the story i find myself in

yep - you heard it right. and today was our first practice! whoo hoo! amanda is going to be singing live what she sang on the record and i am sooooooo stoked! once again, come be a witness. please.

Posted by ashdown at 5/31/2006 09:51:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

just a little fyi - the cd will be released on SAT June 3rd - 7pm at FPC Houston. if you are in the area we'd love to see you there! also, everyone in attendence will receive a free cd. come one, come all!

Posted by ashdown at 5/31/2006 04:50:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

so you know how i was just talking about how we always get hooked up with tickets and such? just happened yesterday. amanda and i were enjoying a wonderful dinner with her family at claim jumper and i got a call from my dogg radkey. he hooked us up with 2 tickets to see Snow Patrol tonight!! yes amazing. so we landed around 5pm and headed home to drop off the luggage and such and then back in the car to downtown h-town for dinner and the show. snow patrol was great. great music. makes me want to listen to the new album more. so i decided tonight i really like downtown houston. so much to do. great music venues and restaraunts....now if we only hand more friends to enjoy it with....all things in time, right? ok, church in the am - time for nighty night.

Posted by ashdown at 5/27/2006 11:25:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

so yes it has continued to be a blessing to be here in california. we are heading back to houston in 3 short hours...boo...anyways - thought i'd share some photos from ya. first begining with t-dizzle's graduation: bro and sis the entrance the exit the kids then on thursday we headed out to our fav spot to hang - DISNEYLAND!!! main st yes space moutain is back open and it rocks!! so great to have it back!! a pic from atop the tower of terror - probably my fav ride at the 2 parks standing in line for big thunder mountain (last ride of the day and still going strong!!) after a full day on thursday we just took it easy yesterday. amanda and i headed over to south coast plaza to walk around and see matt. then headed to trader joes (just cause we wanted to walk around and cant in htown) and got some of the yummy lemonade from our wedding. in the evening we headed out to claim jumper for dinner with matt, allie, timmy, and mabes. what a great night! so we love it here and cant wait to come back...see all of you again in 5 weeks! we will be here from july 4th-15th. til then...

Posted by ashdown at 5/27/2006 10:39:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

so the best part about being out here is hanging with the people that we love so dearly. it has been amaaaaazing. here is gore and the wonderful hundai!! we were blessed to be able to borrow a vehicle while we were at origins. and the best part was gore left the lights on so we had to give her a good ol jump. ha!! gore, i miss ya man - it was great hanging. move to houston. ok. yes ladies and gentlemen - he does exist!! it was great to see ben on wed, thanks for swingin by dogg to say hello. congrats on graduating!!

Posted by ashdown at 5/26/2006 10:41:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

yep - your friend and mine: KELLY STRICKLAND. glad to see you are back my friend. cant wait for the big day!!

Posted by ashdown at 5/25/2006 10:23:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

so all in all origins was great. after the breakouts yesterday there were 2 more main sessions and i was about done. information overload. and it was only day 2. ha! but the last session erwin said something that blew me away: 'we need to change what people care about, not change what they believe.' wow...he was saying that you can believe things and not do anyhting - like i can believe the aids epidemic is bad - or starving children in third world countries is an atrocisty - but if i dont care about it then nothing happens. so if we can begin to help people change what they value then beliefs will come with that. and we will continue on this kingdom journey with God. thoughts? does this statement resonate with you? agree/disagree? so after the conference ended gore and i headed south to get amanda and then hang with matt and allie. what a great time! being back in cali is great!!

Posted by ashdown at 5/24/2006 10:39:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

so it is officially the 'breakout session' time and the one i was headed to was a design team one. sounded kinda cool, then we show up and they are like, 'we are going to do a q and a - so let's begin.' my que to exist. i came to learn from them and there design team - not hear others problems. anyways a small rant on q and a's at a conference. so hear i sit, enjoying the wifi and a beautiful day outside. this morning the session was on fellowship - and how our fellowship should be for a cause. when jesus called his followers, he said he would make them fishers of men - he called the community to a cause. not to study, or just hang w/each other - but to do something with that. he said follow me and let's change the world. great stuff again - so encouraging to hear -- now i sit and begin to digest how all of this plays out a fpc....

