greggandcyndi

this blog set for execution

attention

sorry to say, but this blog will not exist past December. I know that depresses some of you, but there are some really good medications for that now, or at least i've heard...

but, there is reason for rejoicing, for i have begun a new (free) blog that you can rush to for your much needed hampton intake.

join me at "the direction of our hearts toward God"

i can promise you nothing, but i promise you can join me there...

gregg

Moving Helper

Well we're moving to GA this month!  First, however, we're visiting family in the Quad Cities.  This means that we're packing everything now and loading up the 10th to drive the Uhaul to the Quad Cities, where there will be a POD waiting for us to unload into (and fill up with all the stuff we left back in the Quad Cities) which will be shipped to a yet undiscovered address in Braselton, GA.  Confused yet?  Though, as complicated as that may sound -it's going really smoothly and I'm not stressed out or anything.  I was telling a friend the other day that I've become a grown-up organized version of myself this past month and I think I'm actually going to be READY when we move. 

I made a calendar of what should be packed by when, which I'm ahead of -and I've kept all the paperwork and to-do lists together and organized.  Everyday I'm doing SOMETHING to get us closer to being ready.  Brennan has noticed I've become a little preoccupied with this, but today he decided that instead of literally pulling me away from whatever task it is I'm working on and chanting "Come on, come on, come on, come on, let's play, let's play, let's play, come on, come on, come on..." yes, instead of taking that route for the third week in a row, Brennan decided to help me label boxes.  Here are some photos capturing his very helpful nature...

ideas

its weird how you get ideas about what to blog and then you just don't do it. my bad, but i'm just not all that motivated to. school and work and looking for a good church and trying to decide where God is calling us to work at when school is over...it is all a bit draining, so the blogging gets kicked to the curb...

but i hope you are doing well and that your blogs are full of new ideas and posts. may your blog always be overflowing with deep insight and laugh your butt off stories. even when mine is going through a dry spell.

what i miss...

we live half way across the country from our families, so it is necessary to visit...but i miss this. cyndi and brennan flew home for a couple weeks in illinois with the fam, and i'm here in colorado all alone...i miss them...i miss you baby...come home.

this will be the longest we have ever been apart, and the longest i will have to go without hugging brennan. so i miss you guys, but don't worry, i'll make it...just come home safe and hug everyone back there in the heart of the midwest for me...

love you

my myspace

i'm going to try out the music myspace thing.... i have four songs up and hope to make some simple recordings of some of my new stuff.

you can check it out at http://www.myspace.com/gregghampton

a thank-you is in order

so you may remember me sending you an email about the newest new life worship recording "my savior lives". well, one of the reasons was because i was on the street team to help promote it, one reason was i actually liked the album, and one reason was doing a list of things to help promote it entered me into a contest to win one of these...a 30gig ipod.

it turns out that while many of us did most of the stuff, that only two finished everything and turned in their paperwork for the contest. but the album has been doing well, so integrity music decided to equally reward the two that finished everything. therefore, i am now the proud owner of a black 30gig ipod!

so thank-you for putting up with the pestering about the album, but it paid off...boy did it pay off!

as a side note, i want to apologize to jeff m. that i can't give you that shuffle i had that i told you i would give you if i happened to win this ipod, on the account that that shuffle i was going to give to you, and i was going to give it to you...was in fact, washed and dried with the laundry and is now defunct. sorry.

frustration of the blog world

i was viewing through all the posts i've written over the last 3 years and i'm frustrated. i'm frustrated because it seems that the posts that get the most comments are the ones that are stupid and don't have any substance (bar one about politics).

i don't post to get comments, but more to let people know what i'm thinking and what is going on with us, but it is just weird that when i post about something stupid, there are comments, but when i think and think and write something i am proud of and has substance and meaning, no comments.

now i don't regularly comment on everyone elses blogs, but i more go in spurts.  sometimes i'm a commenting machine and others i don't comment for a long time, so maybe that is just how it works...when i write something important everyone is on their down swing and when i am writing something silly, people are on a roll.

oh well...like i said, i don't post for the comments, but i would be lying to say they aren't an encouragement to continue. this is probably true for most of you, but when you feel like people are listening, you are inclined to say something.

comments? ; )

confessions part 2: responsibility

The last time I wrote one of these, my mom kind of freaked out because she didn’t know about it. So I questioned whether I would continue in this line of blogging, but then I thought, maybe I’ll just use something she does know about, so here goes.

