! Every box is unpacked and all of my belongings are now at home in my apartment- not yet ORGANIZED, but unpacked at least! Here are some picks from the NEW PLACE...(sans the wreath that is supposed to be over the couch, and my keyboard that was still in my car at this time)

Highs and Lows

Our opening routine at Life Group is the sharing of our "Highs" and "Lows"- noteworthy experiences from the previous week. This week I had to miss Life Group to do a presentation for work (LOW!!!) so I thought I'd use this medium to reflect on this past week...(The standard answer is one of each, but this is MY BLOG and I can do as many as I want!!)

HIGH- The 1096 worship recording on Sunday; and the culmination of a LOT of hard work in the rehearsal phase. Both services were quite energetic and that lent itself to a lot of fun on stage.



LOW- Realizing that we have a LOT of work left to do in the studio- perhaps more than we initially realized. Ughhhh- it's going to be a scheduling nightmare.

HIGH- My first year seminar went really well this week. I discussed the Liberal Studies program at length with them and...(get this!)...I was able to answer EVERY question they asked me. FINALLY, I feel like I KNOW something around here!

LOW- Our department receptionist resigned her position, so we are in the process of reconfiguring jobs for the interim. Unfortunately, that's going to mean a lot of time away from our desks for a while.

HIGH- I led worship for the first time on a Sunday at Revolution and, despite some shakiness in the comings-together of it all, it was a peaceful and exciting time of worship for me, and hopefully others! It was also a historic day in the life of our church, revealing the 10-year-plan for our congregation and setting lofty goals! Let's see some Holy Spirit ACTION!

LOW- Going to the dentist. Always a low, but this was a new kind of low. The kind in which the numbing agent causes your jaw muscle to spasm and lock. The kind in which the dentist literally has to PRY your mouth open to complete his work, and the kind that is STILL sore as you write a blog three days later. Loooooooow.

HIGH- I celebrated the birthdays of 2 friends this week; First, Nader's party at Lucille's (at which I sat next to a dead-ringer for Chris Tomlin!), and Sara's party in Hollywood. Sara's birthday was in conjunction with her husband, Drew Lawrence's, show (see pictures below). At both events, I was surrounded by friends that I've met since being in Southern California, and I felt extremely blessed.


LOW- not being at home for the last WEEK! I've neglected my unpacking (which, sadly, is not finished) and cleaning. I've lost sleep, but intend to clean and turn-in early tonight.

HIGH- YAY! A night at home!

A Gig at the Gig and a Birthday Party!

OKAY! A busy night, indeed, but I LOVED seeing all of my "Hollywood Friends" again as we celebrated Drew's nomination for the LA Music Awards and his wife Sara's birthday! We watched Drew's outstanding show at the Gig (Drew is a keyboardist like myself, so it's super fun to watch him rock out...and retrieve his runaway sustain pedal multiple times) and then headed over to a friend's house for Birthday cake! Carrie was bummed that only one piece of cake had been consumed by the end of the night (It wasn't ME!) and us gals must have set the record for how many inside jokes could come out of one night! (Don't try to figure out these pictures...) Drew and Carrie showed off how ripped jeans are back in style, while Sara had no problem blowing out the candles (all 28 of them) on her cake.







HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SARA!!!

5 Years Later

I had been up all night. Literally. It was my first semester enrolled as a credential student through Cal. State Hayward, and I needed to finish my portfolio and run it across town before I went in to teach. I've never been one to chug coffee to stay alive, so I was running on a kind of supernatural fuel that I can't explain. Having taken a 45-minute cat-nap around 5:00 a.m., I was once again awake and putting the finishing touches on my portfolio. That's when I flipped on the television and witnessed history change.

It was September 11, 2001. My programming of choice was the Today Show. I was working feverishly at my desk because it was almost time to leave...I needed to be at my school by 7:30 a.m., and this detour would take me at least a half an hour. With one eye on the television, I remember thinking what an interesting day this was going to be...not because of what was to come, but simply because I was running on very little sleep. I remember glancing up at the television at the moment Katie Couric was notified of the first airplane hitting New York's World Trade Center. Shock. I turned my full attention to the television and watched on live T.V. as the second airplane was absorbed by the remaining tower. Sick. It's that feeling you get at the very core of your being that assures you life will never be the same. I remember an insatiable urge to know more, watch more, feel more but the demands of my work prevented me from doing so. Too much time already had been spent in front of the television, and now I was late. On went the radio in my car as I sped across town on this errand. It was then that I called my mom and dad to fill them in on the latest news. By the time I would reach my school, both towers would be piles of dust and debris.

My students had no idea what impact this event would have on their generation, our world....and neither did we. It is the hallmark of the new millenium and a new generation of people that will never know what a pre-9/11 world was like. It was crisis mode, and we were operating on a code red. Several parents expressed anxiety leaving their children at the school. Many were picked up early (including a student whose father was a military officer), and several didn't show at all. I can't blame them. I wouldn't have shown if I didn't have to. I distinctly remember one student reporting to me that the White House had been hit. WHAT? Was that true? I had no way of verifying this information, and the students had access to media reports more recently than I. And so shock turned to panic as I operated under the belief that our hub of government had been destroyed, until recess when I got the real story; it was the Pentagon, not the White House (though both ARE white).

