Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Bad Day, Good Day

Yesterday was a bad day. My van has had an engine light on and we took it yesterday to get it fixed. It cost us $320. Ouch. When I got to work, we figured out we had mold in the office kitchen from a leak on the other side of the wall. When I get around mold, my head starts to hurt and my throat starts to hurt.

My iMac has had lots of trouble that is a very long story, but the short version is it has given me problems for 2 months and they are finally sending me a new one which was supposed to arrive yesterday which is good since my iMac will power up, but it won't show anything on the screen. The problem is I call Apple to see where my Apple is and they never processed the order. Lovely.

I've been trying to get an iPhone, but when we moved to Alabama and did a relocation to get our numbers local, the computer reset our eligible dates to 2010. I've been dealing with this for about 3 weeks now. Yesterday, they were supposed to have it fixed, but of course they didn't and a manager was supposed to call, but they didn't.

The printer at home would not power up so it looked like I was going to fork out some money for a new printer.

I was supposed to get a call from the couple about our house and they weren't able to call yesterday which was making me nervous.

To top it all off, my van's engine light turned on again last night after getting fixed.

Let's just say I had a bad day yesterday.....

Today is a different day, Praise the Lord. His mercies are new every morning.

Apple called today and the computer is being shipped today or tommorrow via overnight and they are going to give me a free $200 program I have been wanting. I called AT&T and everything is fixed and my iPhone has been ordered. The couple called this morning and it looks like things might work out. And my printer is working today.

The van still needs to be looked at, but the place we took it yesterday will look at it tomorrow.

By the way, Summer got her job. Yeah. Everything seems to be happening in God's timing.

Now to Him who is able to immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. According to His power that is at work within us. To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all genrations, for ever and ever! Amen Eph. 3:20

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Big day

Today is a big day. First, there is a couple interested in our house. We are praying that this would be a good move for them. We may hear back from them today on if they want to purchase our house.

Also, Summer has an interview with ACA, Alabama Christian Academy. This would be for a full-time salaried position as a full-time sub. This would be an awesome opportunity for her if it is the right fit. It will also help her decide if she will finish her degree in education. It will also help us be able to afford the rest of her degree.

It is amazing how two huge things like these come into alignment on the same day. Keep us in your prayers today as decisions are being made.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Wait for an iPhone, I think not

I went to AT&T this morning just to see the line for the iPhone. If it wasn't bad, I'd wait, but there had to have been 100 people out there. I want an iPhone pretty badly, but I'm not willing to stand in a line that looks to take several hours to get through. I'll wait until there is no line and I can just go right in and get one. Sure, they may run out and I'll have to wait for another shipment, but I can wait. I'm wanting to be able to do email on my phone and this is most economical way to do it.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

30 points

Just 30 little points. My quartet's goal at international was to make the top 20. We got within 30 points of making it. We ended up 29th this year. It was one of the best contests in a long time. There was more talent on stage this year than I've ever seen in a contest like this. It is awesome just to be able to be competitive with these guys. As soon as we get the DVD in, we'll put up a Youtube of our contest set.

The praise team did incredible at Lipscomb. I'm so proud of them. We got lots of compliments and I'm sure they will want us to come back next year if we can.

My favorite part of the weekend was when my quartet and praise team got together and sang for each other. It was neat seeing the praise team react to a style of music that they don't hear often and it was awesome to see my quartet react to the great sound of our praise team. It was a unique experience I will treasure.

The funniest part of the weekend was one night about 11:45pm when the session for the day was over and we were walking to our van. There were two late 80's looking people struggling up the hill. Summer decided to stop and help them. When she asked where their car was they explained that they couldn't remember.

That was a major understatement.

We drove them around downtown Nashville looking for their car for an hour. The lady was in our back seat and I recall her at least 5 times saying, "Oh God, Earl, what have we done. I just can't remember. I knew we would do this." We finally found it in a place they were sure it was not at the beginning.

All in all we had a great time. The kids were with Summer's mom and my mom was with us at the convention. It was just a great week.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Nashville Bound

Well, today the family and I head to Nashville for the Barbershop International Convention. As of now, my quartet is going in ranked number 19 in the competition. We will be singing in front of 10,000+ people. This will be my 3rd time competing with a quartet on the international stage.

If you are unfamiliar with the barbershop hobby, the international convention is the huge contest every year where all the best quartets and choruses from around the world come and compete in this one contest. There are competitors from Switzerland, Canada, Germany, Japan, Australia to name a few.

The first round of competition narrows the 55 quartets competing down to 20, which gets you on the Convention DVD. The second night of competition they narrow it down to 10, and then on Saturday night 3, 4, and 5th place quartets get bronze medals, 2nd gets a silver, and the 1st place gets a gold medal which is the dream of anybody in the hobby.

In the chorus contest there are about 30 choruses that compete. Choruses will have anywhere from 40 guys to 160 guys. There is just one round of competition for the choruses. When I lived in Texas, I was a part of the Vocal Majority and was able to win a gold medal with them in 2006.

My dream is to someday is to be a gold medal quartet winner. Hopefully this year my quartet will be in the top 20, which would be a major accomplishment with as little practice as we are able to have.

I'll give results as I know them and eventually a youtube link to the video of our competition.