Posted by ashdown at 5/23/2006 04:14:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

wow. seriously. it has been a great time so far. day 1 was great - erwin is a great communicator. what i can appreciate the most about what mosaic is they definately think the church should be a movement and they are living it. they believe many things have been skewed in the western church and think following jesus should look way different than it does. and they live it and breathe it. so great. there core values are amazing, check em out here. yesterday we dove into wind and earth. alex mcmanus did the 'wind' talk and i love this statement he gave: "mission is why the church exists" beautiful. so great. and then erwin spoke on 'earth' - creativity being a natural result of spirituality. his comment was everyone is creative and our problem has been we equate being artistic with creativity. and he thinks this is wrong. everyone is made in the image of God and is a creative being. and we as the church should be helping people unleash their creativity for the kingdom of God. good stuff. and this is just a snippet of what is going on. today we will dive into the rest of the core values. i am stoked. it has been a breathe of fresh air here - so great. now it will be complete tonight when amanda gets here!! also, in other news i have decided to pursue a maters degree. probably focused in spiritual formation. anybody got some ideas? i am looking at george fox and asbury sem right now, anyone else know of some good programs with a distance learning option? let me know!! off to day 2...i will keep ya posted.

Posted by ashdown at 5/23/2006 10:27:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

so i arrived to wonderful SNA airport last night and steve picked me up and we head to a little pf changs. yum! after catchin up with him he took me up to pasadena so i could crash with ken and jeanne erickson. so great to see them!! he and i dreamed of a yesterdays beggar reunion...who knows, stranger things have happend! so now i am here at origins, enjoying a wonderful COLD drizzly morning in the foothills of pasadena. the conference starts in like 30min or so; i am really stoked for this time here - hopefully will be an inspiring time. i will keep ya posted. miss ya much wifey!!

Posted by ashdown at 5/22/2006 10:21:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

so one of the best things about being in houston and working at the places we do is that we get free hookups all the time! from rockets tix to astros tix and restaurant gift cards...you name it - we've lived it! and tonight was one of those nights. we had a very nice dinner at Carrabba's Italian Grill and then out for some sweet music at the Jones Hall listening to the Houston Symphony. and the best thing about it...all free - whooo hooo!! tomorrow evening i am heading out to cali for the Origins Conference and will be anxiously awaiting amanda's arrival on tues evening. cant wait - cali here we come!!

Posted by ashdown at 5/20/2006 09:52:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

what a stud. miss ya timmy!

Posted by ashdown at 5/19/2006 09:31:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

just finished reading peterson's eat this book and gotta say i want too impressed. the first half of the book could have been summed up easily in 20 pages - personally i think he just said the same thing over and over for a hundred pages or so. the second half of the book has a good explaination of lectio divina which was cool, but other than that nothing spectacular. guess i should pick up christ plays in ten thousand places and dive into that. we shall see. in other news amanda won some symphony tickets for sat night! yes! more sonic goodness for the ashdown crew.

Posted by ashdown at 5/18/2006 09:44:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

yep!! a batch of 40 came in today, just in time for the cali trip! they look awesome - i cant wait for you all to see them. keep posted to when they will be available at cdbaby.com and iTUNES!!! the cd release is on june 3rd at 7pm in the grand hall at fpc houston. if you are in the h-town area or are a good friend that needs a get-away - come on! we will see ya there.

Posted by ashdown at 5/17/2006 05:15:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

so tonight we were graciously given some saaweet tickets to the astros game (thanks william!!) we took our new friends jermaine and erica and had a marvelous time. the astros didnt play so hot - but the experiece was very cool. amanda and i will have to go some more this season - what a great ballpark. here are some pics for ya:

Posted by ashdown at 5/13/2006 09:22:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

imogen heap!!! and check out the description of zoe keating. i think it will be an amaaaaaaaazing time.

Posted by ashdown at 5/11/2006 06:58:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Paul near-unanimous Rookie of the Year!!

Posted by ashdown at 5/10/2006 11:33:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

what an incredible musician and intriguing man...we watched amadues last night - i suggest it. a great film. so inspiring. i just finished simply christian this morning - so good. maybe i will go and pick up a biography on mozart...we shall see any suggestions for what to read next?

Posted by ashdown at 5/05/2006 05:11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

"the church is first and foremost a community, a collection of people who belong to one another because they belong to God, the God we know in and through Jesus." -nt wright: simply christian (p.210) it was good to be reminded of this today.

Posted by ashdown at 5/04/2006 08:08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

if you havent seen these ads yet - you must!! they are spectacular!! here ya go : Apple - Get a Mac - Watch The TV Ads

Posted by ashdown at 5/02/2006 09:09:00 PM | Permalink | Comments