The girls spend the weekend @ the grandparents' ranch

John & Debbie go over-the-top (as always) by creating a water park in their backyard:

https://picasaweb.google.com/flfreedomfighter/SplashBlast#

New Music Sunday (NMS) - 7/10/2011

• Your Great Name - Natalie Grant
• Pure - Gateway Worship (kari jobe)
• Center - Charlie Hall
• Search my heart - Hillsong United
• He Has Come for us (God rest ye merry gentlemen) - Meredith Andrews (aka one of my favorite singers right now)
• Revelation Song - Kari Jobi

Oh yeah, and Travis Doucette posted a video of his "King of Glory" song. ...the "dockside" version. This is my favorite version of this song yet:

http://vimeo.com/26080707

lame month - June 2011

I just noticed that June was the first month in 2011 when I had no blog posts. what a busy month that was! The good news is that I got my [2010] taxes done in June!

I'm going to go put something in June retroactively!!! Bekah's 6th b-day was in June...let me go dig up some pics!

Fourth of July weekend - 2011 edition

I had a great time with the family this past weekend. We spent a long weekend out at the Hyatt Clearwater Beach - great hotel by the way! The Cucchi's and Kristowski's joined us at the beach on Sunday afternoon, where we may very well have been the only people on the beach who were not tatted up (or some of us anyway! :) ). Note to self: traffic out to Clearwater Beach on a Sunday afternoon is ridiculous!

On Monday, we rented the "Freedom Cruiser" - a 4-person bike, and rode it to the top of the Memorial Bridge that connects downtown Clearwater to Clearwater Beach! That was a long, tough ride...but the girls were cheering Tammy and I on to the top! Our hotel patio gave us a great view of the fireworks all across Pinellas County - it was quite a sight!

On Tuesday, we checked out and headed over to Riverview to meet my newest Niece - Maci Benham. Check out her beautiful birth pics here.

One more thing...Surf Style opened a new building next to the Hyatt on Clearwater Beach. They brought in the Flowrider (indoor surfing wave) from the now-defunct Adrenalina from International Plaza. This is going to be a perfect fit - people are already in their swimsuits, why not go try the wave while you are out at Clearwater Beach!?!?

Bekah's 6th birthday party sleepover party

face painting, bungee jumping (kinda), presents, cupcakes, and a tea party.

Pics uploaded here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/tammy.r.norwood/BS6thBirthday

Note to self: six yr olds are too young for a sleepover. wait until they're seven...teen.

New Music Sunday (NMS) - 5/29/2011

The following songs made it on our playlist this week:

• All for Love - Hillsong
• Stand in the Rain - Superchick
• What Love Really Means - JJ Heller
• Draw Me Nearer - Meredith Andrews
• You Love Me Anyway - Sidewalk Prophets
• Crazy Mary - FM Static

Other music notes of interest:

• Skillet added some remixed versions of their Awake album recently. I didn't pick them up, but they are definitely interesting...
• Hillsong is coming to Tampa on August 5th, 2011
• I picked up a Fender tele thinline in blonde last weekend. I now have a like-new black/white/maple Fender strat for sale!

Single parents, Fathers, and the G.O.S.P.E.L.

This past Thurs/Fri/Sat Tammy was out of town and I had responsibility for our daughters. I also had some work that had to get done, so I tried to watch the girls and to take 4 hrs worth of calls/work during their "quiet time" on Thurs and Friday. As far as work goes, it is the easiest possible scenario - conference calls, emails and light Microsoft Office-style work from my home office. Even still, balancing the girls and this lightest-of-all work was amazingly difficult. I have ultimate respect for single parents everywhere.

Speaking of single parents, I am reminded of a really powerful video I saw on youtube a few weeks back. It is called "Fatherless" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyxqkBkCXT4 A must-watch for all dads and soon-to-be dads out there.

And since you're following my stream-of-consciousness today, may I also suggest another video, this one is titled "G.O.S.P.E.L." - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gb7n9B_8m8 This video is by the same guy as in the Fatherless video above, but it is a cut above in terms of production quality. A 5 minute video that explains the gospel of Jesus Christ through poetry/rap.

Caroline/Bekah and singing

My girls are growing up in a quasi musical household. Music is in their DNA...or at least in half of their DNA. You see, Tammy grew up in a musical home - no question about it. Her dad was the band director for Southeast High in Bradenton, FL for decades. He had a Ph.D. in Music before such things even existed at most universities. Everyone in her family sang, played an instrument, or both. The Jackson Family was a modern day Partridge Family - and proud of it!!!

This is in direct contrast to my upbringing. In the Norwood family, we struggle (note the present tense) to fight our way through "Happy Birthday" each year. Not that we don't like music - we just typically find ourselves comfortably seated in the audience at concerts, not on the stage. even though I am increasingly moving closer to the stage by deepening my guitar playing skills, I am still much more confident sitting in the audience.