On the agenda for our day was an art project including a lesson in drawing skylines. Intentionally, it coincided with our Social Studies lesson on the Statue of Liberty. It was an emotional teaching opportunity as I held up a laminated picture of the New York skyline. Over the next few days, students started picking up catch-phrases from the media coverage and including them in various projects. On a quilt our class put together one student drew two towers and an airplane, while another student crafted the phrase "God Bless You" under an American Flag.

I had the opportunity to visit ground zero less than a year after the tragedy. Once an insurmountable pile of rubble, now a large hole in the ground, visitors and locals alike flocked there to honor the victims of those doomed flights and the heroes that fought so hard to save them. Teddy bears, signs, and pictures covered the chain-link fence that separated us from the destruction. And I felt as ill as I did the day I watched Katie Couric tell me about this place.

For a brief moment in history our country stopped bickering, politicians were united, and God was invited into every public gathering. It was a weight that surely we could not bear on our own...even the godless needed Him. It was a fleeting moment. Here, five years later, we are wrestling again with partisanship and blame-placing. When I get home, I will once again turn on the television, on which the media coverage of this anniversary promises to be extensive. Unfortunately, if precedent is accurate, today's tributes will be littered with angry commentaries directed at this administration's decisions. I hope, for the sake of those who perished on September 11th, that is not the case.

1096

Hi folks!
I've been on a short hiatis from blogging...sometimes I just forget until I receive a comment in my mailbox! So it was this week. I have been a BUSY girl, spending most of my time at Revolution Church lately. We are currently rehearsing for a live CD project that will take place on Sunday night. The album will commemorate the three year birthday of Revolution. I'm fortunate to be a part of the team, and also to be leading worship again on Sunday Morning (dusting off the old sheet music...). It has been a trying week on many fronts, but God is the ultimate in provision-- this I've learned full well. Tonight is our rehearsal for Sunday morning. If you would, please pray for: unity in this team, a spirit of exuberant joy, a movement of the spirit and a peace in the details.

Just a side note...The album is titled "1096" because there are 1096 days in three years. I have been a part of Revolution for exactly 222 days. That is 20% of the life of this church. (Just making sure my math skills are still in tact!)

What Millenials Don't Remember

So, I've been reading this book called "The Millenials Go To College" in order to explore the student mentality I'm working with here. I read quite a bit of this book on the plane ride home from Morocco, and it caused quite a bit of good discussion across the aisles. It's detailed description of previous generations is shockingly accurate. A quick run down for those of you who aren't familiar with the generational divides:

The LOST Generation (born 1883-1900)- those who lived through "sweat shop" child labor, massive immigration and unregulated drug use. Their initial wage-earning years were spent as flappers and, later, surviving the Great Depression.

The G.I. Generation (born 1901-1924) enjoyed the "good kid" reputation. Their generation built suburbs, invented vaccines, launched moon rockets and plugged missle gaps.

The SILENT Generation (born 1925-1942) grew up as the suffocated children of war and depression. They were an early-marrying "lonely crowd" that came of age too late to be war heroes and too early to be youthful free spirits.

The BOOM Generation (born 1943-1960)- these kids were the proud creation of post-war optimism and "Father Knows Best" family order. The boom "awakening" climaxed with Vietnam war protests, the '67 "summer of love" and the first Earth Day.

GENERATION X (born 1961-1981) (THAT'S ME!!)- we survived a hurried childhood of divorce, latchkeys, open classrooms and devil-child movies. From grunge to hip-hop, our culture has revealed a hardened edge, and are widely criticized as "slackers."

The MILLENNIAL Generation (born 1982-now) first arrived when "Baby on Board" signs appeared. Hollywood replaced child devils with child angels, and educational/child-centered legislation became a political powerhouse.

So, the students that I'm currently working with were born in 1988! Here are some of history's events that Millenials (and sometimes late Gen-Xers) have no recollection of:

1. Grace Kelly, Elvis Presley and Karen Carpenter have always been dead.
2. Somebody named George Bush has been on every presidental ticket (except one) since they were born.
3. The Kennedy tragedy was a plane crash, not an assassination.
4. A "45" is a gun, not a record with a large hole in the middle.
5. They never played a two-dimensional Donkey Kong or Mario Brothers.
6. There have always been ATM machines.
7. They have no idea that "presidential scandal" once meant nothing more than Ronald Reagan taking President Carter's briefing book in "Debategate."
8. There has always been a national holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.
9. Three Mile Island is ancient history, and nuclear accidents only happen in other countries, or on "24."
10. They have always been able to afford Calvin Klein.
11. Some were born the same year that Ebony and Ivory lived together in perfect harmony.
12. Woodstock is a bird or a reunion, not a cultural touchstone.
13. They have never heard a phone "ring."
14. They have never dressed up for a plane flight.
15. "Coming Out" parties celebrate more than debutantes.
16. They only know Madonna singing "American Pie."
17. They never thought of Jane Fonda as "Hanoi Jane," nor associated her with any revolution other than the "Fitness Revolution" videotape they may have found in the attic.
18. "Spam" and "Cookies" are not necessarily food.
19. If they vaguely remember the night the Berlin Wall fell, they probably are not sure why it was up in the first place.
20. They feel more danger from having sex and being in school than from possible nuclear war.

Contrary to MY generation, this book is a commentary on how optimistic we should be about what some dub the "Sunshine Generation." And it seems to be true. The era of the worthy, protected, wanted child is here.