`

I still remember my first roll of mints, or at least the first roll I can remember being specifically mine. There were three mints in it.

`

I remember being a very young boy, so young I was still wearing those old shorts that had the elastic waist with the solid color bordering the entire seam of the shorts. You know, the ones basketball players wore in the 1960’s and you still see an occasional jogger wearing proudly.

`

Anyway, I remember standing in the parking lot across from the seven-eleven next to one of the neighborhood kids that was a year or two older than me just staring at the gas station. I’m not even sure I was allowed to be that far from home at this age because I couldn’t have been more than 5, but there I was. This kid, we’ll call him Jimmy, because that was his name, asked me, “So what are you gonna steal?” I said, “Nothing!” of course. What other response could have come from my angel lips? But he retorted, “I’m taking something, you should too.”

`

The next thing I remember is being in the seven-eleven wondering what in the world I could take. I don’t remember how I got in the store, or how I decided I would in fact begin my career as a shoplifter, but I was there and I was trying to figure out what would be my first “lift”.

`

I landed on a 15 cent pack of mints. There were three mints in it, so if you do that math, that was a nickel a piece.

`

I however had failed to notice I didn’t have any pockets in my incredibly timely shorts, so my newly criminalized mind began working on solution. “Okay, okay, now I got it. I’ll put them between my skin and the elastic band of my underwear.” Great plan right? It is a very safe place to put things if I may say so. So I tucked them in and found my way somehow back to the parking lot across the street, once again standing next to the boy we’re calling Jimmy, once again, because that was his name.

`

The first time we stood there, he asked me what I would steal, this time I stood and asked him what he had stolen. My nerves were barely calming when Jimmy said, “Nothing, why would I steal something?” Beats me why he would steal something? Shortly thereafter I found myself standing next to Jimmy on my front porch as he told my mother what I had done. My mom made me go back to the store, pay for the mints and apologize to the woman working behind the counter I couldn’t even seem to see over.

`

There were three mints in the roll, so if you do the math, that’s about one mint to every two swats of the paddle on my bare skinned butt.

`

So who is responsible?

`

I spent quite a bit of my life blaming my problems and faults on others. In most situations that didn’t turn out well like this one I saw myself as a victim. But if you review the story, you will see that I took the mints. Seven-eleven was the victim. I was the culprit. I am responsible, not Jimmy.

`

If you know what I mean, you gotta let Jimmy go, you have to forgive him and yourself. In the Bible, in a book called 1 Corinthians it says, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me (13:11).” So put it down. Leave it behind.

`

I still feel myself feeling very childish sometimes and wanting to claim the position of victim, but there were three mints in that roll, and I ate every one of them.

plagiarism

so a friend of mine was bugging me to post cause it's been a while...so here's a new post! i plagiarized it from her blog.... ; )

i have been sick lately...

so today when i woke, i thought to myself, "i will just put on my new paisley headband, and i think that will make me feel better." and it has so far. the paisley makes me happy, and the headband makes me feel like a little girl again. so, doctors may tell you rest and fluids and antibiotics, but i tell you, all you really need is a j.crew paisley headband. sometimes accessories are the best medicine.

a friend of a friend

a friend of a friend of mine is severely injured right now and needs our prayers...

please check this out and pray as much as you can for him.

martin sexton

i first heard martin sexton in minneapolis playing on a friend of a friend's stereo.  he was making his voice sound like a trumpet and i was blown away...over the next couple of years i had the fortune of seeing him live, once at the greenroom in iowa city and once at the river musice experience in davenport, ia.

recently i got one of his live albums at the store cause i lost my bootleg from the greenroom and i wondered why i haven't more eagerly pursued his music in the meantime.  he is phenominal...

my favorite song right now is "hallelujah (live)". it shows some of his higher range, and while he can whale louder than most, this song stays soft and sweet and convincing.

check him out...you won't be disappointed.

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist?id=154590

my savior lives

Get the new "My Savior Lives" album at iTunes

with the exclusive chord chart booklet
you also have to check out some of these interview-videos with glenn packiam about the new album!