Invasion!

I was actually going to post about something else when I got to Mom's house today. (The internet at Andrew's house is so bad that if every one's internet was like that we would all go back to telephones or actually talking to our friends in person!)

but, when we pulled up to Mom's house on this very windy day, this is what we saw - tumbleweeds!!

We had to go in through the garage.

Here's the view from the inside out.

Amazing. They aren't really the big tumbleweeds, they are just little baby weed things that probably technically aren't tumbleweeds, but when your door is covered it doesn't really matter what they are.

For my Oklahoma readers, WE DON'T DO THIS IN TENNESSEE!!!

Oh, and gas keeps dropping in price. Look at this $2.83! (This does not make up for your house being covered in tumbleweeds.)

Happy Father's Day

A great part of who I am is because of who my Father is - Bill Littleton. I did a google search for "Bill Littleton music" and found a really nice guy in Nashville that sings country music. He's not my dad. My dad is a church musician. He was a Minister of Music back in the days when music ministers were something new in the churches. He was the best Oklahoma had. He was an innovator and the first to try new things. We were one of the first churches to have handbells, one of the first churches to have an orchestra and one of the first to do hour long TV specials featuring our choirs and orchestra. I remember all of this mostly from our time at Eastwood Baptist Church in Tulsa.

Dad is the one who not only taught me great musicianship - through his own musicianship and through directing choirs and orchestras that I was a member of - but also the importance of music in worship and as a tool to reach the lost. He emphasized how important it is to use music that reaches and speaks to people. He taught me about faith, following God and loving people.

One of my favorite quotes of dad's that I like to say is "if you can't play it right, play it loud." I don't know that he said it a lot, but I remember it a lot. I think the point of it was to show confidence in what you do. So much of leading and making music is in your self confidence. Confidence shines through and makes you a better musician and a more effective person. I don't mean arrogance. Dad was very confident and very good, but he was never arrogant. Everyone was his friend - church members, other music ministers, pastors...

Dad wrote a lot of great music and had his own music publishing company, Fine Arts Music Press, for many years. He wrote orchestrations for the orchestra when he couldn't find music. His hard work was a great inspiration for me and taught me that a person could do anything if they trusted in God and His direction and worked long and hard.

Dad is retired now and lives in Oklahoma City near his brothers and sisters. He's active in his church choir and singing with the Singing Churchmen of Oklahoma. (He directed them for a couple of years in the late 60s or early 70s.)

Of course not everything from Dad was great. I think I can blame the Littletons for bad teeth and high blood pressure. But compared to all of the great things I got from them, I guess that's not bad...

Happy Father's Day, Dad.

This Week's Worship Ministry Schedule

No rehearsal Wednesday night. You deserve a break and I'll still be in Oklahoma.

Oklahoma State Bird and State Flower

I heard once that the Eskimos have a hundred words for "snow." It seems like Oklahoma should have that many for "wind." The high today was 78! The forecast for tomorrow is about the same and it will be "breezy to windy." Funny.


Sunday will be our regular schedule in the morning:

Morning worship rehearsal - 8:00

First morning worship service - 9:00

Second morning worship service - 10:30


Sunday Evening:
\It's a fifth Sunday, so we're having a special concert. This month is The Isaacs! - 5:00


http://theisaacs.musiccitynetworks.com/index.htm

Oklahoma

Continued from a post earlier today (that started out as a post about Easter Sunday).

So anyway, I couldn't post anything at the hotel last night because we had to actually use a cord to connect to the internet (I know, so archaic) and Cheryl had some work she had to do, so I played solitare on my computer. I guess you didn't know your Worship Pastor led such a wild life. lol

Oklahoma's beautiful state flag.

Our drive to Oklahoma went well. There's a line in the Oklahoma state song - which is probably the best state song ever (our thanks to Rogers and Hammerstein) that says, "and the waving wheat can sure smell sweet when the wind comes right behind the rain." Well, they didn't just make up that wind part. My goodness! The wind is blowing sooo hard and has been all day. The car wanted to blow right over. We saw a street cleaner on the interstate here in OKC. He didn't vacuum up any dirt, he just kicked it up in the air and now Kansas has to worry about it.

I'm not sure why it is so windy here. Perhaps it's because they have wind farms, like in this picture, and grow it here.

They do gas here too. So it is less than $3 a gallon at some places. Whew, I bet this is all terribly boring to read. It's almost midnight, so I guess I'll quit.

I hope you all have a great week. I'll post my Easter thoughts tomorrow. It was such a wonderful day, I have to say something about it. We won't have choir rehearsal this week.