"To The New Old -- from The Old New"

(A collage for Stephanie)

On the left, the old construction Baytown house we're moving to ... and on the right, the new construction Houston house we're moving from.

God is so good to us. He has provided an old house in an architectural style that is very special to Stephanie. I'll let her explain more about why if she wants. I think it will grow on me in time, and I'm just so happy that we can afford it -- it makes my heart grin to see how much she likes it!! In fact, it's actually costing a bit less than our Houston house is valued at. A "move down" if you will. But not to Stephanie ... no, not at all. And for me ... I'm starting to fall in love with how well the Baytown house was built, especially as I've been making a few minor repairs on the new construction house. It's actually true -- they just don't make houses like they used to.

We were going to sell our Houston house but the market for selling is bad right now so we're going to rent it .. and we already have a fantastic renter. If we manage to keep our Houston house rented out and we keep making payments on it we'll have it paid off in about 5 years.

Some pics of the house we're buying in Baytown.

http://hosting.dynamis.net/tomsplace/xanga/2209NJ/

Chimney Rock and Beechnut. I'm gonna miss this intersection ...

This one is funky ...

So !! We have a new game. How is God like Coke?

Do they? Why? I just came across a short article about this. I think it's dead on and well stated.

Click here to read the article.

The one thing I think it left out is that everybody has "bad communication" days, which begs the question: how often is too often to have a bad communication day?  

- Tom

For a few years now Stephanie and I have been trying to figure a way to live close to a church we can plug into and be very active in, but still not be too far away from my Houston customers, and still be in an area where the internet services required by the hosting part of my business are available. We couldn't afford to spend too much on a house either, but wanted something with space to have people visit regularly and have plenty of room to hang out. We also wanted plenty of room for Stephanie's family from Louisiana to visit, including her sister and her four children!

It's turned out not to be an easy set of requirements to meet. But we've located a house in Baytown that meets all those criteria, made an offer we could afford, and incredibly, it's been accepted. A close professional inspection revealed the house was very well built and is in fantastic condition. It's less than 10 minutes from the "Refinery", the Vineyard Church in Baytown. Here are some pictures of the house ... (not very good pictures - the house is much larger than these pictures can adequately show - but here's an arial view that helps). It has three huge bedrooms, a large dining room, a large living room, and a large den, on a large corner lot with plenty of room for parking, and plenty of room for a garage-office-apartment some friends are going to help us build.

The very sad part of this move is going to be seeing the lifelong friends we've made in the Lake Jackson area,  less often. Even with a 1-hour drive to church, many of our Lake Jackson friends have become our dearest (making it very much worth the drive, but increasing the heartache of leaving town every Sunday afternoon, knowing we probably won't be able to see them during the week). We've looked at getting a house in Lake Jackson several times, but realized it would be a very risky move for the hosting part of my business, even if the specialized internet services it requires were available out there, and even if we could find something with plenty of space, that we could afford.

But, it's not goodbye. The friends we've made in Lake Jackson are lifelong friends with very dear places in our hearts. They will still be seeing us and hearing from us, and I hope they will all know that distance is not going to change that.

This coming Sunday evening April 27^th at 7:00/6:00 p.m. CST, an Extreme Makeover Home Edition airs on ABC as the design team helps one of our Vineyard pastors in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  You can read more about Gerald and Liesa Martinez and their story in the attached document including a note written by their Area Pastoral Care Leader Mark Morgan.  Feel free to pass this on and join us as we support this family and rejoice with them.

http://www.extremeatreus.com/index.shtm

Happy Earth Day, my friends.

First, a game ...

http://www.greenmountainenergy.com/earthday/game/earthdaygame2.html

... a couple of sales pitches ...

Are you using renewable power yet? You can get it from www.greenmountain.com.

Buying a car? Consider a Prius, a Highlander Hybrid, or a Tesla.

... and the bottom line ...

What do all these things have in common? They cost a little more, give you a little less, and make a little difference. Which is why most people aren't doing them. Who wants to pay more money, get less, and make an intangible difference? But in numbers, it makes a difference. How bad does the situation have to get before we change the way we consume? Food for thought.

If you haven't yet, you've got to go see Jessica Cottar in Little Shop of Horrors. Seriously. It's definitely in the top ten of my entertainment experiences this year. Her and the whole cast and crew have obviously put a ton of work into this show and it's paid off. 

If you know me and how I'm into technical details, I'll tell you they had a lighting malfunction toward the end of the show and they had me so engrossed in the whole thing I didn't even notice -- someone told me about it afterwards.

I'm pretty sure this coming weekend is the last weekend. I don't think you want to miss it. Details here:

http://baytown.littletheater.org

A lady opened her refrigerator and saw a rabbit sitting on one of the shelves.
"What are you doing in there?" she asked.

The rabbit replied: 
"This is a Westinghouse, isn't it?",
to which the lady replied  "Yes."
"Well," the rabbit said,  

"I'm westing."

This morning I have "Alle - Alleluia" from Merry Texas Christmas running through my head over and over again. Must be the merry Texas angels singing it over me, there must be something good coming my way today. Or something not so good that I'm going to need a lot of help dealing with - lol.