Forgive the trip down memory lane...but I distinctly recall one Christmas when I dating Tammy and her mom packed everyone in the van and took us around the city singing Christmas carols. This would NEVER happen in the Norwood family. N.E.V.E.R. To this day I still think that Christmas day was part of a Jackson family hazing ritual or weed-out process to see if I really loved Tammy.

Anyhow...back to Caroline. So she's growing up in a quasi musical family. She is constantly surrounded by music - either from her mom singing or from her daddy who is listening or playing the guitar. Over the last few weeks, Caroline has begun to sing along with us. In the car, her favorite song to sing along with - hands down - is Hosanna by Hillsong. As a father, it is nothing short of AMAZING to hear her sing "Hosannnnnnna, Hosannnnna! Hosanna in the highest!!!!" Tammy is also head-over-heels for "Last Train Home" by FM Static...and Caroline sings along to the chorus on that song too. At bed time, Caroline has learned the first and last verses to Amazing Grace (something that daddy has taught to both girls) and sings along loudly right before bed.

For posterity's sake...

Bekah's first song that she sang in the car was "hey there delilah" by Plain White T's. I remember how blown away I was to hear her sing that song for the first time. I think I almost wrecked the car turning around to see her sing for the first time!!! today Bekah sang Defender during church. It killed me to praise God side-by-side with my daughter this morning.

Proverbs 23:24-25 - The father of a righteous child has great joy; a man who fathers a wise son rejoices in him. May your father and mother rejoice; may she who gave you birth be joyful!

New Music Sunday (NMS) - 5/1/2011

okay, this one goes out to all of our blog followers who share my taste in music... ...okay, there's only one of you...but you know who you are!!! [don't make me call you out by name!]

The following songs made it on our playlist this week (in order of preference):

• hold me - jamie grace feat. tobymac (AWESOME song - just in time for summer)
• last train home - fm static (Tammy's fav)
• everything is different now - stellar kart (climbing up the weekend22)
• Jesus died my soul to save - pocket full of rocks (such a different melody that I don't even recognize the song)
• how deep the Father's love for us - nichole nordeman (NN's voice is perfect for this song and any song)
• invisible - disciple (climbing up the weekend22)
• by His wounds - Brian Littrell, et al (an Easter classic)

Week in Review (WIR) - 5/1/2011

• I saw on twitter that over 2,200 people came to know Christ last weekend at Elevation Church in Charlotte, NC. This is only one week after over 200 people got baptized @Elevation (http://wp.me/pohNn-hq). Praise God - he is doing something special in Charlotte!
• Caroline made MAJOR strides toward potty training in the last week! We're rounding third base and heading home on that front!
• On my flight to Tampa on Thursday night, I had a front row seat watching those crazy storms that devastated AL/GA out of my window. I've NEVER seen so many lightning strikes happening concurrently in a single storm. The guy behind me said, "Is Jesus coming back?!?!?!" The answer is, "Yes! ...but apparently not on Thursday night."
• In a related note, read the following three verses and tell me that the writers for Lost didn't fashion the "smoke monster" after God in Exodus: Exodus 19:16, Exodus 19:18, Exodus 20:18
• I ran a mile in 8:05 this weekend. My previous best (in recent memory) was 8:25 - so I shaved a significant amount of time off of my previous best. I'm going to break into the 7s soon.
• The guys in my ABF class wrapped up the "Disciplines of a Godly Man" Bible study this past week. Good book; great study with some solid friends.
• We attended Makayla Munieo's 1st birthday party on Saturday! She smashed her 1 year old birthday cake with the best of them! While I was there, I learned that Shawn can sing! ...not only that, but apparently he can solo!
• Spent some quality time with Forrest, Jami, Parker, Ethan and baby Maci (okay, she's not born yet, but she was definitely there!). in a related note, I officially cannot bowl. I'm pretty sure that the Ethan/Caroline duo would have beat me if Tammy hadn't bowled a strike for me late in the game.
• Bekah is doing a "Princess Pool & Pajama Party" for her sixth birthday party. She needs to pick out three friends for the sleepover, and we need to get the invites out.
• Tammy and I (and our ABF - Faithful Servants) are focusing on 1 Thessalonians this week. Apparently all of the turmoil around the world (earthquakes, natural disasters, wars, rumors of wars, etc) has many folks thinking about end times.
• Caroline developed a bit of a stutter this week/weekend. I'm hoping it is a normal part of her developmental speech learning...but she tends to do it more than twice. I'm going to try to get the family to slow down when talking to her and see if that helps. Please pray that it does.
• I picked up some ear phones for running this weekend because my normal gummy ear buds kept falling out. I picked up a set of Philips over-the-ear buds for six bucks at Ross. I tried them out tonight and they are fantastic!
• The US dollar continues to struggle: Price of a Gold Am. Eagle: $1621; Silver Am. Eagle $51.56; gallon of 87 octane gas in Tampa: 3.87.
• restrung the guitars over the last two weekends. Practiced "Jesus, Lover of my Soul" w/ Tammy some more. That's in the rotation for sure.